Whats Lying on your Workbench MKIII

[HWR MKII]

The line art is very inconsistent. So are the game representations. Between MGS1, Twin snakes and MGS4s non damaged areas of rex there are MAJOR shape and detail differences. With mine i did make it a little more stylised. More like the graphic novels. Also the pick a pose option made me make some compromises. If the railgun anr radar were closer to the body it would have cuased posing issues. The stylized look does help give it a more animated feel i believe and the overall look "feels" right.

In the end i made this kit for myself honestly. Others expressed a great interest ing it so i decided to offer it up to others. Which at its heart is the true reason the GK industry existed in the first place. Thanks to those who appreciate my efforts.

Edited October 21, 2008 by HWR MKII

[PetarB]

Any scale model master is subject to interpretation by the sculptor. Different filming lenses (even virtual ones!) will produce different results, even for 'real-world' subjects. These issues are always magnified for science fiction subjects, and those that are represented across a variety of media. Anime and game lineart is always a challenge, especially... I guess in the end we can just please ourselves, and hope for the best.

[HWR MKII]

Thats basically it Petar. Part of why it took so long to master it was because there were so many variations in detail. I just said forget it and asked a group of people do they want a particular accurate rex or a model that captures the overalllook and feel. The majority concensus went for the "looks like rex" option. Once that was settled it went very quickly.

[007-vf1]

Recast?

Forgive me your excellencies..

mmm, I meant

nice original casted copy...

[007-vf1]

WTF !?!?!? Recast. I mastered it and had it cast by another MW member myself. Recast is for when you copy something that has already been prodeced using the kit parts as a master. THIS my friend is ORIGINAL!

Ditto. I deserve the guillotine...!!!

[ce25254]

Slow going work, there are a lot of more important things in my life right now!

I added one in-progress pic so you can see some tissue detail I have added under the tongues.

After this I will move on to a Macross kit, I promise. Or at least a spacecraft. :-)

[cowie165]

Slow going work, there are a lot of more important things in my life right now!

I added one in-progress pic so you can see some tissue detail I have added under the tongues.

After this I will move on to a Macross kit, I promise. Or at least a spacecraft. :-)

Wow! That's very cool work. I'm just trying my hand at figures, and it's a LOT harder than I thought! Gojira ftw

[007-vf1]

My turn, my turn. I got something Macross done.

I just repainted and decaled again my VF-4. if I went again sanding and modifying any other thing It would have taken another year.

Edited October 26, 2008 by 007-vf1

[PetarB]

I like that colour scheme!

[Lt. Z0mBe]

I'm working an a VF-22. First I never build "canon" in any genre. I always add RCS thrusters and do my own choice of markings, fer instance.

Here's the landing gear glazed and dirty:

Canopy with a light blue tint:

There was an awful step between the wings and fuselage. I sanded down the existing detail and replaced it with a "macrossy" looking detail in .015-inch styrene, cut from a template. I sanded the area down such that everything is niche and flush.

Beauty shot showing the top. The little white areas are more RCS assemblies made from .015-inch styrene and cut from a template:

Pilot in the front office. Glazed with Future and Winsor & Newton inks:

A lot more work's been done, but that's all the images I have for now.

Kenny

[PetarB]

Wow, this should be interesting! Many Macross modellers (including myself) seem to have this big problem with finishing something in a 'canon' scheme.

[HWR MKII]

ZOMBIE!!!!!!!

Great work o the 22. I like the stiffening plate along the wing root. That actually makes sense especially cosidering the wing can fold downward at that point for high speed manuvers.

[MechTech]

Nice work ZomBe! I think only about half of our members build canon. - MT

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Thanks MT, Sean and Petarb!

Here's my post from SSM:

It seems the amount of work is inversely proportionate to the amount of photogenic updates today. What rescribing that needed doing was completed, as was a thorough sanding with 400-grit sandpaper.

Forgot to show this in the last update:

Greebled cover to hide gaping hole between the pipes

Although I Was able to carefully assemble the cannon muzzle assemblies to prevent major gaps, I never quite liked how the area looked. Thinned Aves and other goodness, combined with cannons that would have, in the "real" craft shot though the fuselage, made for a modeling problem area there. I finally chopped the forward barrels off, added a sheet metal lip, faired in said metal with CA cured with baking soda, and smoothed the inner area with some black tinted, thinned Blessed Aves. I made new cannon barrels (not pictured) from steel tubing:

Black Aves goodness

Finally, the canopy is secured and faired in with more thinned, holy Aves. All RCS assemblies are finished:

Pilot in front office and a few RCS assemblies visible

Comments are criticisms welcomed. I am going to bed.

