MickyG's (Slow) VF-25G Build

[wm cheng]

Well, it seems like the common element here is the Testor's dullcote (just stay away from that stuff ;-). It could have separated like you said and you were spraying solvent (sounds entirely possible too). But in general, NEVER spray lacquer on top of anything other than lacquer. Lacquer is the hottest type of paint and will react to anything underneath. I would definitely warn against spraying lacquer on top of anything (I would never try it myself and have gone to great lengths to avoid this situation).

Spraying lacquer on top of acrylic would not make it any more durable - since the underlying coat is acrylic on bare plastic (the weakest link). If the lacquer were to etch/eat away till it got to the plastic to get a firm hold - it would surely damage the acrylic layer to get to the plastic. If anything, if/when it gets damaged, the lacquer would bond with the acrylic layer and pull that clean off the bare plastic in flakes. If you want a really strong bond, then I would just paint the entire thing in lacquers, right from the bare plastic up to the clear coat, its the only way to get a stable strong layering of paint without weak bonds/links.

There are ways to get lacquers on top of acrylics (usually initial light coats to have the atomized lacquer particles to be almost dry before contact with the acrylics - but it takes a lot of practice and experience to get it right, and its often non-repeatable and way too dangerous IMHO). Just plain luck most of the time - something I would steer clear from. But when you lay lacquer on in these thin dry coats, it doesn't react with the underlying surface (that's why it doesn't damages them) - therefore negating the strong bond you want for durability (it would have similar durability characteristics as acrylics then where the paint merely lies on the surface). Its this "damage" to the underlying coat that gives lacquer its strong bond/durable characteristic.

Edited October 5, 2009 by wm cheng

[Lolicon]

What wm cheng (William?) said is accurate as far as I know. The paint pecking order is lacquer > enamel > acrylic.

By some freak accident caused by the alignment of the planets and an ancient leprechaun curse, in defiance of all logic the GSI clearcoat does not react with Tamiya acrylic, at least not from what I've observed. Most of my painting is lacquer, but some of it is painted with Tamiya acrylic, and so far I've had no problems whatsoever when applying GSI lacquer clearcoat over it.

GSI does eat micron pen ink though, as I found out when the clearcoat dissolved my panel lines. Luckily I was just able to draw them back in, and I now only apply micron ink lines prior to the final acrylic topcoat.

Most of my panel lines are done with mechanical pencil or acrylic wash, and so far there have been no problems with the GSI clearcoat eating it. It also does not eat Gundam marker, though I think Gundam marker is lacquer-based too (not 100% sure on that).

I used Model Master lacquer clearcoat back in the day and was never happy with the results.

[mickyg]

Thanks guys! That helps a lot.

Here's my current dilemna:

• I can't get Model Master Acryl range (anything) at my LHS
• I can only get Model Master Lacquers in bottle form
• Most of my LHS around here keep both Tamiya and GSI products but I can't find any spray clears from GSI that don't cost at least $12 a can and the range is extremely poor (gloss or flat is it, no topcoat acrylics, no uv cut, etc...)
• My experience with rattle cans is that no matter how careful I am, orange peal is always a reality.
• I can get Tamiya clear in rattle cans but don't know if it's lacquer or water based (a quick search should clear that up for me though).
• Even Tamiya rattle cans are $11 a pop
• And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I already have 2 bottles of MM lacquer (gloss and semi-gloss) and I'm stubborn, paid a lot for them, and really wanted to use them!

All that said, I may be stubborn but I'm not stupid. If the MM bottles are going to kill my paint, they'll go unused until I know what I put them on will handle it. It was perhaps $25? That's not going to kill me.

So, I can either import some GSI stuff via HLJ and hope customs lets spray paint into the country. Or I can check out the Tamiya stuff and see what other's experience has been with it. And I guess, I could test on a spare piece of PS to see if perhaps the MM lacquers I have are gentle enough to be used on acrylics. I keep saying I'll do that but end up writing these "Oh crap" posts instead...

Anyway, thanks again for your comments WM and Lolicon!

Edited October 6, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Had a bit of an interruption again today:

I've got to get this VF-25 done! The VF-1D I've had for quite a few months now and haven't touched it (though it's been very tempting). The Zero models were an impulse buy from HLJ for their free shipping sale. Luckily, I nabbed them just before their site showed them as "discontinued." Whether or not that's true, remains to be seen (their site doesn't show the SV-51 and the VF-0S is backordered). So yeah. I'm scared to start these, knowing how great some people's efforts have been: WM Cheng...

