wm cheng

I definitely agree with that - you should fully disassemble the brush - as paint can build up around the trigger and behind the nozzle around the tefelon washer area.

Stay away from the Hasegawa kits with swing wings!! They are the old molds with raised panel lines (like the Macross Zero F-14) Horrible! Unfortunately, the newer molds all have fixed position wings (there is an option to have the forward slats extended and rear flaps extended - then you can't swing the wings in anyways) However, if you chose to retract all the moveable components of the wing - you can make them poseable in two positions (fully over-sweeped - carrier stow mode and fully extended) after your finished - but they cannot swing perse. The kit I showed is one of these - excellent engraved details - all the tiny access panels and revits - but very lightly engraved - lighter than the VF-1. From what I've heard, the Fujimi have fewer engraved details, just the main panels and moveable surfaces - but its a much simpler kit. The Hasegawa kit is an exact duplicate of their 1/48 scale version but scaled down - so there are close to 300 parts for a 1/72 kit (which makes for some pretty small pieces). My kit which I posted earlier does include a fairly extensive set of photoetched parts including canopy frames, mirrors, canopy latch lugs, and all the control consoles. But from what I've heard its not a beginners kit.

Tamiya offers a 1/72 F-14?? I didn't know - how is it? Any details pics, links or info?

Wow!! GunnerX they look like masterpieces to me! Fantastic work - great photography too - they realy look great. Love the subtle weathering. The only suggestion I can give is that if your camera allows the aperature to be adjusted, set it to a smaller aperature (higher F-stop) it will give you a greater depth of field, so both the front of the plane and back would be in focus. Why don't you post step-by-step theads? I'd be insterested. I have an F-14 too that I want to build someday (but I still can't even get through my current VF-1 for the Booster and Launch Rail - got work! yah! ) Maybe you could post a build up thread of it first so I can follow along. Which F-14 kit did you get in the end? Keep up the great work.

Welcome to the boards - its so good to see fellow modeller's work. They look fantastic - keep up the great works. Very nice additional detailing. And keep posting - but please get a better camera - the pictures don't do your work justice.

errr, ok... this isn't going to distract John from more pressing matters is it? (ie: launch vehicle?)

I don't mind the dissappearing nose cone trick - especially if it will make the GBP model more proportionally accurate (since it will displayed that way most often). However, is it me? or does anyone else think the chest sticks too far forward, as well as the shoulder missle launchers being a bit too high and big. (Just being picky) The feet look tiny coming out the bottom of the armoured legs!

Fantastic work Grayson!! Wow, nice photos too... I'm envious you're starting to work through your collection. Man! what are you doing, you were my excuse to my wife; "see, he just collects also - we don't have time to actually build!?" Keep up the great work - and keep posting. Thanks.

Ahh.. great work!! ooh, those are the only 4 figures I want - too bad no-one is willing to part with them for a resonable price.

What a great thread - crappy or not - I love seeing all these models out there! Please the last thing I want to do is discourage anyone from this great hobby - lets all keep building!! Speaking of which, my VF-1+Booster has just been sittin for the past few days - must get back to it soon... but I love seeing these threads. Keep it up!

You said it!!! PERFECT but a bit too pricy for now...

Welcome to the boards!! Excellent model - fantastic weathering! Keep up the great work and keep posting your gems! Don't forget to share your ideas & tips.

The other side of the doors.

Hey LTSO, how thick is the pro-weld, I am already using the Tamiya liquid cement - which I think is great, but I want a thicker gel like glue that doesn't evapourate so quickly as liquid cement. This will be Hikaru's VF-1S (actually Roy's Skull Leader, but he died, so Hikaru took it over) at least that's what I believe is the proper timeframe when they take Max & Miria's baby up to Britai? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I think it will be Skull 001 with the yellow & black markings but with Hikaru's name in the pilots stencil on the canopy. I think I will do the boosters in shades of grey/blue kind of like the fast packs but lighter. This pictures shows the modifications required to make the Hasegawa kit with the gears up. Notice I used some sheet styrene to bind together the gear doors (the edges of the gear doors just aren't enough area for the glue to get a proper bond). Additionally, I added stripes to the inside of the gear wells to act as a shelf to support the gear doors when laid in. Luckily the gear doors, when glued together is just a hair larger than the opening, when the glue dries, I will sand down the edges to get a perfect fit.

