Orange on orbit

The first day I checked for hobby shops in Low Yat. At Hobby & Game Station an MG cost about RM140+ dun have the model I want. Checked out Fantasy Toys, apparently had both MG Zeta, I also found Zaku F2. Zeta was in my wishlist but then I thought about the fact that it is ‘transformable’, to me, transformables are just plain dumb so I plan to get the Zaku instead. Price is RM150+, who says Fantasy Toys is veri exp? Also dun have hobby tools, bid the store goodbye. I knew it only can find them in Mega Mall.

Next day went to Midvalley Megamall, had several hobby shops including XL-Shop. The Tamiya shop didn’t hav black enamel paint, WTF! Not only it is overpriced, but also less availability. Miniature Hobby is the only DECENT hobby shop, it got everything from Gunze Sangyo but all are veri expensive! In the end I only grabbed leveling thinner and two lacquer paints sum : RM31, which I later then buy a gundam marker coz tamiya shop didnt hav enamel; RM12. Later I went to japanese books section of Kinokuniya and got hold of dengeki HOBBY magazine, it was RM 42.00 @_@

Conclusion, if it’s japanese stuff you want, NEVER buy it in Malaysia, Singapore is a good choice their price is always lower, either that or just order them online. The MG Zaku is ￥3000 which should cost only RM100, here is RM150? The tax is 50%? Seriously overpriced. Next time, I will buy my stuff at HAG in S’pore and japanese magazines in Kinokuniya S’pore.

Yup, bought it from Cycom in Lowyat. The process was a breeze actually, and upon giving the spec the employee gave a warm comment "j00 a gamer arh?" heh, obviously so. 40 Minutes later came back and everything is all assembled, boxed into the case’s box, ofcourse the other parts’ boxes is given also. Apparently it was not as heavy as I imagined, after some time though flood occurs in my armpit ^^" What’s worse I forgot to bring deodorant lol…

For the casing, it don’t really matter, anything will do as long as the computer is not nude! So I picked this iCute case, fairly good la, comes with a power supply unit and is cheaper than Cooler Master. Unfortunately, Radeon x800 GTO all sold out already, so I chose 6600GT, inferior but save money a bit. Memory only buy one 512mb stick, later will buy another so can utilize dual channel and unleash the computer true potential. Oh, and one more thing my bro wants the DVD so I had to get another for this. With all that in mind here is the final spec :

CPU : AMD Athlon 64Bit 3200+
GPU : MSI NX6600GT Diamond
Mem : 512MB Kingston PC3200
Board : Asus A8N-E
HDD : Western Digital 160GB Sata II
DVD : LiteOn DVD-RW
Case : iCute

SUM : RM2595

   

OK, after some research here is what I came out with. Base color with lacquer or spray paint. Spray cans are expensive, and I’m not sure if it’s acrylic or lacquer based. Tamiya enamels for the panel lines, the enamel thinner is optional however, it can be substituted with lacquer thinner and in this case, Mr. Color leveling thinner. I do not really wish to buy primer as I plan not to paint with different colors at the moment, though if possible I’d want to get Mr. Super Clear, gloss lacquer-based top coat. Ones in red are necessary, prices may differ ofcourse :

• Mr. Color Lacquer Paint (Gloss) - RM8.00
  Mr. Color Leveling Thinner 110ml S$6.90/RM15.45
  

  
     

• Tamiya Color Enamel Paint Black(X-1) - RM8.00?
  Tamiya Color Enamel Thinner (X-20) - ???
  

  

     

• Mr. Color or Tamiya Color Spray Paints 110ml - ￥500/RM15.62
  

  

     

• (Primer) Mr. Surfacer 1000 100ml - RM15-20
  (Top Coat) Mr. Super Clear Gloss - RM20-40?
  

  

   
Tousaka Rin, yet another great character from the ever popular Fate/Stay Night. From Griffon Enterprise (
グリフォンエンタープライズ), 1/7 scale, standing 20cm tall, tis’ figure would blow the hell out of one’s desk and who wouldn’t want one? Unfortunately this sexy figure comes with a rather expensive price tag,
￥9,240/RM291! But damn, this is just too good! Staring at this thing gives me strong desire for it.  Added in wishlist, better start saving money now. And for the record this thing seems rare, probably ordering from Japan is the only way and it is low possibilty anyways, but I’ll keep looking for this one.

   
Karin, Also checked this out after seeing the review in NewType, I got interested because the main guy character looks somewhere between ichigo of Bleach and the guy from midori no hibi, looks simple mindedly cool. Anyway the story is a bit weird, it is about a family of vampires! Karin, the eldest daughter of the family is however, different. Unlike other vampires, she don’t suck blood, she produce blood! And it’s a bit disturbing seeing her produce buckets of blood from nosebleed. Not to worry though, this is a comedy & drama anime. Surprisingly, I’m following this series through Anime Shrine fansub, quality among fansub groups are probably the same, but I’m looking for the right typesetting, the simplest and non complicated fonts. Anyway it is still interesting how it turns out, I’m going to watch some more of this series, 7 out of 10. Oh, credits to AniDB for pictures.

