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

[robsthingies]

wow that is one great looking jet .

lucky shawn put online the old boards again ill search out your other works i didnt have

and put them on my site also before these will be deleted or something.

[Malich]

As always, one Schweet model done by the Master!!! Awesome!

I can't wait to work on my Mave.

[Myersjessee]

Simply Amazing! Thanks...can't wait for more!

[wm cheng]

Here's a close up of the front cockpit nose section and how it all fits together. The nice thing is that once its together its still all removeable.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot underneath showing the metallic finish on the cockpit pod and the intracate intake fins all around the nose area.

[wm cheng]

This shot shows the cockpit pod in the position to be accessed by gound crew, there is a separate piece included in the kit that mounts in the fuselage rails that will keep the pod in this position (removeable of course).

[wm cheng]

I am masking the dark green for the underside here. I just found out now that I should not of glued the main underside intake, it would of made painting this central green strip easier. Now I have to carefully mask around the intakes.

[wm cheng]

Here's the top pattern for the lighter shade of grey/green. My Tamiya masking tape supply is hurtin' after this bird

[wm cheng]

Here's the pattern - its pretty complicated since the instructions are mono-chrome - so I had to rely on some web references too. Overall I am very happy with the colours that turned out. There is a really nice differenciation between the two grey greens right now - however, its wierd, but later on, when I clear coat this layer of painting with the same glossy sheen, it darkens the lighter green so the contrast is not as high as this. I might after all the decals are done, remask these areas and spray them with a flat clear-coat to pop it out again - wish me luck.

[wm cheng]

Here's the shot of the underside - its wierd that the underside of the forward nose section is also this lighter grey-green - I've checked in a few places to confirm. Its seems to defeat the lighter grey of the belly sky camoflauge.

[wm cheng]

This is the masking for the light grey panels. I used Tamiya Sky Grey for these areas - however in hindsight, it should be a darker shade - perhaps a mixture of neutral grey and sky grey because the background green is still considerably darker and sets up too high of a contrast in my opinion. I am hoping that subsequent weathering will tone it down a bit - but its hard - since this is a relatively new aircraft - there shouldn't be much weathering right?

[wm cheng]

Here;s a close up of the light grey panels with all the little corners and intricate shapes. I really think there should have been a decal made for this. Boy it really tells you how spoiled we are from Hasegawa kits I finally remembered to drill out the cannon port. Its the same process as with the other Yukikaze kit or the Valkyrie intake verniers, I use a small pin vise with a small bit, then work my way up to a bit that is the appropriate size. This gun port is a bit tricker since its show shallow - you want a hole that is almost parallel with the surface of the fuselage - in the end it gives an oblong eliptical shape. I did this by drill down a bit - which creates a cavity for the larger drill bit to sit in, then slowly work my way to a horizontal position with the drill bit. This way, there is less likelyhood of the drill bit slipping and scratching across your fuselage when its in the horizontal position.

[wm cheng]

This shows that patch underneath the nose. The molded vertical fin is a bit thick - I could of chopped it off and made another one from a thinner styrene - or I took the lazy man's approach and carefully shaved with an exacto knife the leading edges to look thinner at the edges.

[wm cheng]

Here you can see how the lighter grey-green has blended with the background darker grey-green Damn! I couldn't tell untill after the gloss/semi-gloss coat was applied - I guess the original colour made such a contrast because of the finish. The glossier something is, it does tend to be darker, and the flatter/matte something is, it tends to be lighter - must remember this in the future.

[wm cheng]

Here's the masking for the metallic steel colour. I am loving this Alclad stuff. I have found that if I left those little four fins around the engine area, it will make painting this area easier.

[wm cheng]

I've decided to deviate a little more from the estasblished colour scheme of the Mave. I've noticed that the Platz resin model on display at the Wonderfest had a metallic engine grey/steel on the top of the aircraft as well. So I thought I would follow suit, any chance to show off the Alclad more. I am using the Alclad Steel colour for these areas.

[wm cheng]

Boy is this stuff great!! However, it really exposes and accentuates any flaws.

