The Dragon Ronin Astray Part XI

And the Deadline Passed Me By...

The Gerbera Straight and Tiger Pierce blades. I won't be stripping off the chrome, but, I'll just remove the nub marks.

Stripping the gold off the sword parts is soooo slow since I couldn't find Chlorox. Winrox is like Zonrox.

The last picture is after 24 hours of soaking.

Decided not to use the stock backpack since it'll take me more time modifying, so I customized something similar. I used the surplus Strike groin armor as the mold for the build.

Progress of the backpack.

The objects in the last pic are ear cleaners.... 

 The paints...

More back(pack) pains..

The mysterious thingee that has been giving me deja vus...

Initial paint stages...

A technique I used before with the Big Red/HiNu.

Instead of clear/clear gloss, I used flat/matte clear as a top coat, essentially defeating the purpose of the shiny metallic effect, but yielding, at least for me, better results...

 

 Subtle color difference between the Tiger Pierce (left) and the Gerbera Straight. I achieved this by varying the coats of Metal Alloy over flat black, then Honda Red. I used Metal Alloy instead of my usual Gold 351 since it gives a more striking and visually better effect.

 The sword guards, pummels and sheath ends finally stripped of its gold coat. There's still a wee bit left, but I'll sand those off.

Gotta love flat black. It's a primer and base coat in one, and gives a nice, deep tone to metallic paints.

Muted metallics.  They look good enough to eat... 

The stock thruster, and the custom.

Another kosutte trial. I will be using a couple of Sinanju H4 thrusters inside the custom ones.

The scabbard/sheath painted with Metal Alloy and the sword guard painted with Metal Alloy + Gold 351.

 

The scabbard/sheaths of the Tiger Pierce and Gerbera Straight.

The layered armor of the groin guard...

 

Presanding, when done right, and the parts are aligned well, basically removes the seamline even without cement. This is perfect for ootb snapbuilding.

The Gerbera Straight (top) and the Tiger Pierce.

Black and Red...

 

The yet to be finished Zen Shrine dio.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to the deadline, and even though I still had a few hours left, I'd rather not ruin a good build by rushing it. 

With the head mods, the Ronin's neck looked visually short, so I decided to mod the neck joint and added 3mm, just enough to give it clearance.

I cut away the base of the ball joint from the main connector used 2mm beams and 1mm plates to rebuild the shaft. I then added pegs to the base, drilled holes to the main to make a strong connection.

Fits like a glove.

Before and After modifications...

I will have to "thicken" the neck later on. 

Assembly update.

There's a-plenty I need to rework.  Project's on-hold indefinitely...

The Ice Queen Image Gallery

First Place, Modifications

HLJ/Tomopop "Fun with Plastic" Competition

Check out the WIP 

Puttyless Seam Line Removal: The Presanding Method

Seamline removal using the presanding method:

First, I aligned the armor parts to be joined. The arrows indicate the direction of sanding motion one should employ, simply sand parallel to the seams. In cases where the seam lines are multi-angled, the direction of the longer seam or along the length of the part should be followed. This is also a good example of a seamline along a curved surface.


Presanded with a 300-400 grit sandpaper, with the parts separated,
 
Then together, still uncemented. Although you can see a few gaps and uneveness still visible, the seamline has almost disappeared. Note that you have to brush off the dust before cementing.


The parts cemented together, applying a little pressure to induce the melted plastic to ooze out of the gap (Note: presanding actually minimizes the amount of ooze that comes out of the gap.  Too much of this ooze can actually damage the gap and the area surrounding it). Thick Cement has plastic additive, and that gives the bond strength when it combines with the melted plastic. Also, though I did all of this in a matter of 10-20 minutes (for the sake of demonstration), letting the cement cure for at least 30 minutes ensures for a better and stronger bond.
 
Light sanding is all that is needed to remove the excess, although in some cases, a little shaving with a slightly blunt knife may be required. The picture below shows the armor partially sanded smooth,


And this one, fully sanded. I usually finish with 600-800 grit, although having a 1000-1200 grit won't hurt either.

In some cases, even just pre-sanding (280/400/600 grit) can make seamlines disappear. These are the forearms of the HG Palace Athene.  You wouldn't even know the difference between which forearm was a snapfit, and which was already cemented and sanded smooth.


The forearms finally painted.

The PG Astray's Hilts

The Twin Buster Rifle of the HG Wing Honoo