Fingers Splitting Fun...

Owh yes, I did not tell you that I had my first experience with Gundam modification…

Owhkay… I did not exactly do the modification on a Gundam. And the mobile suit is not even mine, it is my brother’s.

Anyway, what happened was, the material for clear part, which in this case, the Garazzo’s hand with finger beam, does not tolerate thinner well.

This might be because he tried to separate the beam on each fingers apart. Then he paint the beam yellow for the clear part is orange in colour. But the yellow look horrible on the orange clear part. And when he tried to get the colour off by using thinner, the material turned soft.

This was probably because the part where he sliced did not have any protective coating to endure thinner corrosiveness. The hand then looks horrible as if my kitten had bitten it.

So we left the hand to dry and harden a bit. As it gets harder, I cut off the fingers from the hand.

Separated, the fingers were easier for me to file and make them look smoother. The fingers look better after filing.

I also took the liberty to sharpen the end of the beam.


After that, I just glued them back to the hand, each finger slightly apart.


I am so sorry that I lose the photos of the work in progress...

Trying to LOL...

Once in a while, my colleague crack jokes in the office. This is one of them:

DarkErebus,
Pls convert to PDF and revert back.

Thank you.

Koalemos / sales man

He sent me a document that needs to be converted to PDF. That could be understood well enough…

But, revert the document back? Back to the original form?
Huh?
Seriously?
What was the point you sent it to me then?

Now that is funny…

The Barge...

I went out again working at the offshore few days before Ramadhan.

Probably the longest I had been so far out at sea.

Probably the longest stay on the barge to date.

The sea was not so kind when we headed to the barge in a fast crew boat. The sea was quite mischievous and playfully push us up in the air few times too many for our own comfort. In fact, we had been tossed up and down on the sea surface too much that I felt whatever I had inside of me was going to take their own trip outside.

When I finally arrived at the barge, the feeling still had not left me. By now, it felt as if everything in my tummy were hanging in my throat, awaiting opportunity to give its evil nudge just to let everything out…

Ewwww…

I did not really had appetite for lunch but force myself to do so just so that I would be energized. Actually I was trying to force the urge down with the food. I did not want to go hungry as well.

Thankfully, after lunch, the feeling, the urge somehow had taken to the sea; drown in the mischievous playful sea…

The Mystery of Missing Underwear

For the first time ever, I lost my underwear at the offshore. It is quite a puzzling quizzical matter actually. For I was very sure I did not put it into the laundry bag.

For you guys who have never been to the 5 stars hotel of the offshore, whatever you wear can be put into the laundry bag except for your underwear. For health reason they said…

Never ever put underwear into the laundry bag.

EVER.

The laundry boys would not wash it and you have to hunt it down in the laundry room.

Most probably pile into a heap of other god forsaken wear.

I do remember perfectly that I did not put the underwear into the laundry bag. Nor did I bring it to the toilet to be washed.

Hmmmm... Mysteriously puzzling I would say...

Usually I would wait till I have two pieces of underwear before I washed them.

Anyway, I searched high and low for it. Just to be sure, I even searched the platform…

I am pretty sure the fishes have no need of undergarments…

Because of this unfortunate turn of event, I had to wash my underwear every day.

Next time, whenever I go offshore, I will bring spares just in case this sort of thing happens again.

And seriously, it is time for me to get extra underwear...

picture taken from cartoon express

CyCLONE! JOOOKKKAAA!

Right… I didn’t get to tell you this. It is quite sad really. I really look forward for it every week. Now it is gone. Another Kamen Rider added to the list of my favorite Kamen Rider of all time, KAMEN RIDER W series ended on 29th August this year.

The series started last year on the 6th September. I had been watching it every week then up until the last episode. I do not really understand Japanese, thus I had to wait for a week or two for the series with fan subtitle to come out.

Still I get to watch KAMEN RIDER W!No complaint there then…

I will say the story line was not crappy. Not so much of kamen rider action but still acceptable. One of the kamen riders that used their bike a lot I will say.

