1/48 Yamato GPB-01 decalling and minor touch ups!

[wm cheng]

Hi all,

As most of you may know, my wife and I had our wonderful Alex last July, and I have dropped off the map... with working and all. Well, Alex has finally reached that magical age of 6 months when the baby world has agreed to let the parents who passed a little breather... before they start crawling and getting into stuff. The stars have aligned, and ACTRA has chose to strike in Canada, so the film business has just tanked! So I have a week (before we head off down to the Caribbean for 1 wk) to get back into the groove again...

My first priority is to finish up that Atmospheric Booster resin kit - but being rusty and lacking confidence, I decided to fix up my Yamato GPB-01 Amour first using Anasazi's amazing set of decals. Its a real lost to the Macross community that he no longer provides his invaluable service (in fact, I have given much more thought and consideration to the upcomming Yamato Macross toy offerings since I can not longer obtain his beautiful works for my toys) Luckily, I got one of his very first batch of GPB-01 decals! As with all my Yamato toys, they are for playing with (as opposed to my models) so I usually just panel line them, decal them and seal them in with an appropriate finish (semi-gloss or matte). I don't usually go to the bother of repainting them or eliminating the seam lines. Similarly to my earlier Fast Packs, I wanted to finish the GPB in a matte flat finish similar to tanks and artillery. However, after learning from the Fast Packs I realized that there is a slight pebbly finish to the Yamato toys which if you decalled directly over it, and sprayed a flat finish over that, it tends to silver the decal carrier film slightly. So to try to smooth out the plastic undersurface for the decals, I am going to spray future floor polish to give the plastic a smoother glossy surface for the decals to lay on. I hope this works.

Below are some photos of what I am starting with. Over last few months, I had 5 or 10mins here and there where I did a black oil wash over the toy and wiped the excess off to pick out the recesses of the molding. After that was dried, I did a light sky grey dry brush to hit the highlights of the molding. The combination of the dark wash and light dry brush brings out more of the details. I will continue this process after the decals as well, but I just wanted to get an idea of the undercoat before I started to decal. (hint, its easier to dry brush on a matte/flat surface).

p.s. I got a new DSLR for X-Mas, so these photos are hopefully better than my last, they are from a Nikon D80 under Tungsten WhiteBalance - then reduced before attaching.

[wm cheng]

I took all the amoured parts off the VF-1J and sprayed them with future - am I letting that dry for a bit.

For those of you lucky enough to have gotten a set of Anasazi's GPB decals - you may have noticed that its pretty hard to see the white printing against the white paper background. Photographed below is a light table (this is a smaller portable one used for viewing photographic slides or tracing) once you put the decal over the light, you will see the white printed graphics more easily which will allow you to trim as closely as possible to the carrier film. You can also just tape the decal up to a window and let the daylight do the same thing (its just a more awkward cutting position.

[Fortress_Maximus]

I likely I hope you continue with fixing up Hikaru's VF1J too!

[wm cheng]

Yep, I'll have to decal up the VF-1J too, but that will be after I finish the Atmospheric Booster, this decalling project is being done now to get me back into the swing of things.

There are a lot of decals (but I love all the stencilling!) but the toughest part is probably trying to cut all the carrier film off around the white markings as close to the marking as possible without cutting through the paper and damaging my light table.

I have also decided to substitute some of the markings with ones from a smaller scale from and old WAVE option decal sheet, it seems to be sized for 1/72 destroids, but I thought the yellow triangular marking looked too toyish when it was so big.

Now I need some help, there seems to be a bunch of other decals (both on the original Yamato sheet, and faithfully reproduced by Anasazi) that I can't seem to find where they go. Although I seem to have remembered seeing some of them applied somewhere. Specifically, they are numbers; 93, 95, 96, 85 - 93. I also remember seeing someone apply the red "remove before flight" stencil no.93 onto the armor somewhere - if anyone has any good pictures of any other completed GBP-01 Armor - please post them in this thread as well, I can really use the reference!

p.s. the glossyness from the Future really makes it toyish and hard to photograph - can't wait to dull it all down again!!

[David Hingtgen]

wm cheng---as of today Anasazi's decals are back. If you haven't been following the thread, another member (Night Stalker) has started printing them (with Anasazi's permission/artwork). See here:

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=462925

Also---are the red "remove before flight" markings simply a red rectangle with white lettering? If that's the case, then they are literally remove before flight tags, and really shouldn't be decalled onto a model at all.

[big F]

Ahh the master is back.... All rejoyce in happiness

[wm cheng]

Ah... so good to hear these great decals are available again!! YAY!