Anyway, part of that order was this guy on the right:

I had a chance to use it today on one of super part decals and the results were surprising. It seemed to suck the decal down onto the plastic (it was a bare plastic part). And it did this even better than the Mark Softer, which is odd because I figured the softer was more of solvent than the setter. Either way, great grab and I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of it.

Some more good news was a session with the air brush last night! I managed to get the paint to thinner ratio and air pressure just right and the results were very good. I had been concentrating on getting rid of the seams on the boosters and while the results aren't perfect, they're a whole lot better than what they were. And since the tops get decals, any slight imperfections will be either covered or less noticeable than the high contrast white. I don't have pics up yet but will update tomorrow.

[honkhet]

yup u've finally got ur mr. mark setter!

thats the same one i am using

i hope it'll make ur life much easier now

[Cowpeeler]

Thanks guys! That helps a lot.

Here's my current dilemna:

• I can't get Model Master Acryl range (anything) at my LHS
• I can only get Model Master Lacquers in bottle form
• Most of my LHS around here keep both Tamiya and GSI products but I can't find any spray clears from GSI that don't cost at least $12 a can and the range is extremely poor (gloss or flat is it, no topcoat acrylics, no uv cut, etc...)
• My experience with rattle cans is that no matter how careful I am, orange peal is always a reality.
• I can get Tamiya clear in rattle cans but don't know if it's lacquer or water based (a quick search should clear that up for me though).
• Even Tamiya rattle cans are $11 a pop
• And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I already have 2 bottles of MM lacquer (gloss and semi-gloss) and I'm stubborn, paid a lot for them, and really wanted to use them!

All that said, I may be stubborn but I'm not stupid. If the MM bottles are going to kill my paint, they'll go unused until I know what I put them on will handle it. It was perhaps $25? That's not going to kill me.

So, I can either import some GSI stuff via HLJ and hope customs lets spray paint into the country. Or I can check out the Tamiya stuff and see what other's experience has been with it. And I guess, I could test on a spare piece of PS to see if perhaps the MM lacquers I have are gentle enough to be used on acrylics. I keep saying I'll do that but end up writing these "Oh crap" posts instead...

Anyway, thanks again for your comments WM and Lolicon!

Unfortunately HLJ has kowtowed to the Japanese postal service and will not ship out any aerosols because of Japan's new postal regulations and according to HLJ it is not economically viable to conform to the new laws.

[Lolicon]

Damn that's a nice haul! I wish I had more stuff I actually wanted to take advantage of the free HLJ shipping. I ended up just buying some more clearcoat.

And it's a good thing I did, hearing about the aerosol ban. WTF? I have a small supply stockpiled, but where the hell am I going to get more GSI clear? That stuff gives a smooth finish and is the best clearcoat I've ever used; no orange peel at all! They were 700 yen at HLJ... gonna be hard pressed to find that kind of price elsewhere...

Mr Mark Setter is awesome stuff. Be sure to shake the bottle of Mr Mark Setter periodically, as the white adhesive will eventually settle to the bottom of the bottle.

[mickyg]

Yeah, it's a good haul, indeed! Nowhere near what I've seen some people grab but certainly sizable for me! I think I've been bitten...

Bummer about the aerosol shipping thing. I saw a notice on Rainbow Ten's website a few months back, where they advised they would stop shipping aerosols. I was actually surprised to see HLJ was still offering them. In fact, they had them even a few days ago. I didn't get any because I was afraid Australia customs would reject them. And when it comes to shipping, I'm hopelessly impatient! I didn't want anything slowing down my package. Even though it's going to be months before I can start on the other models! Pretty stupid really.

Thanks for the advice about the mark setter. I was surprised to see it was white and gave it a good shake before using it yesterday, just in case. I'll get more use out of it over the next few days I'm sure.

Here's a quick pic of the boosters. This was taken 2 days ago and I haven't done anything on these parts since.

[mickyg]

Damn! You can actually see the Mr Surfacer through the paint in those shots! I doubt I'm going to bother applying a second coat. Just too much trouble, I'm afraid. I don't know if I've described my airbrush setup but it's a major headache!