By right, kamen rider due to his name, kamen rider, should ride a bike and if possible, more action on the bike. I am pretty sure there are lots of awesome, amazing and spectacular moves you can do on bike while fighting bad guys. Maybe next time…

I do like those Gaia Memories.

It is amazing how the incorporate the letter of each Gaia Memories name with relevant image. See, the blue Gaia Memory in the picture is called Trigger. The T is shaped like a gun. Amazing! The yellow Gaia Memory, Lunar, the letter L is shaped as a crescent. Such creativity!

Oh, and I must say, I like it when the Gaia Memories being activated and their names called out. JOOOKKKAAA!

Akiko is not as pretty as Natsumi though. I am not happy with Akiko behavior too.

Too childish… Sigh…

Natsumi is still my favorite girl! The dopant (the bad guys of the series) designs to me are not really that good and especially for Bird dopant. Come on guys, cool monsters design next time please? The main actors are excellent too! I personally love Hidari Shoutaro’s fashion sense. Philip or Raito for god sake is too girlish. But they do have cool lines and style… Anyway, I have started watching Kamen Rider OOO or Kamen Rider Oz. Not really that good but still better than Kamen Rider Hibiki. I squirmed the whole time while watching Kamen Rider Hibiki series. Let us hope the series get better...

Thank you Kamen Rider W for all the fun! All in all, it was really awesome!
Great show! And GREAT SONGS TOO!

One of the Kamen Rider storyline that can be extended in the future for another great Kamen Rider series!

Let me write the next Kamen Rider series!

Please…

The Offshore...

Working here can be considered harsh. It is a harsh world out here at offshore. Be it the weather or the surrounding. I am amazed and still amazed that some of the guys out here have been doing this kind of job for half of their life or more.

The sun, because there are no lush greenery to slice the heat down, is merciless especially in the afternoon. The sun itself will not be that bad if we do not have to wear our personal protective equipments all the time on the platform (which is a must whenever you are on the platform). On most sunny days, there will be no wind blowing and your sweat will rain down your body. Most uncomfortable I will say and there is nothing much we can do about it.



The rain is usually received as good tidings due to no work is allowed on the platform when it is raining. The bad side of it, your work will be delayed. Still, I think the rain is a present for those hardworking people on the platform. We do not have weekend here at the offshore and a rainy day is a much needed time for us to catch up with our rest.



The strong wind will also mean a good day of rest if you can stand the rocking and the rolling of the barge that is. On a very windy day, the sea waves are wild and strong. The barge will be rocked heavily like a baby cradle rocked by a furious mother trying to get her baby to sleep (not that it work well when the cradle is rock furiously). This is very dangerous for us to cross the gangway or the small bridge which connect the barge to the platform for the workers to cross. Thus no workers are allowed to cross the gangway.


Dolphins are usually considered bad omen here at the offshore. Sighting of leaping dolphins at the sea means storm is coming and work will be delayed. Still it also means a good day of rest. A good omen for those who need rest…

The Gratings...

I love walking on the gratings,
especially on the bridges,
crossing from one platform to another platform.

If you look down at your feet,
you can see straight down into the sea.


On lovely sunny days,
the sea water looks beautiful,
like glittering sapphire under the sun.

Heck, even during rough sea,
the water,
which would be churning waves slithering dangerously,
is still beautiful albeit threatening.

Back on Land...

This post was supposed to be posted on the day I demobilized from offshore platform. Due to family business and work, it is one week late.

All that I want to say is, it is nice to be back to the world where we have weekends and I do not need to wash my underwear with my hands anymore.

Nice…

Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom…

Finally…

I have Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom HG 1/100! Bought this model in KL during my one week holiday. The only one left in this one shop in Low Yatt.

Nice…

Never had I thought that I would be seeing that Gundam again.

Very rare indeed.

The only Gundam that I really like from the Gundam Wing line. Still, all in all, the Gundam Wing’s Gundam designs are still one of the best and unique. The best to me is Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom! Other Deathscythe’s designs are not really that awesome. I am glad Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom design did not turn out bad. If not, it would be a shame…

Anyway, I had started to build Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom. Have not cut the parts off the runners yet. I mean, not all of them.

