Well I am a bit late as usual. If any of you are still around would like to take gander at what I’m up to now, then feel free to just hop on over to Kansai Inochi!

Yup… I am studying in Japan right now and this is the reason why this place is on a hiatus once again. Working on the applications, applying for scholarships, filling out other paperworks, do this, do that, get ready… and now here I am. This is also the main reason why I’ve been so inactive on the Gunpla side of things. Ironic isn’t it? I am quitting Gunpla to go to the heaven/kingdom/birthplace of all that plastic goodness xD.

My new site won’t contain Gundam stuff but if you like my random food and miscellaneous life posts here, then you should be very well familiar with what I will be talking about there. Basically another blog about life in Japan just like this place is another blog about Gundam models. Another new learning experience for me just like when I started this blog.

If any of you are pondering about studying abroad in Japan in the future, maybe Kansai Inochi will help provide you with a more personal glimpse of what you can expect to experience over there. A “home look” at Japan perhaps? xD But anyway, I hope to make the blog helpful to those who are interested while still delivering my personal touch on things. Also feel free to ask me any questions related to Japan and I will try my best to get the answers for you.

I was actually already in Japan by the time I made my last post here but it’s just been so… busy that I couldn’t sit down and get back here sooner. it’s only been less than a month, but I’ve done A LOT here already. Traveling, trying out new things, meeting new people, learning how to commute, culture shocking myself… it’s all there. And more will come.

Any Gundam related things? I met up with Rob from ASM for the first time and we had an all too awesome of a time talking about life, Gundam and everything in between while he showed me around Osaka.

Well, anything else you wanna know then you can just hop on over…

http://kansai-inochi.com/

See you there!
- Z

I deeply regret telling you all this but… my time here is up. I really wished I could’ve went out with a bang instead of quietly disappearing like this. I was hoping to finish the Kshatriya then move onto the MG FA Gundam and ending it with the MG Deathscythe. That’s not possible now. What a crappy and lame ending this is -_-;

Well, I can’t do anything about it now since I am far away from home. I won’t be closing this place down or anything though; this will just be a long “official” hiatus. I’ll try to bring this place back to life once again hopefully starting next summer if anyone still cares. I know I’ll still care for sure. Yea… sorry for disappointing all of you. I’ll totally understand if you want to leave some hate comments ^^;. I deserve a few at least.

Like I’ve mentioned in my return post, I am starting a new chapter of my life right now which I want to share with all of you when I get things set up and ready to go. It should be fun and interesting I hope. It will be different that’s for sure. It’s a whole new world after all. A whole new familiar world.

So yea… this is it for now. Thank you for all your support all these years. It was all in good fun while it lasted. It has been a pleasure.
- Z

Maybe I should have double checked my paint chemistry or something before working on this and I wouldn’t have run into this problem. But what’s done is done; I was gonna topcoat the Kshatriya a few days ago until I noticed the black paint on the trims are cracking. I wonder if this is due to the type of paint in the Gundam paint marker mixing on acrylic (the white paint)? Now I need to come up with a solution where I can fix this without starting over or ruining the look too much. The parts look like shit now. blah.

So the steps I took were..

Tamiya white primer > Tamiya acrylic white spray paint > Black Gundam marker paint (easiest and safest way to apply) > Topcoat

Gundam paint marker for the lose… orz. Now I’ll see what I can do to fix it without redoing everything or messing it up again. Maybe brush painting the cracks with acrylic black? Anyway… it’s pretty demotivating.

So guess for the time being, I’ll work on a MG for a little change of pace…

I need to expedite my reviews since I am already taking too long so here’s a first: Double review! HG 1/44 Stark Jegan and the HG 1/144 Jegan ECOAS Type!

But please forgive me if the review is a bit confusing to follow since I didn’t know the best way to mix the reviews together. Hope it is not too bad though ^^;. Enjoy!

It’s finally summer time. School is out, the sun is bright, and everyone is free. What to do besides gunpla? Eat with friends!

What we have here is my friend’s homemade tori no karaage. Or Japanese fried chicken. Her first time ^^

Yes…

YES!

HELLS YEA! *ahem* anyway… it was yummy ^^;

Also homemade miso soup

I… forgot what this side dish was called. It’s soft potatoes and carrot with a soy sauce mix ^^;.

