ARMD- 1/700

[007-vf1]

I started this project a week or so ago and about 12 hours later this is how far I have got. Yeah is virtually not much but taking continue measurements and recalculate scales is a pain.

I am using a small scale print copy since I couldn't blow the original line-art bigger on a copy machine; and making a correct scale hand drawing with that many details would take me several hours that i rather spend building..

[mechaninac]

Ooh, cardboard modeling... groovy. Looks like an ARMD so far; great work from very bad source material.

[cool8or]

Cool! That's a great proyect! Good Look!

[MechTech]

That looks great so far. I empathize with your scratch building efforts. You still can do it really cheap in styrene if your interested. Buy a sheet of 40" x 72" for $11.48 (link). It's easy to work with and the painted surface will be smooth, and not so "corrugated." You could also plate what you've done in thin styrene too. Just some helpful, humble advice. - MT

[007-vf1]

Mech; yeah my idea is to plate it in styrene after I am done with it. the corrugated parts have to be hidden. I am building this model as a mechanical structure there are support pillars inside the hollow areas so is tedious...

Thanks for the tip on the big styrene sheet..

Any suggestions are appreciated

a little update I made 3 hours later

[MechTech]

That's cool. I'm not sure what you can use to get the styrene to stick to it. I've used contact cement for paper to styrene (pattern cut outs). The glue just has to be dry or it'll attack the styrene. UHU makes styrene compatible craft glue. Good ole white glue doesn't stick well to styrene either. Once the panels are glued together it won't really matter though. Have fun! - MT

[big F]

Great more uses for old cereal boxes

[007-vf1]

That's cool. I'm not sure what you can use to get the styrene to stick to it. I've used contact cement for paper to styrene (pattern cut outs). The glue just has to be dry or it'll attack the styrene. UHU makes styrene compatible craft glue. Good ole white glue doesn't stick well to styrene either. Once the panels are glued together it won't really matter though. Have fun! - MT

You know what..?? I didn't think of that. I have seen a few cardboard models lately and got me pumping. I didn't realize I'd be limited with that medium. I won't even be able to glue any putty on it and work some curvy and tubing elements that would become difficult on cardboard; let alone detail it the way I think I might be going to...and yes, although I used a combination of glues it didn't stick as strong as I wanted it to be.

I took your suggestion and ordered a few sheets. But I was looking into the .080" which is as thick as I'd like it to be and realized is quite pricey. So now I'll have to combine a thinner sheet and work more into the inner structures to keep it sturdy enough. That's what I liked about cardboard in the first place...it was sturdy enough, glued super fast and was way cheap to obtain... At least now I have a good template to cut the styrene pieces in and wont take me 15 or so hours to get to that point...

so the project is on hold until i get the new material...

Do you know how easy modeling foam bonds to styrene, and if it is easy to putty on??

[neptunesurvey]

Interesting project. Will it be a high detailed kit?

[big F]

Do you know how easy modeling foam bonds to styrene, and if it is easy to putty on??

It bonds great and fills good too. I have used it on a few different things.

The stuff I most favor is the 4mm sstyrene foam sandwhich stuff. It can be a p.i.t.a to cut as it can splinter but the best bit is its cheap.

[MechTech]

007-vf1, .080" is THICK stuff. I rarely use it except for structural areas that need the strength like load bearing areas on the Daedalus. Otherwise I've always gone with .040" or .060". Big F's idea of foam board is good too. You can glue styrene to styrene, just keep the solvents away from the foam of coarse. You can prime the foam itself with simple white glue and the solvents will leave it alone. I've done that a few times before. You won't be able to scribe detail in it though unless it's thick enough. The good part about your cardboard is that when you cut out all those doorways on the ARMD into the styrene panels, the cardboard will be behind it. Just paint it flat black and it should give you a nice depth effect with the plastic on top.

ZAP O is supposed to be good with foam ZAP link . I bet it will work on laminating plastic to cardboard. Even regular CA should work too come to think of it. The slow setting stuff should give you time to set up. - MT

[orguss01]

Just thinking out loud....

If you spray the cardboard with a clear acrylic would it be easier to bond styrene to it..

seels the cardboard so its not so pourous??

then maybe use the foam core then more styrene on the foam core for outer surface..

Edited September 19, 2007 by orguss01

[big F]

I love the foam core stuff. You can get it really cheap from sign makers they use it for bilboardings at exhibitions etc so it generally gets chucked out after and off cuts are offten found waiting for the Trashmen. I use Good old Tamiya thick styrene glue and Revell Contacta, the one in the handy blue presision aplicator bottle thing that always get blocked up Other than that I use Zap A Gap Ca+ in its various guises. It glues most things including body parts.

generally its good for structural stuff and where you need to put putty o filler ontop, you can scribe it with pannelines if your careful, but its much better as a base material. I used it on my now on hold 1/55 custom.

[warpaint22]

Nice work I'll be inteested to see how it turns out. It the cardboard doen't end up working try balsa wood it works well to build bulky items then plate it with styrene. This is how my 1/700 Prometheus is being built makes the project a lot cheaper.

[007-vf1]

Well, I am sure any medium would work just fine if you put the effort on it. I just happen to know a bit more about Styrene and how far I can take it regarding strength and structure manipulation.. cardboard is pretty firm when thick otherwise the weight allows the model to bend and humidity sags it; It takes longer to dry after glued; is not a perfect cut unless is thin and when it is the strength you want it is not smooth enough... what i like about cardboard is that is simple and quick to work with..

