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Time to get back into the throes of painting more garage kits! Recently acquired another to the “to do” pile in the shape of the Charagumin Shinguji Sakura from Volks so I can’t let the pile get any bigger!
I asked some groups online as to which kit I should build next out of the Try-GK Yoko and Dead Master and it was actually a tie. But in the end, I chose DM because I have a stupidly large number of kits which are predominantly black and doing them in a row will be trying so I’m going to try and space things out. Off the top of my head, the black colour scheme characters are Laila, Akane, Bayonetta and Fate (True sonic form). Definitely going to need more black paint for all of them. Heck, Bayonetta is 1/4 scale!! But for now, it’s all Dead Master
I wrote a better preview post on dead master a while back (back in 2010) when I first got her so it may be better to have a look there for more complete pics and whatnot. but things haven’t changed since then. It just took me this long to get to her (and I still have the World is Mine Miku to do as well, and she’s even older!).
Continue reading Project: Dead Master
Well, this was the weirdest week in my memory!! I took part in my clubs kendo competition over the weekend and a few other surprise events have left me reeling! So there’s not much to update on pretty much anything right now, other than my copy of persona 4 Arena FINALLY arrived!! I had planned to not buy it and cancelled my pre-order at Amazon. Except it seemed that I had also put a pre-order in at shopto as well, and that was not cancelled. Oh well… First impressions are that it’s a very good fighting game, just not worth the wait!
Also, I believe that my mecha anime video is now complete and currently sits at just under 3GB large! So the only way I can think of distributing it is via torrent so if anyone has any ideas on a good free tracker to use, let me know. I tried using openbttracker but I just can’t get any seed (i.e. myself) to connect to my second system to start the transfer…
I think it’s about time to call this one in! Afterall, her kit wasn’t exactly the most complicated thing I’ve seen (clocking in at a mere 8 parts for the whole thing) so once painting started, it was pretty smooth sailing, tho I have to say that the Games Workshop liquid green stuff was a godsend for filling in some of the pinholes and liquid putty is hard to come by here for some reason!
Anyway, here’s my latest finished work, Kumashiro Maya from Sekimatsu Occult Gakuen (remember that show?)
Can’t remember what it was which attracted me to this kit way back when, but I’m sure it was something to do with the simplicity of it all.
Continue reading Are you afraid of the dark?
OK, this one has been a long time coming. As soon as I received my copy, I went away for a couple of weeks and didn’t get a chance to play it until recently so everyone has probably already finished the game long before me but I would be amiss to not give this great game a post on its own. I should have really done one for Metal Gear Rising too. Those 2 games are easily my fave games of this year and I predict they will still be near the top come the years end!
At the very least, I don’t think I need to do much explaining about this game. Infinite is the next game from the people who brought us the amazing Bioshock back in 2007 and, while another team gave us a direct sequel to bioshock which was set in the same world, infinite is considered by many to be the “true” sequel to the underwater adventure game.
In Bioshock Infinite, you play as Booker DeWitt, a guy with a rather shady past and an even shadier present. Seems he’s gotten himself into some trouble and has been hired by some people to find a girl named Elizabeth and take her to New York. If he does so, his debts will be cleared. The game starts off very much like Bioshock in that you find yourself at a lighthouse and, once you reach the device inside, you’re transported to another world. But in this case, instead of going underwater, you’re shot up into the sky and find a city up there called Columbia. Columbia is basically an american history lesson as it’s modelled after the country at the turn of the 20th century. The rich/poor divide is huge, racial segregation is the norm, work laws are practically non-existent… Basically it’s paradise if you’re a rich white man and, well, not if you’re anyone else. It is kinda interesting when you remember that, unlike Rapture, which was more of an experiment and a look into the nature of human beings in general, Columbia is full of things which happened! You can look into your history books and see all of it. And it’s not just stuff like wounded knee or the boxer rebellion (incidentally, at the risk of sounding racist, the Chinese at the turn of the 20th Century were basically screwed over multiple times. Blacks may call back on injustices and whatnot but the chinese had it just as bad, if not worse. They may not have been taken from their homes and used as cheap labour, but their homes were simply taken too and the people were treated as 2nd rate citizens in their own country. Heck, the British made a huge chunk of southern china into drug addicts to get them to work on their opium farms! It’s no wonder that the current China is so cold and near hostile to pretty much every other country out there!) but the whole culture of Columbia.
