1/20 Goblin (Mirage Ocean)

1/20 Goblin (Mirage Ocean)

Hi all, sorry for the lack of quality reviews from me. As promised, here's the Goblin 'transform' resin kit from Mirage Ocean. This is sold in WF.
This builds up to the Goblin Mak BD version. This kit is a not a full kit by itself, and requires the Nitto Jerry kit to complete it.
Its made of several parts, mainly the single-piece body, 2 rocket launchers, nose sensors, hatch, and other small parts.
The cockpit can be modeled opened or closed, and I believe its a cast of the SAFS cockpit.
Simple decals are provided. Multimedia includes a grill (feels like fabric) and a thick piece of wire for pinning the parts.
The resin itself is not the new type of light-weight resin, but it does not feel heavy as its hollowed out in the center.
Casting is fair, with a number of flash as can be seen in the pictures, and some lines are ever so slightly curved.
But I believe its not a major issue for modelers.
There are lots of information about this kit which I do not know, such as the date of release.
Please do help update this thread if you have further information.

I want to thank a kind forum member for generously providing this kit for review.

Details

Scale: 1/20
Type of material : grey resin
Number of parts: 9
Decals: yes
Instructions: yes
Overall quality: pretty ok
Overall accuracy: ?
Date of release: ?
Release price: 4000 yen I think
Current Running price in YAJ: 5000+ to 7500+ yen

Pictures
Box

Contents

Side view

Underside view

Funny Story

Mechanic girl: Needs a bit of work...But I like it!
Pilot girl: I want it working tomorrow 0800 hrs!
Admin girl: You need to fill up the requisition form and submit to me by 1700 hrs today before anything starts...
Added closeup pictures of the rocket launcher.
There is a disc-shape protrusion on one side of the launcher.
And of the other side is the round point where I think it gets attached to the Goblin's hull.

Kits sent out!

Woah today I sent out 6 boxes of kits big and small... Guys you should be getting your kits in 1 week's time... I will bill you guys later (I hate to do all those calculations!!)
Super tired after that... The weather's hot lately and the air seems bad, my nose is acting up and I am getting blocked nose whole day..


Enough ranting, I will post the Goblin conversion kit review and a full Gustav review on Sunday after church! Stay tuned guys!

Not much progress on my WIP ...

Busy!

Very busy at work!
Sorry for the inevitable delay in shipping the kits out...
Thanks to a PLAMO member who gave me some Woodland Scenics Snow Flake, I will use it on my Polar Bear very soon. Also Leafster my new-found Ma.K pal who just ordered 2 more Polar Bears for me. I am planning to do a Polar Bear carrying rockets, but not the two handed version. The other Polar Bear is for the Francesco Hard Boiled. Planning to do a PB HB version, similar to what Lin.K is doing, though mine will be OOB as a tribute to my friend Francesco.

Did a little bit of work on my Baby Falke, and Polar Bear, hopefully can post some pictures up tonight.

Coming right up, Goblin conversion review, Lunar Gans review, Part 3 of 3 SAFS MkIII WIP!

Need to balance my time between being a Ma.K pusher and a Ma.K addict ... lol
Francesco gave me the tag 'Ma.K Pusher' which I quite like... Kinda like the tagline Viper1972 gave me in PLAMO : 'Pss you want some Ma.K? I have some...'

oh ya, tonight gotta do housework (I am the 'floor' manager and also tons of un-ironed clothes) too, sharks...

Gustav Quick Review

Gustav Quick Review

Did this quick review as my fellow Ma.Ker asked what's the difference between the sf3d version and the Ma.K version. As you would have realized, there are few Strahl suits review on my blog cos I am not a fan of them (yet...)
Here I am just trying to point out the differences between the 3 versions out there for your next purchase consideration. The 3 versions are: SF#D, Ma.K and Ma.K Clear. Well before tonight, I thought the only difference was the decals, and I was wrong... Read on...

Ma.K version (top left), Ma.K Clear version (top right) and
SF3D version front

All 3 kits opened. The main differences are: the SF3D version has lead weights for the feet (see the 2 grey things beside canopy in the bottom of the picture?) AND the canopy of the SF3D version is much darker tinted than the 2 Ma.K versions! (thats new to me)

SF3D version (camo card is same with the Ma.K version). Note the lead weights at the bottom.

SF3D decals and the darker canopy

Ma.K decals and lighter canopy, I quite like the decals here. Notice the nice yellow pumpkin head (larger version of it in the Gan first release)

Ma.K Clear version with the lighter canopy, and different camo card which I think is the nicest amongst the three.

Ma.K Clear version decals, quite similar to the Ma.K version, with the yellow heart and black snake.
Hope this helps guys!

Baby Falke WIP 2

Baby Falke WIP 2

Spent an hour scratch building the 'mouth/intake' of the falke using the actual falke intake as a reference. The base is the Eggplane's nose piece, I use a kotobukiya round part for the center, cut up tiny pieces of plaplate (white) and pasted them to it, and superglued a brass 'thruster' I bought from m-workshop long time ago...


