Look, just migrate to Linux. You’ll thank me later. New desktop as of June.
Bubblegum Crisis desktop wallpaper Linux Mint June 2024
Resin kit of Asuka in her yellow dress is now complete
I finally finished her last night. Over the weekend, I had to pry some parts apart and reattach them. Her right arm especially did not want to cooperate. I had to use some acrylic putty to fill in a bit of a gap and I hand-painted the flesh tone over the putty along her right shoulder and the side of her breast.
I posted before about painting her eyes, but I had such a hard time getting the shading right for her cleavage. It was too dark for a while, so I had to redo it a few times. I used Tamiya’s pink flesh accent color, Mr. Hobby’s Lascius pastel shader, and Faber Castell pencils go get the shading right. It looks better if you don’t get too close to it.
Another Nadia jigsaw puzzle complete
While visiting the in-laws for Golden Week, I completed my new Nadia gachapon jigsaw puzzle I got on Mercari.
New anime button badge acquisitions: Macross and Spy Family
Minmay and Yor buttons to add to my backpack.
Nadia iron bead sprite complete!
Glad to have learned of Artkal beads on the r/Beadsprites subreddit! Perler is American, Hama is British, and Artkal is Chinese. Artkal provides such a broader palette of color than the other two companies do! Artkal S82 made this project possible. That and Perler Brown are the two main fleshtones for Nadia. Her hair is Perler Midnight and Pastel Blue, while her vest is Perler Cherry and Red.
The pixel artwork was taken from the Fushigi no Umi no Nadia game for the PC Engine CD.
Here she is, ironed and pinned to my wall.
Hasegawa’s big 1:72 Macross Queadluun Rau model kit spotted in Yodobashi
Yesterday I went to Yodobashi Camera in Utsunomiya with my friend Lou who is visiting Japan. Here is me in the Macross section of the model department. This is the first time seeing the new Q-Rau model in-person. Wow, what a big box! I have enough Yodobashi points that I could have walked out of the store with this kit without paying for it, but unfortunately I have to buy my daughter a crappy Chromebook for her schoolwork and I will need to use those points on that instead.
Imai 1:100 Armored Valkyrie plastic model box art
Arii 1:100 Macross Regult Tactical Scout Type pod plastic model box art
I am nearly done with this build. It’s coming out rather well. Decals were slightly yellowed, but for the most part I was able to apply them. There were a few rips, but I was able to correct some of the damage with a bit of paint. I only lost one decal. There won’t be a build video for this, but just pictures posted on my Tumblr feed.
Iria Linux Mint desktop April 2024
Using WaifuXL to clean up and enhance anime images
A handy website called WaifuXL uses AI or something to clean up, color-correct, upscale, and enhance anime images. Above left is a very old picture of Madoka from Kimagure Orange Road I’ve had since high school. It’s a very low-resolution picture. To the right is a 4x enhanced version, courtesy of WaifuXL. (I never use the term “waifu” and it’s pretty stupid, but this website is pretty cool.)
Linna from Bubblegum Crisis. Look how blurry and low-res the original is.
Nadia taking a shower. You can see how it clears up the dithering considerably.
Nadia taking a nap. It really sharpened up the picture.
Nadia’s wedding.
Nadia wedding dress.
Komillia from Macross 2036. The original looks blurry in comparison.
Plus it works on non-character images. Look at how it cleaned up this image of a Macross Valkyrie prepping for takeoff:
This is a nice tool. Apparently it does not work on non-anime images well.