The VF-4 Lightning III from Macross kicks ass
My nerd cave late at night, updated August 2024.
I took a photo of my nerd cave late at night, two years ago. I have a better camera this time. I also have added more stuff since then, like my light-up Starship Enterprise atop my monitor. This is a better view of the iron bead pixel art on the wall.
A closer look at my Pac-Man light. It’s actually LEDs, made to look like a neon sign.
My Pac-Man lamps, with a Dragon Quest Slime in between, atop my Megadrive game collection.
My blue paper lantern now lights up the far corner of the nerd cave.
My Aliens and Empire Strikes Back posters, and to the left side are my Record of Lodoss War action figures.
My video gaming pillow collection: Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast cushions, pillows and tissue covers, as well as Pac-Man pillows. Ulan likes to plop on these pillows and chill out. I’ve shown the Sega stuff from Shimamura previously on this blog.
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.
1:72 Y-Wing sofubi kit by Argo Nauts
On my nerd shopping expedition with my friend Lou at the end of April, I was at a Book Off Plus in Maebashi and took a look at this kit. I’ve seen it at that store for many years now, but they had reduced the price from something like 4000 yen down to 2400. I peeked inside the kit, thinking that it was a resin kit. It turns out that it’s a sofubi kit, with resin and metal parts. I couldn’t resist! I’ve already begun cutting the vinyl parts. I’ll put videos of this build on my YouTube and Odysee channels.
Argo Nauts was a sublabel of Aoshima’s in the early ’90s. They made sofubi kits of subjects from Robocop, Terminator, and Predator. They also made several Star Wars kits, and until Fine Molds got the license, these Argo Nauts kits were the best ones available. A few years ago, I built the Argo Nauts TIE Interceptor that was resin and metal. (Here’s a link to my photoset of this build on my Tumblr feed.) The detail on it is pretty fantastic, but despite it being 1:72 scale, it is a bit smaller than the Fine Molds TIE Interceptor (I built that one too). Argo Nauts’ X-Wing fighter kit is also a sofubi/resin/metal kit. That same Book Off Plus in Maebashi once had the Argo Nauts X-Wing Fighter, but that was sold a few years ago. They also made resin kits of the Millennium Falcon and the Star Destroyer. I have a 1:6 scale sofubi Stormtrooper by Argo Nauts, but the figure stands a bit too short, proportionally. It looks a bit like Luke Skywalker when he wore the Stormtrooper armor because he is short in stature and looked awkward wearing the armor. I think I will try to modify the knees with some PVC pipe or something to try to make it stand taller.
I had known of Argo Nauts for a while, but I did not know that it was an Aoshima brand until I worked for Aoshima in 2016. I had a conversation with an employee named Iizuka-san who had been with the company for a very long time and said that Aoshima had once made Star Wars kits. I was like, “No way,” and he told me that Argo Nauts was their sub-brand.
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.
Delorean replica spotted at Aoshima’s booth at the 2023 All-Japan Model Hobby Show!
This time machine replica was on display at Aoshima’s booth. Unno-san has made a completely all-new tooling for a new model Delorean! It will feature gull-wing doors that can be opened and closed. They will be hinged with pins so that you can position them as you like. Fantastic! I’ll have pictures of it in a photo gallery of the event in my Greg’s Life section soon.
Working on painting Asuka’s eyes
Painting eyes is the most nerve-wracking part of building garage kits. One can do an excellent paint job and assembly on a garage kit (aka GK, or gareki in Japanese), but if the eyes look weird, it’ll ruin the entire figure. You’ve gotta paint the eyes well, otherwise it’s crap and the whole build is no good.
I’m using Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paints, which are typical craft store paints. White, Black, and Mediterranean. I added some white to Mediterranean to add highlights to her irises. I didn’t notice imperfections in the molded surface of her face until I started painting. I tried to imitate Sadamoto’s art style. His distinct eyes are always great. I’m probably going to upload this build’s videos directly to Odysee rather than YouTube.
Here are my model acquisitions since May.
Yes, I’m a Hasegawa fanboy. Two 1:12 retro vending machines: ice cream and toasted cheese sandwiches. Two 1:72 Regult battlepods: the Scout Type and Heavy Missile Carrier Type. Two 1:12 resin figure kits: Yohko Asagiri from Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko and Kei from Dirty Pair. The only non-Hasegawa purchase is Max Factory’s 1:72 VF-1A/S Valkyrie, which disappointingly only came with stickers and not decals.