1/48 Customized Gunpod and gunstrap

[Ido]

I'll start my costumized yammie 1/48 vf-1 gunpod and gunstrap, my obiective is to obtain a nice model like gunpod without seams.

What do you need:

Airbrush

Primer (mr. surfacer 1000)

Putty(mr.surfacer 500, tamiya basic putty)

Precision screwdriver

Sanding paper

Some Files

hobby knife

Paints( I'll us mr.hobby paints by gsi/gunze)

Anasazi decals

Something for weathering (oil paints, pastels)

Here how the dissasembled gunpod its like, I'll start to work on the grip thats already primed and sanded.

Edited May 21, 2005 by Ido

[Ido]

Here the grip, I sanded down the parting line and resculped teh rear details with a file, now I will sand it with 800-1000 abrasive paper and paint it with RLM75 Gray like suggested in the hasegawa directions.

[Ido]

EHm.. forget what I said, before painting it I must cover it completely with the primer, Why? because the gray don't cover the dark spot very wel, the surfcaer will cover it quickly and you'll see a smooth uniform gray surface, I noticed some imperfection that I need to sand, I'll paint in the late evening or tomorrow morning, local time.

[Ido]

[promethuem5]

Don't you have to be really careful about the diameter of the hole for mounting on the forarm? if you file it too much it wont stay on.... Cool idea otherwise.

[Ido]

Don't you have to be really careful about the diameter of the hole for mounting on the forarm? if you file it too much it wont stay on.... Cool idea otherwise.

Didn't filed it at all, i'm just using it to hold the grip

Here the grip painted, it's pretty glossy for a semi-gloss.

I'll clear coat it with mr.super clear tomorrow.

[promethuem5]

Judging by that pic, I assume your gunpod won't be the dark grey color of the toy one... looks good, my bad for mis-interpreting the pic with the file in the hole...

[Ido]

Clear coated it! Don't do my stupid mistakes, clean carefully the part before painting, stupid dusty room.

See ya after the oil wash

Edited May 22, 2005 by Ido

[Ido]

Here another very stupid mistake, don't rush the things!, i touched the part too soon and ruined the paint job, now I must strip the paint and do it over again.........

[Ido]

OK, re-primered and painted, I'll leave it cure until tomorrow to be sure.

If you can notice before painting I cleaned it a bit more, I sanded down the parting line around the trigger, It's pratically invisible but i'm happy how it come out.

Remember that this part is smaller then my thumb!

Edited May 22, 2005 by Ido

[Ido]

I have some problem taking picture today...

However, I applied a dark gray oil wash and sealed it with semi-gloss lacquer... I wonder why one edge is very glossy, I hope its just the tick layer that take more time to dry completely, i'll wait some hours.

I'll take the pics this evening.

[Ido]

I dont' get really why is so glossy, damn, I'll give a shot of clear flat at this point

There is a white piece inside the gunpod that allow the gunpod to extend, i suggest to paint it in some metallic color cause is visible inside. I used a silver color.

[Ido]

The gun grip is finished, so I started to assemble the gun, there is some putty cause I'm closing the ring holes, there is no need of them for my custom gunstrap

[Ido]

I suggest to fix the grip with some tape for simplify the things.

[Ido]

I used CA glue and some ca remover to remove the residues, but I discovered that the CA remover can melt the gunpod plastic, so I damaged almost all the surface

I fixed the problem by covering the gunpod with mr.surfcaer 1000 and smoothing the surface with a sponge file 1000 grit, I also filled some gaps, perfect.

I'm using for the first time mr. dissolved putty, I must say its really nice stuff, it's like melted styrene and shrink much more less then mr. surfacer 500 or tamiya putty.

Edited May 24, 2005 by Ido

[promethuem5]

Looks good...sounds like you're having every thing go wrong that is possible.... hopefully it'll work in the end tho...Im sucrious to see your gunstrap mod.

[Wheels]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this.

My gunstrap broke right at the tip, when I was trying to loop the ring through the gunpod hole. Never heard me curse so much before.

Well, lesson learned. But now I got a useless strap that can't hold the ring.

Is there some type of glue I can use, without melting the plastic?

[Ido]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this.

My gunstrap broke right at the tip, when I was trying to loop the ring through the gunpod hole. Never heard me curse so much before.

Well, lesson learned. But now I got a useless strap that can't hold the ring.

Is there some type of glue I can use, without melting the plastic?

Its the glue remover that melted plastic not the glue itself, damn.

The gunpod is already glued with CA glue so use that.

Some advices:

If you can use only mr.color paint, cuase they are really tough

Glue the part as best as possible and leave it cures, there is a lot of stress in the seams.

Sand a bit the grip in these points cause the rub and the paint will chip.

I'll probably sand these point and repaint them when I get some lacquer RLM-75.

[Ido]

For the moment I'll just swab some putty on, sand and prime ultil I will be satisfied.

Sounds like you're having every thing go wrong that is possible

It's just that I'm idiot and I must learn patience. D'oh!

[Ido]

Okay I finished with the putty and the primer, there are some seams near the grip that I couldn't get rid of cause the plastic split a little when the grip fold out, I think that with some pre assembling fix you can fix the problem, however nothing big, i'll hide them in the painting job...

I united the panel lines and scribed some rivets on the tip of the gun like in this artwork, they looks cool.

Now I'll do some little pre-shading and other things I'll show you later, ah, the tip of the gunpod isn't glued but just snap fitted.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Looking really good!!!

[promethuem5]

Wow! That is smoooooth on top! Looks great...

[Ido]

More then pre-shading I should call it pre-weathering , I used flat black acrylic so I can wipe it off is something go wrong.

I also painted the very tip of the gun with lacquer burnt iron

[Ido]

more

[Ido]

After the base coat I was very unhappy about the results, so I have dissasembled the gun again and strip the paint, I'll try to glue it better and do a better putty job, I'll also use only mr.color to avoid paint chipping.

Any suggestion about what type of glue use and putty?

[nightmareB4macross]

After the base coat I was very unhappy about the results, so I have dissasembled the gun again and strip the paint, I'll try to glue it better and do a better putty job, I'll also use only mr.color to avoid paint chipping.

Any suggestion about what type of glue use and putty?

300992[/snapback]

So what does the finished product look like?

[Ido]

After the base coat I was very unhappy about the results, so I have dissasembled the gun again and strip the paint, I'll try to glue it better and do a better putty job, I'll also use only mr.color to avoid paint chipping.

Any suggestion about what type of glue use and putty?

300992[/snapback]

So what does the finished product look like?

332573[/snapback]

Hello, I'll finish that after the hase vf-1a I'm building, my improved skills should allow me to finish this I hope, I'm going to use tenax-7r to weld the two halves togheter as CA glue isn't enough strong, then I'll use polyester putty where needed.

I have also to scracht build the raised details on the gunpod cause I ruined them with CA debonder in the first attempt. Already got right size strips.

I'm also going to scracht-build the gunstrap with very thin styrene strips, they seems good for this and are very easy to work with them.