wm cheng
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Everything posted by wm cheng
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Thanks for the words of encouragement... I need it with this kit! That Bandai Renewal (with armor) for $500?! is looking better and better all the time ;-( I'm just not sure how I'm going to keep all the armor matte while the aircraft semi-gloss to play off each other AND weather them at the same time with massive masking in the end. p.s. BTW, I'm not getting any e-mail notifications when this thread gets updated... I have checked my settings and I have e-mail instantly selected for this thread? any one else experience this?
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Another 10 more hours! (45 total so far) - I guess I vastly underestimated the scope of this build! I was going to power this one out, but ended up getting bogged down in the details (its pretty much straight out of the box with no modifications - its the painting that's a b$#tch!). Finally the missiles are nestled in their cradles! Did I mention masking hell?! This is the second time I had to strip it down completely to re-spray this part. The wings are finally prepped to be clear-coated sealed so I can assemble the back plate and wing hinge - Bandai is so stupid to structure their assembly this way that you have to essentially fully finish the wings before you can close up the back plate - argh! Did I mention I hate Bandai decals - they flaked when you handled them too much. However I did finally found a solvent - if you remember MicroSET and MicroSOL didn't have any effect on the crappy Bandai water slide decals - but Mr. Hobby SOL definitely works! Bandai didn't even measure the geometry properly (now I know why so many of the professional VF-25 armor builds in the magazines didn't have the red pin-striping around the yellow missile doors - they took me 2hrs to get right?!) WTF with screening all the colours - come on Bandai?! Well finally some sub-assemblies to show for all the work!
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I only started this project when I figured that one out! I described it here; http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=35120&p=1020105
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Just downloaded myself - THANKS SO MUCH boinger!! It's nice to look back on this. I had to go through the VF-25 to familiarize myself with what I did when I recently started my VF-25S armored - its really hard getting back into the saddle. It answered a lot of questions I had found myself stuck on. It's funny how much you forget after even a short break - I wish I could be modelling all the time. Maybe in a few years when my daughter grows up some more (unless I can convince her to build with me - don't really know about the exposure to the chemicals though). Again, thanks for all your hard work. I can't believe I typed so much stuff, I guess I'm kind of wordy sometimes. I hope it helps others.
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Masking hell!!! - although the VF-25S seems to go together easier than the VF-25F... pretty happy with the way the missile pods turned out... Now I wanted to try to paint those red stripes with a clear red over a metallic base to give them some depth instead of just stripes.... Sanding on the arms turned out ok... (hate that recess - its a bitch to sand!) Now after 40hrs of powering through this build - here's where I'm at - still all in pieces! The problem is that I want to keep all the fast packs with a flat matte finish but the plane with a semi-gloss finish - so I'll have to decal and clear coat all the pieces separately and assemble in the end! I give myself to the end of the week to get this puppy finished! It's nice to get into modelling again - but it seems like a huge learning curve for me to get back into the saddle. I just don't know how much time I'll have left before I start work again. This is my consolation for missing out on the Bandai Renewal VF-25S Armored.
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Congrats Lolicon and vf_1s Amazing custom work!! They look awesome. You both have much to be proud of.
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Phenomenal work Grayson! I can't believe how small and perfect everything is. As I age, and my eyesight gets poorer, the more I appreciate tiny details!!
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Beautiful! Did you get waterslide decals or is it stickers that came with it?
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Ok! I just couldn't resist... I'm so happy with how it turned out. Can you guess what it will be? I've always been scratching my head of how to paint the missile bodies white, with the red cap and have a dark background when the piece is molded all together - short of insanely painting each missile body individually. Well, if you paint the whole thing in Tamiya white acrylic, then dampen a rag with a bit of windex, you can rub the tips off exposing the red plastic underneath. Then use a thick black oil wash to do the base and the capillary action will draw the black wash around the base of each missile (looking like a hole from which the missiles emerge) and adding instant depth to the missile pack interior. Use the same black oil wash to dot the tips of the red caps to show off the engraved warhead details. Volia, instantly better than just the red molded suckers that came in the box! I want to power through this one if I can (don't know how much time I'll have - so no step-by-step thread for this one, its pretty much like the previous one I already did which I have been referring too before I started) but missing out on the Renewals made me pine for this bird and actually crack the box even though its a nightmare in masking! Plus when Hasegawa issues theirs, I doubt I'll ever look back at my Bandai collection.
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...took the words right out of my mouth!
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This is perfect fit for the SV-51 http://www.hlj.com/product/YLSPPC-KN13 This is a perfect fit for the Bandai Andromeda http://www.hlj.com/product/YLSPPC-KN14CL The only thing is that the clear walls are flexible vinyl, but they hold their shape really well - but for some reason (maybe during shipping which is very expensive to ship an oversized flat parcel to North America only via EMS) they became statically charged and now attracts a lot of dust to the clear walls. I have to try to find some sort of static spray to treat them, but I suppose they will loose their charge over time.
