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You might of noticed that I found some cool orange decals "01" from an old Crusher Joe kit - so this became Hanger 01. I thought the main hanger doors were a little barren, so I decided to mask a partial "01" on the large doors themselves to add a little interest. I lightly airbrushed a very light coat of flat white on the masked area. I also took this opportunity before I glued down the optional details to dry brush some white and a little silver onto the raised details of the hanger surround. This ties it into the launch arm a little more and evens out the weathering while tones down the decal colours. Additionally, I added a few panels of Alclad "Dark Aluminum" on the surface of the base - I thought the blast marks were a little overdone, so I'd tone them down by "performing a few repairs" as though someone had come by and welded a few new silver panels to cover the blasted areas but hadn't painted them the hull colours yet (ala Star Wars rebel fleet) The newly applied optional details were airbrushed with Alclad's Dark Aluminum for the pieces to be applied to the lighter grey backgrounds and Alclad's Steel for the ones that were applied to the dark grey hanger surround. They kind of stand out right now, but will recieve a dark oil wash to pick out their vents, and a lighter grey dry brushing to tone them down a little bit (not too much since I wanted a little bit of a metallic gleam for the base surface). Lastly, I wanted to show a close up of the "battle damage". I quite liked the molding "mistakes" - I guess there was something in the mold when the resin was poured - but they sure don't look like bubbles. With a little creative airbrushing for some charring and streaking, and a little silver dry brushing to pick out a metal edge - I think they look like "blast" marks quite convincingly. And it was easier than filling them with putty and sanding! anything to reduce sanding!!

I started working on the few extra pieces that Gundamhead had provided as optional add-on detail for the base. I first sanded off some of the extra resin on the back of the pieces by rubbing it against a rough sandpaper (its actually good to rough up the back side - save time in using a coarse paper, gives the surface some tooth for the glue to bite, plus we never see the backside) place flat against the table surface.

I will definitely take some proper pictures when I'm finished - but I'm not done yet. Although it shaping up to be a big one, so it will be hard to find proper lighting and a neutral background large enough to shot this baby when I'm done. Ah! I've long given up on "the" perfect model - I now know with my emmense expertise that it does not exist - and I should strive for it... but not kill myself when I don't achieve it. Its kinda zen now... I just have to learn of more creative ways to turn mistakes into opportunities. Well... I was kinda worried when I couldn't log into MW for the last few days?! I got a few more things done. I started to decal the base as well. I was trying to take clues from aircraft carriers and hangers - but I didn't want to over do it and take too much attention away from the arm and Valkyrie, since that is the actual model piece. The base, to me should remain in the background to the main model. However, I wanted to add the "dots" of colour that we see in the animation cell - so I mainly chose yellow, red and orange decals. (excuse the next few shots - I forgot to turn the tungsten while balance setting back on my digital camera - hence the orange cast on the photos)

Unfortunately... I cheaped out on the tape! The base was so large, I started using the regular masking tape - and boy was that a mistake. I forgot how fragile the Tamiya flat paints were, especially on resin. I've been sealing each coat under a clear coat of some kind on my styrene models - which works well at protecting the paint from being pulled up with the masking tape. But I didn't seal each colour in with the base - I just started painting and masking... well, the cheap ass regular masking tape pulled a lot of paint off - the Tamiya stuff worked wonders - I guess you get what you paid for You can see all the white specks as the resin showing through from beneath. I just painted patches/panels of a different colour of grey to hide some of these spots. Also, I had a few imperfections on the surface of the mold - I was going to just fill them in and sand it smooth, but I thought I'd do some battle damage on them to add a bit of interest. I airbrushed some burnt black on the affected areas and trailed them off as though the ship was moving when it got hit - an effect I did on my X-Wing fighter I stole from ILM modelshops Its a little heavy now, but in the end after I clear-coated and decaled everything - I will spray a dark aluminum metalizer panels over some of the blasted damaged areas as though some of them were repaired with a new panel. I then sprayed some Neutral Grey to lighten the edges of the dark grey surround and darken some panels of the lighter grey surfaces - to tie the surfaces closer together in terms of tonal range. I also faked in a darker shadow line at the top and side edge of the hanger door to give it some depth. I may spray a partial white number on the hanger door. I have sprayed a semi-gloss clear coat to seal in this paint and prep the surface for decals & oil wash. Just a bunch of misc. warnings and stenciling with some bits of orange, yellow and red colour to match the cell a bit more. Then a final flat clear coat over top of it after the decals & again some dry brushing to pick up the highlights. Somewhere in there I will add the extra optional details.

