02.25.2005 » Concepts

WTF? Yes, that's probably what you're thinking. The MG Ball is such a weird design though that it screams for a weird approach. Basically when I was coming up with ideas for this kit, hamster-balls came to mind. For those that don't know, a hamster ball is a clear plastic ball with air holes that you put your hamster in so that it can run around outside of its cage without getting lost or eaten.

So with that I was reminded of Hamtaro. I hated the Hamtaro TV show, but the hamsters themselves are cute and it is a Japanese show. So why not merge the two? So I found some "Ham Ham" images online and traced them. I recolored them as well to be my own markings since each Ham has a different marking look. The sunflowers are because the Hams love sunflower seeds.

So the end result is a design that could drive the most hardened criminals into a diabetic coma. I think it's fun though and unusual and will be a fun cute thing to do. As a bonus, my daughter will probably love this when she's older.

At any rate, I've got to get started on this. Nothing is cut out and I haven't even sent the decals to the printer. Been too busy with the new site design!

03.10.2005 » Let's get started...

Wow... I heard that this kit was a quick build, but until you get started, you've got no idea just how quick it really is gonna be. After 1.5 hours of work, I have the kit completely cut out. I haven't sanded anything yet, but there's not a whole lot to sand anyway. Aside from the sprue stubs, it's mostly the arms that need work. I've only encountered 2 parts that really need a seam line fixed. those parts will require some other work as well, but more on that later.

Now I thought the gun was gonna be the hardest part of this kit. Normally you have the 2 halves of the gun and a bunch of parts tacked onto that. Bandai really outdid themselves on this one thought. First off, the barrel is molded in 1 piece. 1 PIECE! All that needs cleaned on it is a slight flash line and the sprue stubs. The body of the gun is in 2 halves... surely that'll require a ton of sanding. Again, no! It's molded so that on the bottom, a cylinder hides most of the seam and on the top, a third piece covers the seam there and secures a roll-bar. The only seams on this whole gun are right in front of the ammo cartridge and the front of the ammo cartridge which is part of the body. That's it. Nicely done Bandai!

As for the rest of the kit, since I'm not displaying the internals ever, I had no need to sand the sprue stubs there. No one will ever see them once I put the armor on. So all those parts... no sanding. I've essentially built the whole internal "ball" and will only have 2-8 places that need sprue stubs sanded there. I'll just have to sand the outter shell.

Anyways, no pics yet, but I have a couple mods to make to avoid unnecessary masking. I'll photograph those later when I do them.

03.23.2005 » on hold...

Here's my overdue progress report on this kit. Everything is cut and sanded and ready for paint. Here's the problem though... In less than 2 weeks I'll be remodeling my bathroom so that means demolition dust and many trips through my basement work area with large tools, etc... So rather than risk damaging the kit while it's in progress, I've put it back into the box until after the bathroom is complete. As soon as we're done, I'll finish it up.

04.18.2005 » Back to work!

Now that the bathroom remodeling is done (and a redecorated living room to boot) I'm back on the Hamster Ball. Since the kit was ready for paint when I stopped, all I had to do was skewer and start painting it.

For the sky/foliage I first sprayed a mixture of Tamiya Sky Blue and white. THen I sprayed the clouds on using the leftover transparent white I mixed for the Cloud09. That was IIRC White + Future. Lastly I sprayed (without a mask) a mixture of Tamiya Greens along the bottom. My sunflower decals have no green so the flowers will sit atop this green field.

The internals were painted with a 50/50 mixture of Tamiya Chrome silver + Gunmetal.

I also had time to finish up the base. The base was primed black then drybrushed with grays and whites then dusted with a thick helping of ground light gray pastels. Also if you look closely, you can see the clear acrylic rod that will be holding the Ball up. That has a small pin-hole drilled in the top which will match one drilled in the bottom bell for pinning the kit to the base.

04.20.2005 » Inking

The painting went very quickly so now I'm onto the inking. As I'm finishing inking parts, I'm building the main "Ball". I'm doing this because I'll need certain decals to overlap several panels. This way all those panels are in place and the decal will be properly positioned. What's nice is that I won't have to dissassemble this since there's no moving parts to deal with here what would need moved to have an even flat coat.

04.22.2005 » Decals

The decals went on very smoothly. I took a page from Hasegawa and made "layered" decals for this kit. Making a large decal with all the flowers and hamsters would be too hard to place on this curved surface. Instead I made small sections of flowers and aligned/cut them to fit. The hamsters were placed overtop the flowers. Where the decals overlapped panel-lines, I cut them with an exacto after they dried and applied more setting solution to sit them into the lines.

Here's a few in-progs. The kit is ready for final assembly and photos so you'll have to wait for that to see the hams on the ball.