1/72 Hasegawa VF-1 + Booster step-by-step...

[wm cheng]

Spatula, don't be discouraged, the wing tabs and sprockets become misaligned all the time, exactly what Grayson said and you have them back in order! When you attach the wings, it will never do that again. Try to leave them operable - you'll be happy you did in the end. Which lights dropped? The wing tip or the two wing root lights? You can always file a new light from the clear plastic sprue that the lights were attached too. If you're sanding is good, you can glob on some gel-type crazy glue where the light is supposed to be and file back down to get the proper profile (careful that the crazy glue is harder than the styrene). I usually use white glue to glue the clear pieces on.

Ok, I just sanded any little imperfections left and re-coated the Valkyrie with its final coat of white. Then I sealed it in with the ModelMaster Acryl semi-gloss clear coat. No pictures of that - just a boring white Valkyrie for now. Probably will start some patches of grey on certain panels with some post shading tomorrow.

I concentrated mostly on the booster for tonight. After I got the base coat of colours down, I started to weather it, with a reverse post-shading technique, mainly where ever I would normally shade dark, I used a lighter Sky Grey to pick out the leading edges of certain panel lines. I also sprayed a very light gradated overall coat of Sky Grey from the front to the rear - blending in the various shades of grey (the idea is that the front gets worn a bit and is lighter) also to lessen the contrast between the booster and the Valkyrie. I want to add interest to the greys so that there are no solid patches of colour - always some type of variation. I got out my old VF-1A super as a guide to the weathering and colour range for the booster. Lastly I sealed this very delicate light misting of Sky Grey in with ModelMaster Acryl semi-gloss clear coat again. I plan on a dark oil wash tomorrow to pick out some of the details.

[Gabe Q]

That thing looks absolutely beautiful. The paint is so perfect. I just want 10% of your skill with an airbrush. That would be enough...

[jardann]

That post-shading technique really brings the booster to life!

Great work as always Wm!

[Ido]

Personally I don't like very much that colour scheme but technically its wonderful.

Yes, lacquer paints sand better cause its a tough film, the acrylic layer its samewhat soft, one of the many reasons I like better modeling lacquer over modeling acrylics.

I don't suggest to clean your airbrush sprayng alchool cause its not the paint thinner, it doesn't thin the paint but make it soft and weak, its works great for cleaning stains on your stuff but I fear it can glog the airbrush.

ps

Thanks for the decal tip, it worked like a charm.

Edited October 25, 2005 by Ido

[wm cheng]

Thanks for the kudos! although, Ido, I'm beginning to know what you mean about the blue/grey colour scheme (i'm not that confident about it - partly because its departing from canon - and seeing Bertt's sure looked nice ) But I'll reserve judgement until I get a little further along and get them both together (its all an experiment ). I'll just hold off the decalling of the booster till I'm sure. Glad the decal worked for ya though.

OK, I'm on to masking for the metalizer steel portions that couldn't be painted separately. It was great that the Captn' provided the resin cast of the modified intakes - however, since it was molded in once piece (which saves construction and sanding) the intake covers couldn't be painted separately. Additionally, I didn't use the Photoetched parts for this kit (which would of made painting them separately a breeze). So I have to mask out all the white around it leaving only the leafs of the intake cover exposed to the metalizer. Now with hindsight, it would of been easier to paint the portion metallic steel or grey, then mask it off and paint everything else white - but hindsight is 20:20! oh well...

I've gone a little overboard here wrapping up my Valkyrie like a mummy, but I hate overspray especially on white! Again the yellow is the good stuff - the Tamiya masking tape, and the rest is the cheapo regular masking tape after I stuck it to my jeans first to get some of the stickiness off.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of it done - with the masking removed. Its really not that dark - but because its highly reflective, it seem darker than it is.

[wm cheng]

I can finally add those little bumps on the side of the intakes - I keep worrying that I'd loose them. I crazied glued them in - since its styrene being attached to resin (actually with a layer of paint on top - but I didn't think it matter too much since these bumps don't take much stress)

Now, I thought while I still had the intakes as separate pieces, I'd drill out the bumps. It looks better as an intake or vernier thruster, so the hole adds some detailing especially when we come to the dark wash. Again, I start with a smaller pin-vise bit to locate the hole then work up to the bit of the intend hole size.

