Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[derex3592]

@nightmareB4macross Thanks! Oh yes, there will be 1/350 pre-painted PE peoples added ... well ...ATTEMPTED to be add anway!

[electric indigo]

Ok let's build a Hornet

Back from the days when you could be a fighter and a beauty queen.

[nightmareB4macross]

32 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

@nightmareB4macross Thanks! Oh yes, there will be 1/350 pre-painted PE peoples added ... well ...ATTEMPTED to be add anway!

That would be amazing!!

[derex3592]

4 minutes ago, electric indigo said:

Ok let's build a Hornet

Back from the days when you could be a fighter and a beauty queen.

@electric indigo  The airplane nerd in me wants to build an F-18 and do the Top Gun Maverick blue and black paint job on it! 

[electric indigo]

@derex3592 go ahead:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10933471

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, derex3592 said:

@electric indigo  The airplane nerd in me wants to build an F-18 and do the Top Gun Maverick blue and black paint job on it! 

https://spruebrothers.com/defjd48002-1-48-def-model-jeight-design-decal-set-movie-collection-8-f-18e-f-18f-super-hornet-top-gun-has-kit/

$15.99

[Rock]

I'd go with Meng's 1/48 kit which is a pretty new tooling and said to be a great build. It has several versions with one of them being updated to include Mav's instructior livery.

 

Over here in the past era or flying godesses... base work done and on to the fun bits and grit!

[Thom]

@Rock That Tomcat is rockin those grays! Looking good.

[derex3592]

Shhhhhh.... Don't tell the Father In Law... I'm CHEATING on the Titanic today.... 🤣  OMMGGG...It's sooooo nice..parts that just....fit!!! AMAZING! I'd forgotten what's that like!

Edited November 24, 2022 by derex3592

[pengbuzz]

13 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Shhhhhh.... Don't tell the Father In Law... I'm CHEATING on the Titanic today.... 🤣  OMMGGG...It's sooooo nice..parts that just....fit!!! AMAZING! I'd forgotten what's that like!

Red October?

[derex3592]

I mean it's a Typhoon sooo.... Sure! Why not?!! 🤣

[Thom]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

I mean it's a Typhoon sooo.... Sure! Why not?!! 🤣

Does it have the caterpillar doors?

[pengbuzz]

24 minutes ago, Thom said:

Does it have the caterpillar doors?

And a Russian Captain with a certain Scottish accent?

[MechTech]

For all of you celebrating - Happy Thanksgiving! I know we're all over the world here, so not everyone may care😉

@Rock Your cat is looking good! Looks like you'll get the right amount of grime for a Navy bird when you're done.

@derex3592 The Titanic is looking good! I'm telling your father in law! And with a Russian too! What would the family say!? 🤣

My apologies for all the photos (at least they're small files). I didn't realize it had been awhile since posting. Been busy with work and on the bench trying to knock some stuff out.

More work on the Oto Melara 76mm / 62 caliber Super Rapid cannon assemblies.

Remember, save your drill bits when they get dull! Again, I needed just the right size bit. So this old 1/8" (3mm) bit was shaped on a Dremmel and a stone. ANYONE can do it! Then half of the tip was carefully ground off on a stone. That's all you need to make a router bit - it really is easy. Try it sometime.

The bit was for cutting slots in this piece to be a guide for the underside ribbing. Just getting the spacing right took SEVERAL tries, days and techniques! I think it came out alright in the end (or should I say the bottom)😁 The second photo pieces were aligned (with lines) to the last pieces made.

Then the ribs were glued in place. The slots not only helped with spacing, but kept the ribs vertical to the surface without slumping over to the side.

If you remember a few years ago or so I made this cutter from an old hard drive and styrene. It's just a hard drive head with a razor blade bolted between it - very hight tech😄 A clamp was used as a guide to make cutting short segments of styrene round rod for tiny bolt heads. The nice Tichy Trains bolt heads were too big for this (from my stock at least).

The ribs were shaved to narrow-down and the heads glued in place. There's few reference pictures available, so I'm hoping I saw everything correctly for the bolt heads. Usually people don't argue about counting bolt heads - thankfully. Then a couple of pieces to show the rib angles and bolt detail.

And with the pieces from last time that fit on top. You'll notice there are slots for ribs on the front; more ribs go on the outside of the base here. I just realized I didn't photograph them!

I took a break from ribbing and bolting to etch door details into the rear of the turrets (before I forgot to).

When making the bases, I milled so much plastic, my workbench looked like it snowed inside! This is just the start of it!

After the bases were cut and angled, the turret slots were carefully cut along with a notch for the twist-lock tabs to go through. A piece of large styrene tubing sits snugly in the circular cut.

Then the bases with the twist-lock tabs were glued into the tube pieces. I carefully cut slots into the tube bases to allow more glue to grab the tabs. There was a lot of pressure on them until I sanded everything down so the turrets train around smoothly on the bases. It took a lot of careful sanding to get things to work right. Note the clear base for the display turret. It is acrylic and took hours to sand and buff out clear.

