KC FAN CON

Mar13
by kelvinknaff on March 13, 2013 at 10:01 pm
Posted In: Commentary

IMG_20130310_093959Going to conventions is a key part of collecting. For whatever reason, being on the other side  of the table brings a new level of fun to the hobby.  Although, it’s a comic show,  there are always cool things to look at.  Action figures, toys, t-shirts and belt buckles. One of the coolest things we sold was a framed Wonder Woman poster to an 9 yrs old girl. Seeing her jump up and down with joy made my day. It’s nice to see the torch being passed to the next generation.

IMG_20130310_111217     Traffic for the day ways fairly light. But we just figured everyone was saving their money for Planet Comicon next month. All in all, it was a good day.

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Bad Batfilm births a Nightwing wonder.

Jan27
by kelvinknaff on January 27, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Posted In: Commentary, Model Kits, Right out of the Box

Robin kit parts

Within the first few minutes of the movie I could tell it wasn’t going to get any better. Once they let loose with the slip on the ice sound effect the tone was set for disaster. But it wasn’t a complete failure. I’m not sure where they were going with some of the designs. And at the time, the fact that the Robin costume was the Nightwing costume had to be brought to my attention from one of my buddies that is and avid comic reader. I picked the Batmobile and Redbird model kits out of shear collectors mentality. And they were the only kits released in the US. The Batmobile I built, the Redbird is in pieces around my model area. Never did like that design. And with that, the movie was forgotten.

Some time last year I stumbled upon the Cartoon Networks DC Nation and Young Justice. The first season introduces us to the team of young “Sidekicks” and there desire to be treated as equals despite their age. The stories were great and not to juvenile. The second season starts five years later with the leader of the team being Nightwing. Up to this point I have only seen small bits of Nightwing in animation. It was great to see the interaction between Nightwing and the new Robin, Tim Drake. And thus began my search for a Nightwing kit.

image     Its small, with very few parts. I don’t know if it was by design or happenstance, but this figure seems to be in scale with my 3.75″ JLA action figures. This kit only took about two hours to complete. There were a few things I could have added like weapons. Or  highlight some of the bat symbols on the costume. But it looks great as it is.

This was a quickie build. It’s nice to get a project started and finished in an afternoon. And, not feel as thou you just slapped glue and paint on some plastic for the sack of doing something. Sometimes the quickie build is just what you need to get the juices flowing to start one of the big projects. This kit definitely has done its job as Nightwing is added to the collection of heroes.

 

 

 

 

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The Dark Knight Bat-pod by Moebius Models

Dec02
by kelvinknaff on December 2, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Posted In: Commentary, Model Kits, On the bench, Right out of the Box

Much like James Bond, the tech of the Dark Knight can make or break the character for me. The Christopher Nolan take on the Dark Knight is hit and miss. Although I like the tumbler as a vehicle. It just doesn’t work as a Batmobile. They did get the Bat-pod right. It looks like it comes from the same design. The style of riding is unique and very Batman. Accept maybe for the guns. But we won’t go into that.

Normally, I prime coat the parts on the sprue, then assemble the different components. Final coat things like engine and interior followed by final assembly and touch up. At first the primer i used wasn’t holding to the plastic. Then the tolerances for some of the parts was so tight. The primer coat prevented parts from sliding over other parts. I was starting to hate this model. Now, in their defense. Had I read and followed the instructions, they might have told me this. But that’s not how I build. So, once i got the hang of what I was dealing with. Things seems to move along quite nicely.

Lots of small detailed parts. Reminds me of the detail in the Finemolds kits.

I did however question the color choices. They call for silver on the armguards and front gun wheel housings. This is probably photo accurate to the film. And if so, maybe they needed it silver to show up on-screen. But if you’re trying to be stealthy, at night. Do you really want to have shiny silver things close to your head for people to shoot at. I changed mine to a gunmetal.

At its core it’s a simple model. I’d classify this one as a quicky. It’s easy to build in a day or two and satisfies the need to complete a project. I’ve yet to purchase the sister kit with the Dark Knight rider figure. This kits looks pretty good just on its own. Good job guys.

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Windu Assualt Squad

Nov04
by kelvinknaff on November 4, 2012 at 1:38 am
Posted In: Commentary, Model Kits

The goal of this build was to make an AT-TE transport using the Republic Attack Shuttle. Originally, I was going to use the Gunship like the movie. But we’ve already seen that. Both the AT-TE and Shuttle are pre-painted easyfit kits. Prime pickings for repainting and modifying. The attachment won’t be anything fancy, just a hard umbilical using a strong magnet from the bottom of the shuttle. I like to build the things we don’t get to see and  that could have been.

