[resinmonkey]

I've been waiting for this for a long time. I'll admit I had great misgivings about a recast of this kit. It has the potential to be a nightmare if the casting is poor. Also the quality of the decals has the potential to be unuseable. When there was a price war over these kits and the prices went down and down, I became more nervous because I feared they would be cast by the lowest bidder (read crappiest casting workshop).
These are my initial impressions of the kit recieved today from the "evil empire", don't worry HF also got my business.
Since I placed my preorder the first day they were announced, I assume I got an early casting of both Rei and Asuka ( I have both). Initial inspection shows very nice castings with no visible bubbles, virtually no flash, and very minimal seamlines. Even the very small parts for the bike are well done. Only the casting gates show a need for work. The decals seem to be very nicely done waterslide decals, very thin, and well printed and colorful. There is also some wiring and a real spring for the bike. My only dissappointment is that Asuka's instructions have been reduced in size and xeroxed to make them almost unreadable. With a complex kit like this, that may be a problem. Rei's instruction sheet is full size and useable. But the bike is different. I'm hoping to enlarge the instructions but since the original is poor, I'll probably get a poor enlargement. Overall, I'm happy enough to drop my current personal projects and devote free time to a WIP on this kit. My commissions will go on unaffected.
I'd like to start with day one on this project so that beginners can see the entire process I go through. With a kit this complex I'm sure there will be many tricks needed to get these pieces to fit, I hope to show you how I overcome some of the difficulties of resin. I hope you veterans aren't bored. Today I will remove the casting gates and flash and place the entire kit in a tupperware box of Naptha. Tommorrow morning I will transfer the parts to an industrial degreaser. The next day I will scrub the parts in Dawn dish soap and then begin assembly. I won't take pictures until after the washing, but that doen't mean its not important, just boring.
Here are the pics I took after taking Asuka out of her baggie.

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[StayPuft]

Great WIP! I can't wait to see more. Maybe by the time you are finished with it, I'll get to start work on mine.

[GMobile17]

Wow... look at all the parts! I think you got your money worth with this kit.

[Ryuji]

(I hope receive mine next week... )

Is this kit really 1/6 scale?
About the bike - are they using copied parts from some 1/6 scale Tamiya plastic model or someone made all that mech parts by hand?

[NozomiWhiteWolf]

Wow, looking forward to seeing more of this! Look at all those parts....gosh...

[resinmonkey]

Beginner's tip:

When removing the casting gates of parts, make sure you know what is extra resin and what is part. This is part of the exhaust system. You can see it has several extra areas of resin to be removed. Three areas are extra (circled in red) and need to be removed. But one spot looks like the others but is in fact part of the kit ( the exhaust hanger). When is doubt about removing extra resin, look at the instructions or test fit the parts. You don't want to grind away something that should be saved.

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[resinmonkey]

Here is a 1/6 tire from a Tamiya motorcycle and the wheel from the kit. As you can see there is considerable difference in size, assuming Tamiya's scale is accurate. I'd say its more like 1/7. As to whether they recasted a plastic kit, I don't think so. The Vispo website shows them making the bike from scratch.

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[Ryuji]

resinmonkey, on Dec 27 2006, 10:37 AM, said:

The Vispo website shows them making the bike from scratch.

http://vispo.cc/makingr.html

...well, it's not made by hand (not all...)
http://vispo.cc/nsr5.html

[resinmonkey]

All the parts were taken one at a time, trimmed and placed in the plastic box. Care was taken not to lose any. Now the Naptha bath. If you don't use magnifiers, you should.

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[TFCreate]

This is gonna be soooooooo cool!!!
TFC

[Xenoex]

Thank you very much for posting a WIP on this!!

This is one my most wanted kits too, I placed a preorder with HF when it first came out back in something like september. Too bad we have to wait another month for it. But as long as the quality is top then the wait will be worth it.

It'll be interesting for you when you compare the HF vs e2 versions, but from the sounds of things you received a good cast already from e2.

[baxojayz]

Looks exciting already!

[resinmonkey]

Well, having gone through all the parts I can say this is well cast. Not perfect, but completely workable. My personal theory is that HF and e2 get their kits from basically the same sources. But as molds are used they deteriorate, so early castings will usually be better than later castings. You're at the mercy of the casters knowing when the mold has worn out and needs to be replaced. I'm sure HF castings will be of the same good quality they always are, but a little later probably due to shipping across the Pacific.
I specifically wanted a difficult kit to demonstrate lots of potential problems with the idea of answering as many potential noob questions as I could. This isn't a beginners kit, obviously.

[Jayden63]

This will be really fun to follow, thanks for doing this.

[McLeod]

resinmonkey, on Dec 26 2006, 08:42 PM, said:

.....with the idea of answering as many potential noob questions as I could.

That is me!! That is me!!

WOW!! This kit is great! I'm loving this WIP