And finally... The turret walls don't fit snug around the gun mantlet, so walls had to be cut out of thin styrene and carefully glued in place. Tube pieces were used to hold them in place while the glue dries. Today I get to finish them (I hope) and then sand everything down.

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

[arbit]

@MechTech Phenomenal milling work. Beautiful to see styrene worked like that.

And on my workbench....

 

[Thom]

@MechTech Looks like the assembly line is gearing right up! Great work.

And @arbit those figs looks so good!

[wm cheng]

@MechTech That looks so amazingly precise and clean in all that perfect white!!!  Can't believe you just made it up!

@arbit Those figures are amazing!  Can't wait to see you paint them up - great job!

[Gabe Q]

There's so much great building going on here! I'm hoping to get my workshop up and running again soon and join in.

I live vicariously through your posts so keep up the great work!

[arbit]

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Those figures are amazing!  Can't wait to see you paint them up - great job!

Thanks. I'm glad the "over-the-hill" old timers like my work.  The pilots will be up on my Patreon after corrections.

[electric indigo]

Camo #1 – gloss white + light blue over dark sea grey base.

[wm cheng]

11 hours ago, arbit said:

Thanks. I'm glad the "over-the-hill" old timers like my work.  The pilots will be up on my Patreon after corrections.

LOL!!! 🤣  I can't hear you sonny?!  I gotta turn up my hearing aide - that "old timers" thread would be just fine with me.

 

Gorgeous @electric indigo, such fine airbrushing work.  What 1/72 kit is that?  Nice details... How do you gauge/get to accurate FS standard colours when you build up from so many weathering colours?

Edited November 25, 2022 by wm cheng

[electric indigo]

@wm cheng That's the 1/48 Hobby Boss kit (I guess I'm too old for 1/72), so the airbrushing is not that fine, I still do it with my single-action Badger, and it's pretty relaxing.

I eyeball all the the colors, sometimes I have a specific photo in front of me that I want to match. I have Pantone color swatches that I can hold up to the screen to translate the image to physical colors, which I then try to match with mixes of Tamiya paint. I try to document every color I mix for a kit with color chips, so I can work from previous mixes.

I also try to streamline the painting process, so less unfinished kits end up on the shelf of doom. What works best for me lately is the dark (usually Dark Sea Grey) basecoat, upon which a single layer of semi-gloss (usually by the addition of gloss white) camo color is applied panel by panel. With sharp panel lines like on the HB kit, there's no need to even do a wash after that.

[wm cheng]

Thanks @electric indigo - I'll have to try that sometime when I get around to a dirty Tomcat.  I'm so gun shy when mixing my own paints after several fiascos when I thought I had the right grey and the decal low-viz grey just blended into the paint scheme - then I find out that the decal greys weren't right when I go with the FS colours and then I find out that certain batches of FS standard colour paints were different from each other and my FS colour deck is newer which apparently has a different gull grey than pre-1990s FS colour decks - argh!  I hate matching colour and then making it lighter for scale - it seems like such a "black art"!  I miss the old Macross models where the Valkyrie was just white or shades of off-white 😛

Well, I got a little more time and I'm into the missiles, since I was making Sparrows for my Phantom, I thought I'd get around to redoing my Sparrows for my F-14 that's been bugging me and an eye sore for the last year!

Can you spot what's wrong with my old ones and the corrected new ones?  In my defence, I was blindly following instructions (BTW G.W.H. has tones of mistakes in the instructions, but great kit).  Nope its not that each Sparrow has the same serial number which does bug me also, but not enough to re-make them.

It the stupid placement of the yellow warhead stripe.  I blindly followed their instructions and its wrong!  I did find the perfect way to replicate the very light grey nose cone though, in reality its white also, but its a flat ceramic material that collected dust and dirt so it became a little greyish over time.  I brushed flat matte clearcoat over the nosecone and used my gubby fingers a few times over it and it collected all the dirt!

I realized the FineMolds weapons set for the sidewinders didn't have the little rollerons molded into the tailfins - argh!  I already had to re-scribe all the section lines and drill out the tail rocket motors - what I thought was a quick job turned out all night (GWH weapons are nicer).  However the FineMolds weapons set have individual serial numbers for each missile which is a nice touch!  But I did decide to try this new chrome silver foil decal sheet - knowing I'd never be able to create the sharp lines that demark the tailfin rollerons.  Very laborious and tiny, but the end result is decent at least for 1/72, just letting the MicroSOL dry before touching the exposed edges with silver.  I also used a Hasegawa Chromed sheet for the landing gear shocks and to my surprise it was self adhesive and did an amazing job even better the Molotov Chrome marker paints.

Hopefully I get to mount them on both F-14 and F-4s tomorrow.

[Urashiman]

Got something new to produce stuff for my workbench.

