COMPLETED: 1/48 Yamato VF-1J Hikaru Custom

[winterdyne]

Time taken: Approximately 20-30 evenings from starting disassembly to photo shoot.

Equipent Used: Wet & dry paper - 320, 600 and 1200 grit. Badger single action, internal mix airbrush. A big ass compressor. X-acto knife, assorted screwdrivers, files, pokey things, tweezers, pliers etc. Size 00, 0, 1 sable brushes. Micro Sol, Micro Set. Transfers by Devin / Anasazi.

Paints used: Citadel Skull White and Chaos Black 'smelly primers'. Tamiya acrylics: A big bottle of thinner, Sky Grey, Nato Black, Flat White, Flat Red, Flat Base, Gun Metal. Vallejo acrylics: Flat Red, Flat Yellow, Flat Blue, Light Grey, Gloss Varnish, Matt Varnish, Natural Steel, Bronze, Old Gold. Citadel acrylics: Chaos Black, Skull White, Scorched Brown, Catachan Green, Blood Red, 'Some prussian blue looking stuff without a label'. Oils: Low odour thinners, Raw Umber, Ivory Black. Future floor polish (SC Johnson Klear in the UK). Windowlene.

Approximate cost makes me shudder. I shall never think of it again.

Edited December 20, 2007 by winterdyne

[KiriK]

nice finish... can you list all the things you did to the valk??? besides the obvious weathering and decals and paneling.... is there anything else you did?

[winterdyne]

First was dissambly. I basically stripped the whole thing down and set all the working pieces (ratchets, springs, foot mountings) aside. Those weren't to be painted. Clear parts that came out easily were removed. This was basically just the landing gear door lights. I SHOULD HAVE REMOVED THE CANOPY, even if damage to the cockpit resulted. That could have easily enough been repaired - certainly more so than the canopy. All clear parts were masked.

First step was a lot of sanding and filling in the toymakers stamps on the wings. That was done with milliput extra fine white. I removed the original paint by sanding. Mr Muscle oven cleaner would have been easier, and resulted in less time spent cleaning particles out of panel lines. The heatshield line was scribed and then filed to on the lower section to create a lip. Don't think that's cannon but it helped with the wash and doesn't look too unsightly.

Then masking - all clear parts (wing lights, shoulder lights, head lens, gunpod lens, canopy) were masked with tamiya 18mm tape. Bloody good stuff.

Next was priming. White pieces with a white primer, dark with black. The canopy (still being on the cockpit was primed white - if removed it would have been black (which would have saved headaches). I tried a vallejo primer but it was rubbish, so resorted to the citadel primers.

Next was preshading. Tamiya sky grey along all panel lines (tight spray) and into recesses (wider softer spray). Left to dry. Dark pieces sprayed with tamiya gun metal excluding those on white pieces (upper thighs).

Now basecoating - VERY thin tamiya flat white in broad spray over the whole model, and tighter spray to the middle of panels. Many many coats. Left to dry. Post shading on feet and gun with tamiya nato black. Erm, might have been flat black. Anyway, darker than the metal. Sharp line on front of foot masked to give defined edge.

Now stripes - Masked with tamiya tape and paper for shielding. Nato black and flat red. Allow one set to dry before starting next. Remember to make circular masks for where the kites go or the stripe's visible through the transfer.

Now details and pre-wash weathering. Gun and feet insides and ends drybrushed with bronze / old gold. Head guns painted black, drybrushed gun metal, bronze/old gold rings. Gunmetal sections on upper legs masked and airbrushed. Canopy rim painted nato black. Highlighted with a little white in the black. Stripes and so on are touched up by hand with THIN tamiya acrylic. You can't paint with this stuff from the pot - you absolutely must use a clean palette and thinner. And expect to do a few coats.

Any remaining masking removed.

Gloss coat - Straight Future / Klear. Couple of fairly heavy coats. Allow to dry AWAY FROM DUST. Important step to be clean in.

Transfers - Devin's fine product. Micro Set to place, fix with Micro Sol. Cut as close to printing as possible, especially on kites and UN SPACY's.

Gloss coat - Straight Future / Klear. One coat, nice and heavy. Allow to dry AWAY FROM DUST. Important step to be clean in.

