Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[pengbuzz]

On 4/4/2022 at 9:08 AM, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz That is an AWESOME looking base! You wouldn't know it isn't part of the whole model! - MT

Thanks; that's the idea!

UPDATE: Got some more detailing done on the SDF-1:

Also, the second one arrived yesterday! I have a comparison between the two:

The condition of the second one is that both arms are broken at the shoulder, and part of the left chest box is in pieces (chest box has since been fixed):

Now, parts from this were originally supposed to go to my current project; that said, I managed to build everything I needed for it while waiting for this one. One possibility though would be to use stuff from the second one (like the guns and such), and use the core to redo the original SDF-1 movie version I had way back in 2010:

 

I have to think about what to do next, really... some unexpected developments.

Stay tuned...it's going to be a Macross Spring and Summer...

Edited April 7, 2022 by pengbuzz

[electric indigo]

Lacia from Beatless

[Thom]

@pengbuzz Looks like the SDF-4 Global has shown up!

@electric indigo I don't know the character, but that is a nicely done figure!

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz Your improvements make the "toy" look a LOT BETTER! Many aspects of it are more line art accurate now, especially the main guns. I think the ships dimensions look better too. Not to mention better coloration too! A movie version would be cool too. - MT

[electric indigo]

Some more Cordoba

 

[Thom]

Always take more Cordoba!

[Bolt]

Looks superb !

[MechTech]

@electric indigo Does it have Corinthian leather seats? Sorry, just had to ask! She looks AWESOME! Great photography and lighting too! - MT

[MechTech]

Got more work done on the stand today. It's getting there...

Milled out a pocket for the battery box to go into.

Then milled out a slot for the wires to go up and into the pedestal through.

I forgot to show earlier, but I drilled through the base of the 20mm round and tapped it to fit over the bored-out screw on the base. I still need to bore out the tip of the round.

And the 20mm "pedestal" screwed down onto the base. The base was then covered with aluminum sheet. The sheet then had a battery cover area cut out and a cover to match it made. The sheet was drilled out and riveted. There are holes in the base for the rivets to sit in, but they are not riveted into it. Its just sitting loosely on top for now (with a little warp until glued down).

The sheet metal work is to simulate the skin of an aircraft. It will be painted up and weathered to look like aircraft skin too.

A second 20mm casing will sit as you see here with the model title on it. Some type of switch will sit where you see this one with a label. I'm looking for a better switch to go here.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in everyone! - MT

[pengbuzz]

58 minutes ago, MechTech said:

Got more work done on the stand today. It's getting there...

Milled out a pocket for the battery box to go into.

Then milled out a slot for the wires to go up and into the pedestal through.

I forgot to show earlier, but I drilled through the base of the 20mm round and tapped it to fit over the bored-out screw on the base. I still need to bore out the tip of the round.

And the 20mm "pedestal" screwed down onto the base. The base was then covered with aluminum sheet. The sheet then had a battery cover area cut out and a cover to match it made. The sheet was drilled out and riveted. There are holes in the base for the rivets to sit in, but they are not riveted into it. Its just sitting loosely on top for now (with a little warp until glued down).

The sheet metal work is to simulate the skin of an aircraft. It will be painted up and weathered to look like aircraft skin too.

A second 20mm casing will sit as you see here with the model title on it. Some type of switch will sit where you see this one with a label. I'm looking for a better switch to go here.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in everyone! - MT

MT, your work is absolutely riveting!  :D Nice job!

[arbit]

2 hours ago, MechTech said:

The sheet metal work is to simulate the skin of an aircraft. It will be painted up and weathered to look like aircraft skin too.

That's a cooool display base! Unique and very appropriate for the subject. Thumbs up!

[Thom]

2 hours ago, MechTech said:

Got more work done on the stand today. It's getting there...

Milled out a pocket for the battery box to go into.

Then milled out a slot for the wires to go up and into the pedestal through.

I forgot to show earlier, but I drilled through the base of the 20mm round and tapped it to fit over the bored-out screw on the base. I still need to bore out the tip of the round.

