Sunday, February 3, 2008

Keroro K66

I caught a glimpse of this Keroro model while helping out with the CNY shopping. Being a sucker for model kits and Keroro, I bagged one home and I immediately realized my model kit tools were gone after my 2 years absence. All that's left is just my penknife and a pair of rusting pliers. The paintbrushes are still here but acrylic paint have hardened along with my Tamiya adhesives. It's not worth if I buy the tool kits again because I won't be at home assembling kits as actively as I used to. So this Keroro K66 here was made with whatever stuff I could get my hands on in my room. And since I'm in the topic, I'm gonna teach the real basics on model kit assembling for those wannabes out there. Nothing fancy.

STEP 1
After moments gazing at the box model arts, specs and the katakana you can't understand, remove the box plastic wrappers. Be careful though, use penknife, meat cleaver or anything sharp to do this as we don't want any damage on the content. Once opened take a whiff at the smell of a virgin model kit.


STEP 2
Count all the pieces to make sure you won't go back to the store to ask for a refund/replacement. But usually things from nippon rarely have missing parts.




STEP 3
Follow the instructions provided. Don't worry if you don't understand Japanese because the instruction are given in graphically easy-to-follow form.





CAUTION
DO NOT snap the pieces out of their frames forcefully as you'll end up with damaged parts and/or with hideous white snap-scar that will be noticeable up close.





Be a pro and patiently cut off the frames slowly with knife. Also you'll have to know where the weak point is (READ THE INSTRUCTIONS). Once you get used to it you'll only need to rely on your intuition to do this.




TIP
If your model kit is a mechanoid (have legs) try to start from bottoms up (ignoring the steps instructed). The sight of a leg standing is good enough to motivate you to continue. This is really good if the model takes 2-3 days or even a week to complete.


STEP 4
Once fully assembled, only then you can focus on sticking the stickers, air-brushing and other finishing touches to the model. Do the spraying and air-brushing outside. Various felt tip markers or even normal gel pen can be used to do the outlining.




Since almost all model kits don't come with the complete color of the actual thing several finishing touches are required. I have no need to explain the paint job part (just painting over the parts with the supposed colors). Outline stroking on the other hand is a method of applying black lines on the contours, just to make it look like the ones in the anime/manga. In other words, just click here.



Viola! A completed Keroro's K66.Outlining and paint job not yet applied. But hey, I love the model, and definitely Keroro piloting the K66 (he's fully articulated, except for the knees)

1 comment:

Ham said...

whoops forgot to add in, the model was completed in 38 minutes. need to find a model kit to break my 7 days record with the German battleship Bismarck.