New box for the mini villains

I was pretty happy with the design of the boxes I've done for the mini villains, based on the original design of the first serie. But little Garada and little Rokuron are from second serie then I had in mind all the time that it could be cool to push the detail to the next level and have a mini replica of the original box of this second serie.
Well, those of you familiar with those bad boys know how hard it is to find a boxed second serie villain. But a good friend and fellow collector who owns those precious boxes helped me and provided me with high resolution pictures of his and after a little stop by photoshop, then the print shop, here they are.

 

They are a bit too big compare to the little guys but it's  because I had to match the depth and little Garada is pretty deep with his launcher and the trigger in the back. I still have to work on the insterts to put them properly and safely in their new boxes.

I'm still not sure of which version I prefer, on the previous one there's only the main character displayed:

 

And on the new one there's of course the whole second serie, so maybe I will have to do the whole set to be give this new box the real meaning of it. Hey but that's a hell of a job :))

Full size Garada K7

Hello everybody.

 Well, this is the first post of 2012 and for this first one it's time for big news.
Enough with 3D render images, time for real stuff here.

I've been busy like hell at my "official" job but I was able to continue working on this and finally launch the 3D print of a full size Garada.
I guess that it's not a mystery for anyone reading this that I'm kind of obsessed with this guy, and even if I'm a proud owner of a replica of the original I needed to make my own replica.
Basically after the print of the small version during this summer, I've work a fine tuning the model to be more accurate to the original, since it's printed in full size, there was a lot of work for redoing all the wall thickness on each part. I wanted it to be more articulated and have the launcher able to work but that's something you already know if you've follow this blog. I know I've probably mess a few stuff compare to an original, like the size of the launcher is probably too big and there's maybe other stuff weird like I'm symmetrical on hands and the original not but the overall look is there I think.

The production of this full size print was really interesting and I've learn some great stuff about how to optimize my prints for this specific printing process. But that's technical stuff and I'm not going to loose your time with this.

What you have to know is that I've work with Materialise, the same company who printed my Rokuron Q9 and the Daltanious head and once again they've done an amazing job. They offer an amazing service and you really see that they know what they're doing. So a big thanks to them.

I've just pick up my print this morning and here's the first image, completely raw before the long post process steps, sanding, drilling the rivets, mechanical parts for the launcher and finally painting. But the good news is that all parts are connecting perfectly and everything seems to be like it was in my head. The arms are raising, the launcher connect perfectly. When I've receive my package this morning at Materialise Headquarters I couldn't resist to open the box and put all the pieces together. I was really impressive to see it printed so big, incredible feeling.

Here's a few pict to see a bit this fantastic character. There's a few alone and then there's a side by side with a real Doublas to get an idea and then finally there's a side by side with the replica I own to check for size and all that.

 

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be busy for weeks to finalize this guy but stay tune for the evolution of this project and for the next stuff to come.
This blog start to look more and more like a huge dedication to Garada and this need to change a bit :))

Garada's Revenge

What if the good guys turned out to be the bad guys, what if the vilains were actually the heroes... Imagine a world with Garada K7 being the star of the show. Probably the commercial for the toy line in the 70's would have look like this:

So for all of you who suffered from seeing this Jumbo Mazinger commercial with our favorite vilain exploding, well it was time for him to take his revenge. Payback Time mouahahahahahahahahahaha......

This is a little something I've been working on the past few days, each time I was watching the original commercial it was too hard for me, so I decided to do this little thing to balance my pain, kind of a little therapy.

Garada K7 Fine Tuning

Or you can call this my Garada obsession...

I know, I need to finish my clear Doublas, but I'm so sick of sanding that it's almost impossible to find the motivation to sand during the evenings and the night.

So I've decide to spend a bit more time on something else for the moment and go back to 3D modeling. Well it's not like starting from scratch here and doing a new character but it's something I wanted to check first.

After I've finish the small version a few month ago, there was something not really accurate in the head and some proportions. Of course the little one is nice but it was a bit like something was missing. Like if I wasn't able to catch his real soul. That's maybe a bit why also I wanted to get back to this model.

Since I have the 3D file for it I wanted to see how much it might cost to do a full size version. I've first think: ok let's scale it and see, but actually it's not that easy. When I've done the scale up of the little model, well the wall thickness of each pieces was around 4mm, that was too much and since a part of the price of a 3D print is based on volume, you can easily guess that it can turn out more expensive if you don't optimize your model.
For that size you need to have 2mm of thickness so for the moment I'm redoing all the interior of each part to get that.
There's also a few things I wanted to optimize based on my first big replica I've done a few years ago. One of the regrets I had for that one was the fact that it was a fix figure, I had to glue the arms and legs. So for this one I would like to be able to move the arms. I don't really care about the legs actually.
And if I go for it, why not try to have a real launching gimmick, so I will be able to put small balls there and launch them. So I'm also working on that and try to find a way to make it work.

