vf_1s Posted January 19, 2011 Posted January 19, 2011 That looks great MacrossJunkie! I'm planning on just cutting out lots of different shaped rectangles and odd-shapes like that and do several passes over the whole ship in strategic spots (the idea is to not cover the entire ship and leave various mottling of greys exposed) - probably on post-it note paper as they are relatively low-tact self-adhesive and I can reposition and rotate them as I spray. Finally I will do several once overs of grey to "blend" all the colours in. At least that's the plan before I add the pencil lines. Of course I haven't the time at the moment, so its just all in my head for now - but planning is an important part of modelling. Thanks for the links to the licence plate fonts - but isn't that just a font download? I'm sure we can get artwork or fonts that are close, the real trick is getting it onto white decal as there aren't any printers (other than Alps) that will "print" white. How do you proposed to use those fonts? If you guys are not too picky, you can modify it from the white 01, 02 from the yamato 1/48 or 1/60 GBP sticker sheet Quote
MacrossJunkie Posted January 19, 2011 Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) You would print the 01 & 02 onto the white decal paper, but you still have to cut it out? - isn't it a solid white sheet. I'd love to see it when you're done. Yes, but that shouldn't be any problem using an xacto knife. I already trim the stickers from Yamato right to the edge of the print so I wouldn't think this should be much different. Then again, I haven't worked with decals before so that's just guessing on my part. I'll post the result when I get the stuff made and set on the ARMDs. Edited January 19, 2011 by MacrossJunkie Quote
MacrossJunkie Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) Well, here's my attempt at it. I've learned a some things in my first attempt at use of water slide decals. 1. I hate trying to work with decals. 2. This stuff has the self clinginess of plastic wrap and barely more durability than wet tissue paper. 3. I hate trying to work with decals. 4. Micro Set smells absolutely horrible. 5. When making your own decals, spray the bonding agent before cutting. Doing it the other way around doesn't work well. I had to make a bunch of 0', 1's, and 2's until I could even figure out how to get it on as well as I did. I'm sure someone with more experience working with decals would get better results than I. Edited January 21, 2011 by MacrossJunkie Quote
wm cheng Posted January 31, 2011 Author Posted January 31, 2011 OK, got 4hrs in on Sunday! Woohoo!! Tackle that seam in the center of the first island on top. I had to pry off that first gun turret, it was pretty stubborn, but it eventually "broke" off. They crazy glued the pegs in the holes so the pegs broke off at the turret - I don't really see any other way around this. I used crazy glue at the seam to fill it up and prevent it from flexing later on during transformation, sanding and handling. I also took the opportunity since the gun turrets were pryed off to paint the front portions of them a grey (I used Tamiya Neutral Grey) to further give a little more variance to the different greys used in the scheme. While I was letting the crazy glue set, I decided to use that idea on the toy thread to swap the rail-gun/antenna top to bottom to allow them to swing all the way forward so they point forward parallel to the body of the SDF-1. If you just got the toy, I suggest doing this right away before inserting the screw covers - but I already inserted the screw covers. I tried to pry off the gun turrets on the shoulders which were easy - but that little forward cover piece was really tough. I couldn't get in underneath without scratching up the surrounding plastic. In the end just un-doing that rear screw underneath the gun turrets is enough to free the rail-guns at the rear to swap them top and bottom. Once I finished doing that, the crazy glue had setup fairly well, I then added Tamiya putty to the left and right of the crazy glue strip so I could feather up to the glue when I sand to eliminate the seam. Quote
