Sunday, April 26, 2009

AeroGarden, First Planting


[ 03.08.09 ] Planting

I recently picked up an AeroGarden Elite when it was on sale at Costco. I love growing things and have about 20 plants in my home started from seeds or cuttings and many more that I've given away. When I first heard about the AeroGarden, I thought it would be cool to play with, but it was way too expensive for what it does. So, when it was on sale last week, my curiosity took over my wallet.


The Elite has 6 pods and the Costco version came with 2 bulb kits (4 bulbs) and 2 herb seed kits (12 pods) for $89. The kits themselves run about $20 each, so I justified it by thinking I got the unit for $10. ^^;; Obviously, the bulbs and seed kits are still way too expensive, considering you can get a gram of herb seeds for under $1, and the bulbs are just 26W daylight spectrum CFLs with a proprietary connector.

It does look like it may be possible to modify the hood to take standard bulbs, though you'd want the pin kind and not the edison kind. I'll look into that after I've used up the kits it came with as well as how to make my own pods.

The unit is essentially a water bowl with a small air pump (sounds like an aquarium pump) aerating the water with nutrients, which soak up into the pods like a self watering planter. The roots then grow down into the water, while the hood is height adjustable to get the optimum light as the plant grows. The little clear dome caps act like mini greenhouses while the seedlings establish roots. Since I have this bright light on anyway, I brought over some plants that aren't getting enough light in the winter and see how good the light is.

There is a low-pitch hum from the pump that could get annoying if you are always in the same room, but I suspect it's not any worse than an aquarium that uses an air pump. It is much louder than my aquarium that uses a Whisper bio-filter though.

As for the herb kit, 4 of the seeds I've grown before using standard planters, so it will be interesting to compare the results. I'll update with weekly photos so we can watch them grow. ^^


[ 03.15.09 ] Week 1

Amazingly, just one day after planting the basil had a tiny sprout, which was followed by thyme and oregano on day 2. Mint sprouted on day 5 and chives on day 6. The dill hasn't sprouted yet, but it's labeled at 7-14 days for germination, which is still short when compared to my packet of dill seeds listed at 21-24 days. One week and we have 5 of the 6 pods with tiny sprouts. They're so cute.


I had a problem with the mint pod, the spongy material inside didn't seem to expand like the others and didn't rise to the surface. Kaki-mei said she was having the same problem with her pods and suggested lifting it manually. I took a toothpick and gently prodded it up and it worked. It actually had expanded, but since the pod is tapered, it jammed itself into the bottom of the pod and couldn't rise.


The basil which has the fastest germination time of the pods is listed at 3-7 days, but only took 1 day for the first seed to show growth. After the minimum 3 days, it had these nice sprouts.

I also did some research on the hum noise and it looks like the 6 pod units have an "advanced grow" system which uses a noisier air pump/stone to aerate the water instead of an impeller to move the water. An impeller is what a biofilter uses and aerates by moving water in a waterfall fashion. They are nearly silent, but since it moves water, it requires more maintenance over time. It's also why the 7-pod seed kits are not compatible with the 6-pod units, since the pods get water from the impeller, they are shorter and don't reach the water bowl like the 6-pod kits do.


[ 03.22.09 ] Week 2

Two LEDs on the base unit lit up today, one to add nutrient tablets to the bowl and the other to add more water. There aren't any sensors, so these are just on a timer, which I obeyed and hit the reset button to restart the timers. The seed kit came with 8 packets of nutrient tablets, which is about 4 months at a 2 week cycle. Anyway, all of the pods have sprouted and I removed the domes on 4 of the pods.


The chives, which were the last to sprout, grew very fast and bumped into the dome, so I had to remove it. However, only two of the seeds had sprouted, and I don't know if more will sprout later with the dome off. The other pods all have many seeds growing and you can actually see the roots coming out of the sponges through the water refill flap.

I'm a little concerned about the growing surface that the pods sit on, it's kind of thin and I can tell it is already warping, either from the heat of the lamps or the weight of the pods. The corners already won't sit flush to the bowl like it did 2 weeks ago. Kaki told me a few days ago that all three of her Aerogarden pumps broke at almost the same time after a year. So much for quality. :(


[ 03.29.09 ] Week 3

All of these little guys are doing well after 3 weeks. The chives still only have two seeds that sprouted, though they each sent up another branch. At this rate, it doesn't seem like there will be enough chives to harvest. The tending guide shows about 8 seeds sprouting in the sample picture, but I got just 2.