Well... here's some shots of the masking involved with the yellow and black warning stripes. Nice of Gundamhead to etch in the diagonal lines to follow.

Haha spoken like a married man! so true... Man, fernarias - I wish I knew about this site beforehand... they have some really great shapes for this project. Well, I got mine at Lee Valley Tools up here in Canada - they sell great esoteric hardware in Toronto, highly recommend those who live here to pay them a visit, they have a great catalog too. Unfortunately, Lee Valley doesn't have all these shapes - I will try them next time I need something. Nothing much to show, just masking for the yellow warning area and letting the yellow paint dry before doing the black stripes. Hopefully there will be something to show later on tonight.

I should add the yellow and black warning stripes next.

I started to work on the resin base as well. I gave the main hanger doors a coat of Alclad metalizer Steel while the exterior of the ARMD was given a coat of 1:3 Medium Blue mixed with Skey Grey. I notice that in the animation cells, there was a distinctive blue hue to the the exterior. I then also started playing around with the extra pieces that Gundamhead provided to detail up the exterior of the ARMD. I decided that I would probably want to paint these pieces differently, so I would keep them separate and attach them in the end when I'm weathering. Here's a shot of the base as it stands now. I used the cheap regular masking tape for the darker grey areas - and a combination of either not waiting long enough, or cheap tape and the lighter grey dusting of highlights - when I peeled the tape back, it removed a few chunks of the blue/grey surface Argh. I'll probably mask that area off and spray another shade of grey on it to hide it.

Thanks everybody! Donations gladly accepted even a subscription to Fine Scale Modeller (they're quite expensive up in Canada). I might think about turning this thread into a article... we'll see if I get work shortly after or decide to finish up the Booster! I don't believe my VF-2SS build-up is around anymore - it was on the old boards and it went away with them . It was really one of my first forays back into modelling - so you didn't miss much, it was way over post-shaded and wasn't really well detailed. Plus I didn't really post too much step-by-step back then, mostly some progress shots and final model shots when I discovered this site. Well, I spent most of the time repairing the damage I did to the Valkyrie fast packs trying to remove the engines to get inside the top of the fast packs to mount the rare earth magnets. I managed to glue all the pieces back together and used a lot of Tamiya putty to restore the round shapes to the engine housing (luckily the engine bells just popped off and was spared the destruction). Here are some shots after I re-attached the engines back onto the fast packs. I updated the engines a little with some Alclad metalizer steel and jet exhaust highlights. I hadn't discovered Alclad metalizer paints when I first built this Valkyrie, so the engines were originally painted in Tamiya Metallic Grey with black burnt weathering. (I think they look better now - must resist going back to my old models and trying to improve them... too many un-built ones to go...)

Viceland - Its really hard to discribe the brush motion (a video would be so much easier) but its something that is best achieved through practice. Its best done on dark surfaces (shows up better) that have a flat finish to them. You "work"/rub and scrape what little paint there is on the brush into the raised details. Keep in mind to wipe almost all the paint off the brush so that its dry (hence the term Dry Brushing) so the brush is merely "stained" with paint. Because you are "working" the paint in which involves some perpendicular dabing and rubbing, you will ruin the shape of the bristles - so don't use an expensive sable hair brush. I just ruined one brush and keep using it for dry brushing from then on - I prefer a flat edged brush as shown in the photo. Good luck... its something that is best experienced than discribing - its actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. Hope it helps a little... Grayson72 - Yep, thanks for the heads up, I am going to do a dirty brown wash to simulate some hydraulic oil staining later on - one step at a time... Thanks, if only FSM would pay me or if I could make a real living from doing this - BUT also get to keep my creations! Didn't get much time today, just put it together with the baseplate and finally got to assemble the wrist/arm main hydraulic actuator in place. Here are a few shots with the arms in place. The red stripes on the yellow signal paddles were just done with a ruler and a red fine tipped sharpie laundry marker. I need to repair and paint the Valkyrie engine housing that got damaged while being removed to gain access to place the magnets in the fast packs. Then I need to concentrate on the base plate itself - mostly a paint job with a few extra optional parts to add on. Then lastly, add the extra wiring and hoses to both the arms. Please... Gundamhead, Jesse or Anasazi - consider making some small decals for the signal arm - white lettering and graphics to fill those triangular paddles and the top and bottom of the signal...

If you scrub with a old used toothbrush and comet, you will get into all the nooks and crannies.

Final shot of the night for now... I added the hydraulic actuator/cylinder between the wrist and claw portion - again I used the Tamiya marker for the actuator and Neutra Grey for the cylinder. I crazy glued it in. I left the main large hydraulic actuator/cylinder between the wrist and arm off for now - I need to let the Silver Tamiya marker dry first. Its pretty close to finishing, I just need to add all those hoses and wires to connect up the arm and the signal piece as well. Lastly, I'll finish the base, but that will be in the end. Enjoy...

