Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[electric indigo]

Some progress on the Fitter:

[joscasle]

1 hour ago, electric indigo said:

Some progress on the Fitter:

Really nice!!!

[wm cheng]

Beautiful Electric Indigo, your builds are always so clean!  I'm having a bitch of a time with my Hasegawa F-18F, so over-engineered, too many parts that all have to align just perfectly - so much sanding and filling for me that its not fun at all!  Definitely do not recommend this kit.  Unfortunately I bought it a while ago when it was a new tool around 2006 (sucker for the skill and cross-bones) - I think there are a lot of better Super Hornet kits in 1/72 now a days.

[Focslain]

So sorry for the lousy picture. I use my phone and the lighting at my work spot isn't the greatest.

So after a looong time doing 40K models, I needed a break and started on the Hasagawa models I got. 

This is the first of five. Plan is to recreate the launch scene from 3rd Live. 

[electric indigo]

8 hours ago, wm cheng said:

 I'm having a bitch of a time with my Hasegawa F-18F, so over-engineered, too many parts that all have to align just perfectly - so much sanding and filling for me that its not fun at all! 

I hear you. I'm assembling a much sought-after 1/48 Hase Skyhawk that was finally re-released this year, and while the details are gorgeous and the general fit is quite good, there are regions that drive me nuts.

Meanwhile on the eastern front, we have green #2:

And speaking of green, this is how I keep track of my color mixes:

[derex3592]

Someday perhaps  @electric indigo will do a YouTube channel and teach us all how to paint like he does..... cause it's always perfect. 

[Mog]

Don’t wanna hijack tekering’s thread, so here’s my detailed up Prometheus:

Mad props to @nightmareB4macross.  Yes, I stole your idea for using yellow paint to detail out the elevators.

Still working on the Daedalus side details, and I’ll see how badly I skunked up on spray-painting the Matchbox SDF-1’s parts.  

Been awhile since I spray-painted a toy.  I’m horribly out of practice. 

[wm cheng]

I HATE SANDING!!! POS kit...   Definitely do not recommend, no intake trunking at all, I had to build an internal ramp to smooth out an area that would have been so hard to sand flat and flatten the back to have a surface to spray black on instead of just seeing into the plastic guts of the fuselage and no room to put in the full length of the afterburner interior (had to cut those down way too short to fit into the fuselage.  Also horrible way to attach the main wings to fuselage assembly, tabs but nothing to tab into structurally, just glue holding against gravity!  Also, I made the mistake of thinking I could just alter and make the Aires F-18 Hasegawa resin landing gear wells work with Hasegawa F-18F kit - you can't without tons of surgery, I ended up grinding down the forward gear bay till it was paper thin and the footwell of the cockpit and I was still short, I ended up slicing the wheel bay and making it much shallower than intended to fit both the cockpit and landing gear bay into the forward fuselage.  This has been hell almost in the realm of my Bandai VF-25 transformable kit.  Definitely not an easy build that I thought I would dip my toes back into the hobby with.  It felt like there was more putty and surfacer than there was bare plastic!

 

[derex3592]

I feel your pain @wm cheng!!! My life today... Wake up, detail touch up Ent D nacelles, which looked PERFECT!... go to garage for quick clear coat with Tamiya TS-13. Good. No worries right? Return to garage shortly thereafter to start 7 hour full garage cleanup and find out that indeed it wasn't that new Clear Coats fault last time.. See 1st pic. Come to find out that the Tamiya can actually SAYS.. DO NOT USE UNDER 50 Degrees. Well FML... it was warmer in the garage but when I opened it up.. Yuppers 48 degrees outside cold that came right on in.  Here we go again. I hate myself SO much. If I'd only waited 2 hours.... LOL. On the other hand.. Got the workbench area cleaned up and organized! 

[Thom]

@wm cheng Despite the trials she's coming together nicely.  The last F-18F I put together was Academy's 1/72. Push fit, but still a good looking result with a little work.

@derex3592 Ouch, quite the peel! At least it was before decals. As for the bench, really nice!

 

[electric indigo]

@wm cheng That's how my Skyhawk looks, too. Just look at a current Revell kit and you'll appreciate Hasegawa again.

@derex3592 That must have hurt. How about water based acrylic clear coat (like this one)? 

_

Got the final color of the camo done today:

 

[Bolt]

That looks really good @Mog

@wm cheng you're still making that bird look good! Even (or especially) with the blood , sweat and cursing.

OH man @derex3592 another step back, dang! I hope that's not too hard to correct! The work space looks great. I just reorganized mine too. Gets hectic quick..

