An easy way to strip paint/primer

I learned this trick from GMobile17 and it has made my life a lot easier!

An easy way to strip off acrylic paint from your resin kits is to use Oxy Clean/Vanish.

Here I'm actually using a cheap brand  from a local discount supermarket and it works just as well, so I guess this stuff is all the same.

To show you how to do it I'll use a 1/8 Cutey Honey based on a design by Sorayama-san. It's a beautiful sculpt, but it's a Thai recast from Hobbywarrior: quite poor and brittle resin. I messed up with it years ago and it's time to give it a good scrub and start over.

So, I add a little less than a scoop of this stuff

in the container where Cutey Honey waits

and I add boiling water from the kettle. If there's the risk of bending resin parts then use hot and not boiling water. However, I find that boiling water works better. Be also careful to use a suitable container for this.

Leave overnight or even 24 hours. If you can, it would also help to freshen the Oxy soup at one point.

This is what your resin should look like with the aid of a toothbrush and some scrubbing.

Ok, I realize now  that this photo is way creepy as it looks like someone chopped up Cutey Honey pretty good!
Anyway, in my case it took some more scrubbing and a little scraping with a knife to get to this point because the chrome paint I used was particularly tough. Results are variable according to the kind of paint you used: I found that the brands I usually use, Americana and Createx, come off the resin completely after this treatment as does my Vallejo primer. This is also an excellent way to clean airbrushes from old paint (it does happen to leave the paint in there, doesn't it? I sometimes forget to clean them! ^_^") and to take off dry color from my mixing jars.

Reorganizing my workstation

Now that "Infect" is done it's time to think about making my workstation more efficient and easy to clean.
This is a very old library that was supposed to go to the dumpster and that my brother salvaged instead to do his own works there. So ruining it has never been an issue really. But the problem is that the old wood got to  a point that it wouldn't come clean anymore, and it would always look dusty and grey from the primer and other crap I use... it really started making me sick!
So I dumped all the stuff I didn't want to throw away in a hot Oxy Clean/Vanish/whatever-brand-is-available bath, which made all my pots and containers encrusted in old paint come back to life as new. Then I got 5 metres of adhesive plastic, the kind that comes in different patterns (I chose a pink marble because it looked fantastic, but I doubt it will stay like that for very long) and covered the surfaces that I usually mess up. I suppose that it will be a little easier to clean now! ^^

On the shelf you can see 3 models I'm almost done with: Eiko/Erin, Elf Princess and Chii (Chii is done, I only need to correct the white line on her cuffs and attach the arms and bow), so hopefully I should be posting these up soon enough.

Morte is finally completed! ^_^ Again!

Again because as soon as I completed her the first time around, she took a dive and got smashed into pieces. I had to do a lot of resculpting and repainting. As a result, she's far from perfect. But at least she's done... about time!
Photos will follow, because the weather is always overcast lately and I suck at taking pics under the best conditions, let alone under the worst! But tomorrow I will take some, at least as preliminary ones, because on Sat I'll leave for a 2 weeks holiday and I want to post her before going! ^^
Later, and thanks for following this poor blog even when I don't update it that often!
*waves her hand at everybody*

Score!

I got hold of one of my Grail Garage Kits!

If you've been long enough into this hobby you'll know that a Grail kit is essentially a kit you'd do (almost) anything for. One of mine is this Rei:

Which comes from this artwork:

It's no mystery, Evangelion is one of my fav anime but for sure I can't collect all the models available. But this one, although quite old (it dates back to 1998 I think) has always been my most wanted Rei.

And thanks to smoon, a friend from e2046 forum, I finally have it!

It cost quite a lot, but I think it was totally worth it! It's a huge figure, I actually don't know where I'm going to display it. And the cast is excellent! Just the face details are incredible. Too bad the hair is cast as one piece with the rest of the head though.

Now the hunts goes on for my other Grails, the FMP girls!

Finally my display cabinet!

