wm cheng

Yeah, nothing worked on those Bandai decals (if I remember correctly) - they are so strong. I think that's when I moved off of MicroSet and MicroSOL and moved onto Mr. Setter and Mr. Softer (which is deadly to any other decals but barely made a difference with those Bandai VF-25 ones).

I feel exactly the same, I initially thought I'd be happy with my Yamato 1/48 but the more I handle these Bandais the more I love them! I just got the SSPs (NY delivered although I did order them in the first few minutes only to have to wait so long!) and my VF-1S seems new again, so hefty and poseable! I may need to get another SSP - argh!

Gorgeous, simply beautiful @Lolicon another masterpiece to add to your collection. Didn't go with the dark grey leading edge?

Yep, I just cleaned and vacuumed the floor of my workbench and found some old tiny photoetched parts I lost years ago, and I am sure I spent a good 6-8hrs looking for them. Now years later even after a basement renovation, I found some of those parts - although I no longer even have those models. I'm sure someone in another dimension was f**king with us.

Huh, I never knew Wave did Destroids - the only destroids I have are the 1/200 Nichimo little ones. I've only had eyes for planes of Macross. I will keep an eye out for the kit in my travels though. @NZEOD

@NZEOD What?!?! You wouldn't happen to have the white ones that go on the black canopy rails do you? Pushing my luck now... for VFA-103 Jolly Rogers? Please let me know what I can do for you! @derex3592 All those Enterprises look fantastic! Could you take a picture of them with your hand (maybe the Refit one) so I can get a sense of scale - all you amazing careful work make them look bigger than they are I'm sure. I've personally been itching to build that beautiful Bandai Star Destroyer too, but I've been waiting on Greenstrawberry, they are releasing upgrade parts anytime now (they've been working on it almost a year). The part that bugs me most is the 3 single piece engine bells, its really missing that thin outer ring that lets light though and I mentioned it to the people at Greenstrawberry and they are listening to my wish. @MechTech I can't fathom your amazing builds from scratch. I just don't get how you do it?!?! Its amazing, I'm just a decent painter, but I need the canvas to work on, I don't get how you can make such perfect canvas out of nothing!!! That's truely an art sir. @joscasle That VF-25 is coming along, you're not going to regret all the effort into painting it instead of decals. Can't wait to see more.

@NZEOD OMG! You are a life saver!!! I have been so grumpy to my family the last few days and none of them understand the effort and time I put into only to get destroyed at the last 5% - I'm sure they thank you too! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, I owe you, how can I make it up to you? PMed you with my address. @Dobber I know, hearing that "snap" is so heartbreaking! @pengbuzz I'm definitely not that handy or brave to pull my own formed canopies - I recognize where my abilities end and its just a route to frustration...

@NZEOD What!!! REALLY?!?! @derex3592 is right, its 1/72 scale - any F-18F Super Hornet canopy (just the main one, the forward one is fine) would do because its a two seater. The actual kit is 00853 1/72 Hasegawa F/A-18F Super Hornet which would have the pilots names on the canopy in white, but I could get aftermarket decals for those.

DISASTER STRUCK!!! Everything has gone wrong, even this post! This is the second time as the first post just disappeared with all my writing. I cracked my main canopy while trying to remove it from the fuselage (perhaps it was a bad idea to use it as a mask for the cockpit - I have done this times before with no problems). Maybe it was my first time use of the Mr. Super Clear Matt rattle can spray, it did go one much thicker than an airbrushed matt coat and gummed up and sealed the canopy fuselage connection. I carefully sliced all around the canopy but it wouldn't budge, I kept slicing an carefully prying the canopy out (I just used a dab of white glue to secure it originally) until finally CRACK! it cracked down the length of the canopy before giving way. ARGH!!! To me the cockpit and canopy are the jewels that bullseye the eye to your model - and this just screams out. There's been some many things wrong with this build, trying to shoe-horn the F-18A resin wheel wells into this 18F kit (it did pay off in the end, but it was so much work!), so much sanding and re-sanding of the horrendously poor fit of the kit, the tail fin yellow decal melted disaster, the wing tank that fell 5 times and had to repainted from scratch each time.... the list goes on and after each hurdle and trying to repair it, I finally get to this final break that is irreparable - just stings so much!!! The good stuff first, the extensive modifications required to get the resin aftermarket landing gear wells into this kit, of course you have to flip the plane around to appreciate it (I'm just a sucker for punishment. The top side, the tail fins aren't glued in place yet and you can see all the damage around the edge of the canopy opening trying to pry out the glasss, but the rest of the plane turned out well, its actually a little more heavily weathered than the photos suggest (it tended to white wash a lot of the finer weathering out) I had to majorly cut the afterburners short to fit into this kit because there were internal bracing for the rear stabilizers that I had to clear but you can barely make out the photoetched fuel burners at the end of the afterburner tunnel. So to in the off chance if anyone knows how I can order/purchase an extra canopy and a set of the decals for the pilots names and warning label for the canopy, I'm posting the very sad picture of the cracked canopy. I see if you live in Japan you can order just trees or decals from Hasegawa, but I do not, I'm in Canada. I will post to ARC if there's a kind soul there to help out or last case scenario, I'll just buy another kit for these parts (I've invested too much sweat and tears to throw it out at this point.

