Model Kit

You are currently browsing the articles from ken-cheong.com matching the category Model Kit.

HGUC RX-121-1 Gundam TR1 Hazel Custom

I built this kit about 2 or 3 months ago. At that time I was in the process of sourcing for an airbrush and compressor and hence this kit was again hand painted.

All pictures where taken with my trusty Fujifilm Finepix S9500. Click on an image to view a larger version. Enjoy.

(more…)

Written by Ken on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Model Kit.

DIY Spray Booth

Ever since I started hand painting my first Gundam, I knew that airbrush was the way to go. Hand painting a Gundam or any other model is a pain and the result is hardly impressive. You can have a look at the Gundam, a 1/144 RX-78 GP02 in this post.

I knew from then that if I wanted to go far with this hobby, I would need to own an airbrush sooner or later. Another thing that one should consider with owning an airbrush is the spray booth. You don’t need one if you have a vast amount of space to do your airbrushing in but if you are like me who lives in a small apartment, then using a spray booth is highly recommended.

Getting a well-made branded spray booth can be expensive and this is on top of the cost of the airbrush and air compressor. In view of this I’ve decided to build my own spray booth. I’ve seen on the Internet how some people make their own spray booths and use those as reference.

Below shows how I make my own spray booth.

These are the material I used. One plastic box (RM19), an exhaust fan I got from an electronic component shop (RM30), a PVC tube (RM5), some screws (RM3), and three washing machine draining hoses (RM40). The reason I used the draining hoses is because I couldn’t find any bigger hose. Ironically one week after I finish building the spray booth, my brother told me he saw a shop selling the big hose that I was looking for. L I choose a bigger box because it can fit bigger models like a 1/48 plane.

I cut a hole the size of the exhaust fan in the base of the box but first drilling small hose in circle. Then I use a cutter to cut off the plastics between holes. Lastly I use a big, round file to file the edge to smooth. This is how it looks like. You can use a bigger exhaust fan if you like but beware your wig might be sucked into it.

The cut out piece of round plastic is then cut into small rectangular pieces. These pieces were then turned into L shape by heating and bending.

The L shape pieces were then secured onto the PVC tube using screws.

I needed another piece of round plastic as cover for the exhaust side of the tube. I cut another piece of round plastic from the cover of the plastic box using the same method mentioned above. I then cut three holes in the round plastic for the draining hoses.

This is the round plastic with a draining hose in it.

The round plastic will be fixed to the exhaust side of the PVC tube.

This is how it looks like after being fixed to the PVC tube. The white-transparent-gooey looking stuff is actually glue applied using a glue gun. Glue gun is your friend.

It is now time to but everything together. Notice that I had drilled small holes in the plastic box so that I can put in the long screws to secure everything together.

This is how it looks like after they are all screwed ^^ together.

The were small gaps between the box and the exhaust fan where airflow could leaks so once again I applied glue to seal off the gaps. Glue gun is your friend.

A closer look.

A look from the inside. I actually wanted to fit a filter in front of the fan but since using the draining hoses had compromised the airflow, I don’t want to further compromise it with a filter. And so I would use it as it is. To turn it on, simple connect the fan cable to a 240V outlet and turn on the switch.

By the way, I took me just one day to build the spray booth. This is not including the time spent on sourcing for material.

I might update this post later with the usage of the spray booth so check back later if you want to know how well it works.

Update 22/01/2007:
Used my DIY spray booth while painting my HGUC Gogg and found that it was not working as expected. The problem lies with the three drainage hoses. The exhaust fan was too fast and since the three drainage hoses were too small, the airflow was compromised and caused a back flow where air was push back to into the box. To rectify this problem, I bought a new PVC tube and a matching PVC socket.

The diameter of the matching socket is slightly bigger than that of the PVC tube and hence can be attached and detached with minimum efforts.

First I replace the old PVC tube with the new socket.

Once the socket was screwed into place. I apply glue using a glue gun to seal off any leaking gaps. Glue gun is your friend.

With PVC tube attached.

With PVC tube detached.

With this straight through approach the spay booth now works perfectly. When I need to use the spray booth I just attached the PVC tube to the socket and put the other end through the grill and out the window. Another advantage of using this approach is that I can detached the PVC tube so easy storing when not using the spray booth.

Written by Ken on January 11th, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Model Kit.

F14A Tomcat

I built this 1/72nd scale F14A Tomcat for the F14 retirement party held on 7th October 2006. For those of you who haven’t heard, the F14 has officially retired from active duty on 22nd September 2006.

This is an Academy kit and I must say the fittings were pretty bad. I had to do quite a lot of puttying and sanding to get it to fit and in the process, sanded off a few panel lines. As I was re-scripting the loss panel lines, I accidentally created a few extras. :S

As I still do not own an airbrush when building this kit and knowing that hand painting it would be a disaster, I opted for spray can. Got a Tamiya spray can and almost finished the whole can on the main fuselage and the wings. The black were hand painted.

The decals were probably too old and lost its stickiness. They would not stick to the surface so I had to put them in place first and then apply ordinary stationary glue on the edges to keep them in place. If you have a better idea please do let me know.

Below are some pictures of the kit. All pictures were taken with my Fujifilm Finepix S9500.

Written by Ken on January 8th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Model Kit.

Malaysia BAKUC 2006

This post came a bit late but I was busy the last couple of weeks and have no time to update my site.

The Malaysia chapter of Bandai Action Kits Universal Cup (BAKUC) 2006 was held from 28 Nov 2006 to 3 Dec 2006 at Sungai Wang Plaza, located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. There were more participants in this contest and the quality was better than those in a previous contest held in June. You can see that contest in this post.

Below are pictures of some of the contest entries. There are altogether 50 pictures in this post so it might takes a while to load them all but be assure that what you see is well worth your patient.

All pictures were taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S9500 + Vivitar 728 flashgun. Click on a picture to view a larger version.

(more…)

Written by Ken on December 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Happening and Model Kit.

Movie and Collectibles Bazaar – 4 Nov 2006

There was another Movie and Collectibles Bazaar held at Cineleisure Damansara on the 4th November 2006. As before, the Selangor and Federal Territory Plastic Modeling Society (SFTPMS) was there to lend support to the event. However this time around, the turnout was not as good as the last event held on the 23rd September 2006 (you can see it here). There was less public awareness of the event and the number of model showcased by SFTPMS also diminished.

These are some of the pictures taken during the event. All pictures were taken with the Fujifilm Finepix S9500.