I usually like to do most of the panel lining and painting while the parts still stuck to the runner. Make it easier for me to do my work. Only if some area of the part is easier to be accessed by cutting it off, then I will do it.

So I had panel line some of the parts.

The horn was painted gold. Basically, that is pretty much it.

This is one of the Gundams that does not need too much paint and panel lining.

Lucky!

Hoping to be able to finish this one pretty quickly…

Good Bye Fullmetal Alchemist! Thank you!

At last, after being released for nearly 9 years, one of my favourite manga has come to an end.

First chapter came out in August 2001 and its final chapter 108 draws the curtain in June 2010.

I would not want to spill the whole story for you here… But I had always enjoyed the remarkable plot and storyline of Fullmetal Alchemist. The number of characters is not too overwhelming and quite distinct with their own unique character, adding more flavor to the manga. The characters support the plot well.

The best part of the story is the moral values instilled. The manga encourage studying and the main characters never stopped studying. They never give up when they could not understand something and persevere until the knowledge is in their grasp.

It has been a long journey and it is sad to see a good manga has come to the end. Still, the ending was a good one, putting the whole story into perfect balance. Anti climax marvelously done I will say.

I had enjoyed waiting for its new chapter’s release every month from the first day I read it in one of our local magazine. I do hope Hiromu Arakawa will make another good manga.

Perhaps, Fullmetal Alchemist’s new adventure?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the manga, Hiromu Arakawa! You are the greatest!
Fullmetal Alchemist should be one of the gems of the comic world!

Read the manga! It is really that good!

Trust me…

Picture taken from http://ning8poc.wordpress.com/

Spray cans...

One of the techniques of Gundam Modeling that I am trying to learn is spraying or using air brush.
I cannot afford air brush just yet, so my brothers and I settle for spray cans…

Now at my place here, a good spray can for plastic model is virtually impossible to find. Probably if I go into every shop here at my place, I could possibly find one…

Then again, that is a waste of time.

So we bought these spray cans and tried them on my military units…


Well, one for sure about color spraying, it does take heck lots of time. First I have to cover parts that I do not want to be sprayed. I used a normal masking tape for that. That is the most tedious part to do…

Then spray!

I learned that spraying directly made my models looked ugly…

Later I found out that you cannot spray directly but instead you swing it left and right, with the model between the two points you swing spray…

Hmmmm…

I do not have pictures to show you…

Maybe I will put it up later…

Anyway, that method produced better sprayed coating…


I was lazy to cover the design on the Military Units shields…

So as you can see, when I scrapped off the paint, other part of the paint peeled off as well. I have to cut around the part that I want to scrap the paint of to minimize this. Doesn’t really work that well…

Probably the paint then…

Also because I didn’t put the coating over the paint, it easily gets scratch off. The pictures below shows the paint was scrapped off. Probably I should have done like what my brother did. Make the spear staff thinner and then spray the colour on. It does work with his Military Units though…


After you spray the colour on, the surface gets slightly thicker…

The paint does not really stick well on the plastic surface so probably we still need to find a better spray paint…

I build Gundam here...

Here is where all of my Gundams were turned into beautiful Gundams! Just a small space where I can keep all the stuff I need and some space for me to work on my Gundams.

Shown in the pictures is the SD Gundam Military Unit that belongs to my brother. The three of us bought a Military set each. In each set, you have a Military Unit for the main three groups: The Dragon (Blue), The Phoenix (Red) and The Tiger (Orange).

One of my brothers chose Orange, the other chose Red and so I get the Blue units. The thing is, most of my SD Gundams are from the Phoenix…

Anyway, I can still use them as enemies for my SD Gundams dioramas.


Now to finish up my Military Units…

Around 80% are done. Maybe I can get to finish them this weekend…

I will let you know.

Gundam Bind 1/100? 1/144?

