1/100 Bandai FRX-00 Mave step-by-step

[wm cheng]

Placeholder page for Shawn to import beginning of thread from old boards.

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Link to first part of this thread:

http://www.macrossworld.com/cgi-bin/mwf/ik...ct=ST;f=20;t=46

Edited August 23, 2003 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

Placeholder page for Shawn to import beginning of thread from old boards.

Please scroll down.

[wm cheng]

Placeholder page for Shawn to import beginning of thread from old boards.

Please scroll down.

[wm cheng]

Placeholder page for Shawn to import beginning of thread from old boards.

Please scroll down.

[wm cheng]

Placeholder page for Shawn to import beginning of thread from old boards.

Please scroll down.

(boy this "Flood Control" is really annoying, Shawn could you disable it - its tough to post multiple images)

[wm cheng]

Okay, where were we, special thanks goes out to Shawn for this great new board - he'll be transfering the other pages to this thread so that we can have 1 complete thread for this model

This is an easy kit to put together, not too many pieces, as you can see here, all the main assemblies is put together in 3-4 hours. The sanding and finishing is the difficult part. You can see that this kit includes a fairly detailed cockpit tub for a 1/100 scale model. I wish it were 1/72 scale - this model is a bit on the small side.

[wm cheng]

What is nice about the snap together assembly is that all the major parts can be assemblied separately to allow for painting and sanding. Here is the nose section, the underside is a real "dogs-breakfast". Luckily is underneath, all the grey is Tamiya putty to seal up the large gaps due to the nature of the snap-fit construction.

[wm cheng]

Be really careful with this thin part that slides into the top of the fuselage - as you can see here I snapped my - its thin and delicate.

[wm cheng]

Here you see after an hour of sanding to work the contours back together on that broken piece, the light grey stuff is Mr. Surfacer 500 I painted in the cracks to help fill the seam.

[wm cheng]

Another real trouble spot is the seam around the rear tailcones. Its in a really tight place to sand off, and off-course the fit is all that great. I snipped off all the locating pegs for the snap fit assembly to try to slide the top and bottom halves of the fuselage to try to minimize the seam gaps.

[wm cheng]

Finally I had to paint several layers of Mr. Sufacer 500 over the entire seam area and let dry. Afterwards I used a 600 grit sandpaper to try to sand it off, with the rubber grips and small pieces glued to thin pieces of wood so that I can get into this tight area. What you see (light grey) that is left of the Mr. Surfacer is all the sections that don't really mate up wth the top or bottom halves.

[wm cheng]

The other side is better aligned - but this is the part I have little patience for. Sanding and more sanding. Its the most boring part of the process, but its also the most important part - unfortunately it is usually the part that I scrimp on. They saw you should work your way up from 600 to 3000 grit - but usually I only do 600 and then maybe a rub down at 1500.

[wm cheng]

Here's a close up of the repair job on the broken nose piece - after appropriate sanding (40mins).

[wm cheng]

I noticed that the cockpit tub is silver - well, I don't really like the Tamiya silver - I find that the silver particles/grain is too large and especially on such a small aircraft it would liook really odd. I thought this might be the opportunity I try some of the metallizers out there. After visiting several local hobby shops - I was recommended (also it seems to be the only consistently available stuff) this UK made Alclad II Lacquer. It is already pre-thinned for airbrush use/only. I saw a sample that blew me away at the local hobby store. However, now I need a new thinner/solvent which will work with lacquers - I bought Mr. Color thinner which works with this stuff. Because its Lacquers, you need a well ventilated space and I put on a breathing mask when I airbrush this stuff - it is really fine metal paticles that I'm sure can't be healthy for you

[wm cheng]

I left a bunch of parts on the sprue to be painted white. I find it more convenient this way to hold them. I inspected them, and most of the sprue attachment points are hidden after assembly - with the odd exception that I will touch up after I snip them away.

[wm cheng]

Here's a critical seam that I thought I just had to get perfect. Its right at the nose where everyone will see it and its a complex curve going into a sharp edge. Beautiful design, but a bitch to sand and a really poor place to put a seam (do you hear me Bandai).

I used that Alcad primer, its wonderful stuff - goes on like glass. They suggest a lower airbrushing pressure to 12-15psi for this stuff. But really good at pointing out flaws that were missed.

[wm cheng]

The primer shows that I did an okay job at eliminating the seam at the tailcone area - not great since I can still see hints of it. But the real thing to this bird is the complex painting scheme - I didn't want to blow all my effort here. So its good enough for now. I'm sure I'll regret it after I finish but I'm just too anxious to move on!!

