tekering's BItComp entry #2 - Quamzin resin kit

[tekering]

In the hopes that the "Built It Competition" hosted by @Return To Kit Form exceeds 20 entries ('cause I'm dead-set on getting a 1:72 Norbert Gerard Power Armour kit!), I've decided to devote all my resources to the task... meaning I'm gonna spend the next six months building all three of my Macross resin kits.  

The second is another Moscato Hobby kit, "Z Alien Commander Kamujin."  This one I'll be making into an action figure, with articulated joints.

Stay tuned!  

Edited May 1, 2019 by tekering

[Bolt]

Articulate Kamujin?

Very cool! You’ve got some nice entries here!

[sumyumgoy]

whoa, this is gonna be a good one, love all the entries.

[Convectuoso]

Can't wait to see this built! 

[Return To Kit Form]

Ooh I'll be shamelessly stealing your articulation tricks Telering. I've been wanting to do the same so I could post some Instagram pics of "Kevin" the shop Zentran getting up to shenanigans.

Don't blame me over the name my daughter came up with it 

I'm really looking forward to the build dude!

 

- Brett

[Podtastic]

On 5/1/2019 at 8:55 AM, tekering said:

In the hopes that the "Built It Competition" hosted by @Return To Kit Form exceeds 20 entries ('cause I'm dead-set on getting a 1:72 Norbert Gerard Power Armour kit!), I've decided to devote all my resources to the task... meaning I'm gonna spend the next six months building all three of my Macross resin kits.  

The second is another Moscato Hobby kit, "Z Alien Commander Kamujin."  This one I'll be making into an action figure, with articulated joints.

Stay tuned!  

Awesome!

[tekering]

So, I've been putting this one off while I tackle the much larger Gnerl (and the much more complex VF-11 Battroid), figuring it would be the simplest and easiest kit to build... but in fact, it's required far more modifications than the other two kits put together!  

It all started on October 1st, when Return 2 Kit Form posted these images on Facebook:

On the left is the stock figure, assembled exactly as intended; a resin statue, totally incapable of brandishing the rifle as depicted on the bottom right, much less straddling the Monster above it.  

Was this intended as a personal challenge to me, having previously declared my intention of articulating the figure?  

^{(Of course not -- it's just advertising the availability of the kit, and illustrating the character it represents.)}

Nonetheless, the gauntlet had been thrown down!  I would not rest until Quamzin could be posed as depicted.  

First, I decided where to install the Revoltech ball-joints; I figured they'd be needed in the shoulders, the elbows, the knees, and the neck as well.

It's not enough to just drill holes for the pegs; you've gotta hollow out sockets for those ball-joints to fit into.

If you've done a decent job, the joints should not be visible at all:

...at least, not unless you want Quamzin making grand, theatrical gestures.  

I then drilled similar sockets into the elbows, the gauntlets, the thighs, the legs, the neck, and the torso.

It's messy work, and resin dust gets everywhere.  I recommend a mask and goggles for this sort of thing, especially when using power tools.

With a joint installed in the neck, Quamzin can now look up and down, left and right, even glance over his shoulder.  

The next step was to fix that Beatles hairdo...

Easier said than done, I'm afraid.  

First attempt was too feminine, and still too short; second attempt looked like an unruly teenager.  

Okay, now it's looking more like Quamzin.  The left hand (stolen from a Marvel Legends Thor: Ragnarok figure) allows him to hoist the rifle in a more threatening two-handed manner.  

[Convectuoso]

Awesome! 

[Mazinger]

11 hours ago, tekering said:

Curious, what tool did you use to get such nice rounded sockets for the revoltech joints? Any specifics would be appreciated as I have been considering modifications of this kind on a few projects and already have a batch of revoltech joints.

[Return To Kit Form]

On 10/18/2019 at 8:36 PM, tekering said:

So, I've been putting this one off while I tackle the much larger Gnerl (and the much more complex VF-11 Battroid), figuring it would be the simplest and easiest kit to build... but in fact, it's required far more modifications than the other two kits put together!  

It all started on October 1st, when Return 2 Kit Form posted these images on Facebook:

 

Was this intended as a personal challenge to me, having previously declared my intention of articulating the figure?  

^{(Of course not -- it's just advertising the availability of the kit, and illustrating the character it represents.)}

Nonetheless, the gauntlet had been thrown down!  I would not rest until Quamzin could be posed as depicted.  

....You we right the first time. It was a personal challenge thrown down

 

Some seriously good work here Ted. Modifying figures is not  fot the faint hearted.