[wm cheng]

Especially when you take a step back. The metallic shine is second to none - and still holds up quite well under a clear-coat layer of semi-gloss. However, you still need to make sure the sub-surface is perfect - after seeing the results, its easier to spend that little bit of extra time sanding to get a perfect surface (oh well - now I regret that I didn't spend enough time sanding - next time). They sometimes suggest a layer of future acrylic floor polish before you spray this metalizer stuff on. And when you see the smooth spots that the paint hits, it really shines!!

Ok, I know some of you guys use the Future on the rest of the model, not just the canopy. My question to you is, how do you thin it down for the airbrush, and secondly, what thinner/solvents do you use to clean out your airbrush afterwards?

[wm cheng]

Here's the shot of the top surface with the engines in the steel colour instead of just plain dark green. OK, so what do think? Is it "blasphemy" to go against anime, or maybe this scheme is valid too?

The lighter grey-green blending into the darker grey-green still bugs me!

[wm cheng]

I am airbrushing flat black in a fine spray width here to trace around the tailcone details to make it look kind of burnt (the right side is done - the left hasn't been touched yet). These deep crevasses will be great later when I do a black oil wash to further pick out the individual afterburning leafs.

[wm cheng]

Shot from above!

You can see some paint that has been scrapped off at the wing-root hinge points. I don't know what to do here. The fit is so perfect that it keeps the tension on the wings from flopping down when you rotate it. However, it also tends to scrap the paint a bit when you rotate the wings up. I might try to paint it out again - very thin airbrush layer and then clear-coat the hell out of it with many layers - I don't know yet.

Edited August 24, 2003 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

One of my favourite front views.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of the underside with the engines done (before any washes though - can't wait)

[wm cheng]

Another really intricate shade to mask that really should have been a decal. You can see I usually build up these shapes with many pieces of tape instead of trying to cut the shape out of a few larger pieces. As long as you spray a thin "dry" coat of paint, there should be minimal seepage. Always try to spray with the tape - avoid spraying "into" the edge of the tape.

[wm cheng]

I think Bandai must own stock in masking tape - here's my wounded bird - all taped up for the white details layer - which again really should have been decals. Maybe a version 1.5 of this kit is forthcoming

[wm cheng]

Here's the mess at the back - with all these little colours and the white tips, I thought that leaving the white till the end is the best solution - but you get a masking nightmare!!

If any of you can think up a better order of things to paint or mask in, I'd love to know about it!! Well here goes...

[wm cheng]

Here we go with the masking agian...

[wm cheng]

Here's the bird with the bandages taken off at the white details stage. I purposely haven't masked the very distinct nose white markings yet. Its late in the afternoon - and I want to devote a whole day to that masking and paint job tomorrow. Its one of the most important parts/marking for this aircraft. Overall I am pleased, however, the two tone grey-green is too muted and the white seems to be so bright and contrasty. I'll tone it down later with a bit of grey, but it will be hard not to tone the whole plane down - the grey-green is already fusing into one colour - I hope that giving it a separate flat finish will restore it back to the shade I had when I first applied the paint.

[wm cheng]

Here's the underside - I like the forward sensor pod white marking - although hell to mask, at least there were panel lines this time to follow.

[wm cheng]

Finally we are all caught up again... I just couldn't resist putting the pod in and zooming it around a bit. Brand new spanking plane!! I think the next steps are to clear-coat this layer, mask the forward nose section for the white markings and yah!! off to the oil washes to pick out the engraved panellng details and a "subtle" post shading.

[Valkyrie]

Looking good!

I agree that the transition between the two gray colors is too subtle, but aside from that, it looks great. Very clean. I just hope I can do half as good a job on the Platz kit!

BTW, episode 3 presents a rather interesting color variation of the Mave... I'd like to see you pull that one off

[Myersjessee]

The engine work is glorious!! WOW!

[Commander McBride]

Stunning. Simply stunning. I wish I could paint like WM Cheng.........

[Isamu Atreides 86]

oh man, is that nice.

[Less than Super Ostrich]

wonderful job master C! A masking question for you... do you cut the strips first or wait till they are down and cut along the panel lines?

I never used alclad... i'll have to experiment. I am definitely not going to try to tint the canopy... I'm too afraid I will mess it up. Is it easy? do you just spray, let dry, and then dunk in future?

Thanks again!