Modeling for dummies

[Ido]

OK let's see if I can complete this...

I started off with studyng some main pieces

I'm surprised! it seems that the cockpit/landing gear bay piece don't fit in the nose. its too large. Need to sand the edges until the two pieces will close fine.

[Berttt]

If I remember rightly I had to shave a bit off to get a comfortable fit as well. You can glue both halves with out doing it but it's a bit of a struggle.

Berttt

[Ido]

If I remember rightly I had to shave a bit off to get a comfortable fit as well. You can glue both halves with out doing it but it's a bit of a struggle.

Berttt

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Leave that big gap isn't a great idea I sanded the edge and now it fit almost perfectly, today I filled the pin holes with mr.surfacer and cutted the parts needed for the cockpit, tomorrow I will sand those parts.

I noticed just today that the hase vf-1 doesn't have the option for the open canopy, now, for this model I don't care, but if in future I wish to make a open canopy vf-1 how I'm supposed to do it?

I have the weapon set but i decided to don't include the pilot, cause this will take more time and I don't know even if I can finish this.

It will be a boring model indeed

The vf-1 I'm building is the latest vf-1a/j/s if you want to know.

Edited August 26, 2005 by Ido

[Gabe Q]

Wow, you're filling in the injection marks on the inside of the cockpit? That's attention to detail!

[Ido]

Wow, you're filling in the injection marks on the inside of the cockpit?  That's attention to detail!

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Every visible injection marks and seam will be erased, thats my policy.

Can't do anything today, the putty isn't fully dry yet, so I just changed the abrasive paper on my handy files, pro-hobby sell replacement self adhesive paper strips but just glue abrasive paper on them is a lot cheaper. I have to let them dry overnight to be sure they will became waterproof.

Tomorrow its sunday so I should have a lot of time to work on this.

Form left to right #320 #800 #400 #600

Edited August 27, 2005 by Ido

[Dax415]

Just curious if you were going to build yours with the landing gear down or up for flight mode? I built one with the landing gear up (flight mode) and would like to see how someone correctly does it is why I ask.

[Ido]

Just curious if you were going to build yours with the landing gear down or up for flight mode?  I built one with the landing gear up (flight mode) and would like to see how someone correctly does it is why I ask.

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In flight mode without pilot is a little weird... well, you can do a Jetfire...

MW Cheng was going to do the vf-1 with landing gear up in his vf-1 build up, when will you continue that?

Ok, I have to sand the injection marks in the landing gear bay, how do you sand such hard to reach areas?

Its really easy with this trick I got on the web, you must fold a little strip of abrasive paper, then you hold the thing with tweezers, this way you can reach any area without harming the details. I don't use grits rougher then #600 when sanding putty to have a better control, if you sand too much putty you have to apply the putty and sand again.

Here the results! I cleaned all the residues with an old toothbrush dipped in water and soap, a small brush and blowing air with my airbrush.

The darker circle is caused by a bit of tamiya putty under the surfacer, It will take a lot of mr. base white to cover that.

Lunch time.

[Ishimaru]

Wow talk about detail your putting all your work into it. Nice to see the landing gear worked up, sanded, and etc.

[Ido]

I also rescultped a little the control sticks to make them decent looking

The camera isn't so good to show them clearly, damn.

I will probably add some styrene strip to the plain looking floor (or how its called?) in the cockpit.

[jadefalconguard]

Nice build up Ido looks like it's going to be a nice bird . Anyway, regazrding the floor and sheet styrene ... once the hood get's over there you won't see to much of the floor. you might want to consider to add some ribbing to the insides of the fuse.

[David Hingtgen]

Cockpit floors in real planes are usually very plain. If you want to add something, add rudder pedals.

[Ido]

Cockpit floors in real planes are usually very plain.  If you want to add something, add rudder pedals.

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The vf-1 cockpit artwork doesn't show a plain floor, however It will not be very visible so i just added a couple of strips on the edge, so I got less empty space.

Today I will work a little on the cockpit, I'll post pics later.

[Ido]

Finally all the sanding work on the cockpit pieces is done.

Here I made an idiot mistake, so I have to reshape the plastic using polyester putty, I hope it will be fixed.

