PLAMO DIARIES

I know it's been a while. But let's pretend like the most recent post was just yesterday. Assembly I had been meaning to try painting a candy finish for a while already, and what better kit do that on than the Sazabi. But because I didn't want to mess up my RG just yet, I thought to practice on the SD version first. This SD kit was surprisingly detailed, and even came in two shades of red. But as with most SDs, this had seamlines on the head, knees/shins, and the rifle that needed to be removed. Not too bad, actually. I modified the head to make the face plate removable. Same with the gray parts on the knees. I just didn't take a lot of photos of the process, unfortunately. Oh, and I also used a half-round pearl piece for the monoeye intead of a sticker. Painting For painting, I started with the effect parts. This was my first time trying out fluorescent paints and trying to paint a gradient. I was pretty happy with the results, but the yellow-to-neon green gradient tha

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I experimented with different bases for the SD Neo Zeong . Figma stands couldn't handle the weight. The Action Base 1 was just too tall. The Action Base 2 was actually pretty good though a bit unstable due to the SD Neo Zeong's weight. But then I saw the 30-Minute Missions Customize Scene Base Landscape Version and thought that it would be a great way to emphasize or exaggerate the Neo Zeong's size. The base comes in three parallelogram-shaped plates that can be rearranged to suit your display. Each plate has a removable piece that covers the attachment point for a support arm. Unfortunately, the arm that comes with this package is just too thin for the Neo Zeong. As you can see in the picture above, the Action Base 2 arm crudely fits but also covers up a lot of nice details. But this was a problem to for later. And I couldn't stand to just let the base be gray when the packaging showed how good it could look when painted. It took

Today's build log is about the Yolly SD Neo Zeong, which is pretty much a straight-up recast of the Bandai original. I'd rather not get into the ethics of knock-offs, but I just wanted a cheap kit that I could practice on without caring too much about mistakes. Straight off the bat, let me say that if you want a representation of the Neo Zeong, please buy the original because Yolly's mold is pretty bad, especially the SD Sinanju packed in with the kit. But if your intention is to use just the Neo Zeong parts to make some kind of custom armor for another SD or Nendoroid or the like, this kit will be a cheap way to do so. SD EX-Standard in the Neo Zeong Kit Quality The quality on this kit was just not there. Huge mold lines, poor fit, rough surfaces, shallow details, weird scratches, and loose joints. Stay away from this unless you can overlook all these problems or if you're willing to fix them. I wanted a practice kit, and that's exactly what I got and more. Major

I bought this kit on sale a few years ago for just $9 with the intention of using it as cheap practice. I had built it and sanded and welded the seams (not very well), but I couldn't find the right green colors in spray cans, so this project got shelved (literally) for some time. Now that I had a respectable painting setup and some new tools, I thought that this kit might finally serve as a warmup before tackling more recent and expensive kits. My plan was to improve the monoeye and maybe add some more surface detail. So after disassembling the parts, I started with modifying the head. I couldn't stand how ugly the monoeye was, so I thought to try to make it look more like the MG 2.0 or RG. I found a curved piece of clear plastic that I measured and cut to fit in front of the monoeye. This clear plastic was soaked in Pledge to make it shinier. Next, I replaced the crappy monoeye sticker with a 4mm pink rhinestone. But because of the new protrusion, it wouldn't fit behind th

I used to be a big Star Wars fan. I had watched the movies, kept up with the expanded universe, and played the games. Some of my favorite games were those in the X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter series because of how you could experience and geek out on the fictional technical aspects of various ships in the Star Wars universe. And because of those games, I grew more attached to designs like the Tie Interceptor and of course, the X-Wing. I'll digress a bit to mention that what often amuses me is how game designers (and fans like me) seem to give ship and starfighter tech specs more thought than the movie directors or visual-effects guys. Nerds gonna nerd, I guess.