 

 

- Brett

[tekering]

8 hours ago, Return To Kit Form said:

Modifying figures is not  fot the faint hearted.

Especially not expensive, limited-production resin figures!  

It requires unspeakable acts of violence...

...but I'll go to any lengths to win a 1:72 Norbert Gerard.

Even getting the figure into this nigh-impossible pose!

I realize he wasn't wielding a rifle when he rode the Monster, but wedging his gun in between the cannons was the most secure way of keeping him from falling off...  

...and seriously, you've gotta go out of your way to keep a resin figure from falling, 'cause the painted surfaces are so easily damaged.  Paint rubs required me to remove and repaint his thighs several times while trying to get the right pose for him to straddle the HMR Monster.

I'm still painting the codpiece, using masking tape to isolate the areas that will remain black.

I'm fairly pleased with how the helmeted face turned out.  He looks like an evil bastard, doesn't he?  

Unfortunately, the visor he comes with completely obscures his features, so I won't be using it.  

It's not like he used it on Earth anyway, right?  

On 10/19/2019 at 5:41 AM, Mazinger said:

Curious, what tool did you use to get such nice rounded sockets for the revoltech joints?

I've used this Dremel head for years... it came with it, as I recall.

I'm afraid I can't be any more specific than that.  

Edited October 20, 2019 by tekering

[Podtastic]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

 

...but I'll go to any lengths to win a 1:72 Norbert Gerard.

 

Even getting the figure into this nigh-impossible pose!

I realize he wasn't wielding a rifle when he rode the Monster, but wedging his gun in between the cannons was the most secure way of keeping him from falling off...  

...and seriously, you've gotta go out of your way to keep a resin figure from falling, 'cause the painted surfaces are so easily damaged.  Paint rubs required me to remove and repaint his thighs several times while trying to get the right pose for him to straddle the HMR Monster.

 

I'm still painting the codpiece, using masking tape to isolate the areas that will remain black.

 

I'm fairly pleased with how the helmeted face turned out.  He looks like an evil bastard, doesn't he?  

This is fantastic. The rifle actually makes sense, it looks llke he is threatening the Monster's crew to get their act together - or else!

[Return To Kit Form]

16 hours ago, tekering said:

 

MMM A vac formed visor upgrade item is needed I think. I'll need to send them out to customers of course but if that visor isn't usable even after cleaning up and polishing then there is nothing else for it.

- Brett

[tekering]

On 10/21/2019 at 6:05 PM, Return To Kit Form said:

I'll need to send them out to customers of course but if that visor isn't usable even after cleaning up and polishing then there is nothing else for it.

Your commitment to quality is unparalleled!  

I tried 2000-grit sandpaper, buffing, and polishing compound, but that's as clear as I could get it.

On 10/21/2019 at 12:38 PM, Podtastic said:

The rifle actually makes sense, it looks llke he is threatening the Monster's crew to get their act together - or else!

Oh, I love that.  

I'm still not completely satisfied with the hair, but I'm very pleased with how Quamzin's eyes turned out...

...and the cut-joints I added to the thighs (in combination with the ball-jointed knees) allow for some more dynamic standing poses.

[derex3592]

He looks great! 

[tekering]

Here's the completed Quamzin with his iconic Glaug:

Even with a little forced perspective, the Hi-Metal R toy still doesn't quite scale.  

 

[jenius]

Super jealous of your skills, amazing work.

[Knight26]

Nice shot

[tekering]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

Super jealous of your skills, amazing work.

It's never too late to learn, my friend!    Modelers are a generous group, always open to sharing tips and techniques with others.  YouTube alone can teach you everything you'll ever need to know.

It's all just a matter of experience and practice.

[Podtastic]

I cant stop looking at these awesome pics.

[mickyg]

4 hours ago, tekering said:

It's never too late to learn, my friend!    Modelers are a generous group, always open to sharing tips and techniques with others.  YouTube alone can teach you everything you'll ever need to know.

It's all just a matter of experience and practice.

Pshhh!  Speak for yourself man - all my skills are top secret!

I keed, I keed.  I can't think of a single thing I know how to do with my own modelling experience, that I haven't learned by reading a tutorial, watching a video, or chatting with someone else.  A lot of that has come from this site, alone, too.  Of course you've got to then try it, but the point is that Ted's spot on.  It's never too late to start learning some new skills and modelling is one of those things I hope I never stop doing.

@tekering Lovely work on that figure!  Got any poses on the Monster, now that you've reached the finish line?  I know scale probably won't be kind but your previous pics looked great and certainly didn't make me think "that monster is way too small!" in the slightest.

