Thursday, October 27, 2016

Why am I doing this?



I always wonder how people come to a particular hobby, because it hardly happens in one second, and can not be so that you just blinked and decided that you will build Gundam plastic model kits.

I am sure that everyone, and you, too, have some story, which led you to the fact that now you can not imagine yourself
without this hobby, which is strange for many people.

Of course, this idea did not appear at once. At first I did not even think to analyze this "why"... But one day, somewhere in the east of the center of the squash which is buzz in my head all day, have formed a set of words, which sounds something like this:
Why am I doing this?
Why do I need it?
Why Gunpla?

And when all these questions it is certainly sounded, I was really interested ... What events have led me to that moment when I decided to buy my first kit?.. By the way, it was Justice RG.

Have you ever thought about it?


 




So. I began to remember...
When I was a little boy and my father was, still an example for me ...
I write, "was" not because now my father has spoiled, and now I do not want to be just like him anymore! He "was" an example because at some point I hope I outgrew him ... and he is must to be glad I'm sure, because my father will not to be happy if I suck up... because he has spent his life for my education!
Moreover, I cannot afford to be worse than he is, I have to beat him and justify his hopes. This is the best way to show your parents that they have spent their lives for good reason!

However, let's go back to our search for the origins of a hobby.
So, when I was a kid, my father, sometimes, has built plastic models of airplanes.
I do not know where he had this passion, perhaps because he was a military man and, on this, building of models of military machinery, was just for him... Probably should ask around and it...

But now on my way.
So, the father builds airplanes models, scale was 1/72... and I, like all children with confidence that parents are an ideal to follow, and all that they are doing it is definitely important and honorable, I began to beg my father give me some of his kits, and I could build a model, too. By the way my father in his bins had dozens of new kits, it was the 80s in the Soviet Union people were doing stocks for years (maybe in case of nuclear war ... just kidding)))) in general, I was very small then, and I do not remember what model I built the first... but just remember that later models were built a lot. And they all perished in the game, because I was a small child) by the way now I afraid to even imagine how my father crunched heart, when he gave me another box to be torn apart. Because he knew that he is will never find a second one in the USSR...

In those years have been wasted a lot of good kits and I unfortunately do not remember most of them, but I remember well the last. It was a fighter of Royal Air Force of the Second World War Spitfire MK11. Yes, it was a good kit, and I was older, and built already consciously, and the goal I had, I wanted to do a cool bench model worthy of attention by local craftsmen) and I built it! The model came quite accurate, I painted it, did an imitation of aging, worn paint, soot from the exhaust gas around the exhaust pipe, and from the shots around the cannons barrels... Father approved the result of my latest model. It took its place in its glass case next to his models. I did not build planes anymore.

Actually, I'm built nothing for about fifteen years... Maybe it is certainly not because I did not want to ... No! Just then, there was a time when I did not have time for this hobby. I had more to learn, because the university loomed on the horizon, I became interested in radio electronics, and in my spare time I played more with a soldering-iron and batteries than with glue and paint ...
Then the university bega, computer has appeared at the home, and you know what a computer is at age seventeen... computer games does not turn off ))
Then I became interested in three-dimensional modeling computer graphics, and in fact I went back to the creation of models! Only now they were intangible but digital ...
So! Nothing in my life led me to the fact that I am ever going to build a plastic model kits again.

However... as that time a friend of mine, blabbed out that he loved to watch anime. Slowly but surely, the Japanese culture, penetrate to my country. Then I was not in the theme. However, my friend assured me that Japanese artists are experts in robotics and their fantastic series about giant robots are worthy of attention, he recommended me to see Gundam series. Then, when I decided to see after all Japanese Mech the most fresh was Gundam OO ... do not misunderstand me, I live in a country that until recently was one of the republics of the USSR, then fifteen years my country rose to his feet, raising his impossibly economy... in fact I really did not know much about what is happening outside my country for a long time...

And the internet I had a while ago... some 10 years ago...
Until this point, my knowledge about world cultures were very poorly...
I do not know if you can imagine how much I was amazed at this show!
Since then I have learned a lot about robots and Mech and generally about Japanese anime, but OO Raiser and OO
Exia, melt in the soul! Several nights in a row without a break, I watched an episode by episode, both seasons. I was captured by the characters, I was dragged by the story, I fell in love with the images of the giant machines. And the show ended, there was no new series and new seasons too... In the end, I like has cooled down and eventually even has forgotten partially...