Love seeing all the builds lately! Nice to poke back in on the boards. Very nice scheme of the VF-25 @CrossAir. Love that Armored @CHAVAKAISER. @Return To Kit Form I don't recognize your figure, where is that from? Nice paint job though.

OMG @MechTech that US Navy.mil photo site is AMAZING!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I could loose myself there for hours. What a great resource. To all the people building the Bandai VF-25 transformable model - you have brought back PTSD for me Best of luck, less painful to watch others go through it but it makes me relive my bad memories. I congratulate you @joscasle for attempting to paint all the markings, that's the way it should be done and your patience will pay off big time in the end! I just wanted to jump ahead and not get hung up on the ordinance issues so I went back the the main bird. This is the last time I get to see it clean from the factory. BTW, I love this Mr. Super Smooth Clear Matt rattle can - I used to mix Tamiya flat into Future to provide a clear matt spray, but it took a bit to get the mixture right and I found matt to dry/gum up the airbrush a lot during spray. So the lazy me took to the clear matt rattle can and its amazing! No clean up and super smooth and highly recommended. It leaves a matt that will take weathering, but still has a slight sheen to it which is perfect. I started the weathering with some graphite powder (mechanical pencil shavings), smudge stick (blending stump) and kneadable eraser and started to work on half the plane trying to follow the photo references as much as possible. All the photos show they kept this particular plane fairly clean with the exception of the walkway near the canopy. This is my first past. I'll maybe tone it down and blend it in a bit more, the nice thing is you can just erase it if its too heavy or add if its too light. I kept the underside very lightly done as they were much cleaner than the top Its hard to get the real handprints with the paint over at this scale (I need a really sharp eraser to get those cleaned off patches)

Do you think I can get away with using these wingtip launchers as the Sparrow/AMRAAM rails for the pylons (unused kit parts)? It looks pretty close to me! Here's the pylon at station 10 & 2 with the kit supplied HARM rails (stupid me I just followed instructions!). If I can, and if I can remove the HARM rails without damaging the pylons, how far forward or back do I mount them and where do I mount the AMRAAM on them (do the back rail sit flush with the back of the missile?). BTW - thanks @David Hingtgen for bringing this up now, I'd hate myself if I finished it all and someone then pointed out this mistake afterwards.

Wow! Thanks for all the great info on the weapons loadout. I was going to leave 9 & 3 empty, just the pylon (I've seen the dual AMRAAM loadout but thought that was just a bit overkill - plus I don't have that many AMRAAM in the model kit). You're right, the kit supplied rail that goes on the pylon are the HARM rail you described and its indicated that its paired up with the AMRAMM - so this is a mistake on the kit loadout? Damn, I've already clued and painted these parts together. I certainly don't have a HARM missile in the kit, I will see if I have two in my Hasegawa missile kit. I do like the look of the AMRAAM on the outside 10 & 2 stations in the grey with the white tips, but I don't think I have the sparrow rails to go with them - damn it! I'm not a fan of the bomb (laser guided or not) ordinance on any fighter. I'm basically going for this configuration, except I don't have the sparrow launchers and only have the HARM rails (this is the 1/48 kit not my 1/72 kit which doesn't have the the sparrows rails, although I have an extra wingtip (station 11 & 1) rails that were never used in the kit as they indicated I used longer tips - those kind of look like the sparrow rails?

Thanks for piping up @David Hingtgen I've been having a lot of trouble deciding this too. I have really great references (especially of the actual aircraft) but most of them are un-armed, it was really rare to find anything other than just the wingtip (station 11 & 1) AIM-9X or dummies. I was going to go with; station 11 & 1 with AIM-9X, stn 10 & 2 AMRAAM, stn 9 & 3 just the empty rack, stn 8, 6 & 4 wing tanks. I'm a missile guy, I like the way they look. How's this layout? It will be the last thing I do after all the painting.

