wm cheng

Now the part of the day I've been looking forward to (literally for a year!) - taking off the masked bits, the tamiya tape from the engine nozzles which were sprayed with a combination of Aclad2 metalizer gunmetal and burnt metal and the canopy liquid mask. Again, the same problems I had with the liquid mask drying up on those 3-slotted vents on the Booster body had occured here on the canopy as well. The mask had dried up to the point where it wasn't coming off easily and started to break off in flakes - what should of been a 5 minute job ended up taking hours and leaving scratches and debris all over the canopy. Once I removed all the remaining bits of masking, I had to carefully re-polish the canopy with Tamiya Fine Rubbing Compound to get the sheen back to the canopy (the Future coating was damaged by the liquid mask either drying up or the rough process of removal). So let this be a lesson to all ya, don't leave anything with a liquid mask on while you take a year break!

I allowed an hour or so for it to semi-dry and I wiped the excess off with a paper towel - careful to leave as much of the oil wash inside the panel lines as possible. After the excess oil was removed, I airbrushed a very light thin coat of white over the front leading edges of the black stripes of the decals to lighten them up and blend them into the paint finish, this reduced the stark contrast between the black and the white portions of the plane and weathers them a bit so they appear a bit faded towards the front of the aircraft. Once I was satisfied, I clearcoated the entire plane and protected the decals with a nice even spray of ModelMaster Acryl semi-gloss clear coat. This ties together the sheen of the decals to match the sheen of the paint and further makes them look painted on.

After the decals had fully dried, I decided to do an oil wash over them to tie in the panel line details over the decals - this is an essential step to make the decals look painted on, part of the model instead of laid over top of your paint. I used white over the dark or black stripes and a medium grey over the lighter areas of the decal such as the UN SPACY lettering or the yellow stripes.

Come on! lets see more finished Boosters! Well, I got one of the bestest birthday presents of all this past weekend, my wife took care of our baby and gave me almost 6 whole hours of uninterrupted modeling time!! Woohoo! I finished decaling the Valkyrie! Man, that's a lot of tiny little stenciling, but I love it. I didn't apply decals in the tail area since it will slide into the Booster and be hidden from view almost all the time (except on the rare occasions that I would separate the Valkyrie from the Booster). I varied my painting of the Valk this time, I introduced as many grey/non-white elements to the white Valk to make it a little more interesting, the most notable difference is in the leading slats to the wings where I painted them silver (I quite like the look although not canon to artwork), I also painted the area behind the folding wings in a grey and light grey stripes by the top of the air intakes. The plane is actually more weathered and the shading is a little more pronounced in person, the photos tend to "white-wash" the plane out and make it a little newer than it actually appears. I have my older VF-1A there for reference to decal placement and comparison (hard to believe that was the first Vf-1 I've ever built!).

Oh, the yellow is metallic gold foil - thats a little better, but nah, I'll still pass - pretty unimaginative, plus that script fonts has gotta go! I doubt it will be molded in those metallic colours though (if it is, it would be impossible to get rid of the seam lines!).

OK, I couldn't resist to take more pictures of it! (I've been waiting to see the engine bells on for months!) Plus now I test fitted the Valkyrie on as well - again its not all the way in, but it gives the idea! In the second last shot (when the lighting is just right!) you can actually see into the 3 grilled meshed slot and see some of the engine compartment details! YAY!! Now I've got to finish the Valkyrie decalling... (so close... ) p.s. is there some way to add attachments more than one at a time?

I basically repeated the procedure for the upper bells now. I thought I'd do the lower ones first - to get the hang of things and in case something went wrong, its in a less noticeable part of the model. The trick is to constantly eye down the back of the booster to make sure that the engine bells are evenly spaced and the glue doesn't cure while anyone bell is skewed since there aren't really any registration notches or marks and you can really glue the bells in whatever position you like. I personally like them splayed out. Its good that the mounting point is so far deep into the booster, cuz I used a lot of epoxy to get these babies in place! I do love the way they look - the flat booster finish is a good contrast to the metallic finish of the engine bells and the bluish faint panels on the bells ties quite nicely to the boosters. I don't think I'm going to weather the engine bells with a burnt edge since I don't think they are reusable - but I'll may change my mind when the entire thing is done. Right now, they only have a dark oil wash on them. Having all four bells glued on does make the whole thing really back heavy - and I want to handle them with care. You shouldn't let it sit on the table since those four resin tabs on the end of the bells could bend or worst snap off over time. I guess my next build will be the launch rail - otherwise there really isn't a way to support and display this bird properly.