And the 20mm "pedestal" screwed down onto the base. The base was then covered with aluminum sheet. The sheet then had a battery cover area cut out and a cover to match it made. The sheet was drilled out and riveted. There are holes in the base for the rivets to sit in, but they are not riveted into it. Its just sitting loosely on top for now (with a little warp until glued down).

The sheet metal work is to simulate the skin of an aircraft. It will be painted up and weathered to look like aircraft skin too.

A second 20mm casing will sit as you see here with the model title on it. Some type of switch will sit where you see this one with a label. I'm looking for a better switch to go here.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in everyone! - MT

That's a great idea!

[CrossAir]

That are some awesome builds and projects you guys shown here over the past months. I tried to follow up but now after going through this thread I see I missed out several of them.

With several interruptions I'm glad I was able to finish my "little" project today which had started beginning of January. After a long time not a static model but a RC pickup truck: Toyota Tundra High-Lift from Tamiya.

Good thing was that I had lots of drying time before adding each layer of primer, color or coating to the cab so I'm really pleased with the paint job in the end.

And while searching for my old 4-channel receiver I stumbled over my next project: A dusty 1/25 RC Panther - Started building back in the 2000s but somehow never finished it. Details like smoke on the gun and exhaust pipes as well as panel lining, weathering and clear coat are missing and I have to rework some of the decals, too.

[arbit]

54 minutes ago, CrossAir said:

With several interruptions I'm glad I was able to finish my "little" project today which had started beginning of January. After a long time not a static model but a RC pickup truck: Toyota Tundra High-Lift from Tamiya.

Fantastic paint job @CrossAir!  I'm not a car guy, but would love to see more photos of the paint job on that pickup. The sub header should be, "When Toyota designs cars for American tastes." You won't see that car on Japanese streets!

Even your painting from 20 ears ago shows you're a natural.  I like the delicate spray of camouflage over the base paint. 

[CrossAir]

1 hour ago, arbit said:

Fantastic paint job @CrossAir!  I'm not a car guy, but would love to see more photos of the paint job on that pickup. The sub header should be, "When Toyota designs cars for American tastes." You won't see that car on Japanese streets!

Even your painting from 20 ears ago shows you're a natural.  I like the delicate spray of camouflage over the base paint. 

@arbitThanks, I relly totally forgot about that tank. Can't even remember spraying the camouflage.

Concerning the pickup you won't see a vehicle in this configuration on my country's street either. I'd love to get this one for real. For the Paint job only three colors (champagne metallic, black and clear red for the rear lights) were needed but my main fear was how to get the color evenly on such a big surface with TS spray cans. Never sprayed such a big parts lately. In the end lots of sanding and several thin layers worked out. By the way I went with a matte finish for the body so the chrome parts stand out a little more. A hassle were the parts that come fully chromed like the rims or bumpers which should be partly or completely painted black. Getting rid of the chrome without damaging the surfaces was no fun especially on those partly painted parts.

Here's a pic before clear coating:

Here some more, but I don't know, on the pictures if you look closely the color does not turn out as smooth as in reality at all 🤔

[MechTech]

Thank you guys, I appreciate it! Love the puns too!

@CrossAir That looks great! I guess that's what they replaced the ole' Toyota Hilux model with. It had a BIG metal gearbox with shiftable gears! Needed at leats three channels to run. No, you would never see that baby over in Europe (maybe Iceland for touring). The Panther finish looks great too! Running it outside will help with "weathering" it realistically😄 - MT

[joscasle]

On 4/7/2022 at 4:06 PM, electric indigo said:

Some more Cordoba

 

Man looks very nice!!!!

 

Congrats!!!

[pengbuzz]

Taking a break from the projects for a bit; the SDF-1 is nearly finished, but I have some issues going on and need to slow down. Too many backlogged projects for one.

I will also be confining my posts to this section of MacrossWorld forums from now on (after a confrontation with a member that ended up with a mod issuing a veiled threat triggered a tonic-clonic seizure). I really don't need more health events, so I may be scarce even in here for a while folks.

