wm cheng

So I ended up re-painting my bird after decaling because the gloss coat really darkened the panel wash and weathering too much. Luckily I still had my paper masks for the pattern, so I re-applied a light thinned mixture of the paints overall to lighten up the panel details so they are more subtle. You can hardly even see that there were 60-70 tiny data stencil decals applied over 2 days. Don't like AK paints, they don't stick well (without primer) - a few spots lifted with Tamiya paint and canopy frame had some spots that lifted (never happens with Tamiya acrylic or Mr. Color) Finally after carefully repainting the entire thing to lighten the weathering and panel lines... I get to a less cartoony version of the Eagle. Must say USAF do keep their birds cleaner than Navy. Hate re-doing stuff I've already done. Next time, don't use G.W.H. decals - they are either incorrectly sized or wrong hues/grey. Tried a little metal/burnt tarnishing with metallic pencil crayons (blue, purple and yellow) - looking at Flankers for too long 😛

Very happy to receive my GBP Armored Parts today delivered to my door from NY (after a lot of worry from the stories around here) - they haven't failed me yet in at least 10 or more yrs. I'll try to post some pictures to compare against my old weathered decaled up (thanks to @Anasazi37) Yamato 1/48 GBP-1.

Thanks all, I guess things have gone up. At least I know its not a total gouge, but just a small profit. I know about the shitty luck with NY - but they've never failed me yet and they are my last resort. Thanks for the feedback. I just got lucky from HLJ for a model that I sent via SAL and it arrived in a week and a half. The problem with UPS or FedEx is that I'm guaranteed another $30-$40 in brokerage, customs & duty in Canada.

How much are people paying UPS shipping to NA/Canada for just the Armored Parts only? NY emailed me saying my preorder is ready for shipping, but because I selected EMS (hoping that it would be ok by now), they want an additional 4,981Y to upgrade my shipping to UPS. But in addition to 2,900Y I already paid for EMS, that's a total of 7,881Y just for shipping to Canada - that seems a bit high doesn't it for just the Armored Parts only not including the VF-1J toy itself?

I just got a SAL from HLJ last week that took 1.5wks to get from Japan to Canada - pretty lucky I guess.

@Ignacio Ocamica Wow that Mospeada is a beast! Loved it when Moscato was starting it up but it was just too big and rich for me - so glad to see someone tackle it and it looks like its in amazing hands!!! Thanks for sharing - can't wait to see the finish beauty. @peter What scale is that Excelsior? That's not the old AMT/Ertl one is it? I love that design and I built that back in my high school days before all the aztec wallpaper decals were around. Its still one of my favourite designs (not the model though!) Looking great! @derex3592 I have that kit too, you're is looking great, I can't wait to see how you finish it up - have you seen that some crazy people actually have it lit up?!?! That's just unreal magical wizardry. @pengbuzz I have that old AMT/Ertl X-Wing as well and I remember how much work it was 20yrs ago to make that look decent. Bravo, I admire your tenacity and its turning out great. You definitely have more patience that I. A little more progress on my F-15C. As with all G.W.H. kits, there are tons of mistakes in the instructions and even pieces but the surface molding is phenomenal! Overall the fit is pretty great, but there were the usual problems around the intakes and forward fuselage to main body seam gaps to deal with. Lots of study with Danny Coreman's book to find the right optional pieces and parts to glue as the instructions were definitely of no help and were all over the place - but to GWH's credit, all the optional bits and pieces were there, you just had to find them and glue them appropriately. Thanks to @David Hingtgen who put me onto these great KA Models (Korean) 3D resin printed engine nozzles, they are quite spectacular in person at this small scale, I might need to do a little more dry brushing to bring some more details out, but when I first saw the kit's nozzles, they are pretty amazing for styrene at this scale, but they don't compare to the aftermarket ones (although with shipping from Korea it wasn't cheap!) I've been thinking about the camo pattern as I've always liked the slightly feathered edge but at 1/72 scale, that feathered edge needs to be pretty sharp, but not masking sharp. When I was younger, I could probably free-hand the airbrush, I used to be able to free-hand an airbrush to look like a pencil line / NOT ANYMORE in my old age. I decided to take the safe route and scan the pattern and scale it to 1/72 scale. Then I cut out the pattern and used some Tamiya tape rolled into a tube and lightly placed it on the model so it was 1-2mm above the surface of the plane. I tried to spray directly down perpendicularly to the mask and that 1-2mm did the trick of softening up the demarcation line (it might be exaggerated at 1/72 scale, but I like it this way that its slightly fuzzy). I'm getting to my favourite part of panel line wash and decaling soon with weathering to follow afterwards.

Yes @Gabe Q & @Urashiman THAT's the one. I didn't know what its called - ah, F-203 Dragon II. Hasegawa does nice planes (not so nice robot hands - what's up with the skinny Armored pack hands?!)

I actually meant VF-X-4 but now that you shown the VF-X - I want that too! and what's that one that didn't transform but looked like an F-15 Eagle?

