Recently as part of an effort to improve my figure-painting skills for dioramas I’ve been practicing with various 1:35 scale military figures and gaming minis. I can’t quite say I’ve got the hang of it yet but I’m on my way, and now starting on the first gaming mini I intend to use for actual […]

While working on various projects in the past I’ve created files I thought could be useful to other people: Generally speaking, I’ve shared these on the site simply by uploading them to the directories where I keep my web files. But for ongoing projects it’s more common for me to publish the files only when […]

In early September I started work on a Halloween costume: We have baby twins, a boy and a girl, and during the pregnancy (before deciding their real names) I took to calling them “Luke and Leia”. So, my plan for Halloween was to dress as their father, Darth Vader. In the end, unfortunately, I didn’t […]

Earlier this year, Bandai released a new model kit of the GM Sniper Ⅱ, a design from Gundam 0080, a late ’80s anime that is practically “holy ground” to me. I was quick to angrily denounce the kit and start work on a CAD model of the 0080 GMs based on the original reference art […]

I bought a 3DS recently, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. But when I bought it, I was kind of shocked to learn it is sold without a charger. How can people be expected to continue to use their new portable game system after the first few hours of use without the […]

My 3D printer project (“Cheezbot”) has been progressing at a slow pace over the past year. It’s not up and running yet, but a lot has changed since the late-2014 post I made when I had just powder-coated and assembled the frame. Makeit Labs, where I store the project and do the majority of the […]

In the months leading to the 2014 Southern California Gundam Model Competition I had some projects lined up for completion for the show. But in the last weeks prior to the show it became clear those projects weren’t going to be ready, so I decided it was time for a last-minute change of direction. I […]

Earlier this year I decided that I’d like to have a 3D printer. I’d considered getting one for a while but I’d felt that they were too much hassle for not enough quality. This year I reconsidered and finally took the plunge. After considering my options I decided on a set of design features I […]

For a long time I was completely unaware of this: the composite video output that comes out of the NES is pretty terrible. When I got my first HDTV in 2007 and tried my Nintendo with it, I was able to see the problem clearly: straight edges were jagged, shapes staggered oddly as they moved […]

Once my plan to complete the MG Rick Dias in a week for Patcon fell through, I started aiming for Granitecon, roughly a month later. For various reasons, I lost a lot of my potential work-time leading in to the event, and again fought down to the wire trying to complete the project for a […]