Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[GMK]

Had a spot of “expeditionary modelling” this week. Helped a mate to paint a show model for a major trade show. 

 

Just like being a specialist. Provide the list of equipment, level of preparation, and book a time - turn up and it’s ready to go. 

In my defence, the model was bolted down and couldn’t be moved. Plus, I’d never used that airbrush & compressor before. 

[electric indigo]

That is a big (and cool looking) tank you got there! And it looks like you mastered that airbrush.

_

Reinforcing my scandinavian air force

After looking at that Delta aberrations for so long, I had the urge to go for the real thing. A beautiful design, like a formula 1 car; the Viggen looks like a truck against it. 

[wm cheng]

Gorgeous electric indigo (amazong paint scheme, turned out fantastic)!  What kits are those?  Love those Sabbs.

[electric indigo]

Thanks, wm. The Draken is Hasegawa's superb kit, the Viggen from Sweden's small model company Tarangus, formed by two Saab enthusiasts.

Here's more of the Thunderbolt, I'm struggling with my camera to get some decent shots for composite work.

 

[20max20]

Finally got the PG Gundam GP01 completed! Quite happy with the color schem too...I’m quite bored by the white/blue/red classic and tried something more “space like”. Hope you like it!

[derex3592]

that's a gorgeous paint job on that Gundam! 

[Thom]

Lovely looking Gundam!

And the Drakken is such a clean and nice design.

[wm cheng]

I just love how clean and smooth your paint finish is - fantastic!!!

[Knight26]

Love it, the GP-01FB is probably my favorite Gundam Design,

[505thAirborne]

2 hours ago, Knight26 said:

Love it, the GP-01FB is probably my favorite Gundam Design,

+1 

[arbit]

Wow, these 1/144 are tougher to paint than I thought. I would hate to have to paint an even larger one.

Now I have no idea how I will build up a gloss on this for the washes. 

[joscasle]

After having finished the VF-1S (Roy's) in 1/48, I will continue with my goal of building all the Valkyries in 1/48 of the main characters of the TV series. I already have Hikaru's! The next one will be Miria's!

 

 

I already made some "color test" , Miria's red is not an easy color. I'm happy with MRP Insignia Red. Like the others, most of the marks will be painted, but I will use some stencils from the Super Valkyrie kit (max/miria), and I will print some myself, mostly the "no step" ones.

Edited September 10, 2018 by joscasle

[derex3592]

Those look great! Can't wait to see more! 

[joscasle]

15 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Those look great! Can't wait to see more! 

Thanks!!

I know that the style of the VF-1S pilot is not suitable for the TV series, I am looking for someone who has one that is not using, if anyone has one that can sell it to me, please send me a PM?

Edited September 10, 2018 by joscasle

[Thom]

20 hours ago, joscasle said:

After having finished the VF-1S (Roy's) in 1/48, I will continue with my goal of building all the Valkyries in 1/48 of the main characters of the TV series. I already have Hikaru's! The next one will be Miria's!

 

 

I already made some "color test" , Miria's red is not an easy color. I'm happy with MRP Insignia Red. Like the others, most of the marks will be painted, but I will use some stencils from the Super Valkyrie kit (max/miria), and I will print some myself, mostly the "no step" ones.

Like your line-up of /48 Valks! Miriam's is a fav. Will love to see what you do with it.

[derex3592]

Well....it's not often that I give up.. but the time has come to put away the Cat's Eye for a few weeks or months. I don't know how to get the canopies right, and it's just sitting here, I'm not working on anything else and it's driving me nuts... so, I'm taking a break for now. I'm going to do a couple of fun things that I got for free with Amazon reward points!  I'm keeping my eye out for the B-Wing to hit our shores and I'll pick that up for sure. 

[MechTech]

Some cool stuff everyone!

Derex, have you tried poring some resin into the old canopies and made some new ones out of the plugs? Vacuum forming some new ones really is not too tough. Plus you can use the skills on some other projects later on. - MT

[Chronocidal]

Taking a step back can be helpful, and those Bandai kits are a joy to assemble, they should be a nice stress-free breather*.  I've picked up two or three of each of the 1/72 ships now, and I haven't even progressed past the assembly phase, because they're just enjoyable to put together and take apart over and over.  

*Except for the Y-Wing that is.. that kit has enough tiny parts to make you go blind, and there are certain parts better assembled with tweezers.  I really wish they'd gone full 1/48 for the whole line.

[Thom]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Well....it's not often that I give up.. but the time has come to put away the Cat's Eye for a few weeks or months. I don't know how to get the canopies right, and it's just sitting here, I'm not working on anything else and it's driving me nuts... so, I'm taking a break for now. I'm going to do a couple of fun things that I got for free with Amazon reward points!  I'm keeping my eye out for the B-Wing to hit our shores and I'll pick that up for sure. 

I hit that logger head too. Mine is sitting on a bottom shelf in partial paint, waiting for the mojo faerie to kick in again for it. Until then, have fun with those Bandais!

