I swapped out the hub and rebuilt the wheel on a ZIPP 303 Firecrest a while back（→here）（→here）, and
there was some mysterious sealant inside that had completely hardened in scattered clumps, not just in one spot.
With the sealant in that state, I don't think it's actually doing its job of sealing puncture holes without any clumps in the right position.
The customer had brought in IRC Aspite Pro (a hookless rim-compatible tire) to install on the new rim for the ZIPP hookless rim wheel,
but this is「hookless rim-compatible but NOT a tubeless tire」
—IRC sells this with an eye toward the future when high-end clincher rims might all become hookless, yet customers might still want to run them tubed.
Specifically for ZIPP, since the rim's maximum recommended pressure is 5 bar and most people probably run around 3.8 bar anyway,
I don't think constantly using it tubed would work (aside from emergency roadside repair in case of a flat) because the risk of rim-strike pinch flats would be too high.
So in the end, the original tubeless tire went back on,
but removing that sealant from the tire was incredibly annoying.
It had adhered so firmly I thought my fingernails would gouge, and even after I managed to peel off the chunks,
I had to scrape them away further with steel wool, but I couldn't get them completely clean.
With those chunks still in there, considering the operating pressure, I feel like it's affecting not just the wheel's rotational balance
but also the tire's grip performance.
When I handed over the rebuilt wheel, I asked the customer where that sealant came from,
and they said it was a brand called BlackOx.
BlackOx has models OX1 and OX2 with different drying times, similar to how Stans has tire sealant and race sealant,
but I didn't ask which one this sealant was.
More importantly, when I hear "BlackOx," what comes to mind for me is
the giant rival robot from Astro Boy that appeared in Tetsuwan Atom—no wait, from Gigantor (Tetsujin 28)
「the giant rival robot against Japan's first (probably) protagonist robot」
(I have to say "giant" or there might be a precedent in Astro Boy).
I imagine many people don't know about that BlackOx, so I'd like to introduce it from my own reference materials.
↑That's BlackOx.
It's a Revoltech Yamaguchi figure, and
there are swappable hand parts from the wrists down.
Three types: a closed fist, an open hand, and one where four fingers open and close.
Not just Shirocco, but even the original creator would probably say
「does it have some hidden weapon I don't know about?」,
and then it nonchalantly pulls out a Getta○ Tomaha○k.
The color differs from the original, but maybe it got corroded by some kind of cosmic radiation or something.
↑the box looks like this
It's Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 44, but
to begin with, No. 1 in the same series is Getta○ 1, and
No. 105 is a reissue of that.
The earlier one is styled after the newer Getta○, so
I prefer the later version.
People would say "why don't you just buy that one then?", but
the fun part is painting later robot designs (basically everything after Gigantor is a later work) with colors influenced by BlackOx's design.
Something similar might be possible with Master Gundam from G Gundam.
Also, Griffon from Patlabor is explicitly stated to be modeled after BlackOx.
The body is ABS resin, and since it has a texture that dents slightly under strong finger pressure,
I chose GSI Creos Acrysion paint
（a portmanteau of acrylic + emulsion）for the paint.
The drawback is that it requires dedicated thinner and tool cleaner and takes some technique to apply,
but if you use lacquer paint on ABS resin it'll crack, so there's no way around it.
I was planning to spray the final coat with an airbrush
and bought Acrysion clear, but I finished it with water-based top coat (shown on the left in the image) so I never used it.
What's on top of the yellow is retarder,
a thinner specifically for brush painting, and it's essential too.
I've tweaked the exterior somewhat, but there's no end to it so I'm keeping it reasonable.
I scratch-built the Getta○ Tomaha○k from plastic sheet and putty.
Red base color brush-painted.
Acrysion's base color is like a tinted surfacer, so you should think of it as impossible to paint without a base color.
The timeline goes back a bit, but this is before applying the red base color to the head—
after painting the mouth and forehead metallic green on white base color.
This is the second coat of three, but the basic principle is to apply thin coats in layers rather than one thick coat.
Hard to see, but I'm already masking the yellow eyes with yellow tape at this point.
The chest area had red base color applied, then red on top of that, and then I painted metallic green directly over it.
Since metallic colors have strong coverage against their base, I didn't apply base color over the red.
I already had a metallic green that would work here, but since it was a different paint type,
I bought Acrysion metallic green just for the face and chest areas.
The yellow in the crotch area is white base color + yellow, though yellow base color + yellow would have better color saturation,
but I was oddly cheap in this spot.
Once I sprayed the top coat it came out shinier than expected, so I figured it was good enough.
I painted the shoulder section where the Getta○ Tomaha○k comes out gold and the elbow spikes silver,
but depending on the source material the former is sometimes white or yellow, and the latter white
（I'm interpreting the elbow spikes as representing the zigzag protrusions on the sides of Getta○ 1's forearms）.
I mentioned earlier that metallic colors have strong coverage, but they also don't show brushstrokes as much.
In other words, this choice is a shortcut and a compromise.
I painted just these two colors with GSI Creos regular water-based paint.
Once fully dry, you can apply Acrysion over it without issues.
No matter how I set my digital camera's white balance—auto or otherwise—I couldn't get a red close to what I saw with my eyes,
but the iPhone camera captured an image that looks almost the same color to my eye.
