Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Cheese3]

Quick lil project, it was on sale at wise guy hobbies. Not a paid ad! Haha  Somthing just for fun. Wasn’t too concerned with seams or flaws. Love these small kits. 

[Cheese3]

I forgot it’s bubble! 

[Cheese3]

I forgot it’s bubble! 

[Big s]

3 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE: no ink for decals, no usable decal paper and such, I finally got sick of it and just printed decals for the Callisto on printer paper and glued it on.

(rest of the model is half paper anyways).

No class name as of yet; with that though, I'm calling this one done-

Dorsal and Ventral views:

 

Primary Hull Registry:

 

Warp Nacelle Pennant and Registry:

 

Impulse Engines and Stellar Observatory/ Cartography Dome:

 

Navigational deflector:

 

Secondary Hull rear sensor suite:

 

Bussards in daylight:

 

Stand for the model (no blueprints this time):

See everyone next project!

-Pengbuzz

 

The paper markings fit the project fine

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz WOW! That's a LOT of detail you put into the starship! It looks REALLY good and especially cool since it's a rare subject. - MT

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Cheese3 said:

I forgot it’s bubble! 

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever used the little bubble personally. I’ve seen other people flip it over and use them as stands though 

[Thom]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE: no ink for decals, no usable decal paper and such, I finally got sick of it and just printed decals for the Callisto on printer paper and glued it on.

(rest of the model is half paper anyways).

No class name as of yet; with that though, I'm calling this one done-

Dorsal and Ventral views:

 

Primary Hull Registry:

 

Warp Nacelle Pennant and Registry:

 

Impulse Engines and Stellar Observatory/ Cartography Dome:

 

Navigational deflector:

 

Secondary Hull rear sensor suite:

 

Bussards in daylight:

 

Stand for the model (no blueprints this time):

See everyone next project!

-Pengbuzz

 

@pengbuzz That is a great looking model! If they made that in kit-form, I'd buy one!

 

[Urashiman]

Did a bit priming and coloring this evening as well as further building.

This is a big one…

(probably not as big as the plamax 1/20 one, but 1/48 big)

[sketchley]

@pengbuzz

That's a very dynamic looking ship!  I especially like how visually different it looks from the 3/4 views (front top, rear top, rear bottom, etc.)  You've also added an impressive amount of detail—phaser banks, escape pods, station keeping thrusters, etc.  The crème de la crème are that the windows aren't just drawn on, but are indented into the hull material.  The specular highlights really sells it!

Question about the bridge area: is it the smallest dome on top of the top ventral dome?  To my eyes, it looks like those forward facing windows on that top ventral dome could be the ship's 'Ten Forward'!

12 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Primary Hull Registry:

 

 

Edited December 14 by sketchley

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, sketchley said:

@pengbuzz

That's a very dynamic looking ship!  I especially like how visually different it looks from the 3/4 views (front top, rear top, rear bottom, etc.)  You've also added an impressive amount of detail—phaser banks, escape pods, station keeping thrusters, etc.  The crème de la crème are that the windows aren't just drawn on, but are indented into the hull material.  The specular highlights really sells it!

Question about the bridge area: is it the smallest dome on top of the top ventral dome?  To my eyes, it looks like those forward facing windows on that top ventral dome could be the ship's 'Ten Forward'!

 

Thanks Sketchley! For the windows, I used a soldering iron (variable heat setting station) at about 859 degrees to burn the windows into the hull!.

As for the dome on the top: the very smallest one is the top of the bridge, followed by the bridge itself. The forward windows on the somewhat squarish bulge are indeed a lounge.

Maybe this will help:

 

[sketchley]

47 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Thanks Sketchley! For the windows, I used a soldering iron (variable heat setting station) at about 859 degrees to burn the windows into the hull!.

Oh!  That's quite different from what I had imagined!  Nevertheless, as I said before, it's really effective!

 

47 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

As for the dome on the top: the very smallest one is the top of the bridge, followed by the bridge itself. The forward windows on the somewhat squarish bulge are indeed a lounge.

