mickyg

I'd post pics of all my unfinished stuff but then I'd be procrastinating! Nice collection there! Mine is starting to look pretty similar but I've only got two WWII era kits happening at the moment (an academy corsair and a hobby boss mustang, both 1/72 scale).

Nope! I'm just a serial procrastinator! Actually, my problem is that I get bored easily, have very little time, and my model stash has grown by leaps and bounds since I purchased this kit. All that combined means I find lots and lots of ways to not finish a kit. You guys help someone like me stay on track though, so thanks!

Thanks, man. I think the secret is that I have such small blocks of time to work on it. Means I have to be really patient and really efficient. Sometimes I succeed and other times it just feels like it'll never get done! My next goal is to get it all assembled so I can see what I still need to do. Kinda sounds counter-productive, actually. I really need to see the "bigger picture" on the odd occasion though.

Thanks Benson! I'm always up for some amusement and think I even remember reading that one a while back. In all honesty, I actually don't know what Yamato VF-1 Valks are worth now that they're gone. My thoughts are that with Arcadia basically offering about the same goods, whatever premium the Yamato offerings once had, are now gone. Guess I need to do some more investigating...

Here's one I've been curious about: what's a Yamato v2 DYRL VF-1A w Super/Strike Hikaru version worth? And more specifically, if it's been tastefully weathered and had water slide decals applied? I did all the work. But my curiosity and suspicion is that they'll be worth less having been modified, even if the item now looks awesome (in my humble opinion). Oh, and it's had the exploding shoulders replaced with non-exploding type.

I had a few days off this last week and got a bit more done. Here's where it's at: In the end, I discovered my taping method, while better than last time, still needed some work. The basic premise is fine - start with your lightest color and if you want to be really lazy (or smart with your time, as I like to think of it) just paint all of it. If you're going for a preshade, just make sure you do that after you spray the lighter base, and after you mask out the next color. The next thing is to cut out the second darkest color from the mask, which has already been drawn on with a pen. Put the mask back on and spray the second color. The final color is the same as the previous method. Where I could have simplified is that because this is a random pattern, I didn't need to be too pedantic about masking out what I'd done before. As long as you keep the edges of the painting area masked (just leave the mask in place for the whole session, as this defines the boundaries of the pattern) and use whatever means that are easiest to cover up the previous work, it's pretty straightforward. When I start this, I was way to cautious about placing the precut masks in exactly the right spot to where they'd been mated up with the rest of the tape when I started. I also didn't lay down a base color at the start. This meant lots of fixes to sort out where shapes didn't quite "butt" up against each other properly. It also meant a few hard edges in the patterns that I simply didn't have to worry about with the arms. Since these were taken, I've also painted in the areas in the forearm "shields" that I'd previously left white. I'm actually rethinking my decision to leave some things white as it just looks too stark. It could be argued that the nose and bits of vertical stabs are white, so why not but I think it might look a bit odd to have places that are white on the arms. I'll have to consider that when I do my next test fitting.

This scares me. I pre-ordered the hasegawa vf-25 kit and then figured I'd add a few items to make the shipping more palatable. I ended up with two WWII 72 scale kits in addition to the messiah kit. My PayPal funds are extremely limited so if that means my shippig will be higher, I'm inclined to remove the extra items (the messiah isn't in stock yet) and wait till the preorder is in. But, I risk the other kits I added going out of stock. Confusion setting in...

No problem! I really need to get back on his kit sometime. I'm suffering from "too many started and not enough finished" itis.

Well thanks Chris! Especially seeing as how you inspired it.

It may have gotten lost in my previous monumental post, the answer is "sort of." Scratching is now more to the sides of the hinge instead of across the whole thing. I thought I had pics of it but can't seem to find them. I'll have to take some and post them soon.

Please let me know if any of the images don't work for you - the links are https and I'm thinking it's possible I can see them because it's my account and I'm logged in. I'd feel like a real idiot if you all weren't seeing the photos I've so painstakingly uploaded.