Was watching a lot of other shows, and the Mech and Ecchi and cyberpunk... There are other concerns... Work has begun ... has appeared girlfriend... then the wedding. Yes I'm married now ))
And here it married life, now I have free time again, time that I can devote to some a hobby, but which?...
I even had trouble with it, I just did not know what to do, I even bought an electric guitar and learned to play ... well, almost learned)))

It all happened by chance, I was flipping through the pages of the online store, in search of a souvenir that would give someone else on a regular holiday. And suddenly, among the hundreds of pictures of goods, flashed a familiar figure ... I even surprised ... it was a kit of red OO exia 1/100, and on that site was sale only one Gundam model is precisely from of the show I was looking...

Just think whether it is a different model, I would not have noticed if I had watched another part of the Gundam saga, I would have paid no attention to this kit! But the accident happened, and I decided to google the thread. I was shocked at what the scale reaches Gunpla.
I was shocked of these cool models, of that how joined parts, of that how models are detailed. I instantly felt an irresistible need to be part of this phenomenon, Gunpla!

Began the search for the shop that delivers to the country where I live, where I can buy a kit at a reasonable price. I found a shop, but it turned out that it is necessary to choose the series ... not one night I spent studying photographs of models, and selecting a scale. I Chose RG, made the order and waited... waited... waited... Then it seemed an eternity, now, not much less, 5 weeks! But this expectation is justified itself!

Do you remember your feelings when you opened the box of Gundam model kit for the first time? I remember my, it was a wild rapture!
Today, it is difficult to choose the moment when I decided that Gunpla now with me for a long time... many of them were magic, those evenings that I spent in search of the first kit, the moment when I opened the delivered package, the night when I built model...

But most likely it was a moment when I added the last part of Gundam model, in this moment, a lot of things happened at the same time, of course mostly in the head. Firstly, I was delighted with views of the constructed model, Destiny RG is great! If someone is not built it, I think he is will not be disappointed if he does it, later I did find deficiencies in this kit, but, nevertheless it looks gorgeous.
Second is the infinite void, and understanding that there is nothing to build more T.T It is a terrible feeling, I hate it! And the only way to stop it is to order another kit )))

This feeling is very similar to that which appears when you watched the latest episode of your favorite show, or have read a good book... But unlike a book or series, in which do not always have a sequel, you can always order a new kit! This is happiness that there are a lot of!

Perhaps it is time to conclusions:

·         So, building plastic models hobby I inherited from my father...
·         The strange coincidence of two events, between which by the way took no less than five years, led me to that that I found out about Gunpla ...
·         A sense of feeling like a drug breaking of, force me to order more and more new kits...

Is there a connection here? I have no idea)
Whether all three points are important? Or any one of them are enough? I don’t know...

Probably, I would love to hear your stories about your way to Gunpla.
And maybe one of you knows how to stop it?! How to stop building Gunpla?

Monday, August 29, 2016

Panel lining tips: How to use cheap CD marker for panel lining












Regards!

Well, I decided to update this publication and add a small amount of letters here.
Which perhaps will form in the text that someone might even read.

And so I had a bit of time and I can test my ability to compile words into sentences.
So, about a year ago I hooked up a new hobby, Ganpla. Amazing hobby that does not let you go! Of course, to some extent, I was predisposed to this type of hobby. I think many of you love to do something with you're own hands... Personally, my life does not take a minute that I sat around ... I always have a hobby knife at hand, pencil and sketchbooks, or screwdriver. Small repairs on the house, crafts, or painting, once appeared in my life and probably will never leave it.

‘Sometimes I wonder why? Why do I need it so much? Why I can’t find a place, when I do nothing? I think this question has the right answer! The most appropriate word for this - creation! Most of us, and I, and you, my dear reader, there is a need to create. We can not feel fully human if we did not create anything, from time to time. And, you know, I do not see anything wrong with that. On the contrary it's even cool, to be a man who likes to create something.

The only problem is, we need a business that will take our hands and head. And I found it! Thanks to the genius of Japanese engineers from the Bandai company, now any person on this planet can feel like a builder of incredible mechanisms, which are the mobile suit Gundam.
What pushed me to the filming of this video. I have always been impressed with photos of Gundam models in the internet and I think you also noticed that most of the photos captured the model with panel lines. Of course, nothing surprising, because panel lines give a realistic to model. But it is not so obvious for the person who buys his first model kit. Personally, I had no idea about all the little things that are experienced builders doing with their models... 

