captain america

Hi everyone! As you may or may not have seen from my previous post, the next segment of the Legioss is now underway. As such, I figured I'd offer a cursory glance at the mold-making process. Pic 1: using a hot glue gun, I proceed to glue runners to the parts and then glue the runners to a base made from acrylic; I like this method as the material's transparency allows you to more easily visualize the part and vital resin flow characteristics. Once things are set to my liking, I glue the mold box over the parts, once again using hot glue. Pics 2 and 3: this is my vacuum degassing setup; I use an industrial vacuum pump to suck the air out of my newly-mixed silicone rubber. The pump can pull a little over 29 inches of vacuum, but the chamber's (just an old paint tank) lid design is such that I only get 27 inches of vacuum realistically. No worries though, that's quite sufficient for my needs. Pic 4: A newly-degassed batch of green rubber goo! Don't let those few bubbles atop the mixture fool you, these will break as soon as I begin to pour the mix into the mold. Speaking of pouring… Pics 5 and 6 show 2 mold boxes in different stages of pour. The first is actually custom-made with acrylic, as some parts are just too large/awkward for me to use tupperware containers. Pic 7: a series of parts extracted from a mold. These will need a once-over, and any damage to the part will need to be repaired. It's rare, but it does happen. Pic 8: the finished moulds! I generally let these air-out for at least 48 hours prior to using them to make sure than any residual ammonia has evaporated. I should have some test-shot pictures by next week; I'm also testing the prototype ball-joints that I received from Codam23. Stay tuned!

2 noses: not on the books, as the current workload is demanding enough. The old, shorter nose was ideal from a practicality standpoint, but robs the fighter of that last remaining modicum of elegance that a fighter should possess. I'll see to it that either the paint demarcation is scribed, or I'll provide a demarcation template with the parts to take the guesswork out of painting. ...And while I'm here, I'm pleased to announce that it's that time again. Work on Segment III (right leg) has already commenced, so you may now send the third payment installment. Some molds are already done, some have just been poured and the remainder will be done by week's end, at which point I'll have another pictorial update ready. Soooo much green goo...

I also mastered the Garfish from Mospeada in 1/350, 1/48 VF-1D conversion, 1/24 Raptor from BSG, and 1/18 Tachikoma from GITS, but obviously not part of the 1\72 Macross line.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html This is not good

When I designed the whole Legioss, I went with a clean sheet of paper and made so many tweaks that I doubt the line art would be useful for checking proportions. The new nose was made extra long so that I could chisel away at it gradually until I find something I like. Easier to do it that way than to start with a form that's too short and then need to add material.

Hi guys! As promised, here's a mini-update for the upcoming third installment of The Beast, which will be the right leg. This will be one of the more intense parts of the project due to not only the number of parts, but also due to the volume of pouring required, as well as the fact that I will be using 2 different resins. The update itself will incorporate 2 different resins, steel screws, custom-made ABS or aluminum ball-joints, and white metal for the main landing gear. One of the points that needed re-working were the hip joints: back in the day, the hip socket was to be held in place via much smaller WALTHERS brass screws, and I'm happy that it never materialized, as these would have been insufficient. Having then adopted the implementation of beefy steel 3mm hardware, the hips required some obvious re-tooling. Pic 1: the whole area of the upper thigh/hip that is to house the ball sockets had to be completely redone: enter Mr. Mori-Mori. While it looks messy initially, some clever machining will take care of that. Pic 2: after a little trip to the milling machine and a coat of primer, things are looking much better: the entire area around the socket has been beefed-up considerably, and whereas in the previous version the socket was just screwed to the flat back of the hip, in this 2.0 version, the socket is 70-75% captured. You can see in the thigh on the right that I've placed a dummy socket for fitting purposes. Pic 3: More-or-less the same as pic 2, but the drilling locations for the screws are now done. It's designed so that the steel screws tap into the plastic, and the screw head will overlap the socket part to hold it in place; a sturdier joint would be hard to find. Pic 4: while most of my emphasis was on the legs, I was also taking time to re-work the nose cone, which I felt was somewhat too short as it's shown here. Pic 5: while it's still in the early stages, the new nosecone/radome assembly will be considerably longer on the 2.0 version. Arguably, it looks a tad awkward in pics, but looks way better with the rest of the aircraft. A work in progress as always.

That seems to be the way all the Zentradi mecha are designed. I had watched the animation several times to gain hints about the cockpit thing myself, but all signs pointed to it being opaque and armored, so that's what I went with. To me, this is part of what distinguishes Zentradi mecha: no see-through canopies.

I'm utterly speechless at the level of devastation :o Let's hope that the aftershocks don't make things any worse than they already are; these poor people have been though enough as it is

Wow, that's unusually long. I shipped your "Part II" kit last Friday morning; let's hope that this isn't the postal service having a major malfunction. I've had excellent results for 2.5 decades and now suddenly in the last few months, things look like they're coming unglued Anyways, on a more positive note, I've been plugging-away behind the scenes for the third installment, as it (and the 4th) will be the most complex and demanding on my part. I've already started mold prep and parts-duplication but the work won't begin in earnest for another few weeks. By Friday, I'll post a little update/precursor for part III/IV (legs.)