Got a bit more done last night and managed to get a photo or two uploaded as well. These are specifically to do with the last two items on my list above. I've been intimidated by doing the camo on the arms as it's all going to be made up. I'll let you all in on a little secret: I don't consider myself very creative. As you may have noticed, this camo pattern is an almost direct copy of the real thing on the NSAWC Tomcat. I simply found the plans for the paint scheme online, rescaled it to fit the drawings of the Valk and made masks from that. Not terribly difficult in my mind and certainly not original. So, what to do for the arms, then? I'd have to *gasp* come up with something on my own! This has been putting me off for months now because I didn't want to screw it up. My goals were simple: Continue the theme from the top of the plane onto the arms Make sure no "loud" colors were visible from the bottom, when in fighter mode Make sure it doesn't look stupid I started with a base coat of the lightest color. This is something I didn't do on the overall scheme when I started so long ago. Word to the wise - this is how you should do camo, if makes for much less work: Start with the lightest color and paint the whole thing. You don't have to go heavy in areas you know will be painted over with a different color. My paint is so thin and the details so sparse, that I didn't really worry about paint thickness much. I knew I'd only paint half the arm "tops" so masked off what I thought would make sense. I drew an imaginary line from the point (vertex?) where the elbow "shield" meets the bulk of the arm part and connected it with the join of the two faces of the "wrist" at the front. Seemed to make sense at the time! And then painted it light blue One of three colors done. Now, how to plan out the pattern for everything else? In the end, I decided to just go for it. But not one to try anything without a safety net, I had to draw it out first. So I grabbed a bit of scrap paper my 5 year old son had been using to draw trains on (waste not, want not) and quickly mocked up an "unfolded" arm to plan on. The first one was pretty accurate to the real part, the second I decided was unnecessary to be pedantic about. Here's what I ended up with: Notice I'd completed both before realising a pretty glaring problem - the pattern on the bottom of the arms! Doh! So I quickly scribbled out another pattern and since I was not interested in wasting any more time, flipped the page over and traced the pattern on the other side of the page (with my son's train right smack, dab in the middle of it). After drawing out a similar color plan, I was mostly OK with it. The first image was an experiment in making things too busy. I decided that little sliver of dark blue made it look a bit too chaotic. No matter, I'll just ignore it. Next up, was to pop some tape on the side, paying special attention to the orientation, so I can put it back on after I've cut out what I need. This was accomplished by drawing lines with a pencil onto all the edges of the part (by just rubbing the pencil against the edges). Then I roughly drew in the pattern and put a letter in it to remind me of the color that would go there. I repeated this with 3 pieces (one for each side) then pulled them off and put them onto the cutting board for some surgery. I could then use a straightedge and a hobby knife to make sure the shapes were all hard edged and splintery/blocky like they should be. Rinse, repeat as necessary. I discovered well into the second piece that the lights in the ceiling were making it impossible to see the pencil marks on the tape so I switched to red pen. I'll pop some dark blue onto these "holes" into the paint, then remove the tape again and cut out the patterns for the gray, just putting roughly cut tape over the last dark blue I painted. I could have made this process even easier by pre-cutting the next color out but when I did this on the original paint on the top, I struggled to get the patterns exactly fitted. This way seems to make more sense. Thanks for watching!

Long time no post (common phrase for me, I know). I've been up to lots but haven't had time to post lately. I've got a fair few progress pictures to share but am not able to get them uploaded at the moment. I'll put pictures up as soon as I get some time. In the meantime, here's what I've accomplished: Tail unit/backpack has been touched up where paint had been scraped during handling or transforming Camo pattern has been finalised on the sides of the backpack, so I'm considering all painting on this part to be "done" Hinge has been modified by filing down the bigger "base" part instead of the hinge itself. It's an improvement but there's still some rubbing that I'd like to eliminate altogether Ventral fins have been patched up where the finish was rough from puttying. I used Mr Surfacer 500 to finish these out and then sanded them all smooth with a multi-grade nail file. They're now smooth and somewhat glossy, ready to be painted. They're not installed yet and I'm considering how I'll prep them. They'll need to be glued in place, then a very thin "snake" of milliput pressed in place around the edge to get rid of the seam. I'd debated adding a "metal sheet" fairing over the join, like a real Tomcat. Even though this part is pretty obvious and heavily riveted on the real thing, it's so small in this scale that I decided it'd just needlessly delay the project further to stress over it. The inner parts of the arm have been painted in the same gray as the underside color. I also experimented with dry brushing the base color on all the other exposed white parts. The contrast is now not quite so stark and I think it'll give it a better overall look when it's done. I made a lot of progress on planning the arm camo that will go on the upper part of the Battroid mode's arms. The base coat of light blue has been laid down in preparation for the camo And that about sums it all up.

I've not changed it yet but it just looks like a white scouring pad type material. There's a lot of it though! I doubt it'll need to be changed unless you're using it constantly. Sorry, that's a little vague! I took it apart to put the motor in the other side (the exhaust vent was not on the right side for how I wanted it set up next to my window). When I had it apart, I saw how the filter material sort of snakes around this maze of guides inside the body of the unit. My thoughts were that it was a good way to filter without being overly restrictive with the airflow. Gut reaction? Unless you're using it hours per day, all the time, I think the filter will last years. Plus, the paint will dry and likely add to the filtering effect. In order for the filter to stop working, there'd need to be an awful lot of paint all over the metre or so of material (if I recall correctly). I don't know about you, but I try to get the paint on my model, not sprayed down the throat of the booth. Word of advice, get a really good light you can shine into the opening when you use it. The black color is terrible when it comes to seeing what you're doing.

