Mintox

More progress shots of the decals being applied.

This decal was something I was fretting over not going on easily. In the end with some careful nudging and copious amounts of decal softener (MicroScale Micro Set) it turned out to be relatively easy. It still needs to dry out so the decal softener can make the decal hug the plastic but by tomorrow I should be able so see more panel details and the decal should have smoothed out more.

After glossing and doing the pin washes I realised I hadn't put the decals on so re-glossed it and am now adding decals BEFORE I do any more washes.

I've started the panel washes. I prefer to use Tamiya Dark Brown Panel Line Accent Color on greys as it gives a more dirtier look. Black seems to simply be, well, black and looks wrong. Its old school too so I tend to shy away from using pure black anymore rather i'll mix a black with a grey to give a dirtier black. The top wing is finished but the lower one still needs cleaning up. You can see if you are careful you can streak it just right to leave some basic weathering effects. Combine this with chalks or artist oils etc and you have some very interesting effects. You could of course leave it like it is and it would look great but I tend to go back over and add more subtle streaks with some pastels.

I made a start on the purple? parts. Test fitting it here to just see how it all looks before starting the decals.

Yeah I prefer where possible on areas that have tight compound curves to paint them. There are some decal to be added to the area near and along the thick edge that should be ok with decal softener to hold and hug the curve but I have to wait for the yellow on the tails to dry before I spray some gloss clear to lay the decals down.

Slow progress. Added the cockpit details. I still have some work on the vertical stabilisers to do (the yellow markings) then I'll gloss the whole thing and start adding decals to it.

i've now made a start on the black markings around the forward fuselage. I think they came out looking good.

Now the very tedious and eye straining task of masking off the area on the forward fuselage for all the black areas. I've started on the sides first and then will move onto the nose and cockpit section.

More Progress shots. Head is done. Details at this stage are hard to make out due to the various shades of grey on the kit. This is obviously the head unit. Again it'll have more detail once a wash is applied and some weathering. Down side is most of it will be covered up. I've yet to do the little red sensor thingy on the forehead but since it'll all be covered I might simply leave it off. Test fitting the head to its stored location. The IGN Grey gets washed out a lot by the light. Its much darker when viewed personally rather than as a photo. Next job will to be to mask all the black panelling on the nose and forward fuselage.

Cheers Yes I've noticed on the VF 25 they are far more 'finer' than on their 1/72 Valks. Unfortunately the photos, because I'm trying to keep the images down to a minimum size, dont show them clearly but once the weathering process starts and I take better shots it actually has some very nice details. I love this kit because while it seems to have a ton of parts there isnt that much to paint once all the sub-assemblies are done. One departure for me will be doing some of the decals half way through the build as the skull head emblem needs to be laid down before the booster back-pack can be permanently added.

I've started painting the main colours. Here you can see the pre-shade for the panel lines. In the centre is the underneath colour (Mr Hobby H338). This is the back of where the head rests. This is the main colour, Mr Hobby H61 IJN Grey. You can see the pre-shaded panel lines coming through. With a pin wash and pastels these panel lines will really stand out.

Undercoating these parts in preparation of adding the panel highlights. You dont appreciate the details on this kit until it goes from white to grey then the details stand out. Thankfully sanding is minimal.

oh for a three metre version!

First shot is of the two body halves closed and glued with the dash and rear dash in place just for show. The other photos are where building this kit becomes a bit tricky because of the complex nature of the shape of the craft plus all the booster packs etc will make this a hard build to do and then paint. So I decided to split things up into sub assemblies and paint. Not much different than any other Macross kit really but there are some really complex curves on this kit that will be hard to mask off. Here I glued the two arms glued together as they will be fitted in place and glued and then painted with the underside of the body. Note most of the hands are hidden by the rear cover when I glue them to this piece. Here I have glued the two vertical stabilisers and the underside back cover for the hands. Still needs sanding around certain areas along the body edges.

Some more progress shots. These have been coated in Mr Hobby Clear Gloss TopCoat and then a light black wash added and then cleaned up with some white spirits and various sizes of cotton buds (WAVE brand I think). Next will be to flatten them and then some light dry-brushing to bring out the highlights.

Hi All I've managed to make a start on my VF25. I'll probably do it as a VF25S SMS001 bird. These are the cockpit details. Just basic painted and decals at this stage. I'll gloss them again and apply washes and highlights.

Wow nice one. I dont mind this design at all.

Some, mostly clear pearlescent colours. Trick with Acrylics nee in this case Acrylic Lacquers (all of the Mr Color and Tamiya Enamels are actually lacquer based but lets not get into this argument just yet). If you going to use these brands in both cases brush or airbrush applied you need to us Mr Color 400 Leveler. Nothing else will do. Not Mr Color 400 thinner but LEVELER!!! Cant stress that enough. Even in Tamiya colours. For Humbrol use their thinner although any good (by that I dont mean from Bunnings or Tescos or Macy's) but from a good hardware store that sells quality enamel paints if you want to buy the stuff in bulk otherwise the 50 or 120ml bottles will be plenty. Make sure your base is black. Strangely this is opposite of what you would think but like spraying the Alclad paints you need a really dark base to help reflectivity.

Great link to these. Cheers.

I was hoping this was the case but the part numbers are identical. Easy enough to modify the actual radome support but I would have thought Hasegawa would have been smart and used or added a modified sprue.

Hi has anyone tried step 5 in the instructions and found that the back pack wont sit neatly when parts X7 and X8 (radome mount) are added to the back?I was hoping they would have modified the part SD6 to have a bigger opening to allow the rear of radome mount to slip inside and sit better. Only option I see is to do that job myself although will that make it not cannon if I modify the part to make it fit?

Touch and shoot? WTF?

Very nicely finished.

Yep as mentioned the 1x2mm are really a great way of securing panels etc on kits.