In the early days of my model building life, building a model kit out of the box without any modification was pretty much all I could do. Modifying model kits was a subject unknown to me back then, until one day a classmate brought a copy of "How to Build Gundam 2" to school. On the cover was a 1/60 RX78 Gundam modified to full open. That book was an eye-opener for the young me - there are ways to build models other than just following the instructions!
Knowing is one thing, being able to do (or being able to afford doing) it is a different story. Saving up enough money to buy a model kit was difficult enough. The memory of that one time I went to the hobby store hoping to buy that Heavy Metal L-Gaim with Land Booster kit from Bandai, but ended up going home empty handed because I was a dollar short is still vivid.
Back then, the lack of skills, lack of money, lack of tools and lack of supplies, meant that I have no other option but to build things out of the box.
Since I can only hand make very simple items, I rely heavily on off-the-shelf detail-up parts. But getting those parts have been a challenge. I used to be able to get some of the Z-Model parts through a Japan based online store, but they are gears more towards injection molded items and larger scale items rather than 1/43 scale. Most of the Z-Model parts that I want are usually listed as either "backordered" or "Discontinued". Luckily, I found a new supplier - Model Garage ROMU! Their website do not have the capability to handle overseas orders, but I can place order through email and they can process payment through PayPal. On top of that, shipment is fast. I will certainly do more business with them.