The SD Gundam Bind really makes me interested in SD RX 78-2. I now have the urge to do some customization so that I may have a bigger SD RX 78-2 Bind.

It will also be interesting to see RX 78-2 Bind. Whether it will be in scale 1/100 or 1/144, surely it will be awesome. We are talking about the real RX 78-2 not the SD RX 78-2. Some serious customization here…

First thing first, we need to replicate the arm for 1/100 or 1/144 scale. The left arm had to be redesigned for the real size.
Then next thing is to make the arm. I am very very new in this customization business. I will have to know what sort of material and the most important thing how to shape those materials into the left arm of the RX 78-2 Bind. That IS a challenge… Google time!

That also means that I have to sacrifice an RX 78-2 for this project. That shouldn’t be much of problem except that…
It is very hard to find a 1/144 RX 78-2 here at my place. The only model available is a 1/100 RX 78-2 which quite pricey… Still I can just grab an SD RX 78-2 instead.

Another challenge here...

I was thinking, if I can pull this project off, the real size RX 78-2 Bind will sure look awesome! I was thinking of lighting up those evil eyes on him. Creepy…

RX 78-2 Bind has two red eyes. There is one eye on his face and the other eye on his left arm’s face. Thus, I also need to replicate an RX 78-2 face and stick to the left arm. Or maybe if I can get hold of some extra RX 78-2 faces…

To wire up an LED inside these small heads should be a pain… but the effect will be tremendous. Now, we have to figure out how to fit everything inside the model. You would not want wires to stick out of your model don’t you?

Other than the left arm, everything else should be easy. Just need to spray RX 78-2 black. That is all. Probably some splashes of dark purple as shown in the illustration of SD Gundam RX 78-2 Bind from the link here…

The dark purple is at places where it is originally red such as the feet, the hip, the shield and the fore head.

A real challenge indeed and should be a good start into the world of Gundam model customization for me…

SD GUNDAM BIND...

I had come across the name few times actually without realizing it…

SD Gundam Bind

Only few months ago did I take notice of it…

SD Gundam Bind

After doing a bit of Google, I couldn’t really find much information about…

SD Gundam Bind

All I know is that they are the Gundams shadows or rather the…

SD Gundam Bind

I do like… Hmmmm or rather I do love the evilness and darkness in the design of…

SD Gundam Bind

Only few weeks ago did I noticed that our Toys R Us have been selling this…

SD Gundam Bind

The Gundam Bind series I really took liking is the first series. The nicer design of…

SD Gundam Bind

The later series are not that good. I really like the left arm of SD Gundam RX 78-2’s…

SD Gundam Bind

It took me three visits to Toys R Us before I managed to have all of…

SD Gundam Bind

I don’t really care much of the SD Gundam, all I want is the SD Gundam RX 78-2 and…

SD Gundam Bind

Now that I have all of them, I can mix match the body parts and make a greater…

SD Gundam Bind

Still, I really love the SD Gundam RX 78-2 and his

SD Gundam Bind


Here is the link to some information and the comic of…

SD Gundam Bind

LOL!

Image taken from wikipedia...

Alice in Wonderland has been my favorite book for a long time. The films, I don’t really like them for they can’t really absorb the feeling of the book.

Contrariwise the new film looks promising enough that I decided to watch it at the movie…

The idea of finally getting to see one of my favorite characters Jabberwocky from the Wonderland is thrilling.

Horribly enough, it was not the film that spoiled the mood. It was some stupid moronic dudes sitting exactly behind me.

When they first came in, it is normal if you chatter around with your friends.

No problem there.

Then the curtain was raised and the show started.

Let the show begin!

Errrrr… Hold on, what was that I heard?

Those guys were still chattering! To make it worst, they were making remarks on nearly every action shown in the movie!