Thanks for the confirmation.  It's a testament to your research and detailing work that I immediately thought exactly what you're intending to depict. 👍

[sketchley]

Been a while since I updated my models-in-progress.  A few months ago, my Rigādo factory was really getting into the swing of things, when I got a bad case of gotta-get-it-done-itis, and ended up nicking my thumb with the Xacto knife.

While I was letting it heal, I reverted to the other major project on the workbench: dusting!

At one point, I tackled the Death Star II.  The big hole in the back is great for letting dust in, but terrible for getting it out.  As I didn't glue it together, I was able to tease all the pieces apart:

Then I remembered that someone on MW had painted the interior of their Death Star, and realized it was my chance to do the same.  The red and silver paint is really obvious.  Can you see any of the Burnt Iron paint?  Alas, it's basically indistinguishable from the black water colour wash 😭:

Regrettably, once assembled, I realized that the outer surface was too plain, and something needed to be added to it:

In researching the details, I came across a buildup that essentially said that the 'city sections' on the Death Star's surface are darker than the surrounding areas.  The modeller had painted all of the raised panels in a rainbow of darker colours, and then dry brushed a light grey over top to get the desired effect—essentially the opposite of what I had achieved with my wash.

That's when I recalled another MW member having used pencil to add Aztec details to their Enterprise kits.  As the test panels came out quite nice (bottom right Death Star in the image above), I went gangbusters on the rest of the surface.  The results were nothing like I expected, and much too dark for my tastes:

I decided to wipe off the pencils and resolved to find another way to achieve the desired finish.  And that's when the happy accident happened: the wet-wipes I used didn't take all the graphite off, and I ended up with something extremely close to what I was aiming for:

Thankfully, when I was laying on the pencils I had the presence of mind to resist scribbling, and pencilled in the areas with uniform top to bottom strokes.

My overall goals were to ① break up the the monotony of the even-thickness layers in the back by drybrushing horizontally to suggest different layer thicknesses, and ② suggest that there is more detail than there really is with strategically placed vertical bits of colour to break up the monotony even further.  I think it works—as long as you don't look at it too closely!

What do you guys think?  Does it look better now compared to when I started?

⇩ The unmodified Death Star

[Big s]

7 minutes ago, sketchley said:

Been a while since I updated my models-in-progress.  A few months ago, my Rigādo factory was really getting into the swing of things, when I got a bad case of gotta-get-it-done-itis, and ended up nicking my thumb with the Xacto knife.

While I was letting it heal, I reverted to the other major project on the workbench: dusting!

At one point, I tackled the Death Star II.  The big hole in the back is great for letting dust in, but terrible for getting it out.  As I didn't glue it together, I was able to tease all the pieces apart:

Then I remembered that someone on MW had painted the interior of their Death Star, and realized it was my chance to do the same.  The red and silver paint is really obvious.  Can you see any of the Burnt Iron paint?  Alas, it's basically indistinguishable from the black water colour wash 😭:

Regrettably, once assembled, I realized that the outer surface was too plain, and something needed to be added to it:

In researching the details, I came across a buildup that essentially said that the 'city sections' on the Death Star's surface are darker than the surrounding areas.  The modeller had painted all of the raised panels in a rainbow of darker colours, and then dry brushed a light grey over top to get the desired effect—essentially the opposite of what I had achieved with my wash.

That's when I recalled another MW member having used pencil to add Aztec details to their Enterprise kits.  As the test panels came out quite nice (bottom right Death Star in the image above), I went gangbusters on the rest of the surface.  The results were nothing like I expected, and much too dark for my tastes:

I decided to wipe off the pencils and resolved to find another way to achieve the desired finish.  And that's when the happy accident happened: the wet-wipes I used didn't take all the graphite off, and I ended up with something extremely close to what I was aiming for:

Thankfully, when I was laying on the pencils I had the presence of mind to resist scribbling, and pencilled in the areas with uniform top to bottom strokes.

My overall goals were to ① break up the the monotony of the even-thickness layers in the back by drybrushing horizontally to suggest different layer thicknesses, and ② suggest that there is more detail than there really is with strategically placed vertical bits of colour to break up the monotony even further.  I think it works—as long as you don't look at it too closely!

What do you guys think?  Does it look better now compared to when I started?