The tending guide also suggests the plants start being pruned at weeks 3-5. So far, none of them seem large enough to be pruned yet. The largest, basil, is still just shy of 3" tall - probably another inch and it can be pruned. I haven't had to raise the lamp yet, so it is still on the lowest position.


[ 04.05.09 ] Week 4

Another 2 week cycle and the base was blinking for more tablets and water today. I also raised the lamp one notch as the basil is growing very fast, even after pruning the growth above the 3rd branches.


Nothing was happening with the chives pod, so I popped it out to check inside and to my horror the un-germinated seeds had a film of grey/white mold on them. I took my tweezers and pulled them all out and then rinsed the pod under running water. The other pods all looked ok, but the chives pod will need daily attention (although the two plants look healthy). I will toss the pod if any mold comes back, though I am considering just tossing it now and taping over the empty hole. Totally was not expecting that.


[ 04.13.09 ] Week 5

Late posting due to income taxes being due this week. Here's the growth for the last week:


I've started trimming all the pods and used the first trimmings in an omelette. Even though the trimmings were few, it added a lot of fresh flavor. I think the basil is growing a bit too fast - if I raise the hood, I'm concerned the lamps may be too high for the other pods. I'm going to just start removing the larger leaves of the basil, since it is shading the lower leaves and pods, in an attempt to even out the plant heights before raising the lamp another notch.

Also, no hint of any new mold in the chives pod, and the two chives each grew another shoot. If it continues to grow a shoot a week, it might not be too bad.


[ 04.26.09 ] Week 6 & 7

Here's the week 6 photo which I forgot to post - the plants were trimmed and the lamp raised another notch:


Mid-week, some of the plants looked like they were starting to wilt and looking in the tank, the water level was very low. The plants were only getting water from the longer roots, so I refilled the tank. 3 days later, it needed another 4 cups of water, so the plants are absorbing enough water that the 2 week timer simply isn't sufficient any more. At this stage, I need to add water at least weekly. Here's the week 7 photo:


The plants were big enough that the lamp was raised another notch. Except for the chives, there's enough growth to harvest each weekend, I think even more often, but I only get to cook on the weekends. I will call the chives a failure, since only two of them sprouted, there wasn't enough growth to cover the hole on the pod. This let light leak through allowing algae to grow. I've covered the hole with a small bit of painters tape to block out the excess light.

What's nice about this set of herbs is that most of it goes well together, so if you're not using a recipe and just want to add some flavor, pinch a twig off two or three plants and you're all set. Here's what I made with some trimmings this weekend - a seared shrimp with garlic sauce over pasta, topped with toasted parmesan and bread crumbs:


I'm not a good cook, so it's not the prettiest thing, but it's delicious and the fresh herbs are very flavorful. I think the appeal with something like this is you don't have to plan ahead on what to buy. Whatever I'm making, I find myself thinking if anything will go well with it and just pinch it off. ^^;;

Anyway, apart from the chives, this is what you could expect from the herb seed kit. In under 2 months, the plants are mature and producing plenty of fresh herbs to use. This will be the last update until I run out of nutrient tablets. I'll update with how long the plants survive without the tablets.

( ... read more » )

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

[figure] Goth Punk Mikuru


This is one of the 100 limited edition resin kits of Griffon's Goth Punk Mikuru. For those interested, the build up for this kit is here.

I painted her in light pink to differentiate from the standard white PVC version. She also has toned down hair and eye color to more closely match the artwork the figure is based on.

Medium: airbrushed acrylics on resin. Scale: 1/7 @ 24.5cm. 16 photos in this set.



( ... read more » )

Saturday, April 4, 2009

[wip] Goth Punk Mikuru


[ 08.30.08 ]

This kit arrived last week and I've just gotten around to laying out all the parts to examine them. It is one of the 100 limited resin kits of Griffin's Goth Punk Mikuru from WF2008. Many thanks to gundamjehutykai for letting me know it was available as a kit or I probably wouldn't have gone to look for it! And many thanks to Hyou for snagging it for me on such short notice!

