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Andy’s Hobby Headquarters in Glendale, AZ

Many years ago, I wrote an essay on my history of the plastic model hobby. I mentioned how it was my wife Mayu who got me back into the hobby. Although I had bought a couple of models here and there, she is the one who came home one day in 2005 with an AT-AT from Empire Strikes Back by AMT and asked me to build her a “doggy horse” as she called them. That’s what got me back into the hobby.

I grew up with a local hobby retail chain called Hobby Bench. In fact, this is where Mayu bought the AT-AT, as she went inside while waiting for the next bus to take her home. While they had a decent supply of model kits, supplies and tools, the guys working the counter only seemed to care about radio control stuff. They’d always be talking with other RC hobby enthusiasts, to the point where I felt hesitant to even ask a question. I once asked if it’s possible to mix Testors acrylic paints with Tamiya acrylic paints and the clerk said, “Yeah, they’re both acrylics. Why not?” Well, that turned out to not be a good idea and it just shows their lack of expertise.

Then I discovered Andy’s Hobby Headquarters. I was impressed with both Andy’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the model hobby, and there was no RC stuff in his store at all! His store was focused solely on plastic modeling. His advice was always great and I always enjoyed talking with him.

Before I moved back to Japan, I gave him a huge stack of Hobby Japan ad Dengeki Hobby magazines to share with his modeling club. The last time I saw him was in March 2012, when I bought my 1:537 USS Reliant from Star Trek and the corresponding decals. Then eventually Andy became well-known among the YouTube modeling community.

In my recent trip to Arizona, I stopped by. He wasn’t there, and the man working there seemed used to disappointing people for not being Andy. Andy now spends most of his time at the new Hobby HQ store in Tolleson. The guy working at the original location may as well have a nametag that says, “Hi, I’m NOT Andy. Deal with it.” It was still cool to see how the store has changed, though. Here are some pictures I took.

I was surprised to see a Perfect Grade Millennium Falcon there!

There was this awesome Cylon Raider by Moebius Models hanging from the ceiling. I reached up high to take this photo. There was also an old Kenner X-Wing toy behind it. Notice all the Gunpla on the shelves in the background below.

Lots of Perfect Grade Gundam models.

So many Fujimi car model kits! Years ago when I worked at Aoshima, I had tried to build a relationship with Andy and tried to get him to purchase Aoshima kits directly from me. It didn’t really work out though. I don’t know why. Still, it was great to see all of the Fujimi car kits there.

I was surprised to see so many Hasegawa kits with their old box designs.

Here you can see the new Hasegawa boxes (top) and the old ones (bottom).

I wished I had taken more photos, but I actually ended up talking quite a lot with the store clerk. I know people would’ve liked me to take a video tour of the store, but I was with two friends and we had other places to go. I wasn’t alone. Maybe next time!

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The old, legacy Glaug model kit from Macross by Imai

I took this old Imai/Bandai Macross Glaug kit to work on while staying at the in-laws’ place for a 4-day summer holiday weekend. I figured that I’d get familiar with these older kits before building the new Hasegawa ones. But, I am a bit surprised. There are no bottom parts for the feet of this old Glaug kit! I can’t believe they made the kit like this. Seems a bit half-assed. Now I feel compelled to cut some Tamiya Pla-Plate to make my own feet bottoms. I’m also going to modify this with proper clear lens pieces as well as ball joints where I can.

This old Imai Glaug kit is from the ’80s. Bandai bought the Macross molds from Imai long ago and re-issued them under their name. Not all of them though apparently, since Bandai never once repopped the Armored Valkyrie kit I completed this year, or the Zentraedi recon ship. They repop the Zentraedi battle pod and Destroid kits every once in a while, and this one I have was released for the 25th anniversary of Macross. I paid only 1,020 yen for it about 12 years ago.