Edited April 18, 2022 by pengbuzz

[Rock]

On 4/6/2022 at 11:26 AM, electric indigo said:

Lacia from Beatless

 

Looks lovely, are the eyes decals? They looks kind of faded.

Did you actually watch the series? All I remember hearing of it was that it was a bad redux of Chobits. 

On 4/10/2022 at 12:38 PM, CrossAir said:

And while searching for my old 4-channel receiver I stumbled over my next project: A dusty 1/25 RC Panther - Started building back in the 2000s but somehow never finished it. Details like smoke on the gun and exhaust pipes as well as panel lining, weathering and clear coat are missing and I have to rework some of the decals, too.

 

Gotta love when you repick up old projects and just breeze through them a 2nd time!

 

--

 

20 Years later and I still struggle with making round things. So close but, the final product came out a tad undersized. 😕

Edited April 16, 2022 by Rock

[electric indigo]

On 4/16/2022 at 1:50 AM, Rock said:

Looks lovely, are the eyes decals? They looks kind of faded.

Did you actually watch the series? All I remember hearing of it was that it was a bad redux of Chobits. 

I did watch the first minutes of the series and it did nothing for me, but I love Redjuice's illustrations, and the figure is quite exquisite. Wait til I build her galaxy-zappin' superweapon. The eyes are decals (the days where I would have painted them are long gone), and the faded look is in the character's design.

Is your disk for a Wing-y Gundam?

[derex3592]

UPDATES on things!  Titanic is coming along...slowly...trying to deal with all the tiny fiddly bits and get every single part sanded, puttied, painted and ready to put on the ship eventually.  That in itself is a true mission just keeping up with all of it! Sooo many tiny parts. Cranes are DONE though! Stretchy E-Z Line for the WIN! Here's just a few pics....

[derex3592]

Also, I finally got an old friend back up on a new stand!  The old Flightpose stand finally stress cracked and she was listing lazily the left...LOL. Family Guy Star Wars joke there... New stand from Caliber Wings is much more sturdy!  Now I know the Bandai Falcon 1/72 Perfect Grade Falcon is better, but 6 months of hard work, sweat and tears went into my Finemolds one years ago and I still love it! I especially love I didn't pay that Bandai price tag! $$$

Edited April 18, 2022 by derex3592

[derex3592]

And now, if you guys/mods will permit me, I wanted to share just a few quick pics of my wife's and my trip down to Galveston / Houston last weekend!  The point is that since I'm "ship building" now, this kinda goes along with the theme. We sailed on the 1877 Tall Ship "Elissa"!  6 hours trip.  One of only 3 tall ships left in the world that sails! It was pretty darn cool!  Also on the way back we stopped by NASA!  I'll keep my comments to myself about how NOT efficiently run this place is (boooo big government run stuff) and just share the pics since I'm going to be building a 1/144 model of the Saturn 5 someday soon! There was a 3D printed Saturn 5 that stood about 6 feet tall, but NOTHING compares to the REAL THING!! WOW!  I figured all of us space guys around here would like these! 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by derex3592

[MechTech]

@derex3592 Your Millenium Falcon looks GREAT! The Stormtroopers add a dynamic touch and some action to it the scene too!

The Titanic is coming along GREAT too! Nice and clean for such small pain-in-the-neck pieces too! All the rigging on it was a nice segway for the tall sailing ship.

Thanks for sharing your sailing and NASA photos with us too! Those rocket engines are HUGE! We have one a the Smithsonian here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one of them running! The piggyback shuttle reminds me of when I was in basic training. Our Training Instructor (TI) had us in formation outside waiting for a mass appointment. One of the guys starts turning his head and gets yelled at by the TI to straiten up. The guy says, "Sir, it's the Space Shuttle!" Everyone starts laughing because it sounds so ridiculous. Then somebody else says, "Yeah, there it is!" There it was, piggyback on the back of the 747! Very rare site and cool to see in person. We were ALL looking then! It stopped off to get fuel nearby us.