Now the cockpit is primered with mr.surfacer 1200, it cover less then mr.surfacer 1000 but it has a much lighter tone. As I thought, there are some area that need some fine grit sanding. I broke the left control stick yesterday and I became crazy tryng to glue a new home-made one, I lost all the surronding details... finally it looks right, I glue it with mr.cement then I used a little of tenax to give it strenght, how do you do it? Ca glue just made a mess.

I would like to color the front landing gear bay before fit it in the fuselage and doing the cockpit, have you some reference pic or ideas?

[Ido]

[jadefalconguard]

Ido,

just a small remark, the seat on the VF1 (and all 1/72 birds for that matter) are so small that you may glue them before you prime them. This way you do't have to worry to ruin the paint job.

Great work on the VF1 and the small mistake I suggest you place some sheet styrene on the insides (you'll prob. need to reshape the gearbays a bit) to give some "meat" to the putty so it doens't break off later

[big F]

Wow your attention to detail is great. I have the same kits and looks like I might have to start them soon I was gonna leave them till winter.

Does anyone know if you can get Mr. color products in the U.K ? I have seen lots of websites refer to it but never seen it in any shops in England

Edited August 30, 2005 by big F

[HWR MKII]

I have nevr used Mr. Color because of too many mixed reviews. Tamiya is just as good though and those are all over the uk. Both are better than humbrol though. I have to resrt to using a humbrol clear matt finish and dont trust it. has anyone else used it.

Ido what do you think of Mr. Color products. i know Mr.Surfacer is good but what do you think of the paints? Are they acrylic or oil based?

[Ido]

Ido,

just a small remark, the seat on the VF1 (and all 1/72 birds for that matter) are so small that you may glue them before you prime them. This way you do't have to worry to ruin the paint job.

Great work on the VF1 and the small  mistake I suggest you place some sheet styrene on the insides (you'll prob. need to reshape the gearbays a bit) to give some "meat" to the putty so it doens't break off later

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I will sand where I'm gonna to glue, I did it before and there is no problem in doing that.

About the mistake, I'm sure that after I will join the two parts the putty will stay on I had the same problem with one YF-19 Intake.

have nevr used Mr. Color because of too many mixed reviews. Tamiya is just as good though and those are all over the uk. Both are better than humbrol though. I have to resrt to using a humbrol clear matt finish and dont trust it. has anyone else used it.

IMHO, I tried Tamiya acrylics, various enamel paints but mr.color kick them all, just make sure to use leveling thinner and they airbrush better then tamiya's, however stay away from the clear gloss/ semi-gloss coats, they sucks! Glosscote thinned with Mr. color leveling thinner is far better. I will try floquil gloss coats too and let you know how they work.

Acrylics are way too much weak for my tastes.

You can find many infos about it Here

(note) I paint acrylics over mr.color without problems, i think the problem exists only if you use pure alchool to thin them

I buy mr.color at R10

Edited August 30, 2005 by Ido

[Ido]

Time for update this, sorry for the crappy pics, I really cannot do better ones. I'm a dummy with digital cameras too

Its time to give the seat its second base color, so I mask the parts I'm going to paint. If I remember it right, masking sol damage acrylics paints so don't use it on acrylics.

Hasegawa directions suggest to use the color "middle stone", it looks right on the cap, but the actual color its too yellow and bright IMO, so I added a little of Khaki green, it looks good.

After removing the masking...

...I lightly sanded with 2000 grit paper the imperfections, after an enamel wash it will look decent, I hope

----------------------

Airbrushed and ready to decal...

Now lets try to assemble the seat...

[HWR MKII]

I wouldnt call Tamiya paints weak Any paint that can take a wash that uses turpentine for thinner, and a year and a half of elemental abuse( rain, mud, ice, extreme sunlight) on an R/C tank is not a weak paint IMHO. But we all have our preferred products Your work so far is looking great i cant wait to see more.

[nightmareB4macross]

Keep it up! You're doing a fantastic job!!

[Ido]

Today I assembled the seat without problems using micro-weld, I like it a lot when I need to achieve a very precise application (you can apply it with your favorite brush), and a good clean bond, the best part its that it can't really damage mr.color.

Then I handbrushed same details, to hand paint mr. color you need to mix it with retarder mild, I mix it in a 1:1 ratio and its very good for small surfaces, never tried on large surfaces but I will never hand brush that.

After handbrushing I did an enamel wash on the landing gear bay and the other parts, they look ok.

