Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Thom]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated!

MechTech, that is a great looking crane!

[anubis20]

More progress on the K-40. Have a few more decals to go but I think I should be done with decals and the final clear coat by this weekend. All I will have left after that will be the pilot and canopy to deal with

[arbit]

Nice work guys. Been down with a cold over the break.

I saw this on youtube. It's one of the finest lighted kits I've seen.

The formation lights are so elegant, I thought it was a real jet.

And the difficulty level of lighting of the tail fins is unreal at 1/72 scale. 

Give the guy some Thumbs Up, he deserves it.

 

[Mazinger]

1 hour ago, arbit said:

Nice work guys. Been down with a cold over the break.

I saw this on youtube. It's one of the finest lighted kits I've seen.

The formation lights are so elegant, I thought it was a real jet.

And the difficulty level of lighting of the tail fins is unreal at 1/72 scale. 

Give the guy some Thumbs Up, he deserves it.

 

Holy crap!  I thought that was the real deal for at least 5 seconds!

[MechTech]

Thanks Thom!

Looking nice n clean anubis!

Thanks for sharing Arbit! That is some cool lighting. I also got the crud too. DON'T take Zicam. I lost my smell and taste for a week. Thank God I'm getting them back. I searched and found out people have lost their smell and taste permanently, mostly from the nasal drops. Its some nasty stuff!

So, I built those nice compact servo switches, glued them into my ship model, and they BOTH stopped working! Talk about frustrated. It turns out the diodes dropped the voltage too low to give the motors enough "umph" to move anymore. I could hear and feel them try to move, but they both jammed. Using only three volts really lowers your opportunities. So, I went even lower tech and older school and used wind-up toy motor clutches and a single micro gearmotor (6mm diameter) to drive them and cammed switches. One clutch faces upward and the other faces downward. When the motor turns one way, only one cam works and visa versa. It also weighs 6 grams less so that's another positive. It is not my prettiest work, but only you guys are going to see it.

More detail work got done on the crane and more work on the ship's bridge as well. Bit by bit its coming together. - MT

[Mazinger]

So I‘m just about done with the 3D printing of my first Legioss designed by MaxLab. It’s been a learning process. The orientation of how a part is printed determines so much.

I also decided to try to learn to use an air brush,  using Vallejo Air Red, but I’m not entirely happy with the final product since the white primer I used made give the red a pinkish hue. Not sure what could be done about it now that doesn’t involve a lot of sanding and repainting. If you guys have tips about how to darken it by say 5% I’m listening.

 

[arbit]

37 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

I also decided to try to learn to use an air brush,  using Vallejo Air Red, but I’m not entirely happy with the final product since the white primer I used made give the red a pinkish hue. Not sure what could be done about it now that doesn’t involve a lot of sanding and repainting. If you guys have tips about how to darken it by say 5% I’m listening.

Your red coat looks fine to me. Remember that your panel lining and any wash/oils you use will also darken the red.

Don't ever bother with stripping and repainting unless you have a major chemical reaction. the benefit of airbrush is that it gives you thin coats you can always build up and adjust the final shade as you go. So in this case, you could mix a slightly darker shade and go over it again. (A lot of times I will dilute my top layers 70-80% if I want want to lay it on very lightly to adjust a shade). So if you don't get the shade you want at the first go, just keep going and build up to your goal.

One lesson I learned is not to rush and remove any masking till I am sure I like the color.

And if you are not getting a smooth airbrush flow with Vallejo, I recommend moving to Tamiya as soon as possible. If your airbrush is spluttering, it is not you, it's the paint. Took me years to figure that out.

[Mazinger]

Great tips @arbit Thanks.

[anubis20]

Completed the K-40 right on time before the end of the year. This was my 1st Hasegawa kit and I definitely learned a lot. Completely different experience from the Gundams I was used to building  I think i will be building more but I only plan on doing those oddball paint schemes like the Makina 31C.

 

[CrossAir]

Wow, looks fantastic, Anubis! Great work, I really love this scheme. I have built lots of Hasegawa fighters in my early modeling years. Need some work but detail is always great.

[anubis20]

6 minutes ago, CrossAir said:

Wow, looks fantastic, Anubis! Great work, I really love this scheme. I have built lots of Hasegawa fighters in my early modeling years. Need some work but detail is always great.

Thanks! Yes i like the color scheme a lot as well. I think the hardest thing for me with this kit was the amount of glue it took. 

[derex3592]

Wow! Looks fantastic! Great job! 

[CrossAir]

5 minutes ago, anubis20 said:

I think the hardest thing for me with this kit was the amount of glue it took. 

Hah, I experienced the opposite when starting with Bandai or Kotobukyia kits. Suddenly almost no glue was needed anymore. But I can say you can’t rip off my old Hasegawas anymore, half is plastic and the other half consist of glue 

[Thom]

On 12/29/2019 at 9:36 PM, Mazinger said:

So I‘m just about done with the 3D printing of my first Legioss designed by MaxLab. It’s been a learning process. The orientation of how a part is printed determines so much.