I'm trying to do as much of this as I can, without spending truckloads of money. So with that in mind, I grabbed a 3 gallon stainless steel fire extinguisher that I happened to get for free (old fashioned water type), bought some fittings, and a moisture/dust filter. That sorted my air storage needs. That would have been enough to get me started but I found this only stored up enough air (even at 140psi) for about 5 minutes of airbrushing. The routine was to take it down to a service station that had a free air compressor on hand. And there is only one in a 5 minute radius of my house that had pressure above 60psi. So anyway, one charge usually got me enough pressure to paint a few small parts, with just enough left over to do a quick cleaning blast. Annoying, in other words!

I then managed to get my hands on a 12volt car compressor. The type used for 4X4 applications (supposedly). I've got a friend who works for a company that makes these and he was able to get me 2 defective ones, that I repaired to make one good one. These work but they're slow and extremely noisy. Not to mention you've got to connect it to the battery of your car to get it working.

I already had a Paasche VL airbrush kit, along with a regulator I'd bought when I was still living in the states. So I was pretty well sorted. At least I thought. The problem I have now is that most of my airbrushing gets done ~8pm, after my son has gone to sleep for the night (he's 16 months old). And his bedroom is directly adjacent to the garage. So any noise in that vicinity can wake him and then I've got my wife to deal with!

So yeah, airbrushing is very important to me but such a pain that if I do it, it needs to be worth while, quick, well planned, etc... I really should invest in a normal compressor. This car thing is proving to be more of a paint than I thought!

Sorry about the rant - probably more about me than anyone cared to know!

Edited October 6, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Not a whole lot accomplished this week. It's been very busy work-wise so my normal 1 hour break for lunch has been chopped up into several 10 minute segments. So no major updates. Just some pics that I've previously left out.

I did manage to get the missile door glued to the boosters. They don't look great but they're not painted black/sooty yet so that should help.

The other pic is my custom leg armour colour. I'm not sure I like how gold it is but then again, it's as close to the decal as I could get it. I wish I knew what these parts were, as it might make it easier for me to figure out what colour they should be.

Without cover:

Cover:

With cover:

[Darth Mingus]

If you have an airbrush, there is a company called Polly that makes a water based clear coat in flat, satin and gloss finishes. A bottle costs ~$4 CDN. I think they were made for model railroad building so I am not sure about the durability. My LHS is primarily into the railroads so they have an amazing selection of colors.

[wm cheng]

I feel your airbrushing pains... in my highschool days when I couldn't afford a compressor, I made do with a refrigerator compressor I bought at a salvage yard for $15. I used that for 10yrs! (along with a proper regulator and moisture tap). I had to keep stopping all the time to keep it from overheating. Then I got some spare airtank for filling up tires for a few times before I got tired of running to a gas station to fill it up. Finally bit the bullet and got a real silent airbrush compressor with tank about 10yrs back and I've been spoiled! It was a revelation! Although its through these trials and torture that I learnt most in modelling. The one big lesson out of all this poorboy scrounging around is "...the right tools for the right job" saying really holds true. Nowadays, (well, before I had my daughter...) if I can't afford it, I don't even try - my "older" life is too short to be banging my head against the wall.

[oldpainless]

Hey Mickyg

The noise is a problem for many fellow modellers who only are free in the night. As wm cheng says you can use a refrigerator compresor, they are very silent. A friend of mine adapted it to a regular tank ( automatic, with moisture trap and with all the stuff of a regular noisy compresor) and works fine and is silent!! Plus it works with AC.

[mickyg]

Thanks for the comments guys! I've been away for a week in Far North Queensland (Cairns). Awesome place that I definitely want to get back to when it's not just for work.

Before I left, I managed to actually return my Testors Model Master clear lacquers and with the refund, buy 5 bottles of GSI clear acrylics. 2 Gloss, 2 Flat and one Flat Base for mixing with gloss paints to obtain any combination of gloss to flat (I'll have to read up on that one, sounds like potential for disaster too). I'm guessing these won't be the most durable thing around but they'll certainly do the trick!

I'm now singing the praises of my local Hobby shop, and remembering why they're so convenient! You couldn't do that with mail order - "sorry bought the wrong supplies, can I exchange them?"

The air compressor idea is starting to grow on me. I'll have to look into the refrigerator compressor idea. I've even got an old A/C compressor for my car that could work with some modification.