 

Got interested after seeing the review in NewType, which I’ve yet to learn japanese so, technically I was just interested seeing the pictures. My first impression is : unique! Not like other mainstream animes about action or drama. The story is set in Aqua (Mars) in the city of Neo Venezia which of course, is the recreation of Venice in Italy where they got waterways in the city and gondolas. The story is told in a very pleasing and gentle visual, time seems to move slowly and to keep in mind that Mars takes more time to finish a year. Thumbs up on the voice actors, they speak more naturally and gentle, not like other animes where voice acting is over-acted which particularly irritates me. And that small creature is awfully cute! Think I’m going to watch the whole series, 8.5 out of 10!

I think my lifting-home-an-effin-heavy-comp problem is settled, my dad decided to hav the comp sent to home by courier service. Meanwhile though, I’ve planned which paints to get, put that on my other blog here. And the models I’m getting, if I were to choose, I think I will most likely take Zeta Plus C1 with grey base.

It is still a quite risky gamble to beg for this thing there, so I found a great way to cut cost : get the tools here, one by one. Ofcourse, it won’t cut the cost, but to human psychology, it would feel cheaper that way in this case, my parents. Now, the only problem now is to get them, I’ve asked my friend to look out for Ronsonol Lighter Fluid and if possible, spray, acrylic and enamel paints preferably by either Tamiya or Gunze Sangyo, oh don’t forget the Top Coat too. If I could get all the paints and thinners here, all left to buy  there is the model kit itself with a reasonable RM100+ price tag. If I were to get all the paints+kit+tools it would easily double the price.

I’ve made some compilations of tutorials and guides in this one thing I called pre-guidelines, it is in my other blog here. Basically a tutorial made by me based on the other tutorials and guides I’ve read so far, so I don’t have any actual experience yet actually. All the pictures are snatched without permission, but credit goes to Danny Choo for all his excellent works. I just recently discovered that he is Malaysian chinese born in the UK, how lucky can a person be? ^^

I’ve bought NewType Japan from Kinokuniya in Singapore. NewType USA is just plain silly to me (plus it’s more expensive; Imported from US), so I got the original Newtype December edition and yup, everything is in japanese. Not that I can read japanese already, but I like things the way they originally is, it makes a great collectible value, and so I’m gonna take good care of it as a collectible.

Anyways, the magazine encourages me to watch animes again. Yeah, as the creator of animes, japanese should know them best, so I grabbed some animes they featured in the magazine. Full Metal Panic : The Second Raid, which is a sequel, haven’t watch the prequel yet though. I thought it was a decent anime. But I can’t belive that I’m getting it from a local fansub group lol. Yup, Anime Shrine is a fansub group based in Malaysia. At first I stayed away from them as I fear it would suck havin local fansubs ^^". But I did try it and well, I gotta hand it to ‘em, quality encodes and subbing they have done. And what a coincidence, they also fansubbing Karin, which is another anime I just started watching.

OK, tonight’s (morning actually) match is worth watching, Man Utd struggling for their qualification into the knock-out phase and Arsenal bringing down their finest youngsters againts Ajax as they are guaranteed to top the group with the current 15 points. Cheers.

I’ve reconsidered it again and again along with some sleepless nights, I’ve came up with the answer. I’m going to get the MG model kit instead! Not only it is better than gff quality and poseability wise, the whole point of this freakin’ hobby is there! Modelling. It is where all the excitement lies, what drives people to spare valuable times even when they are busy, t3h m0delling!

With that in mind, I’ve searched the net for gundam modelling tutorials, and bumped into something astounding. Danny Choo is the name, and he is FREAKIN AWESOME! He’s t3h 0takU! He is now living in Japan and quite a collection he has. His english simply pwns! I’m quite amazed by his tutorials, diverse use of vocabulary and advanced grammars. He also tends to slip a joke or two from time to time, it is so well written that I couldn’t resist to laugh. He just won himself teh internet xD

Anyway, from what I’ve learnt so far, here are the tools of trade that I’m going to need for modelling. Since I obviously won’t be able to afford to air brush, which u need a compressor to do so, I’m going ahead and do paint brush.

• Tamiya Acrylic Paints
• Tamiya Spray Paints
• Gundam Marker Black GM01, oil-based, 0.04mm
• Brushes of various sizes
• Hobby Knife/Scalpel
• Side Cutter
• Sand Paper

I never thought this is going to happen, but I’m starting to consider Master Grade gundam model kits. Alice says it is better than GFF in terms of quality and poseability. Plus it is 1/100 scale, a bit bigger allowing more attention to details in it. GFF is more to HG quality & poseability wise, but has the price of an MG. I starting to realize something about this hobby, the fun part is actually during the construction of the model kits, and custom paint job means no two gundams are alike (atleast I think so) But the point is, we have our own distinctive gundam. What I’m most thrilled about is the painting, I guess it requires some artistic skills but most of the time it’s just some tedious work ^^. Now I have my doubts on getting GFFs… Should I go for MG or GFF?