Also I need several smooth round parts which would take forever to build in cardboard and rather use a plastic counterpart which wouldn't glue well to paper but it would to styrene.. Besides all this I really want to try modelers foam which i previously asked about regarding gluing it to other plastics which indeed works. If this all works out the way i want it my next project would be the Saratoga II or the Oberth on 1/700 scale (relatively simpler models except when it comes to rounds edges.. IMO)

I worked the styrene model to almost as far as I was done with the cardboard one, but this time took me roughly 6 hours since I already had the scale sized down... what slowed me down more is that I had to make up for the thickness of the model by building layers with plastruct rails, as you can see in the pics, tedious...

Edited August 27, 2007 by 007-vf1

[baronv]

Dang, that styrene version looks tight already. What scale is it going to end up at so you can put little valks around it?

[007-vf1]

Dang, that styrene version looks tight already. What scale is it going to end up at so you can put little valks around it?

Dude...is on the title of this tread... 1/700..the imai's bug eye is 1/720, the other closest model ..but the yellow submarine Valhalla III is the ARMD scale; and already comes with its VFX game version valk fleet, perfect for the Armd..now I need someone to recast me a full squadron of them...

[007-vf1]

Update 8 -30

Finally...! I am slightly beyond the point I was before switching to styrene... After glued I realize I had to dismember the build in 2 parts to add more detail to the under structure. Good thing I weld the plastic lightly to see how it looks..

By the low detail pics available I had to create the end of the middle beam that connects to the long longitudinal rail and figure what exactly was. All i could come up with is a sort of viewing tower which hangs of the ceiling I added some clear styrene and sort of came up the way I wanted to and added some inner structure alike a command operation room..

If you see the detailed pic you can barely make it up except that it reflected the light of the room so might be easy to see what i was talking about...

Those tubular structures along the side walls were such a pain in the behind, I wish I had a better process to cut tubular styrene lengthwise...took forever to get it..

The pieces in the center back structure are loose hence they seem to be off alignment...

[warpaint22]

That's looking so good!! As I stated I'm also working on this scale with the Pometheus so I'll be casting valks in 1/700. I'm on the sculpting now so we'll see how they turn out and I'll post some pic's.

But great work it looks awesome!!

Edited August 31, 2007 by warpaint22

[007-vf1]

That's looking so good!! As I stated I'm also working on this scale with the Pometheus so I'll be casting valks in 1/700. I'm on the sculpting now so we'll see how they turn out and I'll post some pic's.

But great work it looks awesome!!

Many of us would like to see some pics of it....

How far are you done and where did you get the 1/700 valks from??

[warpaint22]

The 1/700 valks I'm scratchbuilding, more sculpting. I scanned the hasegawa paint instructions and then scaled the pics to size, this gave me a top and side view to work from. I'll post pic's when I'm happy with the result, shouldn't be long I hope.

[MechTech]

Looking shaweet man! Keep up the great work! Styrene IS the way to go IMHO . - MT

[warpaint22]

Well here is my fist tiny valk. 1/700 scale VF-0S. It just had it's first coat of paint to see what needs a little work then skull leader markings, well colours anyway. I decided to build an Asuka II aswell as the prometheus as I like to shuffle things around. Next I'll do a VF-1S but what I'm thinking now is a ghost booster for the VF-0.

I may just be the owner of the smallest VF-0S in the world.....maybe.

[cool8or]

Looks great!!

Stirene version is much better!!!

And waw! That 1/700 Valks are awesome!

[jardann]

Yeah! That tiny valk looks great. Better than the tiny planes that come with most carrier kits for sure. Will you be able to cast it though? I'd probably be interested in an assortment of 1/700 valks if you can get them cast up.

007-vf1, Your ARMD is looking awesome too. I've always thought it was a very realistic design. I can't wait to see more progress!

[big F]

Awwww aint it sweet.

Edited September 5, 2007 by big F

[big F]

Awwww aint it sweet.

[warpaint22]

Yeah! That tiny valk looks great. Better than the tiny planes that come with most carrier kits for sure. Will you be able to cast it though? I'd probably be interested in an assortment of 1/700 valks if you can get them cast up.

007-vf1, Your ARMD is looking awesome too. I've always thought it was a very realistic design. I can't wait to see more progress!

I will be casting them, might be a little while about december most likely. I'll finish off the VF-0 and paint and detail it then I'll do a VF-1 next, see how it looks. I really think an elintseeker will look great in this scale.... so many valks to build!

[007-vf1]

Man those pics are sweet...nice sculpting...I don't have many updates right now. I am working on the 4 front forks so until i finish them I'll have nothing new to post..

So by all means Warpaint feel free to hijack this tread..

[MechTech]

That looks great man! I know personally it's a pain in the rear to build that small! Recasts would be awesome! I may have to hijack a carrier model and "alter" it ! You know, later on... - MT

[warpaint22]

Sorry 007-vf1 I also have been really buisy so I haven't been able to post any new work. I hope to have a VF-1 done soon though. Hope all is going well with th ARMD and those front forks arn't giving you too much trouble, I'm looking forward to your next update.

[MechTech]

I thought your project was becoming a victim of the Zentraedi or something? Keep it coming (when real life doesn't get in the way ). - MT

[do not disturb]

its been less than a month and its looking awesome so far.

MechTech really needs to take some notes.

[MechTech]

Alright, alright, take you're time; unless of course you don't want too... Are you happy now DND ? - MT

[007-vf1]

Well, well one little update...

The front forks got finally done. biggest mishap was to have to increase the thickness of the platform since it was too thin. to fit the frontal "command" nose.. luckily the styrene wasn't glued tight shut so it took just a bit of a struggle. Now I can imagine how handy must be to have the machinery J. Moscato uses to get things done quickly.

Edited September 20, 2007 by 007-vf1