Fortress of Testicular Fortitude

This next batch of parts make up the leg, arm and head.

Here's the arm and hand.



See the difference in colour of the deltoid with the arm? I will need to spray the deltoid the same white and grey as used on the arm.

Here's the leg of PG 1/60 RX-78

Here's the assembled groin and hip area. Heck the seam line on the scrotum, I'm not going to mend it as no one looks there anyway.

Via Metro's Facebook page...



Having organised a really cool Gundam Fiesta for the boys earlier this year, Metro now let's the ladies have their fair share of fun at this Sanrio fair.

Cheers to the folks at Metro Sengkang for doing a mighty job of organising events that liven up this supposedly sleepy seaside town.

Here's the torso, back pack and beam sabers. Very bad spraying for the blue parts, it looks like flakes. Also, I forgot to cut out the yellow perimeter around the chest vents, and will be doing so when I spray the next batch.







I sprayed the back pack cover dark grey, and the internal portion of the back park shiny black.

adidas are releasing national team related tees too.



Same details on the German crest as the official World Cup 2010 kit.




Great solution if you don't like castrated three stripes. They should cost less too when they make their way here. Can't find pix of the French shirt at the time of posting.

Looking forward to what adidas Originals line has to offer for the World Cup.

This batch of parts comprises one internal skeleton leg, arm and torso, as well as the backpack.

The 2010 World Cup's official football federation kits by adidas have just our local sports stores.



I've see all the kits (Spain, Argentina, Germany, France & Russia) except South Africa's at our stores. Germany and Spain share the same template as Liverpool FC's 09/10 third shirt







Coincidentally (or not), in Euro '08, they also shared the same template with Liverpool FC's 08/10 home shirt, with a variation in the v-neck and castrated stripes.





I'm quite tempted by Germany's and Spain's shirts, though if ever, I'll pick up Germany's shirt close to the World Cup or it'll turn yellow by the time the competition comes round.





Argentina's shirt also calls out to me...





Though it is a rip-off/tribute to Le Coq Sportif's 1986 Argentina shirt...





...and a slight variation of their 08/09 shirt.

Despite the failings of the DC Direct 13 Inch line, this figure is just meant for this series of figures.



Via DC Direct,

For the first time ever in this popular product line, the 1:6 scale deluxe collector figure body has been extensively modified to reflect the unique style of a particular artist – Alex Ross' Kingdom Come Superman.

Dressed in the trademark Kingdom Come S-shield-style costume, this version of Superman closely resembles Ross' art from the legendary miniseries KINGDOM COME and the epic "THY KINGDOM COME" in physique, expression and dress.

The figure features 28 points of articulation, is packaged in a deluxe 4-color window box with a fifth panel and includes a display stand.

Limited Edition. Manufactured to order.
$ 99.99 US | On Sale July 28, 2010

Alex Ross himself had provided input for the initial batch of muscular 13 inch bodies and coupled with Kingdom Come Superman's headsculpt, this figure just works.



However, the US$99 price point is unjustifiable especially when DC Direct recently shot themselves in their own foot. The additional sculpting to age the standard 13 inch body doesn't warrant the price, IMHO.

I'm a big fan of Kingdom Come, evidenced by the pride of place Absolute Kingdom Come enjoys in my bookshelf.

This batch of parts make up the torso and rifle.

Just received this in the mail this morning. I had to order it online as the powers that be didn't think Jon Osterman's exposed member was suitable for mass market home viewing.



Via watchmencomicmovie.com,
The Ultimate Cut, a fused combination of the director's cut and Tales of the Black Freighter animated comic, is packed onto the first disc along with an all-new audio commentary.



Expect to also see lots more of the two Bernies at the NYC newsstand, whose banter usually segues into fragments of the Black Freighter pirate story.



The five-disc DVD set will be presented in 2.35:1 1080p video and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. Bonus features are as follows:

- Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons
- The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
- Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes
- Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
- Watchmen: Video Journals
- My Chemical Romance Desolation Row
- Under The Hood
- Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen
- Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version
- Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics



I ordered this from ebay as I had a very bad experience ordering with Amazon. I made an order on 7 September 09, and waited for five weeks for their expected delivery date to pass.

After it passed, I emailed Amazon and they asked me to wait another four weeks to confirm that the item was lost. They mentioned that in normal circumstances, they would send a replacement immediately. I don't know for the life of me what made my order abnormal.

I asked them if waiting four weeks the solution they could offer, and they asked me to wait three weeks. Very accomodating indeed!

By the end of three weeks, the item had still not arrived and I told them to change the order to the Ultimate edition, which was due to be released soon and since given the Christmas shipping rush and their stellar shipping speed, I would see the disc in 2010 anyway.

