captain america

Pic 9: Remember the ball-part of the foo from previous updates? It has since undergone much refining. The cantilever-style design will allow it to be partially hollowed-out and still maintain its strength. Pic 10: The basic foot parts. This is one area where the style-sheet diagrams didn't line up, so I'll need to do a lot of puttying to reshape the toes. Pic 11: Speaking of putty, here it is at work! An aerosol mold release was applied to the hull parts, and then Bondo was slapped-on rather generously and then I smushed the shoulder armor into place and let it harden. It may look like a mess now, but with a bit of carving and sanding... It looks like what you see in pic 12. I haven't bothered with beauty shots for this update, since many of the key parts are in various states of completion. There are actually far more finished parts than I'm showing; they merely have yet to be fitted together. The good news is that aside from the arm cannons, most of the big structural parts are done, and you'll all have a substantially better view of things for the next update. Until then, please feel free to ask questions/post comments/hatemail

Pics 5 and 6: A clearer view of Quamzin, being fitted for his "office." Missing hands and feet aside, notice anything unusual in these pics? Pic 7: More test-fitting. The cockpit hatch will need some custom-fitting to acheive a proper seal. Pic 8: Aft view of the Royquommi reactor's basic nozzle; it will receive considerably more detail later.

Hi folks! In spite of the rumors that may be circulating, I'm not dead, or even anywhere near finished! I had wanted to offer a mini-update last week, but I felt that it would be more productive to merely soldier-along until I had a bit more stuff to show. It might not appear as though I've made a lot of progress just from looking at the photos, but I can assure you that I've had my nose to the grindstone the whole time: one of the very laborious, time-consuming and at times frustrating tasks involves repairing Bondo-ed sections, which tends to form tiny air bubbles as you mix and spread it, and those bubbles then appear as voids once you start sanding, and are devilish to repair and fill. Alas, on with the show! Pic 1: the main pod has undergone some substantial refinement since the last update. It now has a semi-finished inner hull lining, and I have strategically hollowed-out key sections to save weight. Pics 2 and 3: once thew basics of the inner hull were set, I was able to start test-fitting the Quamzin figure and make the appropriate alterations. Pic 4: The pod seen from the back. Notice the crotch part: you'll see the acrylic rods that I've opted to use as structural inserts: being plastic in nature, these will bond more effectively with the resin and allow for an exceptionally-sturdy model.

Oh, it's finally done! Please send money now I kid, I kid!

For the time being, I've capped the number to 20 until I can verify with a fair degree of certainty that my molds will allow me to make more. To be honest, I hope they do, as the falling US Dollar (or is it the rising Canuck?)might cause the project to fall ever-so-slightly into the red. Oh, while I'm at it, the next update will likely be rather spartan, as I'm gutting the pod and working on the cockpit, which is meticulous and VERY slow going.

It'll never happen in a million years; waaaay too big. The last "bad guy" plastic Macross kits were released back in '83 and there are no signs of that trend being broken anytime soon, as even the Vajra prototypes seem to have fizzled-out. Enemy mechs just aren't a safe bet in their minds

The thought of being filmed constantly would drive me bonkers, and besides, there's nothing that I do in my workshop that other people out there haven't already done 10 times better than me; just do a search on Youtube. MechTech: I don't know how you put up with trying to sculpt styrene. Back when I was getting my feet wet with scratchbuilding, I used to CA glue a whole bunch of styrene sheets together to form a crude block and try to dremel it; most of the time all I got was a big phat mess and high on the styrene fumes. It's an awesome material, but not when it comes to sculpting

I hope to be able to do pro stuff like that one day... In the meantime, what are you planning to clear-coat? A car or an aircraft? While both may be glossy in finish, I would advise a different technique for each: automotive clear works for the car model because even though the clear-coat is thicker and syrupier than most modelling paints, it still won't affect detail significantly at 1/24 scale or larger, all while providing the glossiest, flexible and durable finish you can buy. I've done car models using a barrier coat (between the final clear and decals) and some without; excellent results either way. On an aircraft, 1/48 or smaller, the viscous nature of an automotive clear will simply drown panel lining and fine detail, which is why I'd opt for gloss lacquer paint job (Gunze or Tamiya spray can) then decal application, followed by a coat of Future floor wax... But that's just me.