Edited September 12, 2018 by Thom

[arbit]

10 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Well....it's not often that I give up..

Looks like I'm not the only frustrated modeler around here! The art of painting has me totally discouraged. I'm no better now than when I started. I'm ready to give up on ever being a decent painter...

I need you all's feedback on my gloss coat.  Good? Bad? Comments? Is it strong enough to withstand an enamel or Flory's wash?

Other than that, on the raised glossy surfaces you can see that I have built up an orange peel texture with the base coats. So this makes my gloss coat look terrible with all the little dimples. Still not sure how to avoid this. (I'm using super fine primer and Tamiya paint 50-50 thinned.)

[derex3592]

Having done 3 differing sizes of Falcon models, I can tell you that they are not easy to get the primary color down on evenly because of all the funky angles and greeblies. The orange peel problem is one I don't have very often anymore as I reluctantly learned NOT to paint when it's really humid..which in north TX, it often is.   Temperature and humidity are a lot bigger factors than I think people realize when painting.  The distance of the airbrush to the model and the thickness of your paint mixture as well as your air pressure all come into play.  We all know ..it's NOT as easy as it looks!!!   Painting my 1:32 toy mod Falcon and event the FM 1:72 was a daunting task. The finishes didn't come out perfect, but good enough as it is a Falcon and you're going the weather the crap out of it! 

@electric indigo and @wm cheng are two of the best painters regularly on the forums, they might be able to chime in with some more tips

 

EDIT: Concerning gloss coats...Here's my advice..this is what I did...STOP trying to be the guy who airbrushes it!  Whether it be Future/Testors/whatever..Pay the $$, buy the Tamiya TS Gloss coat spray cans and spray can it. The stuff is GREAT. The Flat Coat as well.  It ain't cheap, but it just straights works better than anything else I've found. Two good even coats, let it dry and go to town with weathering, washes, decals whatever. Others may disagree, but that's what I do now!

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by derex3592

[arbit]

Well you are the Star Wars expert around here.  

FYI, I grew up in Texas y'all.

[wm cheng]

Orange peel is when you are spraying too thick of a mixture.  You need to thin down the paint more and spray in lighter multiple coats instead of one thick coat.  Generally, there are other factors too like too low of PSI when spraying can contribute to that too or the substrate/layer underneath wasn't prepared properly.  Painting is kind of a "voodoo / black art" I still find that sometimes I do exactly the same thing as I did before that turned out great didn't turn out another time.  Good luck and don't be discouraged.  The beauty of the MF is that its so weathered you can turn it into an effect.

[joscasle]

Some advances, Miria's VF-1J!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now!!

[Thom]

That's good for now!

[joscasle]

Nose section continue!!

 

 

[Chronocidal]

Painted markings always just look so much better than decals.. I'm honestly tempted to make stencils for major insignia markings on a lot of kits.

Looking amazing!

[joscasle]

14 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Painted markings always just look so much better than decals.. I'm honestly tempted to make stencils for major insignia markings on a lot of kits.

Looking amazing!

please do it!!!!

[arbit]

This is where I am. I think the Florys grime came out too dark.

I'm planning to airbrush a thin coat of light white grey color on top of everything. Any suggestions for the color mix, to kill the decals and lighten the panel wash? 

Edited September 15, 2018 by arbit

[joscasle]

VF-1J continue!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2018 by joscasle

[GMK]

That VF-1J is stunning! Love that scheme. 

[arbit]

I think I am more in the right direction after lightening things up a bit. Aiming for movie accuracy is a hoepless task for me, I just need it to look something like a Falcon. 

Now I need to figure out how to darken those decals. Any suggestions?

Edited September 16, 2018 by arbit

[electric indigo]

I wouldn't say the decals need to be darkened. If anything, I'd give them even more light grey overspray to bring down the saturation a bit.

Are the tiny black stencils the are on the filming model part of the decal sheet? If not, you can make a simple stamp with a strip of cardboard and have a go at those plain armor panels.

[slide]

7 hours ago, arbit said:

Now I need to figure out how to darken those decals. Any suggestions?

 

.. I know Bandais plastics are weird about thinners, so grain of salt here:

 

get a really thin mix of your primary hull colour [like 95% thinner], and spray that over the whole model like a clearcoat, but go extremely light.

this will act as a filter and "unify" or "blend" the colours of the model... there's a proper model-building term for said process, but it escapes me at the moment... They'll pop less without actually darkening them.

another option that would darken [the whole ship, not just the decals] would be the above process using "Tamiya smoke" or something similar.

 

PS: also, it looks like you havn't done the requisite "make it look like the piece of junk Luke said it was" weathering that the falcon typically gets... weather it and see if they're still popping too much for you.

If you use products like Flory's washes, then you can kill two mynocks with one procedure... it will act as a filter just by the nature of the stuff and how you use it.

Edited September 16, 2018 by slide

[joscasle]

Continue!!