1:72 Hasegawa VF-0D WIP

[Rockhound]

Evening modellers! Here's another exciting installment of "Rockhound's WIP thread: What to expect with minimal skill."

This episode- The VF-0D. I've seen some completed pictures and they all look nice, but no building threads (Again, I could of missed one.)

The kit breakdown. This kit is big, a tiny, little bigger than the VF-0S due to its wings and extended nose/cockpit area. Here's a shot of the wings compared to the VF-1S Strike I just finished.

Here's the nose area. The VF-0D comes with a piece that allows you to keep the cockpit windshield-thing open, put since I used that for the cockpit on my VF-1S (didn't have any spare parts to manufacture one) I decided to keep the cockpit closed and in-flight. But not using this piece leaves a space in the back. You can see it in this picture.

Here are the pilots and seats, unpainted. I decided to rip the heads off after looking at WM Cheng's VF-0S build-up to make it easier for a clean paint job.

Here is the cockpit, unpainted, to test fit the seats/instrument panels/back section. You can see a better test fit in the previous picture.

Here are the pilots and seats mostly painted. I didn't have any olive drab of brown to paint them, so I wound up mixing red, green, very light gray, blue, and yellow. It still came out a little dark in the picture, but it looks better in person. Maybe it will come out better tomorrow after it dries.

Here is the nose section, with painted interior- dark gray. I painted the forward instruments, interior for the top section. And the interior and bulk of the bottom section.

Anyways, that's what I did today. I'll do a few more things tomorrow then start studying all this week for finals.

Till next time,

Rockhound

[big F]

So far so good

[Gabe Q]

Cool, I really enjoy these build-ups! Keep it up!

[Rockhound]

Today's updates:

I finished the inside cockpit details. LESSON LEARNED: Do NOT use alot of MicroSol on the intrument decals and accidently leave them under a lamp. Your decals will curl up and become unsaveable. I heard this from someone who did that on accident. "He" wound up just painting a bright chrome silver over the panels and gently painted the raised surfaces black and used clear colors for the panel screens and little colored dots for buttons.

After the aforementioned person "told" me that, I went on figure out how to best get the kit into sections for prime painting. Since the paint job is a matter of over/under and the manner of which the kit is built- primarily over/under instead of the VF-1s side/side construction, I decided to leave the nose section and the 2 pieces for the main body seperate. This prevents unnecessary masking, accidental overspray leaking underneath the mask, and provides for a much cleaner line.

You can see the perfect seam down the center of the nose here.

Here are the sections that will receive a metal-type paint such as that gunze chrome color stuff.

Speaking of, where can I find that stuff in the U.S.? I have no idea where to get it. All my searches don't do much good. (Could have something to do with my lackluster search style.)

Here is a dry-fit of the major pieces to get a sense of size and how the overall paint scheme will go. The top will be blue. The bottom will be white.

The parts that need masking, legs, wings, stabs, head. The wings should be pretty easy, just do an over all white, then mask off the flaps to isolate the blue center. Or do the opposite, overall blue and mask off the inside to isolate the flaps. Since I have a tendency to accidently pull up whatever was masked due to tape, I might just cover the flaps and paint blue last. The painful masking will be the sides of the legs and the head. The legs do not mask in a straight line and do that whole "wavy" thing. The head is a pain just do to the shape. Also, I think the head looks a little the alien heads from Last Starfighter, albeit no buggly eyes.

I did the sandpapered canopy thing. Since the VF-0D has a much larger canopy, the center seam just stares at you. So I GENTLY scraped the seam with the edge of an x-acto knife, then used a fine grit sandpaper with water to smooth it down, them and really, really fine sandpaper with water to further smooth it. You get that cloudy look when you're done, but once you just place the top of it in water it disappears. This means that once you apply the Future Floor Wax coat it too will make it disappear, forever. Honestly, who came up with the Future Floor Wax method anyways? An awesome idea, but how does one come to the conclusion to decide to use floor wax on a model canopy? This picture is PRE-FUTURE (possibly present? hahaha, sigh, bad joke.)

