The Cheapo Tips n Tricks Guide to the VF-25

[Chronocidal]

What with the other VF-25 kit builds going on, I hesitated to make this a separate topic, but I'd rather post my stuff here than constantly derail MickyG's long build up.

So, while most other build-ups usually include people trying to make relative masterpieces.. I'm taking a slightly different route.

In short, this is my second VF-25, but the first I've put any effort into. My first, a VF-25G, was a test build of sorts, and I'm using it to test out ideas on, like the wing/leg tabs I added. I also plan on using it as a testbed for when I try and make a fully swappable set of super parts, but that's a ways off.

Now, the key here is I'm putting effort into this build, not money. I'll be honest, I have an airbrush and compressor ready to go (gift from a short while ago), but at the present time, I don't have the space to run it, or the motivation to learn everything I need to know about using it. On the other hand, I already have a bunch of paints, brushes, files, etc. for building a kit... so, I want to see what I can do with a minimum of money spent.

Basically, all I bought specifically for this kit are a couple paint colors, and a brush or two, and only because the ones I had already were bad.

Also, just because I want to try it, I'm taking my dislike of Bandai's dot-matrix decals to the rather silly extreme, and painting everything by hand (short of text, which I might just use stickers for). And since I don't have any masking tape, this should be very interesting. Since masking tends to fail on me when I hand-paint things anyway, I'm going to see how long I last before breaking down and buying a roll of the Tamiya stuff.

This isn't really going to be any kind of part-by-part build-up, since I'm sure you've seen that already, and the instructions make that part a breeze. What I'm going to focus on is how to maximize the effect you can get with very simple building tools and materials.

First up, the nose sensors.

I've seen many people give these a colored wash to turn them purple, but I've always been a fan of painting the back side of clear parts to color them (old habit from Star Trek kits). I may still coat them very lightly later on with the purple coloring I found, but for now I like the effect I've gotten

First trick for nice looking sensor windows: cut the pegs off. They're not needed at all, since the piece is held in tightly by the upper nose panel.

Those pegs bugged me for a while, because even with the entire sensor area painted solid lavender, those pegs will show up as big dark spots in the window. So, I cut them off and sanded the underside of that piece smooth.

To make sure to get the brighest internal reflection on the sensors, I painted the entire area around them.

May seem a bit overkill, but that way you aren't getting any light absorbed by the underside of that nose piece. Once I had everything dry, I put it together and just wiped away the paint from the windows themselves (I'm starting to love acrylic paints).

Edited May 13, 2010 by Chronocidal

[Chronocidal]

Before I forget, just a quick note... I'm trying to avoid buying any specific colors for this build up. Most of the more complex colors I've been mixing on the fly (the lavender for the sensors, Alto's suit colors, etc.) because I don't need to paint anything very large.

In many cases though, I'm going to be using rough approximations using colors I already have handy, which include a lot of military standard colors.

Now, next up, the canopy frame.

Most aircraft I know have canopy frames that match the cockpit interior on the inside, so I figured I'd just make a dual layer paint job on the canopy.

For the first coat, I used dark gull grey, the same color I used on the cockpit interior. That made it so the canopy frame appears gray on the inside.

Second, I painted the black over that (after it was VERY dry). So, although it's tough to see, the end result is that the canopy frame is gray on the inside, black on the outside.

For the cockpit interior, I didn't really do anything special, except drive myself nuts painting the details with a tiny brush.

While I've seen many people use printouts of the instrument panel in the cockpit, I got a bit lazy.. and decided to make a bunch of extra work for myself. (As a side note, there's going to be a LOT of that during this build... my lazyness toward doing certain things usually winds up making me do a lot more work. Whether the results are worth it, I have no idea.. I just like doing things differently to see what happens. )

For the instrument panel, I basically went from my memory of the show... which wasn't great, but didn't give terrible results. I essentially painted the background of the screen a bright green, and outlined a couple of divisions in yellow while the green was still wet. It's nothing fancy, and I might go back later to revise it, but I'm okay with it for now.

That's about it for tonight, I need to get back to actually doing some work on the kit now that a good bit of painting is done. Next up will probably be the head, and I have plan for how to get those white pinstripes painted on with a minimum of pain.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Chronocidal

[mickyg]

Good stuff man!