[wm cheng]

Since that snap was a clean break, I thought that I would leave the line in as a panel line detail and fill all around it and make sure the top surface was flush.

[wm cheng]

I only sprayed the primer over the areas I thought I needed some sanding or fillng to see where the flaws are, I guess I should of primed the entire plane - just lazy I guess. But since the overall colours are dark, its not as important to get an even undercoat as light colours require.

[wm cheng]

The primer grey really shows off how complicated the nose section geometry is.

[wm cheng]

Here's the cockpit tub and pod. Its really nice that they decided to have it as two separate pieces so its really simple to paint one part (Pod) silver and detail the cockpit insert. The cockpit insert was painted dark grey overall, with metallic grey for the instrument panels and olive for the seats and a tan headrest (although the latter can hardly be seen once the pilots are fitted). The pilots are painted white with grey accents and a dark grey oxygen mask. I used Tamiya transparent blue for the visors and a black Gundam marker to draw in the blast visor on top of the helmut. These were all hand brushed since they were so small and I did a black wash to pick out the recesses and a light dry rushing to pick out the raised details. The pod was sanded first, then painted a gloss black as the undercoat as per the instructions for the Polished Aluminum AlcladII Lacquer. I think it works much like a mirror, with the black surfaces reflecting the metal particles. Boy, I was really happy with the metal finish It looks grainy in the photo, but it really looks metallic in real life. My camera in Macro mode pics up everything. The grey cutting mat that everything is sitting on looks like sandpaper, but you know that they are generally smooth.

[wm cheng]

Here is a test fit of the canopy - thank God I don't have to fill any seams here!!

[wm cheng]

Here's a better shot - Bandai provided an exceptionally clear and flawless piece of plastic. This is without the future floor wax yet, note how perfect the reflection is already.

[wm cheng]

I decided to tint this canopy as well to better match my other Yukikaze Superslyph and to look more like the Platz resin model. Plus while the cockpit is fairly detailed, its not that fantastic and it would take forever to properly detail something this small - plus there is precious little reference around for these planes.

[Myersjessee]

WOW! Looks great WM!!! With the metalizer...did you have to buff it, or do anything special to bring out such a nice shine???

..thanks for sharing...amazing work!

[wm cheng]

I tinted the canopy with Tamiya Smoke colour airbrushed through and several layers of future floor polish to even out the pebbly finish the Smoke colour left behind.

I find that this tinting leaves hints of the pilots inside while obscuring the lack of detail - in fact it looks like there is more detail than there was under the canopy.

[wm cheng]

I decided to paint this Mave in the greenish grey colours that I have seen in the anime and the few pieces of web reference I have seen. I don't know why all the paint instructions and that 2 page Model Graphix insist on a bluish grey version of the plane. Its not what I saw in the anime. I took the colours off the DVD box art of the "feminine" guy in the red jacket and the top view of the FRX-00. Here the top of the aircraft is painted the dark grey with a hint green and neutral grey. Mixed to eye.

[wm cheng]

Here the top of the aircraft is painted the dark grey with a hint green and neutral grey. Mixed to my eye. THis will be the darkest grey on the aircraft, looking at the pattern of masking that I will have to do, I decided it was easier to mask from the dark colour working my way to the white being painted last on top of everything else.

The metallic "Polished Aluminum" did not have to be polished - and this was what I was told that this paint had the advantage over other metallizers that have to be polished - because you don't polish it, its much harder and doesn't come off on your fingers afterwards. You don't even have to seal it in with a clear coat if you don't want to. But I did anyways.

[wm cheng]

The underside was a mixture of Tamiya Sky Grey (75%) with White (10%) and some Green (15%) The shine you see is a Clear Coat of Model Master Semi-goss.

[wm cheng]

I just couldn't wait to pop in that cockpit pod for a looksee.

[wm cheng]

Here's the piece with the nose section back on - I love the way this thing is designed. Looks like thats it for tonight - more updates later...

[Mechleader]

Wow! How many times can I say it???? Truely amazing work!!! I LOVE the metal paint. Looks real. Again great work!

[Montarvillois]

HOLY S**T !!! this thing is sweet !

I just watched episode 2 and these planes are putting Kawamori's designs to shame (but I still love them...). Please keep us posted.

[Commander McBride]

That Allclad is really great stuff. I've seen how great it looks in person. What's interesting is that they now make it in a spray can for those of too lazy (or unskilled) to use an airbrush!

As for Mave, it's one helluva design. And as usual, even before paint, with WM Cheng doing it, I know it'll be great!

Edited August 24, 2003 by Commander McBride

[Isamu Atreides 86]

more extraordinary work!!

i am in awe!