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Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category

Castle Grayskull

Sunday, September 27th, 2020

Today I finished building this:

It’s a 3500 piece model of Castle Grayskull from Masters Of The Universe. It looks like LEGO but it’s actually ‘Mega Construx’, which is a LEGO ~~ripoff~~ competitor. The kit came out for $250 but I got it for quite a bit less on Amazon, both because I love the design and because the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

The packaging is beautiful and opening the massive (and heavy!) box revealed lovely art and a fantastic manual. The 50+ bags of pieces are separated into four smaller boxes each with their own art, and the entire thing screamed quality.

The kit was built in five parts, each of which took 2-3 hours. It wasn’t a trivial build, but not as challenging as the more complex LEGO technic kits. However the mega construx pieces are slightly lower quality than LEGO and occasionally were difficult to actually push together! As a result it was physically more difficult to make this set than your average LEGO kit 🙂

There’s also the occasional bit of molding flash visible (as you can see above) and the manufacturing of the pieces isn’t as perfect as LEGO, but overall I was extremely impressed with how well the set was designed and went together. I had routinely dismissed LEGO competitors before making this kit, but now I’ll have to keep my eyes open in case anything else of this quality is released.

That’s the front of the finished castle…

And that is the back. Note the curved walls and roof, and the 100+ individual little brown pieces used for roof tiles. It’s a tall kit, very sturdy and heavy. I feel if I dropped it it would hardly break!

Of course it opens and has massive amounts of ‘play features’ including several doors, a jail cell (with creepy inhabitant), a moving throne, a cannon, ladder, moving lift etc. It came with six minifigs (and I bought a few extras myself) which are a good LEGO-scale equivalent of the original guys from the 1980s.

I’ve always loved LEGO castles and for many years have wished for a highly detailed and large kit (perhaps of Neuschwanstein) so when I saw this I bought it as much for it being a castle as the (cool!) MOTU origin.

It was great fun to build and looks wonderful up on my bookshelf. But there’s still a spot free if LEGO is inspired and finally releases a detailed castle of their own…

Posted in Crafts, Models, Retro, Toys | Comments Closed

Send Noodles

Tuesday, September 1st, 2020

It’s time for some more lockdown cooking! This time I decided to make myself a full Japanese dinner:

Here’s the ingredients and tools all laid out in preparation:

I started with the spring rolls and gyoza, mixing the dough and carefully crafting each with a sweet crunchy filling:

The ramen was next. After mixing the cola-flavored broth I piped the noodle dough directly in:

And then topped with a naruto and slice of boiled egg! Here’s the entire meal, including a melon-pudding for dessert:

It was all great, but the noodles were sublime:

While I was working on the main course Kristin baked up a platter of waffles with berries and sauce:

Another gourmet success!

Posted in Crafts, Food | Comments Closed

My Mindflayer

Monday, August 10th, 2020

After great success several years ago, I thought it was time again for some fantasy miniature painting. So I bought myself – for only $5 – this dude:

It’s a 2 inch tall plastic model (by Reaper Miniatures) called D’Khul Bathalian. But if you’ve played D&D you’ll recognize this as a Mindflayer, an iconic evil octopoid-humanoid. As you can see the figure is astonishingly detailed for its size, and when painted professionally it looks mighty good as these examples show:

Obviously I wanted to paint mine to look as good as these, and reflecting back on my efforts from last time I considered any flaw in the final work due exclusively to my choice of paints. This time, rather than using free paint that came with a children’s magazine, I would invest in high quality tools. And so I did:

I purchased this set of premium acrylics for only $9, which I thought quite reasonable considering it came with three brushes! I’d never used acrylics before, but was sure I’d have no trouble due to my overall better-than-average artistic skills.

The figures don’t need primer, so you can just ~~slap on~~ apply the paint with little setup. Everyone knows mindflayers are purple so the first choice of colors was easy and shortly after I begun I knew a masterpiece was being made.

That’s a shot of my palette upon completion. I chose dark colors to evoke the evil of The Underdark and the bright whites and yellows were used for overbrushing (for detail) and the magic effects of the staff. I blended red and black to create a clotted-blood colour for his robe and the blue was used extremely sparingly (a few atoms only) to detail his medallion. In short my design was eclipsed only by my effort, and both resulted in a final work I’m immensely proud of:

Thoughts?

Posted in Art, Crafts, Models | 1 Comment »

Cannon Bull

Saturday, June 13th, 2020

I bought the above in Japan in January. I vacillated on the purchase since luggage space was tight but I decided in the end to make it fit.

It’s a ZOID! But not a plastic model version; this is a toy version. You still assemble it, but it’s much easier and the pieces aren’t on runners. I’ve done one like this before, but they still make and sell new ones and this one seemed to be a new release.

Assembly was trivial, but I was surprised to see (since I apparently didn’t bother looking closely at the packaging) that it has a battery powered motor in it! I selected this kit for its appearance though, and think it looks quite nifty.

That’s the finished product. According to the ZOIDs wiki this is a medium sized ‘buffalo type’ weapons platform that has a mass of 50.4 tonnes and carries a 9-barreled missile pod for long range attacks!

And there he is attacking! He moves at a good clip and the barrels of his missile launchers click as they ‘fire’.

A fun little toy. Next time I’m in Japan I’ll be picking myself up another one of these I reckon…

Posted in Animals, Crafts, Miscellaneous, Models, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Storm Trooper

Saturday, March 28th, 2020

It was time for some craft. He selected, from his stash of things-to-do, an item he had received for his birthday several weeks earlier:

The papercraft kit was unlicensed: a DIY mask of a Storm Trooper which greatly resembled characters in a beloved film series. The box was large and extremely lightweight, he thought as he broke the seal. It was only flimsy card after all:

Forty-seven pieces to be glued together! He’d made – or attempted to make – complex kits before and was immediately hesitant. But this wasn’t just a curio, it was a mask! He vowed to complete it…

At first it wasn’t too difficult and he thought he’d have it done in an hour or so. But the pieces became increasingly complex and the folds insane. He needed three hands and the patience of a saint! His fingers were sticky with glue as the going got harder. His conviction was tested, his mood dark. The hours passed.

And yet… and yet somehow it was piecing together error-free despite his frustration and the complexity. While he hated the tedious task he had to admit he was impressed with the design and engineering. This was vastly better than any other paper craft he’d tried.

The hardest pieces were in the last quarter but at that point he had the measure of the thing. And then, when the last (of over 250!) tabs was folded and glued, his relief was paramount! The Storm Trooper was finally complete:

There was one last challenge. The mask looked the part, but was it just for looks, or would it accommodate his giant head? Gingerly, laser sword in hand, he slipped it on:

Yes he hated making it, and yes he may even burn it to ash in a pyrotechnic extravaganza one day. But in that moment, as he wore it with pride, all was good.

Posted in Art, Crafts, Otaku | Comments Closed

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