[wm cheng]

OK, just a few points to remember from an experienced fridge compressor user;

-its gets quite hot, especially the compressor head (burn your fingers hot) - so its 5-10mins of spraying for every 20mins to let cool down (its not meant to be on all the time, only short periodic bursts) or it could just overheat

-you will always get a slight "puttering" telegraphing through - even if you have a very good and expensive regulator, so the spray isn't perfectly even, but with time you learn to control it (definitely get an internal mix airbrush, the externals will make the problem worst)

-the oil inside a fridge compressor isn't properly separated from the airstream, so you can get the occasional mixing of tiny amounts in the airline that makes it through the moisture tap (moisture tap and good regulator are essential)

-make sure you get tefelon tape the threads to the couplings to make a good airseal (it was tough finding the right reducers from hardware A/C type threads (compressor end) down to smaller finer airbrushing threads for the hoses)

-some compressors don't go up high enough in PSI to make an airbrush work properly - look for ones above 30psi (figuring you would probably mostly airbrush between 12-22psi depending on the paint) / underpowered ones will "putter" more in the airlines

I know its a big investment for a real compressor, but I tell ya, its worth it (and will last for years to come). For the amount of grief I went though to keep that old setup running (the my time, effort and sourcing) you would pay for a real proper compressor without the headaches (if you plan on staying with modelling). I don't recommend it (I was poor and young - but had lots of energy...) now ;-)

p.s. remember, the "right tool for the right job..."

Edited October 16, 2009 by wm cheng

[P.W.Royce]

Hey mickyg, if you are interested in saving some money, another source for clear acrylic is floor finishing products. In the states we have a product called "Future floor polish", and its basically pure acrylic and some fragrance. There are other products available from janitorial supply houses that work too. They range from crystal clear to a milky blue/white color, but they all dry clear, with varying amounts of gloss. To make them flat just add baby powder. I only use them for my R/C airplanes, but some people swear by them for scale models. I just go to the LHS and buy some Polyscale or MM, that I know will work. Good luck and happy hunting!

Edited October 16, 2009 by P.W.Royce

[oldpainless]

Wm cheng:

Maybe your refrigrator compresor was damaged or very used, because the one I have seen is almost new and doesn't really heat up that much.. I mean not to the point to burn your fingers, besides it's not conected directly to the airbrush, instead is conected to a regular compresor tank. It has an oil filter too. And I hink is 1/3 HP. To me looks like a good choice for a silent compresor( adapted to a regular compresor), however is higly recommendable using a new fridge compresor or one with very little use. BTW I'm young and poor!!

Regards

[mickyg]

Thanks again for the comments.

I think my days of tinkering with things to make other things, all in the name of saving a few dollars, are severely limited. I just don't have the time or patience anymore and likely more importantly, my wife has even less! So if my 12v compressor dies or becomes too frustrating, I'll just give up the whole hobby...

Hah, as if! No if it dies, I'll just go out and buy a small AC powered compressor. I saw one at an auto parts store the other day on sale for $90 AUD so they're hardly expensive these days. And given my typical usage (charge my air tank, use the airbrush, recharge the airtank), It'll likely last me a few years. So yeah, right tool for the job is great advice.

The refrigerator compressor sounds really cool and the tinkerer inside me wants to try it. But if I did that, I'd likely not finish my model till next year! Heck, at the rate I'm going, that might still be the case!

Next topic, paint. I mentioned a few posts back that I've gone from my MM Lacquer clears to Acrylics from GSI. I bought two jars of flat, two jars of gloss. Tamiya don't do flat clear, so I went with GSI. I figured I could mix the two for varying sheens. While I was there, I noticed GSI does a flat base as well, so grabbed a bottle of that too. I figured it might be easier to mix up custom sheens, plus you can add it to gloss paints (not sure I'd be doing that, but hey, it's cheap). So I think I'm fully armed and ready to start experimenting.

I've also acquired a bottle of Future! I had a friend visit the states recently and he was kind enough to bring some back for me. So I might experiment with how well our Aussie equivalent actually stacks up. Fun times!

[mickyg]

No airbrushing done yet. I was really hoping to get to it this week. Man, it's been tough getting back into this after a few weeks off. And fixing my faulty SV-51 toy didn't help either...