Please Hasegawa, I'm awaiting your VF-4 more than anything else - even a VF-X would be good and VF-2SS why not?! More planes please.

I see that their banner includes Macross II - so the VF-2SS as a DX Chogokin would be nice! And their banner includes Macross Flashback - so the VF-4 as a DX Chogokin would be amazing. But I want the YF-21 more than anything else at the moment to go with the YF-19.

Hey @arbit unfortunately now, my software of choice is email/gmail, excel & google sheets being an Supervising Art Director. However, I usually do most of my designs in SketchUp and paper sketches with rendering in Enscape, but now I mostly sketch on a paper napkin or if I have time, SketchUp loosely to sell the ideas to higher ups and then direct the Set Designers or VFX to actually do the "real" design work and occassionally look over their shoulders while they are drafting it up and supervise the actual physical set construction.

After 3wks of chores, I finally got through enough of them to start a model (in between jobs - finished 3rd season of The Boys, everyone go see that next year / but I'm especially proud of Foundation I did last year, everyone please see that which is airing NOW!). I'm starting the G.W.H. 1/72 F-15C Eagle (can't wait to place it between my F-14 & F-16). Started a few days ago on the cockpit office with Quickboost Resin seat (not really recommended - had to scratch build the ejection rails) and Eduard Photo-etched set.

Do you guys in the US have to pay a extra brokerage fee and customs, taxes & duties directly to DHL afterwards on top of the DHL shipment prices from the online stores?

Good idea @BlueMax. If it were something a little more essential, I would do that next time. I don't have to totally get this Armor set, I have the older Yamato 1/48 one that I put a lot of work into weathering and applying @Anasazi37's amazing decals on - so this is a "nice to have" not a "must have". I'll wait it out and see. Its mostly hearing about the NY horror stories here that has me anxious, otherwise I'd be blissfully unaware.

I know NY has screwed a lot of people here (they are my last resort). I've been lucky so far (maybe pushing my luck) but they have never failed me yet - even with the VF-31A I still got it from them. I don't mind getting my armor set in October as long as I actually get it (I couldn't get a pre-order in anywhere else). I'd just hate to wait on them only to find out they couldn't get it and I've missed all these windows of opportunity at release time. I think that's just the anxiety and fear I get when I read these forums and hear about all the horror stories from other members here that did get screwed.

So the double set (both VF-1J and Armored parts) came out before just the Armored parts set? or did both come out at the same time and my just Armored parts set is delayed to October because NY screwed me and dumped me to the 2nd issue?

Just to chime in, I've been using an old Sil-Air 30D compressor from 25yrs ago when I was airbrushing artwork (before that, I was using a refrigerator compressor I salvaged from a junk yard for 10yrs, I had to put a wet sponge on the cylinder head to allow me more time to spray to keep it cool!). So I went from a junker to a Cadillac and don't have much to compare. Mind you I also went from a single action badger to a dual action Iwata as well 😛 Its nearly silent, I only hear it when it kicks in occasionally to fill up the tank and the pressure relief valve goes off when its full. It's been bulletproof and with a slight hum when its filling the tank (quieter than the noise from the airbrush when spraying). I highly recommend it. When I'm done, I just turn it off and within a day or two, it eventually bleeds out empty. Now mind you it can often go for months or years without being touched (depending on my daughter when she was young and my job) - but every time I fire it up, it makes me smile.

NY hasn't failed me yet, but thanks for your warnings (now you have me worried) 🙄

Yeah, kind of sucks. They've always come through for me - even the VF-31A fiasco. As long as I'm not stuck without one waiting for them to deliver only to cancel after all the ones initially for sale comes up - I'll be relieved. I only want one, I don't have multiples, they are only for me

Yes @borgified, are they shifting the solo armour stock to the combo pack?

Argh! I just got Nippon-Yasan'ed and got a shipping date change from Sep 30 to Oct 31 - I pre-ordered as soon as it was available but I guess they shifted me to the 2nd batch?!?! (yes, I know I went to NY against advice, but they haven't failed me yet and it was the only place I could secure a pre-order)

Nope, just straight on. It works really well because the bare plastic is so slippery anyways. I also forgo the clear coat afterwards as well now. It really stays around, even the pencil smudging seems to hold pretty well - although I don't handle my DXs too roughly and don't transform them too often (maybe 2-3 times a year). My tip is to vary the wash with different shades of grey, the lightest grey (I often mix my own grey with a white flory wash and grey wash) for the lines on the white part of the plastics, the more the panel opens, the darker the colour till I hit the moveable surfaces with dark grey and vents with black. It gives more life to the panel wash than just one colour.

That's exactly what I do - he's even using the Flory clay based wash I've used. Works great on the Bandai DXs.

What's a sludge wash? I do panel wash them with Flory's clay based wash - is that the same thing?

@peter I do weather them slightly, minimal effort to fit into my collection. I don't think I've posted them here. I do paint my gears white (it makes such a difference). I'll post some group pictures when I do my VF-1D in the next few weeks.