Jasonc

No problem. It's been a few days since that last one. I haven't gotten as much done as I wanted to. I did prep the new tail fin piece, so I am now building the mold container for that, which half of it will be in tomorrow. I also had to remake new molds for the lower intake housing, as I'm at 20 recasts, and it's not coming out up to par anymore. One half of it came out beautifully, and looking really good. The other side starts tonight, and will finish tomorrow when the first half of the tail fin starts. I have about 3 sets of the nose section/main body done, and two done in Task. Those should be fine for about 20 or so recasts, but with a new can of mold release, I might be able to stretch it, as those are built to come out of the mold very simple. Sorry if I ramble, part of these updates is to also document what I do here for future work. In any case, aside from that, I haven't done too many more recasts, except small parts. I can fit those in the tank with the molds I'm making, so for now and the next two or three days, just small parts. Even those might need to be re-molded soon.

Coming along great.

Thanks. Yeah, I try to plan way ahead. I'm also hoping that by the time I do get back to the project, I'll be fast enough to turn over designing parts at a faster pace. I was basically learning on a few basic items I made, but this one is where I really "cut my teeth" on the real design. I learned a lot, but there's more efficient ways to do this, and I need to be able to do some things without guessing or hoping it comes out right. Some of these prototype parts may end up being made from Shapeways' highest resolution 3D printer (less cleanup and better definition). I made small tweaks to the leg parts, and I'm going to order those parts today when I get home from work. I hope they come out satisfactory, so I can start tweaking smaller things and get onto the exterior of the machine.

OK, so I've been brushing up on my software, and I'm really starting to get up to speed, as well as learning some of the more complicated tasks that will allow some better engineering. I'm getting quite excited again about this project, thanks to discussions with Tage on his project with the VF-5000. The pre-work I do now will pay off for this soon.

Parts are still coming along nicely. I was able to get 10 of the Task resin wings done, so they came out well. I also did two sets of the man body, and one set of the intake pieces. I wish I could afford to do the entire thing in this stuff. In any case, For those of you who ordered them. Thank you. You helped me to use all of it, instead of having it just sit in a bottle. You guys will be happy with the quality of it when it arrives. As for an update on the intake pieces that I'm trying to finish, I only need make 4 more sets, and could not be better timing, as the mold is starting to wear out. The tail fin was reordered and arrived last week. I got some new sandpaper, cleaned it up (this is a high res version) and after some coats of primer, is ready for mold making. I will probably not get to that until sometime this weekend. I'll be doing a massive amount of overtime over the next 3 weekends, so it will limit my output, but I still work throughout the week and when I have time here on the weekends. With 25 orderes, 14 parts each (I believe), it's a lot of recasting, and i've been able to divide up multiple recasts into sections that will fit into the tank, so I'm working at a much better pace than the previous scale. I will have the ones who ordered unpainted ones only out next week.

They look pretty good. As far as the shrinkage of the resin goes, that's usually a sign of the quality of resin, or the type. Some shrink a lot more than others. In any case, the recasting was done very good, so even with shrinkage, it came out really well, with not too much work required. As for the painting, it's a good job. I know I'd be happy with it if I got it. A job well done.

I'd need a small bank loan at that point, especially if they started to get into alternate costumes.

Thanks. I'm hoping to get started on it sometime soon. I've been looking at place to add LED function to it, as well as a small switch. I may end up going with a darker red for the body, and doing a yellow clear for the front, but I'm not sure yet. I like the blue as well. Green would also be good, too. Man, decisions decisions.

Not really anything I'm missing toy wise. As far as kits though, I'm looking for the Sivil resin kit. That's all.

Is that lense blue in the anime?

I should have enough. I'll send you a pm with the info. Also, for info on this for everyone, I did try to color cast it, and in using the orange dye in each cast, it seems to work just fine. It's not as strong of an orange as the regular resin, but as most are being painted anyway, it's negligible. It will help with blending in, in case of a scratch, but other than that, I'll send out orange ones to those that aren't getting them painted.

I have 7 at this point. Let me see what I have left after that, and then if there's any left, I'll send you a pm. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

I'll listen in tomorrow. gonna load up the episode and watch first. Thanks for putting these out regularly. They've been interesting conversations throughout.

