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WIP

A long time out and a long time since my last post the farm's been in the full swing of the early summer routine. We've worked cows, started cutting hay, and somehow along the way wound up cutting down a 50 year old Oak tree that toppled over in a storm. To say the least, not much time for Gundams.

In between things, I managed to preorder and secure the 1/100 scale "00 Raiser Designer Colors" edition from HLJ. Since its arrival a couple of weeks ago I have slowly begun the building process. However there is much paint work to be done for this model's preperations, such as the undersides of exposed sections and some interior pieces for the model's main gimmick. This fuction is powered by three LED light modules that are built into the 00's backpack mounted (which hang over the shoulders) twin GN Drives and the head. To make this gimmick work the way I want requires paint to help black out the sections of plastic that light will normally bleed through.

The paint work has been the real time consuming, on the runner portion of the work so far. Not every part has been cut free yet, because I've found painting is easier without having to juggle small pieces between fingers and paint brushes. This process also includes my filling in the panel lines as well. The advantage of this with panel lining is that the 'stain' effect of the GM-01 Gundammarker (fine tipped black) does not bleed over into any unwanted regions that are typically cut-off points from the runners. Once a part has been finished, I've cut it away and cleaned the excess paint from its edges using paint cleaner.

Speaking of the paints, I'm using my traditional Testors Model Master Acryls. For this kit I used the following out of the bottle:
Clear Green
Clear Blue
Clear Red
Flat Black

Due to the extreme color shift in this kit compared to its original version I had to compensate with the gray paint to match its plastic, therefore I created a mix of Gunship Gray and Flat Gull Gray. The mix is somewhere close to 50/50 that started when I added Gull pigment to Gunship and then remixing it. The final mix is smooth, and often works with one brush stroke on a small area. For larger areas I've taken the extra precaution of using thinner and a wide head brush in a two coat formula.

More on this will come when I do the final review. Until then I've included a sample picture of the work in progress.

Posted 5 June, 2009 - 07:57 by Gunpla Rob

Comments

5 comments posted
False advertising

I thought this post was gonna be about Women In Prison. ;)

Glad to hear you're keeping busy on the farm. Things have been a bit slow around here and I'm starting to develop a gut again. Gotta get moving. But I did actually just get some monster model kits that I can spend some time on. These will be the first plastic kits I've ever painted. I've done resin before and built Gundam kits, but never painted them. Fortunately, for the most part, all the parts are big enough that I shouldn't have any trouble handling them. I hope they come out ok.

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 5 June, 2009 - 13:29
Things are going.

With the weather rolling over us the past few days delaying us from rolling hay, I've had a few hours to work on the kit. So far much of my assembly work has been dedicated to improving the light up function of the shoulder mounted drives. there's a little bleed through in some places but its down to minor top coats to fix.

On the other swing of things, we've gotten through the roughest 48 hours of cattle life we've had in over a few years; a distressed heiffer in the process of trying to deliver her first calf. When she began to go into labor on Thursday night, she would not show signs of delivering until Friday morning, by then she was in trouble. To make matters worse, the weather was beating us down.

Last year we suffered the losses of three cows during birth, losing a total of six head in all including their would be off spring. The reason for their trouble came from pre-mature fusion in their pelvic bones which causes the birth canal to narrow, in turn trapping the baby. We've since run the cows through the shute (a metal cage and enclosure that allows us to inspect/innoculate them) and weeded out potentially bad cows. Last year's loss was a personal hurt because I spent an entire day rustling the last of the three to go into our enclosure pen, only for the vet to come out and say "won't make it" which resulted in the euthenasia of said cow.

This time around we were facing the dilemma of an unbalanced birth, where the baby was shifting and didn't line up properly. The mother's body was capable of the delivery, but the contents of the packae were shifting. I'm not medically sound but the natural course is front legs first, followed by the head. However this was almost head first which meant that the arms and head were getting stuck at the peak of birth. We followed the vet's instructions for assisting with some rope and soap, my father tied the baby's legs and we pulled. A few long tugs later, our 12th calf (a bull, Leroy his name) of this season was born. Since then its been a matter of watching them both, mother and baby. The mother is doing well, and has shown signs of maturity/domestication towards us (she actually approaches us and doesn't react violently) but due to a steroid-booster we gave her post-delivery she was too sensitive to nurse the baby. So once more human hands moved in and had to help. We've given the baby a dosage of milk suppliment/booster formula for newborns to help Leroy gain some strength. By this morning however he was nursing from his mother on his own.
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Rob
The Gundam Model Guy

Gunpla Rob's picture
Posted by Gunpla Rob on 7 June, 2009 - 09:40
Man, I love hearing these

Man, I love hearing these farm stories! Such a different life!

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CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 7 June, 2009 - 13:35
I totally agree. Although I

I totally agree. Although I must admit, I think a little about Grendizer while reading it. lol.

You mentioned the cow becoming domesticated and non-violent. Are cows normally aggressive? One time I came out of a customer's house only to find my exit down the driveway blocked....by a cow. It was quite odd. Especially since it didn't even belong to the customer. It was just, like, a neighborhood cow. I never gave cows a second thought until I was suddenly presented with one. It didn't seem threatening at all, but the thing was huge and probably could have killed me pretty easily if it wanted to.

I was also greeted by chickens at another house. A bunch of them came right up to me as I was getting out of the car. It wasn't frightening, but I didn't know the etiquette! Do you pet chickens or what? lol

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 7 June, 2009 - 16:30
Docile is the better word

More often our cows aren't timid around groups of people, but they don't like to be chased or touched by strangers. Sometimes they don't pay anybody any mind until someone makes a stupid mistake like getting in their way; when there's food or near their offspring. Our herd is a combination of old breeders who have known a human generally means food in a good way that we've had physical contact with for over ten years. Our younger cows born with little human interference on the other hand aren't so accustomed to humans so they tend to bolt when I get close. Overall our herd is pretty docile.
We've been conditioning them with daily feedings so they know "Humans are superior," but they are also smart enough to know when we're plotting something like getting them inoculated. In any case, there's nothing to be gained by fighting an animal seven times your own weight and size. Domestic or otherwise.

This one we saved is one of our younger, less human-conditioned cows thats learning that we're not so bad. After Saturday's lactic intervention, the baby's gotten a good dose of nutrition on board and his mother is settling down and allowing him to nurse properly.
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Rob
The Gundam Model Guy

Gunpla Rob's picture
Posted by Gunpla Rob on 7 June, 2009 - 23:08