Anyway, I decided to rip into the PE detailing kit I got from Newca. Wow! Such incredible detail and the fit on these is just amazing. Must have been a ton of work getting these right. I realised when I ordered the kit, that I'd likely only use half of it. I was mainly interested in the foot thruster detail, the cockpit, and the sniper rifle. The rest was either for another kit or parts that would be obscured by the super parts.

So that's what I concentrated on today. I only managed to get the feet details, one sniper boom part, the instrument cluster and the instrument decal done. And I should probably mention, this is the first time I've worked with detail parts. Lots of research online to have some clue of what to do, trust me!

Observations so far:

• Super detailed parts! Very impressed, indeed!
• The "dashboard" area in front of the HUD (Cowl I think it's called?) is nice but the plastic window is so thick that you can hardly make out the extra detail.
• In addition, the pegs on the front windscreen need to be cut off, as the PE part covers the holes it mounts to. That took a bit of careful filing then sanding. If you don't sand it correctly, it'll make the pegs stick out like a sore thumb. So be careful here.
• The sniper rifle: this really bugged me actually. The parts in the model kit are so tight, tolerance-wise, that adding this super thin PE part makes the rear booms impossible to completely close. I might save these for my Armoured VF-25F that I plan to get. I might keep that sniper rifle in open configuration, where the parts are actually visible. The other solution is to sand back the top edge enough to allow for the thickness of the parts - YUCK!
• The hands/joysticks are microscopically small! I can't believe the level of detail that Newca was able to get into something so tiny! Wow! I have NO idea how I'm going to glue these on...

So here's the obligatory progress pics.

All the basic parts needed to get started. The utility knife blade to cut the parts out of the fret. The file to get rid of the excess leftover metal (which actually works remarkably well and fast). Super glue to attach the parts (this bit is tricky to get the part into place before the glue sets). And a few parts already attached to the feet.

closeup of the instrument panel. Those marks are scratches from my super sharp tweezers!

The decal looks terrible with a flash. It's not fantastic, detail wise but definitely better than the pic shows.

without flash:

And a size comp of the joystick/hands. One with my whole hand, the other closeup to show the detail. Truly impressive!

[mickyg]

Long time since updates and I've made some (albeit small) progress!

I found a bit of time at home over the last 2 weekends to do a gloss clearcoat of my Mr Hobby Aqueous acrylic. I have no idea what to compare these to, as the last gloss I used nearly ruined my paint job. But I can say, this is much easier to work with, doesn't melt my paint (or plastic!) and cleans up very easily in my airbrush. I still need to work on technique, as the finish I got was very orange peeley and I obviously didn't spray thick enough (or apply as many coats as I should have). But I ran out of air before I could finish the last few coats.

I can't say I'm too concerned. I've noticed I get equal or better results from applying these decals to a flat (matte) surface anyway. I had previously applied a few decals on the leg armor so I was able to compare. Anyway, I'll be more thorough on the covering coats. The plan is to gloss coat over the decals, do an oil wash (dark grey or black, haven't decided yet), possibly post shade with Tamiya Smoke (something I've never tackled before) and then overcoat with some Mr Hobby (Gunze) Flat clear acrylic.

Anyway, on to some pics of the super parts post clear (gloss) coat awaiting decals, along with my meager progress on the decal-ling:

I had some issues with the decal sucking into the depression where I've circled:

And an issue I noticed with alignment of the white line. The SMS lettering breaks this line but it should be continuous. As you can see, it really doesn't follow the line, as the metallic shape requires the decals to sit within the panel lines and throws everything out of whack. Not a huge issue but somewhat frustrating when you're trying to make the impossible happen with alignment.

Next leg armor done and you can see the results of me trying to get that previous decal to sit better in that depression - oops... Guess and oil wash will partly hide that. Next is the top front of one booster, with a closeup of the missile opening. It's tough to get the carrier film to snug down into those openings. I think it worked OK in the end though.

Getting there!

Edited November 5, 2009 by mickyg

[shinagami]

micky, i see u have some sort of thingy that closed the openings shown in ur last 2 pics, does that piece comes with the super pack kit? coz i cant find it anywhere in my super pack kit....

[mickyg]

"Thingy" is exactly right! That's a custom part I made from .3mm plastic sheet. I sort of explained it about 2 pages back, 4th post from the bottom. That's if you've got your post count set the way mine is (for example, this is page 6 for me).