I also decided to try to learn to use an air brush,  using Vallejo Air Red, but I’m not entirely happy with the final product since the white primer I used made give the red a pinkish hue. Not sure what could be done about it now that doesn’t involve a lot of sanding and repainting. If you guys have tips about how to darken it by say 5% I’m listening.

 

Wow, that is a good looking Alpha (Legioss.) I agree with Arbit, the red is looking nice.

 

On 12/31/2019 at 11:09 AM, anubis20 said:

Completed the K-40 right on time before the end of the year. This was my 1st Hasegawa kit and I definitely learned a lot. Completely different experience from the Gundams I was used to building  I think i will be building more but I only plan on doing those oddball paint schemes like the Makina 31C.

 

Damn fine looking plane! Really like the scheme and it is certainly shiny enough for a show!

[CrossAir]

My work over Xmas holidays: Frame Arms Jagd Falx. Lying around for quite a while, but had to get rid of the big box as it took to much storage space .

I gave the inner frame a gun metal finish instead of the lighter grey to make it look a bit like a Metal Build .

[neptunesurvey]

Won a bronze for this Bandai mini Star Destroyer at 2019 WF in Louisville . Ran 18 feet of .10 mm fiber optic for windows, 2 pico LEDs in the hangar, and 3 LEDS (3mm) for the engines.  If I build another one I will use pico LEDs for the engines instead of the 3mm.  They are a bit large for the interior.  Right now I am working on the Bandai mini Super Star Destroyer and attempting to light that won as well.

 

[arbit]

8 hours ago, neptunesurvey said:

Won a bronze for this Bandai mini Star Destroyer at 2019 WF in Louisville . Ran 18 feet of .10 mm fiber optic for windows, 2 pico LEDs in the hangar, and 3 LEDS (3mm) for the engines.  If I build another one I will use pico LEDs for the engines instead of the 3mm.  They are a bit large for the interior.  Right now I am working on the Bandai mini Super Star Destroyer and attempting to light that won as well.

Nice work neptunesurvey. It takes more effort to light up a small scale model than a larger one. If you want to win more medals, I can give you a couple tips from what I see here.

- Your engine LEDs are leaking through the plastic on the sides. You can light block so the light only emits out the end of the thrusters. You can try painting the sides of the leds, wrapping the leds in black tape, housing the led in a light-bocked styrene tube, and/or painting the insides of the thrusters black. For light blocking I have used black paper, liquid electrical tape, polyurethane primer, and black and metalic paints. Just keep going till there is no leakage.

-Your fiber is extruding a bit. I use a square of masking tape, put a 0.10 hole in the center, slide it down each fiber, then snip it with a flat sniper or nail cutter without damaging the model.

- You can adjust your resistors for each effect so they look right in real life for the audience. 

- You can use a thinner tube to base the model at this scale by switching to thin 0.30 enamel wires.

Hope that helps.

Edited January 2, 2020 by arbit

[Vifam7]

Finished my Perfect Grade Skygrasper+Aile Striker kit with minor mod and a Macross flavor.  

Not a full paint job. Basically kept the original white and yellow part and painted over everything else with black or gunship gray to make it a bit more military-ish.  Used 3rd party Macross decals I purchased from Ebay. I don't know who made them but they were utter crap. The thickest decals I ever dealt with.

Removed the original gun & turret unit on the back and replaced it with twin-gun unit from a HGUC Ball.  I wanted a twin-gun mount there.

 

 

 

[CrossAir]

When I saw this I thought that I missed a Macross fighter. Looks perfect to me! Great work and cool idea!

[derex3592]

Very cool looking! 

[MechTech]

Nice n clean build anubis! The color scheme works well.

Great build CrossAir! Great photos too!

Congrats on garnering a trophy Neptunesurvey! Great lighting job!

Vifam, that is a cool model! I've probably seen that model several times and not realized how "Macrossy" it looks! I'm going to have to get one of those. - MT

[neptunesurvey]

Thanks for the pointers Arbit.  This was my first attempt at lightening a model kit and did learn much from this one.  I did paint the inside black but I am guessing that the coat was not even through out and the 3mm LEDs where brighter then I thought.  Live and learn.

 

Nice Skygrasper Vifam7.

[Zx31]

On 12/31/2019 at 10:09 AM, anubis20 said:

Completed the K-40 right on time before the end of the year. This was my 1st Hasegawa kit and I definitely learned a lot. Completely different experience from the Gundams I was used to building  I think i will be building more but I only plan on doing those oddball paint schemes like the Makina 31C.

Gorgeous, but I will say it is much prettier in person

Edited January 4, 2020 by Zx31

[Thom]

CrossAir, that is a nice looking root. Not familiar with the anime but it looks dang cool!

Neptunesurvey, that is a good looking SD. Esp in the that small scale, it is well deserving of a metal.

And Vifam7, that Skygrasper looks incredible! It would so fit in to the Macross universe. Heck, it even has a booster pack!

 

 

[CrossAir]

6 minutes ago, Thom said:

CrossAir, that is a nice looking root. Not familiar with the anime but it looks dang cool

Thanks a lot! FYI (unfortunately for me) this one is not from an anime, currently it’s only a line of robot model kits. Would like to see an anime of this as it would boost the lines publicity.

