dur Posted June 21, 2016 Posted June 21, 2016 (edited) I sure know how to get distracted! Cleaning up the weathering before a final top coat... thought I'd post latest progress (and supers!) I like to use water-based weathering so I can adjust it. Problem is, I keep adjusting it... I'm never happy. Oh well. Updating first post with most recent pics: Edited September 25, 2019 by dur updated with new pics Quote
dur Posted June 21, 2016 Author Posted June 21, 2016 P.S.: I could really use some advice on teh super/strike parts color!! I know I want them to be some kind of neutral gray, but I can't decide on whether to go darker than the valk's color or brighter. I'm thinking dark gray (like panzer schwarzgrau ish) might be cool, but I somehow feel the "almost whitish" color packs some modelers use just feels a tad more military. Or, I could just lather on the light blue love, but I think that might not look so great as it would probably start looking like a blob. Help me choose?! Quote
hal9000 Posted June 22, 2016 Posted June 22, 2016 Ive thought about using Duracoat for toy paints. I'm interested to how this works out. have you considered a low temp bake for the paint? like 120 for a hour for curing and hardening? Ive used this stuff on real steel and airsoft before. Quote
chyll2 Posted June 22, 2016 Posted June 22, 2016 that looks really good. Always a fan of low-viz. Question on the paint though, based on how long it cures and the original purpose, so it is much more scratch resistant? Quote
dur Posted June 22, 2016 Author Posted June 22, 2016 that looks really good. Always a fan of low-viz. Question on the paint though, based on how long it cures and the original purpose, so it is much more scratch resistant? Ive thought about using Duracoat for toy paints. I'm interested to how this works out. have you considered a low temp bake for the paint? like 120 for a hour for curing and hardening? Ive used this stuff on real steel and airsoft before. I considered low temp, but I've warped some of my other toys before trying to use stuff like cerakote (though if you have an all-metal toy, cerakote and gunkote are definitely more scratch resistant, though also more prone to big chips when the finish finally does wear off: though it probably took me like 1000 draws from my kydex holster for that to happen!) I couldn't help myself and started transforming it recently, since I knew I'd need to do a touch up on some areas anyways: even at 2 days cure, the finish is hard enough that it won't wear off, though the dull did change to shiny on a few parts that rub. Once it's fully cured, I'm going to transform a bunch of times, locate problem areas, and abrade those areas for better paint adhesion. When these firearm type paints dry, it becomes like a layer of ceramic and so is very, very much tougher than acrylic, which is essentially a thin coating of plastic. Again, even with the partial cure, none of the tabs is showing any paint coming off after putting it through Bat/Ger/Fighter several times. PS: I started a VF-25A that I'll post pics of soon as well Quote
chyll2 Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 Hearing that. I want one but saw that I need AB and it is hard to source here. Quote
dur Posted October 17, 2018 Author Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Can't believe I started this over 2 years ago- life gets in the way! I'm nearing the final stages now. In hindsight, the duracoat is great for the joint areas, but painting with acrylic is just so much easier (I picked a similar shade so that if it scratches, the duracoat underneath is a very similar color). I'm touching up the fast packs and a few funny paint areas: almost done. You can see that my fading is uneven on some of the decals: that's WIP (I dilute my base color with clear coat so I can spray it translucent- going for a very faded look on everything). You can also see that I messed up the modex number slant since I worked on it at 3 am: going to replace those. Edited October 17, 2018 by dur Quote
no3Ljm Posted October 17, 2018 Posted October 17, 2018 On 6/21/2016 at 12:01 PM, dur said: P.S.: I could really use some advice on teh super/strike parts color!! I know I want them to be some kind of neutral gray, but I can't decide on whether to go darker than the valk's color or brighter. I'm thinking dark gray (like panzer schwarzgrau ish) might be cool, but I somehow feel the "almost whitish" color packs some modelers use just feels a tad more military. Or, I could just lather on the light blue love, but I think that might not look so great as it would probably start looking like a blob. Help me choose?! This is more like a suggestion for the Super/Strike Parts color. Some of the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 Low Vis owners they paired it with the available Stealth Colored Super/Strike Parts. It does look nice, I might say. I found this photos when I googled it. However, I'm not suggesting for you to do the same. Seeing that yours is lighter, I was thinking maybe you use the Stealth Colored Super Parts as a reference. Make the booster parts a little bit darker, and make the Strike Cannon the same shade of the grey you used on your VF-1. Same goes for the missile rack of the Supers. (Think of the Super Parts of Max's VF-1J from the HMR figure. But this time the blue portions are dark shade of grey.) Also, if it's not too much to ask, maybe you can lighten the shade of your grey on the nosecone just in case you don't want it to go white for it. And then, I saw this post only to realize I was suggesting something that you posted 2 years ago. Didn't saw the date on your posts above. So you can probably ignore my suggestion. Hahaha. 