Enough talking, here's a few picts.

On those two first it's a side by side of the previous model, the one I've printed in small and the revised version.

Ok it's a bit like the 7 mistake game: Oops our graphic designer have done some mistake, will you be able to find them??

 

So basically what I've done here, is make the head a tiny bit bigger, raise the eyes levels, make the nose go down more and change his orientation. I've also make the launching gimmick more in the right size, it's still maybe a bit too wide. I've adjust some height like the knees are more high, the legs also. The feet are a bit closer to the original. So a few details that improve the overall feeling I think.

Oh, and I've also add the detail on his mouth as you can see below.

 

Here's a  pict with all the main parts spread apart to get an idea of how it's put together. The launcher will be connected in the middle so I will be able to pass one part in the front and the other one in the back. Actually I'm really curious to know how the real launcher was put in place on the real Garada. I don't know if the original launcher was also in two parts or if it was in a single part and push inside the vinyl. If anyone have an idea, please don't hesitate to post a reply here.

And here's the final pict with a detail of the connection I'm planning to do on the arms. So it's pretty simple, you will put the arms raised, push them on the connection part and when you turn them down it will be locked. Normally this way you can have some range of movement. I might put a little rubber band around the connection piece to create some friction so that the arm stays in place as I'm afraid that with the weight they will go down all the time and I will end up gluing them :))

Once all this will be finished and looking perfect I will be able to get a real quote to see if going for a full size is an option or not. Price for the Rokuron Q9 full size was kind of heavy but it was almost three years ago. So now 3D print is more popular and it might be more interesting.

Anyway, one thing is sure, the chances to score a real one are so close to zero and the price for the real deal is soooooo high that it's maybe more realistic to dream about this project than the real one.

But you never know, maybe one day for real.

Some news

Hello all.

Well, it's been some time now since my last post, but this doesn't mean that nothing is going on.
After my wonderfull holidays, and some really good times, a nice little rush was waiting for me at the office and it was hard to focus on something else.
I still had the time to start some research on several stuff I want to try some day and on some ways to produce some of my stuff.

Nothing really concrete for the moment, but I really would like to try a bit more casting resin and experiment some stuff like complex molds and all.

Now that I have a more precise idea about all that, I've decide to go back on my sanding sessions. Yeah I know, I've already told this lots of times, but I hate sanding.....And right now I'm back on the clear Doublas, and the bad news is that I have to sand both sides of each piece to try to achieve the result I'm looking for. So, long evenings sanding and sanding even more.....

It's really the painfull part of this technic, of course I can ask for pieces that are already sanded but it almost multiply the cost by 3....So even if it's not time saving for me, it's highly cost saving to do it myself.

So, nothing to show really for the moment but you can expect to see some work in progress of this little guy pretty soon.

Once it's complete, I think I will do a break with the sanding and try to do some custom project and avoid 3D printing for a moment, even if I have huge projects for that in the future, it might be good to play with something else for a bit.

It's holiday time for me

Just a quick post.

After a rush on the mini vilains to be ready for the East Coast Chogokin Summit and a HUUUGE rush at work after that, well, I'm finally on holidays for two weeks and I'm planning to do:

Nothing

No jumbo project, no work, no 3D, no sanding, for once I will just enjoy my time and my familly.

But I've lots of things on my mind and on my to do list for when I'm back, so you can expect the final version of the clear Doublas M2, maybe an extra mini Vilains and some nice suprises.

Until then take care.

Mike

Repro Boxes

A little post with some repro boxes to start this month smoothly.

The good thing about Machinder collecting is that the toys are amazing but so are the boxes. Each one is a piece of art and beeing able to display them with their boxes is just amazing. Well I'm quite lucky to own a few original boxes but having them all boxed is close to impossible since it's hard to find and quite expensive for some pieces.

So, this is something I wanted to finalize for a long long time. A few years ago I was visiting a fellow collector also know as The Most Famous N.... and I was able to take lots of picts of his jumbo boxes. After a few month I had the time to put them together and have files ready for print, some picts were a bit blurry so there's some parts of some boxes that are not perfect but the overall feeling is there and it's nice to at least have that.

For the Ultraman Taro and Leo, the picts used to create the boxes were just picts from another collection, when I've take them I didn't had in mind to do boxes with them since I didn't had the two Ultras back then. After I've finally score both and looking at some of the picts I've take during my visit to another big collector I realized that maybe I can do something with those picts. The quality was pretty bad and I had to use lots of tricks to have a decent file.