Snuck in a few hours on the long Canada Day weekend! One of the most anticipated steps - I get to finally mount the engine bells onto the Boosters. My only concern here is that they are pretty big resin bells and weigh a quite a bit. They mount via a ball-like joint on the boosters, and the actual glue contact point isn't that large - I'm afraid they are kind of like levers which can translate into a pretty large amount of force at the glue contact point. Luckily upon test fitting, the actual glue contact points are pretty well hidden within the recess of the booster housing - the plus is that we can put a huge goop of glue here without having to worry about what it would look like - the con is that all of those amazing details John had sculpted is pretty much hidden once the bells go on. I've decided to use 5 minute epoxy here and thought I should reinforce the connection by pinning it with a metal paper clip. I chose a pin-vise bit that was the size of the paper clip and found a relatively thick gauge paper clip what was serrated (otherwise I would rough up the metal with a coarse sandpaper) anything to give more tooth for the glue to hold onto - otherwise the smooth metal would just slid out of the epoxy once it cured. I drilled both sides in the centre, then did a test fit and angled the engine bells so they splayed outwards like the line art - the paper clips also bent to the right angle and will help hold the bells at the right angle for the glue to cure. I also took coarse sand paper and roughed up the engine balls so that there would be more tooth there for the glue to grab hold of too. I folded a paper towel inbetween the bells to keep them separated at the angle I wanted - test fit the whole arrangement with the upper bells (since they can be swiveled out much farther than the lower ones - the lower ones are trapped by the depth of the mounting socket so they can't be splayed too far without rubbing the outside edges of the lower half of the booster). Once I found that happy medium, I slathered on the 5 minute epoxy and glued the bells and literally held the bells and boosters in place in my hands for 5 minutes.

Ok, no real new progress... but when I took the photo of the template for Gabe, I couldn't resist just putting the Valkyrie onto the booster to take a look at! With the modifications I made to the Booster, the Valkyrie is now removeable (which I suggest all to do since it make painting so much easier later on) the fit is rather tight and snug though (thanks to the Captain's precision sculpt!). The Valk isn't all the way in... its a really tight fit, so its in partially for now so I can easily take it out again. Can't wait to pin and glue the engine bells (maybe this weekend!) (p.s. I switched back to my old Nikon 990 camera - I just leave it collecting dust now that I have my Nikon D80 DSLR which is so much better as can be seen by the earlier pictures, the colour of the previous shots are so much more true to life - but the Nikon 990 still has better Macro and close focusing capabilities)

No probs Gabe, How's this... I can't even remember when I bought it.

Once all the decals were down and allowed to dry (very important to not futz with it when there is MicroSOL on top of the decals - I've ruined tons of good decals by playing with the model and touching or holding it in the wrong place!). I left it overnight to make sure. I then took a relatively soft mechanical pencil (lead 2B) and lightly drew in some additional panel lines, access hatches and details over the decals. I got this great photo-etched scribing template from Verlinden - its mostly WWII aircraft access hatch shapes - like losenges, but its useful. I haven't got up the nerve to use it as a scribing template yet - I will someday. Using the airbrush again took a few tries at getting used to it again. Being away for more than a year really made me feel un-easy about the whole process. I had to redo a lot of the fine spraying (ie; I sprayed some sky-grey and medium blue over areas so that they didn't look so flat, and accentuated some of the panel lines while tying in some of the lighter decal stenciling so that they look more painted in and didn't stand out with so much contrast. I then clear-coated the entire thing in ModelMaster Acryl flat/matte finish. This protects the decals somewhat, protects the pencil details from smudging, and blends in the decal finish so it looks like the rest of the model. It also has an effect of lightening the overall finish of the booster (which is good since it mates up with a somewhat white plane). I established this matte booster on semi-gloss plane before with my other Super-Valkyries - so I wanted to follow suit - since they will be displayed together. The matte finish makes it more utilitarian IMHO. Once the flat finish had dried, I took a bit of flat white and did a light overall dry-brushing hitting the highlights of the model - paying close attention to the serrated grey hatches above and below. Together with the previous dark oil wash, and this lighter dry-brushing, I think it adds a lot more depth t othe model (oven though the shape of the model is relatively flat on the sides). Overall I am very happy with the way it has turned out now. I spent way too much time and effort on those 3-slotted vents that I don't think it pays off in the end. You can hardly see the engine details I put inside the mesh (if I chose a larger holed mesh, then it would look out of scale). Now I think if I can get away for a hour in the next few days - I can't wait to attach the engine bells!