wm cheng Posted January 31, 2011 Author Posted January 31, 2011 While I was letting the putty and guns dry, I thought I'd start to cut a mask of little rectangles, squares and random rectilinear shapes for the panelling I want to start. I just used a post-it note and started to cut random shapes. They will then be layered, rotated, mirrored, flipped and reused so create the "plating" detailing on the surface. I rotated the body to get a better angle on the sanding and worked at it till I was almost back down to the plastic. You can see the putty feathered up to the crazy glue seam - I used a bit of putty since I noticed there was a tiny bit of sink in the plastic around the seam that I wanted to fill up. Lastly I started to airbrush very lightly Tamiya Sky Grey which is a shade or two lighter than the plastic of the toy. This is my first coat, as I will do this with several different shades to build up a layering which will become the basecoat for the pencil lines at the end. The first try at the grey panelling was done with various light and heavier sprays and leaving some of the plastic underneath exposed to create a few different grey intensities to give a little more interest. I didn't want to go overboard (always trying to keep subtle) but in the end I can still tone the overall contrast down at the end with some post shading to blend it all in. This is all I got to in the 4hrs. Next time I'll do a few other grey tones with the same stencil (I've found that if I do a very light mist of artist spray mount on the rear of the stencil - it becomes a removeable self adhesive sticker that's easier to handle). The key here is light thin coats, you never want to soak the paper, if you keep it light mistings, then the edges of the paneling pattern remains crisp. Overall I think I want to darken the light greys and lighten the dark grey plastics so the 2 tone greys are more similar and less of a contrast. Wish me some more free time soon! Quote
vf_1s Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) WOW!!! that makes a TON of differences!!! Definetly one of the smarter and more effective modifications to make the details come out! It looks amazing! Did you have to spray really thick for the pattern to come out? That is so clever! The Master is still the master! Edited February 2, 2011 by vf_1s Quote
kyekye Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 I gotta steal that Aztek Digital Camo technique!! I love it, master! Quote
danbickell Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Beautiful! That kind of panelling is exactly what I was hoping you would do, and it already looks awesome. Can't wait to see how this turns out! Quote
big F Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Wow it adds so much depth to the thing. If ever I get one I want to do this. Quote
wm cheng Posted October 13, 2011 Author Posted October 13, 2011 Ok, I got a kick in the pants from an amazing fellow MacrossWorlder here! Manji has been so kind to send me his leftover PE parts AND a assembly manual (for me to take apart the leg to get to the Macross City piece to paint) all for free!! I tried to pay him, but he wouldn't take it, so I thank you and dedicate this thread to Manji and the amazing people this site brings together. I managed to sneak a little bit of time over the long Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. However I spent most of that time cleaning up the huge mess left behind on my work bench and the literal cobwebs and debris from being derelict for so long. Additionally, almost all my various glues has dried up on me too. I hope to sneak away 2-3hrs every Sunday till I get this baby done! The assembly manual was invaluable to disassembling the leg. I was hesitant at first dealing with this $400-500 toy, but procrastination pays off! Thanks to Manji's manual now, it gave me the confidence to start. From the manual, I loosen the rear engine bells first (they are just held on with a little dab of crazy glue) with my fingers and pull. Then I took a jeweler's screwdriver and carefully pried up the two engine piping detail plates to expose the screws hidden underneath them. Quote
wm cheng Posted October 13, 2011 Author Posted October 13, 2011 Next was the more obvious side screws which I tried back in January, but without knowing the hidden screws behind the engine bells - I was stuck. With that out of the way, I next proceeded to remove the side pieces with the 3 screws shown in the manual. I thought this was it, unfortunately, there is more, I had to remove the top plate to access the hidden vertical screws. Prying apart the rear turret wasn't a problem, however the forward plate was a much bigger deal. I ended up snapping the 3 pins that held it in place trying to pry it up. Upon closer inspection after I've taken it apart, I notice that there is quite a bit of crazy glue holding this piece via the 3 pins down to the larger plate - I don't think you can take the piece off without snapping the location pins off (I guess I have to glue it back on when it comes time to assembling it back together again. Now I can get at the city when the two haves come apart vertically... WRONG! There are still two more hidden screws right at the knee joint and there's a piece that covers it - however to get this little piece off to uncover the screws, I had to take the whole knee insert right out of the lower leg. Oh well, no shortcuts here I guess I had to take everything apart. But for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to slide the knee insert out of the lower leg. According to the instructions it just slide right out. Well, there is an undocumented screw that is holding this piece on! After a lot of headscratching, I started unloosening screws and found out that this upper screw to the knee piece is what was holding the knee insert to the lower leg. With the knee insert out, I can take apart that last piece that covers the two hidden screws that allows me to finally access the city piece! Quote