Can't wait to see yours @Lolicon (LOL, I wished I did it in just an afternoon!) Amazing colour scheme @enphily!!! Congrats on it turning out so well.

Gorgeous!!! (and perfect)

NICE!!! Love that jig for the Dremel. Where did you get that? Was it expensive? The louvers, were they also done on a jig with a dremel?

Wow!!! Beautiful @Dobber. Is that camo pattern masked or decal?

WOW! Beautiful @electric indigo Simply gorgeous, these resin kits have such sharp detailing. Thanks for posting, love seeing these kits built up.

VERY NICE @derex3592! I was just thinking the same thing as @Chronocidal and was expecting all the little panels inside the main fields printed on the decals too. I guess I don't understand the size, could you put a ruler or something in scale next? Well the yellow tips to the tailfins were a nightmare! Just discovered that you don't leave Mr. Softer on the decal in a droplet or pool, it will completely dissolve the decal in that spot, its much more strong than Micro SOL. So in order of strength, I've discovered: Micro SET, Mr. Setter, Micro SOL, Mr. Softer (from weakest to strongest). The yellow tips kind of melted around the tailfin flarings. I thought it was a disaster. I spent the last few days trying to repair it, I finally mixed up a batch of yellow & orange Tamiya paint and "handpainted" to repair the melted decals, pretty much the only decals showing is the thin black and yellow stripes in the lower section of the tip. after a few coats of future to even out the finishes, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - only a few days (8-9hrs later - argh!). I also keep dropping one of the wing tanks on my basement dusty floor (4 times) while it was either wet with paint or clear coat (the same one!) and had to sand it off and repaint - now after 4 times, its finally decent. Either I'm just clumsy in my old age and just not in the groove somethings, but I spent a lot of this model fixing and repairing instead of building and painting. Well its almost ready for a matte clear coat so I can do some light post shading/weathering. Oh BTW, thanks for that tip about painting my decal sheet and cutting that for the interior canopy frame. I also did a grey patch and did that for the forward LERX wing part with the grey no-slip walk on patch instead of use the kit supplied decals which was a screened print instead of a solid grey.

Beautiful @Saburo! I almost forgot what it looked like in any other mode other than the aircraft which is what I have mine displayed in. I do like the Gerwalk mode very much in this design.

@slide Oh wow, I actually thought it was worth something (I got the 1st round) but its nothing at all now, even those tiny 1/144 toys are more expensive. Thank God I don't collect to make money or I would've lost my shirt already.

YES!!! Beautiful design. I have the Platz 1/72 resin of the other two (Mave & Yukikaze) - I didn't know they made one of this also. Beautiful kits, but the resin cockpit is completely encased so you can't paint the interior - always prevented me from building one of these beauties. How much are the resin kits worth nowadays?

To the people who use Flory washes - I love it after discovering it. Now however a few years later, I find some of them really thick, what do you use to thin them down again - is it just water? They seem to bead up more than flow. Also even after a lot of shaking, I find a lot of the pigments seem to be clumping and not mixing finely enough (or at least you can see the "grit") - at least not like it was when it was new a few years ago (it was smooth like watery paint when new). Is there a proper way of "refreshing it"?

@arbit I just use future straight from the bottle. I airbrush it at low pressure 12-15psi and fairly close to it goes on wet and allows itself to "self-level". If you spray it too far or to high of a pressure it often "pebbles" and creates a rougher texture which I have done, just make sure its evenly coated to protect the matte paint below. I love the easy clean up of Tamiya, however I am liking these Mr. Color paints for real world aircraft as they are pre-mixed to the right shade of grey. Even with my careful matching I have noticed that each batch of Mr. Color or Tamiya could be a hair/shade off. So even with my careful matching, the Hasegawa data stencilng grey "NO STEPS" are almost disappearing into the top grey. I don't know if my paint is a shade too light or the decals a shade too dark, but needless to say lots of tiny "NO STEPS" and "NO PUSH" after 5 hrs of decalling almost disappears. I have now resprayed a future gloss coat over just the decals to seal in the carrier film edge (I trim as close to the printed edge as possible) and blend it in. I will spray it flat over the entire thing to even it out afterwards and start to dirty it up with a little post-shading and rub down of panels and streaks. @Dobber Welcome back! Great to see your stuff again and love the B-Wing. Almost chose that as my return to the fray, but somehow I opted for the F-18F and I'm regretting it now... Should have started with something a little more straightforward.