And don't worry, you've never derailed my thread. I'm still all for your own though - I like the variety these boards offer!

[David Hingtgen]

The ability to easily remove acrylic paints within the first 24 hours may be their greatest asset of all.

PS--

[Chronocidal]

Thanks At least it wasn't too far off color wise, I just need a darker center screen, and more of a gray border.

It probably would look better to print it and stick it on, but part of my personal challenge with this is to see just how far I can get with just painting things. I'm probably going to be punishing myself a lot (already have with the tails actually, but that's another story), but I want to see how it goes.

Btw, somewhere along the way, I discovered a really useful tool for cleaning up paint that went out of the lines: a filed down toothpick. I just filed a round toothpick to a chiseled point, wet it a bit, and used it to smooth out rough paint edges. Worked wonders for cleaning up the tails, and it's a great tool in general for scraping paint off when it's still semi-wet, since the wood usually won't hurt the plastic at all.

[David Hingtgen]

On some models I think I removed more paint with toothpicks, than I applied with a brush.

[Chronocidal]

Next up, time for the head.

I didn't do too much of anything special with this, mostly just painting with a very small brush.

For the visor, I painted the entire back side a pure silver color, as well painting the place where it mounts, just in case it thinned out a bit as it was drying. For the front.. well, I didn't have any transparent green, so I just dipped my brush in the top of an unmixed bottle of bright green paint. It coated surprisingly well, and left the visor a nice bright green color.

I used almost the same method for the front of the sensor on top of the head, first painting a layer of silver, then dabbing a drop of thinned green over it.

For the top part of the head, I remembered all the problems mentioned with the white pinstripe decals going directly over the seam, so I thought I might actually use that seam to my advantage.

Before putting the head together, I sanded down the edges of the red center piece slightly, at about a 45 degree angle. Once the head was together, I just let white paint run into that crevice, leaving a nice even stripe in the joint once the excess was wiped off. I may redo this piece though, since the black and red paint I used didn't smooth out as nicely as I'd like, and the stripes are a little uneven.

Btw, it took a little touching up, but I was able to get the red stripe painted at the base of the head lasers. I think I used a 10/0 brush for it, but it might have been a toothpick.

[Chronocidal]

Now for the two things that gave me numerous fits over the past week.. the tails and crotch plate.

I must have painted and stripped the tails and stabs at least a couple dozen times due to the paint getting lumpy on me. Mostly it was because I was just impatient with adding additional coats, and I kept pulling up the previous coat. Lesson learned: paint a coat, and find something else to do for a while.

In the end, they turned out okay, but the paint is still a little uneven in those two tail stripes. I might try to redo those with a smaller brush later.

Next.. a slight personal rant, so feel free to skip this part.

What really tends to bug me above all else about these kits is Bandai's facepalm-worthy decisions for which parts are made in which colors. I don't mind painting a few details a different color, but casting parts an entirely wrong color drives me nutty. I know some concessions are made for the purposes of molding, but really... the big fat blue hinges that wind up on the VF-25G's belly are just dumb looking and, being hinges, probably the most likely pieces to scratch the paint off of on top of that.

Maybe the worst of all though.. the crotch plate. I want to smack the guy responsible for that upside the head. The piece is molded in black, and you have to paint the entire thing white, with a bit of black trim. I lost count how many times I tried to paint it evenly (by hand, so yes, it's my own fault). Really, even this wouldn't be so bad, except that in order to get that piece to match, you need to paint it with the most utterly angelic, holy, not-of-this-earth shade of white. I mean, seriously. I could ask the Pope to bless and purify my paint, and it wouldn't match Bandai's plastic. I mean, not even the included foil sticker matches the plastic, and it's actually darker than my white paint!

Seriously.. if they're going to give you stickers to make up for pieces being the wrong color, the least they could do is make them the same color as the plastic.

My latest work has been with the arms and leg assemblies. For the most part, I'm going with an acrylic gunmetal on the mechanical parts, so we'll see how well it holds up under the rubbing of transformation.