wm cheng Posted October 13, 2011 Author Posted October 13, 2011 (edited) Hmm, why is it lumping all my separate posts into a single post - I want to break apart steps with corresponding attached photos, but its all lumping them together, even though I am replying in separate posts? It's difficult to see which comments belong to which attached image this way. Is there a new setting in this forum upgrade that I have to check off? What was better was in the old forums, I could attach images within the body of the post and then type some more and then attach other images within the post instead of having them all appear at the bottom of the post togeher - is this functionality still available? Anyways - here's a shot of the wonderful PE set that Manji was so kind to send to me. I really just wanted the tiny PE Valkyries and launch arms (have no idea how I'm going to paint them!) - but there was so much more stuff that I want to use the rest of them for body plating for the rest of the SDF-1. What was even more wonderful, was that Manji still had the plastic wrap left on it, so I could peel back portions of the wrap to start pre-painting some of these plates before they went onto the SDF-1 which saves masking later on. So I started to mix up different batches of colour based on where the plates go. Its okay to get the colours just close enough and not exact because you want the plates to have a slightly different tone than the plastic anyways - this will help with the azteking panels to be sprayed later on to create even more panel variation - but you don't want it to stand out too much to ruin the overall scheme of the SDF-1 Edited October 13, 2011 by wm cheng Quote
wm cheng Posted October 13, 2011 Author Posted October 13, 2011 Lastly I have cut a pattern for the background to the city. It's been scanned at 600dpi with the ruler behind it for you to scale if you need to - but if you print it out at 600dpi, it should be size as is. I will use this to compile the various city backgrounds that have been used on these threads for the 1/2000 SDF-1 that other masters have toiled hard at creating! I have a bit of a surprise that I hope will work out for the azteking panelling paint surface treatment thoughout the ship (but that comes much later!) - some of you who know me from Starship Modeller might have an idea - but don't give it away yet. Lets hope for another few hours this weekend! Quote
Ignacio Ocamica Posted October 14, 2011 Posted October 14, 2011 Ok, I got a kick in the pants from an amazing fellow MacrossWorlder here! Manji has been so kind to send me his leftover PE parts AND a assembly manual (for me to take apart the leg to get to the Macross City piece to paint) all for free!! I tried to pay him, but he wouldn't take it, so I thank you and dedicate this thread to Manji and the amazing people this site brings together. That's the best part of Macrossworld, the awesome people willing to help a fellow member!!! It's great you have the motivation to finish the modification of your SDF-1. Now we have to watch the master and learn!!! Quote
EXO Posted October 14, 2011 Posted October 14, 2011 Hmm, why is it lumping all my separate posts into a single post - I want to break apart steps with corresponding attached photos, but its all lumping them together, even though I am replying in separate posts? It's difficult to see which comments belong to which attached image this way. Is there a new setting in this forum upgrade that I have to check off? What was better was in the old forums, I could attach images within the body of the post and then type some more and then attach other images within the post instead of having them all appear at the bottom of the post togeher - is this functionality still available? It's some anti spamming feature that we tried to have removed a while back. It's more of a hindrance than an attractive feature. Sometimes you post the maximum 10 images and when you try to add 10 more images on a seperate post it tries to combine the posts and then tell you you can't have more than 10 images per post. The only thing you can do is wait a couple of minute before posting again. It really sucks... If I can disable it myself I would. What you can do with the images is put your pics in the galleries and then add the links as images to seperate them and even put them at full size as oppose to thumbnails. Way to go Manji! My fellow BotI fan! Quote