I've started to paint the seat and pilot as I require the cockpit to be fully completed and sealed in before I start sanding away at the fuselage (otherwise all the wet sanding particles will get inside and ruin the detail of the cockpit. The interior and seat is painted Tamiya dark grey, while the seat cushion is dark green and the head rest is tan (from the Perfect Memory marker sketch) and the pilot I've chosen to leave the white the plastic as the finished color, and added the black under the helmut and shoulder pads (the decals do not cover these) and neutral grey for the backpack and front suit controls. Once dried, I will paint silver in the visor, followed by a clear coat of Tamiya transparent green - it gives the visor a bit of shine when it catches the light and more depth looking at it than just the black decal strip. The pilot still needs a dark oil wash, with some details such as the black stripes picked out with a fine tipped gundam marker. Oops, you can see I forgot to eliminate the seam running up the inside of the leg - I did elminate the seam everywhere else with a x-actor knife, lightly scraping along the seam.

Getting back to my fuselage - you will notice that I use the testors orange tube cement on major seams - and I apply liberally so that the "melted" plastic/glue mixture actually oozes through when you press the pieces together. This ensures that you get a good bond, and that if there are any little cracks in the seam - its filled in with this glue/plastic ooze. This is one of my ways to reduce the seams to fill afterwards. Often, this is enough for me to let dry, shave down with an x-actor knive the excess - sand, and apply a bead of Mr. Surfacer 500 to the seam, let dry and sand again - and with luck, that should be enough work to completely eliminate the seam. I will have to let this dry before I can do anything else.

This is probably the most sanding you have to do on this kit. This piece is fairly finished now, I will add some fences inside one I determine that my wing sweep angles are with the booster attached.

Here's a close up of the affected area. That piece in front of the pivot is pretty important and damn near impossible to get to after assembly. THe biggest thing that ruins these types of swing wing aircraft models is looking into the wing cavity and seeing the hollow plastic.

My sanding tools: a tub of water (extremely important as this acts as a lubricant so the tiny plastic particles don't gum up your sandpaper), the red is 600grit and the grey is 200grit wet/dry sandpaper on a plastic sheet backing, a old toothbrush to work away any trapped sanding debris from the fine engraved details, and a few rubber holders (they come in various profiles that help hold the sandpaper to get into tight places - like sanding blocks, I got these at a fine woodworking/hardware store). I start with the 200grit to get rid of most of the putty, and work up to the 600grit as a finishing paper before its ready for paint. The 200grit might be a bit rough for the Hasegawa plastic - its quite soft, and takes scratches easily - you might want to start higher at 400 in light orbital motion to avoid lines.

Yes, the first few items on the links list (the ones with an star beside them) are on the old boards - currently unavailable (however, Shawn may be able to retrieve them at some point). Unfortunately, I have no back up of them - so they are lost to me too. Here's one side sanded down - yes, I might of over done it on the putty, but I rather over do it than find out that I missed some spot. When I am done, you can see there isn't a lot of putty left, just enough to fill the cracks and circular injection pin depression. You don't have to pay too much attention near the pivots as the gear mechanism hides most of this area.

Hey LL, Great to have you on board. I don't usually prime my Hasegawa VF-1 because the engraving is so fine, that I'm afraid that I would obscure it. It also helps that its a white bird on white plastic - but without primer, you have to be extra careful about your seams. I pick out the panel lines with a oil wash after the intial stages of paint. Follow along my thread on the VF-1 + Booster, and I'll walk you though my construction process for the VF-1. Good luck, Wm

Now I guk up the entire area with some Tamiya putty, there are some injector pin circular depressions and seams all around that must be made smooth as this area will be seen when the wings are swept forward. I'll let the putty dry for tomorrow and glue a few of the parts from the next steps together - and call it a night.

I cut some extra styrene sheets to fit into the area in front of the wing pivots.

Now there's that unsightly gap that must be filled - since this area will show when you swing the wings back.

I then use a really sharp x-acto knife to gentlely cut away the excess sprue - go over the piece a few times is better than cutting it in one hard press - it makes a cleaner cut. Place the edge right on the cutting mat so that it can't bend backwards or down and break off - you want a clean cut.