A lacquer clear will ravage your decals due to the agressive nature of the solvent contained within. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

There are a multitude of different grades of modelling board made my several different firms, last I checked. Some are far easier to carve, some are far denser. My "weapon of choice" is FREEMAN's (formerly Ciba Geigy) Ren Shape 460 and yes, I know EXACTLY what Kremmen is talking about: the dust produced by machining/grinding modelling board gets into absolutely everything. It also clogs-up shop-vac filters like nothing I've ever seen; likely due to the fact that the dust is super-fine. I now wear a particle mask religiously when I work on it.

Pics with the Matchbox toy for comparison.

I have to credit the original line-art for that. The side/front/back views are surprisingly consistent for the Graug; much more so than for the other mecha I've tackled thus far.

Pics 8 and 9 cover the creation of the main cannon, which, to be honest, had me rather worried initially. Modelling board is quite brittle and long, spindly shapes are just devilish to machine. I was able to get around that by machining the barrel to one constant diameter initially, and then feeding it incrementally as the knife carved angled "steps" centimetre by centimetre, and then I manually sanded and polished it as the lathe was turning. The resulting barrel surpassed even my expectations! Pics 10 and 11 show most of the parts temporarily fitted in their current state. You really have to see it with your own eyes to appreciate how truly huge the Graug will be when complete. In fact, I will take a pic later of my sculpt next to the Matchbox toy, which itself is rather large, but still dwarfed by my sculpt. That just about covers this week's update. Stay tuned for next week's episode: Graug With The Wind!

Pics 4 and 5 deal with the main engines atop the cockpit pod: the overall shape is acheived on a lathe, and then milled flat where I want it to mate with the pod. I've elected to hollow all these parts out in order to save precious weight, which is critical if the finished model is to stand upright under its own might. Pictures 6 and 7 cover the arms, which also are being turned on the lathe; a rather cobbled-looking set of stove-pipe-like appendages. I'm still debating whether to cast the arms as one segment or separately; strength being my operative concern.

Hi folks. As you can likely tell, I haven't been on the forums much lately, since I've had my nose to the grindstone all week. It seems to have paid off though, as I have made a tremendous amount of progress since last week, to wit I bring you this week's "how-to" episode, entitled The Graug That Would Be A Prince. The first pic will take us back to the last part of last week's tutorial, whereby I was machining the ball for the foot. Here is that same part sporting a bit of corrective putty, its shape now almost perfectly set. The second and third photo are of the crude beginnings of the cockpit module. Slabs of modelling board were heated, curved and combined with some CA glue and some putty, and will have required a tremendous amount of grinding, shaping and sanding to acheive the necessary compound curvature (which we will see later.

Pic 11: the same piece is then taken back to the bandsaw to make the cut-outs for the foot pads... Pic 12: ...And then over to the milling machine to surgically machine the flats... Pic 13: ...And back to the lathe again to obtain the necessary curvature. This multi-step process is fairly common-place, even for what will likely seem like benign looking pieces when they are completed. In next week's update, you'll get to see that infamous foot "ball" in all its glory... Along with other things. Stay tuned

Pic 8: using the same process described in 3-6, several parts have begun to take shape. The circular component at lower right wil become the "ball" of the Graug's foot. More on this later... Pic 9: same as above, but with more leg showing. Those drumsticks are just massive! Pic 10: the "ball" of the foot is carefully turned on the lathe to transform it from a jagged shape to something quite circular.

Pic 4 shows the beginnings of the process, with a plotted part cut out and used as a template directly onto the modelling board Pic 5: the part is carefully cut from the slab on a bandsaw. Due to the thickness of the material and the tightness of certain radii, it will take many passes to get the part relatively chiseled. Pic 6: the same part is then put through the mill to get rid of the excess that the band saw couldn't. This step allows for greater precision, but due to the curvatures, I will still resort to a bench grinder to get the shape just right. Pic 7: you may not be able to tell, but this will become the main cockpit tub.

