Reactive Armored VF-0S WIP

[Rockhound]

Evening everyone! I hope you're doing well. Anyways, like the title says this is my attempt to build the armored VF-0S and document step by step how I did it. Hopefully this might inspire you to build one, or maybe inspire me to do better. This is my first time trying to document something in-progress, so here it goes.

If you see somethig that could be done better, please let me know. Any criticism is appreciated. Also, do to my location (college town in Arkansas), I don't have access to the awesome modelling gear that is needed and have to pretty much order everything online, so it'll be a while till this is finished.

Anyways, on with the show! This kit is mostly a snap together kit, so be careful!

I started my finding what I could put together and prime white, then find sections I could prime black. And this is what I came up with thus far.

By using the instruction sheet, these sections were built first: 1, 2, 3, 4 (all upper leg sections).

The lower leg was a bit tricky. I built the inside of part 6, primed and painted it white, then built the lower leg armor around it during part 7 of the instruction sheet.

To prime the armored section, I placed an index card between the white part and the armor so i can prime it black.

The sections around the feet I. I built the inside first, then primed it black. (Part 10)

The feet:(Parts 12 and 13)

I built the shoulders and cut some of the sprue to use as a holder so I don't mar the primer: (Part 56)

The forearms are fairly tricky (Parts 53-55). The bracket that surrounds the forearm is VERY loose and hard to position without the armored sections. So instead of attaching the bracket directly to the forearm, I placed it inside the armor and glued the two halves together without placing it on the forearm. But I did not attach the large armored section to it yet.

Most of the main sections are built. Using the instruction sheet, you can assemble 1-8, attaching the calf section in part 9, 10, 12-13, 15, attaching part G7 to A8 in part 16, 17-19, most of 20 (minus the clear pieces and neck), 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, the fornt section of part 28, 30-31, 32-36, 38, 40-41, 43-45, 47-48, part of 50 (minus missiles and clear pieces), 54, 56, 58 (minus hinges).

So this is where I'm at so far. More to come!

[Rockhound]

Some sections need to remain seperate for a while, namely the wings, missiles, and gray outer armored sections of the arms and legs.

The wings need to be primed, painted, and decaled before attaching them to the body. This is due to the difficulty of reaching them later. The missiles need to stay off so the inside of the bays can be painted, as well as the missiles themselves.

The gray outer sections of armor remain off since they will be painted a different color and there will be no need to sand down seams. This just makes it a bit easier.

Another note is trying to build a model that can the armor removed and attached over and over. From what I've seen, it's not going to happen without ALOT of modding. The leg armor is hollow, so the legs aren't actually inside. Plus there are not enough rubber sockets to fill two pairs of legs. The chest is attached to specially molded pieces for this kit. The forearms have pegs that attach directly to the armor, so they cannot slide on and off. The shoulders are specially molded with pegs to hold the armor, so if you don't mind the bulge that would be the only piece that might be interchangable (haven't tried to dry fit yet, so this is uncertain.)

[Excillon]

Sweet. I have two of these kits and haven't built them yet, as I've been a little intimidated by them. I was wondering if you could tell me something though, as you build it. My plans are to make the VF-0S reactive, but I was also going to take a head from the OA battroid and put it on there to make a reactive OA. Will it fit OK?

[warpaint22]

Looking good so far, nice to see a build up I was unable to do one for mine but this should be fun to whatch. You can build this model to be able to remove the armour and there should be no modding needed you just need to have a few extra parts to put on the kit when the armour comes off. First thing is you need to make the normal legs so you can take the armoured ones off at the knees and add the standard legs, next you need the standard pieces that go onto the chest, the ones for the armour have pins on them to attach the armour to the chest just don't glue these on so you can swap between them. Same goes for the shoulders pieces. The only part that needs a little modding is the parts around the top of the legs that cover the intakes. basicly it become a part swap model to change between the two types but very doable. Can't wait to see how you go keep up the good work.

[Rockhound]

Thanks for the awesome replies. This model is turning out to be pretty fun.

I agree with your observations Warpaint, the pieces included with the kit does allow you to remove the armor and swap in the original pieces. The only things I found I needed to add are the rubber caps for the feet, and possibly the forearms do to the pegs holding the larger armor piece. An original battroid kit would be ideal. I was also thinking about magnets. If done carefully, you could mod the armor by removing alot of the inside to let it mold over the original pieces.

I'm not sure about the head swap though Excillon. I don't have any experience with other battroid kits as I mainly built the fighters such as the super/strike and YF-19. The head is built, I imagine, much like the normal kits and nothing was done to the head and neck specifically for the reactive armor kit (at least according to the instruction sheet and lack of extra head parts.) Hopefully someone can answer your question with more knowledge of this though.

Again, thanks for the replies. I've got classes all day wednesday but thursday I should be able to finish up priming and start some actual painting.

[warpaint22]

Sweet. I have two of these kits and haven't built them yet, as I've been a little intimidated by them. I was wondering if you could tell me something though, as you build it. My plans are to make the VF-0S reactive, but I was also going to take a head from the OA battroid and put it on there to make a reactive OA. Will it fit OK?

You should have no problem with doing a head swap, it should just be a matter of popping of on head and adding the other. You may want to use a neck piece on the A head if you are going to swap back and forth as this would make it easier to have the neck on both heads but it's not necessary.

