honneamise

Just as an addition to what you already consider buying and what jardann said, I can recommend getting a monthly magazine. Here in Germany we have two big/general ones and they cover the typical plane/tank/car stuff along with lenghty explanations how they were built/converted etc. - educational but boring for mecha modelers. Over the years I found out I like the japanese Model Graphix (available at HLJ) MUCH better - I can´t read japanese but the photos in this magazine are so great you get every detail. Some subjects are only in a "built up" state but many feature pics of the building process as well. The photos alone speak pretty much for themselves and are mostly sufficient to get the point without reading the text. I really like the mixture of subjects in Model Graphix. They always have one main feature - if it is GUNDAM you get to see several of them from every angle, usually with building/conversion photos alongside. If it is tanks, planes or ships - well, even if you are not particularly into this stuff you still get great photos and lots of building or painting hints! Sometimes the main feature is more like a tutorial on painting, building resin/vinyl kits, even mold making and casting your own resin parts - it is always worth studying! Even if the issue is more about e.g. the history of Tamiya plane kits, you will still get your share of mecha modeling somewhere else in the volume. OK long story short I love Model Graphix and recommend it for every mecha modeler regardless of the language.

Wow that Battlestar looks awesome! When I first saw the design I was kind of let down by the "radiator" look but when I finally had the chance to watch it "in action" it soon grew on me. Now with all those incredibly detailed areas this kit gives a real feel of the size of this craft, the more I look at it the more I even like it over the original Galactica. Great work, cobywan!! I finished my interior model last sunday as planned but they kept changing parts of the layout so I got it back and had to work on it again. They changed the structure from amorphous bubbles to ribs- I could have built this from plastic sheet but not in the required time so the thing is still made with stereolithography. Here is a pic of a portion: While all people were mightily excited when the piece arrived from the company, I must say I consider this technique MUCH to rough to serve as a master for a limited run mecha kit. All the rounded surfaces have those tiny steps -as you mentioned, cobywan! - and smoothing the whole thing out to a model kit pro´s quality standard would take a lot of time. Even if it was less expensive I´d say I will go on with scratchbuilding things with my own hands for a while...

It is an interior model of a display room in the German Museum in Munich. A studio here in Cologne has developed a very sci-fi-ish, amorphous interior design and they wanted me to build a model. The problem was that I cannot produce this inner structure within their time (and monetary) limits. I said the only way to do it in time will be stereolithography, but this is very expensive, so their decision was to go with just 3-D- animation and no model at all. Then the museum guys insisted on a model and I was back on it. Now I only build the surrounding walls and display areas and the structure will be "lasered" out of a resin block by another company. If I do my job correctly and they do theirs the two models should fit perfectly - they better do ´cause sunday is the deadline and I wont get the stereolithography until friday! Makes me slightly nervous and time is pressing hard, but it is still fun and I may be able to get more comissions from this company in the future.

Spatula I feel with you. Most putties suck. I never had your kind of experience with putty (but something similar, just read on ) but I discovered that over the months or years EVERY one-component putty will shrink! That means even if you apply only a small amount to conceal a litte gap where two parts meet, after some time the putty will sag and the seam will be visible again. The bigger the puttied area, the bigger the effect. I stopped using any of the Green-Revell-Tamiya etc.-stuff ( that doesn´t mean they are ALL that bad I just gave up trying after Revell and Green Putty)and went with two-component polyester automotive putty known as Bondo in the U.S. if I´m not mistaken. Once this has hardened (1 minute working time, 15 minutes to harden or more depending on the amount of hardener) you can sand it. It sticks well to plastic but doesn´t have a melting effect. NO shrinking even after 10 years! And here comes my nightmare, I´m glad it all happened long ago. I once added modeling clay as a nose weight to my 1/72 Tigercat model. That plane was one of my first fully painted, weathered etc. models and it was the pride of my shelf for about 2 years. Then one day when I touched the nose the plastic gave way - it had become completely soft! The softeners in the clay (by the way, it was FIMO - the stuff you put into an oven to harden it) had wandered all the way into the plastic and had melted it from the inside! The kit was completely ruined. Since that day I simply glue some metal pieces into the models to have the nose down.