[derex3592]

Yesterday's lesson in ship rigging lines ..... I tried yesterday to attach EZ Line to the deck from the smokestacks with just superglue and tweezers. That didn't go well and I was frustrated with myself and ended up with tiny ugly mounds of CA glue which I have now attempted to paint over. From the side view or at arms length you can't see them. Whatever. This morning I decided to build a better mousetrap!!! Tamiya tape and bluetack putty for the win. 🤣

[Rock]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Yesterday's lesson in ship rigging lines ..... I tried yesterday to attach EZ Line to the deck from the smokestacks with just superglue and tweezers. That didn't go well and I was frustrated with myself and ended up with tiny ugly mounds of CA glue which I have now attempted to paint over. From the side view or at arms length you can't see them. Whatever. This morning I decided to build a better mousetrap!!! Tamiya tape and bluetack putty for the win. 🤣

 

This is the exact reason I avoid P.E. parts. It happens Ever. Single. Time. for me.  Have you tried a PE applicator like a looper? I find them to be a little bit better than a toothpick. I've been working on trying other products. I know for rigging a lot use glues similar to white glue. I've been experimenting with Ammo/Mig's Clear Acrylic 'Ultra Glue' which is for Etch, canopies and rigging. For rigging I've also read that adding a drop of water/dish soap to the line changes the properties allowing the glue to soak more into the line. 

[Thom]

2 hours ago, Rock said:

This is the exact reason I avoid P.E. parts. It happens Ever. Single. Time. for me.  Have you tried a PE applicator like a looper? I find them to be a little bit better than a toothpick. I've been working on trying other products. I know for rigging a lot use glues similar to white glue. I've been experimenting with Ammo/Mig's Clear Acrylic 'Ultra Glue' which is for Etch, canopies and rigging. For rigging I've also read that adding a drop of water/dish soap to the line changes the properties allowing the glue to soak more into the line. 

You could take a sewing needle and grind off the end of the loop, making a prong. Debonder to clean it,

[pengbuzz]

I prefer to use a tiny drill to put a hole in the plastic, then stuff the thread in there with some (you guessed it) plastic welder.

[derex3592]

All good ideas, I use a paper clip at bent  a 90 degree angle snipped off to whatever length I desire in a pin vise for CA glue applications of small parts. Actually, this morning I updated my method even more, now only using Tamiya tape cut down to the exact perfect size in order to make the line lay down flat across the hole. Also switched to my Ultraviolet CA glue. This stuff is AWESOME!  If you haven't tried it, do so!  No chance of getting the line IN the hole, that just wasn't ever going to be an option because of the 70's design of the kit and how I had to build it to light it. Anywhoooo...3 of 4 funnels now completely done, only half of one funnel remaining for the lines to the deck! WHOO HOO! 

 

[wm cheng]

@derex3592 the rigging does at a lot for realism!  Looking great!  How do you keep it taught if you put tape in front of the crazy glue dot, when you take that tape away after its cured, isn't there slack in the thread/line?

 

Yay!!! Finally finished my FineMolds F-4J in 1/72 scale - love these hi-viz 70s schemes.  Missiles are all on and even re-did my last years Tomcat missiles too.  I would like to take some proper pictures of them someday when I have time to get out a proper background and lighting (I'm a few models behind on that). 

[derex3592]

@wm cheng Your Phantome looks AMAZING sir!!! WOW! Always a pleasure to see the master at work!  In answer to your question, the line I'm using is called E-Z Line. Model Railroad guys use it for lots of things apparently (those guys know A LOT!)  It is stretchy to I believe almost twice its length without breaking, it's really pretty cool stuff. Lots of forgiveness for noobs like me who have never done rigging before! 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, wm cheng said:

@derex3592 the rigging does at a lot for realism!  Looking great!  How do you keep it taught if you put tape in front of the crazy glue dot, when you take that tape away after its cured, isn't there slack in the thread/line?

 

Yay!!! Finally finished my FineMolds F-4J in 1/72 scale - love these hi-viz 70s schemes.  Missiles are all on and even re-did my last years Tomcat missiles too.  I would like to take some proper pictures of them someday when I have time to get out a proper background and lighting (I'm a few models behind on that). 

That phantom is a beauty for sure. Great job 

[arbit]

This is a Minmay Red Dress pilot figure for your 1/72 valks.  Free download here https://www.patreon.com/arbitscalemodels

[Thom]

@wm cheng That's one gorgeous Phantom!

[wm cheng]

Thanks everyone!  It wasn't the easiest experience, but I'm glad its done (might be gettin' too old for 1/72 scale, but I just don't have the room or time to go bigger).  I think I'm going to do something simpler next maybe the Enterprise/Reliant where its all pearlescent white or Galactica where its all grey or nu-Galactica where its all gunmetal with a crap load of decals 😛

@arbit these figures are fantastic, wished I had a resin printer (might look into that someday).  I'd love a 1/72 Minmay with her helmet off sitting in the backseat of the VT-1 (DYRL) - I would definitely pay someone for a very nice 4K/8K resin print of that!!!  I've been waiting on that for the Hasegawa 1/72 VT-1 in my stash.