Gundamaniac

I’ve been using a DSLR for a while now and I have to admit I just might have a little case of LBA (lens buying addiction)

(Saber saying: Stop buying Lens!)
my list of lenses/lense include, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS, EF 50mm f1.4 USM, EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Macro, EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, a Lens Baby and of course my EOS 450D’s Kit lens the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS which I loaned to a buddy of mine.

(Figures and Gundams agree with me, this shot glass is a steaming piece of carp fish)
I also have a Bower Wide Angle Converter, which I picked up from a shop while going around Fisherman’s Wharf,  San Francisco. this lens however is a piece of bantha foodoo. but will get to that later.

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Have gotten a lot of messages from differnet posts asking me where to find Gundam spare parts. Often times I would just refer them to one of Danny’s old posts about a shop called parts paradise. (actually went to this shop myself during my last Japan trip)

Or sometimes I would ask them to check the box, since some more expensive kits do have an order form you can send out to Bandai for parts. One of such kits was the perfect grade strike gundam. However, Bandai only delivers within Japan, leaving us with no choice but to mend the part with superglue, kitbash from older kits, fabricate the part using putty, or worst, buy another kit.

However I just recently discovered that we can actually order gunpla parts by the runner on HLJ. Albeit it would take a long time for them to process such request and one might end up paying 30% the price of the whole kit. But still it opens another option for gunpla enthusiasts to find parts that they might need.

Started to build the Strike Freedom a few days ago but was fed up with sifting though the box for parts letters. I wonder if most gundam model builders face this kind of problem as well. the truth is sifting and searching for parts might just eat up just a few minutes from your gundam building time, but then again, wouldn’t those few minutes be better off used on actual gundam building? ^^
I always thought the problem with searching for parts arises from the lack of being organized. So what I used to do is to arrange the parts by stacking them up together by alphabetical order. However the problem is getting parts at the bottom. this would mean I’d have to take out the ones on top, checking the letters as you go down. then after using the part sheet, I’d have to put it back onto the stack again. everything of which might have took more time than just sifting through the box for a parts letter. I guess what I needed was a way to get the part in the middle without having to pull the rest out.

luckily enough I wound this nifty little file organizer down at Japan Home Center. they sell everything for 88 pesos, thats about $2, about the same price as items on Daiso. Unfortunately I couldn’t find their website, but the closes thing I could find was this blog entry.

now I have my parts stacked diagonally, so I can find and take out the numbered parts with ease then just stick them back in when done. it saves me a bit more time and makes the job of finding parts a whole lot easier. the only problem I can think of now is that with the number of lettered parts the strike freedom has, I got myself only one organizer. doh! :p

having the file organizer for stacking parts helped me on my gunpla building, but I would guess that more gunpla builders out there might have better ways of organizing their parts. if so feel free to share your wisdom and drop a comment or link on this post. ^^

I’ve always wanted to write a tutorial, but often find myself in a deficit of time or self determination to actually write one. so I thought to myself, instead of leaving my blog without a gunpla tutorial entry, why not just lead intrepid web searchers on the right direction. ^^

Once in a while, you might encounter people who would verbally b*tchslap you for building plastic models in a certain way. my take on that is: if you set out to build a model of a car and it looks like car in the end, then you’ve succeeded. ^^ So if you build your gundams differently from these tutorials, it doesn’t mean that the way you’re building your kit is wrong. it only means it’s different. heck! it’s possible that it might even be better. and if it is, then make a tutorial for yourself and share it to the world. ^^ and if possible send me the link as well. lol ^^;

anyway without further ado, here are two of my toplist recommended tutorials on building gunplas. click on the link to read more at their source page.

Danny Choo’s Gundam Modeling Tutorial

for those who don’t have much time on their hands or Gunpla beginners here is the tutortial for you. the methods mentioned in this tutorial is pretty much how I build my gundams. Danny’s tutorial is straight forward, easy to understand with pictures showing how gunpla is painted, built and detailed (not necessarily in that order). ^^

Micheal Fichtenmayer’s How to build master grade Gundams

For people who seem a lot more serious on how they build their models and with a bit more experience under their belts, this is the link for you. Micheal Fichtenmayer’s webpage: Fichtenfoo, shows how pros generally build their gunla. albeit his methods are a bit time consuming but the finished products on his site would definitely speak for themselves.

I’ve decided to do my own tutorial on how to connect your PG gundams to a USB port. But first off I should first give credit to Danny Choo to whom I first learned that this could be done. Also please take note that if you do decide to do this, please do so at your own risk.

First find yourself some:
1. USB cable… duh!?!
2. A 3v resistor so as not to burn out the LED of your gundam. (as I found out the hard way)
3. Some wire if your gundam stands across the other end of the room from your power source
4. A LED if you’re modifying a MG
5. and finally an ipod charger if you feel like that having the eyes on when you’re on your desk is not enough and you need your gundam’s eyes glowing 24/7. Note that you can even use a car charger if you’re thinking of using your gundam as a hood ornament.
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Cut off the other end of the cable and strip it to expose the 4 colored wires.
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Strip off the ends of the red and black wires. The red wire carries the charge (5v), the black acts as a ground, while the white and green carries your data to whatever USB device you connect it to.
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Connect the resistor to the RED wire. The picture shows you what NOT to do. LOL! I actually forgot to about that this time. Doh!
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Here you see that I wrapped the wire with electrical tape. If there are any electricians out there reading this, yes I know I should solder them together. But since I didn’t want to stink up my room with the smell of burnt lead, I figured this would do.
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this picture has nothing to do with the tutorial. Lol
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Here you see me testing the connection out on a LED. please be careful not to let both wires touch each other. Although I’ve never done it myself, I’ve heard that some people have their USB port shorted out and become completely unusable all because the accidentally cross these two wires.
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Now hook that up to the connectors that leads to your LED. note that on some perfect grade such as the strike gundam have the battery compartment on the head thus you’d have to run the wires down thru the neck. I would advice you to use the thinnest possible wire you can find, since you’re going to have a hard time closing the head compartment with the wires running thru it.
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now your gundam is ready to plug and play!!!
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Plug your USB to your computer or ipod charger and take some pictures of your gundam!


or if you have a baby sibling or kids who keeps on manhandling all the gundams in your room. you can opt to tell them that a ghost inhabits this one to look after the rest of your collections, waiting for naughty children to come in to eat them.