In the end I GOT the comission but I have to finish the stuff in 5 days now, don´t know what to think about it. When am I supposed to sleep? There will be no news on the Ghost this week of course and I may need a few days break next week.... but stay tuned this WILL be finished!

I´ve been into lenghty negotiations to get a big comission so I had no time to go on with the Ghost. Well, after all I didn´t get it so I think I can update this in a few days !

I know, same as with all my half finished kits... still, very interesting pic of the nickick, especially the leg folding mechanism! I bought the Revell issue of the ARII 1/48 non-variable kit in 1984 and it made me scratching my head for almost 20 years . Some joints are seemingly missing or all the way wrong - you can move the legs but only in the wrong diections! I only found out that it is supposed to be a transformer in 2003!! This ARII thing is a complete mess - a mixture of a half-fixed-pose, half-transforming model! It is lacking proper articulation for cool poses and it cannot transform to Gerwalk (Fighter is out of question anyway) because you have to glue parts which have to remain moveable! I wonder what those engineers were thinking. One day I´ll get me one of those fully transformable Nickick kits, but I have little hope that these are any better, those 1/48 variable Orguss kits don´t work very well, too - and they look crap! The 1/40 ones from IMAI are much better but they did not make a variable nickick. Anyway, now that I have the chance to watch it, Orguss is so cool, I´d love to get all the kits and scratchbuild the mecha which were never released like Tegua, Logwood, Emaan flyer etc. - If only I had the time....

Hi mechaninac! Found this old thread while doing a google search for orguss mecha. I´m currently watching the show and this inspired me to get all my old Orguss kits out of the basement, maybe even to buid them if I get the time. I´m fascinated by your renderings of the terram mecha, this is really great stuff. Did you get any further with these guys or have you even finished any others? I´d really like to see more of your outstanding work....

Thanks for the info, I´ll just check the SSM site more frequently then. Just got a VF-1D-Battroid conversion kit from SSM and they are VERY reliable and fast - great service!!

I would suggest you making a new tread on the forsale forum to grow the interest or other people that might not frequent this tread... 343751[/snapback] You´re right 007-vf1, I´ll post it there. But before I do that, I will have to resize the print dimensions. I showed it to a friend yesterday and he spotted some artifacts on it. When I compared it to the original I found the "artifacts" were actually visible brush-strokes - nothing to worry about but I think it is better to have the print the same size as the original - 40x50cm- to make those things less prominent. I´ll order a new test print before I put anything up for sale.

I just got my first poster of the Ghost painting back from the printing service. It is a digital print on heavy paper -160g/m2 with a flat surface. The size is even bigger than the original but it does look just as sharp in the details. The size is somewhat odd - 47X60cm. They chose A2 for width but enlarged the format to fit the exact dimensions of the picture. Anyone interested in a copy? Price will be 26 EURO plus postage - I know that´s not exactly cheap but quality-wise it´s definitely more like a limited edition art print than a quick colour print at the nearest copy shop!

Thor here in Germany this stuff is just called Polyester putty and it is mainly intended for car body repairs. The putty itself is white and you add the red hardener. We had this discussion before and, as Chad says, this is most probably the same as Bondo. Hardens in about 2-3 minutes, then it is kinda rubbery for 5 minutes, after 10-15 minutes you can sand it (According to the instructions you should use MUCH less hardener than I do (the stuff will then stay almost white, not pink) and then the process takes longer). After some hours it is hard like plastic and it will NEVER shrink! I dropped the use of any other putty because of these advantages. Work is much faster with this stuff and it even the cheapest!

The underside after my vacuum cleaner sucked in a ton of sanding dust... from the side - the surface is still rough and some adjustments needed but the shape is a Ghost and not a Ford Model T!

