jardann Posted October 19, 2006 Posted October 19, 2006 I know some others have posted some excellent step by step threads for the Hasegawa standard VF-1 kit, but I decided to start mine tonight and thought I'd post my progress for all to see. Hopefully this will help keep me focused on finishing the kit in a timely manner. Started on the cockpit of course. Here are some pics of the cockpit tub and the ejection seat assembled and painted, but before the panel line/oil wash. Quote
jardann Posted October 19, 2006 Author Posted October 19, 2006 (edited) Sorry, the cockpit seat pic is kind of blurry, but not much to see there anyway. To make the throttle control and flight stick, I used the contact points from an electronics part. This came off of an old PC mother board or something. The metal pieces came out of the plastic housing very easily with some needle nose pliers and then I used some small craft pliers to bend the pieces to the shapes I wanted. Poor man's photoetch! Hopefully the pic is clear enough for everyone to see what I'm talking about. Edited October 19, 2006 by jardann Quote
jardann Posted October 19, 2006 Author Posted October 19, 2006 Does anyone know if you can put the pilot in after the cockpit has been set between the fuselage parts? I want to put a pilot in here, but was hoping I could go ahead and continue the valk construction while I take my time with the pilot. I assembled the top of the fuselage with the speed brake closed, and left off the little antennaes for now. Next I began the loser fuselage, the part where the swing wing mechanism is housed. I cut some pieces from sheet styrene to fill in the area that will be under the wings that has the open depressions. I used the best fitting piece as a template and drew out the shape several more times so that I would be ready to cut them for future Hasegawa kit builds. (I've got a buch in the 'ol model stash) Here's a pic with the parts glued in. I went ahead and spread some Tamiya putty over the rogh areas and left it to cure overnight. Quote
jardann Posted October 19, 2006 Author Posted October 19, 2006 That's about it for tonight. I put an oil wash on the cockpit parts and set them aside to dry. I probably won't get back to this until some time Saturday or Sunday. Gotta work tomorrow so I'm off to get some sleep. Quote
Chas Posted October 21, 2006 Posted October 21, 2006 Looks good! In my experience if you want to put the pilot in afterwards it's best to also leave out the instrument pannel. Then, when you are ready, place the pilot in position and install the instrument pannel. This may require some finesse (and no, I don't mean 'use shampoo to get it in place' - for any of you wise guys out there!) Quote
jardann Posted October 21, 2006 Author Posted October 21, 2006 Thanks for that advice Chas. I'm trying to use one of the metal pilots that I got from VF007 a while back, but I can't get super glue to stick with the arms. Has anyone else used these guys yet? I think the metal is brass, at least that's what it looks like. Could it be possible that I may have to solder these? Will solder even work with brass? Any advice would be appreciated. Quote
Chas Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 Yeah I've used those guys, still got s few of'em left too. I don't know if it made a difference or not, but when I glued mine I took a file to the two mating surfaces and roughed them up a bit before glueing. Quote
jardann Posted October 23, 2006 Author Posted October 23, 2006 Yeah, I had sanded the areas, but still wasn't getting anything to stick. I got a few minutes to work on it today, and I took a grinding bit in a motor tool and really ground a concave spot under the shoulder pads so that the arms had a little more surface contact with the body. I then used a clamp to hold the body and pliers to hold the arms and I was able to hold the parts in place long enough for the glue to get a good bond. These metal figures are very nice castings. I was surprised they got such good results with them. Now, do you have any tips on painting it? I was just going to shoot some citadel primer on him and go from there. Quote
Chas Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 Yeah, I had sanded the areas, but still wasn't getting anything to stick. I got a few minutes to work on it today, and I took a grinding bit in a motor tool and really ground a concave spot under the shoulder pads so that the arms had a little more surface contact with the body. I then used a clamp to hold the body and pliers to hold the arms and I was able to hold the parts in place long enough for the glue to get a good bond. These metal figures are very nice castings. I was surprised they got such good results with them. Now, do you have any tips on painting it? I was just going to shoot some citadel primer on him and go from there. Painting, UGGG! You got me there! I'm sure whatever you'll come up with will be better than mine Quote
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