For the feet though, I'm trying some enamels instead of acrylics. I have several types of Model Master metallizer that I've used before, want to see what they look like. They're recommended for airbrush only, and they're very thin, but that might be just what I need for these brown feet. So far, I've put a test coat of an anthracite gray over some of the leftover brown parts tree, and it looks like it will give a nice metallic gloss to the plastic without actually covering up the brown color. I'm going to let it dry for a while and then see what happens if I buff it out a little.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Chronocidal

[David Hingtgen]

What'll happen? Not much. You've got to buff Metalizer before it dries hard.

[Chronocidal]

Heh.. figures I'd remember that backwards. It's been far too long since I did any serious model building, if you can't tell.. I'm pretty much re-learning as I go.

I did try buffing before it dried too much, but it stayed tacky a long time, and just coated the plastic in fuzz. Probably what I get for brushing instead of spraying. Oh well, back to the drawing board then. I might have to try and see if I can get a good bronze acrylic to try.

[Chronocidal]

I'm realizing that practice with acrylic paints has been what I needed most, since while they clean up nicely, most of my previous experience was with enamels, which dry much slower. Most of my problems have been coming from trying to even out the paint after the first few brush strokes, only to find the paint had alread started to dry, and the extra brushing was causing clumps. Mostly I just had to learn to be patient, put down one even coat, and let it sit for a good few minutes.

After that metallizer failed on the feet, I just stripped it off the best I could, and put them aside for a while to work on the rest of the legs.

I've been trying to go as much by the anime as possible in terms of the pattern, looking up the various colored patches that bandai didn't include on the kit. I'm simplifying the colors a bit though, just sticking with a couple consistent colors that I don't have to mix.

I think I might redo the kneecaps, after realizing how close the tolerances are between them and the shin plates. If I filed down the lower edges a little, or maybe the upper edges of the shin plates, there would probably be plenty of clearance to keep these from scraping. The legs have been put together and taken apart probably a half dozen times now.

While those parts were drying, I decided to see about painting the wing stripes on.

I took a few liberties with the stripes, and instead of the lines the decals follow, I just stuck with existing panel lines for the black stripes. Likewise with the grey strips, I pushed them back to the front edge of the control surfaces, which actually looks closer to what the anime has than the kit directions show.

The underside stripes went on easily, since they have a nice dividing line marked. I discovered that my red paint sticks much better over a base coat, so I painted the entire tip black, and then added the red on the tip, just dividing the black in half at the inner edge of the light on the tip of the wing.

The lights I intended to be slightly transparent over silver, but both my gloss red and the bit of greenish-blue I mixed turned out too thick. They did pick up a bit of metallic sheen to them though, so I'm happy.

Again, with the red paint over black, I did the shoulder plate pinstriping, and it turned out okay, but I might redo it more evenly later, or at least even out the rough edges. The red may also need another coat or two here, it seems more dim than the wingtips turned out. The red stripe might look better a bit wider as well, so there is less black showing.

Sadly, I've got to wait for one of the elbow joints to harden after gluing it.. I managed to snap one of the hinge loops while trying to move the arm earlier, since I'd forgotten to move half of the joint after painting it, and it stuck.

Next up should be the foot assemblies, after I decide what type of paint to try on them.

[anime52k8]

What'll happen? Not much. You've got to buff Metalizer before it dries hard.

how exactly are you supposed to buff it, just rub it with a piece of cloth or something? (seriously I never use the buffing type because it always comes out looking like ass and the non-buffing looks just fine.)

[Lolicon]

I know you're trying to spend as little as possible on extra supplies and materials, but since you're hand painting everything, I highly recommend getting a bottle of GSI's Mr. Retarder Mild. It slows down the drying of paint and makes hand painting and hiding brush strokes way easier. A bottle only costs something like 300 yen and will last awhile, depending of course on how much paint you're using. I use a 90/10 mix of paint to retarder when I have to brush paint something. I used to completely dread anything I had to brush by hand in the days before I started using it. Now I'm only slightly intimidated.

[Chronocidal]

I'll have to look that up in the near future... I've got an order planned for a 1/60 TV Roy in the near future, so I'll have to check if HLJ carries that. I'm not against spending any money, but I do want to avoid the more expensive things I could use. So far, I think I've spent maybe $20 in materials that I didn't already have, mainly paints and brushes.

