Warmaker Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 I got a question, though Star Wars related and one I asked at Starshipmodeller's forums but never got an answer. A while back, I preordered and received Kotobukiya's 3 Sandtrooper Vinyl Figures. The builds, detail, etc. are great! However, the weathering was absolutely atrocious. Seriuosly, it looked like they got some untrained f**k to get cotton balls, dip them in paint, and dab the armor here and there. I intend to repaint the white armor with semi-gloss white and then dirty it u. But I have never worked with Vinyl kits before. Are there certain paint types & finishes that I shouldn't use on Vinyl kits? As for the subsequent Kotobukiya figures, the subsequent Imperial & Republic troopers are all finished and weathered very nicely (Scout Trooper, Snowtrooper, 501st Clonetrooper, Cmdr.Bly, all of which I own). I guess Koto had to kick someone's a** about the lackluster weathering of the Sandtrooper line which preceded these.
winterdyne Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 Vinyl kits are often attacked by oil based paints and solvents. If you're planning a strip / repaint be very very careful what solvents you use. Ideally use a water based acrylic on bare vinyl as a pre-primer. Actually I'd reccommend water based paint throughout (as some enamels are based on solvents that will dissolve the vinyl). Once you've got the vinyl pre-primed, you can then go for an enamel primer over the top which will help if the kit is going to be handled at all, but it'll never be as tough as a styrene kit. I strongly recommend using a soft cloth to handle dried paintwork in conjunction with a painting block. You don't want your nails or fingertips ripping the paint off before you seal it on. If you're going for oil-wash weathering make damn certain the vinyl's not exposed. It's horrible to see paintwork peel off around a nick or scratch as the solvent works its way under. It's probably a good idea to paint the model matt, and apply the satin finish to the unweathered article with a thin varnish, rather than attempt to use a satin paint - this will give you much more control over shading. How big's the kit? Different techniques work better on different sizes. I've worked on 120 and 200mm figures professionally, in addition to lots of other scales in general hobby projects. On large kits, a good trick for 'spatter weathering' I've used on uniformed WWII troops is this: Very lightly drybrush the weathering colour (usually a dusty light brown / buff) onto the top surfaces of boots, and flatish surfaces (like the sides of boots). Once this is done, thin the weathing colour to nearly wash consistency and dip the tips of the bristles of an old toothbrush into it. Wipe the brush on a piece of tissue so you don't have big droplets on the brush. DO NOT HANDLE the area you're weathering from now on! Use a soft cloth hold the model, and fold it over so spatter doesn't go where you don't want it. Now use your thumb on the bristles of the brush to flick them so the spatter paint in the direction you'd expect a splash to come from. Very small droplets will flick off producing a nice spatter effect. If you're very brave, you can also do this by trimming an old household paint brush with a pair of scissors and stipple, but I find stippling produces very 'stand out' drops and needs a very gentle touch and thicker paint or the shape of the stipples comes out wrong. Because you're going for a glossy surface under the matt weathering, you won't be able to seal the weathering in, and those spatter drops will rub off with very slight touches. It'll look ace though.
Warmaker Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 (edited) Thanks for the pointers, especially about enamels. I have a bunch of those and was going to use them, especially since past experience with enamels showed that they can be pretty tough. But I was reluctant to do it without guidance since I feared some sort of "meltdown" as you just described The size of the 3 Sandtroopers are just under 1 foot. Anyways, a section about Kotobukiya's Star Wars vinyle figures are right here, halfway down the page. Edited April 10, 2007 by Warmaker
big F Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 Or should I say, "What's still on my workbench" Update Worked on some of the base elements. Ok everytime you post pics of your work in progress, I think wow nice job, then you go and post some more pictures and I think even better job. I now feel rather amaturish where my own work is concerned. I know not what the thing is your making but what size is it ? It does look really detailed. What Im hoping is that its a really big scale which will make me feel better and not the size of a pin head.
winterdyne Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 Regarding the vinyl figures, this http://www.starshipmodeler.com/basics/lj_vinyl.htm is a pretty good guide.
Kylwell Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 Ok everytime you post pics of your work in progress, I think wow nice job, then you go and post some more pictures and I think even better job. I now feel rather amaturish where my own work is concerned. I know not what the thing is your making but what size is it ? It does look really detailed. What Im hoping is that its a really big scale which will make me feel better and not the size of a pin head. It's 1:20th scale. Part if the reason I added a lot of detail (like all the frellin' nuts and bolts). It's about 11.5 inches long overall. The tough part is finding 1:20 scale tools.
big F Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 The tough part is finding 1:20 scale tools. Yeash not you most common size model scale.
Busted VF1A Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 (edited) back to Gundam: LOL, I'm working on the same poor representation of the Hi-Nu Gundam as well. But I only have the inner frame rough fitted so far (the heads not even attached). I'm planning alot of mods for the body and the funnel "wings" to make it look a little better, but it's on hold right now while I work on my Kaempfer. I need to post some images here... Image Quote Removed Edited April 12, 2007 by Busted VF1A
Kylwell Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 (edited) back to Gundam: Sweet! Edited April 12, 2007 by Kylwell
nightmareB4macross Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 Very nice, Electric Indigo. ***Do we really need to have soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many (x3) pics quoted?