Anyway, I think they add a nice bit of realism to an otherwise ugly hole. I cut them out roughly, then sanded them a bit to fit, scribed the lines to match the other two on the boosters and that was pretty much it. Oh, and I think I might have sanded them down a bit to make the piece a bit thinner. .3mm is thin but not quite thin enough.

Hope that helps!

And when we going to see some of your build pics? I, for one, can't wait to see how yours is coming!

[Darth Mingus]

I hate to mention this but the VF-25G should be SMS003 not SMS007. Otherwise, it is looking good.

[mickyg]

CRAP! ...And well spotted!

This is what happens when you blindly follow the picture instructions on the back of the super parts manual. I got lulled into a false sense of security, thinking these were for my model, not all 4 variants.

I'll be carefully removing the 7 decals today and putting the 3 ones on. Wish me luck!

[mickyg]

I must admit, the news that I'd screwed up the SMS numbers kinda but a dampener on things... But I did manage to get a lot done last night and wanted to post up what I did.

I've got a couple of gotchas, for anyone following along and getting ideas. The decals on the super parts, are for the most part, easy to apply and straightforward. There are a few exceptions, of course! The thigh/bottom of the intakes, for instance. These are very irregular shaped parts and asking a decal to conform over them, is a very tall order. I tried quite a few methods, like trimming off all the carrier film to get it to fit snugly into the space, liberally applying mr mark setter, then softer over the trouble spots. In the end, it only made a terrible area almost acceptable. I'll show you what I mean with a few pics farther down.

There were a couple of minor alignment problems with some of the small or really long decals but other than than, I'm happy with how it's going so far. I should get a few more parts done today and with any luck, the majority of the super parts will be ready for a wash this weekend. I'm not going to jinx myself by making predictions though!

Lower intake parts prior to decaling, showing the irregular surface the black decal needs to stick too. Not shown is the "ledge" that the top makes over the black decal. This almost looks like a vent. The decal didn't make this any more realistic and I'm sure I'll need to fill in the areas not covered with black paint of some sort. Why'd I use a decal again? The next two are right after applying the decal and then the decal after it's been softened with Mr Mark Setter (Hadn't used the Softer at this stage of picture taking.).

The next hurdle was getting the vernier decal to line up properly. Not only does it need to sit directly over the round detail, but it needs to be twisted in the right orientation to get the handle detail to line up! Needless to say, it was fiddly and a touch stressful. The pics here show the decals still wet. This morning the black had sunk down pretty nicely.

So that's two intake bottoms done!

And one booster finished as well:

Edited November 5, 2009 by mickyg

[Cowpeeler]

I must admit, the news that I'd screwed up the SMS numbers kinda but a dampener on things... But I did manage to get a lot done last night and wanted to post up what I did.

I've got a couple of gotchas, for anyone following along and getting ideas. The decals on the super parts, are for the most part, easy to apply and straightforward. There are a few exceptions, of course! The thigh/bottom of the intakes, for instance. These are very irregular shaped parts and asking a decal to conform over them, is a very tall order. I tried quite a few methods, like trimming off all the carrier film to get it to fit snugly into the space, liberally applying mr mark setter, then softer over the trouble spots. In the end, it only made a terrible area almost acceptable. I'll show you what I mean with a few pics farther down.

There were a couple of minor alignment problems with some of the small or really long decals but other than than, I'm happy with how it's going so far. I should get a few more parts done today and with any luck, the majority of the super parts will be ready for a wash this weekend. I'm not going to jinx myself by making predictions though!

Lower intake parts prior to decaling, showing the irregular surface the black decal needs to stick too. Not shown is the "ledge" that the top makes over the black decal. This almost looks like a vent. The decal didn't make this any more realistic and I'm sure I'll need to fill in the areas not covered with black paint of some sort. Why'd I use a decal again? The next two are right after applying the decal and then the decal after it's been softened with Mr Mark Setter (Hadn't used the Softer at this stage of picture taking.).

The next hurdle was getting the vernier decal to line up properly. Not only does it need to sit directly over the round detail, but it needs to be twisted in the right orientation to get the handle detail to line up! Needless to say, it was fiddly and a touch stressful. The pics here show the decals still wet. This morning the black had sunk down pretty nicely.

So that's two intake bottoms done!

And one booster finished as well:

I had the same problem with my super pack Alto and I ended up throwing the decal out and painting it. That oddly shaped triangle intake...that decal was so off.