Up to now, I've just been keeping by brush wet with water while painting, and it's allowed the paint to flow fairly evenly. My only real problem has been my own impatience, and my tendency to try and keep fiddling with things to make them better. If I just wet the paint down a lot, and let it flow into very thin coats, it comes out extremely smooth. It just takes a while to dry, and takes a lot of coats.

After reading through the old kit topics for ideas and reference pictures, I came across a couple of discussions about how to paint the pilot's details since they're so tiny, so a short description of the process I used probably couldn't hurt.

The real trick I found to getting the pilot done well was doing things in layers.

First thing I did was paint the collar area, since it's the hardest to get to, and any attempt to paint that later would get red everywhere.

Next, I think I did all the black on the uniform. If I had thought about it at the time, I would have painted black further up to the neck, but I just left the entire neck area red. Oh well, I'll have to remember that next time.

Next I'm pretty sure I did the blue on the lower uniform, just to get it out of the way, including the stripes on the pants molded into the cockpit. Since those areas go under the armpits, I think I may have touched up the black afterwards to make sure I had the right areas colored.

After that came the white on the helmet and shoulders, which took a couple of coats to cover the dark plastic. One thing I made sure to add was the white patches under the arms, which Bandai forgot to mold into the pilot. They're supposed to be ribbed areas I think, but I just painted a diagonal down under the arms. The last bits here were just red dots on the chest and shoulders, with small black and yellow dots in the middle for the patches.

I forget what order I painted the helmet in, because I'm pretty sure I went back and forth between colors to touch up areas a few times. The order that makes sense to me now is the visor first, followed by the black strip around the back of the head, and blue on the upper front of the helmet, which actually has a thin blue strip that wraps around the head (think I used my smallest brush, but it might've been a toothpick). Final bit was the two red stripes down the front, which I only now realize aren't the right shape, but I'm not worrying about it

on this one.

In other news, I might have to make one of these in fighter mode only. That arm that broke glued decently enough, but split in a second spot the instant I tried to reassemble it. I've got it re-soaked in glue again, but I doubt that piece will ever be strong enough to bend much. I'm going to have to file down the inside of the hole to make sure it fits over the hinge pin in the elbow.

[Chronocidal]

After a little bit of experimental paint mixing, I think I'm really happy with how the feet turned out.

What I wound up doing was making a blend gunmetal and metallic gold, with a bit of flat black to darken it. The mixture went on very smooth, and gave me a nice semi-gloss metallic look, with a hint of brown to it. It kind of looks like antiqued brass in person. For the insides of the feet, I just mixed a little more flat black with gunmetal, and got a nice dull metallic black.

I remember reading about various problems with the decals on the foot cuffs, and how they refused to fit correctly for some people, but I don't remember which half didn't fit. What I did realize while painting them though... Bandai got the heel cuff decals backwards. While the colors are right with the red on top, the decals bend the wrong direction.

Looking at the cuffs, the stripes on the toe dip downward at the edges, but the decals for the heel bend upwards. From all the pictures of the anime I have, it looks like the heel strips should curve to match the cuff, and join up into a roughly continuous stripe when the feet are closed, so I painted them that way, except I skipped painting the small tab that overlaps since moving the feet would just rub the paint off there.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Chronocidal

[mickyg]

In other news, I might have to make one of these in fighter mode only. That arm that broke glued decently enough, but split in a second spot the instant I tried to reassemble it. I've got it re-soaked in glue again, but I doubt that piece will ever be strong enough to bend much. I'm going to have to file down the inside of the hole to make sure it fits over the hinge pin in the elbow.

Did you use super glue or model glue? Model glue won't work on the ABS parts in the kit and I think the joint parts are ABS.

Loving your tips so far man! Thanks for putting the effort into your pics and documentation - there will be some very grateful people out there reading this for a long time, I expect!

[mickyg]

Doh! I forgot to paint the ankle disks! And here I thought I was making progress...

[Chronocidal]

Did you use super glue or model glue? Model glue won't work on the ABS parts in the kit and I think the joint parts are ABS.

