SMSO: Electric Boogaloo

I make 3D magic cards. I build and paint models, but you'll only ever see Gunpla. Sometimes I post other things.

[magiccardsmith]

Sazabi

So I picked up the Sazabi Ver Ka Clear Expo version.

First Ver Ka I’ve ever built, and boy, does it have a lot of parts.

And it was a lot of work- clear parts need to be filed/sanded perfectly, there is no room for error. But it looks goooooood.

As a Ver Ka, its got like a million moving parts. Here’s the arms:

The skirt:

The feet:

And the rear:

They sure as shit aren’t cheap, it cost like $120 at the convention, and good luck picking one up outside of one, but if you ever get the chance, do it. It is a bitch to pose without a stand, and unlike the Nu Ver Ka, it does not come with a stand.

Still, I’ve seen the Hi-Nu, and this is less fincky to pose and build, and has a lot more moving parts. Goes together smooth, looks kick ass, so give Bandai all your money.

[magiccardsmith]

Oversized Cards

Here’s some things that were done with oversized cards.

First up, Oloro. I think you can see what I was going for. You got the thing and then you can pop it up. Look at how cool you’d be.

Doesn’t bend back flat very nicely though. And it creases like a motherfucker.

Then we have a more traditional Rubinia. I swapped the type and name line because why not.

Then, Nekusar. I have no idea exactly what I was going for. But the pillars are confusing, so this is as far as I got before moving on to the Oloro.

I’ve got stacks of oversized cards. So there will probably be some more creative attempts in the future.

[magiccardsmith]

For those of you who are unawares, there’s a model competition/warehouse sale called EagleQuest. One of the categories is called “Out of the Box”, so, to be cheeky, I made a kit out of a box. When I was a kid I did a lot of random stuff with cardstock, so I thought, how bad could it be?

The answer, as it turned out, was very. For starters, model kits come in laminated boxes, which is not as easy to work with as cardstock. It’s a lot thicker, you can’t soak it in glue to hold the shape, and it creases really badly. Then, I discovered I did not have a ruler in my apartment. I had a bit of sewing measuring tape from a cheap kit, but no proper straight edge or measuring stick. Probably could’ve made one by printing off a ruler, but that ship has sailed now. Then, my Excel knife handle’s collat got stuck. So, I ended up using scissors for a bit of it, bumming a handle off of my roommate, and discovering I’d made numerous measuring errors because even after measuring twice I’d screwed up thanks to the tape, and a few times, I did not account for the thickness of the box.

But, it’s done, and as ready as it’s going to be without me taking apart the wheels and reinforcing them so they stay on straight. Competition is in a few days and I’m pretty tired of doing hobby stuff, but I did manage to pick up a Ver Ka Sazabi Mechanical Clear a few days ago and I’m very excited to put that together. So, given my current rate of finishing what I start (this Panther was started at least two years ago), you’ll see it by 2020.

[magiccardsmith]

Khans of Tarkir Snakes

There are a lot of different snake tokens out there. But I happen to have a lot of this one.

So here’s three of them.

There’s not a lot really going on in the token art, so it really doesn’t make a great 3D token. Plus, they’re really, really spindly. As a bonus, here’s the oversized Gay Kings cut down, which was also surprisingly annoying to do. Those suckers really bend if you expose them to light, and what appears to be a straight line turns out to have significant curvature.

[magiccardsmith]

00 Raiser

The Real Grade 00 Raiser. I panel lined this thing almost a year ago; these pictures are from my old apartment and my old setup. I think it was the last thing I built there.

It’s a real grade, so it’s a good kit. Nice, clean, places to panel lines, nothing like some of the other stuff I’ve done on here. Came with a lot of stickers though, I put some of them on later, I think, but I think it looks to busy if you put every single sticker on it that comes with it.

The Raiser part was especially nice to panel line. Didn’t take very long, and the difference between the unlined and lined version is huge. Wish I’d taken a picture of the before, but there’s plenty of people out there not panel lining their kits.

I really liked the mech designs from the show, which I why I bought this thing. The kits generally don’t disappoint: I have a gradeless 100 that’s alright, it’s what you pay for, and a MG GN-X which is the sexiest mech and one day I shall finish painting it. They are often difficult to pose, however: you need to buy stands if you want them to do anything more interesting than, well, stand.

[magiccardsmith]

Gatecrash Spirits

This is one of the first tokens I ever started working on: it went something like RTR Knight/Soldier AVR Human, and then I decided I wanted to work on this thing. So, you know, I’m great at closing out projects.

These things were really tricky and I’d already made some cuts, which just goes to show you should always, always plan ahead, especially if you’re going to weave the layers in any way. I messed up a lot on these, but somehow, I’d picked up more of them since I started making 3D tokens, so I had enough to make two of them.

Take a wild guess which one I started first. One day, I will touch these things up, but I don’t actually have any cards that create these tokens, so I’m not particularly enthused to try. And, if you do this yourself, know that the spindly little fingers are very prone to breaking off.