Edited November 6, 2009 by Cowpeeler

[mickyg]

Fixed the 7 to a 3. That wasn't as hard as I thought. The end result isn't bad but I'm amazed at how well the decal actually bonds to the paint. I had to use a hobby knife to gently scrape the decal off. No solvent seemed to work.

I managed to get a lot more decal-ed up over the weekend, but also had a few mistakes too. Pics of those as soon as I take 'em!

Edited November 9, 2009 by mickyg

[honkhet]

this looks cool!

keep going mick!

[mickyg]

Thanks man. I'm finding it's going a LOT slower than I'd like but that's life for ya. Just glad I've got time to spend on this at all! Though I haven't posted pics, I've only got the other booster, back leg armor, and intake/missle parts left to decal.

Oh, and the rest of the plane...

[mickyg]

Here's the missing progress pics from this weekend.

Firstly, some info on how I struggled with a few of these decals. I'm using Mr Mark Setter for most everything, and Mr Mark Softer for the really troublesome areas. Both soften the decals, both seem to cause the carrier film to "melt" into the paint, and both can cause the acrylic paint to run or streak if you soak it on too thick and bump, scratch, poke the surrounding area around the decal. So you must be very careful after applying this stuff or you'll damage the decal or the part's paint. Very tedious and somewhat stressful at first. Anyway, on to the issues I faced and will probably continue to face. There are quite a few areas where the decal crosses a panel line or some other detail that I want to be visible through the decal. In most cases, the Mark Setter is fine (it's the milder of the two solutions). However, I'm noticing the Bandai decals, despite being horribly coloured in and mostly not fitting the areas they're meant to cover, actually are very flexible and tend to work well if you're patient. That said, the decals don't seem to like stretching. They'll conform well enough but stretching is an issue. Therein lies most of my problems. For the long line type decals, you'll need to push the decal down into lower areas while the decal is still wet and hasn't yet started to stick to the paint. This can be a real pain to get right and I think I'm still struggling with it.

Here's an example:

The camera isn't capturing how well the middle of the decal sat down into the grooves but it did a reasonable job. I put a fair bit of setter and softer on this portion, thinking I'd get the decal to completely "melt" down into the lower, grilled area. However, only the middle 3rd of it did. The edges remained stretched up to the edge of the part. Of course I didn't realise this till after the decal had fully "cured" or dried. By then, the only option was to carefully cut the edges of the decal and reapply the softer solution to attempt to get the decal to lay down. It only partially did this.

Lesson learned - make sure the decal is flexible and well saturated in solvent (either type) before walking away and letting it dry. The solvent will soften the decal after it's dried but nowhere near like it does when it's still wet. I think the decals really do "set" and become almost plastic like after this happens.

OK, next issue:

This one was a simple accident and nothing more. I got the tiny little light decal (if that's actually what it is) on the opposite side applied just fine but because I couldn't actually see the depression the purple part is meant to sink into, it ended up just slightly crooked. And again, I only noticed after it had set. Once it's set, there's no way to move the decal at all. "Eh, no big deal" I thought. So I moved onto the other side and did that one. The second side went on perfectly. So for some brilliant reason I decided it'd be cool to dry fit the backpack parts with the shield. I didn't realize my thumb was right on top of the tiny decal until after I'd basically wiped the print right off the carrier film! And no amount of solvent would allow me to wipe the decal back into place. I think my thumb successfully absorbed the liquid, which basically cemented the print into place.

Next lesson learned - don't touch the decals until they're completely dried!

Final issue:

These are the long boomerang shaped decals, when they're on the sheet. When they're applied, they should be straight. Surprise, surprise, they're not. They require quite a bit of massaging to get them lined up and even when they are lined up, they require a wrinkle to actually sit straight. Very annoying! So that little wrinkle was the result of a whole lot of carefully applied solvent. It's still there but not as noticeable as it likely could have been.

And some final pics. The bottom intake parts are shown just to give an idea of how applying a bit more mark softer to the multi purpose handle/verniers got the black portion to sit a bit better into the recess. I did some cutting to get this to sit as low as it did, as there was a lot of stretched decal that just wouldn't lay down any other way. Remember, I'll be black washing most of this stuff so you won't see any tears in the decals. The little smudge you see on the shield (I love the shield!) is the result of trying to use a dry brush to smooth out a bubble after the solvent had been there a few minutes. Always use a wet brush!

