MacrossJunkie
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Everything posted by MacrossJunkie
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The prior releases have been less greasy, but the 27 had been completely covered and was leaking mold release from between the hinges. At least the grease can be wiped off with just a paper towel and water.
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Heck, I could go on Amazon and get a better setup for less than half of that.
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Actually, they did remold it. there are fewer screw holes and the shapes of the existing ones are different. The round divot for the screw hole in the nacelles for the original are now gone and replaced with a square cap. They also remolded the hip guns a little and also the backplate where they have the four quadrilateral shapes that were just painted on before are now molded in. Makes it that much more confusing why they bother to go to that much trouble but not actually bother to do the panel details.
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Thank you!
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I like the grainy, dithered look of the paint job. That's pretty neat.
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MickyG's Yamato VF-1S Unpainted, Unassembled Kit Build
MacrossJunkie replied to mickyg's topic in The Workshop!
Even if it does affect the firmness in battroid mode, at least the backpack has a clip that can be relied on to keep it in place. I wonder if it would also help to lightly sand with a coarser grit the connecting piece as well so the paint has a rougher surface to adhere to in addition to making more clearance between the connecting piece and the backpack. You'll probably also see paint wear on the raised nub on that same piece. Very nice work so far, mickyg. Also, what was your method of making the sweep marks on the wings? -
Do you remember what those light boxes were called? I was just curious and wanted to see on HLJ.
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If you get a chance to, might I also suggest making a mention about the black NUNS triangles also being prone to cracking/breaking as it seems to happen almost as much as on the thin filler black triangle pieces and it is a more critical part than the filler pieces.
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I wasn't thrilled with the way the super packs in fighter mode were implemented either. It only seems to fit and just barely, with the GERWALK joint down one click and the knee bent also one click. It's still difficult to get the peg in the hole and seems like it puts a lot of stress on the wing hinge to the point where I would worry if it would cause a crack in the plastic similar to what happened a lot to the version 1 VF-25S with Armour Pack set. With all these issues with Bandai's crappy plastics cracking, I don't really want to tempt fate, so I took it out of fighter mode very quickly while the super packs were still on. I also didn't like that the knee armor kind of juts out while in that configuration. The one on mine falls off very frequently. Pretty much every time I transformed it, it would take the opportunity to fall off several times and is exactly as you described it. It doesn't seem to have any clips to keep it on and is instead kept on by small little pegs that barely produce any friction to keep the crotch plate on. Putting the support arm in the crotch piece for GERWALK mode would often act as leverage to lift the plate up, kind of making the support arm less useful than it ought to be because there's nothing to keep it from being pushed up. I'm tempted to just glue it in place since I see no reason for it to need to come off.
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Geez, I didn't realize they were going to be out already. I wonder how many people just bought the super packs solely for the missiles and wings with hardpoints, like myself. I only got one set just for that. The super packs themselves are the wrong color and just don't look good with the paint scheme of the CF versions. That should work, provided there's a spare Alto to swap with.
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Yeah, that's why I disliked the Model Master clear coats. They flake off toys, particularly the Bandai stuff if you so much as look at them funny. It's just way too brittle. If it helps as a suggestion, I fill up an empty one of Tamiya's 23mL paint jars with the future and flat base. It's usually enough for 2 or 3 valks so you wouldn't have to keep mixing. So once you have it at just the right mixture, just shake it up and you're ready to go when you want to use it later. Yeah, my backdrop is a velvety black cloth. Unfortunately it's also a magnet for all the little white particles that float around due to the felt-like inner texture of the light tent. It's a real pain in the rear to clean off which anyone who has tried to clean lint from a dark velvet material can attest to. I tend to just clean up any white particles in post-production of the photos since it's impossible for me to keep up. Adobe Lightroom is used to help me make sure the background is a true black and tweak exposure when needed. The backdrop gets me about 95% there already. Strangely enough, it seems to require less light to get a good exposure with the black backdrop compared to the gray or white ones I have and it gives the picture more natural contrast. Yep, I used that site as reference when I first started using Future to clear coat my stuff.
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Man, I would love to have a setup like that to take photos with.
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I use three desk/wall lamps with 75-100w equivalent 5500k fluorescent bulbs. Two to the sides and one on top. Yes, Future is sold as a floor polish, but it's actually an acrylic coating rather than a polish. The Mr. Hobby stuff should work alright based on what I've read, but I've no personal experience with using it. Model Master/Testor's clear coats are garbage based on my own personal experiences with them. I plan on giving the Vallejo Matte Varnish a try sometime in the near future to see how that works out compared to Future + Tamiya's flat base. I have some of it already, but I'm doing more research on what is better to mix it with (Future vs Vallejo's own thinner vs distilled water).
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Thanks. Yes, I used a Nikon D7000 to take the pics. The settings are different between each picture, but I kept it to ISO 100 to minimize noise. If you go to my gallery in my sig and check the full details on the pic, you can see the exact settings used, or alternatively if you're using Windows Vista or 7, you can download any picture you're curious about and check the file properties as it will show the EXIF data.