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Decals are complete for my AMT 1:2500 Enterprise-E

These decals are crap. They slide off the paper very easily, even in cold water, but once they go down, they do NOT want to slide around on the model. Mr. Mark Setter seems to have no effect on their ability to be repositioned once on the model’s surface. I had to get them exactly right the first time, otherwise they’d be a PITA to move around. Not only that, but they broke easily and I’d have lots of air bubbles under them. I’m using Tamiya Mark Fit Super Strong and these decals do NOT want to conform. I’m having to make cuts with my hobby knife and even then they still do not want to cooperate. Driving me nuts.

The paint job is Testors Model Master Acryl Camouflage Gray, and the reflector dish, impulse engines, nacelle Bussards, and flux chillers were done with Gaia Notes’ Arpeggio line of glow-in-the-dark fluorescent lacquer paints. This should look pretty cool once I find my blacklights in my hobby closet of doom.

I’ll need to give this a Mr. Hobby semi-gloss, then paint the nav lights and such. I’ll use a black alcohol pen to color in all the windows to add that detail.

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A look at modeling magazines and books at Bookman’s Academy in Maebashi

On the last Friday of June, after dinner in Maebashi we went to Bookman’s Academy, a nice two-story bookstore on the road straight south from the sushi restaurant we ate at. This bookstore not only has a great selection of modeling magazines, but upstairs in the “subculture” category, there are many books about modeling. First I’ll show you the magazine section.

Here you’ll see Armour Modelling with Umi Shinonome gracing the cover with her own color of paint (as shown above), Artpla, a Model Art mook on painting, Model Cars, a mook on modeling tools (I believe by Model Art), Figure King (covering pre-painted figures as well as kits), Macross Mechanics (a mook devoted to Macross modeling), a mook on painting techniques for WWII camouflage patterns from various countries, and something about the Yamato. To the far right you’ll see a couple of magazines about firearm replicas, which I am really not into. Looking down, you’ll see this:

Here are issues of Hobby Japan, Model Graphix, Scale Aviation, and Model Art. Oh, but that’s not all. I actually didn’t show you the row of modeling mooks on the shelf between these two pictures.

Here is a look at the Macross Mechanics modeling mook. This is the summer issue. Alright, now let’s head upstairs to the subculture section. This should blow you away.

Here are the magazines along the top. Gundam Archives is put out by Model Graphix magazine. These are mooks that are collections of Gunpla builds featured in the magazine. They also have Macross Archives and Votoms Archives that I’ve seen. In the middle is the SD Gundam Perfect Modeling Manual, and to the right is one on Ultraman models.

Look at all of these Gunpla modeling books! Here they have the Gundam Sentinel book, a compilation of the Sentinel articles once featured in Model Graphix magazine. Lots of other stuff too, like Hobby Japan Vintage, Hobby Japan Extra (these are mooks focusing on different subjects), more Gundam Archives issues, a book on Gundam MSV, and I spot a Scope Dog Votoms book. Looks like it might come with a model, the way it’s in a box like that.

Lots of other stuff, too! Model lighting, AFV, a book on building an F-14 Tomcat which actually covers the work of an American modeler building Tamiya’s Tomcat, various 72nd scale plane modeling books, and so on. This is the store where I bought the book showcasing modeling workbenches of several famous modelers, as well as the model lighting book by Dorobou Hige.

Here’s the Votoms Archives mook I mentioned, with a look inside. I love the paint scraping detail on the legs, from the armored skirt. Fantastic detail.

Here’s a book called “Soul of the 1/72 Scale” (ナナニイの魂) which covers multiple plane subjects in that scale.

Bookman’s Academy has such a fantastic selection of modeling books. I always enjoy going to this store with my family.

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30 Minutes Sisters customized Luluce done

So last night I finished my Luluce model kit. I went back to the Sanyodo Bookstore I posted about in the previous post and bought optional hair and body parts to give her black pigtails and sexy tits. Luluce comes with a nice ponytail, but her hair is like a dark gray and I prefer black. I think I’ll paint the ponytail hair parts with Mr. Hobby Lascius black hair color. I might paint the pigtail parts to match.