So I built my first Gundam, by the way it was Justice RG, but now is not about that, Gundam was built but, and  it does not look as cool as on photos in the internet, or even on the box…
My Gundam model looks like a toy! It was very much lacking realism. That's when it occurred a moment, when you realize that build a model that's not at all. But I think you will agree with me, in that moment when you realize that just finished model still requires work on oneself, at this moment you rejoice, because a second ago when you added the last part, you feel the sadness of the fact that the work is finished and is no longer you build this masterpiece of you're own manufacture. You are sad at the thought that now you have nothing to do and it is are waiting for you, maybe a month waiting of delivery of the new model kit ... in my case it is 4 to 6 weeks T.T ...

In general, at that moment when I decided that I would draw the panel lines, I was incredibly excited because this is the opportunity to at least one more night to spend in the company of, this time forever favorite, hobby!

The decision was made, and I have been studying the question, look at tutorials, training videos, and realize that a necessary tool, Gundam marker, I do not have it! You say, what's the problem?! Internet shop, order, but, as I have written before 4 - 6 weeks delivery... But I already want it, right now, I can not bear such a long wait... I need to come up with something!

At first glance, what could be easier? And of course, I immediately came up with what to use that would draw a line inside seams. After all, I just had a Japanese liners with pigment inks and very fine nib  0.05 mm. And of course I immediately took it and start draw... and of course the idea failed, because the pigment ink of these liners do not wet the plastic surface, and roll into drops, and besides, it do not dry on plastic, it can be easily wiped off by your finger, even after several days!
Yes, yes, seriously! I checked it!

So a failure... But did it stop me? of course not...
The next candidate to replace Gundam Marker became a mechanical pencil with graphite rod, thickness of 0.05 mm ... o_O somewhere I've already seen these numbers recently... So pencil, you will not believe it, but it worked, you can really do a panel lines by the pencil. But not all so rosy ... the lines drawn with a pencil, turn dull, not expressive, and from a distance it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the shadows just inside the unpainted seams. Besides graphite, from which the pencil pin is consists, it glitter in the light, and panel line glare in certain lighting conditions, it does not look good. And yes, you also can erase it with your fingers... this are those who use it, recommend to cover the model with top coat.
So I tried a pencil, I did not like it.

I continued my search and thoroughly rummaged in a drawer, I found Twin touch markers. Once upon a time I bought a set of six shades of gray for shading my pencil drawings ... and then completely forget about it. The ink of these markers are alcohol-based, they quickly dry out and even on plastics! I immediately do a check, the marker painted fine, but I regret to say it has very thick nib. thickness is not suited to the seam

There is a need to wash off excess ink. It turned out that 99% rubbing alcohol (in my country it can be found in every home medkit) as well as buy in any pharmacy. So, the alcohol dissolves the dried ink of this marker. Using a cotton swab wetted with alcohol, I can easily wash away any excess ink and has received excellent panel lines. The result you may have seen in my previous publications 



it is my favorite Gundam GPO1 this is it! And Justice and Freedom to, are also drawn with this marker. The experiment was a success.

But I could not stop, because I remembered about another one marker which had that alcohol-based ink. This is permanent marker! And what do you think? I immediately ran to the nearest store and bought a couple of CD markers. Exactly in this video you can see the procedure of use of this marker, then I did a wash, and the actual result.

By the way for the video I used part of the skirt of RG OO quant ...
By the way, I a long time already made panel lines of entire OO quant, and even made a few photo shoots, so that as soon as I can find more time, I will do retouching and publish great shot here, so wait, do not leave my friends! ))

Well, I suspect you're already tired of reading the stream of consciousness, this nonsense)) so let's make conclusions.

I was looking for a replacement of Gundam marker because the wait for delivery of Gundam marker in my country it’s to long, and I would like to draw the panel lines right now!
I tried a liner with pigment ink and graphite mechanical pencil, I did not like it.
I tried a marker with alcohol based ink and a permanent marker, and I really like the result! I am delighted! Besides, I saved a couple of bucks ... because CD markers are very cheap))

That's probably all for today, write comments pls, let's talk.
Have all an enjoyable day or night. Goodbye!