On the building front...

I didn't get much done, but I'm happy with what I DID get done at least. First I located the right spot for the push button arrow (salvaged from something a long time ago). Then I carefully drilled corner holes and trimmed it out. Thankfully from the back side. The backside got all scratched up😉

I cut another pocket out for the switch and push button. Then milled out a path for the wires. It was fun getting everything to line-up correctly.

If you remember the last connector I made was plastic. I could just see it easily breaking like a toothpick! So I re-thought it out and redid it. I threaded and machined a "T" piece to put a short length of square brass tube on. I machined the tube and got it to fit onto the "T" smoothly. Then redid another connector. This connector fits INTO the square tube. The metal parts will now bare the weight. This version also came out more sleek and less bulky than my original design.

Then I drilled out the 20mm projectile top and tapped threads into it. This is what it looks like now. The soldered tabs will be hid up inside the model plane now.

And altogether so far...

Thank you for checking in guys! - MT

[Photogirl]

just finishing this beauty up. 

[Bolt]

Everything looks awesome folks ! I've been pretty spread out lately, but I'll be back at the workbench soon ! 
@derex3592 awesome pics ! I sail in the SF bay, love it ! There's a tall ship built in the late 1800's here in the bay that still sails too. The Mathew Turner !

[arbit]

8 hours ago, MechTech said:

If you remember the last connector I made was plastic. I could just see it easily breaking like a toothpick! So I re-thought it out and redid it. I threaded and machined a "T" piece to put a short length of square brass tube on. I machined the tube and got it to fit onto the "T" smoothly. Then redid another connector. This connector fits INTO the square tube. The metal parts will now bare the weight. This version also came out more sleek and less bulky than my original design.

Beautiful work. I'm guessing that connector is super tiny.

[arbit]

1 hour ago, Photogirl said:

just finishing this beauty up. 

Nice addition to the cockpit. 

 

9 hours ago, derex3592 said:

And now, if you guys/mods will permit me, I wanted to share just a few quick pics of my wife's and my trip down to Galveston / Houston last weekend!  The point is that since I'm "ship building" now, this kinda goes along with the theme. We sailed on the 1877 Tall Ship "Elissa"!  6 hours trip.  One of only 3 tall ships left in the world that sails! It was pretty darn cool!  Also on the way back we stopped by NASA! 

I grew up there between from 5th to 10th grade. Going down to the pier in Galveston and getting an old fashioned soda was a regular for holidays and school trips (before the huge hurricane, have not seen it since, so I'm glad to see it's back in stride).  And we visited Nasa once as well.

But take it easy, your Titanic doers not need any more realism!

[Rock]

On 4/17/2022 at 4:43 PM, electric indigo said:

I did watch the first minutes of the series and it did nothing for me, but I love Redjuice's illustrations, and the figure is quite exquisite. Wait til I build her galaxy-zappin' superweapon. The eyes are decals (the days where I would have painted them are long gone), and the faded look is in the character's design.

Is your disk for a Wing-y Gundam?

Yup. An eternal build that may span generations at this point. I should probably need to have a kid to finish it. lol

I don't know if it is just the Rei-look alike but it kind of looks like something Reflection would have sculpted back in the day.

[pengbuzz]

Recently, i bought the 50th Anniversary reissue of the original AMT TOS Enterprise (On sale 40% off @ Hobby Lobby!); I'm well familiar with the failings and shortcomings on this one all too well.

Well...this time around, I addressed a few things:

)1 Revised the bridge and B/C deck:

 

2) Made new domes for the bridge and planetary sensor:

2.5) Filled those stupid dimples in the lower saucer:

 

3) replaced the too-short piece under the bussards with custom-made parts (that were also separated as they were supposed to be) :

 

4) Reinforced the living daylights out of the secondary hull (particularly the warp pylon slots and strongback):

 

5) Sealed up the secondary hull like a submarine:

 

 

6) the Warp Pylons bit the dust (too much bending, and they were in the wrong place on the nacelle; I just cut them off and scratched up new solid ones:

In -progress shots:

7) New Bussard Collectors, made from sheet acetate, using a heat gun:

 

7) Said heat gun used to make myself a cheeseburger:

Stay tuned...decals and weathering/ touch ups coming up.