Taking good pics Its really hard cause the size of the thing, please consider that in the pics the colors are darker, and it look glossier, the whole stuff its painted with semi-gloss colors and flat colors for the wash. It actually looks better, some details are invisible in the pics

[Ido]

Still sucks but better... I forgot to mention that nothing its glued or placed correctly just placed randomly on for the pics.

Edit: I posted the wrong pic, now its correct.

Edited September 3, 2005 by Ido

[jardann]

This build up is looking very good.

I'm enjoying this thread.

Don't worry about your pictures, they look fine to me. You are doing a good job of keeping those small pieces in focus.

[Ido]

I'm continuing this but I got the camera back just now so here a general shot just for today, tomorrow I will do some better pics of all the parts, now is evening in Italy and its hard to me to take pics, that is better one among likely 20 shots.

The decals, the black H.u.d. and the ejection handle finally killed the boring two-tones look.

Differently from others I didn't loaded it with non-canon details but I tried to keep it close to the artworks (even if the hasegawa model isn't really canon ), what do you think? does it looks convincing?

Edited September 7, 2005 by Ido

[Ido]

I wonder If I'm posting too many pics, probably if there is someone with a 56k connction he want to kill me.

you might want to consider to add some ribbing to the insides of the fuse.

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Did it but just near the seat.

For the handle I bended a 0.3 mm copper wire, then I painted it with semi-gloss yellow. For the black strips I used a 0.2 mm copic modeler marker, its acrylic so you can delete them how many times you like with a swab and windex, once I was happy with one side I sealed it with gloss-cote then i did the other side and finished the thing with super clear semi-gloss. (don't use it for large areas! add gloss clear to super clear flat instead) The long part of the rod help a lot for painting and gluing it.

Argh! the monitor isn't really that crappy, it's just the future floor polish on it thats reflect light and maximize the faults. The instrument panel is coated with a satin coat, the exterior black is flat. it looks a lot better in person

[jadefalconguard]

Oh boy and that's a 1/72 scale model. Nice work of detailing this little bird. Only 1 little critique (remark) : the ejection seat handle is on the sideboard of the seat (like the F-14 ejection seat)

Other than that : hands down beautifull cockpit

[Ido]

Oh boy and that's a 1/72 scale model. Nice work of detailing this little bird. Only 1 little critique (remark) : the ejection seat handle is on the sideboard of the seat (like the F-14 ejection seat)

Other than that : hands down beautifull cockpit

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Have you some pics of that? If are talking about the tv series cockpit, well I'm doing the dyrl version of Kakizaki's VF-1A and all the dyrl artworks I have show the eject handle where I placed it.

[jadefalconguard]

Dam.... I'll never get the hang of TV and movie versions Anyway, keep up the work, awesome detailing considering the size of the model

[nightmareB4macross]

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Cripes!! I hope those are decals your applying. That 1/72 could really put a strain on the eyes.

Great Job!!!

[Ido]

326489[/snapback]

Cripes!! I hope those are decals your applying.  That 1/72 could really put a strain on the eyes.

Great Job!!!

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Yeah its a decal, I made error of point the light directely at the piece so you see that shiny white monitor...

I finally melted togheter the two halves of the fuselage, yes "melted" cause I used Tenax-7R, This way I'm sure they will never split and ruin the paint job.

I already reshaped the edge behind the cockpit and the edges of the landing gear bay, I used polyester putty that works great for this kind of work. I didn't glued the seat and masked the cockpit so hopefully I'll avoid part of the sanding dust to get in there, I also suggest to don't glue the HUD, just fit it in the hole and glue it when you have finished with the seams.

I aplied the first coat of mr.surfacer 500, now I'll wait it to dry and I'll aplly more where its necessary.

Then sanding, sanding and more sanding...

Edited September 7, 2005 by Ido

[Grayson72]

Sanding and smoothing of seems are my least favorite part of modeling, it's just so tedious and rarely comes out perfect (in my mind) for all that labor.

Kudos to you man, you're really taking your time on this build and doing it right. It looks great! I did the same thing when I built my first valk and then I got kind of lazy after I built the fourth one of these.

Keep it up, love the ejection handle too.

[Gabe Q]

She's looking real good so far. Keep up the good work. You're probably spending more time taking pictures than the actual building of your valk. I appreciate it because I love these buildups.

I also use Tenax for welding large pieces together and it is kind of hard to apply right but the results are better. Do you use a brush or one of the those capillary type applicators?