Loving your tips so far man! Thanks for putting the effort into your pics and documentation - there will be some very grateful people out there reading this for a long time, I expect!

I did use superglue, but apparently I got some on the inside of the hole, and it shrank, meaning pushing it onto the hinge spread it again.

[David Hingtgen]

For buffing metalizer, I like either socks or kleenex. Note though: the window for buffing is short. Metalizer dries VERY fast. 5 mins may be too soon to start buffing, 10 mins may be too late. In my experience though, it's usually about 10 mins to start buffing lightly, then a few minutes later (after it's fairly shiny) you can start buffing harder.

Highly buffed titanium looks AWESOME. I'll try to photograph my F-18 nozzles I did that way. Unbuffed titanium is basically "metallic grey", a bit of buffing adds iridescence, highly buffed looks browner.

I only slightly buffed the interior of my VF-25 nozzles, here's a pic:

(it's basically unbuffed)

[Chronocidal]

Well, I did figure out what happened with the buffing.. turns out I mixed up two of my paints. The one I used wasn't for buffing after all. Oh well, I like how they turned out from the mixed color.

I've gotten to the point in my kit where I need to seriously start considering whatever reinforcement tweaks I may use. I actually am considering buying a few small magnets, depending on how tiny they can get, while still remaining powerful. I've got two spots in mind.

The first is a replacement for the tabs I developed on my first Michael valk, or maybe a refinement of them. I liked how well the first ones worked, but they were very rough cuts in the leg panels, and I know I could do better with a bit more planning and measuring.

What I might do is try to locate magnets in the same places I added the tabs and slots. They'll have to be very small to fit though. The tabs were located directly above the tabs in the upper leg plates before, and I'm thinking if I removed those tabs entirely, the front pegs might be enough to hold those plates on, but I'm not sure yet. I know there is plenty of room inside the wing glove for a decent sized magnet, so I might just try and fill the leg plates with metal bits. If I can get a strong enough magnet for the wings, it might not actually have to touch directly on the metal. I don't know though.. it will take some testing.

The second spot I'm considering is as a replacement for the tab that holds the hips in place. I pulled off the two underside plates where this connection is located, and there might be a way to do it. There are so many redundant pegs inside these plates, I might be able to remove a couple, and still leave enough to hold them on. I've got the spots circled in the pic below.

The front spot is actually directly above the connection tab. If I removed the peg and socket there, there would be enough room for a small round magnet I think. I may have to drill out a little bit of the plate behind the tab.

The second spot is right where the tab's slot is currently, so the two spots are perfect for locating the magnets. There is less space in the back due to the hip bar joint, but if I remove some of the reinforcement that holds the tab in place in battroid mode, there should be room to lay a magnet right against the inside of the skin.

In other news, I finally got the nerve up to start painting the main markings. While the puzzle-piece pattern can be generally annoying, I actually found the panels very useful for finding solid reference points. I took a couple of small liberties with the pattern, partly to make it look a little more streamlined, and partly to simplify how the pattern lines up with the existing panel lines.

What I did for the most part was simple masking with scotch tape, and it worked fine when I needed it. Most of what I did was drawn on with a pencil in straight lines, and filled in. I painted the black first, and it went on beautifully, making a very smooth coat. The red though.. frustrated me for a few days, mainly on the wing gloves. The black paint isn't really durable to mask over without peeling it off, so I had to free-hand the red over it after marking the outlines with a very fine mechanical pencil and a ruler.

Overall, it came out nicely I think and the red matches the other portions I've painted with it (very dark from the black undercoat, although enough coats will make the same shade on white plastic). It's not perfectly even in some spots, especially the shoulder blocks, but it looks fine for normal viewing distances.

Next step will probably be working on coating the rest of the internal structure with gunmetal, and finally assembling the legs. I've held off putting the entire thing together so far to keep from stressing the hip joints, but it will have to happen sooner or later.

Edit: Oh, by the way.. after watching a couple episodes of the show for details, I redid the shoulders. Know how the shoulder decals have a red stripe between two black stripes? While the black really is just a pinstripe around the wider red band.. the inner pinstripe shouldn't be there. The inner hexagon should be indented, and that second black stripe would be a shadow. The outer black and inner red stripe should also be about the same size.

