DIY Pipe Sander

Greetings and salutations fellow otakus! I'm currently working on an MG Zaku Cannon. It's a great kit to build and I'm about 95% done with the snap-fit, with only one thing left to do before paint: Build the pipes. Everyone who's ever built a Zaku variant has had to deal with these things - Tiny fiddly little tubes from hell that are cursed with two nubs each and extra mold lines if you're unlucky. Try to sand them off by hand and you're likely to end up erasing your fingerprints in the process. Good thing I caught an episode of Plamo Tsukurou where the featured kit was a pipe laden MG Gouf. The builder demonstrated an ingenious way of getting at those nubs, and I'll be sharing my own adaptation of the technique.


Here's what you'll need:

1. A motorized eraser (purchased from Daiso at Php88.00)
2. Hobby knife
3. Sand paper in increasing grits
4. Double sided foam tape

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Experimenting With Adhering Liquid

Hello plamo otakus! I found something interesting at a local bookstore called Adhering Liquid. The label says its a "Premium Grade Lacquer Thinner" intended for Silk Screen printing. The stuff smells a lot like Mr. Color thinner, and is about the same consistency and clarity. My brain was telling me that if this stuff was mild enough for textile, then it may not be as harsh as industrial lacquer thinner, so it might be a viable alternative for hobby grade lacquer thinner. At less than a dollar for the 120ml bottle, I just had to give it a try.

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Disassembly

It's happened before. You're building a kit, happy to hear that pleasant clicking sound as the pieces snap together. There are no unsightly gaps, and you marvel at the ingenuity of the design - how precisely the individual pieces were molded. Glancing back at the instruction manual, something catches your attention - a lone polycap sitting ominously on the cutting mat. You are puzzled for but a moment...time itself stops...and then it hits you...

That polycap was supposed to go into the part you just put together.

Hastily, you grab the assembly and turn it around in your fingers - prying...searching...hoping for a small space where your fingernail might fit...a tiny glimmer of redemption. But there is none. Your fate was sealed the moment those pieces clicked together.


Or was it?



Rest easy my friend, for not all is lost! Today I'll be sharing how you can disassemble even the tightest fitting parts, with minimal stress or damage to the plastic - and all you need is your trusty hobby knife.

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Commission WIP - SD Neo Zeong

I'm not a fan of mobile armors, particularly those with arms OR legs (it's never both). I can get behind a Valkyrie's Gerwalk mode, because it can still go full mecha or full fighter jet - but designs like the Big Zam are just downright ridiculous to me. It's as if Zeon stole a bunch of Robeast blueprints from the Bozanian empire or something. I just couldn't bring myself to like them. The Neo Zeong however, could be the sole exception. After all, it does have a Sinanju inside it.

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Weathering - Drybrushing

Good day fellow otakus! Today I'll be sharing about Drybrushing - a simple yet highly effective detailing and weathering technique that can bring out the dormant details on your model.
Here's what you'll need:

1. paint and appropriate thinner
2. old but clean flat tip paintbrush
3. paint mixing dish
4. paper towels

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Back to Basics 2: Getting Rid of Nubs

Nubs - those unsightly bits of protruding plastic on a part that has been liberated from it's sprue - are an inevitability. The best a manufacturer can do is to undergate (to design a sprue in such a way that the gates will have minimum effect on a kit's appearance once assembled), but even then they still need to be cleaned off. Luckily this isn't difficult to do in most cases. Here's what you'll need:

1. Hobby Knife
2. Waterproof sandpaper in increasing grits (ex. 600 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1200 grit...)
3. Wash basin with water
4. Old soft-bristle toothbrush
5. Nail buffer (optional)
6. Paper towels


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