Kenny

[MechTech]

Looks great! Hopefully the paint job matches the build quality! - MT

[HWR MKII]

I say go with a paint scheme similar to what the YF-23 prototype had.

[David Hingtgen]

Which YF-23 prototype? Either way, neither one had a "unique" scheme---PAV-1 was overall gunship grey, PAV-2 wore compass ghost.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Here's my post on my Hasegawa VF-22:

I went ahead and added the vertical stabilizers. Basically, I pinned them in three places and they're pretty tough now. I tested to make sure I could reach every place for weathering and decals BEFORE locking them down. I also added a couple of antenna blisters to the starboard stabilizer. Why? Because this one's not a demonstrator and I figure it's a few marks into service. I figure it'll end up being the "VF-22F" or something.

It's a little blurry. Six o'clock high showing the slightly thicker mounts for the pins. You can see the antenna blisters too.

Eight o'clock high and much clearer

As I type this, clear parts are being added too. I'm going to go ahead and mount them and mask them prior to priming, as they're all going to need some fairing in and rescribing. I opted for this over the colored epoxy method because the styrene is so soft, I'm afraid I'll never get things to blend properly.

Clear parts bays painted and ready for lenses.

More juicy updates to follow.

Comments and criticisms welcomed, as always.

Kenny

[cowie165]

Those blisters look great!

[MechTech]

The details really add more realism Zombie - keep up the great work!

On another note, I didn't take pictures, but I converted a Tinker Bell figure for my daughter (hey, it's a Bandai action figure!) My daughter has a nose for details like me. The figure had a puffy shiffon skirt in a addition to her regular skirt - not canon! She knows I do tiny models so she came to me and said "this doesn't belong, can you remove it!" So Tinker Bell WAS on my workbench . I'll have more Daedalus updates later. - MT

[Lt. Z0mBe]

The details really add more realism Zombie - keep up the great work!

On another note, I didn't take pictures, but I converted a Tinker Bell figure for my daughter (hey, it's a Bandai action figure!) My daughter has a nose for details like me. The figure had a puffy shiffon skirt in a addition to her regular skirt - not canon! She knows I do tiny models so she came to me and said "this doesn't belong, can you remove it!" So Tinker Bell WAS on my workbench . I'll have more Daedalus updates later. - MT

Thanks for the kind words MT and cowie.

With the size of that uber cool Daedalus, the tinkerbell's probably in scale with it. Good sign the daughter's developing the eye for detail.

Kenny

[ron5864]

So I have been traveling for work recently and it took a while to get this ARII 1/72 scale Tactical Pod Glaug completed. I modified the hip joint area by adding a couple of ball joints from a Yellow Submarine kit. This allows the legs to face different angles rather than just pointing straight ahead.

Here are a couple of early photos. The smaller Glaug is a Bandai 1/100 scale version added for comparison. The 1/72 scale version stands about 11.5 inches (29cm) tall. It's a big kit.

I will put up better photos with better lighting when I get a chance.

[miriya]

Those Glaugs look damn good Ron! Great work as always!

I built up a kingkittan snap kit yesterday from gurren lagann. It was fun because it was "completed" in about 20 minutes. Of course I did not do any painting aside from gundam markers.

[miriya]

Stupid me!

Please learn from my mistake....

So I had panel lined my VF-25 on the sprues with a gundam panel line pen. It looked good...

Then I used Testors Model Master laquer overcoat lusterless flat (dullcoat) over it to seal in the panel lines.

The result....

The panel lines bled and broke up becoming splotchy and fuzzy. Where they were solid, they became almost like sponged, and also feathered out.

So what did I do wrong?

Anyone?

I am guessing that I used the wrong clearcoat?

[Chas]

Gundam markers are lacquer based. You should have used an acrylic, or enamel clear coat.

[wm cheng]

The lacquer solvent in the clear coat partially thinned the Gundam Markers inks... sorry to hear about that. It also depends a bit on how heavy and "wet" you sprayed your clear coat. Usually if there's something to protect underneath, I'd spray a light dry coat first, once sealed in, then I'll spray a wetter heavier coat over top.