Also, there is a black stripe on the underside of the wing gloves that I keep seeing, about in the same position as the black portion of the top stripe, without the red piece.

Edited May 24, 2010 by Chronocidal

[Lolicon]

Whoa those painted on stripes look pretty pimp. I bet they were easier than trying to line up Bandai's messed up decals.

[Chronocidal]

The black definitely was easier.. for a while I was tempted to just leave the stripes entirely black. The red, not so much, but it worked.

The best part of this was learning that it's not too difficult to mask off those individual pieces, since most of them follow natural reference points on the plane. I may sticker up one of the kits I have just to try it (probably Luca, since I really only bought his kit for the ghosts ), but I think in general I'm going to stick with painting those markings on, especially once I start learning how to use my airbrush.

[regult]

I think this is actually the first time I see painted red/black main markings on the VF-25 kit, I've always wondered how they'd look like. Amazing work, and it was painted by hand!

Thanks for keeping the updates coming Chronocidal!

[David Hingtgen]

If anyone wants a perfect match to the red decals, Pollyscale's "Southern Pacific scarlet" is it.

[Ghost Train]

My local hobby supply stores seem to be really low on Testors Modelmaster Acrylics which have always been my preferred paint of choice. I bought a bottle of Pollyscale to test, and thus far I love the results. I admit that I've avoided any supplies with a "railroad inclination" because it conjures up images of old crusty guys playing with trains, but I was seriously impressed by the paint. Worked great with brushing and airbrushing, though I tested with "Power Black" and darker colors have always been easier to paint. Of course, the downside is that the color selection and naming convention is more geared towards railroad stuff, but I'm sure some of it is adaptable for planes, Gundams, valkyries and what not.

[David Hingtgen]

Pollyscale's railroad line is my fave line of paint, period. Best white, best yellows, best blacks money can buy. (at least for acrylics) And most importantly---color! Most "military" lines of model paint only offer greys, greyish/navy blues, and camo green. You're lucky to find more than 1 shade of red, orange, yellow in them.

Try matching "Alto red", "Milia red" and "Hikaru red" with a military line---all you'll get is "Insignia red" which matches none of them. But a model train line will offer many subtle variations of reds, to allow perfect matches. I personally have SP scarlet, Daylight red, SOO candy apple, ATSF red, caboose red, signal red, and Seaboard chinese red.

[anime52k8]

sorry to derail this thread even further, but I had one last question about testors metalizers. do Metalizers work better going over a Gloss base or a flat base.(i.e. flat black vs gloss black.)

[Chronocidal]

Oh, please derail away, I'd like to know that as well, actually.

[David Hingtgen]

Don't even think about putting metalizer over anything but the glossiest/smoothest of surfaces. Polished bare plastic is actually the best IMHO.

[anime52k8]

Don't even think about putting metalizer over anything but the glossiest/smoothest of surfaces. Polished bare plastic is actually the best IMHO.

damn...

well I already primmed mine so it looks like it's getting another round of break fluid... I wonder how many times I can strip these parts before it screws up the plastic...

[Chronocidal]

Depending on the plastic, you might have a few tries, but using thinners to remove paint can have some nasty effects. Don't ever use it on clear plastic for instance.. the last time I did that, it crazed the plastic, leaving it with a shattered glass look.

I did use thinner to remove the first metallic coat I put on the feet, and it didn't seem to hurt much, but it definitely had an effect on the plastic. After removing the paint, the plastic was very dull, almost like a cloudy texture somehow, and the surface of the pieces was definitely softer then before.. it seemed to scratch more easily, as if the plastic was breaking down.

The most reliable way I know to remove paint is just scraping or sanding it off (much easier with acrylics, but a fine grained sandpaper is usually enough to strip enamels without taking off too much plastic). Takes more work, and scratches up the surface, but it's probably the safest route. And if you're planning on repainting the part anyway, it'll cover up easily enough.

Edited May 31, 2010 by Chronocidal

[Darth Mingus]

In terms of metallic paints, here is a quick article about the Alclad metal paints:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html

I think the tips here should apply to other metal-type paints.