1/72 Atmospheric Booster & Valkyrie WIP

[PetarB]

This thread will document my build-up of the Moscato/Samurai Monkey 1/72 Atmospheric Booster + Hasegawa's VF-1A

I started sanding this down about... 12 months ago? And promptly gave up. I had to do some re-training first!

Now, for the past week, every evening, I have been diligently re-scribing and sanding. Then first lot of paintwork. Here's the result so far. I'd like to do a big shout out to WMCheng whose build up inspired me to put sandpaper to resin and get cracking. Also to Rob and John for getting this kit off the ground. This is my very favourite Macross kit, and it alone re-ignited my interest in modelling after a 10 year hiatus. I'll update this thread every weekend until the beast is finished.

The following pics shows the transition from raw resin to plenty of sanding, polishing, primer, gloss black and Alclad II. Later on it will be weathered. Hopefully the pics get better as we go along!

Edited March 16, 2008 by PetarB

[big F]

Great some new how too's to look at. I love the finish Alclad gives you, it truly is great stuff. Your Valks nose looks like mine at the moment. Filler is the only way to get them right.

[miriya]

Looks great so far. I am a noob and starting to do some projects. What tool do I use to scribe the panel lines deeper in a resin kit before priming?

[PetarB]

There are a number of tools available. A great one is Hasegawa's tritool series - got mine from HLJ. Perhaps my favourite though is shown in this thread on my VF-4 build up. Check the my posts on the first page for pics and details.

[miriya]

Thank you!

[MechTech]

I love the finish on there. I'm buying some alclad now! - MT

[wm cheng]

Yay! a build up finally... I can live my life vicariously through you. Your VF-4 is one of the best builds I've seen, and what a great scheme! Can't wait to follow along your Booster! I hope to get to finishing up my Launch Rail sometime soon...

Thanks for posting! Good Luck!

[ce25254]

I see you painted the Alclad over gloss black. Has anyone here tried the Alclad primer? I picked up a tin of it when I was at the hobby shop. It is advertised as a primer microfiller. But I'm not to the point of finishing so I can use it on any of my models, yet!

[nightmareB4macross]

OOOOOOOOooooooo, looks nice and shiny. Keep it up.

[Wicked Ace]

I can't wait to see more.

[kkx]

Nice. Make me feel like starting on my own booster kit.

But I think I need a little more practise first.

Still working on plastic kit, have not tried any resin kit yet. So afraid that I will mess up this hard to get kit.

Any way, will learn a lot from this thread (as I have done from WM Chen's thread) that will help me when I finally start on my own.

Thanks

PS: what paint shceme are you going for? Standard or something different like your VF-4?

[PetarB]

Well I usually wouldn't post detail stuff like the following sequence of pictures, but I thought some might like to see how I solve one of only few problems with these otherwise fantastic Hasegawa Valkyries. I started by filling in the landing well with two part epoxy-putty... by the time I throw on some primer, no one will know I 'cheated'!

Its a long weekend, so I hope there's a good bit of time for some more resin fun! As for the colour scheme... I've got a few I'm currently reviewing, but it will be different from Bertt's or WMCheng's, although I really quite like the latter.

Edited March 19, 2008 by PetarB

[azrhino]

Between this build and your VF-4 build, I have to say I am really impressed by your ability to rescribe panel lines. Any tricks or tips worth sharing?

[PetarB]

The right tools are very important, which I've detailed earlier. Also make sure you use Dymo tape or an equivalent to go against. Finally, and this is most important - go slowly and lightly - you can always do several passes to achieve the desired depth and width.

[PetarB]

After rescribing some detail on the hull, I attacked the interior. The photoetch mesh is fronted with some pliable but tough clear film that I found after a bit of experimentation. When I finish the paintwork (so long away it seems!) I will pull the film through one of the vents with tweezers, and the mesh should be nice and clean. Bit fiddly, but the results should be worth it. I also detailed the bare area in between the two nacelles.

[cowie165]

Finally, and this is most important - go slowly and lightly - you can always do several passes to achieve the desired depth and width.

Right on! I keep learning that lesson the hard way...

Hey Petar have you tried an Olfa/Tamiya scriber? It seems to create nicer lines than my Hase scriber. The Hase is less painful when you make a mistake, but the Olfa actually cuts the line rather than scribes it out. And you don't end up with the raised edge on the panel line.

Smart work on the nose gear door Looks great!

Edited March 24, 2008 by cowie165

[PetarB]

Cowie I have a scriber that pulls out the resin like you describe, in little corkscrews - I love it. Both types of scribers have their uses.

I glued the two halves together and they didn't quite mate up. So I made one side 'perfect' and the other side was out by a mm or so. Which mean lots of filler and sanding. I rescribed and redrilled rivets and seams. I've still got a bit to go in these pics, which also have a coat or two of primer on them. I also prepped the Valkyrie - its just been primered too, but I won't bother post pics until the next stage - colour scheme.

Would you believe I'm dithering between a couple of different schemes! I would love to just copy WMCheng's, but I can't bring myself to do it...

[MechTech]

Looks great so far, keep on it! - MT

[PetarB]

I'm not going to be able to put the paint decision off much longer... Here are the colour schemes I'm considering:

The idea is to integrate the booster colours more with valkyrie. Feel free to yell at me! I reserve the right to disagree

[Straycatt]

I'm not going to be able to put the paint decision off much longer... Here are the colour schemes I'm considering:

The idea is to integrate the booster colours more with valkyrie. Feel free to yell at me! I reserve the right to disagree

Option 1 looks like a test bed.

