Sdf1, Ctas Eye, Tomahawk , Vf Battroid

[Mechwarrior]

OK, so I check Macross World on a daily basis, pretty much only the "Model" section and the "How to build/Custom" . I have been busy of course with kids and gaming mainly. Recently not so much online gaming since SWg went down the tubes (Sony Pricks, lol), anyhow I have decided to get back into models again, and weekends dedicated to building a GT40 concept car with a friend, but thats another story

So I have about 13 uncompleted models, and about 20 some New in Box models, but for now I am going to finish the uncompleted Macross models, (the rest are sci-fi related, ill do those next year, lol).

I noticed alot of good fellow model builders here, you guys (and girls) do great work and look forward to seeing completed projects by others. I am not a big poster in these forums (like others im sure, we all have about 10 other forums we post to also), but Ill be sure to post pics and describe my wacky unprofessional techniques best I can.

Like with past models I have done , I like to do a bit of custom work and dont usually stick to scripture, like paint schemes and such and sometimes go off in some weird direction.

Ill post pics for sure, low resolution of course. Input is appreciated, and suggestion for a color scheme for the Cats Eye and Tomahawk, anything goes.

So I guess ill start off with what I will be trying to build/rebuild/repaint. I was gonna start off with the Cats Eye (recast), which I started over a year ago. Apparently I got it assembled somewhat and some fitting (as with most resins), but alot needs to be done, like filling and sanding

Edited February 22, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[Gabe Q]

I've been waiting a long time for someone to do a buildup of this kit. I'll be watching, thanks.

[Mechwarrior]

Next I'll be repainting a resin SDF1, I didnt like the color scheme I did for it 2 years ago, so I am gonna repaint it to a lighter color.

Also I will be working on a Hase battroid 1/72 and a Arii Tomahawk 1/100, nothing special here. I just threw em together out of the box, no special techniques, just twisted em off the sprue and glued me together. I know, tearing em off the sprue is a bad technique, but hey, thats what filler putty is for. I did a light sanding on the battroid with 150 grit foam sanding sponge thingy (dont know the specific name, I got a pack of em at Walmart for a buck 50). The Tomahawk Ill sand later.

[Mechwarrior]

Ill be using some cheap air compressor and dual airbrush gun i got off ebay a few years ago for a 100 bucks. I got it as a set. It came with the compressor , 2 dual stage airbrush guns, and 2 single stage guns. It was a good cheap investment, and yes, I am cheap, lol.

[Mechwarrior]

Wow, fast post gabe, lol

[007-vf1]

The cat's eye is a relatively simple and sweet resin kit to build..

I think adding detail to it will bring up more of the model

I like to see more of the process you'll use to finish it...

hopefully my "cat" will encourage you to bring it's best...

Edited February 22, 2006 by 007-vf1

[Mechwarrior]

As for tools, i use the basic stuff you get from wollymart. Cheap testors , enamel and acrylic for airbrushing. Sanding sponges (good for wet sanding also). I am still using the same hobby knives from 5 years ago, filler, super glue (ill buy you some more later Dean), regular model glue, thinner, masking tape, babys momma nail file, and cheap ole paint brushes. The paint brush pictured have the brushes cut down to almost nothing, good for detailing and cleaning out panel lines after sanding. Also pictured is a decal making kit. U used these in the past, and the decals come out great, considering they are made on a standard ink jet printer. Ill add some pics of a few decals made with the decal kit. A white background is necessary though, since the cheap inkjet printer i use does not print white. So it may be necessary to paint a white background where you place the decal to the model (masking tape).

[Mechwarrior]

So, I am gonna work on all four at once, I get side tracked easy. Last night I decided to test out the ole airbrush skills, so I took an easy approach and decided to throw a lighter color on the resin SDF1. I did a quick masking job for the parts I didnt feel like repainting later, loaded up the gun and threw a few coats of flat grey on it. Starting out was a bit ruff, I always assume I need high pressure for the airbrushing, so i started out at around 40 psi, and found a comfortable zone at about 15 psi, then i was in buisness, lol. Before i painting it, i just ran some warm soapy water over the model parts. I removed a few parts, to make it easier to shoot with the gun. The pics are before and after ......

[Mechwarrior]

Last night I spent time sanding down the Cat's Eye and redrawing panel lines, very time consuming. Also decided on a paint scheme for the Battroid. I was gonna go with the Minmay Guard scheme, but decided on something else I thought would be a bit cooler, well to me anyhow. So right now I am gonna attempt another airbrush job, wish me luck!

[big F]

I wait in anticipation of your next post.

[Spatula]

This Cat's Eye, it interests me. Who would be a vendor to get this kit from? I'll probably not buy it anytime soon, as I already have the VF-4 to work on, as well as 10 other MacPla/PatPla stuff.