Here's a shot of the competed hole, you don't have to drill too deep.

[wm cheng]

Now I am masking the white portions off to do a dual tone light grey on the Valkyrie. I want to darken up the Valkyrie so it doesn't appear to stark white against the Boosters, but I don't want a grey plane, I still want it to appear essentially white. You can have quite a bit of latitude since eventually, the black lines of the decals are so stark - it hides a lot of tones of grey.

I essentially want to subtly shade the Valkyrie from light to dark towards the tail at areas that are in direct contact with the Boosters (if I'm successful in the end - one shouldn't notice the shading too much - the Valk and Booster should look like they belong )

My first past was really too strong - I went over some areas too many times. The contrast was just too much here;

I should take my own advice; build up in layers!

Well, not to worry, I just went over the entire thing with white again - this lightens the grey and evens the shading a bit more to my satisfaction. That abrupt change from white to grey at the chestplate area will be just fine when I apply the yellow & black stripes - you'd hardly notice the difference - that area won't be stark white hitting the front of the Boosters.

Wow! its late - I've just put on another coat of semi-gloss clearcoat to seal in the shading and provide a protective layer for my post shading tomorrow (in case I don't like the post shading, I can strip it back (undo) to this point). And I'll let it dry overnight without my meddlesome impatient fingers getting all over it!

[Ido]

I've gone a little overboard here dry.gif wrapping up my Valkyrie like a mummy, but I hate overspray especially on white! Again the yellow is the good stuff - the Tamiya masking tape, and the rest is the cheapo regular masking tape after I stuck it to my jeans first to get some of the stickiness off.

Don't even mention to go overboard in masking, overspray is a bitch I perfectly understand why you did that, "better sure then sorry" we say in Italy

The gray/white vf-0s looks good so I suppose the vf-1 will look good in the end too, personally I will do the postshading freehand for a more subtle effect.

[wm cheng]

Just piecing everying together for a looksee...

[wm cheng]

Just looking over that amazing Tenjin Valkyrie book for more ideas to darken the Valkyrie up (more patches of grey)

So more masking again, for areas that will get a coat of sky grey such as the area behind the swing wings, underneath the fuselage where the legs swing down, since they are exposed now (without the leg fast packs) and I found some neat light grey markings that Tenjin puts on in front of the forward intakes.

[wm cheng]

A shot of the grey patches with the masking removed...

Ah, since I'm slightly departing from the canon - I thought I'd make the leading edge of the main wings silver (like the F-14s) - plus I've seen some paintings of the Valkyries with this leading edge slats in silver.

Man! I love this Alclad Metalizer stuff! - I sprayed it with Polished Aluminum. I masked around the lights - I wasn't sure what to do here, but I thought it adds a bit of interest.

Lastly, I thought I'd paint the interior of the side bulges on the intakes silver, they seem to always be silver on the Hasegawa box art. And of course, I coated the entire Valkyrie in another coat of semmi-gloss clear-coat to protect everything. I'm ready for my panel wash now...

[Stamen0083]

Sometimes you need to let the paint cure for a while before it becomes sandable. Case in point, Tamiya gloss sprays are extremely difficult to sand and polish when the paint is still soft. Once it's cured, though, the synthetic lacquer is really tough and stands up to polishing well. This is, of course, speaking strictly from a car modelling point of view.

[Spatula]

Great work WM!

Alrighty, I think I'm in a bit of a pinch applying decals here. So these hasegawa are water slide decals, however, I totally forgot to take into consideration that these are opaque decals therefore they cover up all the detail underneath on the model itself. So... how DO you make these decals look like someone actually painted them instead of putting a big STICKER on it...

I've put some of the decals on so far and I just placed decal # 4,5,6 of my VF-1A onto the main body. So yes, its hiding all the detail underneath, and it's kinda freaking me out here.