I've got the same one. No idea about flammability. I will say the fan is online with the exhaust though. There's a labyrinth of panels inside, with filters folded throughout. I'm not sure about the design of the blower but types that emit sparks are not terribly common in this size. Wish I could help you out a bit more.

Got one on preorder! So there's underwing stores? I can't say I recognise the missiles. I really can't recall anything like those from the series or movies. They look great, regardless. And what's this about the release date? I thought it was November but now I'm seeing December. I've got stuff bundled to ship along with it from HLJ in my private warehouse but might run out of time if it's a December release.

Small world! I was born in Santa Rosa, lived in redwood city when I was a little kid, then San Mateo, then further up north to Cloverdale. You never know where you'll end up! Love your work Kyekye! Hope the move goes smoothly and you're back into this impressive build soon. I'm sure you could use a break from the stress.

Based on MacrossJunkie's advice recently, I'm now using my Google + (Picasa Web) account for sharing my pics. Hopefully I can move some of my Photobucket images over as well. At any rate, here's some shots of what I've been doing the last few weeks. First up, the gluing process. I thought it made sense to install the part into the leg first, to set up the correct angle of the fin to the "post" correctly. The plan was to then "tack" the part in place with a few dabs of glue. I thought this plan was foolproof but after everything was set up, I discovered the angles are in fact off but a bit from one leg to the other. Oh well... So here's the progress with the "post" now attached (bottom "tabs" were glued previously): As you can see, the gaps around the post are pretty obvious. Anyone who's handled one of these knows that the hinge mechanism is pretty obvious. Since I'm not going to move these pieces, it made perfect sense to putty them up after the glue dried. So I sanded down any raised parts that were left after gluing (there were plenty) and went a bit nuts with the Tamiya Gray Basic Putty. Pretty ugly, me thinks... After a whole lot of wet sanding with my home made sanding sticks (sheet styrene but into sticks with wet/dry sandpaper super glued to them) I had a nicely smoothed surface on which to put some paint. Or so I thought... Turns out I had a lot of areas that needed to be filled after painting. Not terribly obvious with the brutal light of a flash. But much more apparent in natural light: So I've still got some work to do to smooth this out. I did manage to rescribe the panel line though. This was high on my list of things to do because the smaller tab at the bottom has a line that doesn't match the rest of the fin. It's a little thing but one that's always sorta bugged me when I look at the fin. For anyone using Lifecolor paints, they clean up well with Windex, much like any other acrylic based paint I've used. But once they dry, it's another matter entirely. Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqueous acrylic paints will dissolve readily in Windex after they dry. Not so with Lifecolor. It might be similar for Model Master Acryl, and some other Acrylics I've never used. There are certainly lots out there. At any rate, factor that into your paint selection. I discovered, while taking the legs apart to get better access to the post mechanism on the hinge (and to assist me in pushing it out while the glue/putty was drying) that there was a lot of the inside of the leg visible when viewed from some angles. Solution: add some gray paint to make it look a little less stark. It ain't pretty but it'll do the job.

Definitely a good idea. I honestly wasn't expecting it to behave as well as it has. I figured I'd have to use some sort of expensive polyester putty or some two part Bondo type filler. This is so much more convenient.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it melts the plastic. Unless you mean that in a good way. As in, does it bond to the plastic? If that's what you mean, then yes, it certainly seems to. I was surprised by this, as I figured it's abs and this stuff is made for styrene. But it works very well. I'm annoyed now that I didn't use it in other places that need filler.

Exactly what I have planned! Work is progressing folks. Don't have much to show at the moment. The ventral fins are now solid pieces. I had great luck with the Tamiya ABS glue and then filled in the horrid gaps with regular gray Tamiya putty. It's all holding up really well so far. Unfortunately I managed to glue the posts on the fins at slightly different angles. It's subtle, but noticeable. Oh well. I'll get paint on the parts and post up some more WIP shots soon.

That is insane MechTech! I can't believe how tiny that is! Are you also a watchmaker?

Valkyrie Addict, you've got a 30th anniversary 1J - how do Arcadia deal with B13 on that valk and the black paint it's sporting there?

Prismacolor pencils (dark gray, light gray, silver), a blending pencil (sort of softens the lines a bit) and Tamiya weathering set (looks like a makeup set). I think I touched on it in a previous post but basically, I pick a panel line (real or imagined) then put my pencil or weathering applicator on that line, and sweep the wing against it. Fairly simple really. You just have to make sure you hold the color applicator still.

Not that I'd recommend it, but I've left Tamiya tape on a futured canopy for over a year, with no ill effects. A few weeks should be no problem.