Hasegawa Eggplane Series TH8 Zero Fighter Part 2

Satay time. Gonna apply Mr. Surfacer 500.

 Close-up view for Mr. Surfacer 500.

 Using Mr. Masking Sol R on the Canopy, and removing the masking on the paintable area.

 Done with the masking, next is spray time! I'm using Tamiya xxx

 This is what happen if you didn't clip properly on your model kit. It fall down while doing spraying :(

 I'm not sure why this will happen, it has the bubbles after spraying.. Some of my friend told me that, maybe is the paint is to old, or I shake too much before I spray. If you know what causing this, please leave your comment :) End of Part 2.

Hasegawa Eggplane Series TH8 Zero Fighter Part 1

This is my first try on air plane plastic model kit. Hasegawa Eggplane Series TH8 Zero Fighter.

During the final years of the War in the Pacific, the Zero was used in Kamikaze operations. As known as suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks. (Source: wikipedia)

It is a simple kit, not much runners.

 Close-up view of the instruction menu.

 First stop, cement.

 Stormtrooper is excited and ready to fly with Zero.

Oniomania

Early this year, I received a report from my doctor claiming that i have a health addiction sickness. Oniomania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oniomania

Symptoms: Self denotive, Problems at work, Physical health issues. Neglected appearance. Changes in behavior. Spending money.

I have been seeking various types of treatment for my disease but have not been successful until recently when my doctor suggested this treatment. Editing by Sylvia.

Removing Stickers/Labels/Price tags

Are you having difficulty with removing stickers, labels or price tags on your toy box without sticky residue or damage? Before I begin, I would like to thank Eric for sharing this amazing tip.

All you need is a hair dryer.

Let's pick a test subject. As you can see, if you want to open the container, you have to remove the sticker first.

Use the hair dryer to heat the sticker for approximately 40 seconds to 1 minute.

Peel off the label slowly and if you notice it's still hard to peel it off, try heating the label for another 30 to 40 seconds.

Viola! No sticky smudges!

Let's take another object, a plastic container of tic tac sweets, bought in early December 2011. For the front side, I tried to remove the label without heating the sticker, and for the back side, I used the hair dryer to heat the sticker before peeling it off.

Ok, Stormtrooper, I order you to tear of the sticker so make sure you do it perfectly!

Stormtrooper!! Look! What have you done!?

This is the result you get when you just tear off directly. As you can see, tearing it this way may leave a sticky residue. Even worse, the label tears halfway.

Heating the sticker before peeling reduces risk of sticky smudges and tearing of the labels (as shown in the picture).

This tutorial may not work for some labels especially those labels or stickers that are super sticky. It is not a 100% guarantee that it will work. Editing by Sylvia.

D.I.Y. Lego Stormtrooper Earrings

This year, as I want to give my wife a special birthday present, I am going to make a pair of Lego Stormtrooper Earrings using Lego Stormtrooper keychains. To make these, I bought 4 Stormtrooper Lego keychains during my last KL trip just to make sure that I have an extra set should I spoil the lego figures while attempting my feat.

Before beginning this project, let me do a review on the Stormtrooper Lego that I bought years ago. On my left is the lego that I bought years ago, and to my right is the lego I bought recently. You will notice that there are 3 major differences: the chest, backside and the helmet.

Difference 1: The shadow on the chest is not of the same design.

Difference 2: The backside design is not the same.

Difference 3: This is the close-up of the helmet. Up close, you can see that the trooper on the left has smaller painted eyes and it does not have the grill painted on its "mouth". From this aspect, I prefer the figure on the right as it looks more like the original stormtrooper.

Ok, let's begin the project! First, the things I use: a soldering iron, cutting pliers, a pair of earrings and lego stormtrooper keychains.

My first try in removing the key chain pin from the lego figure.

As you can see, I messed up on the first figure.. I applied too much force to one side causing the damage as shown..

My second and fifth try at removing the pin went well, but I messed up the third and fourth figure due to errors on my part which I will explain later.

As I want to reuse the pin for my earrings, I had to reduce its length first using cutting pliers.

Here is the results of my effort.

It was a mistake using UHU glue to glue back the pin on the helmet as it did not stick well to it so I used Super Glue instead and this gave me the perfect result.

Explaining the mistake I made while removing the pin from the 3rd figure used: Because I did not remove the chain from the pin before using the solder, the heat from the solder travelled down the chain, causing the plastic area of the helmet closest to the chain to melt. Note: as this picture was taken post mortem, the solder is not switched on, so I could use my hand to touch the chain. Warning: Please do not do this with the solder switched on!

Explaining the mistake made in my attempt to remove the pin from the 4th figure: Because of the mistake made on my 3rd figure, I now tried to keep the chain away from the helmet while removing the pin. This could have been successful but unfortunately, the chain rebound and hit the helmet when I pulled the pin out and as such the heat from the chain was so great that the short contact from the hot chain had already damaged the helmet.

Note: Again, this was taken post mortem, with the solder switched off, so I could use my hand to touch the chain. Warning: Please do not do this with the solder switched on!

Here is a picture of the damaged 3rd (L) and 4th (R) helmet.

SO... .... The best solution is... ... Remove the chain first before attempting to remove the pin.

However, the ring on the pin has to be closed back using pliers as the solder would have to be inserted into this ring in order to pull out the pin.

During my first try on the Lego figure, I pulled the pin directly without using the ring and this resulted on an uneven force being applied causing damage to the figure. Furthermore, the solder would be very close to the helmet and as such, there is a risk that the plastic might melt if you are not very careful.

The final step: Removing the hook from the earrings and connecting it on the pin.

Here you go, D.I.Y. Lego Stormtrooper Earrings! Happy birthday to my lovely wife :)

Editing by Sylvia.