Edited April 9, 2008 by warpaint22

[Rockhound]

Hola! Here's a new update.

The major colors have been applied.

Since I don't have access to the Tamiya and Alcad (sp?) paints, I had to resort to ModelMasters and Testor's Enamels. I found that Blue Angel's Blue was a pretty close match to the blue used in the kit instructions, as well as Light Sea Gray for the gray pieces. Now that the major colors are on, I'll do a bit of panel shading, then lock the layer in with some gloss or semi-gloss protectant.

After that, I'll start applying the panel lines. Now, the usual way to do this is with oil paints and low-odor thinner. However, when I was bouilding my old valks, I simply smeared the oil paint onto the pieces, then quickly paper-towelled off the excess, leaving heavy but clean lines and rivets. Don't hold me to it though, I might wind up messing it up. I'll try it on a hidden section of the wing before doing it for real.

Right now I just gotta try and not touch the model for a while.

P.S. Warpaint, I saw your model and all I can say is you set the bar high. If mine comes out half as good as yours, I'll be happy.

Till next time!

[Rockhound]

Panel shading applied to the gray armor pieces. Also applied a glosscote to help with the panel lining later.

The blue will be done tomorrow.

[PetarB]

Looking forwards to more progress on this!

[warpaint22]

Looking really good there Rockhound, everything looks like it's comming togeather nicely. Thanks for the kind words I'm sure yours will be awesome when finished.

[big F]

ah the best thing is watching other peoples work

[Rockhound]

Panel Lining time!!!!!!!

I applied the glosscote and let it dry for the night. I was just going to smear the oil paint across everything then towel it off, but nothing was sticking inside the lines and rivets. So I did the old fashioned way: oil and thinner.The gloss lets the panel lining flow smoothly.

I took some black oil paint and crushed it down in a mixing plate so I made a very thin cake layer of sorts. Then I added some low-odor thinner and mixed it really well so I got a good and black consistency. Then I took a decently pointed paint brush (clean!) and gently pressed it against the lines letting the thinner carry the paint throughout the lines. The rivets, oh man SOOOOOOOOOOO many rivets, were just a simple paint over with the brush. I'm normally a paitent man, but when it came to dotting every single rivet I started to go mad.

Then I waited for roughly 10 to 15 minutes then got a cotton swab/Q-Tip and dipped it into the thiner. Then I brushed the q-tip across the piece removing the excess paint from the top. You'll get little black dots from where you used the brush to panel line, but these are easily removed with the q-tip. Now, if you're a messy person (much like myself), you might have loaded too much oil and have heavy black dots here and there. When you use the q-tip, it looks like you smear the black across the whole piece. DON'T PANIC! Use a paper towel and just rub off whatever the q-tip left behind. When you're done, you'll have smooth panel lines, good rivets, and maybe (just maybe unless you're me) you might have a heavily oiled wing. Just convince yourself that it's a very, very used plane/robot/tank/etc.

When you're done with the lining/wiping/convincing, make sure you coat your pieces again. This time around I used a semi-gloss (mainly because I ran out of gloss, convinced it's what I wanted.)

All I have left to do is a little detail work with the feet/engines and back boosters, missile bay covers, the missiles themselves, the clear pieces, decals, and one final semigloss coat after the decals. I decided to put the bottom part of the legs together as not much else needed to be done with them besides decals and one last coat. Here ya go!

Now to wait, again. I hate waiting for things to dry.

[Rockhound]

I decided to do some decalling tonight and finish off those pieces with one final semi-gloss coat.

You can see the intricate detail of the arms in the last shot. I decided against using the socket decals on the forearms as the scribed socket was done well enough already and I didn't want to lose that detail.

Here are some pieces still awating one final pass of paint, namely the black for the rear stabs and some chrome silver and a black metallizer pass for the rear engines and feet, and the red paint on the inside of the missile bays.

Enjoy!

[Rockhound]

Update, again...

This was done in the last 3 hours or so.

Closeup of the wings. Nothng like seeing one of your little no step decals glide at an angle and not noticing it till AFTER you coat it...

And I was too impatient and had to see what the arms looked like. I also applied the intake decals to the upper leg/intake area.

And just for giggles, the cockpit skull that will be covered with armor. (I had to do it!)

[Rockhound]

Hurray! Finished product. Thanks for following along. I hope maybe you learned something (much like what not to do, hehe.) Don't let this model intimidate you. It's just as fun to build as it is to look at. I learned a few things from this build myself and will take those lessons onto the next model, which I still need to decide on. I have the VF-1 super/strike, a VF-0S battloid (I hated how I had to hide the details with the armor), the VF-0S with Ghost/booster, VF-0D, or the YF-19. Prolly the VF-0D since I haven't found a build-up of that kit yet. Anyways, here are the photos! Hope you enjoy them!

I need to get a better camera, ugh.

Rockhound

[HWR MKII]

You dont need a better camera. You just need more light on the subject and stop using the camera flash.

[big F]

You dont need a better camera. You just need more light on the subject and stop using the camera flash.

YUP!! looks good though

[PetarB]

Well done, and thanks for posting the build up.

[cynispin]

That's incredible! I think on my next model I'm going to use the pre-shading technique. You've certainly sold me on it