Oil washes - Mix of Ivory Black / Raw Umber - more umber on lighter areas, pure black on metal areas. Blended into recesses, pooled in panel lines.

Flat coat - 'Flat future' - a mix of 7:3 Future/Klear to Tamiya Flat Base. Dead flat and pretty hard.

Slice decals on joins.

Reassemble. Carefully.

Edited December 21, 2007 by winterdyne

[Hurin]

Very nice. Though it's tough to drool over such small pictures!

We need bigger pictures!

[eugimon]

^^^^^ - Agreed, give us better and bigger pictures!

[nightmareB4macross]

^^^^^ - Agreed, give us better and bigger pictures!

Please.

[Mog]

Very awesome work on this dirty bird!!

The amount detail and effort you put into this is incredible. Even on something as simple as the hands, I can see that you put a ton of attention and detail into them.

[winterdyne]

I need a better camera - these shots were taken with a little dvd hand-camcorder. Nice optical zoom on it, but its maximum resolution is only 640x480.

For now I'll take some more detail shots in battroid mode, yeah?

[eugimon]

Man, get yourself a decent digital camera with a decent macro mode for christmas. As long as you're going to be doing modeling work like this, you OWE it to US (hehe) to shoot better pics.

[grapetang]

Wow! Awesome job! Love the care & attention to detail. It's a matter of taste (and I'm no expert) but perhaps wash with grey for a more subtle panel line effect, saving black for the darkest recesses? Just an opinion... Great work there!!!

[mojacko]

hope u can give us a little brighter pix also!!!

[winterdyne]

I got a new camera for christmas, and it fits my tripod, so yeah, there'll be new pics soon.

Woo!

[winterdyne]

Hi res pic, just to test really. Will take more when I get a chance, with a better background.

[Isamu test pilot]

In your first pics it seems a really nice job, with you new camera I can see ell the details better a looks great, I thibk you will upload more pics, I will waiting for them because I want to see de details of this Valkyrie

Very nice job

[winterdyne]

Hey all. Took some new photos, but it seems the new camera eats batteries like you wouldn't believe, so I had to avoid using the flash.

I resized them to 1000 pixels wide. If you'd prefer higher, let me know, but this seems to be a happy medium between detail and file size.

Anyway:

Fighter mode:

[winterdyne]

Gerwalk mode:

[LL Cool VF1J]

damn! That is beautiful.

[winterdyne]

Battroid mode:

Hope you like all the pics!

[winterdyne]

If I were to do commission work to this standard, what would people be willing to pay? My girlfriend has suggested I do some commission work for extra cash. :-)

[grapetang]

Gorgeous! Great pics!

[Mog]

Very nice work and pics.

I think most of the folks here would agree: don't worry about not using the flash. The flash usually obscures a lot of details or oversaturates the brightness of the pic, making the Valk and its colors look slightly different from what they are in "real life."

I'd also recommend rechargeable batteries. Even without using the flash, I typically have to switch them out at least once during a typical multiple pose photoshoot. (And it'll save you from having to buy a ton of batteries for your digital camera .)

[RichyX]

that looks fantastic mate

very well done

now about comission work lol, how good are you with model kits?

[Wicked Ace]

Very nicely done!

[mojacko]

now i can see it clearly....great paint job/weathered effect......

[EXO]

If I were to do commission work to this standard, what would people be willing to pay? My girlfriend has suggested I do some commission work for extra cash. :-)

You should figure out what your time is worth, not what people are willing to pay. Ah who cares... it's all going towards your girl anyway, and she knows it.

Looks awesome!

[KiriK]

now you should customize the fastpacks to go with it... =]

[winterdyne]

I don't actually have fastpacks. I am currently working on the GBP, just finished priming it, and my god, it took a lot of primer.

[shiyao]

Very nice work. At first sight it doesn't look that much different - but like Magic Eye, once you stare a bit longer everything jumps out at you (and how).

[winterdyne]

The GBP armour will be more noticeable I think. I've picked Tamiya JA Green as the base colour, so it won't be too drab looking. I'm aiming to get something that looks like the Nichimo kit box. I'm glad the effect isn't too noticeable on the valk itself. I was concerned about having too harsh a preshade (so I only used sky grey, nothing too dark). Not bad for a first effort - it's better to err on the side of caution. The armour will have a much more defined preshade to give it a feeling of weight.