⇩ The unmodified Death Star

I think it looks pretty cool for the size.

[Urashiman]

1/48 VF-1 build updates.

Hand painting Hikaru and his seat here.

Clear coated these parts with Tamiya XF-22 for washing.

CLAMPS!

Cockpit details + built nose with cockpit and Hikaru.

I am going for the bubbly canopy, but it has that ugly seam line. I find that weird, because they managed to do the flat canopy without a seam line in the middle.

scratching off the seam line. (Ugly ugly…)

Then sanding and buffing and putting it on the nose. As good as new.

Little snap together just to show off the VF-1

Need to add some putty here and there as well as sanding. After that, masking and priming

 

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Urashiman said:

1/48 VF-1 build updates.

Hand painting Hikaru and his seat here.

Clear coated these parts with Tamiya XF-22 for washing.

CLAMPS!

Cockpit details + built nose with cockpit and Hikaru.

I am going for the bubbly canopy, but it has that ugly seam line. I find that weird, because they managed to do the flat canopy without a seam line in the middle.

scratching off the seam line. (Ugly ugly…)

Then sanding and buffing and putting it on the nose. As good as new.

Little snap together just to show off the VF-1

Need to add some putty here and there as well as sanding. After that, masking and priming

 

Looking good so far!! Just use caution on the decalling step; that one's been getting folks lately! O.o

[Thom]

@sketchley Very nice with popping the deets! Looks twice as big.

@Urashiman Those seams line on the canopy bug the heck out of me! Nice work getting rid of it.

[Big s]

6 hours ago, Urashiman said:

1/48 VF-1 build updates.

Hand painting Hikaru and his seat here.

Clear coated these parts with Tamiya XF-22 for washing.

CLAMPS!

Cockpit details + built nose with cockpit and Hikaru.

I am going for the bubbly canopy, but it has that ugly seam line. I find that weird, because they managed to do the flat canopy without a seam line in the middle.

scratching off the seam line. (Ugly ugly…)

Then sanding and buffing and putting it on the nose. As good as new.

Little snap together just to show off the VF-1

Need to add some putty here and there as well as sanding. After that, masking and priming

 

Nice job on little Hikaru. 
I never understood why they had to put that mold line there on the canopy. 

[electric indigo]

3 hours ago, Big s said:

I never understood why they had to put that mold line there on the canopy. 

You can't get the inner part of the mold in an undivided outer mold (unless you divide the inner part...).

[sketchley]

11 hours ago, Urashiman said:

scratching off the seam line. (Ugly ugly…)

Then sanding and buffing and putting it on the nose. As good as new.

 

That seam line sucks!

But you did an awesome job eliminating it.  Mad skills!

[pengbuzz]

On 12/14/2024 at 2:19 AM, sketchley said:

Oh!  That's quite different from what I had imagined!  Nevertheless, as I said before, it's really effective!

 

Thanks for the confirmation.  It's a testament to your research and detailing work that I immediately thought exactly what you're intending to depict. 👍

Thanks! I learned a lot when I was designing my other ship, the Alpha Centauri. I wanted to make sure that whatever I did followed Gene Roddenberry's design rules for starships:

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/design.htm

[MechTech]

@sketchley Those Death Star details are a vast improvement over the stock version. The red looks weird at first in assembly, but complete really pops for the right reasons.

@Urashiman Great clean-up on the canopy and paint on the pilot! That's going to be a beautiful build! - MT

[Big s]

So I just got the Hg Torohachi in the mail today and noticed that the clear bubble is two parts. It’s supposed to be one solid piece, but due to the shape, Bandai cut it down the middle. I looked online to see how other people handled the build and didn’t see anything that addressed the issue. I could probably take a piece of plastic and curve it to make a frame as a simple solution, but was wondering if anyone has had a similar issue with something like a clear canopy.

I’d rather have a solid clear piece, and was wondering if anyone here has ever had to glue two pieces of clear plastic together and remove a seam line made from joining the parts and maybe see if anyone had any tips on that process. My worries are if it would just end up highly noticeable like discoloration or air bubbles and maybe solutions for those issues.

here’s a pic of how it’s supposed to lookand below is how all the builds end up looking where they just stuck the two parts together and it kinda leaves a noticeable seam in the bubble that looks awkward to me.