[Lolicon]

I think your build is looking good, despite any problems you've had with the decals. I'm sure once the whole thing's been assembled, you won't even notice the little slipups. Besides the SMS007 snafu.

I hear ya on the problematic decals. Since there's still a few weeks before the VF-27 comes out, I decided to finish sticking together my VF-25F battroid which I started nearly a year ago. This was when I wasn't really doing a whole lot of finishing work and had intended to only hastily assemble it as a proxy for the mordbidly obese DX, so it was already partially assembled; it'd look really jarring if I started painting the rest of it.

Anyway, the decals for the Armored were a breeze. There are almost no areas where you have to force a decal to sit in a groove or other awkward shape and the few that did involve irregular areas were fairly mild. The only exception were the chest covers; I ended up scraping most of the decals off and just painting that section.

And now back to the plain VF-25F... and a lot more decal difficulties! Much of the difficulty comes from the fact that these decals just aren't properly sized/shaped. But for some reason some of these decals just didn't want to cooperate. Like the "arrows" that sit on the neckline... they simply did not want to be moved into position, no matter how much water or setter I used; I ended up tearing on of them and having to paint part of it back in.

Or the black U-shaped decal in the very center of the chest? It's not even close to being the right size. You have to paint in the edges unless you want large, white edges.

Heck I'll just attach some pics and let you play "spot the decal screwup."

When you're dealing with a decal that has to be forced down into a pit or groove, it helps to trim off the excess film so there's less area for liquid to be trapped under and is more easily pushed out. It's very useful for small decals that fit entirely in a recess, like the circular "bolt" decals or the sensors on the sides of the cockpit.

[mickyg]

Thanks for the tips!

Yeah, the carrier film trimming trick I've employed quite a few times already on this one. I was doing it for all the decals on the main part of the plane but then realised the film was nowhere near as noticeable as I'd thought after testing a spot or two. That part of the decal is actually quite impressive! It's the rest that really sucks at times.

You know, I really can't tell you "cheated" from those pics at all! The decals look really good to me.

Ah the VF-27. I'm tossing that up right now. Do I buy that one when it's released and start on it before I get to my Hasegawas? Or do I spend money on a DSLR? Decisions, decisions...

[mickyg]

Got all the grey super parts decals done! No pics yet but may grab a few tomorrow. You all know what they look like though.

[mickyg]

I had planned to post some pics up of the decals I finished last night. Instead I got impatient and put the dark oil wash on today at lunch! I mixed up a very dark grey from black and white oils, then thinned it down pretty heavily (probably 3 parts thinner to 1 part paint). The black mix was 2 blobs of black with about one of white. Maybe. When in doubt, do what I did and start with black, "mix" it into the paint tray with the brush (I'm using cheap testors brushes because the bristles are practically indestructable) to break up any clumps and recombine anything that's separated (my tubes always get runny near the opening). Add a bit of white until you get the colour grey you're after, continuing to mix with the brush. When you're happy with the colour, then add thinner and keep adding till the consistency is thin enough that you can almost wash the paint off the sides of the mixing tray. It's difficult to describe but this seems to be the best consistency for me.

Anyway, here's some pics of all the grey super parts. The first one shows the mixing tray and some smaller parts. I've lightened it up a bit but the colours aren't totally accurate to what I see with my eye. It's basically a nice slate colour and seems to go perfectly with my dark, purple-grey parts. The rest of the pics are the rest of the parts. Nothing special and nothing's been wiped down yet. Might not get to it till tomorrow but the paint dries so slowly that this should be no problem.

[mickyg]

Got all the oil wash appropriately wiped away last night. No real problems to report or warn anyone about except the advise using restraint in how much you apply. I blotted on a bit too much and since it has to be wiped off, too much is just a nuisance. That and the turpenoid (low odor turpentine, varsol, etc...) does soften the acrylic paint some. So you must be careful when wiping the excess off, that you don't wipe to vigorously or rub too hard, as you can inadvertantly rub the underlying coat off.

I'll likely do a gloss clear coat as originally planned (before I rushed into the oil wash) and paint the missle hatches dark grey or black, follow up any other darker areas that need paint, and then put a final flat clear over the top.

Some pics to show the progress:

Edited November 14, 2009 by mickyg