These photos came inside the box, including a nice detail of the eyes to show how they should be painted:


Here are all the parts laid out, mostly clean cast with a bit of flash and some minor seams throughout. The biggest concern are some really thin areas to the point that the resin is nearly transparent. I think it will just need extra care when sanding and prepping the surface. Nothing to really worry about unless I mess it up.


There's also no castoff option as the skirt is molded onto the waist, but this makes things much easier. ^^;; I love kits with lots of parts as I think they end up more detailed and this is 47 parts with no guitar! But in keeping with the music theme of Haruhi and Yuki, I'm thinking of giving her a tambourine - her left hand looks like it should be holding onto something and that just might be perfect.

I'm going to start prepping her while waiting for Alita's paint to cure and we'll see how well I can manage to juggle two kits at once.


[ 01.31.09 ]

Well, that didn't pan out like I had planned. Here it is 5 months later and Mikuru is finally pinned. Still not prepped yet and on closer inspection, some of the parts will need a bit of work. The casting is poor on the small parts - belts, ribbons, hands and they are going to be very delicate to work with. The belt is worrisome as it comes in two parts, is too thin to pin and there's not enough surface area to make a strong glue bond.


I've been looking around for reference pictures and it seems there's only one piece of artwork that the sculpt is based on. I've also found lots of pictures of the mass produced PVC to compare with and there's just something odd about the color of the hair and eyes on the PVC. They don't look like the reference photos of the original figure above, which already felt a bit too red from the original artwork.


Since I have a clean canvas, so to speak, I'm feeling that it would be a shame to build her to look just like the mass produced PVCs. I'm thinking about ways to not stray from the original artwork, yet make her more unique. Using the artwork as reference, a couple things stand out - the boots are dark brown and not black, the outer skirt has a spider web lace texture, and she's not wearing the "leg warmers" which I think came from the garb on the ground behind her.

The lace is probably too hard to simulate, though I do have some extra nylon stocking fabric, that I could try on the skirt to give it texture. Or possibly give her thigh-high stockings which also goes with a goth motif. There's not much you can do with black, white and red colors, although there is a pink laced shirt on the ground behind her as well, and I could make a pink version instead. Maybe she would stop crying if she were wearing pink.. ^^;; poor poor Mikuru.


[ 02.17.09 ]

All right, all the parts have been washed and cleaned up, but there were a ton of these micro pin holes on a lot of the surfaces, especially on the hair pieces. The grey epoxy putty I normally use can't really get into the space, so I tried using thinned Bondo glazing putty which other modelers have had success with.


The Bondo is quite a bit softer than epoxy putty and seems to need multiple applications - or more likely, I'm just not using it right. But being softer, it ends up feathering really well when sanded, just have to restrain from sanding too hard. I've sanded the putty down and then reapplied where needed: rinse, repeat.

The two belt halves have been attached using 2 part epoxy, which is flexible enough so it doesn't shear like CA glue would. It actually feels pretty strong, but I've yet to sand it flush and see if it continues to hold. While this is happening, I think I will start painting the eyes. Haven't done that in a while, so hope I remember how. ^^;;


[ 02.22.09 ]

Some results after sanding down the Bondo, which really shows some of the nastiness of the surface. So far, I'm not too fond of using Bondo though. Even with light sanding, it still feels too soft and sands away much faster than the resin.


It's also not a neutral tone and requires more priming passes to get a uniform base color, which sort of defeats the point of using it as a surface putty. The more you spray, the more detail gets lost - for the hair, it probably doesn't matter, but the other parts, I need to find a better way. The grey epoxy putty was neutral in tone and never had this issue, I just wish it could be thinned.


[ 03.01.09 ]

I started painting some of the parts this weekend. Wasn't sure how the tie would turn out, but it looks pretty good. I bought this Scotch "Artist tape for curves", which is low tack and stretchable and produces a much better seal than masking tape for sharp lines. Cut it in thin strips to make the masks for the stripes on the tie.


Also used it for the curves on the flaired legging with good results, but decided to use masking tape on the triangular flags since this stuff is more expensive. The masking tape ended up lifting some of the red paint in a few spots which will need touch-up, so maybe it would have been worth the better tape to save some trouble. A light mist of black over the red will darken it as well as give it some much needed shading.

