HG Blaze Zaku Phantom

[DI_Peter]

 Again I find myself having to get something done as fast as possible, need a rest from "scratching", and there are alot of Zakus' being completed in the last few months that haved sparked my interest in Zakus, but I still don't like them for some reason. I don't have too much time after work each day, about 1-2 hours per day. All my other projects are on hold for this, I really need for me to complete something done, with paint this time, and no hard mods, just the Mono-eye and being able to take everything apart again.

 Kit: HG ZGMF-1001/M Blaze Zaku Phantom
 10 "trees", 202 pcs total, 32 PE pcs.
 Paint: Testers Metaliyzer laquers, AB only
          Mr.Colour laquers
          And at least 2 different Cameleon shades (spectrums) , man, cost will be close to $100 Cdn, $85 US approx.
          Panel lines: Will be Indian ink (Repedo pens, new ones, $70, two tips, .25mm and .13 mm), some thinned Dark Orange, and maybe alittle thinned acylic.

 This will be my first airbrushing in about 6 years, and the paint job I have planned for this is going to cost about $47 for one ounce, and another $47 for another of a different colour, umm, their not actual colours, but "spectrums", these paints are made locally here in Winnipeg and cost $700 per pint, so ounces it has to be. I plan on getting 4, 1.25 ounces of this and do some experimenting.
 I have been on this site for awhile now, and have yet to see someone use Cameleon paint (I think), either way, I openly give this idea to everyone, it's just like Alclad, same Black-base, but the final coats are slightly different (ALOT different in appearence). I live in a city of about 700,000 ppl, and there are only about 12 cars a 1 truck that have this kind of paint job, VERY VERY expensive, but I know how this Zaku is going to look, I'll have to make sure I take some final pictures outside in the sunlight. For those that have never seen this kind of paint before, just Google it.

 Day 4.75.  Started removing and cleaning all the Orange parts, just could'nt use the sticker for the eye, so did a quick mod using AM parts, bought them for a reason so might as well use them. Got side-tracked with other parts of the kit, every part that I would normally do last, I did first, all the hard stuff first, and as fast as possible. By the time I get "in the groove" at night, have to go to bed for work the next day, it sucks. It does'nt look like much, but heres about 8 hours work. The shields have some deep sink-holes that will need to be done, allong with many other seams (HG) and the mod I made to the Mono-eye and "lower jaw"(it's been cleaned up more scince the pictures). I'll try and do pictures about evey 3-4 days or so. All the parts-trees were washed twice. Also in the pictre are 5 drill bits needed, so far.
 

[Paul Lopez]

This is going to get interesting...

That's some expensive paint just for a color shift effect. I can get you the dupli-color color shift kits for about $15 a piece if you want. They're spray cans though.

[bsyamato]

  nice subject;
One of seed subject i like.
waiting to see how grow-it

[DI_Peter]

 End of day 6. Cleaned more parts, and made some simple mods to the lower rear thrusters and top foot armour so they can be snapped in place after painting. Doing this will allow these parts to be painted first, then assembled, it will be faster than masking these later, and will also allow me to do the leg seams without these parts getting in the way. So far eveything is just "test-fitted" together, nothing is glued yet, I have marked some areas in black marker that will need some putty to fix the "sink-holes" before priming. More in afew days. Thanks for the offer Robo, but those spray cans will be way too thick, they would have to be de-canted first then thinned and airbrushed, and I know the effect won't be the same.

[Tatsumi67]

Does the world need more Zakus?


YES! Yes it does.

I'm not a fan of Seed but I love monoeyes!  Keep up the good work. I'm actually curious about this kit.

[DI_Peter]

 Got alittle more clean-up done, but now I'm faced with the idea of modding the chest pcs so I won't have to mask for painting. There will be alot of plastic that has to be removed, front pc sides will come off easy, but the centre Grey pc will be the problem ( at the back ). The neck will now also have to be able to slide in from the top. Guess theres only one way to find out. The picture from the previous post shows the upper chest test-assembled, this would really make it easier later on, the seams would be simple now ( on both the frame and front armour ) but.... is it worth it ? Has anyone done this mod before ?

[bsyamato]

  There will be alot of plastic that has to be removed, front pc sides will come off easy, but the centre Grey pc will be the problem ( at the back ).

that's is the problem of snap kit, too excessive plastic to allow snap spine. If a day Bandai decide to make non snapping gunpla, mods will be easier to mod, paint, and so on, a "non beginner very high grade".. NBVHG line... sounds good!

[DI_Peter]

 Yes, it can be done, had to use the Dremel to save time. The 2 dark grey parts "should" now be able to be glued and the seams done on both them and the larger red chest frame pcs after without these parts touching each other, then assembled after painting. I kept the "location pins" intact so the back gery pc would have something to rest on when installed. The lower red ones in front need to be trimmed down. Hard to say if this is faster than masking or not, but still, less masking=better paint job. The back grey pc now slides in from the top on a steep angle, and the front chest pc sides down from the top, so, hopefully, when glued together (testers, and Crazy Glue+small plastic strips on the inside to make the seam stronger) the whole thing will just "slip" into place, key word there was HOPEFULLY. It will be dry in afew hours, more this weekend. Look at the pics from the last post.