Too invasive and inconvenient On the flip side, I've started shipping Number 2s, and the whole batch will be shipped by this time next week; figured I'd give you guys a heads-up.

Here you go. Not rocket science by any stretch, just requires a careful hand and lots of patience. Your mech modeling looks excellent; parts look simple enough so they shouldn't give you too much trouble to mold

You want to see the mold (hardened rubber) or the casting?

I'd absolutely LOVE model kits of TFs; toys simply cannot do these designs justice due to their inherent complexity. Mind you, depending on the size, models would still be limited. Based on what I can decipher, if these are 1/35, then Prime would be roughly the same size as the Leader/Buster toy.

Consider my coffee officially spilled! :o Holy cow, Ruben; your work just gets better every time I see it! This has got to be your best work so far, truly excellent! Keep the models coming

The Masterpiece line aren't Tonka toys; they sacrifice playability for visual accuracy & hight detail. It's the kind of figure that you're supposed to just put in a cool pose on your shelf, and transform it *very* carefully once in a blue moon. Want playability? G1 Rodimus.

Hi guys! This will be the official "destructions" thread for the Beast; pulled an all-nighter and finished them in record time! Please note that these instructions cover both arms. Behold...

Whoa, that thing is huge! Will it have its own zip code? Seriously though, that looks quite impressive! Keep it up man.

Instructions: are presently underway. Will need another couple of weeks to complete the plates. Folded ride-suit: may be offered later as an option along with a pilot, though the former can't actually be placed in the stowage compartment because it wasn't made hollow on the Legioss for structural reasons. Unlike in the anime where Stick just presses a button and up pops the MOSPEADA, on my version the bike is stowed in about the same place, but due to the impracticality of anime magic, the pilot has to physically detatch the main soldier mode viewscreen (in the chest cavity) and haul the bike up manually. Not nearly as glamorous, but waaaaay more realistic. Ghadrack: I would recommend test-fitting the installments as you get them, just to get the feel for the way things go together. Of course, painting/finishing is recommended to be done all at once, because as you plug the different modules together, you may want to drill & add pins to strengthen certain components, especially in Fighter mode.

As it stands, there are/were more people wanting the kit than I can furnish. Technically, the molds can handle a couple more castings, but as a policy I always leave a bit of juice in reserve in case of a mishap, lost parcel, etc. As was mentioned in the contract, there's no problem with transferring the obligation over to someone else in the event of a "situation." I'm sure that if someone needs to unload one of theirs due to unforeseen events it'll pop up here on the forums. Much easier for people to trade between themselves than have me come in as a 3rd party/fifth wheel to broker the deal.

Hi guys! Just wanted to know that as per our agreement, the two month interval has lapsed since part 1 kicked-off, and I'm now commencing work on part 2 (the left arm.) As such, you guys can send payment now(same as for part 1); things will go a little more quickly to ship this time around, since much of the prep and scut-work is done. Will post a quick pictorial update before the 11th. Also, does anyone know someone that does good quality white metal casting?

You can try the nearest car-care center in your area; things like primers are more or less the same wherever you go, just labeled differently. Just make sure that you don't get a filler primer, as there are generally 2 types of the same color primer: regular (thin) and one with filler, which is much thicker and used as a very fine scratch-filler that will drown very fine detail.

Careful with that trap; they lose more postmen that way

I use the automotive stuff a lot; works fantastic for resin kits, though it may be overkill on a styrene kit. I also use Canadian Tire generic rattle can primer for all of my masters; it's inexpensive and coats rather well, though you're limited to mid grey and rust brown as colors. If you're working on a styrene kit, you can try SIKKENS brand Kombi Filler putty; works well for fine stuff and deep scratches left by sanding. As for painting, I never use primer on a styrene kit; just a base coat of light grey paint, or spray the desired color directly if it's a cool hue. This not only adheres fabulously but it also doesn't dull the fine detail you have on some kits, like 1/72 panels and rivets.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give you all a heads-up that Installment 1 of the Legioss is now ready to ship. A few packages will be going out today, with the remainder on Thursday & Friday! It took me a little longer than I'd hoped because I was also prepping some parts/packaging for Installment 2, which will kick-off Feb 1st.

There could be several causes for poor paint adhesion. What kind of paint are you using? If you're using hobby paint directly on styrene, you don't even need primer assuming that your plastic was either washed with mild detergent or rubbing alcohol. Greasy fingers? Incompatible paint? Improperly mixed paint? Residue on the part surface? High humidity? These are just some of the potential causes, but as nightmare mentioned, no overcoat/sealant will help to fix flaking paint; the core problem needs to be assessed.