I ordered some Aves Apoxie Sculpt and safety solvent to try on the problem parts. It's a non-toxic, thinnable 2 part epoxy putty which I should have tried in the first place, but the Bondo was easier to get a hold of locally. I broke my non-toxic materials rule with the Bondo, so that nasty stuff is staying in the garage forever.


[ 03.09.09 ]

I sprayed a second layer of black this weekend as well as a light misting over the red to darken and shade, then a sealer to protect the paint. The belt buckles and eyelets need painting, then a final finish on these parts. I think the belts will stay glossy, and a satin finish on the rest.


The eyes were painted as well, using orange and brown instead of red. Definitely forgot how to paint them and had to try 3 times before I was happy with them. I think all of the difficult work is done though, so the rest of it should be fairly simple and hopefully go faster.


[ 03.22.09 ]

I ended up drilling out most of the Bondo filler on the main body parts and replacing them with Apoxie Sculpt. These were going to get a light flesh tone and would have needed a dark base layer to mask the Bondo and that affects the color of the flesh on top. I got the white Apoxie, but it actually blended to a light grey, not quite the color of white resin, but still neutral enough to blend in.


I also sprayed the flesh tone on some of the white parts as a pre-shading. It's a very tight shirt and usually the folds would look whiter than the parts that touch the skin. I'm hoping when I spray over with white, it'll give the whole thing a good effect.

The hair took me a few tries to get the color the way I wanted - a rusty orange like the artwork and the anime, but mixing this turned out rather difficult. It usually wanted to turn too red or too brown, but I finally got this look by spraying a base of orange, shading with a muddy brown and then spraying with a light mist of red mixed into the orange.


This is what it looked like before the red was misted over along with the two base colors used. Next is shading the skin and painting the white parts, which I'm still debating if I should do a light pink. Then the final finish coats and assembly.


[ 03.29.09 ]

I decided to go ahead with a light pink after trying out the plain white. It's actually the plain white as a base, but the shading is done in pink and gives the whole thing a pink look. I also finished hand painting the face details and did the shoes in a dark brown leather with black soles.


There's just the black laces on the shirt and skirt left to do and they'll be hand painted. I don't think I'm going to do anything extra since I'm feeling lazy now and haven't found the inspiration. I'll still need to figure out how to attach the chains that came with the kit and make some sort of base. Though she does stand on her own, I'd like it to be a little more earthquake proof.


Here's an interim photo of the body parts with a single layer of white to show how the skin shading came through. It's a good reference for if I want try this again with some other kit in the future. A second layer of white was applied to get a more solid white look and the pink over that. There's still some of the skin tone that shows through on the pink version, but the pink tends to be overpowering so the effect is very subtle.


[ 04.04.09 ]

I finished assembling all of the major parts and attaching the chains. There's not really any guide on where to attach the chains, just a diagram on how to attach the hooks to the belt, so I ended up winging it to create nice looking loops. There's a lot more chain material and hooks in the kit than is used in the PVC, so I have larger loops and a few more loops on the back.


Since the belt has to go onto the main body before it is attached to the skirt, the chains really needed to be attached to the belt beforehand, or else there wouldn't be enough room to work on it without risk of damaging the main body. I just used the top of a plastic bottle to hold the belt while I attached the chains, then transferred the whole thing to the main body before attaching the skirt.

I do like how the pink shading turned out on the main body and am very happy with the result. All that's left is to assemble the major parts and then attach the small ribbons which are a little fragile, so they are going on at the end.


[ complete ]

Figure post is here.

( ... read more » )

Gallery Links

Pinky Rin Archer Schpeltor Mikuru Asahina Angel Rebirth Moyashimon Satsuki Ikaruga Yuki Nagato Pinky:St Saber Mina Tsukishiro Haruhi Suzumiya

About This Blog

My photo
Sunnyvale, California, United States

A blog of my hobbies and a place to show progress and finished models. Galleries are embedded as slideshows to reduce page load time, but you can open any album by clicking on its label.

dannychoo.com

figure.fm

Akiba-Station

Through the Looking Glass