Yamato 1:3000 SDF-1 Macross - unpainted model kit

[MacrossJunkie]

Thanks Benson.

I'm nearly there. I snap fitted all the pieces together to make sure there weren't any more surprises as I close in on the finish line. Everything seems to be acceptable at this point. The right arm's articulation seems a little jerky as it get caught on a piece that the left side does, despite it being put together the same way. I even disassembled it and reassembled several times and tried to figure out why it was doing that. No luck. I can live with it though.

I added the little PE parts to the ARMDs and tips of the main cannons, however I think I'm not cut out for having those things there because I'm such a klutz. I keep knocking those things off even though I super glued them on. It's just that the super glue doesn't seem to adhere to the photo-etch metal very well.

Here are some pics of the main body. I'm letting the center torso area dry at the moment after putting another clear coat on.

After this, I need to do a wash, but I have to wait until my black oil paint arrives. The burnt umber I have is too brown and wasn't as dark as I was expecting it to be.

I also need to paint the bridge and detail it. Then I plan on clear coating and adding the glow in the dark stickers all over. Finally a flat coat, then add in the finishing details like painting the lights and such.

I also plan on painting the alternate destroyed main cannon parts. So I can swap as desired.

Edited January 3, 2013 by MacrossJunkie

[Reïvaj]

[...] I also got and started using the decal sheet that WMCheng used on his. I think those decals look great and was a stroke of genius.[...]

How many of those decal sheets have you used? They really make a difference!

Great job so far, MacrossJunkie! Thanks for sharing!

[MacrossJunkie]

Just one for the panels. Then there was a separate small one for the small red markings and then there was the decal sheet that came with the kit.

[Reïvaj]

Cool! Thanks a lot!

[vf_1s]

They also included a decal to act as the background to the city block! It seems they patched together some of the cityscape art from DYRL -- which means they may have even just copied Kyekye's idea!!

Actually I sent them pics of vf1s's 1/2000 custom a while back, before kyekye did his.

Thanks EXO. I have just bought the SDF-1 Kit this christmas, and saw that too. That's funny! I will take it as a compliment

Edited January 7, 2013 by vf_1s

[derex3592]

That looks SUH-WEET!

[MacrossJunkie]

Over the past few days, I started adding weathering to large sections of my SDF-1.

I used a combination of the Tamiya weathering kits and air brushing.

The pics are a little out of date as I thought I put too much of my gray filter on the front of the legs which became too opaque and obscured most of the decals and made what was left really hard to see so I scrubbed it all off and started over on those sections. It looks much better now. The tamiya kits helped highlight and bring out the detail, especially in the blue areas. I'm glad I started out with really dark blue colors because the weathering already lightened it up quite a bit.

What's left is finishing up weathering and detailing the ARMDs, painting and detailing the bridge section, then applying all those glow in the dark stickers. Lastly, I'll coat it with a flat coat and then put finishing touches like painting little dots of "lights" on the surface.

I think I may scrap the idea of swapping around with the destroyed version of the cannons because I'm having a really hard time getting the covers off of the undamaged versions to remove them.

[MacrossJunkie]

I spent some time last night putting together and detailing up the bridge section.

I also put some decals on the bridge window to simulate the HUD like this:

I think I still need to add a bit more paint before I do another clear coat and oil wash.

[EXO]

Looking great!

[Major Focker]

wow, that looks fantastic!

where did you get the tiny red decals (particularly, the one with the diagonal stripes)? or did you brush them on? [gasp]

and how in hell did you paint perfect circles on the windshield?

[Benson13]

Best head ever.

[MacrossJunkie]

wow, that looks fantastic!

where did you get the tiny red decals (particularly, the one with the diagonal stripes)? or did you brush them on? [gasp]

and how in hell did you paint perfect circles on the windshield?

Yeah, I wish I had something that could paint to that precision. Those are decals. Specifically the red version of the HIQ Parts 1/144 decal sheets first used by KyeKye, shown here.

There were some decals with circles that were perfectly sized for this so I cut them out and used them on the view shield. Unfortunately by the time I decided to get some, Only the red and white versions were left in one online store. When I got it in the mail, they only sent me the red one and apparently the only white one they had remaining got lost somewhere so I only had the red decal sheet to work with and couldn't get a replacement.

I've almost finished applying the glow in the dark stickers now. I'll get some pics up when I've some time. They were actually quite a pain to do and it took several hours a day over many days. When applying them the way the instructions showed, it actually ended up lifting off and ruining chunks of the clear coat "protected" decals I had underneath when I pulled the backing off. That really pissed me off. The backing is waaay too tacky I think. I've even broken some of the glow in the dark stickers trying to get them off because the backing was so sticky. I had to redo a few areas or tried to hide the blemishes as best I could. After that point, I just applied them my own way instead.