wm cheng Posted October 17, 2011 Author Posted October 17, 2011 Great idea EXO (never knew that before) - I have created a Gallery and uploaded my images and will try to link them into the body of the post from now on. Yay! I got another 3 hours in today... however most of that was trying to clean up the debris and cobwebs from my bench's lack of use;-) I finally have a decent space to work in now and I hope to keep it going (although all my glues and supplies have dried out and I have to go on a shopping trip next weekend to replenish my supplies). I just basically masked all the areas with very thin cut masking tape I wanted the tan ground to be and sprayed for the concrete surfaces and the centre asphalt road strip. I mixed Neutral Grey with Medium Blue (Tamiya colours) for a slightly bluish hue to the background to better blend in with the bluish background to be printed behind the city This is the first shot after I removed the masking. Next I handpainted some of the details with Tamiya Tan for the stadium (I know its not as orange, but I thought it was a little more realistic) and light grey and dark grey for the various buildings to make them stand out. I'll do the parks and water features once I pay a visit to the hobby store to get some of that landscaping flox material for the tress and shrubery. I don't want to paint the grass until I get the landscaping material to make sure the greens work together. So here's the last shot with the city component placed back into the leg to see. Hopefully see you next week ;-) Quote
Reïvaj Posted October 17, 2011 Posted October 17, 2011 Fantastic! Looking forward to your next post! Quote
pfunk Posted October 17, 2011 Posted October 17, 2011 Nice work Cheng, glad to see your still at it Quote
kyekye Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Oh!!~ Finally getting to the city section!!~ It's the fun part!! Quote
wm cheng Posted October 28, 2011 Author Posted October 28, 2011 Oh!!~ Finally getting to the city section!!~ It's the fun part!! Really?! – my eyes have gone bug-eyed… I realized I’m not as young as I used to be. My eyesight isn’t as good now and I found it really difficult to see down to the level of detail I wanted initially – so I ended up having to back off and stop a little bit premature than I was planning on. Oh well. To all who are trying this, now that I’m taking a crack at detailing one of these beauties up – I appreciate that much more or respect that much more the level of dedication KyeKye and VF-1S has done to make their SDF-1s look the way they do! Kudos to you guys. I managed to squeeze a few more hours over the last few nights to get the city done – I just wanted to close the leg back up (before I loose the screws!) and get to the exterior detailing and painting as soon as possible (that’s my favourite part). Quote
wm cheng Posted October 28, 2011 Author Posted October 28, 2011 I wanted to thank KyeKye and vf_1s so much for the next part. The city background - they provided invaluable graphics, tips and suggestions to where to find the appropriate artwork from the available Macross Books to compile my own city background behind the city. I loved what they did so much that I liberally stole from both of them and photoshopped my own composite of the best parts that I liked from the two designs. I loved the "blue" look that vf_1s established but also the transformation signage from kyekye - I hope you don't mind guys ;-) I later de-saturated the file so the bluish hues were toned down a bit to match my painted city a bit more. I also ended up cutting pieces straight from the background and gluing them as facades directly onto a few of the larger buildings to tie together the foreground and background a bit more too. I wished I had the time (or patience) to put lighting in, but in the end, the time that would have taken would have been time from the exterior which I am looking forward to. I'm sure many Dads out there will understand how precious time is - and for the times that I will see the outside in my display case vs. picking it up afterwards and opening it up to turn on the lights just didn't justify it enough for my personally. I started to airbrush the PE parts the dark grey that I was going to apply to the darker leg areas... I love the fact that they are self-adhesive - but I worry if they will fall off over time (I hope the clear-coats that I will apply in the end will alleviate that problem a little. Quote