The white pieces are not very aligned even though I tried hard trying to do so...

On the suggestion of another forum member, I tried using an old ping pong ball to try out as the antigrav unit. Looks nice. I've yet to decide which option to take.


And here's my sketch plan of the Baby Falke...Must plan in advance a bit otherwise plan to fail...

Yawn... That's all for tonight! Suggestions, criticisms encouraged!
Will

Egg plane build - Baby Falke

Egg plane build - Baby Falke

Company outing to the museum on Friday, after that go to PS to watch Night at the Museum 2. On the way there I could not help myself and detoured to m-workshop to get 2 egg planes.

Found some round objects to make the anti-gravity devices.
And so it begins...


Let's hope I can finish this...

Shipment 14 pictures

Shipment 14 pictures
Just been to the customs, first time being there, the folks there are very nice, just showed them the invoices and they billed my the GST, big hassle for me to go down all the way via MRT and bus and then come back by cab though. Not much tax, its a couple of dollars more for the more expensive kits and around a dollar for the cheaper ones.
Ashley just woke up and I have to put back the packing material so that she can take them all out again. Think she will be good working for customs in the future.. lol

Here are the stuff:
kits on the left
kits in the center

kits on the right

All I wanted in this shipment is a rare kit. Gans, Lunar Gans...

And finally I complete the series with all the Neuspotter heads (Neuspotter, Krachenvogel, Land Gans, Lunar Gans, Oskar & Konigs Krote)

Detailed review of the Lunar Gans coming up...

First, to allocate the kits.... I am about swarmed with PMs and emails! :) Will

Shipment 14 price list

Here it is guys:

Fireball SG (WAVE) 55 (reserved)
Raccoon 40 (reserved)
Krote 95
Melusine 95 (reserved)
Fledermaus 50
hornise 60
Figure set #1 15
Figure set #2 15
Fliege 43
AFS 16
Raptor 85
Krachenvogel 160
Neuspotter 60
Jerry 50
SAFS 30
SAF Clear 30
Konrad 38
Heinrich 38
Gustav Clear 35
Gustav 38

Aiyo I must be getting old, I missed out the following kits:
Kauz 55
Hasegawa Falke 75

Prices in usd.

Note:These are pre-tax price, and not final, but expect up to a maximum of 7% increase when I get hit by it tomorrow (might be less, I hope).
I will update the final price as soon as I get the kits on my hands and paid the customs. I will not charge more than 7% more that what is listed here.
I might add a few more kits in too so check back often.

PM/email me if you are interested in buying. I try to accomodate everybody's request and those which I can't meet, I can say that there is shipment 15 (a very small shipment right now, mainly requests) filling up now.

Thanks guys for your great support!
Will

What a day...

Stressful day at work even though today we had a company outing to the museum and to watch A Night at the Museum 2.

Bad news everyone, just came back home and got hit with a letter saying my box is stuck at the customs and they wanna open and inspect its contents for taxes.
First time this has happened to me for YAJ stuff. Must be too big a box (39 kits?! I did not count that many in my list). I will go down to customs to settle this tomorrow.

Customs add 7% to the final price of the stuff.

I will post this list and the pre-customs price very soon in a couple of minutes.
I don't expect the customs to add too much to the final price...

What a day...
;(

Shipment 14 Price List and Order coming up

Hi all, shipment 14 has arrived and in Singapore Customs.
I will post the price list up tonight Friday 11:59pm and start taking orders.

PM/email me what you want from the list & I will get back to you.
Sorry for the short notice...

Will

Lack of Updates/Sleep

Sorry guys for the lack of updates... Sunday rushed down with my still unfinished Polar Bear and some other kits down to the PLAMO meet. You can see professionally taken photos by viper1975. Came back home and did some enamel wash on my Polar Bear... Took a break due to lack of sleep and stress from work...
Oh and I've been reading up on filters and stuff on the net...
I will be continuing my Polar Bear shortly... Stay tuned!

Did I mention my shipment of Ma.K just left Japan?
:)

Polar Bear WIP 6

Polar Bear WIP 6

Hope you guys are not tired by the constant updates! Today I managed to sneak in some time in the Polar Bear. I added a bit of white highlights on the backpack and laser arm, looking at the instruction booklet's image of the Polar Bear. The image showed the top portion of the back pack as very white, which is nice...
I added a decal on the blue stripe located on the helmet. Then I used a pin vise, a sharp blade and needle file to drill out some holes for the wires.
I used normal electrical wires for the legs, which are a bit thick but they are the thinnest I could find. Not as thin and flexible as the ones provided in the old Nitto boxes. I figured the legs needed slightly thicker wires for the power it needed.
For the arms, the black wires came from my spare Fireball box and the red, thicker one is an electrical wire. I super glued the wires to the laser arm and tuck the other end into the upper arm. Oops, one wire came out!
I also used black/brown Gunze and touched up the joint covers, and dry brushed a little bit on the feet and backpack... Not very happy with the feet though. Any suggestions?