Edited October 31, 2019 by mickyg

[Gatsu]

Has anybody ever noticed that this kit is totally out of scale? I recently finished my own and noticed this is not 1/72 scale. Kamjin should be tall 11,85 meters wich in 1/72 scale should be 11,85:72=16,45. The figure should be tall 16,45 cm, but it s tall only 9,78cm....  The real scale of the kit should be about 1/118 scale... Why Moscato did that and labeled it 1/72 scale, expecially considering he followed the officials sizes with the Regult kits?? Because, even though the figure could look more proportionated compared with the Regult kit, it is also true that it looks out of proportions with all others 1/72 official Macross kits, like hasegawa battroids and Bandai ones...

[Return To Kit Form]

Oh dear not this again...

You have 2 choices here:

1) Comply with official stats (which are made up and don't work when you try to fit a pilot in their mecha) and/or how the anime scales out. In which case you are 100% right Quamzin is too small.

2) Pick a size for the Zentran Mecha so that they scale nicely with each other  AS A REAL WORLD PHYSICAL ITEM and then make a pilot that will fit inside (which is what John did for the Zentran Soldier and Quamzin).

Be very certain that you CANNOT have both and that no one else has gotten close to getting the scale right accross the different mecha. The much vaunted Bandai HMR line of toys is a perfect case in point where they didnt even try to get close. 

Simples.

Cheers,

Brett

[NZEOD]

On 5/16/2020 at 5:33 AM, Gatsu said:

Has anybody ever noticed that this kit is totally out of scale? I recently finished my own and noticed this is not 1/72 scale. Kamjin should be tall 11,85 meters wich in 1/72 scale should be 11,85:72=16,45. The figure should be tall 16,45 cm, but it s tall only 9,78cm....  The real scale of the kit should be about 1/118 scale... Why Moscato did that and labeled it 1/72 scale, expecially considering he followed the officials sizes with the Regult kits?? Because, even though the figure could look more proportionated compared with the Regult kit, it is also true that it looks out of proportions with all others 1/72 official Macross kits, like hasegawa battroids and Bandai ones...

then you'd be trying to claim the old plastic 1/72 Glaug kits are the right size... now go try to stuff your 1/72 scaled Zent soldier into it... yeah... not happening.  

 

Johns ones are the best compromise.

Edited May 20, 2020 by NZEOD

[Podtastic]

On 5/20/2020 at 4:39 PM, Return To Kit Form said:

Oh dear not this again...

You have 2 choices here:

1) Comply with official stats (which are made up and don't work when you try to fit a pilot in their mecha) and/or how the anime scales out. In which case you are 100% right Quamzin is too small.

2) Pick a size for the Zentran Mecha so that they scale nicely with each other  AS A REAL WORLD PHYSICAL ITEM and then make a pilot that will fit inside (which is what John did for the Zentran Soldier and Quamzin).

Be very certain that you CANNOT have both and that no one else has gotten close to getting the scale right accross the different mecha. The much vaunted Bandai HMR line of toys is a perfect case in point where they didnt even try to get close. 

Simples.

Cheers,

Brett

The official stats are an absolute joke and contradict the SDFM anime to the level of absurdity. The fact is that in SDFM a Zentradi soldier and a Battroid are on the same scale, and the Regult/Glaug is MUCH bigger.

You are absolutely right about the HMR line, funny how there's never comment about the Regult being too small next the terribly over sized battroid.

 

 

 

 

[tekering]

1 hour ago, Podtastic said:

The fact is that in SDFM a Zentradi soldier and a Battroid are on the same scale, and the Regult/Glaug is MUCH bigger.

And yet, the Nousjadel-Ger is the same height as a Spartan...?

SDFM does not provide a reliable (or even consistent) scale of reference.  

 

[Podtastic]

33 minutes ago, tekering said:

And yet, the Nousjadel-Ger is the same height as a Spartan...?

SDFM does not provide a reliable (or even consistent) scale of reference.  

 

Hmmm... I never bothered to consider that obscure human mecha ....I guess not then.

But the Zentradi soldier heights were pretty much consistent if I recall.

This size relation makes much better sense to me than what we see in HMR and those crazy official stats.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Podtastic

[MechTech]

Tekering, somehow I missed this thread before. Your build is great! The mods are a great touch and he came together perfectly! Great poseability!