[MacrossJunkie]

Here are some pics with glow-in-the-dark stickers applied. I'll do another once over and see what areas could use a few more, but for the most part, the sticker portion is done.

Afterwards, I need to possibly give it another clear coat and then a flat coat, put it all together and add the windows to the legs, then do final detail painting.

I might possibly draw some pencil lines like wm cheng did also.

Edited January 15, 2013 by MacrossJunkie

[Kicker773]

Cool. Need someone to build mine. Any volunteers?

[wm cheng]

The glow-in-the-dark stickers look great! I was debating on putting them on (laziness won out!). How did you do it? It was a rub-on transfer right? Did you cut them out into smaller sheets before applying?

[MacrossJunkie]

The glow-in-the-dark stickers look great! I was debating on putting them on (laziness won out!). How did you do it? It was a rub-on transfer right? Did you cut them out into smaller sheets before applying?

They're actually stickers applied like rub on transfers. However, the backing is very sticky and has a chance of taking the clear coat or decals with it. I just cut out smaller sections of 3 or 4 stickers and then peel the stickers off with tweezers and apply them individually. That's the safest bet, although a tad time consuming. They are easy to break as well as they are a thin yet solid layer of phosphorus that can crack or chip if bent too much or too much pressure is applied.

[MacrossJunkie]

Cool. Need someone to build mine. Any volunteers?

*hides* Not me! I think I've already had my fill doing this one.

I have already spent 3-6 hours a day, nearly every day over the span of 6 weeks and I need a break after this.

This is so far the longest project I've ever tried to undertake and has been a mental struggle to keep at it.

All the decals and stickers are what really killed me.

[Kicker773]

Awe c'mon !

[MacrossJunkie]

Well, I guess it's more or less finished. I put the finished pics in this thread. Here

I still plan on finishing the alternate damaged parts and the PE valks + launch arms. Just going to take a break before I do those.

Edited January 17, 2013 by MacrossJunkie

[MacrossJunkie]

I painted up the destroyed main cannons, but there's one problem. I can't seem to get the undamaged ones off. The covers that go over the screws have 3 long pegs and they seem to be stuck in there real good and I can't seem to get them off without damaging the finish or breaking the pegs. I'm not really sure how to get them off safely. I wish they made it easier to remove.

[EXO]

It's a good thing that it's the full ones that got stuck. It would drive me crazy if it was the destroyed ones. But hopefully you can figure it out. I'd love to see the other ones on there.

[MacrossJunkie]

The destroyed ones aren't even functional in any way. They can't turn and fortunately they just plop over the knobs rather loosely so there wouldn't be any chance of getting stuck unless glued in place.

I'm not sure how people like KyeKye were able to pull apart the toy version which used a lot of glue. I can't even manage to do it for the kit version...

Edit: Nevermind. I finally managed to remove them with minimal damage to the plastic and finish.

Edit 2: Pics coming up for your viewing pleasure in the same thread I put the other pics in.

Edited January 19, 2013 by MacrossJunkie

[MacrossJunkie]

While cleaning up, I forgot I had the alternate feet parts for the SDF-1 as well. Since they are not compatible with my modifications, I won't ever be using them so I'm thinking maybe I should just give these away?

I'm not sure if anyone would even be interested in them since they were basically an animation mistake and shown for a few frames in DYRL.

Edit: Hmmm ... maybe I can do something with it on my toy version.

Edit 2: Nope... I don't really feel like modding the toy with it. I guess if there is someone in the continental US (or possibly even Canada or Mexico, depending on how much shipping will cost me. I don't feel like spending more than $10 on shipping) that really intends to use it on their toy, let me know.

Edited January 22, 2013 by MacrossJunkie

[Astro_BS-AS]

@MacrossJunkie....

I envy you so much... Dear Gosh !

Your work is amazing !

[MechTech]

Looks AWESOME man! Nice work with the details and hanging in there being patient. Great job! - MT

[anubis20]

I got started again on mine after having not worked on it for a few months. Nowhere near MacrossJunkie's work which is amazing but its coming along. MacrossJunkie question about the glow in the dark stickers.. Is there a guide as to where they go or its just random placement as you like?

Edited April 2, 2013 by anubis20

[MacrossJunkie]

Just random placement as you like. You can just use mine as a general reference for placement of those stickers if you don't want to spend time figuring out good places to put them.

[Astro_BS-AS]

@Anubis20

Go ahead . People like us can never have so much of "SDF-1 porn".

Great thread to watch and learn

Thank you very much, people.

[Palantirion]

*bump*

Just got a kit of my own, and wanted to thank this thread for convincing me to take the plunge. This thread will be a detailing reference for me as well. Thanks again!

[yman1437]

sorry for necro-posting. was just able to acquire am used kit from mandarake, but it's missing the luminous decal sheets, was it supposed to come with the kit?

Thanks!