Saturday, March 28, 2009

HG 1/144 00 Raiser Special Edition

The HG 00 Raiser Special Edition comes packaged with the 00 Gundam and the 0 Raiser. For those who bought the initial release of 00 Gundam, the 0 Raiser is available as a seperate kit. The difference from this Special Edition and the normal release is that the special edition's colour scheme is very much more faded and muted. The red parts as you can see now appear more pinkish than red.

Included in this kit is the 00 Gundam, the 0 Raiser, a display stand for the 0 Raiser. The weapons included are the 2 GN Sword IIs and the 2 GN shield halves that can combine into a GN shield.

The articulation is what I've come to expect after doing a few recent HG kits. As I mentioned earlier, lightyears apart from the earlier 1/144 model kits from the pre 2002/03 period.

For this kit, did some panel lining and painted the clear round parts in the hands and legs a transparent green. In doing so, I kinda made it too dark to see the inner stickers since I pasted them instead of silvering the surface. I also applied silver paint to the GN Sword II blades, the GN shield bladed portion and the 2 GN drives. Unfortunately, the paint got on a little too thick on some parts as can be seen in the pictures below. Will be stripping and repainting them in time to come.









"Special Edition" here
HG 1/144 Trans Am Raiser here

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Transformers Animated Ratchet

Don't tell a med 'bot what he's supposed and not supposed to doReview coming soon here!

Transformers Animated Bumblebee

'sup big 'bot?
Review coming soon here!

edit: I kind of hate how the photos turned out, BB being a bright yellow on a blue background, will get to reshooting it when I have the time after my exams have ended early May

Transformers Animated Voyager Shockwave/Longarm Prime

Double agent treachery...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Tortilla Chips and Tomato Dip

Tried this out today.

The 'chips' are actually tortilla wraps and the dip made from tomatoes.

Tortilla Chips:

1x Tortilla Wrap (any kind will do, I used a wholewheat one for this one)
1x tbsp of olive oil
Spice seasonings (optional)

To make, cut out the tortilla wrap into fingers of your desired size and length, brush both sides with the olive oil.
No salt is needed as the tortilla is pretty salty by itself.
Spice seasonings like black pepper, paprika, onion/garlic powder, etc etc can be added if desired.

Place the 'chips' onto a baking tray lined with silicon paper or greaseproof paper.
Place into a 175 degree Celcius oven and bake till crispy.
The time depends on the thickness of the wrap.

Dip:

1x canned tomatoes
1x onion (used a yellow onion)
4x cloves of garlic
2x Bay leaves
1x sprig of Thyme (Dried Thyme can be used)
15g butter or 1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp Brown sauce (Brown ketchup actually)
Paprika powder, 5 spice powder, black pepper and salt to taste. (though I generally omit the salt)
1x chipotle pepper (optional, add more if u like it spicy)

Chop onion and garlic.
Caramelise onions with butter/oil, add in garlic afterwards.
Once caramelised, add in the canned tomatoes.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil then lower heat to simmer.
If using chipotle pepper, mash or chop it up before adding it in.
Simmer till the entire mixture thickens and most of the tomatoes have broken down, roughly about 1/2 to 3/4 hour.
Important, do not cover the pot as I want the excess moisture gone, if not, it'll be pretty watery and not thick.
Remove bay leaves.
Using a potato masher or food processor, mash/blitz the mixture to desired texture.
Mashing gives it a thicker/chunkier texture while processing it will result in a smoother texture.

Makes a pretty good pizza base sauce or a pasta sauce. (Been using this method for my pizzas instead of those bottled pasta sauces)

Buys for the week

TFA Ratchet, Bumblebee and Shockwave/Longarm Prime

Halo Wars

Monday, March 9, 2009

HG 1/144 Cherudim Gundam

Completed the HG Cherudim Gundam recently, with a few minor changes in the paint scheme. I didn't have any clear blue paint so I used clear green instead since I have it on hand.

Clear blue parts on Gundam weapons seems kinda weird to me, it should be more of a clear red or clear green. But that's probably the UC fan in me that's talking. Universal Century is still the best ever!!

Kit comes with the sniper rifle that can change between rifle mode and the sub-machine gun mode, the 2 beam pistols, 9 shield bits and the targeting piece when in trans-am mode. A clear display stand is included for displaying the shield bits in their defense mode in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, the assault mode for the bits isn't able to be displayed.

Something that I really hate about this kit is the clear red piece at the V-Fin. It flips out to reveal a sensor which is reminiscant of Dynames' goggle sensor. The piece simply attaches to the top of the head via a very miniscule connection point and features absolutely no other reinforcement, no indentations or bumps to secure the connection. This results in a very loose connection. There has been many a time where the piece simply fell off when flipped open by itself and it's a real pain to find as the piece is so small and my floor isn't white in colour.

Cherudim Gundam

With sensor flipped up

Trans-am mode

Sub-machine gun mode

Dual beam pistols

Shield bits in action



Sunday, March 8, 2009

HG 1/144 Seravee Gundam

Some pics from the completed kit. Quite a clunky kit for a 1/144 scale figure, due to the heavy armour of this MS. Face Burst mode can be achieved, the 2 GN Bazooka IIs can form the various modes as seen in the show, the combined Double Bazooka mode and attached to the upper GN cannons for the combined Twin Buster Cannon mode. Pity though, as the Double Bazooka can't be held in the middle as per the show despite it's rather excellent articulation.

Also, the backpack cannot transform into Seraphim Gundam, it's a chunk of plastic though there's a HG kit for Seraphim which is fully compatible with Seravee. Kind of hate the V-fin on the backpack, it's bloody loose due to a ball and socket connection. The ball joint is on each side of the fin and the socket on the red piece. The ball is slightly smaller than the socket and the connection is very loose, loose enough to fall out when rotating it from normal mode to burst mode.

Accessories wise, Seravee comes with only the 4 GN Cannons and the 2 GN Bazooka IIs. No beam sabers or additional 'hidden' hands are included though the HG Seraphim only comes with a left and right fist and 2 beam sabers with 2 long blades and 1 short blade. So to get the full 6 beam sabers.... you get the point? More on that later though, much much later...

Didn't use any of the stickers given except for the eye stickers. To get those parts to 'glow', instead of using the stickers provided, paint the area with a silver paint that is pretty reflective (I used a silver paint marker) and then paint the inside part of the clear plastic a translucent green, pop together and hey presto, 'glowing' parts. Do be careful though, as the effect is affected by how well the silver and translucent green are painted on and both paints must be dry before fitting the 2 parts together.

GN Bazooka II & GN Cannons

GN Cannons

Twin Buster Cannon mode

Face Burst mode

Double Bazooka mode

Hidden hands & beam saber in each GN Cannon

Seravee & Seraphim

Seraphim akang datang...

Nothing beats a little green to brighten up the place