But why do I think he looks like a '70's heart throb version of John Travolta?  -MT

[Gatsu]

Yes, of course the official sizes are a ridiculous joke. But if you look in the anime, in most cases, zentraedi soldiers are a bit smaller than Battroids, Britai is a bit taller than a Battroid, Kamjin is almost as tall as a battroid, Regults and Glaugs are a lot bigger than Battroids ( Noudjaseul being the smallest of the zentraedi's mechas as they are in fact just powered armors) even if dimensions aren t always constant. What is sure is that Britai and Battroids are almost the same size, just Kawamori made a mess with mechas sizes. So, you can follow 2 logical choices: 1 stick to the official sizes as Bandai hmr did OR 2 make the zentraedi's mechas bigger. So Moscato could have simply made zentraedi figures and mechas coherent with the official sizes ignoring that they could not fit toghter OR could have made mechas bigger so that they appear logically coherent with zentraedi figures and Battroids. He did not one or the other... it seems like he made the Regult first, witout thinking about a possible future zentraedi soldier release, then as he thought about making Zentraedi figures he tried to make them looks coherent with the Regult and then he decided to make them smaller compared to what they should be ignoring the comparison with Battroids.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Gatsu

[Gatsu]

On 5/20/2020 at 10:39 PM, NZEOD said:

then you'd be trying to claim the old plastic 1/72 Glaug kits are the right size... now go try to stuff your 1/72 scaled Zent soldier into it... yeah... not happening.  

 

Johns ones are the best compromise.

Sorry but the best compromise is simply making Regult and Glaug big enough to fit (or to be close to the appearance it could) with a correct scale soldier. Simple. That was what Yamato was going to do...

[Gatsu]

On 5/24/2020 at 4:24 PM, Podtastic said:

The official stats are an absolute joke and contradict the SDFM anime to the level of absurdity. The fact is that in SDFM a Zentradi soldier and a Battroid are on the same scale, and the Regult/Glaug is MUCH bigger.

You are absolutely right about the HMR line, funny how there's never comment about the Regult being too small next the terribly over sized battroid.

 

 

 

 

I personally believe Kawamori made the official sizes before they began to work on the anime. When they began to work on it they simply noticed the sizes were simply nonsense and corrected them... within the limits of a low budget anime... And well, about HMR... their sizes are totally non sense but it's Kawamori's fault, not Bandai's...

Edited May 26, 2020 by Gatsu

[Podtastic]

10 hours ago, Gatsu said:

I personally believe Kawamori made the official sizes before they began to work on the anime. When they began to work on it they simply noticed the sizes were simply nonsense and corrected them... within the limits of a low budget anime... And well, about HMR... their sizes are totally non sense but it's Kawamori's fault, not Bandai's...

Probably.

But with HMR I always thought it was just a case of practicality. They cant make the Regults and valks to scale because :

1) Larger Regults = more cost and less chance of sale

2) Smaller valks means main item Japanese customers want is less attractive

If there wasnt so much obsession with idol dollys and valks Macross would be much richer both in both animation and model / toy collecting.

[Bolt]

On 10/31/2019 at 8:11 AM, tekering said:

Here's the completed Quamzin with his iconic Glaug:

Even with a little forced perspective, the Hi-Metal R toy still doesn't quite scale.  

 

That is a great job @tekering loved the hair job. 

 

48 minutes ago, Podtastic said:

If there wasnt so much obsession with idol dollys and valks Macross would be much richer both in both animation and model / toy collecting.

It's because of the above mentioned that Macross is a fountain of prosperity right now..

[Podtastic]

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

That is a great job @tekering loved the hair job. 

 

It's because of the above mentioned that Macross is a fountain of prosperity right now..

Meaning they sell.

Sex sells too, but that doesnt make prostitution great.

Macross isnt as cool as it could be if the content/merchandise were as expanded as Star Wars.  Fans are forced to buy garage kits because the official lines are so limited.

 

[Return To Kit Form]

15 hours ago, Gatsu said:

I personally believe Kawamori made the official sizes before they began to work on the anime. When they began to work on it they simply noticed the sizes were simply nonsense and corrected them... within the limits of a low budget anime... And well, about HMR... their sizes are totally non sense but it's Kawamori's fault, not Bandai's...

So it is okay for Bndai to make a 1/90 scale Vf-1 and a 1/97 scale monster?

 

I dont buy it.  Any argument about scale with regard to Macross makes no sense and is indefensible. A choice has to be made. I have already explained the grounds for the decision and it sounds reasonable to me. No other choice is more or less accurate because the source material makes no sense and is inconsistent.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Return To Kit Form