This is the first time in my life I have waited two months for an item shipped from the US. I've received stuff in five working days from the US, and seven working days from the UK. Hong Kong is the best cos I've received an item within three working days.

They graciously charged me the Director's Cut price for the Ultimate Edition, refunded my shipping and placed my order on their Expedited International Shipping, which would, by their impeccable arrival estimates, arrive before 2 December 2009. How exciting.

This eBay order which cost about US$5 more took only 6 working days to ship, and the disc was officially released on 10 November 2009.

Great to see that you're doing a mighty fine job of "building earth's most customer-centric company", Amazon!

I wonder if living up to their creed involves monitoring the internet for customer feedback on Amazon's services. I know companies who can be bothered about customer feedback subscribe to search terms related to their companies via aggregators, e.g., Google Blogsearch, and have their PR/social media people watch out for such things.

This second batch of parts comprises the groin and hip area. I've sprayed the panels under the skirting sparkling black.

Here's the first batch of parts to be sprayed for PG Gundam RX-78. As this Gundam is the Animation Version, the white is almost a greenish shade, much like the first MG GM.



Painting and assembling this Gundam will be a quick job as I have previously snap fitted this piece. I find pre-assembly better as I can decide which parts need colour to be sprayed, and which parts just need top-coating, e.g., the internal skeleton. There will be some masking that needs to be done, mainly on the clear parts at the top of the head, as well as the scope on the gun, which is a yellow piece that cannot be removed after I fitted it on. I will be spraying the gun with sparkling black, which can pass for gunmetal, as seen in PG Gundam RX-178 Titans. Unlike PG Gundam RX-178 Titans, I will be spraying different colour pieces at one go, as that is the benefit of using spray cans, then letting them dry on the mounting board.

Here's my completed PG 1/60 RX-178 Titans with water slide decals from Samuel Decal.



If you've missed on this previous post about Samuel Decal, here's the instruction sheet on decal application.

Hot Toys is proud to bring you the second character from the Watchmen movie – The Comedian.



This Comedian collectible figure stands approximately 30cm tall and features Hot Toys’ muscled body with over 21 points of articulation. Dressed in his movie-accurate and intricately detailed costume of full body armor including patriotic shoulder pads, knee pads and boots etc.

This superhero collectible also features:
- Tactical full body harness with holsters
- Boot knife with a knife holder
- Shotgun
- Grenade launcher
- Two (2) hand guns
- Sixteen (16) cartridges with a cartridge belt
- Cigar
- Life-like head sculpt of the Comedian with his mask
- Two (2) pairs of interchangeable gloved hands
- 12 inches figure stand with The Comedian nameplate and WATCHMEN logo

Artists:
Head Sculpt by Yulli
Head Paint by JC Hong

Release date: Q1, 2010

























This is the second figure in Hot Toys Watchmen line, with the first being Silk Spectre II.

Here's the kit after enamel washing. It's been a very long process and I'm frickin' glad it's completed, save for application of decals. Many thanks to Arthur for providing the materials and advice, as well as Leon's advice on applying decals. Thanks to everyone who offered a word of encouragement during the process of building this kit. I've made mistakes with stray bits of paint and scraping off paint on this kit, but I'll leave it as it is, as a reminder to be much more careful when attempting subsequent kits.

Here's how I apply panel lines with enamel paint. This process is also known as panel lining/enamel washing.

You will need the following items.


L-R: Lighter Fluid, Tamiya Enamel Paint, Paint Tray, thin-tipped brush and cotton bud.


1. Mix the enamel paint with lighter fluid at the ratio of 1:8.



2. Immerse the brush in the mixture and apply it to the portion that you wish to panel line. As the liquid is very diluted, the mixture will flow and fill up the grooves and crevices.





3. Don't worry about the paint staining other areas. The final step involves soaking the cotton bud in lighter fluid and using it to clean away the excess paint.



4. The piece is now completed after the panel lines have been cleaned up with the lighter fluid.





I will now proceed to panel line the full kit. Here's some pix of the clean Gundam.

I'm in a personal race against time to complete the following tasks before Jan 2010. By then, God willing and by His grace, I will be blessed with an heir to the empire.






1) Start reading The Beatles Anthology.



2) Pick up an autographed copy of Singapore: A Biography from Yu-Mei and finish the book.


3) Sit through the entire four hours of The Ultimate Cut Watchmen DVD. If it ever arrives here.


4) Photograph the following toys.























5) Complete the following Gundams









6) Watch the entire 8th season of Smallville.



7) Complete GTA 4 Episodes from Liberty City


Building Gundam already takes up all my week nights, so I'll be happy if I can knock off at least half the items on my list.

Here are the weapons this Gundam uses. I used Sparkling Black & Silver Anchor Paints. Glad the Sparkling Black produced a gunmetal effect.

Communication


Rifle


Rocket Launcher


Shield