1 hour ago, dur said: Can't believe I started this over 2 years ago- life gets in the way! I'm nearing the final stages now. In hindsight, the duracoat is great for the joint areas, but painting with acrylic is just so much easier (I picked a similar shade so that if it scratches, the duracoat underneath is a very similar color). I'm touching up the fast packs and a few funny paint areas: almost done. You can see that my fading is uneven on some of the decals: that's WIP (I dilute my base color with clear coat so I can spray it translucent- going for a very faded look on everything). You can also see that I messed up the modex number slant since I worked on it at 3 am: going to replace those. This one looks great in grey. Love it. Quote
dur Posted October 17, 2018 Author Posted October 17, 2018 1 hour ago, no3Ljm said: This is more like a suggestion for the Super/Strike Parts color. Some of the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 Low Vis owners they paired it with the available Stealth Colored Super/Strike Parts. It does look nice, I might say. I found this photos when I googled it. However, I'm not suggesting for you to do the same. Seeing that yours is lighter, I was thinking maybe you use the Stealth Colored Super Parts as a reference. Make the booster parts a little bit darker, and make the Strike Cannon the same shade of the grey you used on your VF-1. Same goes for the missile rack of the Supers. (Think of the Super Parts of Max's VF-1J from the HMR figure. But this time the blue portions are dark shade of grey.) Also, if it's not too much to ask, maybe you can lighten the shade of your grey on the nosecone just in case you don't want it to go white for it. And then, I saw this post only to realize I was suggesting something that you posted 2 years ago. Didn't saw the date on your posts above. So you can probably ignore my suggestion. Hahaha. This one looks great in grey. Love it. I've actually got the super parts painted already in dark ghost gray (to compliment the light ghost gray fighter), I just didn't try mounting them yet. After I clean up the paint fading (hopefully some time this week?) I'll do a quick photo shoot- got to transform it too to make sure the paint and decals survive! And yes, I'm definitely going to tint the nose cone lighter to represent a fighter that's been using its radar in combat (or at least on CAP) . I suppose it's not too late to change the super part booms/strike cannon, but I'm kind of losing steam on this build and will probably leave them dark ghost. So other than tweaking the "fade" and doing a final sanding of all surfaces in 1000 grit (just to give it that uniform surface look), and maybe a teeny tiny bit of lining/weathering, I'm going to call this one done. I've got a VF-25A and VF-0A on the workbench that need some love! All that being said, once I finish it, I am probably going to sell it: this is my last hi-metal R that I didn't want to sell incomplete, and I want to stick to 1/60. Quote
sh9000 Posted October 19, 2018 Posted October 19, 2018 On 10/17/2018 at 9:57 AM, dur said: Can't believe I started this over 2 years ago- life gets in the way! I'm nearing the final stages now. In hindsight, the duracoat is great for the joint areas, but painting with acrylic is just so much easier (I picked a similar shade so that if it scratches, the duracoat underneath is a very similar color). I'm touching up the fast packs and a few funny paint areas: almost done. You can see that my fading is uneven on some of the decals: that's WIP (I dilute my base color with clear coat so I can spray it translucent- going for a very faded look on everything). You can also see that I messed up the modex number slant since I worked on it at 3 am: going to replace those. Very cool. Quote
ScrambledValkyrie Posted October 20, 2018 Posted October 20, 2018 @dur - This is looking great! Looking forward to seeing this with the super parts mounted, and transformed to other modes. Quote
dur Posted September 25, 2019 Author Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) Bumping for an update! I moved and this project got buried beneath a pile of boxes. I opened it up and realized I had stopped on cleaning up the weathering- good thing its waterbased, as all it took was a damp q-tip to do some clean up. I still need to paint a couple things but I'm nearing the finish line... only took a few years I'm going to try to transform it 10-ish more times to see if any problem areas pop up. I'm seriously losing steam though... thinking about just selling this thing to let someone else finish it. I bought this HMR specifically so I could learn how to paint/decal/weather before attempting my Arcadia/Bandai valks, but I kinda wish I'd just started with 1/60. Edited September 25, 2019 by dur updating first page with more pics Quote
Bolt Posted September 25, 2019 Posted September 25, 2019 This looks great @dur . You nailed it IMHO. Ya mon, it's a lot of work customizing and painting Valks. But you will do a great job on the next one Quote
nightmareB4macross Posted September 26, 2019 Posted September 26, 2019 It’s good to see your dedication to completing this custom. Excellent work! Quote
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