Polar Bear WIP 5

Polar Bear WIP 5
I added 2 kill marks (red PKA H0 kill marks) on one side of the backpack. I demonstrated how to apply decal to my disciple Ashley Chin (my inquisitive kid) and my father in law who is staying with us over the weekend.

I started applying the blue stripes using a mixture of RLM65 No 115 light blue, No 64 sky blue and No 1 white on the forearms, helmet, and feet. I took care to just add thin coats of the mixture and left some parts unpainted to simulate chips.

Ashley is very interested and painting robot and almost did not want to sleep when my in laws asked her to sleep with them! :)

Seeing the J markings and the Polar Bear logo being too dark, I decided to jump in and paint the decals. I was afraid that the thinner would dissolve the decal because I had a disaster using Tamiya enamel thinner on top of unprotected decals. Unlike the enamel thinner, the Gunze thinner did not dissolve/melt the decal, but it was very tough trying to paint within the decals. The end result was not fantastic. Oh well, try again next time.

Now to find my tools and wires to do some modding...

Polar Bear WIP 4

Polar Bear WIP 4

As suggested by Lin.K, I placed the arms and parts together and realized that they are too dark when compared with the suit. So I went to whiten the areas even more, with lacquer paint. I hesitated using acrylics as I don't handbrush well with them, and will try to 'highlight' a bit later with enamels after a coat of protective layer. Here's how it looks with the second layer of white.
As you can see, some of the contrasting strokes are covered up. Can't say its better or worse than before.I scrubbed the feet a bit to reveal the bottom coat and to have some variation in the paint job.

Decided that its gloss enough and before I add the blue stripes, I applied the decals so that I have a sense of how large the blue stripes should I paint later, and also I will attempt to use the blue to repaint over some of the decals. First time doing this so I am a bit fearful.Here's how it looks like after adding decals. I used the 'J' option, as I wanted to make the fellow in the Ma.K BD as well as in the Ma.K Profile #1 - Falke book. Don't know his name, but I like him, and so I used the decals as instructed by the instruction booklet religiously. Not too much decals eh?

I applied Mark Setter on the place where I am going to put the decal, slide it off and position it with a cotton bud. Once dried, I applied Mark Softener on it. After that has dried, I repeat the process with Mark Softener again.
I am still thinking of whether to use some of kill marking decals...
That's it for tonight, hopefully tomorrow I can do the blue stripes, and add wires to the kit.
Night guys! (or is it morning -_-''')

Polar Bear WIP 3

Polar Bear WIP 3

Did the white wash tonight in front of my TV watching a documentary about art... Heehee makes me feel so artistic (ya right...)
I was thinking about Lin.K's fantastic Polar Bear, but of course I wouldn't reach any of his standard. Hope you don't mind Lin.K, you are my Ma.K hero!

Just took out my old chinese tiny paintbrush and went all over with Gunze white with a little yellow. I varied the strokes, like for the bottom backpack, I used up and down strokes,
and for the feet, I jabbed around a bit to try to get some mud effect for later.
I went and added more white highlights on top surfaces while the lower legs and bottom facing surfaces got alot more thinner, and less white.

front

left side

right sideback - eh side :)

The arms are sort of painted with artificial shading, more white for top facing, and less white bottom facing.

right arm

left arm

helmet

Constructive criticism requested! Should I put on more white? anything I missed? Like? Don't like? Please help me improve!

Incidentally I bought this ikea storage which doubles as a working table, so that I can wheel all my modeling stuff to the living room, watch/listen to TV while I work on my kit.
Then wheel the entire setup to my study to take photos, and finally wheel it back to my robot room. It costs 50+sgd, less than a Kauz!

Gift from maxwinamp

Gift from maxwinamp

My friend maxwinamp gave me the Falke figure sprues and box because he knew I was such a crazy Ma.K fan! Thank you very much max!!!

Guys, don't misunderstand me, people don't become my friends by giving me things, and I don't write about people because they give me things... But really, I find that people who do Ma.K are more generous with stuff. Can't explain why... :)

Lots more nice people and heros to write about ...
Will

Shipment 14 is coming!!!

Heehee, shipment 13 has just sold out and number 14 is on the way...
This time its a large shipment with SAFS variants, PKS variant, flying things, and a couple of rare stuff too! I'll keep it a secret first. This time its mostly unclaimed kits, and I wanna let everyone in on the action, so after I received the kits and finalized the prices for the unclaimed kits, I will post the date and time when I will post the sales thread. The PMs that reach me first gets the kits.

Fair?

Stay tuned...

Polar Bead WIP 2

Deadline missed for WOOB4... Its ok...
Restarted work on the Polar Bear...
I added some more black and dark brown to some spots which I think should be darker and patched some parts...





I don't have dark green, so I used Gunze Gundam Color Gray 24 and started dancing my brush around.
Two layers of gray, with the second layer of gray with lots of thinner somehow looks lighter in color.




Man, the fumes are terrible... I'd better do it near the window next time.
Next up, white ...