Oh, at this point, I masked the big yellow and black warning area - and sprayed. I actually took off that little detail in the lower centre with he red dot on it, since it interfered with the masking - and added it back in after I removed the masking. I would suggest leaving off until the yellow and black stripes are done next time. I then went around the edges of the warning area with a thin light spray of dark grey to dirty it up a bit (it was too bright, clean and new) and work it into the arm so that it didn't stand out too much. I also dry brushed a little sky grey around the edges to show this area was worn as well.

Not to forget, I added the four little hydraulic actuators underneath the claw fingers. I painted a portion of them with the Tamiya chrome marker (I don't know about the Gundam markers - I haven't tried them yet) and the rest with Neutral Grey so that they would stand out against the dark grey fingers. I also had to trim a bit of them off on the rear arms since the epoxy from glueing the magnets got into the way a little - but when you flip it over, you can't tell. Just a hint of metal mechanism - very cool.

On to a favourite part of mine which I rarely get to do on a Macross model - dry brushing. It is usually a technique quite common in tank modelling. Together with the oil wash which picks out the low lying recessed details, the dry brushing will pick out the opposite highpoints in the molding - it will look like worn metal when its done. I usually find a flat edged brush that is fairly stiff (I used an old watercolour brush with synthetic bristles) - this is the only use for this brush because the process is fairly rough on the brush and will ruin it for other use. It can be done with white (which I did for the fast packs on the Super Valkyrie) or I'm using Sky Grey in this instance. You dip the brush into the paint, then take it out and using a paper towel, remove most of all the paint off the brush. Then take a scrap piece and start to work the brush around all the raised edges of the model - what little paint is left on the brush (the brush should be dry to the touch - hence the name dry brushing) should catch on the raised bits of detail. You will need to go over areas a few times to build up a lightening of the edges. It works best around the edges of panels and any highpoints in the molding. I would do this first with the grey, then I do it again with a bit of silver, but only hitting certain areas, so that certain edges gives a glint of silver as thought the paint has scrapped off. If done subtly it should give the impression that there's metal underneath the paint (hard to capture on the picture).

I sprayed the entire thing down with a clear coat of Model Master Acryl flat finish to seal in the decals (helps blend the decals in with the same finish as the paint) and the oil wash. Plus dry brushing works best on flat finishes. You'll also notice that the flat finish lightens the entire arm up quite a bit.

YAY! decal time... I have a huge collection of leftover decals from old kits spanning 20 yrs from when I was a kid. I even knew enough to save the decals to the kits I built when I was too young to paint and apply decals! Anal eh?! But Macross has a certain sensibility that I wanted to maintain - I didn't want it too look to military, but it needs a certain air of japanimation too. I thought this was a great opportunity to use my old leftover bits from my other Hasegawa kits and these great Wave Option decal sets I ordered from HLJ a few years ago. I highly recommend them - two are Macross Option decals, and two are just Misc. Option decals (more Gundam like). http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?Maker1=WAV&Ma...eCode=Sci&Dis=2 They contain fantastic stenciling and various sci-fi like warnings "Zero Gravity" and graphics. I've dry fitted some of the hydraulic actuators in some of the photos - I love how the Tamiya marker chrome makes it look like real metal especially contrasted next to a flat grey finished hydraulic cylinder. The key to some of the graphic stenciling (IMHO) is to position them next to something, some kind of feature on the arm - so that they are pointing to, or warning some aspect of the machinery. It lends a air of credibility to the what's being applied. The semi-gloss clear coat allows the decals to lay flat against the surfaces without the silvering that can appear on dark backgrounds. When I seal everything in with a flat finish clear coat, it will blend the decals into the finish of the arm more. THen I will dry brush and airbrush a lighter grey over them to tie them into the arm at the end.

So correcting the signal was a little more involved than I thought. First I filled in the hole I drilled in the base with crazy glue. I let that set before I drill a new hole in the location appropriate to swinging the arm around 180 degrees. Then I detached the signal arm from the signal assembly - carefully... but I still broke the attachment elbow, so pieces in the back of the signal assembly and two of the signal paddles before I was able to extract the signal I scraped away some paint to where the elbow will attach to the signal (since I wanted the crazy glue to attach to the resin and not the paint). I also changed the location of the antenna to the lower signal paddle (as shown in the lineart). I then stuck a piece of gak from one of those Wave Option parts on the back of the connection elbow to hide the piece that broke off.