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I wished I had the room for that kind of display, the single item per shelf does give it an air of museum quality.
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Finally I can make my humble contribution. Spent nearly a full week dusting - man that crap is hard to get off after 10yrs! Then some time repairing some of the damage that occurred from the dusting (inevitably for models). I finally got them all under glass now - hopefully I won't have to dust again for a while. My collection has slowly shifted from models to toys as I have less and less time to build. Thanks for looking.
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Fantastic job vf_1s!! Are those the supplied stickers or did you somehow get waterslide decals? It looks great - congrats on a wonderful custom (how Yamato "should" have sold this toy!)
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This interpretation is designed by none other than Syd Mead!!
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Make it in Toronto!!!
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1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144
wm cheng replied to VF-18S Hornet's topic in Toys
You did it again! Absolute masterpieces MJ!! They're not toys anymore... they're models... congrats. -
What happened? I did mine and even the "post shading" in pencil and it worked out great. Was there a specific part what wouldn't come out like a painted surface? Did you press too hard with a really hard lead and etched into the surface?
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What shop is AE?
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Hey, that's a shot from my set!
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1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144
wm cheng replied to VF-18S Hornet's topic in Toys
RIGHT BACK AT YOU MJ!! What a great community we have here. -
I used some 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1 spare decals - they are a tad bit too small IMHO, but the 1/72 VF-0 skull & crossbones were just a bit too big. I looked at some of my spares box decals for the VF-103 squadron jolly rogers for F-14 in 1/72 and those skull & crossbones were a tiny bit big. Thanks to your adapter EXO. The black stand is temporary, I'm in the process of switching over all my Bandai Action Bases to the clear/translucent ones, so I don't know what I'll do with the adapter colour yet - the clear bases look less noticeable in a glass shelved case.
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1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144
wm cheng replied to VF-18S Hornet's topic in Toys
Beautiful! The LEDs in the engines look fantastic. Did you put LEDs in the city? Absolutely gorgeous. -
I was going to get Radome Tan, but when I saw it at the hobby shop, it was too light, it would look great against a white background as it was frequently the case with the old 70's Tomcats, but I didn't think Radome Tan would show up too well next to the grey of the VF-4G, so I opted for the ModelMaster Enamel Tan instead. Its a shade darker and I think stands out better from the grey of the plastic.
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Thanks everyone for the kudos! It seems like I've been waiting for this bird for forever, and I'm really glad I just had a little break between jobs to do this one up. No one should worry about weathering it up, by using a pencil and smudge stick, you can always erase it if you don't like it, or by using an oil wash, if you don't like it, just wipe it off with some varsol and a paper towel. Try it out, its easier than you think, and I usually use methods that allow me to "experiment" in case I don't like it. I used waterslide decals, I didn't use the stickers (as I find the film too thick). That's why I used "SDF-1" - I don't have any "Megaroad-01" decals which I would have preferred if the font was right - somehow I don't see getting opaque white Megaroad-01 waterslide decals anytime soon. I wished I had the white H. Ichijo for the black canopy rails too, but I didn't have any spares at the moment. I wish I could print my own white decals. You can get smudge sticks at any art supply store, its just really tightly rolled up paper into a tube. It comes in several diameters and you can shave it down with an exacto knife to any tip shape you want. It's used for pencil sketch shading. While you're there, you should pick up some grey kneadable erasers too, they're little rectangles like plastercine or clay that you can mold into any shape, they are great for picking up excess graphite or erasing the shading. I get some graphite that's usually leftover at the bottom of my rotary mechanical pencil sharpener, dab my smudge stick into it, then draw a bit onto a scrap piece of paper to remove the excess graphite and "sketch" and trace over the existing panel lines, concentrating on the corners and going in the direction of the airflow. I do this directly onto the bare plastic toy (before the decals). Then I decal and of course some rubs off during the handling for the decal process, so I then darken and redo any areas that have come off in my hands during the decal process. Also you can gauge how dark to make it better once the decal are on to balance it out. Finally once you've darkened logical areas such as access panels, engine nacelles and the like, protect it all with a clear-coat - I used ModelMaster Acryl Semi-gloss - its a perfect match for Yamato's plastic (maybe on the slightly duller/matte side which is more realistic). I clear coat protected most of the weathered areas and the decal areas to seal them in and protect them, but left the clear coat off on the undersides or wherever it doesn't need protection as the more you have on, the more chances it could get scraped off. I left the red on the legs because I thought it would go better than the brown (which I thought a little weird - hardly ever see brown on a navy jet). Since I wasn't doing the back head panel and tailcone in tan nor the whole bird in white, its already off-cannon enough. Plus if I did that leg panel in brown, then I'd have to do the intakes in brown too (which would make the forearms look odd in the Battroid mode) and the foot/nozzles should be brown too. Thanks for commenting everyone!