 When you say that when Bandai will make kits like that, it would be nice, but they allready sort of seem to do that , alot of mods could have been ALOT worse (many different kits) and are'nt that difficult, this one is one of the hardest I've done so far, and it WILL, work, one way or another. I have yet to cut off a PC part yet. Crap, I forgot about the one for the backpack, mmmmm. Good, just checked, it still slides in place and does'nt get in the way.

[DI_Peter]

 It worked, it easily slides in place. I did add alittle triangular Plastruct (1mm) on the inside to help. I'm so happy this payed off. Now I just have to make sure I don't break it during putty and sanding. Now I have 2 PC pcs removed, guess it's time to start removing them this weekend, arms, and legs will get done, maybe more.

[Nick M]

I considered using HoK chameleon once for my MG Nemo... I decided against it because it costs a fortune. Also it is a pain to photograph! I'm more likely to paint it a solid colour and photoshop it these days!

Very interested to see it finished di_peter. This is like the opposite to my cheapskate thread.

[DI_Peter]

 For some reason my account here was broken for the last 5 days.

 So heres the last 5 days.

  Bought some of the paint on Monday. I did get 2, 2oz shades, but unfortunatly I could'nt get another one that was needed, so this kit will only have 1 shade of Chameleon colour on it. Total was $242 Cdn, and theres still more I want but minimum order for these is 6oz, $370, each.
 cost: Basecoat thinner $11, one litre ( to be mixed 2:1, not 1:1 because of the smaller airbrush )
         Base coat Black  $11, 2oz (will go along way)
         A custom Orange $11, 2oz
         Perfect Jade Prizm $97, 2oz   KK740FX
         Absolute Purpleen  $97, 2oz   KK760FX
         Hot Activator Fast   FREE  ( 1 drop for every 32 drops of paint, very important, too little, and the paint will take
                                                  forever to dry, too much and the paint will dry too fast and cause problems in the airbrush,
                                                  This is going to be "tricky" as I hav'nt worked with this paint before )

 And now the disturbing news, as of Jan 1st 2010, solvent based paint will nolonger be sold or shippable in North America, the end of laquers. Not what I wanted to hear from these paint guys, but they will only have water bourne paints after Jan 1st. So I guess we have about 8.5 months left to stock up on laquers, mmm, like 20 years worth, this includes primers as well. This is going to be an expensive 8 months. I know for sure that these paints below will NOT be available to me (or others in Canada) at the end of this year. For more info on the research I've done on this, http://www.hobbyfanatics.com/index.php?showtopic=21816 .

[George Caswell]

Nice work with the collar mod - I did something similar with mine, though it's still unfinished...  I look forward to seeing how this turns out!

[bsyamato]

For some reason my account here was broken for the last 5 days.

I don't think is your account, often the forum seems down.

The zaku seems near to paint.

[DI_Peter]

 No, my account was broken as well as not being able to read the forums, o well, seems to be fixed now.

 Again, I didn't want to have to mask to rear thruster packs so modded the centre grey part to be able to slide in place ( with the thrusters attached ). This was an easy mod, 4 sides, plus about .2mm of plastic shaved from the sides, they were spreading apart the main body, so alittle more sanding did the job. Allmost all the seams and sink-holes have been pre-primed, wet-sanding is allmost done. There are lots of seams on this kit, thats HGs I guess, would have bought this in a MG if there was one.

  This is all the parts for the back-pack, before wet-sanding, it's hard to see, but look close at the putty on the light grey parts, these have been wet-sanded now and that putty was needed to fill sink-holes, those holes would have easily been seen after painting.

[DI_Peter]

 The forums were down for me for 12 days, grrr. I think I may make the move over to HF, same user name there as well, because of the problems here, I'll fill in the new info for these pics later today when I wake up, provided the forums open up again.

  Slowly finishing up the wet-sanding and test fitting. The collar mod did'nt want to work after priming it, and glueing the chest frame together, took awhile to figue it out but it works now, some glue was getting in the way. The upper legs are done, and should have the lower legs and last forearm done in a day or so. All parts have now been removed from the trees, alittle more clean-up to do, but its getting closer to looking like a MS. I did'nt want to do any major additions to this kit, but there is a slight lack of detail on some inner frame parts ( yeah, like this kit came with an inner frame to begin with ), and I want to have the axe on the kit, but not being held, so I think I'm going to make a bracket to hold the axe and add alittle detail to afew other parts.

 There are more "sink-holes " on this than I thought, seems allmost evey part needs to be puttied and sanded before primer goes on. This has added alot more time to this build, don't get me wrong, this is a great kit and is well detailed for a HG, but I think this kit will be my only HG I do, aside from the 1/144 METEOR, and 1/550 Dendribium.