[kanata67]

So, I am gonna work on all four at once, I get side tracked easy. Last night I decided to test out the ole airbrush skills, so I took an easy approach and decided to throw a lighter color on the resin SDF1. I did a quick masking job for the parts I didnt feel like repainting later, loaded up the gun and threw a few coats of flat grey on it. Starting out was a bit ruff, I always assume I need high pressure for the airbrushing, so i started out at around 40 psi, and found a comfortable zone at about 15 psi, then i was in buisness, lol. Before i painting it, i just ran some warm soapy water over the model parts. I removed a few parts, to make it easier to shoot with the gun. The pics are before and after ......

372775[/snapback]

I like the before better

Edited February 22, 2006 by kanata67

[Less than Super Ostrich]

I recommend washing your resin in Formula 409 to make sure you get all the mold release off. It can be a real pain on paint jobs. You're fine for your situation since you used a primer. That should be sufficient to make your paint stick.

I pinned my Cat's Eye wings with brass rods. In retrospect, I don't think you have to, but they looked a little heavy just gluing to the fuselage.

Is that an original or a Mike's special?

[Mechwarrior]

Ok, so far I got the working color i want airbrushed on the model (minus armor). I mixed a touch of grey with flat white and put two light layers on. I know it is hard to tell by the picture taken, but as you can see the panel lines show up a bit more. Also, if you look, the seems stand out , where the two half's are joined to form the leg and the node cone mostly. Now, this is an easy fix, just sand down paint, spread some filler in , sand and repaint, but since this is a practice model, I am not worried about it right now. Always give me something to do if I become anal down the road. Now that i feel more comfortable with the airbrush gun once again, ill do the armor next.

The Cat's Eye is a recast for sure, I bought it a couple years ago from this board. It is an awesome model, and resin to boot. I have always enjoyed resin and vinyl models myself.

Edited February 22, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[Mechwarrior]

Finally got some time today today to get some work done on the test model. Last night I shot the armor with the airbrush. I picked a glosy color on accident, thats what i get for being in ah hurry i guess. Since it is a jetfire color scheme, I didnt mind the glossy paint, i was gonna go for a toy look, but decided to test some black and grey washes I had laying around. So anyhow, after i painted the armor, it sat over night and this morning I decided to do some masking, just to keep the color uniform. Once i finished masking, i shot the secondary colors and while the pieces dried, gave a test of the black wash. Well, it was dried up, so i had to go with the grey wash. I tested it out on the hands, appeared to come out ok, so after I carefully peeled off the masking tape (I decided not to use primer on this build), i then washed the model. I could have spent time more time cleaning up, but for this project, wasnt a big deal. I did some touch up on the pieces that had overspray and glued misc pieces to the model. Then put it all together to see how the over all look, i liked it. Of course i could have spent more time with it, but at least i have the feel for modeling again. Next model i will spend more time doing it right. This one i am calling done for now. Later when i get around to it, ill print some decals for it, like the autobot logo and such, also do some detailing with the brushes too. I will have some to find the rest of the pieces for the model too, lol, then shoot it with some dull clearcoat (the cheap crap from walmart works for me).

Now i am gonna spend alot of time sanding and fitting parts to the cats eye, and do some detailing on the sdf1. ill show better progress pics for those.

Edited February 24, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[Sdf-1]

Your Sdf-1 is a recast, quite naturally? How was the casting quality? I bought the battle mode from Hobbyfan and I'm not TOO happy with the casting. Well, it'll be quite ok, but will need a sick amount of work. Though there are some warpings that can't be corrected. With my skills at least. It would be too much work even if I could do it. but again, it's not THAT bad.

[Grayson72]

This Cat's Eye, it interests me.  Who would be a vendor to get this kit from?  I'll probably not buy it anytime soon, as I already have the VF-4 to work on, as well as 10 other MacPla/PatPla stuff.

372816[/snapback]

heh that's the thing about rare limited run models, you either buy them now or you won't get them at all.

Or you could order one from the original creator in Japan...Tanmen

Edited February 24, 2006 by Grayson72

[Sdf-1]

heh that's the thing about rare limited run models, you either buy them now or you won't get them at all.

373230[/snapback]

Yeah, talk about it... Better to buy them when you can. Even if you won't build them in a long time, like me. (I want to gain a lot more experience & skills before those) Heck, I can't even properly afford Hasegawas or tools & supplies because of these kits!

Edited February 24, 2006 by Sdf-1

[Guest Bromgrev]

Input is appreciated, and suggestion for a color scheme for the Cats Eye and Tomahawk, anything goes.

