Otaku Surf

Picture of the MG Strike Freedom over Shenandoah Valley.  Stand digitally removed. 

 Welcome to Otakusurf.com

This blog is about the anime, gunpla, and anime conventions that I came across during the summer of 2007.

Highlights include AMA and Otakon 2007 and my pics of Gundam figures and Model kits in and around the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Originally, I had intended to continue the blog, but as some of my regular visitors may know I work in television and moved in October of 2007 to a great but demanding job outside of Washington D.C. 

This site is inspired by Danny Choo at Dannychoo.com.  For some other super websites on anime and Gundam check out the links on the sidebar under blogroll.

Thanks for stopping by. I hate to see it end, but what a great summer!

Jun. 07 - Sept .07

Hinagiku Katsura from Hayate no Gotoku. My favorite character of the season…if you haven’t guessed already.

      I’m finally in Maryland, after getting my parents and a bunch of friends from work to help me move my stuff to my top floor apartment, only thing bad about it is no elevators!

     I’m pretty excited about this new apartment and job, it’s a new and exciting time for me and while on the subject of new starts I decided to take a look at some new starts this week with Hayate no Gotoku, Genshiken 2, Gundam 00, and a few Gundam projects in Maryland.

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HCM Pro RGM-89 over Sheandoah Valley. All pictures of the Jegan have the stick stand removed with Gimp, trust me it needs to be removed.

     The first HCM Pro I got was the RG-79(G) and I love it to death despite being surprised with it’s size. Like the RX-79 the RGM-89 Jegan is small and is a space type Gundam which proved to be a bit of a challenge for me when trying to decide how to shoot it.

    I was hoping that it would come with some sort of stand, no matter how small or cheap, so I could place it in flight. Unfortunately it did not and the stands I have didn’t suit it’s size. I made due though with a barbecue stick and some double sided tape.

A test run for the MG Zealot, made from the remnants of the Lucky Star Gundam re-painted from light blue and white to black and red.

     Also, after the debacle of trying to create a Lucky Star Gundam, I stopped mid-way in construction of it and decided to do a test run of the MG Zealot that I plan on doing sometime in the future. I had a ton of red and black paint from the MG Strike Enforcer’s production so went ahead and did a test run to see how a similar color would look and see if silver was better than gold for the color scheme.

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Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. Poster from one of my Megami magazines.

     Louise de la Valliere, the main character from the anime Zero no Tsukaima, reminds a little of Lina Inverse from Slayers. Sure Lina is a little bit more endowed than Louise is, but both have got a fiery spark to them, control great magic (at times), and have a great seiyuu to boot.  In fact Louise’s seiyuu, Rie Kugimiya, is one of my favorite voice actress who also does Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku, my top pic for anime of the season. 

           Titans MK II from Zeta Gundam.            Leftover pic of the Strike Freedom.

     Aside from taking a look at Zero no Tsukaima, I also get around to seeing the 1st couple episodes of Zeta Gundam and get into some planning for my next Gundam mod the Zealot.

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MG Strike Enforcer over Shenandoah Valley. I like this picture because of the valley and the fog below that was giving off a bluish kind of tint that really added to the pic. Later on the fog crept up on the mountain rather quickly as you’ll see later.  

     I’ve seen a lot of modded Gundams online, including recently here and here, and didn’t really think about modding a Gundam since I’m fairly new to Gunpla. Earlier last month a new friend sent me an MG Strike Gundam as a thank you gift. Rather than return it, which would be very costly considering where it came from(and rude) I kept it and decided to color custom mod it.

    I’m very satisfied with how it came out and learned a lot from a lot of people about color design and spray paints. I took the Enforcer with me recently but ran into some obstacles in posting the Model, which includes getting a new job farther north and the expiration of my trial version of Photoshop CS3(no!!!!!). But at long last here it is…

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Sumomo and Masaharu pencilboard from Megami magazine.

    Noizi Ito is fast becoming one of my favorite artists, from Haruhi to Shana, his designs are well done and recognizable.  When I was at Otakon, I did spot a few books with his illustrations in them and I was blown away by them (unfortunately my cash at that time was blown away by other goodies) . One of his works that I’m beginning to familiarize myself with is the new anime series, Nanatsuiro Drops.

    Both magazines I picked up today have Nanatsuiro Drops coverage so I decided to jam pack this post with some anime, figure, and game coverage of the little lady.  I also do a brief tally of some future Gundam projects that are going on and that I may take up.

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MG Strike Freedom on top of Bearface Mountain during sunrise. 

     One good thing about being team captain on a hiking trip is dictating how much time we spend on one spot. Usually breaks are between 10 and 15 minutes. But this morning I decided to lapse a bit and took 40 minutes to an hour spot breaks.

      It’s not like the team didn’t like it, because there were some gorgeous views along the mountain ridge and gave me an excuse to bust out my new acquisition along with it being my first painted model of any sort. It got pretty windy up there and I was just glad to have some extra hands available…this is my last time being captain right guys? Anyways to the model….

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Master Grade Strike Freedom after 1st coat of Top Coat.  Decals and stickers to come later.

     After painting, inking, and putting top coat on the MG Strike Freedom I am really regretting not doing this with the PG Strike and the MG Hi-v.  It absolutely makes a substantial difference…but I didn’t listen until now…better late than never!

     I used Tamiya spray paint and Gundam Markers for the first time and they’re great, you could see the results above.  I really love using the Top Coat! The only thing with using Top Coat, is that it’s taking forever to dry! I did 2 coats of Top Coat and it’s still a bit sticky in a few areas, but it’s getting there.

     That’s the only thing that’s stopping me from taking it out to the mountain range for some pics, and this definitely needs to be taken outside especially with those wings…I’m thinking sunrise pics for this one.

MG Freedom Enforcer Mod Pics. The red armor will eventually be a darker red than what is presented above.

    Days after I received my MG Strike Freedom in the mail, I got another package a few days later as a gift.  It turns out it was another MG Strike Freedom! (Not complaining, and thank you!!) Rather than send it back which would probably cost me an arm and a leg, I decided to do my first mod with it. I’m still in the process of painting runners but it’s main color scheme will be black and dark red.

     Hopefully by next week I’ll have pics of the MG Strike Freedom from Blue Ridge and the following week after the Top Coat has dryed, my Gunpla mod, Freedom Enforcer from Bearface Mountain.

San the mermaid from Seto No Hanayome. Awesome Poster from Comp H’s magazine. Deciding where I should hang this thing.

     Seto no Hanayome is one of the funniest series of the season. It has among many, many other things, one of the most crazed characters of the season. It’s not the gorgeous girl above but her deranged and mafia father Gozaburo Seto. I also take a look at a series about a little girl who stumbles on some magic and is guided by a talking duck…a perverted duck. Read More…

Konata & company as the S.O.S Brigade in Newtype Japan.

     After doing some clean up work on my website I realized that I never reviewed any anime series beyond the 1st episode or the “one” episode I reviewed, so in addition to posting some Lucky Star and Hayate no Gotoku merchandise and posters I went back to the two shows to take a look at how they’re doing now . 

     First up is Lucky Star. I picked up a few magazine’s, Comp’s H, Megami, and Newtype Japan and they had a pretty good bit of Lucky Star coverage as well as some Konata and Akira goodies.

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