I’m on vacation at the in-laws’ place this week. Here I have a modeling table with various modeling supplies I keep here to work on models whenever we stay here. What I need to do is pop the parts apart and sand down the gates better. When I get home, I plan to do a flat coat on the flesh parts. I can use a Faber Castel pencil to do some shading on her butt cheeks and underboobs, then give it another flat coat to seal it in. I think I’ll also do a wash of Tamiya panel line accent color on her hair to give it more life, then do a flat coat on that too. Maybe do a semigloss finish on her outfit.

After sanding work, I may need to use some plastic polish to smooth it, or just very high grit sanding sponges. After a clear coat, it should provide a painted look.

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A treasure trove of modeling stuff found at Sanyodo Bookstore

In Komagane City, Nagano Prefecture there is a bookstore called Sanyodo with a fantastic modeling section. There I spotted Aoshima’s new Back to the Future Delorean from the 2nd movie! The first Delorean was released earlier this year. This is the first time seeing this second kit at a store.

I went there to pick up the latest Modelgraphix magazine (featuring Votoms dioramas) and OH BOY they now have a HUGE plamo section! Tons of neat supplies and everything too. Not just Gundams, but plenty of Macross, Votoms, Crusher Joe, shmups game ships, cars, planes… wow. Several years ago I picked up the Bandai mini Millennium Falcon there, but at that time the model section was pretty limited to just some Gundams. So, I was very impressed to see that their modest modeling section has been expanded to a few aisles even.

And check this out. They even stock Vallejo acrylic paints there. You don’t normally see these paints at regular hobby stores in Japan.

So yeah, plenty of great modeling supplies to be found there. I’m very impressed.

I picked up a Bandai “30 Minutes Sisters” kit. Girl #3 named Luluce. She has such a pretty, dark skin complexion and a cute ponytail. She is the one I was interested in getting, but never got around to buying before she disappeared. Maybe these kits were repopped because that model store had tons of them in stock.

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Nautilus submarine model kit by Bandai

Recently I signed up for a Mercari account. It’s an online fleamarket. Often you can find stuff cheaper there than on YAJ, and a greater variety of smaller items. Lots of neat Sega stuff and whatnot. I’ve sometimes asked my wife to get stuff for me through her account and I’d pay for the items at the convenience store, but I decided to create my own account.

Although I bought the newer 1:1000 scale Nautilus model by Kotobukiya, I wanted to build the old 1:700 scale Bandai kit and give it another go. It is OOP and goes for a bit on YAJ, but I found it cheaply on Mercari (about half of what it goes for on YAJ). I built this when I still lived in America, and it was the first fully-airbrushed kit I ever built. This time, I want to drill lots of holes and use clear UV resin to try to light it. This Bandai kit is from the ’90s, back before they made all of their models snap kits. While this Bandai kit does not have as great of detail as the smaller Kotobukiya Nautilus, since it is not a snap fit model , I believe it has more hollow sections. I think I can drill out the window portals and replace them with Wave H-Eyes lenses, as well as casting the captain’s quarters on top in clear resin to light it up. That would be neat.

I made a page for my old build on my model gallery I stopped updating about 10 years ago here. It comes with a small 1:20 scale Nadia figure, and it was the first figure I ever painted.

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Arii 1:100 scale Macross Super Valkyrie VF-1S plamo box scan

Arii’s 1:100 scale model of Roy Fokker’s VF-1S. Well, actually Hikaru is piloting it at this point in the story. It’s rather nice box art, but notice that the thruster pod in the center is facing the wrong direction! Oops. The decals for this kit do not seem to be usable. I am thinking I might build this up as Jetfire from Transformers instead. I have plenty of Autobot emblem decals to use.