I recently finished this vintage Japanese soft vinyl garage kit of the Studio Nue version of the power suit from Starship Troopers. The Powered Suit is an iconic mecha design in Japan, and you should read my review of the kit over at CollectionDX for more info and some history.
If you just want big pictures of a chunky mecha kit painted up, continue reading…
I will have a review and full write-up of this sweet vintage kit on CollectionDX hopefully soon, but I literally just finished the kit tonight and wanted to get some quick shots posted. Proper studio shots to follow.
B-Club is the specialty item arm of Bandai. B-Club makes PVC character figures, model detail parts, soft vinyl toys and kits, and more. They’ve released numerous reissue Bullmark kaiju vinyl toys, but have also released soft vinyl model kits over the years. At some point, B-Club released a line of 1/75 scale kits of mecha from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. I don’t really care for the miniseries, but I like the machines in it quite a bit. When I learned about the line, I knew I needed to start tracking them down. Soft vinyl robot kits are a strange breed, but I love them. I wrote along, indulgent thoughtpiece about vinyl robot kit in a review over on CollectionDX. Go there to read lots of words, and scroll down for more and bigger pictures of the finished Zaku.
This guy was a commissioned I finished up a few weeks back. The customer sent me a swatch of camo in the style he wanted, and I think I did a pretty good job of matching it. We settled on a flat finish and very technical ‘tight’ camo rather than the loosey-goosey airbrushed camo some other kaiju guys have coined.
I picked up a pair of blank grey-green Marusan Ganimes from GrumbleToy a while back for my brother and myself. Ganime is the crab monster from the classic Space Amoeba film. I wanted to do something funky to get back in the airbrushing groove, so I painted the pair with blue shells like lobsters and crayfish sometimes have.
When I posted the finished shots of my Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam painted with Monster Kolor, Matt Walker aka Dead Pre$idents asked me if he could display it at the booth he was sharing with Max Toy Co at Winter Wonder Festival in Japan. Monster Kolor paint has been a huge success for Matt, and he is always looking for demonstrations of its use in new and creative ways. My MK on plastic Gundam model fit the bill, and was shipped off to Japan for display at the show. These pics of the booth come courtesy of Kaiju Korner Andy, who has been providing the best English-language coverage of Japanese shows and festivals out there for a couple of years now. Go check out the rest of his extensive WonderFest coverage here. He took a gazillion photos, and there’s more still to be posted.
Here’s a shot of the whole Max Toy Co and Friends booth! My Gundam was in good company. I think it’s giving Max Toy Co’s new micro Kaiju Negora sculpt a bit of a shakedown!
FOE Gallery is hosting an awesome themed show in February. Mike Nordstrom is undoubtedly the world’s leading Garamon expert and aficionado, and has curated a show that is going to knock socks off. I was thrilled to get asked to participate alongside guys like Mark Nagata, Bob Conge, and Koji Harmon. I went for a realistic finish rather than Monster Kolor craziness, going full ‘model kit’ style on this super detailed sculpt. Show opens February 10th in Northampton!
Reorganized some shelves while waiting for new arrivals. Here’s my 1/60 scale mecha lineup, featuring Macross, Dougram, Dorvack, Patlabor, Votoms, Gundam, and Mospeada. Basically, all of my favorite things. Click the top image for a bigger panorama.
In Living Kolor Boston was this weekend and it was a blast! Seven hours of driving both ways to Lot F Gallery, an awesome gallery space tucked away right in Boston, were well worth it. A ton of people showed up for both the live painting and the gallery opening, and a ton of toys got painted. Max Toy Co, Onell, and resin artist Dustin Nakagawa all provided a pile of blanks for painting. It was great to see old friends, make new ones, and see people who had never painted before try out Monster Kolor spraycans and airbrushing. I painted the mini Eyezon above, on clear green vinyl with sparkles…
…this mini Argus on red vinyl. I slathered it with pink peal, and then tried out the MK rattle can matte finish, which gave it a great finish.
I also picked up this awesome little resin by Dustin Nakagawa, named Gamusa. He’s clearly inspired by Zollmen’s Zudon, but has some differences that make him stand out, and is a perfectly sized and shaped little resin buddy. I also worked on a blank Gamusa that I will post up when I finish.
Another shot of Gamusa. The loose sprays work really well on the rough sculpt, and manage to highlight the details really well. I should also mention that this guy has a great heft to him, and seems to be cast from a really nice resin.
When not making fun, weird kaiju, Sunguts took the time a few years back to make a vinyls of a pair of the secondary Walk Machine mecha from Xabungle. The ‘work’ mecha in Xabungle were all pretty goofy, so they make for great sofubi. Even the roll-cage frames are vinyl, after having had the inside parts cut out. Something I never realized until I got mine were that they also come with little DIY flesh vinyl pilot busts that you need to trim, and paint if desired. Obviously I painted them. The pilot busts are about a quarter of an inch tall, so I threw a little color on them to make them stand out.