And finally the airbrake. Using WM Cheng's VF-0S build-up, I too decided to drill the holes from the airbrake. My pin-vise didn't have drill bits big enough, so I broke out the powerdrill and found the smallest drill bit I could, roughly 0.15mm bigger than I wanted. But honestly, it came out better than I hoped. Just drill very, VERY slowly with very little pressure. The larger holes allow you to make out the internal paints and add some depth to an otherwise flat surface.

Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow I'll be trying a new pre-shading technique I read about. Just sparying dark black lines across the panel seperations and then doing light overcoats of white and blue to make them more subtle. From what I've seen, it looks phenominal, and easier from what I was doing.

Till then!

[cowie165]

Lookin' good Rockhound. Nice work drilling out those holes.

When you pre-shade, go easy with the black. Maybe used battleship grey instead. Using dark grey means less top coats which means you preserve more surface detail.

And props to The Last Starfighter! Man I wish there was a resin 1/72 Gunstar around... I'd be on that in a heartbeat!

[Rockhound]

And props to The Last Starfighter! Man I wish there was a resin 1/72 Gunstar around... I'd be on that in a heartbeat!

True, so so true.

[big F]

And props to The Last Starfighter! Man I wish there was a resin 1/72 Gunstar around... I'd be on that in a heartbeat!

True, so so true.

you may want to get this

Theres an nice one built in this months mag

Edited April 28, 2008 by big F

[HWR MKII]

My SAFS is in that mag too in the wonderfest section.

Great work on the 0D so far. If it comes out as clean as that VF-1S Strike it will look really good. Its good to see more buildups happening.

[PetarB]

Nice work. I wish I drilled out my airbrake. I loved building this model, and from what I can see you're doing a good job so far.

[Rockhound]

Thanks for the encouraging words! My VF-1S Strike was a fun build, haven't built one in, oh, 4 years or so. I needed the classic to restart my modeling. I made alot of mistakes on it, like leaving an black oil print on the nose and not seeing till after the semi-gloss coat. Plus, my verniers just came in tonight, and I ordered the wrong ones! Sigh.

Anyways, I forgot to get some size comparison shots last night, so here they are!

In this shot, we get an overall look at the difference.

This overhead shot gives you a sense of length.

This one gives you a sense of wingspan and height. The VF-0D obviously would be taller with deployed landing gear, but I don't think it would make up the difference with those fast packs on the VF-1S.

And here is a shot of the canopies. Since the VF-0D is a two-seater, it's just naturally bigger. Plus, the future coat is applied.

Enjoy!

[Noyhauser]

Rockhound, thanks for sharing this build... I can emphasize with your opening line too :-p

On an unrelated note, I love the difference in size between the VF-1 and VF-0. Some might say its a retcon, but I don't think so. The VF-0 is the last jet fighter, requiring real jet engines fuel and aerodynamics. The VF-1 is the first real overtechnology fighter, with thermonuclear engines and the like. Its like the designers went and said: I think it just shows how profound the change that occurred in technological development.

And for those who don't care... they also look cool too

[Excillon]

Rockhound, thanks for sharing this build... I can emphasize with your opening line too :-p

On an unrelated note, I love the difference in size between the VF-1 and VF-0. Some might say its a retcon, but I don't think so. The VF-0 is the last jet fighter, requiring real jet engines fuel and aerodynamics. The VF-1 is the first real overtechnology fighter, with thermonuclear engines and the like. Its like the designers went and said: I think it just shows how profound the change that occurred in technological development.

And for those who don't care... they also look cool too

But then, why did valks get bigger again in M plus, like the 21 and 19 vs. the vf-1?

Anyhow, back on topic, I've been eyeing this kit for a while, great to see one being built! Maybe it'll help me decide if I really want it or not.

[big F]

My SAFS is in that mag too in the wonderfest section.

Great work on the 0D so far. If it comes out as clean as that VF-1S Strike it will look really good. Its good to see more buildups happening.

I was going to ask if it was yours

[HWR MKII]

But then, why did valks get bigger again in M plus, like the 21 and 19 vs. the vf-1?