Moving on… we have this Mentaiko spaghetti mix. mmm… fish roe and spaghetti…

You can’t really see the fish roe anymore after mixing but it was still good even if it was a bit greasy feeling. Best part is how easy it was… cook the noodles, then mix the sauce. Done!

Moving on again… grilled wings. Who wouldn’t like this?

Grilled pork loins.

The most amazing and tender grilled sirloin I ever had in my life, bar none. Courtesy of my sensei.

Fresh strawberry yogurt pie for dessert :D

Thai food. Pad see ew.

Crab meat fried rice!

Next up is Korean food. Rice cake with beef.

Kimchee fried rice.

This spicy handpulled noodle was the best dish but trust me, it looks a lot more appetizing in person. The lighting in the place was dim and very yellow hence this appearance…

Another Korean food night. Seafood pancake… I am terribly sorry but I still don’t know my Korean dish names orz.

Bulgogi!

a bunch of sides. I like the fish cake strips to the right ^^

Spicy rice cake with some bits of fish cake.

This was a rather tasty yet odd soup. Spicy-based with tofu, kimchee, green onions, spam, hot dog (why?), fish cake, rice cake, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting.

Oh yea. Instant noodles.

End result.

Until next time…

ご馳走様でした！

Went from this…

To this…

So now this…

Can finally look something like this. Hopefully by the end of next week.

*tension rising*

Yay… finally got around to the last part of the model (haven’t assembled it yet; still cleaning the pieces). Sadly, it is also the most repetitive. Made even more annoying in that most of the parts are round. Terribly draining to clean the nubs off.  Oh well… at least I can say I am almost finally done with this beast…

The rest of the parts. Arghhh… Those nubs on curves and grooves! With this done, I just gotta finish the sleeves then topcoat. I hope to finish this and roll out its review the same week as the Stark Jegan’s… whenever that may be ^^;. Until then… continue to work on more Gunpla. Like my first MG Gundam in awhile.

Random post for the day. Just wanna share the kind of music I usually hear playing at work from time to time. I apologize if some of you have already overplayed these songs a long time ago but I bet they are still catchy :P. Here are a few that gets stuck in my head the most…

and…

Just for the lulz.

I am really taking my sweet time with this kit so progress is really slow but that is always better than rushing; I don’t want to make any silly mistakes or burn myself out already (damn, I need to increase my Gunpla stamina…). If you need more proof that the HG Kshatriya is actually an MG in disguise, then the arms and legs should be convincing.

Notice the sleeves are still missing as I haven’t gotten around to them yet orz. Waiting for a free day and nicer weather (later this week) to spray paint…

The legs… inner frames… MG ball joints that connects to the waist… accurate color separation…. typical MG style feet… Nope, not an MG at all.

Those are some mighty impressive legs… Not sure how I’m gonna go about topcoating it where I can cover every surface area ^^;. Oh yea, I’ve also assembled the waist too.

Here’s what it looks like at the moment.

A bit slow on my part this time on working on Ksh’s body. The body is practically a scaled down MG body minus a cockpit! Inner frames, multiple layers, nice color separation and all. The outer armor was so tight fitting, I thought it might snapped or get warped!

You know… I have built my fair share of models with repetitive tasks but this one takes the cake! Lots of thrusters, hinges, funnels… oh yea… the funnels…

Now I love funnels as much as the next person but I really hate repetitions >_>. 24 funnels x 3 cut x 2 clean/cut = 144 times I am using my side-cutter. The biggest slap in the face after all this is that there’s no way for me to readily display these in action after I’m done -_-;

Before assembling anything else, I was gonna get the dreaded sleeves out of the way ASAP. This is easier than Sinanju in that I’ve already been through this nightmare, and that there are less parts. What makes this more difficult is that the stripes are also smaller. I’ll be using different methods (brushing, spray painting, etc) and see which one fits my taste. I didn’t like how the paint turned out using a brush so maybe spraying is the way to go… when the weather improves.

Oh yea, I also got the head done but that’s not much to talk about. This is the only part of Kshatriya’s design I am not too fond of. If I could, I would replace it with Quin Mantha’s head…

Starky all topcoated and ready to be reviewed later…

Looking forward to his revenge…