I never really liked the design of the Gunship style AT-TE Dropship. It got the job done, but if they could drop the AT-TE AND some troops. That would be strategically better. The specifications of the shuttle say it can hold 30 passengers. The AT-TE can hold 38 passengers on top of being well armed. Then, if one or two of those passengers are Jedi? This would be a formidable assault force. The premise seems plausible for a small recon or infiltration group. So on to the build.

The light in the display room isn’t that good for taking picture. Thusly, the colors aren’t as vibrant in the photo. Using Tamiya Purple and Gunship Gray I repainted the colors of both pre-painted models while keeping the yellow bits. The red on the cockpit stayed for contrast and the fact that I didn’t want to mask and repaint the small cockpit canopy. The imbilical is barely visible under the shuttle. I used a Soyuz Space capsule from an extra International Space station kit.The magnets came from an old hard drive. The magnets in a hardrive are really strong and could support the weight of the walker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The red glow is from the nacelles of a nearby Enterprise. The base holds the models about 3 inches from the surface of the table. Aside from the canopy not staying closed and a few minor adjustment to keep the two from banging into each other. I think it came out pretty well. Now, it can be proudly display with the Mace Windu Jedi Starfighter. Without a doubt and assault force to be reckoned with.

 

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USS Titan By Starcraft and Voyager by Alliance

Jun26
by kelvinknaff on June 26, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Posted In: Commentary, Model Kits, On the bench

 

 

 

Next on the bench is the USS Titan. This ship was mentioned in the motion picture Star Trek Nemesis and will be captained by William T. Riker. At the time there was no design for the luna class starship. A contest was held, and the winning design was created by Sean Tourangeau. This resin kit by Starcraft is in 1:1400 scale. Which is an odd scale. I only have one other kit, the USS Voyager, in this scale. Thusly, they will be displayed in an inflight diorama.

First Prep.

I already glued the hull and saucer section together in the picture to the side. There was a pretty good sized gap between the two pieces. So I ended up using a general purpose adhesive to bind the two together. Next the struts were attached to the nacelles. One of the nice things about resin kits. There are usually only a handful for parts to deal with. No small parts to cut off trees. Which, for me, make most resin kits a quicky build. You get to complete a model quickly and proudly add another ship to the display case.

Normally the process goes sand, prime, sand, paint. This time I tried priming first. Which in the initial phase seems to be working out well. It’s much easier to see where i need to sand. The resin took the primer well and the casting is really good. One detail that really stands out are the escape pods. Most plastic kits just give you a decal and a smooth spot to place it. They took the time to sculpt the escape pods onto the model. Giving you the option of just foregoing the provided decal and paint the pods in place. This is the first time I’ve seen this on a kit. But most of the other resin kits are all in 1:2500 scale. Maybe the 1:1400 scale allows them the room to do this. Although it means more work for the builder. In the end, the model will display much better by taking the extra effort.

 Base Coat

   For whatever reason the painting gods are not with me on this one. To get the Federation blue\gray. most kits tell you to mix aggressor gray and blue or some even white. Honestly, I hate mixing paint. Mix too much and you have to story it. Mix to little and you hate to remix and that may not match. After a trip to the hobby shop, and bringing two new potential colors, tamiya Royal Gray XF-80 and Ocean Gray XF-82. Both are interesting colors, but neither were quite right. I settled on Model Master Flint Gray. The same color that was used to paint the Argo Shuttle.  This will most likely be my official Starfleet color. Since I had the paint and was going to display the Voyager with the Titan, it got painted as well. The nacelles for the Voyager aren’t painted yet. But the paint laid down well on everything else and the color is spot on for me. Next I’ll assembly the two ships and retouch the base coat. Hopefully then we will be ready for detail painting and decals.

Paint and Decal

     It took paint real well. Due to the fact that I didn’t have a small enough brush the windows didn’t get painted. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Surprisingly, the decals were easy to remove from the backing and didn’t dissolve. Once everything dried. The ship was assembled for a final clear coat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Showtime

The Voyager was built along side the Titan using the same paints. I had the usual trouble with the decals and ended up using Federation decals from other models. Pictured together they look really good. Both kits were a basic resin build. Aside from the cost of resin making the kits a bit pricey. I’m still glad they are in the collection. This may be the only way we get a USS Titan. For that reason alone it was worth the purchase.

 

 

 

 

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