Also, how the heck did you manage to get the UN SPACY decals on the legs -engines to show through all the small little "screws" and bolts when the decal is all blacK? I hope I didn't do anything irreversable here. I already laid down that long decal for the legs... help!

Thank so much, I know I sound like a total whiner here.

EDIT: Oh I see some of the decals sinking in and forming with the lines and details. Ah I see I see... I see some of them starting to show up here, but still how about that UN SPACY part? WM Cheng help here?!

Why are these the worlds "bestest" decals? <3 Hasegawa

Edited October 27, 2005 by Spatula

[wm cheng]

Not to worry Spatula... I like them because they provide all the black markings and a lot of stencilling - essentially, you can just paint the whole thing white, and with the decals, get a really good looking model. There are a lot of other companies out there that gives very little in terms of markings on the decals. In terms of thickness, Hasegawa is slightly on the thick side IMHO, but its more forgiving to the beginner modeller, but hides some of the fine engraving due to its thickness. While the decals are wet (you can re-wet them) I usually blot them dry with a paper towel while trying to press them into the panel and rivit details. I also use MicroSOL (a decal solvent) and MicroSET (a decal softener) when I'm applying the decals (they are tricky to use and can melt your decals into a goo-mess - so I'm not recommending them to a beginner) and these solutions will helpo the decal melt into the plastic/paint surface to look painted on. I will get to the decal part of my Valkyrie in a few days or so (if you can wait) In the meantime, you can get a decal softener solution, and dab it onto the already dried decals you have on (as long as you are careful not to touch or move the decal while the solution is on top of it) and let air dry. It will soften the decal and allow it to conform to all the nice little rivit details. Careful not to stretch the decal when you're putting it on. Good luck. I also go back over the decals with a very light controlled oil wash to pick out the rivits and panel lines. On the black portions, I go over them in a white/grey wash - so it shows up.

[wm cheng]

On to one of my favourite parts! The panel oil wash. As most of you already knows, this is a solution of thinned down artist oil paints with low odour varsol applied with a thin brush to all the cracks, crevices, revits and panel lines of the model. I only use 3 colours, white, black and brown - I can mix all the shades I need with these. This thin solution seeps into all the engraved details - and after a little while, I wipe the excess off with a paper towel. I always start off light, mixing a mixture of white and black to get a very light grey - this will highlight all the rivits and non-moveable panel lines thoughout.

I thought I might as well panel wash another Yamato 1/48 Valkyrie I recieved reciently. (Some of you may know that it was my best friend's collection of Macross stuff all the way from when we were in high-school together - we had such a competition collecting this stuff... now I have doubles of everything... since he died - I hope he approves )

As you can see - it gets pretty messy - there are dab marks all over the place, but don't worry, it all wipes away easily (especially since I sealed all the previous work behind a layer of semi-gloss clear-coat)

Now I start adding other layers of oil wash - mixing each layer darker. The dark washes are in areas I think are moveable such as access hatches, or flaps and control surfaces. Lastly, I mix up a batch of pure black for the vents. I also mix up a batch of brown for areas I think hydraulic fluid may leak from.

[Spatula]

Thanks! Yeah these decals aren't as bad as I thought, and I find them more forgiving then Revell's decals when I put on the USS Enterprise. Those were a pain since you had these long strips that had to be perfectly aligned. I got most of my experience from that so these Valkyrie ones are easier. However I find that since you have so much texture under the decal on the Valkyrie that it masks all your hard work.

I also go back over the decals with a very light controlled oil wash to pick out the rivits and panel lines. On the black portions, I go over them in a white/grey wash - so it shows up.

Which tone (black or white or grey etc) do you use for this wash?? I might still be in luck to get a nice finish. I'm thinking light grey to oil white (flat) with my testors oils. I only have a dark grey Humbrol for oil, the rest are tamiya acrylics.

Also, isn't it quite late where you live now in Toronto? Like 1:30 ish?

11:30 here.

[wm cheng]

I also apply the wash to the Boosters - but I start at a much darker shade so it shows up against the darker basecoat. Now all the nice revits the Captn' put in will be shown.

