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wm cheng

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Everything posted by wm cheng

  1. wm cheng
    Jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon! This is what I've done with my last few weeks off. They are the FineMolds 1/72 Tie Fighters - this is what I had envisioned when I first saw the Bandai Trident stand, so I kind of got the stand first, then bought the models to go with the stand (ass backwards!) a few years ago. After getting the amazing Bandai Y-Wing fighter recently, I thought I'd build these first to get myself back into the hang of building models. I've been out of the game for a while, just weathering and detailing toys for the last few years. It was a sobering experience. They are pretty incredibly detailed models for such a small scale (my last Star Wars model was the 70s MPC/AMT X-Wing which had to modify extensively which turned me off Star Wars models for a while). I highly recommend them, don't know what they're like compared to the new crop of Bandai Tie Fighters though. The Tie Fighters are by far the best kits I've built in a while (beautifully detailed, great hiding of seams and easy paint masking), while the Advanced Tie (Darth Vader's tie fighter) wasn't as well engineered as the original tie fighters - masking the black panels on the solar wings was indeed a pain! p.s. Oh, a bit of advice, you can hardly see any cockpit details after you're finished (I spent so much time detailing and carefully painting the cockpit)
  2. wm cheng
    Wow! That VF-0S is starting to look really good. But after being burned twice by Arcadia and that insane price - I just gotta pass, in fact I'm probably passing on all the Arcadia stuff if they keep pricing themselves at this level and giving us the same bare crap. I don't mind paying these prices, but this is what I expect in the +$3-400 range! http://www.hlj.com/product/SET88021
  3. wm cheng
    Beautiful! Dying to find out about the price.
  4. wm cheng
    What does it say? "...October 29th... 12 what, episodes?
  5. wm cheng
    Thanks! Got everything I need already. Just hoping to get the new Force Awakens X-Wing when it comes out which might be hard to get here in North America - argh!
  6. wm cheng
    Well, with PacRim 2 going down... I find myself with some unexpected extra time on my hands! I finally got back to my disaster a few years ago when I thought the Alclad black undercoat was Lacquer as it says on the bottle, but in fact it was an enamel and the oil wash I did on top ate into the undercoat causing a big mess. I ended up buying another kit and re-building it. This has to be a cursed kit, so many things went wrong but I finally dug it up and finished it last week. At least its in a presentable stage. I used so many different Alclad metalizer colours to differentiate the panels, but in the end it only looks like 2-3 shades (a lot of effort for naught). I also used a clear Tamiya red for the forward section with a metalizer undercoat and I love the way it gives the red so much more depth. I must commend Bandai for such a intricate and detailed tiny model, it really does the Cosmo Zero justice! I'm going onto a pair of Tie fighters and Darth's Advanced Tie from Fine Molds next - caught the Star Wars fever, plus its been a while since I built anything, they're small and easy and hopefully will train my skills back a bit in preparation for the newer Bandai Star Wars kits.
  7. wm cheng
    Yeah... I think that's the best they can do (which isn't much...) I don't think I've built an American kit in 30yrs.
  8. wm cheng
    You'd think that eh? But unfortunately not, every new Production Designer attached to any sequel will want to put their own personal stamp/mark on the franchise so they will "re-design" everything even if it's just ego (especially with North American designers). It's pretty rare to have art departments that would have worked on multiple films to re-use anything (this would have been my first film where I worked on the original and the sequel - most often the sequel is filmed somewhere else cheaper than the original). Its so sad to see all the amazing sets get trashed in giant garbage bins at the end of any show - its just too expensive for the studios to rent space to store anything these days. Its cheaper to re-build everything. I guess ILM would have the original digital models, but because of new software advances and probably new designs, its not often it gets reused without substantial work to modify the assets.
  9. wm cheng
    Yes it went down a few weeks ago, I had to clear my stuff out of the office. Hence now I have some time to build a model or two
  10. wm cheng
    Not so sure about BvS though... (you didn't hear it from me )
  11. wm cheng
    I'm pretty excited about this one! Having just wrapped out of it - I hope I can get back to a model or two before the next thing starts up. It was pretty special and a great crew. I have my fingers crossed for this.
