[WIP] MG Nu Ver. Ka X LED WIP 4

Next up would be the main body.

Good thing the kit is designed in a way that lets me remove and install the armor pieces without disassembling the inner frame. That way I can finish wiring this kit first, then paint the armor parts.

I forgot to mention that I've actually already painted the inner frame before doing the LED mods. I used a custom mix of Zurc gunmetal for this. I say custom mix since it's just regular Zurc gunmetal mixed with either pearl white or metallic black to get the shade I wanted.

Since I'm almost already done with the LED mods, I've started on painting the armor parts.

I'm using Zurc paints here. The white is pearl white, the blue is Zurc's "Exia Blue", I actually wanted a darker shade simillar to the original color but I really like the finish so I'm going along with it.

The two-tone whites were done by first spraying a layer of primer gray on the desired parts then spraying pearl white all over the piece. 

I'm still undecided on modding the fin funnels. I want them lit up if I'm going to do some dynamic posing but if they're just going to be placed at the back then I don't see any reason to light them up.

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[WIP] MG Nu Ver. Ka X LED WIP 3

Continuing where I left, I started working on the lower body.

The feet was one of the simplest parts to do. but since the clear part goes around the feet. I had to put 2 LEDs on each side for it to be lit properly.

The legs would be the hardest part since it's built with lots of layered and interlocking parts. Not to mention there are moving pieces for the psycho-frame gimmick. 

I wouldn't try explaining it here in detail because that will be really hard. But hopefully you get some idea with the pics here.

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[WIP] MG Nu Ver. Ka X LED WIP 2

On to the harder parts of the project.

One thing about this kit is the complicated joint mechanism on the elbows. 

For the elbow joint, the best that I could think of was to go around it instead of embedding the wires within the joint. 

For the shoulders, I had to use 3 LEDs just to spread the light evenly across the clear part. The 0603 SMD LEDs' size really help in embedding the LEDs into the parts. The downsize would be that it only illuminates a smaller area. 

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[WIP] MG Nu Ver. Ka X LED WIP 1

So I scrapped my previous MG Nu ver.Ka project and started a new one.

My last MG Nu ver.Ka was ages ago and I've learned quite a lot since then. My WIP posts from that time are still here so we can compare what's changed and new with this one.

One notable difference would be the 0603 SMD LEDs and the 30AWG magnet wires I'll be using for this project.

Since the head is actually designed to be lit, everything in this part makes my work a bit easier. In the end, I decided to put the LED onto the neck piece so I can maximize the space originally designed for the LED module. plus this way, the head can still be removed for whatever reason necessary.

Next up would be the backpack. I think this would be one of the simplest parts of this project to work on. Wiring was pretty straightforward since there was plenty of space on the backpack part.

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[TUTORIAL] 1/100 Barbatos Head LED mod

I've finally managed to transfer most of my model building stuff into our new place but majority of my tools and all of my kits got put into storage. So I decided why not get a kit and start a new project.

I saw the 1/100 Barbatos 6th form from an online shopping site and though I initially didn't like the mech designs of the IBO series, it just grew on me. And since I was really itching to build some gunpla, I went with it.

I won't be able to do a proper review of this kit since I most likely be modding this as I build.

For starters, let's focus on the head. Of course I wanted to light up the eyes but unfortunately, the eye parts are molded in solid green plastic.

I won't be able to use that eye part since it's unable to pass light through. So I'll just have to make my own clear eye pieces.

I start off by cutting the eye piece in half. I will be needing the top portion since that is where the pegs are to connect the fave to the head.

I then glued the face pegs to the face, making sure the positioning of the part is exactly where it would be if the the eye parts were not cut off. After gluing the pegs, I needed to make the substitute clear eyes. I wanted to do this as quickly and easily as possible so what I came up with was hot glue.

After cutting off the original eye part, there was quite some space left where the original eye pieces sat. so what I did was I filled it up with hot glue, making sure that there would be some glue flowing from the eye sockets. Once the glue has cooled, It's just a matter of cutting/ trimming the glue to the appropriate size so that it would still fit in the head.

Luckily the head part had plenty of space inside that there wasn't much issue planning the wiring.

As shown in the pic, I just placed a 3014 SMD LED right behind the clear eyes. I also drilled a hole behind the head to pass the wire through and hide the wiring.

Once that's done, it's time to test the part. the hot glue did an amazing job spreading the light through the eyes evenly. Though there would seem to be some light bleeding from the edge of the face plate, I believe the armor pieces could hide those light s effectively.

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[TUTORIAL] MG Zaku 2 Monoeye LED mod

Here's a bit of tutorial on how I would mod the MG Zaku 2 mono-eye to light up using LEDs.

I used 0603 SMD LED for the mono-eye since I plan to keep the articulation gimmick in the eye. 

First, I cut off the peg that is used to insert into the clear piece of the eye. Then drill holes where the wires will go. 

I can't drill straight through to the back of the mono-eye piece ping the piece will be turning and the wires might prevent the eye from turning. So instead I drilled 2 holes on each side of the mono-eye piece so that when the piece turns, it will not hit the guide post behind the moving mono-eye piece. I left enough slack in the wires to make sure they don't get pulled too much when the eye turns.

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