Anyway, the game has you running around, finding Elizabeth while avoiding the police as you’ve been outed as an outsider and dangerous element and once you find Elizabeth, you gotta find a way out of columbia! While trying to avoid spoilers, that’s pretty much the game in a nutshell. You get the regular assortment of weapons and also “vigors” which work in the same manner as plasmids from Bioshock. One new addition is the skyhook, a special device which allows you to perform incredibly violent and graphic executions on enemies as well as ride Tram lines around Columbia to reach higher areas. One other change is the addition of Elizabeth. Once you find her, she becomes a persistant character who helps you out in situations and never gets in your way. She’s also central to the plot in more ways than you first think!
So, how was the game?
Continue reading Mini Review: Bioshock Infinite
First of all, I should warn readers that this post pretty is pretty much of no interest for anyone outside the UK and those outside London may find it a bit of a stretch, but it’s still worth noting!
Lets face it, the arcade scene is either dying or dead. There are a few places still holding out in the far east but as far as Europe and the US are concerned, it’s pretty much dead. In Central London, we have long lost the multi-floored funland in trocadero and one of the oldest places, Casino on Goodge Street, closed its doors a few months ago. And with that, there was no place for arcade players to congregate. Admittedly, this was mostly the fighting game community since the DDR lot just disappeared.
But last weekend was the opening of possibly now, the only place to cater for the hardcore gamers (mostly the FGC). And the place is called the Heart Of Gaming!
It’s a pretty adventurous venture. A converted building housing some classic arcade games and a dedicated area for console game setups! With all the usual locations now closed up, the HoG is well positioned to become the go-to place for various meetups and tournaments. In fact, one of the major London tournaments has already booked the place for the next event!
Continue reading Open your Heart!
Kinda weird writing this blog post now. It’s meant to be a spring anime roundup but it’s just over 0 degrees outside. It’s freaking winter still!! Anyway, we have a new anime season up so, as usual, this post will be looking at what’s passed and what looks interesting out of the new batch! First up, last season…
Best Show
OreShura & GJ-Bu
 
I don’t know why but I really enjoyed these shows. Oreshura had its JoJo references and I felt like applauding GJ-Bu on episode 4 when Kyouya tried to explain why real maids are awesome and a whole different level to the ones who just play dress-up! The 2 don’t really stand out as amazing shows but I really looked forward to each episode!
Continue reading Anime Roundup: Spring 2013
If I ever get a “smart” idea like this again, you have permission to slap me with a set fish!! This has been way harder than I had anticipated but I’ve pretty much reached the limits of my abilities, and collection so I really need assistance with the final push.
But as the famous catchphrase from the TV show Mastermind goes; “I’ve started so I’ll finish…” Or at least I’ll try.
![[Himatsubushi]_Macademi_Wasshoi_-_10_[H264][BDEADB8C][(006941)22-48-20]](http://lookingglass.kokidokom.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Himatsubushi_Macademi_Wasshoi_-_10_H264BDEADB8C00694122-48-20.jpg)
On the plus side, I’ve managed to publish what I’ve collected on my own on Vimeo! Just warning you now, the video is 2 hrs long and had to be compressed quite considerably to fit into the limits of the service, so please excuse the quality.
https://vimeo.com/63050237
I’m posting the video for people to see what’s been done so far and, hopefully, that may convince a few to help lead me to the missing few shows. I’d like to replace the subbed ones if possible but it’s not a priority right now. And for those wondering, the video was around 8GB at the start but I compressed it to 1.5Gb before I had to go even further to fit it onto vimeo. Here’s a list of the remaining shows.