  12. wm cheng
    Boy you guys are a lot more forgiving with a little time and hindsight behind us. The initial reviews when the movie came out on these boards here were absolutely scathing. I didn't mind it as much because I worked on it so I thought I was just wrong because I was too close to the project. Having watched the original many times while working on this remake made me realize how silly and over the top the original was and how a lot of what I loved about the first one was clouded by nostalgia and childhood. I find that when something achieves the status of camp/absurd - a lot is automatically forgiven.
  13. wm cheng
    Ain't that da truth
  14. wm cheng
    Really?! That level 2 X-Wing kit is just sad... it looks like melted blooby details. And to think that it is TWICE the size of the Bandai one (why is Revell making 1/50 scale X-Wing - uh?!) will only make the crappy simplified details look even bigger.
  15. wm cheng
    Thanks I got everything I needed from HLJ for now (even went back to get some more just in case Too bad the new X-Wing will be released too late for this Sep 20 deadline - argh.
  16. wm cheng
    Too late for that, I just got some big ass magnifying glasses on arms and jeweler's head gear glasses for Christmas last year and got old age ribbing from the in-laws to no end!
  17. wm cheng
    I believe it says available October http://bandai-hobby.net/sw/products/ep07_force/mc/mc01.html (but probably in Japan only due to the recent Disney decision to enforce the Japanese license and only let North America have Revell crap)
  18. wm cheng
    You saw the fine example Revell put out against the Bandai right?! http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=35122&p=1220991
  19. wm cheng
    Oh sweet Jesus!!! I can't believe it. I just got this kit, its amazing... amazingly tiny. I might as well just give up!!!
  20. wm cheng
    Beautiful! I love this Production Designer.
  21. wm cheng
    What a perfect illustration of the sad state of toys in NA... Bandai... Revell...
  22. wm cheng
    Wow! Are they bad!!! I'm actually surprised how bad they are... I would have thought that there would be some improvement in North American models in the last 40yrs - they are actually worst than the original AMT X-Wing model from the 70s.
  23. wm cheng
    Damn!!! Revell or AMT probably wanted to issue their pieces of crap to North America. I guess SW figured it could sell the same license multiple times all over the world to grab more cash.
  24. wm cheng
    What happened to that Star Destroyer that they teased us with last year?! - argh.
  25. wm cheng
    I personally think (for owners of Arcadia) that if I paid so much for this, its gotta be better (or at least more valuable). There's no doubt that the Arcadia on the secondary market is holding its value nicely as a collectible. I don't think this is it solely, but may account for some small preference towards Arcadia. I own both (but wished I had waited for only the Bandai now). Veblen good: "...A price increase may increase that high status and perception of exclusivity, thereby making the good even more preferable..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good However I'm not an investment collector, I buy ONE of each for myself and I open them as soon as I get them, modify them to my personal liking and play with them any chance I get, transforming them or zooming them around the room I have no intentions of ever selling my collection (as long as I'm alive ) I find I keep picking up my Bandai and playing with it, but with the exception of having to work on my Arcadia for 2wks, I never touch the Arcadia. I may be coloured by the fact that it sat naked in my collection being a huge visual eyesore (IMHO) for 3/4 of a year before I could get around to working on it so that it would at least blend into the rest of my collection. Oh, I forgot to mention how much I love that Bandai leg gimmick of the folding panels coming out to fill out the leg instead of the Arcadia dents for the arms to fold into. I wouldn't say Arcadia sucks ever! Just very disappointed for the amount of money I've spent on them - I think my expectations increase proportionally when they increase their price. I think partially also they were new and picked up after Yamato, so I had a lot of expectations riding on them when I originally ordered. I think Bandai did an pretty incredible job where we can even compare a $250 toy with a $400 toy (delivered prices I paid).
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