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I'd love to see your take on the renegade power armour. If you make one, you should also make a variant that allows you to stick a VF-11B gunpod bayonet into
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It looks like the edge of the "jawline" is cracked. I don't think that's normal.
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It was the GM11 paint marker. I mostly used the pics on MMM site and also pausing payback from episodes of MF and from the blu-ray of the 2nd movie. I made my VF-171EX super pack pretty dead flat. If this is an acceptable level of flatness without frosting, in your opinion, then the answer is yes. If not... then the answer no. The trick is putting in just enough so it's not semi-gloss, but not so much that it becomes a white frosting. Mixing in tamiya's thinner should also help break down the flat base. I would say to do as I say and not as I did and make a batch and spray on a test piece of plastic before using on your valk to make sure it's just the right level of flatness. Layering it on also helps. I rushed things to try to get it finished over a weekend and didn't really take the time to measure things out. I just used a pipette and went squirt squirt into a bottle and eyeballed it and said, eh... good 'nuff. In the end, it still looks fine when not under the magnifying glass and tons of light. One other word of caution. I noticed that there is some grease probably still in the joints. I saw some weird spots on mine near joint areas the where the nacelles and outer wings fold. Fortunately I kept the wings straight while I was spraying them so it didn't affect the clear coats. It must have leaked and spread out over the wing joints when I had them folded for battroid mode. I was able to wipe it right off with a wet paper towel so all was good, but you may want to watch for that while spraying yours, lest it affect the adhesion. Edit: I just wiped down additional grease spots I found and just wiped the whole thing down with a wet paper towel. It seems to have smoothed out the feel of the valk. I took a couple more pics sans booster. You be the judge if it is improved after the wipe down.
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With all these reports of broken triangles from so many people, it really seems like it is the norm rather than the exception. I wish toy companies actually issued recalls when it's this bad instead of plugging their ears, going la la la, and continue letting vendors sell these things to hapless buyers.
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I used a white gundam paint marker for the hexagons and the zig-zags on the nacelles. For the stripe, after hours of experimentation, I finally used Tamiya's hull red as my base which got me about 80% of the way there. I mixed in some purple which got it to about 95%. I quit trying after that because I could only clean it off so many times before it started taking its toll. It was hard to get the shade right because the mixture looks different in the bottle, which looks lighter when you spray it on, which looks darker when it dries. I fail at color matching. For the second green lens in the nose, I used a chrome silver as the base, then painted a couple layers of clear green, then several layers of future. The white dusting is me not paying attention and putting in too much flat base into the mix. You'll probably want to mix it so it's more of a satin finish to avoid that yourself. It's not so bad when it's not magnified so much like it is in my pics where every little flaw is brought out Also, some of it is actual dust from the white light tent. I have to keep dusting in between pics because that thing showers the subject with white dust constantly. I have to dust dust dust... quick take a pic!... dust some more. Actually, if you're mostly talking about the individual white specs, that really is just dust. If you're talking about the overall frosting, that was too much flat base.
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Thanks guys, glad you like it. Yeah, I was afraid it would look a little overdone and just didn't feel like it fit to me personally. Here's my re-shot pics and other modes.
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I haven't put up the replacement pictures yet. Those are still the original ones. I have the very same issues. I can't get it to fit together properly in fighter mode with the super packs on. Even when I get it together, it's still loose and threatens to come apart. Not unlike fighter mode for the version 1 VF-25S with full armor. Something was always coming undone on that thing.
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Here you go. It's late and I only had the time to take these pics. I'll take more of the other modes tomorrow probably. Edit: Well crap... looks like I forgot to do the hip guns. Argh... I guess I'll have to redo all these pics again before I do the other modes. What a pain in the behind. Edit 2: Removed some pics. Re-shot pics plus more in my next post. (Click for full res versions)
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That's actually what the instructions show to do as well. Honestly, I can't even get the nose section in under the chest piece without doing that so I don't know how other people manage to do it without lifting that plate.
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The dark maroon stripe that follows along the LERX and to the chest area just ends abruptly there whereas it should continue and taper down on the hip guns. In addition, they neglected to paint some of the white panel details, which I have easily remedied on mine since the panel grooves already exist. There's also an additional green sensor/lens on the nose that they didn't color. The front most ones they have used clear green colored plastic, but they jsut left an empty void where there should be a second one following it. I've highlighted the areas I'm talking about. I was just going to do a swap of the hip guns with one of my existing VF-27s but I found that they had remolded/modified the hip guns and the ball it connects to as the sockets on the hip guns of the original are too big for the ball on the new one to connect to. I don't know why they felt the need to redo this area. This is likely the reason why the hip guns keep falling off on the new one. Either the socket wasn't designed as well or the smaller surface area affords less grip.
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Yeah, I will be doing my usual weathering and clear coating on this. I just need to find the time. First, I'm trying to color match the darker maroon stripes to paint the stripe they missed on the hip guns. I'm having a hard time getting it right and I don't remember the colors I used doing it the first time around.