Thanks for the tip - I ended up just picking at it some more until I was totally frustrated - then I wanted to move on to decaling! I tried to do a dark / flat black wash over the mesh, so that any remaining blue masking residue became black or dark grey, it also toned down the bright reflective quality of the steel mesh and gave it a more scaled appearance. I used some of Anasazi's great decals - the correct size for the Space Kite symbol appears to be the 1/48 Yamato fastpacks kite. Along with tons of stencilling from my decal spares. The UN Spacy letters on the black stripes were from the extra grey ones Hasegawa provided with the YF-21 kit in grey - I then re-sprayed a light coat of flat black over the decals to further tone them down to a dark grey so they blended into the black stripe a bit more - I didn't want them to stand out so much. Before I decalled, I made sure that there was a semi-gloss clearcoat base for the decals to adhere too. Since this is a relatively dark base with the end result being a flat or matte finish - this is a prime candidate for the silvering of the carrier film to show through. To minimize this possible end result, I used a smooth semi-gloss base coat (a glossy one would be better, but it may attract fingerprints), then I applied liberally the MicroSET solution to the surface of the model to be decalled. I trimmed as much of the excess carrier film as possible, when I slid the decal onto the model surface, I pressed them down with a wet paper tower to remove any possible air bubble underneath. Once in place I painted MicroSOL over the all the decals to get them to lie flatter against the model.

Hey Grayson, whats NM?

Thanks so much Electric Indigo! I actually ordered the magazine now. Did you know there's another Yamato modellng manual - I got it off HLJ a little while ago. Now if there's some kind soul that can translate Japanese for me?! ;-) I'd be set! Painting those figures are simply crazy!! I don't think in my wildest dreams I can do anything approaching what these people can do - for those of you who don't have the kit, the little scaled figures are literally 1/8" - 3/16" tall! but they hold tremendous detail, right down to their shoulder stripes. It goes to prove what kind of molding technology they have.

I don't think I have just pure ammonia. I've tried windex with ammonia, and it doesn't seem to do much with the liquid mask - however, its a great solvent for Tamiya paints though, that's what I use to clean out the airbrush.

Thanks, because I've tried all my stuff; alcohol, Mr. Color thinner, Tamiya thinner, Metalizer thinner, ModelMaster Acyl thinner/solvent, Varsol, Acetone, & Nail polish remover - but still no go. Gawd! what is this stuff made of?! Where do I get cellulose thinner? Is it a hardware thing? Paint solvent?

Thanks Recon for that bit instructions - it helped. I still have a problem with a droppy nose from the darker grey heat shield forward when I'm zooming it around the room, its fine when the gears are deployed and it sits on the ground, the weight of the plane on the front nose gears closes up the gap in the heat shield. That's why we don't see it in pictures since everyone shots it with the gears deployed sitting on the ground. Here's my two cents worth after having the two for a week. Its a wonderful looking toy! One of the best sculpts and I love the grey on grey scheme. Visually its one of the best Yamato has come up with. As a toy per se, it doesn't have the playability of the 1/48 VF-1. I've transformed it into all three modes, and its one of the most difficult finicky transformations ever, I am always afraid to stress the parts, it feels flimsy and the hinges seem too thin to take the stress (I have white stress marks on the dark grey over the shoulder double hinges already only after a few transforms - these should have been metal too). Its a bad combination of some parts being too way too tight (such as step 07 when you push the nose forward to release the heatshield or the second hinge in the tailfin section to flip up) and other parts just being too flimsy and flopping open (such as the inovative side doors to the head underneath falling open or the head flipping down in Gerwalk). I love how the forward fuselage retracts into the chest shield to reduce the torso length - great design here. Its a great instant "model" - it LOOKS fantastic, but I wouldn't want to transform it often. In the end, I think its worth it for me, since I don't have time to build any models at the moment, its instant gratification. Its something more to be left in one mode and looked at or occasionally picked up and zoomed around. And really, after the "newness" of all my other Yamato birds wear off, it usually ends up on my shelf in one mode or another to be looked at and occasionally picked up. Because it's sure purdy!! Can't wait to panel-line, weather and hopefully Anasazi or someone will provide us with some waterslide decals for this baby!!

Thanks! The colour scheme was to match my other VF-1 Valks with the Fastpacks, its a very similar blue/grey, I thought that this Booster was just another REALLY REALLY big fastpack type of equipment add-on for the Valks. Yeah... believe me, I thought about doing something to cover them up and call it a day. But if you remember, I spent all that time hollowing out the inside of the resin cast so I could fit engine mechanical details behind the screen. What a waste of time that was! You can hardly see anything behind the screen now - I think the screen is a bit too reflective and the mesh too fine. I may dull it down or tone down the silver so we can see into the engine compartment a bit more, but only after I figure out a way of getting all the tiny bits of blue liquid mask out of all the tiny mesh holes first. Solvent is the way to go I think, if I can find the right stuff.