VF-0 was basically a regular turbine powered fighter that could transform as a test bed for the VF-1 series. Turbines were probably bigger than the fusion motors usd in the VF-1 thus the craft and battroid were larger. The VF-1 was made for one thing, fight zentradi. This it did well. When the next gen fighters like the 11,19 and 21/22 came out the craft had more systems and capabilities installed. They also learned from the VF-1 that a larger fighter would be better. It would be stronger, and more capable of dealing with the powered armor the Zentradi wore. When humans first learned of the Zentradi they knew how big they were physically and built the VF-1 for that. They didnt know their pods and suits would be much larger and give them an advantage.

[Rockhound]

New update: Pre-shade paint applied!

I mixed some black and dark gull gray to get a very, very, dark gray. This color is my primary pre-shade color to help accentuate the major panel lines and folding points. I kept my airbrush as close as I could to the part and pressed back gently on the trigger to let out a fine line. Every so often my finger would spasm and a big blot would come out, no biggy. Also, I had some extra splatter due to me not cleaning my airbrush well enough, but nothing serious. If anything it helps with a gradient effect when I start applying the main colors. I did all this WITHOUT using a primer first. To me, primers leave a dusty surface and will clog panel lines. With the pre-shade, you get straight to surface without having to deal with an extra paint layer, leaving your panel lines deeper. And since it's an already white mold, there's really no loss of sense of color (if that means anything.) Plus the extra splatter helps to act as a contact surface for the primary colors.

And yes, I said all that to justify me forgetting to use primer...

Here's some update pics.

Now to let this dry overnight. Since not alot of paint was used, it's actually somewhat dry now. However, since I need to apply masking tape or masking sol to the legs I need to let it dry a little longer. But this leaves me with one question:

Is it safe to apply the primary white coat, THEN use a gloss coat, THEN mask off the area to apply the primary blue coat, or will that kill the panel-lining step later (as well as paint contact on a glossy surface)?

Thanks!

[Excillon]

VF-0 was basically a regular turbine powered fighter that could transform as a test bed for the VF-1 series. Turbines were probably bigger than the fusion motors usd in the VF-1 thus the craft and battroid were larger. The VF-1 was made for one thing, fight zentradi. This it did well. When the next gen fighters like the 11,19 and 21/22 came out the craft had more systems and capabilities installed. They also learned from the VF-1 that a larger fighter would be better. It would be stronger, and more capable of dealing with the powered armor the Zentradi wore. When humans first learned of the Zentradi they knew how big they were physically and built the VF-1 for that. They didnt know their pods and suits would be much larger and give them an advantage.

So then we could expect the vf-25 to be smaller than the 19 and 21?

[HWR MKII]

Nope he 25 would be the same size maybe bigger in overall size. The base parts seem slimmer and sleeker but the fighter and battroid modes seem to be similar in size to the last generation of craft.Lessons learned from use and the old protodevelin threat. Plus new systems and abilities for it to handle greater sresses

[Excillon]

Nope he 25 would be the same size maybe bigger in overall size. The base parts seem slimmer and sleeker but the fighter and battroid modes seem to be similar in size to the last generation of craft.Lessons learned from use and the old protodevelin threat. Plus new systems and abilities for it to handle greater sresses

I don't know...seems like reaching to me. But hey, you can't argue with logic in a world of make believe, can you? Anyway, I don't want to derail rockhound's thread anymore. I feel like we're being rude to him. So rockhound, curious about what kind of blue you're going to use. IMO the blue it's supposed to be is ugly. I'd recommend doing a darker blue, maybe even Max blue. Of course, an angel birds scheme would totally kick ass.

[Excillon]

Nope he 25 would be the same size maybe bigger in overall size. The base parts seem slimmer and sleeker but the fighter and battroid modes seem to be similar in size to the last generation of craft.Lessons learned from use and the old protodevelin threat. Plus new systems and abilities for it to handle greater sresses

I don't know...seems like reaching to me. But hey, you can't argue with logic in a world of make believe, can you? Anyway, I don't want to derail rockhound's thread anymore. I feel like we're being rude to him. So rockhound, curious about what kind of blue you're going to use. IMO the blue it's supposed to be is ugly. I'd recommend doing a darker blue, maybe even Max blue. Of course, an angel birds scheme would totally kick ass.

