Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1 modification and paint up...

[charger69]

The good thing about customizing SDF-1: It's never overdone!

[wm cheng]

Boy are you right! Everytime I look at it I think, hey there some good spots for more decals!!

This really is so detailed for a toy... Yamato has really outdone themselves on the sculpt and the amount of details they put into it, I'm constantly amazed as I transform this baby and discover new spots they populated with "gak"

I HAVE TO STOP!! or I'll never finish. So after another few hours of applying decals (which I thought I was done yesterday!) - I finally clear-coat sealed the decals in with a thick glossy finish. I will let it dry overnight before I start to dust it with the flat Neutral Grey to tie everything together and a few coats of flat/matte clear coat.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I'm gonna go put my SDF-1 back in it's box now...

+1

My SDF seems a knock off compared to William's masterpiece.

[miriya]

That is just disgustingly sick! (in the good way of course)

[wm cheng]

Lol! Thanks.

Well, I finally got the panelling toned down to what I wanted - I sprayed a few light coats of grey over the decals, and they now look more painted on than decals, more subtle surface texture than markings. This overall "graying" is intentional since large objects then to "haze out" in the distance and lose contrast - its a trick to create scale as well as the flat/matte finish.

However, it toned everything down, some of the deeper vents and details were lost due to being sprayed over with grey. All the details don't "pop" anymore. So I now have to add another step and clear coat this light grey spray with a glossy coat so I can do another dark oil wash to pick out / punch up the details before I can seal everything in with a flat/matte finishing coat.

After that, I in tend on dabbing tiny bits of chrome silver to the tips and clear red over them as navigation lights all over and start to detail the interior of the chest nozzles, I'll paint them in a gun metal silver to be clear-coated in red clear. I also intend to do some weathering of the rear main engines in Alclad Burnt Exhaust. Hopefully this will be as far as I can go finishing up the surface of the SDF-1 this weekend because I start work on Monday again - argh! I still haven't gotten to those wonderfully tiny photo-etched launch arms and Super Valkyries yet, but that will have to come later.

Edited April 20, 2012 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

Well, I've really put a bit of myself into this build! It's my hair!! Someone earlier on suggested that I use human hair for the antennas vertically spanning between the radar array since I couldn't get stretched sprue thin enough and strong enough to hold. Well, originally I had planned 8 per side, but I guess either age, eyesight or just being old got the better of me so I just ended up with 4 per side.

I then painted them grey, so they looked less like hair and it thickened them up a bit - but they were strong!

[wm cheng]

The second oil wash did wonders popping the details out! The overall flat/matte clear-coat lightening everything quite a bit, including the dark grey areas, I always thought they were too contrasty, but now they might be too light and blended into the overall scheme a little too much.

I still have a dry brushing stage to go to pick up the highlights and then a mechanical pencil pass like they did on the Star Wars Star Destroyers, but I am glad I'm finally finished with the decal stage! The panelling ended up to be a much bigger job than I had anticipated.

I airbrushed the interior of the engine bells Alclad Burnt Exhaust - I hated the tan colour of the plastic in there. I then "charred" the edges of the ends of the legs to tie them into the engines

The final parting shot...

Edited April 20, 2012 by wm cheng

[EXO]

awww... if you needed some gray hair you should've just asked me! lol.

It's freakin gorgeous!

Now get some money shots so we can front page it!

[UN Spacy]

That's SO money.

[Reïvaj]

Simply beautiful!

[kyekye]

Wow! Nicely Done!!!

For the Flat coat leveling out the contarst, I felt the same way on mine... I only noticed it when I took pictures later.

Now it's tme for beauty shots!!!

[wm cheng]

I got a little time to do some pencil panel lines all over the SDF-1 - the key is subtle here! But it was a lot of surface area, at least some of the flatter areas like the rear engine tan portions are a bit more detailed now.

Some light grey/white drybrushing to pick out the raised details,

Unfortunately, when I started to dab around for the nav lights, I used the Tamiya marker chrome on a fine 000 brush, and didn't realize I got some on my palms! Argh! I accidentally transferred some tiny hits of silver around the toy. I thought, I'd use some organic solvent to wipe away the bits of silver, but unfortunately, the solvent ate through all my layers of clear-coat and greys!! So I've gotta do a bit of a repair job to that tiny section I tested it on - well, one step forward - 2 steps back!

I did add the Tamiya red clear over the tiny hits of chrome silver to simulate the red nav lights all over the SDF-1. So here it is for now... still a ways to go!!

Edited April 29, 2012 by wm cheng

[mechaninac]

That is just disgustingly cool...

[Benson13]

That is just disgustingly cool...