The prints came out great and it's probably almost two years that I need to fold them and put them together. And finally I had some time to do them this week so this is one big thing less on my Jumbo To Do List.

The bad news is that the cardoard part is stronger than the original one and I can't put them in my display case, so I will have to find a new way of displaying my big guys, but already have an idea.

 

So, this is a bit different from the other stuff I usually show here, but hey it's my blog and I can show whatever I want here :))

Some real and some virtual pictures

Today's post is mainly pictures.

After rushing on the mini machinder to be able to bring them with me last week end to Boston, the return home was quite hard, full rush at work and no real time to do something else.

But when I was at the East Coast Chogoking Summit, I had the huge honnor and pleasure to stay at a friend's house, a fellow collector who as one of the biggest and mind blowing Jumbo Machinder collection. Since I had the Mini Machinder with me it sounded like a good plan to take a few pictures with the real Jumbo Vilains. It's not everyday that you're able to see a real Rokuron Q9, well not everyday for me, there's some lucky guy out there of course.

I first wanted to do quick pict and was looking for a nice background, when my friend just poped out a mini photo studio he use to take some pictures for toys he review. Woaw, that was just too perfect. I've jump on the occasion to take some picts of the mini guys only since I don't have all this at home.

As you might already know, it's almost close to impossible to get a real Garada K7 so the Mini Garada was a bit lonely but still stand out on the picts I think.

Here's a few picts

It's pretty cool to be able to get all those together.

 

 

Ok, so now there's a little something I was able to finalize quickly. A few weeks ago I've post an image with lots of Garada. Well, this was done with a work in progress model and with not all the little details. So here's the final version of this, now there's the little rivets, the two greens. It looks a bit better now.

 

I've see a few people use the previous image as desktop image, feel free to use those like a real Garada K7 fan.

Mini Garada K7 complete the infernal trio

Yes, finally the 3 mini Machinders are done but this little Garada was hard to finalize.

For the little story, I first send the 3D modeling to Shapeways as I've done the other with them, the resul this time was awfull, don't know why but it seems like the quality control there is really bad, there's probably no quality control.

Anyway, so I had to fight a bit with them for a refund and I've then send the file to Materialise, the guys with who I've done my big projects, they are a bit more expensive but at least they are real pro and they know how to use their printer.

The print came early this week and since then I've spend all my evenings sanding it. On Doublas I had to re-sand it after the first layer of paint as the print layers where still visible. So for Garada I wanted to avoid this and spend enough time on the sanding. It was clean this morning and since I had a full day off, well I decided to paint it. The print layers where still a bit visible even after all this sanding but it was not that bad so I've decide to keep it like this. The first layer turned out great, but then the green was just a mess. I don't know why but I was mixing some colors to get the green but when adding the thinner it started to make some little drop when sprayed. I was thinking that my airbrush was maybe a bit dirty so I've clean it and redo the same mix. But it turned out the same way, again little drops. I've clean everything one more time and this time I've decided to use water instead of the thinner and yes this time it was working.
Since it was a bit painfull with the green, I haven't paint the body with the slightly brighter green, but with the same color to avoid more troubles.

After a few other accident, the Garada was painted and glued. Ok you have to know that I'm doing all those stuff in my basement with a crappy light. And when I went upstairs with this little guy, I've discover that the green, that was looking ok down there, was a bit too funky pop green. Damn, I've build a disco fluo Garada K7. Well it's not that bad but it's slightly off and feel a bit weird. I will have to watch out for this if I do a full size one. I also noticed one thing, the head might be a tiny bit too small when looking at the general proportions.

But at the end I'm quite happy with those three little guys, they look pretty nice together and at least I will be able to display them at home since they don't take much space.

As usual, here's the picts, enjoy!

Next mission: Finish the clear Doublas M2. ARGLLLL even more sanding......:))

Mini Garada K7 work in progress

Today, early in the morning I went to pick up my latest 3D print and the third of the mini Machinders serie. A mini replica of the famous and obscure Garada K7. My original plan with those little guys was to do at least those 3 and maybe an extra one but not in the weeks to come.

So here's a few pictures with the raw print before any post process. I guess I will have to spend some evening to sand it, I'm a bit afraid to loose some details as I've been soft in the modeling like the horizontal lines on the body. You barely see them and I hope that after the cleaning and sanding they will still be there. I might have to redo them once the print will be clean.

I've also work a bit on the design of the boxes so here's a few pictures of the mini Garada and the infernal trio with their boxes.