[pengbuzz]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

So I just got the Hg Torohachi in the mail today and noticed that the clear bubble is two parts. It’s supposed to be one solid piece, but due to the shape, Bandai cut it down the middle. I looked online to see how other people handled the build and didn’t see anything that addressed the issue. I could probably take a piece of plastic and curve it to make a frame as a simple solution, but was wondering if anyone has had a similar issue with something like a clear canopy.

I’d rather have a solid clear piece, and was wondering if anyone here has ever had to glue two pieces of clear plastic together and remove a seam line made from joining the parts and maybe see if anyone had any tips on that process. My worries are if it would just end up highly noticeable like discoloration or air bubbles and maybe solutions for those issues.

here’s a pic of how it’s supposed to lookand below is how all the builds end up looking where they just stuck the two parts together and it kinda leaves a noticeable seam in the bubble that looks awkward to me.

You could buy a clear plastic ball ornament (Hobby Lobby, Michaels and other places sell them) and use that to replace the clear ball on the kit.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

You could buy a clear plastic ball ornament (Hobby Lobby, Michaels and other places sell them) and use that to replace the clear ball on the kit.

I think that’s more of a last ditch effort in case I screw up the included bubble. But it is a good idea, because my preferred method is kind of untested and I’m not really sure what I’d be getting myself into. There’s actually a pretty good chance of disaster 

[pengbuzz]

4 minutes ago, Big s said:

I think that’s more of a last ditch effort in case I screw up the included bubble. But it is a good idea, because my preferred method is kind of untested and I’m not really sure what I’d be getting myself into. There’s actually a pretty good chance of disaster 

Well, at least you have a backup then if things go south with the included bubble. Personally, I kinda hate working with clear plastics.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, at least you have a backup then if things go south with the included bubble. Personally, I kinda hate working with clear plastics.

It’s definitely not something I’ve tried before, and the more I run the idea through my head, the more thoughts of more ways things could go wrong 

[sketchley]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

It’s definitely not something I’ve tried before, and the more I run the idea through my head, the more thoughts of more ways things could go wrong 

Is there any way you can try out the preferred method on something first?  The first thing that comes to mind are pieces of the sprues for the bubble canopy.  However, they may be too small to replicate the end goal...

[Chas]

If they are two separate pieces that get glued together, there is no way to make that join invisible  -  it is not a seam line - the separation  goes right through from one end to the other.

A seamline in a clear piece, like that on a canopy, does not run through the entire piece from one side to the other (inside to outside). It is more like an indentation ( like a scratch on the surface) and is removed by scraping away the surface to a point below (deeper) than the indentation (scratch) thus 'removing' it and then sanding/buffing the surface smooth.

With two pieces joined together there is no way to scrape away material deeper than the join because it runs through from one side to the other.

On non-clear pieces we can eliminate the line between the two joined pieces by covering  the join with putty, sanding until the added material and the existing material from both pieces are even and smooth, and the painting over that area such that the line between the two parts is invisible. This cannot be done if the two parts are transparent.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, sketchley said:

Is there any way you can try out the preferred method on something first?  The first thing that comes to mind are pieces of the sprues for the bubble canopy.  However, they may be too small to replicate the end goal...

Actually the sprue does have a bunch of extra plastic creating a safety box around the clear parts for protection 

 

26 minutes ago, Chas said:

If they are two separate pieces that get glued together, there is no way to make that join invisible  -  it is not a seam line - the separation  goes right through from one end to the other.

A seamline in a clear piece, like that on a canopy, does not run through the entire piece from one side to the other (inside to outside). It is more like an indentation ( like a scratch on the surface) and is removed by scraping away the surface to a point below (deeper) than the indentation (scratch) thus 'removing' it and then sanding/buffing the surface smooth.

With two pieces joined together there is no way to scrape away material deeper than the join because it runs through from one side to the other.

On non-clear pieces we can eliminate the line between the two joined pieces by covering  the join with putty, sanding until the added material and the existing material from both pieces are even and smooth, and the painting over that area such that the line between the two parts is invisible. This cannot be done if the two parts are transparent.