Lacquers are pretty "hot" stuff (meaning they react to a lot of things - that's part of the way they adhere to plastic, they partially etch into the styrene to form a better bond - that's why its easy to scratch off acrylics as they only "sit" on top of the plastic). There's usually no problems as long as you use lacquers first and layer your way up to "cold" stuff like acrylics, but never the other way around. You could use Model Master Acryl clear-coats (its what I use, and its pretty inert) - but it wouldn't hold up as well as the lacquers.

Edited November 8, 2008 by wm cheng

[miriya]

Thanks for the information guys.

[ron5864]

So I had panel lined my VF-25 on the sprues with a gundam panel line pen. It looked good...

Then I used Testors Model Master laquer overcoat lusterless flat (dullcoat) over it to seal in the panel lines.

The result....

The panel lines bled and broke up becoming splotchy and fuzzy. Where they were solid, they became almost like sponged, and also feathered out.

On the bright side of this story is that it was a good learning experience. Most of us assembling models don't get it right all the time. It is mostly trial and error thing.

I did something even worse once. I had just finished painting and putting decals on a 1/48 VF-1A. I grab a can of what I thought was clear coat and sprayed it on to the valk. I knew something was wrong when the item turned white instead of the expected clear gloss. I had picked up a can of flat white instead of clear coat. So another lesson for me to read the label before using.

BTW as promised, here are some better photos of the finshed 1/72 scale Glaug. Also this ARII kit had some poorly aligned pieces, especially in the legs. It took lots of sanding and filling to make the gaps and seams go away. The way the arms joints were designed make it difficult to attach properly. I broke one joint that connect the right arm to the shoulder section of the pod. Another quick replacement with Yellow Submarine joints saved the day.

I placed a 1/72 scale Destroid Spartan for size comparison. The destroid looks almost useless in a fight against a glaug.

Next project...US naval ship.

[nightmareB4macross]

On the bright side of this story is that it was a good learning experience. Most of us assembling models don't get it right all the time. It is mostly trial and error thing.

I did something even worse once. I had just finished painting and putting decals on a 1/48 VF-1A. I grab a can of what I thought was clear coat and sprayed it on to the valk. I knew something was wrong when the item turned white instead of the expected clear gloss. I had picked up a can of flat white instead of clear coat. So another lesson for me to read the label before using.

BTW as promised, here are some better photos of the finshed 1/72 scale Glaug. Also this ARII kit had some poorly aligned pieces, especially in the legs. It took lots of sanding and filling to make the gaps and seams go away. The way the arms joints were designed make it difficult to attach properly. I broke one joint that connect the right arm to the shoulder section of the pod. Another quick replacement with Yellow Submarine joints saved the day.

I placed a 1/72 scale Destroid Spartan for size comparison. The destroid looks almost useless in a fight against a glaug.

Next project...US naval ship.

Wow, Ron!! The way you prep, paint, and detail old kit makes you really forget that these are old kits. Your painting skills are very refined.

Great job!! Post a pic with all your customs to date, please.

[MechTech]

Awesome job Ron! I'd be afraid to touch it, it looks so clean! - MT

[cowie165]

Very nice Ron. Very nice. The comparo pics are really interesting! The YS joints really add a nice anime effect and eliminate the "rigidity" of the original pose. Top work, again.

Were the YS joints from a kit or can you order them specifically?

Great photos too. What's your setup like? One overhead, one on the side, plus a reflector on the other side? It's really well lit.

Finally, whilst I'm firing off questions, do you remember where you bought your MV lenses from please?

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Little update for today. I have everything masked and primed. In these pictures, the trouble areas have been marked with a pencil for correction. That's what I am doing right now.

Above

Below

I wanted to make the stabilizer-to-fuselage joints look more realistic. I added some .015" styrene details around the mounting pegs:

Beefier, yet Macrossy-looking joint

Bit of a dark panel line here. I think I'll partially fill with white glue to get a scale effect along the stiffener

Comments and criticisms welcomed, as always.

Kenny

[HWR MKII]

Looking really good Kenny. Get some color on her soon man.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Looking really good Kenny. Get some color on her soon man.

Thanks, Sean. PRaise from the master, indeed.

Another tiny update for today.

I've preshaded the thing. I'm experimenting a bit, after some wise counsel, and going with some light preshading in addition to the standard dark preshading. There's a few mistakes in the dark areas, but I don't care. I'll fix them as I go. That's the beauty of airbrushing.

Undercarriage doors.

Underside

From above

I'm working on the base right now.

Comments and criticisms welcomed, as always.

Kenny

[Evil Bones]

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???

Just joking. I always laught at how rough models look during the preshading phase,

then everything comes together.

Great Job & keep it up.

Evil