[magiccardsmith]

G Gundam

G Gundam (the Gunpla) is like G Gundam (the Show): not quite what you’re expecting if you’ve watched other Gundam shows.

For one, it’s a kit from 2001, which puts it firmly in the camp of other 90s kits. Compared to a modern Master Grade, it’s certainly a bit light on parts, but boy oh boy does it make up for it in weird features.

For one, this kit comes with 4 sets of hands. Two are the standard fist/slightly open grip for holding things, but the other two are something you’d only ever see in a show like G Gundam.

It’s also got joints like you wouldn’t believe. Almost everything involves screws- all but the neck/shoulder joints. Even the ankle joints involve screws. I don’t know why: it’s not particularly better at holding its pose than other kits, and adjusting the screws would be a huge pain. It’s also got rubber soles, for some reason.

But, on the plus side, it doesn’t take a ton of panel lining/painting to get into the state it’s on in the show. Plus, it comes with a billion extra stickers, and the most ridiculous pilot figure in any Gunpla kit. I also didn’t feel like fiddling with it.

[magiccardsmith]

RX-78NT-1 "Alex”

The show might not be that great (or just good), but it’s got guns in its arms.

Of course, because the Master Grade is from the 90s, panel lining was awful, the decals were a mix of aged dry transfers and stickers, and it was leagues behind a modern Master Grade, but it has rubberized shoulder joints, which was pretty cool.

Also, the shield was awful to do. Eventually, I just gave up, as I spent as much time on the damn shield as I did panel lining the rest of the model.

But the ALEX Armor was pretty dope. Was never sure why it left so much exposed, but that’s 90s Gundam for you.

[magiccardsmith]

M12 Zombie

Back from the dead, reshot, the Viking Zombie token.

Really need to make a second one so it looks less stupid when I Grave Titan.

I could make an Innistrad one, or a Khans of Tarkir one, but none of those look fresh off the Immersturm if you know what I mean.

[magiccardsmith]

Goblins of Ravinca

For a series of reshots, a token, and a redone token. Both are the Goblin token from Ravinca.

It’s pretty easy to see the differences between the two, one was definitely made far later than the other one. Goes to show, you should always mark your edges, but fancy tools won’t make up for lazy cutting.

[magiccardsmith]

Golems of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia

Another series of reshots, another series of reposts. This time, with the Golems of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia.

I like making these, I’ve made at least two sets of them.

Look at all that spiny shit.

And the orange on this one. Some of my favorite tokens. Helps that Blade Splicer is actually playable in stuff.

[magiccardsmith]

Xenagoat

Reshot with a camera that wasn’t attached to a dying phone, the Satyr produced by Xenagos.

Bonus points if you can locate the rather large mistake made while cutting.

I made this one really early, and I was pretty happy with it til I realized I’d cut a tree branch in the background to short and it didn’t go behind the Satyr like planned.

[magiccardsmith]

Soldiers of Theros

Reshot as closeups with a camera designed for long shots.

Here’s some closeups.

[magiccardsmith]

Plant from Zendikar

It’s the plant token from Zendikar, reshot with a camera that doesn’t apply a pink filter to everything.

I was really happy with this one. Up close, it’s a little obvious I didn’t actually cut out every single plant fiber, but from further away it’s way less obvious. You can make a lot of little mistakes that are completely invisible unless you shot a 4K closeup. This is where it helps to angle the cut so the edges are beveled- unless you can find a matching color for the exposed white bits, it’s going to show up, but if you angle the cut right, you can largely obscure the cut surface from the right viewing angle.

[magiccardsmith]

Enchantment Bird

It’s a blue enchantment bird from Born of the Gods, topped off with some weebary. Reshot with a working camera.

You can see the proper execution of spacers with this one- the background in the card is very far from the foreground. You can see it better in the angled shots.

Obviously, there’s a limit to spacers- this barely fits in a sleeve (it’s not as bad as the Embodiment of Spring). You can pretty easily just compress- the front layers only have one spacer between them, but the back has three. Probably not enough to get the most correct perspective based off of the original card art, but that’s a lot of work.

[magiccardsmith]

Here’s the rest of the 08th MS team, unfinished. I did actually finish the one on the right, but I’m to lazy to take another picture, so here you go. Enjoy the view of all the cards I need to sort, and a desk I need to clean up in less than a month.

[magiccardsmith]

Time to completely change everything, again

See title. I’ll probably take down and put up new pictures of all the tokens I still have- so all of the ones here, except the Germ token, but that has a nice enough picture anyways. One day, I might track down some of the ones I handed out, but I am unlikely to see basically any of them again. In the meantime, enjoy these new pictures of the Embodiment of Spring I did awhile ago. Also, keeping the name because it’s amazing, and because smso.tumblr.com was taken.

I can never remember how many layers I put into this thing, but this is what happens you put in a sufficent number of layers. Doesn’t fit into a penny sleeve, so I keep it in a small case, and it probably took me the better part of a week to make, but here it is, with much better photos.