Busted VF1A Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 LOL, I'm working on the same poor representation of the Hi-Nu Gundam as well. But I only have the inner frame rough fitted so far (the heads not even attached). I'm planning alot of mods for the body and the funnel "wings" to make it look a little better, but it's on hold right now while I work on my Kaempfer. I need to post some images here... Image Quote Removed Actually when I got home last night I did a comparison to what I was workign on ( I knew this looked way better than the one I was working on) Who produced this Hi-Nu kit? The one I'm working on is bandai's craptacular MG rendition.
Kylwell Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 Very nice, Electric Indigo. ***Do we really need to have soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many (x3) pics quoted? Better?
electric indigo Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 I think they'll look better on an alien bug. Anyway, they look rather grainy in the pics, is it better in natural light? Busted, that's the GMG version of the Hi-Nu, which itself is a small-scale version of G-System's 1/48 Hi-Nu. Check out my WIP at Hobbyfanatics: http://www.hobbyfanatics.com/index.php?showtopic=10106
IAD Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Sean, just saw the tank video! Looks (and sounds) incredible, I love the sound system! One question: Does anybody make a recoil system for the main gun? It was a little odd to hear it fire, and not see some recoil, or something. :-p ~Luke
Ranger565 Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Carl that looks great! Could you share a little on the battle damage please? I'll chime in with big F, Mars dust is a brilliant touch. Hey Cowie. Yeah thats the battle damage that John made to the tomahawk arm and shoulder, What I did was airbrush the natural coat of paint. Then when it dried I Air brushed Future floor wax on the whole body. Then I used Artist Oils, Black and Burnt Umber in and filled up the Hole of the damage. I Then wiped some away in the direction that the Damage took place. ( where the shell or round Landed) I let it dry fully for 3 days. THen I went back with a Enamal Steal an Dry brushed around the edges to give it that striped paint look. I love to battle damge my Kits. Its to me makes them looked used. if you have any questions or if you would like better pictures let me know. Ranger565
HWR MKII Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Sean, just saw the tank video! Looks (and sounds) incredible, I love the sound system! One question: Does anybody make a recoil system for the main gun? It was a little odd to hear it fire, and not see some recoil, or something. :-p ~Luke It has a servo for it but it isnt hooked up. The barrel has to be removed every time i transport it and the recoil mechanism is prone to breaking from installing and removing the barrel. Right now its hard locked in place. However i will be adding new sound this weekend, Im going to wire in the sound unit from a Tamiya 1/16 Leopard 2 so i can replace the crap sound thats in there. this way it will have accurate engine noise.
MechTech Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 You've all been busy since I've been gone the last week! Everyone's work looks awesome! We even got shot at on you tube! You miss a lot in a week's time. - MT
cowie165 Posted April 16, 2007 Posted April 16, 2007 ... I love to battle damge my Kits. Its to me makes them looked used. if you have any questions or if you would like better pictures let me know. Ranger565 Thanks a lot for your reply Sounds like we're doing the same thing and I just need more practice! I improved things a little after googling a few images on destroyed armor. Helped with the blast pattern/etc. Cheers! Once again, excellent result there. Mark
big F Posted April 16, 2007 Posted April 16, 2007 I improved things a little after googling a few images on destroyed armor. Helped with the blast pattern/etc. Yup Google image search is your friend
MechTech Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Kylwell, how'd you get all that fur to stick to it? - MT
TSP Posted April 19, 2007 Author Posted April 19, 2007 (edited) The Falke looks great, although it took me some time to get used to the strange camouflage. OMG!!! Did you killed the kitty? http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/TS.../Wyvern/X03.jpg Edited April 19, 2007 by TSP
Kylwell Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 The Falke looks great, although it took me some time to get used to the strange camouflage. OMG!!! Did you killed the kitty? http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/TS.../Wyvern/X03.jpg Woah! Sweet bash. No, that's just the way he likes to sleep. At least he doesn't chew on the sprues.
Mechleader Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 (edited) mine..... Edited April 19, 2007 by Mechleader
Mechleader Posted April 20, 2007 Posted April 20, 2007 Just a bit Lol! Trying to brak away from the 1/6th figures...
MechTech Posted April 20, 2007 Posted April 20, 2007 So do the skirts go on the viper? It does look busy! - MT
HWR MKII Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 Heres pics of the refinements so far. I have rescribed the panel lines, Swapped out the chin guns with 1/72 scale king tiger barrel ends(perfect fit). Added the rib detail to the "ear" gun shields. Added the ribs to the front legs, and scribed the groove in the middle of the curved foot slide. I took these pics next to their counterparts in Chronicles to help better define what had been done. Once all the major redetailing is done i will go back and add all the little rectangles back onto the hull since they got sanded off when removing the raised panel lines.
big F Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 Heres pics of the refinements so far. I could look at pictures of your work all day
Mechleader Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 (edited) nice AT-AT! Done with my Naboo Starship.... Edited April 22, 2007 by Mechleader
HWR MKII Posted April 23, 2007 Posted April 23, 2007 Thanks ML i would have used a buffable metalizer on that naboo ship, You could get a more scale look on it. Now i have to be patient, I have another destroid on the wayt from John AND a 3 foot long Super Star Destroyer
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