Zoids Guardian force
Zoids New Century
Zone of the Enders Dolores
Transformers Micron Legend (armada)
Zoids Fuzors
Misaki Chronicles: Divergence Eve
Jinki: Extend
Bokurano
Kyoshiro to Towa No sora
Gad Guard
Tetsujin-28 Go
shows in the video which have fansubs in them are
Shin Seki den Mars
Innocent Venus
Panda-Z
Lime-iro Ryukitan X
Giniro no Olynsis
Reideen
Platinumhugen Ordian
Gundam 00 S2
After some thinking, I decided to remove Bounen no X’amd as there’s no mecha stuff in it. I’m also debating the inclusion of Stellvia as well as the 2 Lime-iro series. Those 2 are basically rip-offs of sakura wars in an eroge but I’m not sure I’d count their armours as mecha…
In any case, just a little more to go!! 頑張れ、俺！！
Not too much of an update this time. Heck, I’m a little surprised that there’s an update at all! My “little” mecha anime ops project is harder than I thought and Bioshock Infinite just came out so don’t be shocked if the project stalls for a while!
Currently, the parts have been cleaned (mostly) and the biggest gaps have been filled with putty. The hair is turning out to be quite the annoyance though as it’s very hard to get in between the individual clumps. The hands are also proving awkward for the same reason. They also lack any detail so I have to determine the overall look of the fingers myself to ensure they don’t look like stumps.
Still, there some ways to go but she’s taken shape quite well. Once I’m satisfied with the hair, I can go straight into the priming!
On the other side of things, the anime project has had its advantages. I ended up re-watching gundam seed and it’s stood the test of time pretty well. I was never a huge fan of the show but I thought it was pretty strong and infinitely better than its sequel, which I still need to pick an OP to use… I also skimmed through gundam 00. My god, season 2 was a pile of poo and some of the characters in it were insufferable!! It was like watching guilty crown again!!
OK, so the title probably isn’t the most accurate description of what I’m about to attempt. Basically, while checking out my old fansub collection, I found a couple of files from back in 2004. Basically, some heroic fellow made a video of every mecha TV anime which was aired in the 80s and 90s and stitched them together. The only problem was that there wasn’t one for the 2000s. Actually, I think there was, but it only went up to around 2004 or so. That particular file also went walkies so I can’t be sure. With that in mind, if there isn’t a complete video for every mecha anime from the 2000s, then I thought “Why not make one?”
![[Himatsubushi]_Macademi_Wasshoi_-_10_[H264][BDEADB8C][(007485)22-55-01]](http://lookingglass.kokidokom.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Himatsubushi_Macademi_Wasshoi_-_10_H264BDEADB8C00748522-55-01.jpg)
And so, this is where I’m going to test social networking and ask people for help! After the jump, I’ve managed to compile a list of mecha anime shows which aired on Japanese TV between 2000~2009. What I am asking help with are the fact checking and locating said openings. If there are shows which are missing from the list, please let me know either in the comments or you can use twitter @gundamjehutykai
Furthermore, if you know where I can find a high quality CLEAN version of the Japanese OP somewhere on the internet, please tell me. I think I can find a considerable number of blanks on youtube but I’d rather not go down that route if I can help it. Finally, please spread the word to any mecha anime fans you know. I can use all the help I can get with locating all the shows!
Continue reading The Devil makes work for Idle Thumbs…
It’s great that my next project pretty much fell into my lap after I completed Taiga. Furthermore, she’s a really simple kit as well, a mere 7 parts!! The only down side is that there’s a lot of cleanup to do. But here’s a prelim build of Kumashiro Maya
Quite a few seam lines on the kit and a lot of marks where the excess flash was will need to be smoothed out. The biggest issues though, are the pinhole damaged bits on the dress and neck. There are only about 4 of them but they will need to be repaired. I don’t even want to think about how many more there may be which can’t currently be seen…
There’s also a large gap between the body and the left arm. Strangely, it’s only the left arm which is affected. The other parts fit quite well! Otherwise, once the parts are repaired. It should be a fairly quick paintjob to finish. The legs may need a wider pin than usual (or a few) but I don’t think there’ll be too many problems with this one. And since it’s a very simple design, maybe I’ll see if I can have a little fun with the process…
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