[Vifam7]

18 hours ago, Thom said:

CrossAir, that is a nice looking root. Not familiar with the anime but it looks dang cool!

Neptunesurvey, that is a good looking SD. Esp in the that small scale, it is well deserving of a metal.

And Vifam7, that Skygrasper looks incredible! It would so fit in to the Macross universe. Heck, it even has a booster pack!

 

Thank you to Thom, CrossAir, MechTech, and Neptunesurvey for the kind words.

A little note on the kit - Bandai says the scale of this kit is 1/60. The Aile Striker pack (the entire rear half) maybe 1/60 scale (as it's supposed to fit on the PG Strike Gundam) but the forward Skygrasper section does not look 1/60 scale as the size of the pilots, the cockpit, and the whole forward fuselage is more like 1/72 scale.

[derex3592]

So... broken foot on Dec 6th at work... between that and the holidays ... Just now being able to get back to the bench and work on stuff. Back to the Starships, the Star Destroyer, the Death Star and hopefully Mrs. Q-Rau. Gotta say, these Enterprises are a real sh*tshow. Anyone who has built them knows what I'm talking about. Terrible fit all around. NX-01 was a great little kit. The rest, so far, have many many issues. But with enough time and effort I think they will look good together on a shelf. Got the original and the A puttied, primed and finally painted today. Assembled the B and C. More to come! 

Edited January 5, 2020 by derex3592

[mickyg]

Been working my way through the Hasegawa SV-51y/a kit over the last few months.  I don't get much time in the last few years to work on models so progress is snail-pace slow.  Been enjoying getting back into it though.

Here's a very low Q pic of latest progress:

I struggled to find what Hasegawa calls "Aircraft Gray" in their callouts but ended up using some Gunze FS36321.  It's a bit darker than the shade of gray the kit is molded in and looks nearly identical here in this harsh LED flash lit photo.

I also spent a great deal of time "thinning" the leading edges of those intakes.  It's a pretty abrupt angle though and the closeup picture makes that a lot more obvious. Still, anything is better than the stock thick, blunt profile.

Lots more to to do but it's good to see Ivanov's ride coming together.

[Thom]

Back in sci-fi, I'm kitbashing the 1/2500 Shenzhou and Enterprise into a 1/1000 scale Hopper class escort destroyer.

The USS Sprite, NCC-1828.

 

[anubis20]

On 1/4/2020 at 4:28 PM, Zx31 said:

Gorgeous, but I will say it is much prettier in person

Glad you like it  It was a great learning experience and thank you for trusting me with it. I was gonna go for the Makina 31C next but instead ill do the 2009 Minmay VF-1A.

 

[Thom]

Some progress today. I finished the deflector housing and glued it into the recess. I may add a few greebles to dress it up a little. Also cut off the stern of the Enterprise and after widening am now test fitting it to the Shen's stern.

[electric indigo]

And I though I was the only fan of the Discovery designs... They have some Syd Mead DNA in them, and I'd love to see them with a Mass Effect paint job. What is your plan in that regard?

[Thom]

5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

And I though I was the only fan of the Discovery designs... They have some Syd Mead DNA in them, and I'd love to see them with a Mass Effect paint job. What is your plan in that regard?

Love is such a strong word... I like the Shenzhou and the Enterprise, the Enterprise more of course, but I hate the Discovery. The only reason I bought either kit in 1/2500 was to show interest to Round2 in the hopes of a larger scale Enterprise. I actually had little plans to make either until the idea to kitbash the two came along, changing the scale of the ship to /1000  in the process.

For looks, she'll be little different than my USS Saber, seeing how they will be serving in Starfleet at the same time, post-TOS and pre-TMP. Light gray with lighter gray accents. I may do a little splash of Shenzhou's dark red for color, but I'm not sure yet.

[derex3592]

Yesterday I started the decals on the OG Enterprise and the Kirk/Spock movie one. I made some mistakes it has to be said.  I was cutting apart the saucer decals for the white one to make for easier  application, but I didn't start in the middle and then work my way around to where the neck joins.  I did it from the neck around one way. Bad idea. Long story short the whole underside of the saucer is a bit off center. Oh well... Then for the top part I said screw it and tried the whole topside decal at once.  That was almost catastrophic but as you can see ended up not to bad.  I'm following ModelChili's build advice on YouTube for these and should have re-watched the decal part before starting, he had the same problem when he tried to do the whole saucer decal at once.  The stardrive section is coming along ok, I'll hopefully have one or both of these finished up decal wise later today. Lessons learned for the B. C, D, and E kits though.  Yes, slice Aztec saucer decals up, but start from center!  All I'm basically going for with these kits is to have semi-decent (better than the Eaglemoss versions) Enterprises in scale on a shelf at work.  Definitely not gonna win any prizes with these builds... 

P.S.. I wish Bandai would get a Star Trek ships liscense for models and give us some 2020 designed Enterprise kits that just freaking kill it. 

[MechTech]

Cool Derex! I think they'll turn out alright.

I wonder if the Round 2 kits are the same ones I built decades ago! They didn't all fit that great if I remember correctly. - MT