“She is going to fall…”

“Walau”

“So dangerous... Bla bla bla Nearly hit the piano... Bla bla bla”

“Walau”

“Wow”

“Nope, wrong door…Bla bla bla Use the key for... Bla bla bla”

“She is drinking it… Bla bla bla Later she... Bla bla bla”

“Walau”

“LOL”

And so on and on…

Hold on... Ask me why did I write ‘LOL’ up there…

Well, to be honest, for as long as I had lived on Earth, never had I dreamt of hearing people laughing but doesn’t sound like a laugh. Never had I actually dreamt that somebody on this Earth will not laugh like this:

“Hahahahahahaha”

Or “Ghehehehehehehe”

Or slightly muffled “Mphephephephe”

Those nerds actually laugh and said ‘LOL’!

They actually said ‘LOL’!

LOL!

Here comes a funny scene… Now laugh!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

What sort of laugh is that!?

I know LOL stand for Laugh Out Loud… But you don’t have to say ‘LOL’ when you laugh! Just laugh normally!

Not only they didn’t have movie ethics, their laugh was also pathetic!

I probably should have said something to them, but then I didn’t… Hmmmmm…

Anyway, I do hope that I will have a better movie experience next time. Hopefully I don’t get to sit in front of those dorks again.

LOL!

Come to me...

I bought quite a lot of Gundams recently. I started to do so ever since I started working in Queensland. I had also upgraded my hobby from just a mere Gundams collector to novice Gundams builder. With my brothers around, I have more motivation to do so. It is nice to have someone to talk about it, share some knowledge and experience it together.

Since I am working, the rate of building the Gundams had been very painstakingly slow… I am really taking my time. I had not even started with my PG Astray Red Frame. I do want to see my first PG standing but I really want to savor the moment of building it…

My Gundams look nicer now with the proper cutting, sanding, filing, coloring and panel lining. The Gundams doesn’t look plain and look quite close to the Gundams portrayed on their boxes.

Right now I am still waiting for my MG Exia Ignition Mode from Japan… When will you be coming to Malaysia? Currently, I still had not received any news about my MG Exia yet. Last time I heard from my friend who help me to buy those Gundams, she was going to post the Gundams to Malaysia. That was in August if I am not mistaken…

Are you alright there? Really sorry to bother you…

I do hope to see my MG Exia soon…

That will be my first MG too…

Sigh…

When will you be coming here? Exia...

My school is the BEST!

My secondary school was supposed to be the best school in my state. Where great leaders are produce…

Guess that was history…

Now, not that I want to humiliate my own school but to progress, to move forward to a glorious goal, you have to know your weaknesses and work on it. We always shout out that we produce the best students every year…

Though best students academically only. Probably in the past…

Guess that was history…

When you do say that you have the best students, do you only said that for school time only? What ever happened after they left the school? Does anybody take note or follow up on how well the students get on with their lives after school?

I will say the school plays some role in developing the students toward that achievement. Programs and activities conducted in the school should help to instill those values…

The question is… Do the activities in the school do that? I was quite disappointed with the school orientation week for this year.

To me, the activities the school came up with were just pointless and a waste of time. I don’t see the point how those activities can help the students to be great leaders, teach them disciplines and cooperation. The activities were just childish and lean more towards ragging…

Surprisingly another school that my school always looks down did a better job for the orientation week… For whatever reason that might have, my school should learn from them…

Orientation week…

Shouldn’t the school during the week, helps the students to know the school better? Even if you want them to know the staff and their seniors, shouldn’t you have better and dignified way to do that? Shouldn’t you have games that don’t humiliate the students? The facilitators should be more considerate and treat the students with respect as well…

The teachers involved should also play their role to make sure activities are up to the best standard…

The ragging is a custom we weed out in the university life. You go to a university and you will not find it anymore. I don’t understand then why the school still practices that degrading custom then. I mean, the best school still practices barbaric custom?

That should be history…

The first month...

Quite exciting time for me… I will experience three new years soon. Fist to come was Muslim New Year, then the Gregorian New Year and soon, the Chinese New Year…

Thinking about it, nothing really special though… Just that it is interesting to see human celebrating this so call event. Why do we choose to party all out for the passing of year and ushering the New Year anyway? I still cannot get the true solid reason just yet…