[Excillon]

Nope he 25 would be the same size maybe bigger in overall size. The base parts seem slimmer and sleeker but the fighter and battroid modes seem to be similar in size to the last generation of craft.Lessons learned from use and the old protodevelin threat. Plus new systems and abilities for it to handle greater sresses

I don't know...seems like reaching to me. But hey, you can't argue with logic in a world of make believe, can you? Anyway, I don't want to derail rockhound's thread anymore. I feel like we're being rude to him. So rockhound, curious about what kind of blue you're going to use. IMO the blue it's supposed to be is ugly. I'd recommend doing a darker blue, maybe even Max blue. Of course, an angel birds scheme would totally kick ass.

[Excillon]

Nope he 25 would be the same size maybe bigger in overall size. The base parts seem slimmer and sleeker but the fighter and battroid modes seem to be similar in size to the last generation of craft.Lessons learned from use and the old protodevelin threat. Plus new systems and abilities for it to handle greater sresses

I don't know...seems like reaching to me. But hey, you can't argue with logic in a world of make believe, can you? Anyway, I don't want to derail rockhound's thread anymore. I feel like we're being rude to him. So rockhound, curious about what kind of blue you're going to use. IMO the blue it's supposed to be is ugly. I'd recommend doing a darker blue, maybe even Max blue. Of course, an angel birds scheme would totally kick ass. That's my opinion though.

[Excillon]

Double post, sorry!

Edited April 30, 2008 by Excillon

[cowie165]

Double post, sorry!

lol, quadruple post!

Rockhound I like what you're thinking about primer clogging panel lines, but it also helps highlight your work on seam lines. It gives you a chance to tidy things up before the first colour coat (that might hide the flaw). The dark dark grey () came up well! I don't claim to be an expert but it's looking great from here!

[Rockhound]

So rockhound, curious about what kind of blue you're going to use. IMO the blue it's supposed to be is ugly. I'd recommend doing a darker blue, maybe even Max blue. Of course, an angel birds scheme would totally kick ass. That's my opinion though.

Yeah, I wasn't too happy about that baby blue they used, so I mixed some dark blue with some True Pearl Blue and got an awesome color out of that. When sprayed over the darken pre-shading, it came out perfect- the exact blue I wanted. And it contrasts the flat white bottom paint scheme nicely. I was going to use a light grayish-white, but the pure color of it just sold me. I might still try a gray/white since it's still a pretty light coat, but I'll try it on paper before I spray the model.

Pics coming after I get back from classes tonight.

Edit: Spelling

Edited May 1, 2008 by Rockhound

[Rockhound]

Update: Main color added!

Here are some pictures with the blue and white main colors applied. When I was looking at them, they looked perfect. The pre-shading was subtle and the blue a a dark yet vibrant color. I wasn't too happy with the white, as it clashed way too much with the dark blue, so I plan to tone it down with some light gray like I said in a previous post. But the blue was perfect...

Until I saw the photos. The pre-shading is still sticking out, even after four passes of acrylic paint! Must of used too much water. Guess I'll hit it with another coat. I also included a shot that had the bottom and top halves together to see the contrast of colors.

Well, here ya go! To do next, add one more coat of blue, add a quick coat of light gray, apply gloss coat, start the metals paints for the feet, mozzles, gun, etc.

[Rockhound]

Oh yeah, forgot about the bottom side of the wings. Still gotta do them, and mask off the flaps for the white. Damn masking kills me everytime. Keeps me from doing my favorite part of a model... not the panel lining (I ALWAYS screw that up), but the decals. It's all about the decals baby!

[HWR MKII]

Looks like your leaving too much of the pre shading showing through. You want it to look like grease stained paint from handling and use. The effect needs to be very subtle. It will show more as you do the panel lining is done. In 1/72 scale you want the effect to be very subtle, almost invisible. Any chance you could give it one more overall misting of color?

Edited May 1, 2008 by HWR MKII

[Rockhound]

You're right HWR, it really does need an extra coat. Here's an updated picture with the new coat of blue and the light gray added to the white parts.

