Kotobukiya's Nineball

    An AC's exact height(excluding ACV) has always puzzled a lot of its fans, with some speculating they're several hundred feet tall while developers Fromsoftware say they're around 10 meters. In the japanese wikipedia it is said that the ACs in the AC1 era are estimated to be around 6 meters, but it's not easy to get an exact figure due to a lot of inconsistencies in the game. Based from the number of concept art that I've been gathering over the past few years, it suggests that the AC1-era AC's should be around 7-8 meters high, close to the height of the "labors" from Patlabor.

The lesser of two evils

 With the air bubble problems I'm having with easycast, I thought using a slow setting resin shouldn't have those problems. Apparently not. After waiting for an hour to demould, not only did it have large air bubbles, it had hundreds of tiny bubbles scattered throughout the surface.

  

  So I guess I'll stay with easycast until I find something better. For now I was able to reduce the large bubble gaps by making larger air vents.

Learning the hard way

Using fast curing resin was a bad idea. The resin starts to set within seconds that by the time you start pouring, it barely has enough time to completely fill the mold, leaving gaps in the cast part. Then there's the issue of trapped air inside the mold. Adding vents helped release the trapped air to some extent but some air pockets are still unable to escape since the resin sets too fast.

Began working on the head last week. I made a mistake when I cut out a large portion of the side vents, so it had to be rebuilt again. A few more mods includes a slight rebuild of the face by pulling it out by about 2mm and lowering the position of the chin. The cylindrical bands that hold the head vulcans(?) need to be made rounder at the back.

I've began work on shortening the torso. Took out about 5mm by cutting out the lower portion of the connecting frame, then cut out some of the upper portion of the abdomen.

The model currently stands at 18cm with it's feet straight. It might go down 17.??cm if I reduce the thighs but I'd rather keep the height where it is now. I should just widen it a bit to keep the proportions looking right. 

There is still some hope for a transforming core fighter  if I make room in the abdomen and making the armored canopy wider by a few millimeters. By doing that I can avoid making too many mods on the fighter itself since its a heavily jointed part.

   

One last look at my dearly departed GP01 version ka

 

Prepare to DieD

                

(Dark Soul's inspired amor. Blender, Mudbox & Maya, done in AIE)

     And so I'm back studying and doing an internshit, barely enough time to do some personal work. Aside from 3D printing, I'll be also working on my entry for Bakuc 2012(australia). What I have in mind is a Kawamori/ Anime conversion of the Master Grade GP01, and anyone familiar with the GP01 knows how different the MG model looks compared to the anime and Kawamori's sketches. Forgive my ignorance, but as much as I would like to say it is "Highly Inaccurate" there could be is a valid reason why the MG model looks nothing like itself(e.g. it's the fucking 90's/ redesigned). But what really motivates me is the near-zero attempts by other modelers to convert this kit into the anime version. In fact, I have yet to see someone attempt this.

A mod like this is not going to be just a mere V-fin-conversion-type-of-mod. Basically this model needs to be modified from head to foot and there's a huge chance I won't even meet the deadline.