HWR MKII

well perfect memory has arrived and is very helpful. i can see the toe seperation lines that were discussed earlier in the thread and there is even a small pic in the visual story section showing the tank style smoke dischargers on the nose that i mentioned seeing. judging from the line art the kit is highly accurate as is with no extra detail. i thought it needed some eye candy anyway. the kit cant crouch as low as the line art shows so i may secure the dozer blade on the rear since i cant display it as it would be used. i also wish i had gotten the book sooner so i could have made a crew ladder for the front of it. well time to start finishing touches. sean

must obey the froating head.

i am in the USAF. our cluster bombs do self destruct. we do not use napalm anymore. fuel air explosives are a special order weapon and are not a common use item and carpet bombing in civillised areas and cities has not been done in almost 40 years. in the gulf war we even dropped concrete GBU 24 bombs in restricted target areas to destroy gun emplacements and not damage the surrounding structures. i work with these weapons on a daily basis. if anyone is getting info from the internet or news media i would highly suggest you treat such info as biased and tainted by public opinion. just trying to ease any arguments and keep the thread on track. maybe it could be closed or locked before it turns into a nasty debate on what weapons and processes are used now in warfare than the commonalities on Macross and Top Gun.

sorry i havent posted anything recently. im wating for my copy of perfect memory to show up and i needed to take a little break from modelling. ive been working a tau army for warhammer 40k, the cycroader2 from lensman(awesome kit thanks to blackaces) the monster obviously, my VF-0, a peterbuilt truck and cattle trailer, and 2 dropships from aliens for an associate. ill have some new pics posted soon just needed the rest for a week.

another method for removing paint is to soak the parts in whestlys bleache white. its a cleaner made for cleaning the dirt off whitewall tires. it doesnt leave a greasy residue like castrol does. just soak the parts for 2 days or until you see the paint lift off the parts. after the soak use an old stiff toothbrush to remove the rest of the paint. rinse under hot water and give the parts another scrub if necessary. the cleaner is cheap and can be found at auto part stores or walmart in 2 gallon jugs. this stuff works on any paint ive seen so far including automotive laquer and will not harm plastic, resin, or vinyl. bleache white is not a chlorine bleach like clorox its environmentally friendly. theres no fumes as well. i swear by this stuff. its also inexpensive to boot for modellers on a budget. good luck sean

thats all for today i should have more pics by saturday or sunday.

a good side shot of the body of the monster

a pic of one of the feet. i didnt go much into panel detailing on these ill add panel lines during finishing paint.

a good forward pic showing the size alltogether

the dark spots on the barrels were test spots to see how the barrels could look if they were a darker drab. i didnt like the contrast so im going paint the barrels the same color as the body then use weathering to make them contrast.

more new pics for everyone today. ive given the model its base coat of humbrol olive drab. its a version like the color the U.S. used in WW2. its lighter than the tamiya OD. tamiyas is more like the english version which is a much darker green.

testors and revell also make good inexpensive airbrush compressors that will fit on your desk. they range around 100 dollars but can be found cheaper. testors makes one with an adjustable pressure valve on it. on the part of the cans cooling.it happens when any compressed gas expands even sodas. if you dont want it to freeze on you just put it in a pan of hot water. do NOT heat it while in the pan just put really hot water in one and it should solve your freezing problems.

thanks for the link . i still want to scratch some though. i want a macross looking abrams some upgrades that could be possible in the next 10 years. but if all else fails then ill buy some.mainly the fact that at 17.95 a pop for something less than an inch long plus postage seems a little extreme.also i would like to thank everyone for their feedback it has kept me going and helped me spot flaws to fix. keep the posts coming its been a while since ive been able to get non biased feedback from people. i used to be in a model club in florida. i accept any feed back and will not get offended. everyone is entitled to an opinion.

thanks for the props. i had thought about opening the panels on the backside but decided against it. i wanted to do this kit as is without too much hacking. the plastic in that area was a little on the thick side, it would have been possble but i have a little scene in mind with some N scale land rovers and people. the english army uses the land rover to this day so i think they will be in service to 2010 in many different countries that have UN control. N scale equates out to 1/160 so it should look good. i may make a few abrams tanks now that i know how big people are in this scale. this in effect will give the viewer a better sense of size that i really havent seen done very often with macross models. try adding a ground crew to a VF-1 or near a destroid and watch your perspective change. on a second note to christopherb my camera can take video too but i only have a 56k connection at the moment. if you know of a way i could email a file without taking up the phone line for 4 or 5 hours tell me and ill do up some movie files of the tiger1

thanks for the info tetsujin. i hevent got my copy of perfect memory yet its in the mail. if you have a scan of the image or know where it is online tat would be of great help.

the simplest way to remember in modelling terms is that acrylic is water based and enamel is oil based. 9 times out of 10 thats how it goes. tamiya is actually an acrylic laquer.

yes they were and were filled yesterday after i took the pics and noticed them. as i said in the other post it still needs some small tweaking before thr olive drab base coat goes on

i dont want to go too overboard on the detailing too much can detract from the model itsef and make your eye not want to travel over the subject. i just noticed the seams on the toes on each foot i should give those some attention

one area that still needs work is the area on the sides of the feet maybe a little scribing and some panels.

most of the major details have been added i just need to tweak some smaller stuff on it .

time for some new posts and pics. heres the first. the primer i use is krylon rust tough enamel primer. its great stuff,sands well,cheap,and has a nice neutral grey color on it

The camera is a DNT CamCoy2.0. its only about 125 dollars and requires a cf card to work. a 128 mb card costs around 25 bucks. i took the pics in the afternoon by my livingroom window with the shade drawm back to let in some light. i have it detailed and primed now.

i have been building models since i was 5 and german armor since i was 12 so i am well versed in the custom of painting and detailing german armor as the above pic shows i hope. i was juts going to suggest trying to highlight the edges of the model more than the flat panels of it. if you do that it could help hide the seams until you develop a technique of your own. the way your drybrushing is now it highlights the seam but if you draw the eye from it the seam wouldnt be as obvious. you do good work and im not slamming you just offering some advice you could find useful. happy modelling

thanks ido. this camera is great. the last one i had was crap,no zoom or focus. i have started superdetailing on it and ill post tomorrow. all in all its turning out better than expected.

thanks neptune. i needed something to show how big the model was. the tanks are 2 feet long roughly. all in all the monster is a decent size for 1/160 scale. i also have landrover trucks and people in scale with it. the tiger 1 belongs to me its the 1400 dollar one from tamiya(500 off ebay)and the tiger2 belongs to the east england tank museum where i spend some free time.i refurbished it for them and basically saved it from the scrap heap. looked like a 2 year old built it. it needed to be completely disassembled ,stripped and remotored. both tanks run. the weathering on the tanks was done totally with brushes,pastels and washes. the only "real weathering is the mud on the tracks its from the tank museum where i spend some off time. http://www.tankmuseum.com/mainx.htm