I'm very happy with the light gray, but looks like I need yet ANOTHER coat of blue. ugh... maybe it's the camera. It looks extremely subtle in person, but once I take the photo the shading is glaring. Could be the lighting also. sigh

Guess I'll throw some more blue on it. Good thing the panel lines are still deep. If it's not good after this last coat, oh well. I've already done like 7 passes on it.

I think my problem was using enamel paints on the shading, then acrylic on the coats. It wasn't an issue when I did the gray/white paint.

So, Rockhound's important tip of the day: WATCH WHEN USING ENAMELS FOR SHADING AND ACRYLICS FOR MAIN PAINTING!

...... I wanna start decalling already.

[HWR MKII]

I think it looks right as it is. Any more and it will look too clean. Blue is a tricky color. I use mainly acrylics for everything. The only oils i use are for my panel washes.

[Excillon]

I see what you mean about the blue. That's nice!

[jardann]

That's looking nice Rockhound. I like the blue a lot! I think what happened with your preshading is that it was a little too dark for the white on the underside. Next time you should maybe try a lighter grey color for the preshading under a white topcoat.

Just another warning about something that I've experienced: Sometimes you can get a problem using enamels under acrylics. The enamels take a much longer time to cure and will cause the acrylic top coat to crack or peel.

Keep up the great work! I'm excited to see this finished!

[Rockhound]

New updates (again)...

After seeing the blue in better light, I was pleased with the outcome. So once I was able to see it better, I hit all the painted parts with an ultra-gloss coat and waited 7 or so hours for it to dry. Then I started masking off the areas I needed to paint white on the wings, canards, and stabs. The thing with masking tape is, it might be too sticky. So I stuck it to my shirt a few times to get rid of most of that stickyness, but leaving just enough to adhere to a glossy surface. This prevents accidently pulling up some of the painted and coated surfaces.

The pieces that need to be masked for blue paint, namely the legs and head, were done with a combination of masking sol and masking tape. This was done to the legs due to the uneven lines across the length of it. yes, I could of simply cut the masking tape into wavy sections, but what fun would that be?

I'll hit the dark blue surfaces with a fine mist of white primer to lighten up the color. This keeps you from doing coat after coat of light gray and gets you a much more true color that's the same shade as the rest of the bottom surfaces.

[MechTech]

Looking great so far. Two tough colors to work with together. - MT

[Rockhound]

Here are the parts that were unmasked.

There was a little bit of overspray, but since it's acrylic it's easily removable. For the legs, one side was masked with masking sol, and the other side was just tape that was cut to make a wavy seperation. After painting it, I was happy with the protection the masking sol offered, but the tape had a "truer" shape I guess but with some overspray that found it's way between the tape. Agian, easily removable.

I also pieced together the main body of the model, seen here. You can see that keeping the pieces separate helps alot. The clean lines could not of been masked so well due to the complexity of the shape of the nose and fuselage.

I did have one little accident on the rear stabs though. The masking tape pulled a little bit of the coat and blue paint up. But I just remasked over the finished surface and painted the bare spots. It came out pretty well. Now I just gotta paint the dark grays onto the parts that attach to the back of the leg/engine and the lower leg "canards?" Once that's done, I'll glue those pieces onto the legs, recoat with one more layer of ultra-gloss, and start working on the metal parts such as the feet, engines, gunpod, and turbines.

Till then!

[Rockhound]

Not a model update but,

Woohoo! Got some more new models in today. The VF-0A/S Battroid, YF-19, and VF-0S w/ghost booster, all Hasegawa. In a week or so I'll have my SV-51 w/twin boosters and YF-21. Also have bids out on the VF-1S and VF-1A Super, old school boxes. I'm afraid I might fall into my old trap, the dreaded BACKLOG!!!!

Anyways, painting the drak gray parts in a few minutes, then assembling the legs but not attaching them to the body.

EDIT: I want to try some flap work on my next model, either the YF-19 or the VF-0S w/booster. Has anyone done flap work on these models before? I know WM Cheng has done it on his VF-1A, very beautifully I might add, but I haven't seen this done too much on the others. Any tips, advice, etc, one could tell?

Edited May 3, 2008 by Rockhound