Today I did the aft half of the fuselage. First I fitted a curved "upper deck" andthen I added some boxes to the underside - these will become the main wheel wells. side view The airbrakes will be attached to the recessed areas with the holes - that was a pain to adjust cause it is all curved, even more than can be seen in the picture Now it is all covered in putty, and what you can´t see , I filled the whole inside of the craft with resin - no warping or breakage from now on! I couldn´t stand this poor sight so I sanded it all down and now it looks fantastic! I´ll have to take more photos!

Here is a scan, but as you can see my scanner is from the last century and sucks big time. Anyway, it´s completely handdrawn and there are no small details as panel lines etc, just the general outline. Overall lenghth should be 16,7cm in 1/72 but that´s just my guess. If you need a bigger one please PM me!

Thanks Hellohikaru, I guess I missed that thread, it pretty much confirms what I thought. I had certainly noticed the difference in design styles between the first five humanoid robot kits and the later four. My own searches on Google had turned up both the Run Valam models in that other thread and the 3D art that Honneamise found was actually mine, my first rendition of the Dha Gards done back in 2002. 297537[/snapback] Every once in a year I google "megaro Zamac" and so I found this thread at last! Cool- now I know who created the amazing 3D Dha Gard but THESE renderings are even better! The Megaro Zamac looks soo good with all the panel lines, little details and the glazed head - great work Mechmaster. I´m surprised that you chose these rather obscure designs for your artwork, I wonder if there is ANY other artist who has ever dealt with these mechas apart from the box art artist back in ´82 or ´83. Mechmaster I´m very impressed by your work! Are these the only renderings you made or have you got some other Zamac- images to share? I´d love to see more of these.....

Any link where to preorder this thing on the SSM website? I´m not (yet) a member there but I searched the discussion board, news, SSM shop etc. and couldn´t find anything about the booster. Am I too late ?

I really don´t like the thought that the QF-2200 AND the X-9 are big beasts and the QF-3000 is just like a radio-controlled model plane. If my plan is the right size, it is still the smallest of the Ghost series, the QF-2200´s body is slightly bigger as can be seen on the comparison pic but I even forgot that BIG engine at the aft end - the overall length of the Qf-2200 surpasses the VF-1! Still, I´m not worried as long as the QF-3000 looks OK in relation to the VF-1. It is strange, all the ZERO planes look as if they are 1/48 next to the TV series designs... By the way, the QF-2200 looks great, it´s a pity Hasegawa have not included a landing gear, I´d love to display the Ghost on its own.

OK I put my Vf-0 away and did some sanding. The upper gun tubes are better now and the rough shape is there. Now I need a rear end - this will be difficult because I need to build the main wheel wells and the recesses for the dive brakes into the bottom before I can go on

after sanding other side, looks OK at first sight but the upper gun tubes should be more "sideways" and not too visible from the top. So it´s close but no cigar..... new gun tubes installed.... hope to get it right this time.... Cool... the postman just brought me my VF-0 with Ghost... compared to my plan the two Ghosts are almost the same size!

OK it´s about time. Here is the frame for the front end with 4 of the gun tubes attached.... upside with "cockpit", I had a kit of a 1/48 Scimitar (RN 50´s carrier plane) and it has the perfect canopy, thank goodness it has 2, it´s an awfully expensive kit hope I only need the 2nd canopy if I build it one day... Now the whole thing is covered in putty, looks awful but you wanted to see it, Grayson72

But doesn't that look like a vertical "tail" wing and not a main wing? 341859[/snapback] If I compare it to electric indigo´s VF-4 it looks like wings AND tail fins look more curved and with a tip like in Valkyries pic. Are there different kits out or is the new one modified? Just curious, not that I´m too concerned about these differences, the new kit looks great

You´re an artist, great work, rivals (or -athmosphere-wise- even surpasses) the work of Hidetaka Tenjin I dare say!

Wow beautiful!! Put me down for one please!

Thanks, jipe! I´ve done some aircraft, you can see a Tornado and a Vickers VC-10 on my website (www.scaleworks.de , go to galleries, then bilder(=pictures)) but these two are pretty old. I´ll love anything flying and if you want me to paint anything for you just PM me.