[wm cheng]

Hey Spatula, yep its late here - but I'm not working at the moment (in between assignments ) I usually only model when I can get a real chunk of time - once I start I get quite obsessive about it.

Don't use model paint - I use artist oil paints. They can be bought from an art store in a tube. The main thing with the wash is that it must be of a solution that is different from your basecoat of paint on the model - so that the thinners and solvents from the wash does not eat or interact with the paints you applied to your model. I use an alternating sandwich of paints as I layer up my model so that each layer does not interact with the previous layer underneath it. I start with a laquer primer on the styrene, then a Tamiya Acrylic paint surface, sealed with a ModelMaster Acryl (actually a laquer) clear-coat, then the oil paint wash - to be sealed with another layer of clear-coat.

Be very careful that whatever your wash is will not take off the paint underneath. That will be disaster if the wash interacts with the paint below. That's why you can wipe the excess away afterwards without affecting your paint.

I use a dark grey to pick out the panel lines on top of a light coloured decal and a very light grey/white on top of a dark decal.

[wm cheng]

I waited half and hour or an hour - just so there's no shine/wetness to the applied oil wash. Here's a shot of them Valk after I wiped it down. Don't worry if you wait too long - you can also damp the paper towel with a little low odour varsol and it will take off any excess that may have dried. However if you don't wait enough, then when you wipe, you will remove all of the wash including the stuff in the panels.

These shots show the different washes - I find that by varying the greys it gives a bit more life to the panels - instead of just a monotone wash over all the panels. YOu can see the flaps and spoilers get the darkest treatment - because they move.

Where as some of the detail on top of the plane never gets opened - they are there just for the intial construction of the plane - so they are much fainter.

[wm cheng]

The booster came out great - the dark wash added a much needed depth.

(its too bad the photos don't seem to do this justice )

[wm cheng]

The Yamato 1/48 VF-1A toy turned out pretty well too!

[wm cheng]

Time to go to sleep...

Some parting shots as I leave it to dry without my impatient hands putting fingerprints all over it!

The next step would be to do a light post shading over the panel lines and seal it in with a semi-gloss clear-coat. Ready for the weathering and decals!

[nightmareB4macross]

Your thread is very addictive...I can't wait to see what coming up next. Excellent work as always!!!.

Are you planning to lightly spray the wings leading edges in white. I think the extra clean aluminum contrast is too much when overviewing the valk with the boosters on.

[Ido]

From the dirt look of the thing looks like you don't use capillary action but just paint over the panels, isn't it a bitch to wipe up the excess after?

About the vf-1 decals, they are thick but they got no problem in conform to the panel lines with some solution, but they really have tough times in conforming to irregular surfaces like the airbrake piece, the best thing its to do some pre-cutting on the paper before appling or cut them in more pieces. I also saw that some decals are too long, how is the canopy frame decals fitting?

[Grayson72]

The gray panels you put in front of the upper intakes look fantastic, I'm going to have to put those on any new fighters I build.

[Spatula]

Hey WM,

So I did my primary base with vallerjo off white which I think is acrylic, and I did my wash with the humbrol oil and it seemed to work okay. So I guess the testors oil based flat white shouldn't harm the base coat eh? Oil and acrylics.

Also, is there anyway you can scan that Valkyrie Book you have? I love to see more of his works, but I feel paying like $40 some is just a rip off. Sorry.

Ido, I haven't started on the Canopy decals yet. I've leave the cockpit area last since the paint job is the worse there, terrible. I'm not impressed with the vallerjo paints (the dude at the shop said these were the best) but they came out all gross and thick and I tried paying with the pressure settings and even putting some thinner, but no go. I just ended up coating the cockpit part with tamiya flat white, then washed it with humbrol oil grey to match the weathering of the rest of the air craft.

I might pick up some of those stuff WM mentioned today...

Edited October 27, 2005 by Spatula

[nightmareB4macross]

Hey WM,

Also, is there anyway you can scan that Valkyrie Book you have?  I love to see more of his works, but I feel paying like $40 some is just a rip off.  Sorry.

340153[/snapback]

You really do need to see the contents of the book. It is definitely worth that and more.