Ugh, I forgot to put this out there. If anyone wants one of the wings in the Task resin, I can make it in that for an extra $6. I have to charge that because this stuff is extremely pricey, significantly more than what I use. However, the stuff is really good. I can't do all of them in that, but I may be able to only get 7 or 8 done. If anyone is interested, send me a pm. I'm only doing the wing with that, as it's the only part that would really benefit from it. As a side note, the regular resin is not bad, so don't think that. The only reason I'm putting this out there, is that if you want to put on the HMMs and all that on this kit, while the regular resin will last and hold it up, this stuff most definitely will, and if you have any concerns about the properties over a long period of time, I know first hand, that this stuff will hold its shape for years and years. I have one trial size of it, and I don't have any plans of using the rest for a long time, so I do need to use it up. I'd like to recoup that cost, and provide a higher quality part. No worries if nobody wants to pay extra. At least I can use it on a tiny project I'm working on, and just "experiment".

I still need to get the Sharon Apple. I've got some plans for the Ghost X-9. For this kit, I have the lower parts up to 19 done now, and I've been able to do them all off of the same mold, so it's worked great. I'm gonna start cleaning those parts soon, and begin on whatever patch work I need, and get those done. I do need to order the paint (just remembered. I'll be using an airbrush, as I have better control over that, as compared to a paint can, but I'll get one of those as well, just in case the difference is insignificant. I need to deepen the panel lines though, so those will go along with clean up. Man, I can't wait for this to be done either.

Very nice. I'd like to see this as well. It may be better to design it upscaled already. I tried that, and when I upscaled parts, the dimensions for panel lines were a bit off, and it didn't have the best outcome in that way. Nevertheless, I can't wait to see more. It's one of the ones I really want as well. I chose the VA-3 simply because it's just an oddity. This makes me want to get right back in now. I do have to wait though, for a current project to finish. Good luck.

OK, I don't have a big update. I did a few of the wings, but I'm going to hold off doing these until the rest of the parts I'm working on are complete. The white version is of the Task 2 resin, which from feeling it out, feels just like a good quality plastic. I'll be using this for a different project, but I wanted to see how it worked. In any case, here you go. Clean up of some of the parts has also started.

Got mine yesterday, and everything looks great. I haven't done a parts check, but so far so good.

I'm still working on parts. Nothing really to show. There's just more of what I showed. However, I did finish all molds and the wing, as much trouble as it's been with the 1/72, is very good. Very minimal work needed for them, so that'll help me with the finish work. Now, as for the tail fins, I haven't been happy with how they've been coming out. It isn't the mold, it's the actual prototype part. I'm getting a new one, so once that's in, I'll be redoing those. Until then, I'm not doing those. I'll try to take pics tomorrow, so you can see the other recast parts.

It's going to need a high performance resin to use for transformations, which will factor in the cost a little, but mostly it's in the needing to order parts and needing to reorder them as I continually tweak them. Not fun, but if I can get these parts down with little refinement (AKA, they're done right early) then the cost can be lower.

Looks like it came out quite well. Congrats on a well done job.

I've already made bomb clusters designed to fit on the VF-1 pylons, so the wings of this one would have those connectors as well. I have made several different weapon sets, but I really want to make them much more detailed, so those will be updated eventually as well. The bomb clusters were first, but I've also made Paveway bombs as well. I don't think it's ugly at all. It's got a much more curvy look to it, but it has a vintage look to it based on the Intruder, which I've always been a fan of that jet. It just has a tough look to it. I've been looking for the Experten model, but to no avail. I do have the Studio Half Eye version, which this is somewhat based on. The idea though, is that since this would be larger, I can incorporate ratchets and hinges. I guess right now, I'm just designing as a larger scale Half Eye model, but as I engineer better parts for locking and movement, those pieces will be redesigned to incorporate those outside parts. I have one VF-1 unassembled kit that is in pieces, so I will see what some of those hinges and bars in that can add to it. I'm sure I'll be incorporating some metal parts. I've also been thinking of the recast process. this will have to be done in TASC resin. there's one with similar properties to ABS plastic, and for the most part, it's got the integrity of it. Color casting it might change the integrity a little, but should be negligible. All in due time (fingers crossed). In working on the gun, I may find some gimmicks to make this work very nicely in all modes and do what it needs to do. It's a good warm up. It's a slow restart, since I have another project I'm already doing, but in between that, Delta, and my regular duties, it's alive.

Yes, these are all 1/60 parts.

Yep. I really have my work cut out for me. In other news, here's just a small picture of the assembly process I am doing while recasting the parts. As you can see it takes a while, and with only a two and a half gallon pressure tank, it does take awhile to get them all done. I will need another gallon of the rubber mold, and that should be all that I need for this. Anyways, without further Ado, here is a pic of what I described. Sorry for the picture size and for the rest of the mess you see in the picture. I am using my cell phone.

Listening now. Good show guys. Best place (really only place as well) to go for Macross information and event stuff.