Ignacio Ocamica Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 WOW!!! The city turned out great!!! It's official: my 1/3000 stock SDF-1 is a pile of plastic crap... Quote
wm cheng Posted October 28, 2011 Author Posted October 28, 2011 Yay! I get to finally put this leg portion back together again... Now for my secret weapon! I got a hold of these decals made by PNT from Starship Modeller (think they were originally designed for the Babylon 5 model kit) http://starshipmodeler.biz/shop/index.cfm/product/798_140/11000-hull-plating-detail-decals---gray.cfm And these great 1/144 tiny decals that KyeKye put me onto. The plan is to pre-paint in a close shade all the PE panel parts and apply them to the toy first. Then cover it in all these decals (over top of the PE parts to tie them into the panelling a bit more so they don't look stuck on). Then apply another pass of lightly airbrushed aztec pattern over the decals (probably a lighter colour to bring up the values as the decals will tend to darken the overall tone) to tie the decals in a bit more to the base colour of the toy. Lastly a post-shading layer to weather the decals a bit, tie them together, lighten the darker grey areas and darken the lighter grey areas (I personally find the two contrasting greys in the toy too stark) and seal it all in with several coats of flat clear-coat finish. The only side-track might be to take apart the ARMD to find a way to get tiny magnets inside near the Valkyrie launch windows so I don't have to glue the tiny PE launch arms in place and they could be magnetically attached. Quote
EXO Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Have you thought about sprayable magnetic paint? They're like 7 bucks USD at home depot. Quote
wm cheng Posted October 28, 2011 Author Posted October 28, 2011 Have you thought about sprayable magnetic paint? They're like 7 bucks USD at home depot. Wow, I didn't even know that existed... cool, I have a look at it the next time I'm at home depot! However I don't think there's much contact surface here to do much good, the lip is only 1-2mm in width. My only hope is to get a really strong magnet to sit behind a few layers of plastic. I'm not even sure if the PE parts are magnetic - they're silver and not brass, but I don't know even if its stainless or whatnot, so its just an idea for now until I get home. Quote
EXO Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 I've never used them myself and I don't know how they react with acrylic... just a thought. Quote
Manji Posted October 29, 2011 Posted October 29, 2011 Awesome work (as expected)...good luck painting those tiny little Valks...looked nightmarish to me, but I am guessing you can pull it off Quote
kyekye Posted October 30, 2011 Posted October 30, 2011 Really?! – my eyes have gone bug-eyed… I realized I’m not as young as I used to be. My eyesight isn’t as good now and I found it really difficult to see down to the level of detail I wanted initially – so I ended up having to back off and stop a little bit premature than I was planning on. My secret weapon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NVT92O The clip and LED is a joke, but the magnifying glass holder is worth every penny for this kinda work. Still need to rest eyes every 30 min or so.... Quote
Valkyrie Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 Wow, very cool! That city looks amazing! If you're still looking for a solution to doing the 01 and 02 lettering on the ARMDs, I think I've got one. I've been working on making painting masks with my laser engraver, and just tonight I did a test of my first prototype. Let me know if you want to be my guinea pig on this one Quote
wm cheng Posted November 1, 2011 Author Posted November 1, 2011 kyekye - that's exactly what I need! - going to order one if the shipping isn't insane. Valkyrie - YES! YES! YES! BTW - what colour are they supposed to be? Orange or Red? and which side for which number? 01 - Starboard & 02 Port? Quote
Valkyrie Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 Valkyrie - YES! YES! YES! BTW - what colour are they supposed to be? Orange or Red? and which side for which number? 01 - Starboard & 02 Port? They're reddish-orange on the decals. But definitely more orange than the big circle markings for the deck. ARMD-01 is docked on the port arm of the Macross. It's the one with the bridge on the starboard side (so I put it on the correct ship in my pic ) PM me your address and I'll get a set shipped out to you in the next couple days Quote
vf_1s Posted November 24, 2011 Posted November 24, 2011 Wow, the city looks amazing! Everything looks amazing!!! Quote
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