 # Scale Model Challenge 2025

For years I have been painting miniatures as a hobby. I did so as a solitary activity, with only a few miniatures completed. When a colleague of mine, now a friend, discovered we shared many interests like Gundam and other things related to Japan, (both of us are married with a Japanese woman as well), he introduced me to the SIG Plamo (Special Interests Group Plamo). A group of friends from university that share similar interests. This group regularly comes together to paint historic models, Warhammer, Gunpla, airbrushing, build Lego and other fun stuff. They also promote the Gunpla hobby at Animecon. Every year, some members participate in the Scale Model Challenge, the SMC in Veldhoven, Netherlands. This sparked new enthusiasm in me for this hobby again!

They created a special tradition, where they pick a model kit, preferably they can buy directly at the SMC. Then everyone needs to prepare this miniature for next year's SMC, where they present the model. During that year, they do not check each other's progress, so it is a surprise to see what everyone has created after one year. They have created a ship, a tank, an airplane and in 2023, a Velorex from Eduard.

This year will be my first entry, we bought 4 discounted kits of the **HGUC RX-178 Mark II Gundam**, only 10 Euro each. Here I will describe my progress.

### 2024
#### October

I cut all parts from the sprue, removed the nubs and sanded the parts. I put each part into a little plastic sandwich bag with a tag of the sprue number, so that I can track them later during assembly.

equipment used:
 * Tamiya sanding sponges 400, 600 & 1000
 * Cutter
 * [Fiskars hobby knife](./equipment/fiskars-knife)

#### November

I sanded all the remaining parts and removed the seam lines.

One stupid mistake I made was that I sucked up one of the bags with the vaccuum cleaner... The plastic bag was torn and all the parts were scattered inside the cleaner's bag. Luckily I was able to retrieve all the parts, clean and fix them.

I was not going to use the bazooka, so I cut it up and changed the beam rifle into a different looking weapon.

Because keeping parts in plastic sandwich bags was not ideal, I bought a little organizer. I was also building a HGUC Zaku II at time, which all fit nicely.

#### December

At this point I added some pre-wired SMD LED lights to the Gundam.
* 2 green, for the eyes.
* 1 green, for the camera on top of its head.
* 1 pink and 1 green for the vulcan pod attached to the head.
* 2 green, for the cameras on its chest.
* 4 orange, for the thrusters on the back.
* 1 pink, for the weapon.

It was quite easy to drill trough everything for the wiring, but glueing the LEDs in place with the super glue did not work out well. Perhaps my super glue was too old, it stayed fluid. 

I made a tester circuit on a breadboard to test the LEDs, to make sure they work and give the desired effect.

The testing circuit has 2 electrolytic capacitors, which are decoupling capacitors. These will prevent voltage spikes, but also give an effect to the LEDs where they gradually fade when connected/disconnected with the battery. A potentiometer is used to increase resistance, which means I can dim the LEDs. And while this is not a very power efficient way to dim lights, it is easy to implement.

I have a stash of breadclips, which I used to make pavement with for Warhammer bases, but for Gundam, these are nice plates for extra armour.

#### Januari