372749[/snapback]

In the past, I've tended to paint battroids in WWII-inspired themes for some reason - how about a subtle splinter camo version of the normal Tomahawk pale earth? As for the Cat's Eye ... I've always liked the Nimrod paint scheme. The beige-and-white kind of reminds me of good old cannonfodder Valkyries.

[Mechwarrior]

Yes, a splinter camo sounds cool, Ill work on that , maybe mix in some rust/aged metal look. I did a rust look a few years ago on a Revell Robotech recovery model. (some unofficial release i guess). It takes a time for each layer, but i think it is a bit out of the norm look. i would like to try that splinter camo look for sure, i never did that scheme before. Earth tones would look on a Tomahawk, thanx for the idea, ill figure out how much of a rust look I want as i go i guess.

As for the Cat's Eye colors, i was thinking maybe Angel Birds theme. I always thought it looked cool. The picture is a scan that Graham posted of a VF22. Maybe a color scheme like that would be unique, unless someone did one already : (

I came across some decals i bought along time ago, not sure what they are called, but I seen em around, perhaps a wild paint scheme with the decals would be cool too.

I came across the pic of the SDF1 in some pic folder i had, not sure who did it, but i like the colors. Anyone mind if i use the look? I like the tones and blue tarmac markers. If anyone has more pics of this scheme, i would like to see more pics please

As for availability of models, those not being produced, I agree. Get em now! Lol, many times before i always told myself "I get that model later" and ended up paying way too much for it, better to get what you can now if possible. I recently noticed the VF-0 Ghost version model was out, and it was not on ebay, so i had to get it from a website, so i am guessing these are getting rare, or not, what do i know? But I had to have one, and perhaps i paid too much i dont know, but the first 5 or so websites stores i went to were sold out.

As for the casting of the sdf1, i got it a long time ago, i think about 5 years ago. i am sure it was an original , since the resin looked in good shape and if i remember had minor fitting work. Not sure what i paid, but i do remember it was back when yahoo and ebay were competing in the online auctioning, we know who won that one

Edited February 24, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[Less than Super Ostrich]

Here's some pics of my SDF-1. It was the G-System recast... lots of work needed on this. many warped parts and fit was horrible.

[Sdf-1]

yes, I have seen your work LTSO. I like it very much. And if you had the same type of casting, I know you've done an insane amount of prep work with it. As for me, it's basically quite a disappointment, especially with this important and complex kit, and I don't know will I manage to do that much of work, with my skills. And even then, it would be hardly satisfying result. I haven't really done much for it yet, because of this. I believe in your kit are the same warpings on the legs, the lower end of the big parts, before the rocket "toe" section. But talk about the Armds...

Do you know if the Hobbyfan's Sdf-1's are casted by G-system? I believe it is so.

Oh yeah, my Sdf is the Battle mode, but I believe the problems are exactly the same.

On the second hand, your fantastic work is encouraging to see.

Edited February 24, 2006 by Sdf-1

[Less than Super Ostrich]

Yep... It was my second resin kit. I didn't do a good job of filling the indentations in the thrusters (feet). And you are right about the legs. In retrospect I would recommend significant amount of planning, dry fitting, and use lots of Aves Apoxie sculpt (a modelers best friend in my opinion). One thing I'm glad I did was to pin the legs to the main fuselage. They are heavy and could risk breakage if you don't pin them. Just buy some brass rod (use a coat hanger too!) and cut about an inch or 1.5 inch section.... drill the holes in the fuselage and the legs. They will help support the leg.

The ARMDs... were nicely made. The only problem was when you attached the sidewalls and sanded them down, you lost some of the panel lines. They are easily rescribed though.

The engine bells are a hopeless crusade. Too much work to get them perfectly round and pretty. Still, they look ok enough, methinks!

Edited February 24, 2006 by Less than Super Ostrich

[HWR MKII]

I still think the finish on that SDF is the best i have seen done on that kit LTSO. It reflects the multitude of repairs that would have been performed on it during its reconstruction and long voyage.

[Less than Super Ostrich]

I'm not original with that... i first saw the "Aztec" paint scheme on a Battle Mode Yellow Sub on this site!

[Zinjo]

Here's some pics of my SDF-1. It was the G-System recast... lots of work needed on this. many warped parts and fit was horrible.

Dude,

Could you post larger pics of that beauty with a black background?

With enough light all the details would shine...

It looks great!

[Mechwarrior]

Thats why I decided to go to a lighter color indeed. Just applying a black wash gives lots of depth and makes the sdf1 appear larger,bulkier and more intimidating. Since it has lots of lines and crevases most work as far detaling is accomplished by doing a black wash, which is time saving, considering all the time to cut and trim to get the parts to fit just right. I personally like the warped look, it gives it a more anime look. I never liked sharp edges or points on models of anykind, but thats me. I like the dimple in the top leg (3rd picture you posted LTSo) and the ovalish vernier is oddly something I would try to do, if i knew I could pull it off that is. I think it screams "I am the Macross" instead of that "I am a painted model"

Edited February 24, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[Sdf-1]

LTSO, I'd like to see very detailed close-ups of that, if you would care to take some more photos...