Excellent job on the camo @electric indigo ! That looks awesome!

[pengbuzz]

Man, Derex! That one is just cursed it seems!

I had that happen with one of my models in the past: I ended up simply scuff-sanding it smooth, using steel wool to remove any residual paint crack marks and then repainting it. I hope you can do liekwise with this, but I'm honestly sorry that you're going through hell here!

[wm cheng]

@derex3592 Ouch!  I feel your pain - yes so glad that happened before the decals.  Been there buddy, you're making me want to build my Star Trek kits (found a Tamiya & Mr. Color pearlescent white paint too)

@electric indigo Another smooth as silk perfect paint job!!!  Wow, I will try your pre-shading this time (if I ever get to that stage!) - I've always used post shading, but I love how subtle your pre-shading is looking.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and misery is company so strangely I do feel better.  Back to the grind sanding now (although I am trying to cut out the flaps, ailerons and slats to break up that huge wing surface a bit - I think I'm a sucker for punishment :P)

[electric indigo]

William, what you see on the kit right now is all post-shading, as the black pre-shading got almost completely swallowed by the base colors. I guess I could have started with an even thinner paint mix, but I find the post-shading better to control anyway.

I mix the base colors a tad darker and dirtier than I want the final appearance to be, and then apply a mix of (flat) base color and gloss(!) white in a 2:1 ratio, thinned 1:1 for easier application in thin layers for tonal & specular variation.

[derex3592]

"Resume course Mr. Data...warp 7. Engage." 

[Bolt]

2 hours ago, derex3592 said:

 

"Resume course Mr. Data...warp 7. Engage

 

RFO! Looks awesome. Great recovery mate!

[joscasle]

4 hours ago, derex3592 said:

"Resume course Mr. Data...warp 7. Engage." 

Great!!! 

[505thAirborne]

5 hours ago, derex3592 said:

"Resume course Mr. Data...warp 7. Engage." 

[Bolt]

As i get close to finishing a few other kits, I've started another 1/72 for my Megaroad-01 hangar. This is the Hobbyexpro resin model. 

Needs a bit more sanding and filling. It really helps me to have that first coat of paint on. I often miss spots until the paint reveals the truth. 

See you next deculture 

[Thom]

@derex3592 

  Very nice recovery!

 

And a lovely looking VF-4 @Bolt

[wm cheng]

OMG!  Starting to finally look like a plane...  I love painting and decaling, but I hate the prep work beforehand - however without the prep, the painting would suck.

[derex3592]

Looking good @wm cheng!

[Kelsain]

Made some more progress on the VF-1 Battroid this week. Maybe I’ve gotten used to Gundams, but Jeebus, what is going on with these hip joints?

[Thom]

13 hours ago, wm cheng said:

OMG!  Starting to finally look like a plane...  I love painting and decaling, but I hate the prep work beforehand - however without the prep, the painting would suck.

Real nice progress you got!

I had dropped the slats and flaps on the 1/72 Academy Super Bug. Turned one part into ten and then had to put them all back together again. Sure feels nice getting some construction done, doesn't it?

9 hours ago, Kelsain said:

Made some more progress on the VF-1 Battroid this week. Maybe I’ve gotten used to Gundams, but Jeebus, what is going on with these hip joints?

Looking good! Though I have to agree, those hips joints have been the weakest part of the whole design. I remember doing the old Bandai where you had to change out the entire  nose cone for Battloid mode. Still got some parts left from that one...

[Thom]

On 4/2/2020 at 2:56 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

Working from home does afford some late night building.

Time to work on the 1/8000 Zentradi Fleet.

The Quedol-Magdomillia should have been printed in two parts instead of one. So, I will be doing some scratch building a bit on these.

How's the pold Zentran fleet coming along?

[pengbuzz]

17 hours ago, Kelsain said:

Made some more progress on the VF-1 Battroid this week. Maybe I’ve gotten used to Gundams, but Jeebus, what is going on with these hip joints?

Honestly, I would trade out those plastic hip joints for some metal rod or something. That looks hella weak (not your fault!).

 

[pengbuzz]

7 hours ago, Thom said:

Real nice progress you got!

I had dropped the slats and flaps on the 1/72 Academy Super Bug. Turned one part into ten and then had to put them all back together again. Sure feels nice getting some construction done, doesn't it?

Looking good! Though I have to agree, those hips joints have been the weakest part of the whole design. I remember doing the old Bandai where you had to change out the entire  nose cone for Battloid mode. Still got some parts left from that one...