That’s definitely a worry that I have, but I think I’ll experiment a little with the clear plastic and clear cement to see if it kinda melts the pieces together. I’ve never done it and can’t find an example of it, but I figured it’s worth a try before ruining the actual bubble. I personally wouldn’t try basic putties, but maybe melted sprue for the imperfections if they’re wide and maybe some clear gloss into smaller holes and of course doing some sanding as polishing. If none of that works in practice, then I’ll go with plan B, which would be making a frame to go around it to at least make things look better and if that all goes to hell, then as Pengbuzz mentioned, there’s always cheap clear ornaments 

[sketchley]

In one of the Japanese hobby magazines I remember reading a tip about how to glue pieces together in a way that gets rid of the seam line, without having to resort to putty and other fillers.  If memory serves:

1) Put the solvent glue on the parts of both pieces that are being fused together.  2) wait until the plastic is suitable melted.  3) squish the pieces together until there isn't any gap, and some of the melted plastic is being pushed out.  4) when dry, sand off the excess plastic that was pushed out of the seam.

 

However, I'm not sure how viable that is on a clear plastic piece - as the off gassing will probably cause fogging...

[Big s]

2 minutes ago, sketchley said:

In one of the Japanese hobby magazines I remember reading a tip about how to glue pieces together in a way that gets rid of the seam line, without having to resort to putty and other fillers.  If memory serves:

1) Put the solvent glue on the parts of both pieces that are being fused together.  2) wait until the plastic is suitable melted.  3) squish the pieces together until there isn't any gap, and some of the melted plastic is being pushed out.  4) when dry, sand off the excess plastic that was pushed out of the seam.

 

However, I'm not sure how viable that is on a clear plastic piece - as the off gassing will probably cause fogging...

That’s basically what I was thinking of doing, but with the extra thin, it worries me. I’m actually thinking of trying it with thicker glue as well since I have some spare plastic to work with and see if that makes a difference. Luckily there’s enough extra plastic here to try a few different methods as experiments 

[sketchley]

That's good that you have some material on hand to try things out first.  Hopefully there won't be too much fogging! 🤞

[Big s]

8 hours ago, sketchley said:

That's good that you have some material on hand to try things out first.  Hopefully there won't be too much fogging! 🤞

Definitely plenty of plastic to give things a try

It’s almost like a box around the parts, so there’s plenty of clear plastic to try things like a bit with solvent glue straight out of the bottle or turn some into sprue goo or even a mix of the two or just some thick old school testers squeeze tube. 

[sketchley]

Looks like there's plenty of material to try the quicker/easier two techniques!  (making sprue goo seems like a rather involved process)

Seeing the box-like parts, I'm wondering what the best approach is for welding two chunks together.  Thinking out loud: scoring and snapping a section apart to be glued back together will probably introduce stress marks...  Perhaps gluing the undamaged bottom edges of two parts of that 'box' together will closest approximate the actual dome?

It's a shame that the box isn't quite as clear as the dome.  Maybe put a bit of something like masking tape on the clear plastic close to where you're gluing, and once everything is dry, remove it to see if there is any fogging (and how bad it gets) near the glued seam?

Edited Thursday at 03:55 AM by sketchley

[Big s]

3 hours ago, sketchley said:

Looks like there's plenty of material to try the quicker/easier two techniques!  (making sprue goo seems like a rather involved process)

Seeing the box-like parts, I'm wondering what the best approach is for welding two chunks together.  Thinking out loud: scoring and snapping a section apart to be glued back together will probably introduce stress marks...  Perhaps gluing the undamaged bottom edges of two parts of that 'box' together will closest approximate the actual dome?

It's a shame that the box isn't quite as clear as the dome.  Maybe put a bit of something like masking tape on the clear plastic close to where you're gluing, and once everything is dry, remove it to see if there is any fogging (and how bad it gets) near the glued seam?

The box is actually just as clear, it’s more of a thing with my camera and the texture of the cheap table making things look fuzzy. But either way it’s a lot of extra bits to try out some things with.