[Grayson72]

Hey WM,

Also, is there anyway you can scan that Valkyrie Book you have?  I love to see more of his works, but I feel paying like $40 some is just a rip off.  Sorry.

340153[/snapback]

You really do need to see the contents of the book. It is definitely worth that and more.

340155[/snapback]

So we're supposed to spend $40 of our own money and time so you can see the book? Buy all the models, you can see the art first hand.

Edited October 27, 2005 by Grayson72

[Spatula]

That's what I'm thinking. Plus the INTERNET is full of galleries so you can see most of his famous works. Still... it depends how macross-hardcore you are.

In other news, I picked up the 1/72 Hasegawa Elintseeker and Super Ostrich today. Got them for $40 Canadian each and the guy took off the tax since I got two kits. How much are you paying for your kits?

WM, excellent work, again don't mind me asking these questions since I find it pointless to start a whole new thread JUST for Valkyrie prices etc....

[Nied]

You know since you're not painting the boosters as they apear in the TV show, why bother puting the Yelow stripes on it? Why not put the DYRL red ones on put the DYRL style pilot figure in the cockpit and say it's some post DYRL continuity launch of Hikaru's fighter? You've already got a cool alternate color scheme going why not take it all the way?

[David Hingtgen]

To add to that---a softened decal can easily conform so tightly to the surface that you can see orange peel/bumps in the paint. Or dust particles. Or a stray piece of lint. That's the difference between a decal and a sticker---decals can conform EXACTLY to a surface, if applied well (and if the decal itself is of decent quality---there is AFAIK no way to help bad decals) Hasegawa may be a bit thick, but they are of good quality.

My #1 decal tip is take your time, let water/solvents do their work.

[wm cheng]

Spatula - I don't have any scans of the book, but if you can get it for $40cdn - then you definitely should! Its a steal at that price - I paid more than that, it was going for something like $70-80cdn at a bookstore here in Toronto. I highly recommend it - its an excellent book - all the pages are gorgeous colour! (Of course I'm a huge book collector - I think I have every thing in print from Macross - at least one copy if not more!!) Also, $40 for the Models are a really good price up here in Canada - the Supers or Elintseekers were more like $60 up here - and if you order them from HLJ, after shipping customs, duty and brokerage, you might save $5-10 a kit!

So I managed to do the post shading yesterday... Man I need a new airbrush, I think my 20 year old airbrush should be retired soon. It has no problems do the large flat areas, but the really tight fine control stuff seems to splatter ever so slightly now (although I checked the needle doesn't seem bent and the nozzle seems ok, it might be the mixture - but I'll chalk it up to age). Plus I've been dying to try a double action airbrush - I think I've finally outgrown my single action Badger 200! Basically I traced over most of the panel lines in a very thinned down sky grey on the finest setting - I usually spray like 1/2" to 1" from the model trying to make a pencil line with the airbrush. Its a little heavier than I usually would weather the Valkyrie, but I wanted it a little darker than normal to fit in with the Boosters and from experience, once the high-viz black stripes of the decals go on, you need a lot more than subtlety to fight with the graphics of the heavy black lines! Of course when I made a mistake (which happens occassionally) I wipe if off with a paper towel with a little windex on it - and since the layer below it is protected by the last clear-coat, I only "undo" this post shading layer. Then when I'm satisfied with the look - I seal this in with another layer of ModelMaster Acryl semi-gloss clear coat.

[Spatula]

What. You did all that with a single action airbrush? Whoa. And here I am still fumbling away with my VL Paasche double action. It's a good brush and all, but I'm still very, very new using this.

[Gundamhead]

It's one of those modeling myths that a double action is better than a single. They're just different, and mostly a personal preference. In most of my modeling needs the single is just easier for the task. Yet if you're going to do some graphics, a double is easier. It's the person, not the brush. You'll get the hang of it in no time. Practice on a old toy, or a junk model.

What.  You did all that with a single action airbrush?  Whoa.  And here I am still fumbling away with my VL Paasche double action.  It's a good brush and all, but I'm still very, very new using this.

340829[/snapback]