The Getta○ Tomaha○k was all brush-painted with regular water-based paint,
but the club portion is oddly glossy even though I didn't apply top coat to it.
there was some mysterious sealant inside that had completely hardened in scattered clumps, not just in one spot.
With the sealant in that state, I don't think it's actually doing its job of sealing puncture holes without any clumps in the right position.
The customer had brought in IRC Aspite Pro (a hookless rim-compatible tire) to install on the new rim for the ZIPP hookless rim wheel,
but this is「hookless rim-compatible but NOT a tubeless tire」
—IRC sells this with an eye toward the future when high-end clincher rims might all become hookless, yet customers might still want to run them tubed.
Specifically for ZIPP, since the rim's maximum recommended pressure is 5 bar and most people probably run around 3.8 bar anyway,
I don't think constantly using it tubed would work (aside from emergency roadside repair in case of a flat) because the risk of rim-strike pinch flats would be too high.
So in the end, the original tubeless tire went back on,
but removing that sealant from the tire was incredibly annoying.
It had adhered so firmly I thought my fingernails would gouge, and even after I managed to peel off the chunks,
I had to scrape them away further with steel wool, but I couldn't get them completely clean.
With those chunks still in there, considering the operating pressure, I feel like it's affecting not just the wheel's rotational balance
but also the tire's grip performance.
When I handed over the rebuilt wheel, I asked the customer where that sealant came from,
and they said it was a brand called BlackOx.
BlackOx has models OX1 and OX2 with different drying times, similar to how Stans has tire sealant and race sealant,
but I didn't ask which one this sealant was.
More importantly, when I hear "BlackOx," what comes to mind for me is
the giant rival robot from Astro Boy that appeared in Tetsuwan Atom—no wait, from Gigantor (Tetsujin 28)
「the giant rival robot against Japan's first (probably) protagonist robot」
(I have to say "giant" or there might be a precedent in Astro Boy).
I imagine many people don't know about that BlackOx, so I'd like to introduce it from my own reference materials.
↑That's BlackOx.
It's a Revoltech Yamaguchi figure, and
there are swappable hand parts from the wrists down.
Three types: a closed fist, an open hand, and one where four fingers open and close.
Not just Shirocco, but even the original creator would probably say
「does it have some hidden weapon I don't know about?」,
and then it nonchalantly pulls out a Getta○ Tomaha○k.
The color differs from the original, but maybe it got corroded by some kind of cosmic radiation or something.
↑the box looks like this
It's Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 44, but
to begin with, No. 1 in the same series is Getta○ 1, and
No. 105 is a reissue of that.
The earlier one is styled after the newer Getta○, so
I prefer the later version.
People would say "why don't you just buy that one then?", but
the fun part is painting later robot designs (basically everything after Gigantor is a later work) with colors influenced by BlackOx's design.
Something similar might be possible with Master Gundam from G Gundam.
Also, Griffon from Patlabor is explicitly stated to be modeled after BlackOx.
The body is ABS resin, and since it has a texture that dents slightly under strong finger pressure,
I chose GSI Creos Acrysion paint
（a portmanteau of acrylic + emulsion）for the paint.
The drawback is that it requires dedicated thinner and tool cleaner and takes some technique to apply,
but if you use lacquer paint on ABS resin it'll crack, so there's no way around it.
I was planning to spray the final coat with an airbrush
and bought Acrysion clear, but I finished it with water-based top coat (shown on the left in the image) so I never used it.
What's on top of the yellow is retarder,
a thinner specifically for brush painting, and it's essential too.
I've tweaked the exterior somewhat, but there's no end to it so I'm keeping it reasonable.
I scratch-built the Getta○ Tomaha○k from plastic sheet and putty.
Red base color brush-painted.
Acrysion's base color is like a tinted surfacer, so you should think of it as impossible to paint without a base color.
The timeline goes back a bit, but this is before applying the red base color to the head—
after painting the mouth and forehead metallic green on white base color.
This is the second coat of three, but the basic principle is to apply thin coats in layers rather than one thick coat.
Hard to see, but I'm already masking the yellow eyes with yellow tape at this point.
The chest area had red base color applied, then red on top of that, and then I painted metallic green directly over it.
Since metallic colors have strong coverage against their base, I didn't apply base color over the red.
I already had a metallic green that would work here, but since it was a different paint type,
I bought Acrysion metallic green just for the face and chest areas.
The yellow in the crotch area is white base color + yellow, though yellow base color + yellow would have better color saturation,
but I was oddly cheap in this spot.
Once I sprayed the top coat it came out shinier than expected, so I figured it was good enough.
I painted the shoulder section where the Getta○ Tomaha○k comes out gold and the elbow spikes silver,
but depending on the source material the former is sometimes white or yellow, and the latter white
（I'm interpreting the elbow spikes as representing the zigzag protrusions on the sides of Getta○ 1's forearms）.
I mentioned earlier that metallic colors have strong coverage, but they also don't show brushstrokes as much.
In other words, this choice is a shortcut and a compromise.
I painted just these two colors with GSI Creos regular water-based paint.
Once fully dry, you can apply Acrysion over it without issues.
No matter how I set my digital camera's white balance—auto or otherwise—I couldn't get a red close to what I saw with my eyes,
but the iPhone camera captured an image that looks almost the same color to my eye.
The Getta○ Tomaha○k was all brush-painted with regular water-based paint,
but the club portion is oddly glossy even though I didn't apply top coat to it.