july stash



july stash, a set on Flickr.

Growing Stash from these holidays- I spend too much money when left to my own devices!

 

MG Smoked Clear RX 78-2

1/1 Real Grade Construction Set

ANA 1/144 (still to come)

All sets are 'rare' and quite hard to get outside of Japan so Im quite happy with myself

Town Plans to Erect Life-Size Char’s Zaku Statue in December

In June, the young staff members of Mibu, Japan’s “Omocha no Machi” (Toy Town), formed a volunteer team that aims to erect a life-size version of the Zaku, the 18-meter-tall (about 59-foot-tall) mobile suit robot piloted by the Mobile Suit Gundam anime’s antagonist Char.

Located in Tochigi Prefecture north of Tokyo, Mibu is known for its many factories for plastic models and tin toys, although most have been shuttered by now. It is also the current home of the Omocha no Machi Bandai Museum, which already houses a life-size RX-78-2 Gundam bust (from the chest up).

The youth members raised the possibility of building a life-size Zaku to revitalize the town at a December town council meeting, and the resulting publicity generated 2,000 posts on an Internet forum. The team consulted with the copyright holders and estimated that it would take several billion yen (several tens of millions of U.S. dolars) to design and make the life-size replica.

Hiroshi Takayama, one of the 30 or so volunteers in the group, noted, “There are Gundam fans all over the world. We want to call (for cooperation to build the statue) throughout the world with Twitter and Facebook.” The team will also sell 1,000 limited-edition cups of strawberry-flavored juice cocktail at 100 yen (US$1.20) each — the red juice will invoke the image of Char’s Zaku — on July 16 during a charity event for the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster.

A life-size Gundam statue once stood on Tokyo’s artificial Odaiba island in 2009, but it moved to the central Japanese city of Shizuoka, the self-described “model capital of the world,” last year. Shizuoka ended its display of the statue in March, shortly after the March 11 earthquake.

(Animenewsnetwork, Yomiuri) via http://www.gunjap.net/site/?p=20169

Storm Damage

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Storm Damage, a set on Flickr.

Property Damage from the 5/7/11. Got off pretty lightly in the 'hurricane strength winds' (according to the news). Pity the tree didnt fall 2 meters more to the left as I could use a new car!

‘Wife-carrying’ champion wins again

 

Read this in the paper today at the obstetricians today…made me giggle!

World champions, Finland's Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen

A Finnish pair have won the country's annual wife-carrying competition for the third year in a row, organisers said on Saturday.
Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen defended their title in front of 6,500 spectators who turned out to watch the celebrated event in Sonkajarvi.
The 46-year-old lawyer, his partner's legs wrapped around his head, sprinted 253 metres, leaping hurdles and negotiating a water pool along the way, all in a time of one minute.
Less than a second behind them were Estonian rivals Alar Voogla and Kristi Viltrop while a Lithuanian couple came third.
The competition has its roots in the legend of local bandit Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen who lived in the forest at the end of the 19th century and stole food — and sometimes girls — from nearby villages.
"The course was trickier this year due to the water obstacle, which was deeper," said Miettinen in a telephone call.
"The weather conditions were also particularly tough, 30 C (86 F) is too much for me," he said.
The secret of his success? Miettinen, who has taken part in the competition 13 times, likes to practice the course wearing ski boots to build up his leg muscles.
He and his "wife" — for Haapanen is just a friend — are the first pair in the event's 16-year history to win three times in a row.
This year 47 couples from 10 different countries took part, with Israel, Russia and the United States among the countries represented.

 

http://oddnews.org/component/content/article/1-odd-news/1108-wife-carrying-champion-wins-again-afp.html


Gundam GP02A (type-MLRS)-final

Another quick build from the backlog. As mentioned below, I originally got this kit due to a stuff up at Hobbyco during my first ever online purchase from them (They didn't have a number of items that I ordered and paid for so they offered to select 'substitutes' to replace my ordered kits)

Anyway, this has been sitting in the cupboard for over a 18 months so I thought I should have a crack at it as it was my oldest backlog kit. You can read the kits backstory in this post but as I have not watched Stardust Memories, I have no idea!

Whilst the shield hand is a PITA (which is frustrating as the shield is a feature which makes this kit pretty unique), Im happy with how this came out given its was a straight OOTB build

 

Slideshow of the build and other assorted pics

MG Ball Version Ka.

Pulled this out of the backlog to get it started. Not sure why but it it just felt like the right time!!

It comes with clear option parts so I decided to give the internals some paint loving and see what how it comes out!

Front of pod

Back of pod- will have to give the gold a light sand as I was a bit heavy handed (plus I killed my 3/0 brush doing this for some reason)