Hunter-JE

Hunter Elenbaas

@Hunter-JE

  • he/they

Photographer, crafter, serial and parallel hobbyist, general enthusiast. The views and opinions expressed here are barely even mine, let alone anyone else's. Living on the unceded land of the Duwamish people. He/they

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Hunter-JE
@Hunter-JE

Cohost Build Club 3—Planning Post

I've made a bit of a habit of skirting the very edge of actually meeting the build club theme. You'd think the fact that the theme for BC3 is something I suggested might change that, but you'd be wrong. Will for sure be building something mass produced, but it's not Gundam, not mecha, not even anime.1

When part 1 of Villanueve's Dune came out I was frustrated to find no official scale model kits for any of the vehicles, in particular the ornithopters, the designs of which I love and which come so much closer to the mental image I had of them than any other visual adaptation that came before.

A small and unimpressive Dune ornithopter model

Well, I guess I kinda got my wish, if in a way that feels a bit ironic-genie style. There's no getting around it, the Meng kit that came out last fall is small, and it's cheap, and there's no color separation aside from some cheap stickers. On its face a bit of a let down, which is why I initially didn't give it a second look.

But I've also been wanting to try my hand at a full repaint (something which the workspace changes discussed below will make much more possible), and for that a lot of those downsides become upsides. Small? Good, fewer scary wide flat spaces to try to get clean smooth coats on. Cheap? Perfect, that means I don't have to fret about ruining an expensive model if I screw it up. No color separation? No problem, that's what paint is for! I'm also hoping to try my hand at a scenic vignette this time, we'll see where I'm at after the build and paint.

Might be a late start as I'm in the tail end of a move and most of my spare time is going to have to go towards unpacking for the next few weeks. On the plus side, my new place also comes with enough space to fit in a dedicated hobby desk!

A compact but nicely set up hobby desk with tools on pegboards and wall mounted supply racks

This should make working on this so much more pleasant - lots of light, all my tools and supplies in arm's reach, and best of all can work on it day after day without either having to get out and put away every time or give up my dining table for the duration.

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  1. Wait, angst-filled teenage chosen-one protagonist, weird-ass character names, byzantine plots within plots—are we sure Dune isn't an anime?

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