Option 2 looks like a character fighter, Max's to be specific...

Option 3 looks like a common/general production model...

I would go with 1 or 3.

Adam

[wm cheng]

Nice options PetarB!

They are all consistent in the Macross Universe and quite original. I'd personally like option 2 - I think the different greys and blue-grey can be made to look more realistic and military than some of the other brighter colours - but the other options are good too. My deciding factor was what I was going to place my model beside - I wanted my Booster to look "in place" with the other Valks with their fast packs - you might want to look at what you want to place this model besides when you're done. Option 3 is most like what could be a real "canon" scheme from the TV episode though.

Can't wait to see what you choose.

[jardann]

Lookin' good! I like option 3 the best. Whatever scheme you choose, I'm looking forward to seeing the results. They all are good possibilities.

[Ghostkiller]

OPTION 3 IS THE BEST

[cowie165]

Option 1 could have potential... Keeping in mind wmcheng's comments, perhaps dull down the orange to an orange brown and make it a research and development aircraft? Think of F-16 CCV or F-16XL. The VF-1 here is an early model and they're test flying the atmospheric booster. R&D jets are usually bright so the chase planes can keep track!

With the MW responses and the SM ones too, there's not much consensus here!

[ce25254]

Option 3!

[PetarB]

Well as you can see, I settled on option 2. Option 1 was also a favourite, it was a tough call. The white trim you see is actually more of an off white or cream colour, which is what I was aiming for. There's a little bit of overspray which I will have to fix on the booster trim. I'm going to put some Pledge One-Go (a Future equivalent) on tonight. Tomorrow I will be putting on metallic trims and decals. The colours in these pics are different - one camera broke during the photography, so I grabbed another to take that final pic!

Something I learned during this exercise - while Mr Surfacer seems to be an excellent primer for styrene, it just does not seem to have much 'bite' for resin. The primer lifted in 2 locations when I pulled back some masking tape - which I had already removed tack from. This is the second time this has happened to me, so I wont use Mr Surfacer as a primer again on resin. However I've used Tamiya fine White primer on resin several times, and it's never lifted. Might have to stick to that in future.

[warpaint22]

Looking nice PeterB, I like the version you went with looks really good. As for the Mr Surface try the Mr Surface resin primer it works really well. Looking forward to the completion of this model, awesome work.

[Valkyrie addict]

impressive

[cynispin]

impressive

But why are they using such primitive weapons??

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[big F]

I started by filling in the landing well with two part epoxy-putty... by the time I throw on some primer, no one will know I 'cheated'!

Errmm we do !!!

[PetarB]

Well, it's been a week or two since my last update, but I have been busy! After putting a less than satisfactory coat of Future/Pledge on the booster and valkyrie, it was time to do some metal detailing with some masking. I'd run out of the wonderful Alclad II by this stage, and with no new stock in site for a month or two, I went back to old faithful - Tamiya Spray 'Silverleaf'. That is the only metallic spray I'd use from Tamiya, the rest have an awful 'grain' in them which looks really out of scale for metallics, and as such they are also very thick. Silverleaf looks great, and goes on thinly, but its certainly no Alclad.

Next I attacked the decals. Because there were going to be some large black stripes on the booster, I wanted to tie in the Valk with this too, so everything got black stripes. This is not Max's valk - which would have a much deeper blue on the fuselage - I wanted it to look more utilitarian, and I wanted the booster to have echoes of large real-world rocketry like the Soyuz, Saturn V, and Energia, hence the choice of colours. So the decals wouldn't look too wild, at least nothing like the VF-4 I did earlier this year.

A collection of old decals - and new ones - certainly helped here. After putting on the large black panels supplied in the kit, I realised that they look quite different from the others, so I may have to make some myself which have less density. I also did a less than spectacular job of trimming them.

Edited April 7, 2008 by PetarB

[PetarB]

Here are the Valk pics - with some details put in with a .02 pigment-based ink marker from my art shop.

And after putting it all together for a test fit, I had to put it on the booster...

[PetarB]

...and once the booster went on, I could not resist grabbing some blu-tac to temporarily stick the exhaust bells on. After these pics it all came apart again, sadly, for the next stages

I've still got so much to do. Next I have to finalise the decals. The on goes a coat of future, another round of metallics, then an oil wash. Then there are the exhaust bells. I still have a couple of tricks up my sleeve too! Will I ever finish this thing? But it's been a lot of fun so far.

[wm cheng]

Lookin' real good!! Nice colour scheme too.

I see no one is crazy enough to drill out the forward slot intakes eh? Don't blame ya, I thought about it long and hard, then decided against it.

Are you planning on weathering it? It was a tough question for me, since its supposed to be disposable.

[PetarB]

Not only did I consider drilling them out, but I also thought about making them wider - which is how the artwork looked to me. I was too impatient to get on with it. I think flat black will be fine. I'm considering putting some mesh in there, so it may not be an issue anyway. As for the weathering - most definitely. Hydraulic fluid and oil stains, scuffing and normal wear and tear will all get a look-in. I don't think we ever found out if the boosters were reusable in the show, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt!

Edited April 7, 2008 by PetarB