So, after long procrastination, because I *hate* going to Ikea, I finally got my display cabinet, the mythological DETOLF almost any modeler in the world has!
Why do I hate going to Ikea? Well, I don't know elsewhere, but here whole families take trips there as if they were going for a nice pic-nic or something. They bring their kiddies who are free to run around and climb on every piece of forniture. So it's really a nightmare, considering I always get migrains in malls under the best circumstances!
So, after a dreadful Sun morning spent in there, and a dreadful Sun afternoon trying to put the pieces together (not easy!), this is what it looks like:

Too bad I don't have room for another next to it, because it's already almost full!

Rozen Maiden Models

Rozen Maiden is my latest discovery anime-wise, but needless to say I found out about it through Garage Kits. I've just finished watching both seasons plus the OAV and I also gave word to my comic shop guy to start looking for the manga for me (I only have #4 at the moment).
Here are the kits I got so far:

I got these 2 from Yahoo Japan because I couldn't find them as recasts... they cost some $$$ but it was totally worth it! This Suigintou is the most beautiful one around IMO and Shinku is just too cute and peaceful looking. I already started the pinning process on her because I couldn't resist.

To place Rozen Maiden models scale is quite difficult and they are often refered to as non-scale. These 2 are quite large, I'd say a 1/5 scale maybe if they weren't supposed to be dolls. Since they are though, and thus they are smaller than average anime characters, they are then to be considered even bigger. However all this is too complicated, so let's just say they are a very nice size to work with! (^_^);

The followings are recasts I already ordered and paid for (after sorting my credit card problems due to the trip to Spain) but I'll be getting them on September because in a few days I'll be leaving for Palinuro: another Suigintou, sitting on a street-lamp with a real light inside, my fav character Suiseiseki and another Shinku.

This one is still in preorder: there aren't many models of the boyish doll Souseiseki, twin sister of Suiseiseki. This one is nice, although I suspect it's rather small. So I'm on the hunt through YJ to find some more.

Wishlisted:

Geesh, if I lived to be a hundred and worked on models everyday I couldn't finish all the models I already own, let alone the ones I preoredered... well, it will be my legacy to some lucky one!

My latest Yahoo Japan purchase

Just got this one a few minutes ago:

It's a 1/6 Yuna from Final Fantasy X. I find the pose a little static, but it's the only version I know of her in this outfit. I'm hoping one day to be able to display it together with the gunner version from FF X-2. Isn't her dress something? ^_^

1/6 Faye Valentine at Hobbyfan

Today we finally reached the 10 requests needed to get this beautiful Faye into production again.





Now she's available for preorders and I wish to thank all the people who helped me to get it recasted again... you guys rock!

Some models I'm trying to get through preorders

Hiya! I'm trying to get into production these models and few more requests are needed:

This is a 1/6 scale Asuka I ordered here:

http://www.e2046.com/product_info.php?products_id=1475

1/6 Faye Valentine from Cawboy Bebop. I requested it for production here:

http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?products_id=280

10 orders are needed and we already have 7... not bad really!

And another 16/ Faye with Ein. This one you can order at

www.animeboxonline.com

Ordering here is a little different: you have to email them at

box@animeboxonline.com

with "Cawboy 04" in the subject. Once 20 orders are reached the model goes into production. So far we have 11 or 12 I think... but this is uptdated to a couple of days ago!

In any of these cases you don't have to pay anything before the model is ready for production.

Hope this little "advertisement space" will help the number of preorders needed for them to go up a little! ^_^

First Entry

Well, here I start this new task: being constant and keeping a nice, updated blog. The reason why I chose English as a language is because, although I'm actually Italian, I'm a member of a couple of international on-line communities. However my Italian friends are more then welcome to leave messages in the language of their choice between the two!^^


My main interest right now is modeling: this is a rather creative hobby I've been enjoying for the past 2 years and that is absorbing me completely. I am lucky enough to have a spare room in my apartment where I can mess up as much as I please...here are a couple of shots of my workspace (warning: order maniacs, keep out for your own safety!) :

Later on I'll post photos of the few finished works I have and of the in-progress ones.