Same, and I can see why Bandai did it on the old ones: when I converted the VF-1 I had over to a single-nose design, reworking it to plug in the legs was a royal pain in the caboose.

No wonder they used a hunky metal swing bar on the chunky 1/55!!!

[MechTech]

Sorry about the fit issues wmcheng! One of our club builders is having the same issues. He's about to get covers for all the vents! He's even coated the interior with latex which now looks like Derex's nacelles. I HATE sanding too! Your model is looking great with the flying surfaces cut out.

That sucks Derex! Once again, great recovery! And it's probably smoother than an androids butt, but I have nothing to compare to.

Electric Indigo, your finish is smooth as always! What ratio of paint to thinner do you use? We have some guys in our club that thin down something like 8:1. They do a ton of coats to build it up. Their bottles look like thinner with a thin layer of paint at the bottom.

Kelsain, I agree, go brass with the joints (or ABS sprue). I built my classic 1/48 Hasty knowing the stock knee joints needed reinforcing. I finished the model and the knee broke after completely finishing it off. To make it worse, wires run through it for batteries in the feet. I just can't rip it all up now to fix it without doing major surgery. - MT 

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, MechTech said:

Kelsain, I agree, go brass with the joints (or ABS sprue). I built my classic 1/48 Hasty knowing the stock knee joints needed reinforcing. I finished the model and the knee broke after completely finishing it off. To make it worse, wires run through it for batteries in the feet. I just can't rip it all up now to fix it without doing major surgery. - MT 

OUCH!! That's gotta stink like nothing else! One thing I used to do on stuff like that is drill a hole from one side to the other (through where the knee post would go), push in some rod, then cut flush, glue and touch up pint. but seeing as I've never done a Hase Battroid (and yours is even more complicated with the wires), I'm probably not imagining it correctly at all.

[Kelsain]

Thanks for the tips. At least I’ll have an idea of what to do if it breaks. I’m not intending to do a lot of reposing once it’s done, so maybe it’ll be ok. 
Also, a good lesson of what to do if things go wrong for my young bench-mates.

[electric indigo]

15 hours ago, MechTech said:

Electric Indigo, your finish is smooth as always! What ratio of paint to thinner do you use? We have some guys in our club that thin down something like 8:1. They do a ton of coats to build it up. Their bottles look like thinner with a thin layer of paint at the bottom.

Wow, 8:1 sounds really excessive. Are they doing those super shiny car finishes?

I use Tamiya acrylics exclusively; with a fresh jar a ratio of 2 parts paint to 1 part thinner usually works fine for flat paints. For gloss finishes I may go for a 3:2 ratio, for detail work like weathering it would be 1:1. What matters most IMO is to get a wet coat in the first pass, then put the part aside, do not directly apply the second pass, as your paint may not be able to level on a semi-dried undercoat. Flat paints are more forgiving here. Adjust the paint output and the spraying distance so that you get enough paint on the part in that first pass. Do not spray in the direction of an already coated area, but away from it as the mist will stick on the semi-dried paint without leveling properly. I usually spray really close to the surface (2-5 cm) to adjust for my airbrush's output. This goes down to 1 cm for detail work.

[MechTech]

Thanks Pengbuzz. It's actually a Takara Dougram Hasty. The knees are on a hinged angled piece. The angle broke making it impossible to fix unless it is torn apart.

Electric Indigo - Nope, nothing shiny. This is for matt paint. In our last meeting, one guy held the jar up to the camera and it is about 80% - 90% thinner. They just make a ton of passes to keep it thin and hold detail. It also helps with mottling the surface to add scale to panels and keeping details clear. - MT

[electric indigo]

If I'd have to work with paint that is 90% thinner, I'd never finish a kit...

_

Recently, I unearthed a tool from the ink & paper period of technical drawing and found it very helpful for creating circle sections from masking tape. That came in handy for the Fitter canopy:

 

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, MechTech said:

Thanks Pengbuzz. It's actually a Takara Dougram Hasty. The knees are on a hinged angled piece. The angle broke making it impossible to fix unless it is torn apart.

Electric Indigo - Nope, nothing shiny. This is for matt paint. In our last meeting, one guy held the jar up to the camera and it is about 80% - 90% thinner. They just make a ton of passes to keep it thin and hold detail. It also helps with mottling the surface to add scale to panels and keeping details clear. - MT

Oh, MAN!!! I wish I had known; a couple of months ago, I had parts from a Bandai Dougram (found it mostly built in a thrift shop)! I wish I had saved them for ya!