 

(also, maybe french fries?... )

Edited April 22, 2022 by pengbuzz

[pengbuzz]

On 4/18/2022 at 7:21 PM, Photogirl said:

just finishing this beauty up. 

Nice work!! Looks absolutely perfect! ❤️

[Big s]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Recently, i bought the 50th Anniversary reissue of the original AMT TOS Enterprise (On sale 40% off @ Hobby Lobby!); I'm well familiar with the failings and shortcomings on this one all too well.

Well...this time around, I addressed a few things:

)1 Revised the bridge and B/C deck:

 

2) Made new domes for the bridge and planetary sensor:

2.5) Filled those stupid dimples in the lower saucer:

 

3) replaced the too-short piece under the bussards with custom-made parts (that were also separated as they were supposed to be) :

 

4) Reinforced the living daylights out of the secondary hull (particularly the warp pylon slots and strongback):

 

5) Sealed up the secondary hull like a submarine:

 

 

6) the Warp Pylons bit the dust (too much bending, and they were in the wrong place on the nacelle; I just cut them off and scratched up new solid ones:

In -progress shots:

7) New Bussard Collectors, made from sheet acetate, using a heat gun:

 

7) Said heat gun used to make myself a cheeseburger:

Stay tuned...decals and weathering/ touch ups coming up.

 

(also, maybe french fries?... )

Not to sound insulting to the model, but I was more impressed with the cheeseburger possibly because I skipped lunch. Next time try to do some onions. 

I think I’m gonna have an early dinner and good luck with the ship

[MechTech]

@Photogirl That 1S looks REALLY good! Especially all the details in the cockpit and pilot.

@pengbuzz That Enterprise looks 100% better than the stock model!!! Especially with all the corrections and scratch building! You're DANGEROUS with a heat gun! 😄

 

I've been putting these steps off, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Cut a carefully sized hole in the bottom for the connector. Then glued it in. Then had to clean glue out of the female contacts that somehow got glue in them!🙃

I also re-etched some of the panel lines sanded down with the scratch building.

On to the stand! How do you get a 12" in long drill bit into a drill press with only a few inches clearance? BIG cans of vegetable and wood shims! A regular drill bit wouldn't reach all the way through the round, so I had to get a special bit (which thankfully is not expensive).

Two things in this photo. I cleaned all the brass and clear coated it along with the base. Second, look at all the yellow pollen on everything from just this week!

The diorama I did needs a label on it for the title. So I thought it would be cool to use a real round for it. So I got a 7.65mm casing and cleaned it up, soldered on a holder and machined and inserted a screw into it. It also got clear coated.

Attached to the stand. And backed away to see the whole thing. I have to make a clear decal now to put on it for the title.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in! - MT

[Thom]

Wow, an all-around great collection of models! Impressivo!

[derex3592]

@MechTech - Loving all the brass work! 

 

In Titanic land over here, small progress has been made over the weekend...and I do mean small. The forward hatch cover original kit part wasn't accurate whatsoever, so I scratch built one out of styrene. It's supposed to be slightly convex, so I bent the styrene part over a paint brush handle then puttied up the holes on each end once I glued it in place.  Then added tiny port holes and hatch covers.  I included a digital rendering from a guy on FB who if you have any interest in Titanic, you should check it out, he does amazing work. Also got a job I had been dreading done, masking and painting the framework of the two grand staircase dome skylights. They came out pretty much perfect!  Phew!  And speaking of grand staircase domes, I hit the 1st one with a few coats of Flory's Dark Dirt wash and carefully wiped away once dry. you can just see the details on it now. In the end hopefully a little light will shine up through it from the LED's in the hull. Pressing on!