Around May 2021, my friend Jasmin reached out to me about creating a semi truck that holds toy cars for her kids. I agreed to help her out and worked with the various materials that she had around the house. She had a lot of extra cardboard and some interesting scrap paper. With some patience and hot glue, I was able to make a nice semi truck. This truck didn’t survive toddlers, but it was something fun to build and a nice gesture for a new friend and her family.
Gundam Epyon HG model
With things slowing down, I have a little more time on my hands. I decided to catch up on things that I’ve been putting off. One of those things is a Gundam HG Epyon model. I bought this around 7-8 years ago at an anime convention in San Diego. Its traveled with me and been taking up space. A couple months ago, I decided to finally work on it.
It brought back many memories watching anime in my early 20s. I used to collect the 1/144 models from Gundam Wing. I rewatched some of those episodes now, and they were ridiculous! The series was very dry, but there were some great giant robots in that series.
My completed Munny
It took three coats of clearcoat to get the desired gloss that I wanted. After the first coat of clear, I wetsanded using the 1500 grit board. I waited two days for the clearcoat to cure, and then used a 2800 grit board with polishing compound to eliminate the orange peel.
I noticed that I was sanding down to the paint layer. That was a good sign to put on another layer of clear. I applied a nice wet layer of clearcoat and let the pieces dry for another few days. After the clear was fully cured, I was very satisfied with the results.
I may have been a bit obsessive with this project, but I wanted to apply some of the skills that I’ve learned during school. I used to make finished car clay models and prototypes. Most of my work nowadays is on the computer, or with pen and paper. It feels nice to work with your hands and transform raw materials into art.