Hi folks. As promised, here is the first update of the building process for the Graug. The first couple of photos should be relatively common, showing just the raw building blocks that will be transformed into a model, and the original artwork from which all my plots are based on. The soda can is to give you an idea of just how big this thing is going to be... And even at that, my Quamzin figure will fit very tightly indeed. The third photo is of some of the plots that will serve as templates for parts.

Hi everyone. This will be the official "how I take a bunch of blocks and build a Graug in less than 45 days" thread. I figured that a whole new thread was appropriate, since this is pure scratchbuilding. The first photo-update will probably be uploaded tonight, or early tomorrow morning. There isn't much done yet at this stage, simply by virtue of the fact that there are sooo many components to make and some of them are quite large and time-consuming... Plus I have to run out for supplies. Stay tuned!

Correct. As for the Hasegawa kit conversion, it wasn't me.

If I ever did decide to kit-ify the Legioss, I would definitely re-tool a few things, namely the nosecone and landing gear bays... But we aren't there yet.

Assuming I could track-down and find all of my masters, that would be a possibility. Not kidding

I'll have to agree that they are both very different in their approach. Not so much red versus green apple, as much as perhaps apple versus orange. Hasegawa kits are models, in the purest most traditional sense. Yes, they're detail is unmatched, however, construction is VERY simple. You've never built Hasegawa's 1/48 F-14 or F-18s, or Tamiya's 1/12 Williams FW-14B have you? They are many things, but not simple. In fact, they are infinitely more challenging since complexely-curved shapes must be both bonded and alligned, then skilfully puttied, sanded, lightly rescribed, and then painted; sometimes sub-assemblies must be painted and then inserted into another construct, whereby it must be carefully masked again to avoid overspray when painting the surrounding construct. And then you have decals (don't even get me started on those!) With a Perfect Grade, you just need to "assemble" and be able to exert enough strength to snap fit the parts together. Even if one does decide to paint a PG, it barely (if at all) requires any skilful masking or puttying. They certainly do have more pieces in a kit than almost anything else I can think of by any other company, but more parts does not mean more complex. If anything, the only challenge I can think of comes from designing them. Hase puts more emphasis on appearance, painting, etc. Yes, because true models are made for display, to be enjoyed with one's eyes, not fingers Bandai PG's look great as well, even without paint. Unless I'm doing a custom scheme, I don't even paint mine, just washes/weathering. However, Bandai kits, especially MG and PG, focus more on the assembly side of things. Moving parts, very elaborate, more sturdy, and yes, made for light play. Made for light play... The operative word to describe a toy That's the whole point I was trying to make. Bandai "kits" don't cultivate true modelling skills, such as painting, puttying, masking, sanding/finishing, decaling, etc. The very fact that most Gunpla "builders" just snap their kits together sans paint and slap-on stickers is pretty much what a Kinder Surprise toy is: molded in color, no glue required; just snap & apply stickers and voila: instant gratification. Please don't take this as me poo-poo-ing on Bandai or MGs, or even your enjoyment of the latter, because I like them too. In fact, if/when that PG VF-25 comes out, I'm down for two without batting an eyelash--and this, from a guy who hasn't bought himself a "real" model kit in almost 4 years.The very fact that PGs are toy-like is what makes them so interesting to me, even if they aren't real models.

Hasegawa, like Fine Molds, is a true model kit manufacturer: their crispness, attention to detail and ultra-fine recessed panel lines have never been matched, let alone surpassed by Bandai, who, for all intents and purposes, merely make highly-detailed toys that one must assemble one's self. This isn't to say that Bandai is bad or inferior; I myself just love their Perfect Grades (and have snapped together more than a few with much pleasure) but if you stop and think about it, a PG is really just an overly-elaborate Kinder Egg toy... Without the awesome chocolate outer shell