Thanks for bringing the signal arm orientation to my attention I have since corrected it, unfortunately not before I did my oil wash to pick out the recessed details. So I applied the artist oil wash thinned down with low odour varsol the same as my other styrene plastic kits, except I used pure black on the dark grey main arm and a medium grey wash for the lighter grey signal arm. I let the mixture dry for a few hours before I wiped the excess off with a paper towel - leaving the dark wash in the low-lying recessed areas. The highpoints will be highlit with a lighter grey dry brush technique after I apply a clearcoat of flat finish over the decals.

DAMN!! argh... You're right!!... ok.. calm down now - lets see how I'm going to go about this. Thanks RTHK! I guess I could try to break it at the joint between the signal arm and signal, then flip the arm around and turn the signal upside down. But I've drilled the hole in the base already for the arm (and the hole isn't right in the centre for me to just swivel the arm around) Ok, for those using this thread as instructions... I've goofed, don't mount the signal the way I have. Don't have time to work on it today - but will think about it.

Hey RTHK, can you be a little more specific... I know there are a few different shapes to the top and bottom paddles shown in the various lineart.

I "think" I will have time someday... but its also because I missed out on certain kits in my youth, either I wasn't around or too poor to buy it, that I've always regretted it. Now, if I have the means, I'll buy even if I don't have the time right now - thinking I may have the time later, or when I retire. When I have the time, these kits may not be so readily available anymore. It gives me a nice feeling to know "I have it" it prevents me from obsessing over it. I don't collect to see them raise in value - my macross collection is too important to me to ever sell, it represents a good part of my childhood and my best friend (who is dead now - I have inherited his collection, which means I have double originals of everything now, but would never sell them - they mean too much to me). Although, my justification to my wife is that its a good investment but I think I've come to realize that I won't ever really sell any of it. Its just so nice to have something from your childhood not be forgotten, infact, how many things from the 80s are seeing companies invest in new toys or models 20 yrs later!

OK, so now the kit looks like so. And is ready for painting (finally!) one of the parts I've been looking forward to. I love the Tamiya chrome markers - I haven't really found anything that beats it for shinyness yet. I paint all the hydraulic actuators at this point with the chrome marker, then I'll handpaint the hydraulic cylinders afterwards. Here's a couple of shots of the first basecoat. I'm using Tamiya dark grey as the main arm's base coat. I was so looking forward to painting that I forgot to spray a primer first on the resin model. One should always spray primer onto resin kits first - that being said, I forgot, and the grey turned out excellent, so I'll skip this step (but its not recommended) I love how the grey unifies everything so all the add-on bits and modifications dissappears into a cohesive whole! The signal tower only has the primer grey on it - I am using the Alclad pre-mixed laquer primer - I love this stuff and its so easy to use (its just a little expensive). But I think this grey is the proper colour for the signal arm anyways - so I'll just clear coat it as it is. I am clear coating all of this in the Model Master Acryl semi-gloss so that the oil wash will not stain the flat finish paint that I've used. The next step will be a black oil wash to pick out all the recessed details and give it more depth. Now, I've got to let the basement air out a bit - with the primer laquers and clear-coats, its just hangs in the air. I still need to get a spray booth - at least some kind of vent to vent all the crap outside. Thank god I have my resparator - remember you must use an organic filter in the resparator. Wife's coming home soon... gotta make dinner (maybe I might get to the oil wash tonight - lets hope, but it's "Lost" on tonight - and someone dies )

OK, here's a series of shots with the Valkyrie in place! I loved the look so much I kinda got carried away with the number of pictures Its really easy to remove the Valkyrie - just pivot it backwards while holding onto the claw, it levers the magnets apart - but when its on - its really strong (so my worries about the magnets are finally put to rest). Enjoy... hmm... the balljointed vise is kinda cool to mount the entire display to - I wonder if I can find a smaller version somewhere.

I also started looking at mounting on the base now (although I want to concentrate on finishing the arms first). I drilled a 1/16" hole in the signal arm base and proceeded to measure out the distance 2" as indicated by the instructions. Although I moved it down a little bit to expose the fine panel line Gundamhead scribed on the surface. I also measured 5" in from the edge for the main arm and proceeded to drill a slightly smaller hole 9/64" so that the main brass tube will friction fit into the resin base. I left the excess tube poking out the back for now - but was thinking that I will eventually cut it down and anchor it in place with a screw through into the tube backed by a large washer to more evenly distribute the torque at the mounting hole. All these pictures show everything friction fitted (I don't want to glue anything in until I finish painting) its always easier to paint in separate pieces.