[Mechwarrior]

Got back to work with the models yesterday, since weekends are set aside for car project. I did plenty of sanding on the cats eye, brainstormed some ideas for custom sdf1, but that went no where, the kit looks great as it is. So this morning I went through my decals, which of course is always fun. I came across some unused printable decal sheets i had hidden. I bought them about 4 years ago on ebay, and wanted to know if they still worked. This printable kit came with just the blank sheets (no white back ground), and to seal the ink after it has been printed it had to be sprayed with some clearcoat. I had a can of glossy laying in the garage, so i decided to print some decals and give it a shot. Well, it appears the most time consuming process of making cheap custom decals is figuring out which ones you want to print and edit em if necessary. So i picked a few random images and some transformers images off the internet. Since i did feel like color matching

and figuring out scale, i printed some random sizes shapes and colors. So since i decided to revisit the test model (Hasegawa jetfire ) I decided to break out the ole paint jars and do some touching up. Since i had not put a clearcoat of anysort on the model yet, I gave it a quick greywash also and cleaned off excess. I decided i only need a couple decals to make it look more tranformy and less macrossy. So i chose a few decals and then some for testing and printed em on the decal paper (Need to be printed in reverse by the way, i forgot this the first time, because i an idiot) , ok so the decals printed fine. I used highest settings for my 50 dollar canon 1500ip, and they looked good on paper, so i let em dry for a few minutes and then shot the decal sheet with the clearcoat. While that dried, i got a small bowl and put some water with a touch of dishwater soap. i am not sure if this is correct or not, but i been doing it since high school, so i go with what works. The most important is to make sure the area is clean where you are placing the decal. I trimmed out the first decal (blackone for redbooster), and applied it. Took a smoke break and came back to see it dried, still in one piece, no ink running and laying flat on surface. So i am stoked, and put the other ones on too. The big autobot logo on leg i cut into three parts and applied em one at a time, since i was not sure if it would work or not with the curves and stuff. The only problem i didnt like was the decals for the gun. I masked and painted a white coat of paint for the red sticker to be applied, but it looked crappy, I coulda spent more time to make it look good, but time is money so ill remove it later and repaint it i guess. So i am calling this one done, i feel comfortable to move on to the next model (Tomahawk), and get that one done asap.

[promethuem5]

I print quasi-'decals' on paper all the time... yours look great. I use a little bit of white glue to help mine stick.

[Mechwarrior]

Got time to do some work on the Tomahawk (1/100 scale) last week, and it turned out to be more time consuming then planned, lol. Anyhow, i tried the spinnter camo scheme and it turns out it is a very tedious paint job. I am sure a plane would be alot faster and easier, the 1/100 mech is small and needs more attention for sure. So I sprayed on a grey base, and when dried, went to work masking out some splinter camo. Ok, i never did a splinter theme before, but i am sure if i had, i would not have attemted it on such a small bumpy model. The masking itself takes up 90 percent of the project itself. i spent 2 hours for each camo layer. i did 3 colors, and the time between each layer i spent cleaning the airbrush and preparing next layer. It was fun though , sounds like a scheme i wanna try for the Hasegawa ghost model for sure. Right now i have to add some weathering and soften some of the hardlines of the paint, then some brush touchups. I may do decals, may not require any since it has an off the wall camo scheme and adding Macross decals may not be good enough, since it looks more battletech-ish then a Macross tomohawk. So this week ill do the detailing and some rust layers on a few areas, hopefully it will turn out better then i expect. Found an excellent remover for acylic and enamel paint and does not harm/melt the resin or injection plastic model. (not sure about vinyl, ill test taht later)

Edited March 7, 2006 by Mechwarrior

[nightmareB4macross]

That looks awesome. I wish Yamato would have used these colors on the LV2 and the GBPv2.

*What\'s your car project. Sorry, don\'t mean to side track you, but you mentioned it first.

[Veritas]

Man these models are all top notch. Nice Paint jobs!

[neptunesurvey]

Interesting Tomahawk paint scheme.

[Bad_Scorpion]

Here's some pics of my SDF-1. It was the G-System recast... lots of work needed on this. many warped parts and fit was horrible.

373385[/snapback]

I know this is a long shot. But by any chance do you have or anyone else around here have the model build up plans that came with that macross model. I know you said you did this a couple of years ago but doesn't hurt to ask. If so could you or someone that may have them possibly scan them and sen them to me?