I agree I'm constantly showing people who have no idea what they're looking at and telling them how epic this is. So many people lack passion these days.

[nanoplasm]

If they ever make a live action DYRL, they can just use this ship here as the studio scale model.

[UN Spacy]

Someone should show Kazutaka Miyatake this.

[Reïvaj]

That is just disgustingly cool...

Yeah, mine looks like a steaming POS now!

Amazing job, vm cheng!

[Knight26]

f'n goregous, you have to sneak that into the background of one the movies you work on next

[Zinjo]

Hey boss, any chance you would be willing to post beauty shots on an image site other than Macross World?

The new image management policy here shrinks images down to below 200kb so we are not getting your full resolution shots..

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd appreciate it.

[wm cheng]

Thanks guys!

I'm currently in Germany giving a presentation at the FMX 2012 conference - so I'm out of town! BUT, I'm not really anywhere near done yet, still many loose ends to tie up and those tiny photo-etched Valkyries and launch arms too!

[EXO]

Are you sure you're not just looking at the thumbnails? The last pic posted here is 500kb.

[pfunk]

I love the red accents, it sets off all the greys

[Benson13]

I just noticed the grid lines on the feet. It's so simple yet so awesome. I never would've thought of anything like that.

[Zinjo]

Are you sure you're not just looking at the thumbnails? The last pic posted here is 500kb.

When you open the preview it gives uploaded size, but if you check the file size after you download it or in the "save" page the actual available file is much smaller...

[derex3592]

I just noticed the grid lines on the feet. It's so simple yet so awesome. I never would've thought of anything like that.

How exactly did you do those anyway...the whole pencil thing???? Inquiring minds wanna know!

[Benson13]

It's those fine details that really bring this toy to life. Not to ride your jock Cheng, but you really are an asset to this community. Thanks for taking the time to create a tutorial on all your projects and providing inspiration to our own projects.

[wm cheng]

How exactly did you do those anyway...the whole pencil thing???? Inquiring minds wanna know!

I just used a ruler and a mechanical pencil, very sharp - I usually use a H lead (harder lead) and started to draw on the surface. It works best on a matte surface (which is why I waited till my matte/flat coat) and you have to seal it again afterwards since it will rub off with your fingers. I got the idea from Star Wars - its how they detailed their Star Destroyers. I also use a Photo-etched template that has weird shapes on it for the odd access panel here and there.

Gotta do that repair job where the solvent ate away at my paint and touch up some areas where the red lights were a little too large before the Photo-etched Valkryies.

Thanks Benson13!

[ruskiiVFaussie]

I am sexually attracted to this custom.

[Loop]

Now get some money shots so we can front page it!

I just left the money shot in my pants LOL!

This thing is gorgeous awesome work WM Cheng.

[MacrossJunkie]

That is absolutely fantastic! The decals really help a lot. I would love to use those decals too. They look perfect, but it seems the starshipmodeler site no longer has any more of those =(

The other hull plating decals they have in the store don't work because they're all curved for Star Trek saucers. Anyone know if there's any place that sells a good alternative or if the starship modeler site restocks those hull plating decals from time to time? They just have amber and red. Even the purple one is gone which I was going to see if it looked any good on the darker areas.

I broke down and bought the kit in one of the previous HLJ sales this year because I just couldn't find anyone who would sell me the photo etch parts or any of the other kit-only items for the toy version. These pics have really inspired me and make me want to get started on mine as soon as possible.

Also, could anyone tell me what is the best/most appropriate tool for cutting out the photo-etch parts?

[north-exit]

Words can't express how gorgeous I think this piece of art is. My SDF-1 looks so poor to my eyes... even more than I thought it did before seeing this masterpiece.

I might just have to shake the rust off my modelling skills & do a bit of detailing on my plastic brick SDF-1. Thank you for the inspiration & the effort you've put into making this

build available for all to see.

Edited August 9, 2012 by north-exit

[Nelssao]

I Just bought this Kit in E-Bay from a guy in Hong Kong and I cant wait to start the work.

Just one request, the background for Macross city, will you upload the file or the image? I really appreciate, it´s better than the decal in the Kit.

Thanks

[Valkyrie Magnus]

I love the city scape pictures! Soooo nice!

[wm cheng]

Thanks for the kudos everyone. I had a few hours and thought I'd try to finish this thing after a long hiatus.

I decided to just paint with Tamiya Clear Red over some of the engine thrusters on the bottom, it already had a metallic under coat and created a darker red rimmed effect that I wanted for my more muted version of the SDF-1

Edited September 30, 2012 by wm cheng

[EXO]

Maybe if there's ever a space fleet in one of the movies you're working on, you can sneak this in. It's beautiful!