Thanks David, yeah, I know what the remove before flight tags are, but on the GBP sticker sheet, they seem to be warning stencils, with red & white hazard striping on either side. Its probably the Japanese, not know what "remove before flight" really means, and just stuck some "Engrish" in there. Anyways, once all the Yamato instructions were followed, there are so many more decals that are not specifically located - I then just kind of chose the ones I liked and tucked them here and there - I error on the side of not enough rather than too much - but I think it really adds a lot more to the toy!

Here is a shot of the completed decalled parts. I added another thick coat of future over the decals to seal them in and smooth out the carrier film edges.

[wm cheng]

I next thinned some black down, and did a very light misting over some of the white stencils, to tone them down a bit to a grey. I also used this opportunity to do some blast charring from the missles, the rear thrusters and do a general panel post shading to tie it all together. The toughest part was trying to guage darkness on the glossy finish (as the glossy finish is always dark and will lighten considerably when you apply the matte finish over the whole thing).

Once I thought I've toned down the screaming white stencils, I shot the entire thing with ModelMaster Acryl Matte/Flat Clear Coat to get my desired final finish. I liked doing the Fast Packs and any Valkyrie add-ons in flat finish, it gives a more scale sense and makes it look less toyish. Additionally, it makes it look more like armour and brings out the original lighter dry-brushing

All the previous work with the future was to create a glossy under-surface for the decals to lay flat upon, so the carrier film between the various white lines become invisible. One must alway take care when doing a flat finish with a dark background, these two factors really tend to bring out any silvering that may occur with the decal carrier films (no matter what type of water-slide decal or how thin they are).

NOTE: Becareful when applying a flat clear coat over the glossy future - I got a crackling / splitting texture in some areas, kind of like desert clay crackling - I suspect I may have sprayed too heavy/wet a coat of flat/matte clear coat over the glossy surface. Its fine in thinner even coats, and the crackling disappears after a few more coats over it - however if it was worst, I suspect I would have to strip it down to start over.

Edited February 1, 2007 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

I pretty close to being finished. I may add a light dusting of light grey - kind of like post shading to tie it together a little more, plus do a small amount of silver dry-brushing to simulate some chipped paint. Lastly, I need to do a dark oil wash on all the missles - its a very labour intensive task, so I am leaving this till after the vacation (I'm leaving for a 1wk family vacation this Friday!)

As you can see, the VF-1J beneath is completely naked (that will be another time!) - but I'm happy for now.

[promethuem5]

Great to see you back in the saddle... impressing us as usual. I did the same thing with mine when I got it, basicall the exact same procedure, buit I just can't get over how much more finesse you have.... very impressive work as always!

[Gatsu]

I pretty close to being finished. I may add a light dusting of light grey - kind of like post shading to tie it together a little more, plus do a small amount of silver dry-brushing to simulate some chipped paint. Lastly, I need to do a dark oil wash on all the missles - its a very labour intensive task, so I am leaving this till after the vacation (I'm leaving for a 1wk family vacation this Friday!)

As you can see, the VF-1J beneath is completely naked (that will be another time!) - but I'm happy for now.

Have you used some kind of transparent black like tamiya smoke to post shade the armour pieces???

[Fly4victory]

Welcome Back, have always enjoyed your macross productions. Had to ask the wife about the Actor's Strike

The armor looks great.

[Anasazi37]

Looking good, William!

[jardann]

Simply Amazing!!

Your work definitely adds to the realism of the toy/model.

Have fun on vacation, but be sure to get right back to work on your art when you return!

[baltek]

Simply fantastic Cheng

Those dark wash and light dry brush are amazing.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Your work never ceases to amaze me William!!!!

[Nani?!]

Great looking stuff yet again. Didn't lose your touch at all.

I love the amount of detail you put. Not too over the top, not too much or too little...

just..... right.

[ultimateone]

I was going through some old threads and came across this piece of awesome. What an amazing reference for anyone thinking of tackling their own weathering of a GBP (like me).

Thanks for taking the time and effort to spell it out, very much appreciated.

I put together a step by step that you provided that I'll navigate by; this appears to be the meat of it. If anyone has any other suggestions, it's always helpful.

Now to hunt down those Anasazi/Nightstalker decals...

(actually, if anyone has a set they'd like to unload, please PM me.)

1) Black oil wash, wiping off the excess

2) Light grey dry brush to highlight molding

3) applied the future wax

4) applied decals

5) 2nd layer of future over decals

6) thinned black to tone down the white decals, added other effects, plus applied overall post shading

7) applied ModelMaster Acryl Matte/Flat Clear Coat to get desired final finish

possibly another light dusting of grey, dry brushing to taste

[nightmareB4macross]

That pretty much sums it up.

Here's a couple of 1/48's that I have always loved to see, since day one.

[izzyfcuk]

That has always been "THE PERFECT VALK" for me since i laid eyes on day one.

The rivets, weathering, is top notch. puts Yamato's lame weathering to shame.