ARGH!!! The nightmare begins! Ok, tip to any that care... do not let liquid mask dry out on your model!! Of course this doesn't happen overnight or in months, but over a year it can - especially in dry Canadian winters when you're workspace is beside the furnace. What should of been a 5 minute job and the joy of revealing work underneath (I've always love peeling liquid mask - it signals a stage where something that was hidden is finally revealed in all its glory, its quite cathartic - except in this case!) is now a 3 hour ordeal! The cracked bits of dried liquid mask flaked off in tiny bits, gumming up the fine mesh underneath. Also the dried mask intensified its pull on the painted vent edges underneath and pulled flakes of paint off with it as it came out. I basically surgically had to use a x-acto blade and needle-nosed tweezers to slowly pick at this stuff while trying to minimize the damage to the surrounding edges. Unbeknown to me, some of the liquid mask got underneath the masking tape over the mesh and seeped into all the tiny holes of the mesh - its what you see as some blue marks on the mesh, its not overspray, its the remnants of the liquid mask. Anyone know of a solvent for Microscale Blue Liquid Mask that won't also desolve my paint around the vents? So the tedious task of removing all this crap now befalls me, it took 3 hrs to do these three vents, there are 12 in total - so I thought I would attack one each night for the next twelve nights. And thats all I got in my 7 hours of Father's Day bliss! Hopefully I can sneek a little here and there, cause I really want to finish this up before more damage occurs on it while just sitting on my bench! Its the best part left which is all the decaling and weathering.

In the meanwhile, whenever I had to wait for anything, such as the black stripes to dry, I started to decal the VF-1 Valkyrie, I started by doing all the large black stripes on it too! Best technique I've found is to trim as closely any excess carrier film from the decals. Wet the area on the plane with MicroSET setting solution (normally this just breaks the surface tension in the water and minimizes bubbles - but for some reason it actually attacked some of the Hasegawa decals - I don't know why, MicroSET is usually pretty harmless). I slide the decal onto the model with lots of water, and position it to where I want it. Then I use a wet paper tower folder over a few times and press down hard on the decal careful to not slide it out of place. This forces the decal down and onto the surface of the model and into all the contours, panel lines and rivet details. Once you see all that amazing detail show through (I still think the original VF-1 is still one of Hasegawa's best molded detailed kits ever!) the decals, I would then dab a little (very little) MicroSET solution only over the areas that have the most details - this softens the decals up and allow it to conform to all the little nooks and crannies. Becareful with MicroSET, this is powerful stuff on decals and the decals should never be moved after MicroSET is applied, the decals will become extremely fragile and may pucker or wrinkle a bit, but don't worry, if allowed to dried undisturbed, the decals will eventually flatten out and look like they were painted right on the surface will all the fine molding intact. After all the decals are done, I would do a very light panel line oil wash over just the decaled areas (ie; light grey over the black decals and dark grey over the light decals) to make the panel lines look uninterrupted over the decals.

I spray lightly (in thin coats), especially when you want a crisp masked edge, its better to go light and build up in layers. Always spray from the masking side in towards the model, never spray against the masked edge - you don't want to drive paint under the tape. The airbrush took a bit getting used to after all this time. But I'm pretty happy with the results. If you notice the 3 vent slots are filled in with liquid mask from over a year ago - if you look closely, you will see that it has completely dried out and cracked so that it looks like the surface of the desert. This is my next nightmare to follow!! In fact these 3 vent details have been a thorn in my side for the entire process of this Booster kit. I decided it was time to remove the masking and expose the grill and engine detail work so that if there was any touch up to the edges of the vents that needed to be done during the masking removal, I could do it now before I get any of the decals down.

Well, my first Father's Day! and the best-est present was 7 uninterrupted hours of modeling! Weird feeling getting back into the saddle. There were actual cobwebs in my workstation. I had to spend some time vacuuming the surfaces (didn't want the airbrush kicking up dust and debris) and finding all my stuff first. Then it was figuring where I left off and planning what steps to take to finish. I never took such a long break while in the middle of a model before. First thing was that I decided to mask and paint the black markings; the triangular patch near the front, the longitudinal stripe and the front intake slots. I used a circle template to get the size of the UN Spacy Kite symbol and masked that off so the black stripe didn't show through underneath (even thought the decal is white backed - black is a hard colour to opaque out). I then drew the triangular pattern on a piece of paper and cut it out to use as a template so that I can flip it to get the other side symmetrically the same. Then I used the good Tamiya masking tape to do the actual paint edge, followed by cheaper regular masking tape that I stuck first to my paints to remove some of the stickiness.

Yay! a build-up - that's great, I haven't built a Battroid before. Thanks so much! I'll be watching for sure.

Yay! a step-by-step... I'll be watching to get my fix Since I don't have time to do it myself, I can live through you guys... that's great, I haven't built a Battroid before. Thanks so much!!

No I didn't! What issue of Model Graphix is it? Anyone know where I could get scans of it online? (or is willing to scan some pages for me?) I would love to see it! Thanks for the heads up. Yep, the computer is there, but not working yet. Its leftover components from my desktop upgrade upstairs - the theory is so I can have my iTunes and references close at hand. But I have yet had the time to hook it up, it has a TV card in it so I can watch TV too - great place to use a old spare monitor and tower.