Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Benson13]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

I practiced my method on the Enterprise C, paint, gloss coat, few applications of Flory's Dark Dirt wash, let dry and wipe, then go in with a tiny brush and do a little clean up..is it perfect?...no...but then again neither is the mold. Some are just to shallow to hold the wash, overall though, simple and effective. The "D" the windows were on the decals, which honestly I thought worked out way better, but the "E" was a newer mold so I guess that's why they were on the plastic. 

Looks great Derex. I use Flory's as well and it always turns out pretty good.

[derex3592]

@Benson13 Welcome back dude!!! 

Edited May 4, 2020 by derex3592

[Dobber]

I stepped away from building for a while....some personal issues in my life and lost interest in it....but I’ve started up again. In honor of May the 4th here are my 2 Bandai B-Wings I’ve been working on. Still need to finish the cockpits, pilots, and then decal. 1 custom and 1 will be the battle of Endor Meatball marked one. 
 

 

 

 

 

Chris

Edited May 4, 2020 by Dobber

[derex3592]

@Dobber Welcome back man!!! You're B-Wings look amazing!!! Great work! Love the orange!  Did you ever finish your 1:500 Yamato build you were working on way back when? 

[joscasle]

5 hours ago, Dobber said:

I stepped away from building for a while....some personal issues in my life and lost interest in it....but I’ve started up again. In honor of May the 4th here are my 2 Bandai B-Wings I’ve been working on. Still need to finish the cockpits, pilots, and then decal. 1 custom and 1 will be the battle of Endor Meatball marked one. 
 

 

 

 

 

Chris

Really nice B-Wings!!!!

[MechTech]

Welcome back Benson and Dobber! Long time no see! Those B wings look great Dobber! And May the 4th be with you too! - MT

[Dobber]

Thanks guys,

@derex3592, the Yamato herself is done, but I still need to build the Airwing to display with her. Procrastination is still an issue here. Lol

Chris

[big F]

Well Dobber, your holiday from modeling has not dulled your skill level.

Nice work. Always loved the B wings.

[electric indigo]

Really cool colors on that custom B-Wing. And flawless execution.

Keep on modeling!

[Thom]

@Dobber Some great looking B-Wings. Esp love the orange one!

[wm cheng]

Starting to look a little more like an airplane finally!!!  I love this part, decals are my favourite.  Its looking like it rolled out of the factory at the moment all shiny and new.  Those yellow rudder tips are a bitch to get around all those bumps and flarings - thank goodness I decided to paint the rudders black and only have to deal with the yellow tips, they included the entire black rudder as a whole decal piece (I can just imagine the nightmare).

 

@derex3592 You are making it really hard to resist that set of Enterprises!  Looking great so far.

[arbit]

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Starting to look a little more like an airplane finally!!!  I love this part, decals are my favourite.  Its looking like it rolled out of the factory at the moment all shiny and new.  Those yellow rudder tips are a bitch to get around all those bumps and flarings - thank goodness I decided to paint the rudders black and only have to deal with the yellow tips, they included the entire black rudder as a whole decal piece (I can just imagine the nightmare).

Gloss coat is looking clean.

What is your method of applying the coat. Please give some details. I always struggle with this step and can't safely apply oils afterwards. Seems no matter how much I spray, the gloss is not thick enough.

[derex3592]

4 hours ago, wm cheng said:

 

@derex3592 You are making it really hard to resist that set of Enterprises!  Looking great so far.

@wm cheng

[Dobber]

Went back through the thread a b little and WOW you guys do some amazing guys work!

William, as always your skills are top notch.

NZEOD, your diorama looks great and that fire/explosion effect is AMAZING!

Derex, can’t wait to see your Enterprises!

Chris

[wm cheng]

@arbit  I just use future straight from the bottle.  I airbrush it at low pressure 12-15psi and fairly close to it goes on wet and allows itself to "self-level".  If you spray it too far or to high of a pressure it often "pebbles" and creates a rougher texture which I have done, just make sure its evenly coated to protect the matte paint below. 

I love the easy clean up of Tamiya, however I am liking these Mr. Color paints for real world aircraft as they are pre-mixed to the right shade of grey.  Even with my careful matching I have noticed that each batch of Mr. Color or Tamiya could be a hair/shade off.  So even with my careful matching, the Hasegawa data stencilng grey "NO STEPS" are almost disappearing into the top grey.  I don't know if my paint is a shade too light or the decals a shade too dark, but needless to say lots of tiny "NO STEPS" and "NO PUSH" after 5 hrs of decalling almost disappears.

I have now resprayed a future gloss coat over just the decals to seal in the carrier film edge (I trim as close to the printed edge as possible) and blend it in.  I will spray it flat over the entire thing to even it out afterwards and start to dirty it up with a little post-shading and rub down of panels and streaks.

@Dobber  Welcome back!  Great to see your stuff again and love the B-Wing.  Almost chose that as my return to the fray, but somehow I opted for the F-18F and I'm regretting it now...  Should have started with something a little more straightforward.

[derex3592]

I'm calling the saucer done!  Bottom is also finished, now onto the secondary hull and those wonderful long skinny warp nacelles... uhhhgggggg. 

[Dobber]

Noice!

[Bolt]

That came out really nice! @derex3592

[Chronocidal]

Came out nice!  Though, I have to say, the E's decals look pretty simple compared with all the other ships in that set.  Did they just not attempt printing any of the smaller panel details on the decals?

[wm cheng]

VERY NICE @derex3592!  I was just thinking the same thing as @Chronocidal and was expecting all the little panels inside the main fields printed on the decals too.  I guess I don't understand the size, could you put a ruler or something in scale next?

 

Well the yellow tips to the tailfins were a nightmare!  Just discovered that you don't leave Mr. Softer on the decal in a droplet or pool, it will completely dissolve the decal in that spot, its much more strong than Micro SOL.  So in order of strength, I've discovered: Micro SET, Mr. Setter, Micro SOL, Mr. Softer (from weakest to strongest).  The yellow tips kind of melted around the tailfin flarings.  I thought it was a disaster.  I spent the last few days trying to repair it, I finally mixed up a batch of yellow & orange Tamiya paint and "handpainted" to repair the melted decals, pretty much the only decals showing is the thin black and yellow stripes in the lower section of the tip.  after a few coats of future to even out the finishes, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - only a few days (8-9hrs later - argh!).  I also keep dropping one of the wing tanks on my basement dusty floor (4 times) while it was either wet with paint or clear coat (the same one!) and had to sand it off and repaint - now after 4 times, its finally decent.  Either I'm just clumsy in my old age and just not in the groove somethings, but I spent a lot of this model fixing and repairing instead of building and painting.  Well its almost ready for a matte clear coat so I can do some light post shading/weathering.

Oh BTW, thanks for that tip about painting my decal sheet and cutting that for the interior canopy frame.  I also did a grey patch and did that for the forward LERX wing part with the grey no-slip walk on patch instead of use the kit supplied decals which was a screened print instead of a solid grey.

[arbit]

wm cheng, yeah that Mr softner is powerful stuff. I usually wipe it right off, let it work, then add more and wipe right off again if it needs more, or it will disintegrate Hasegawa decals.

And I would say 90% of my time is fixing and repairing 

[Chronocidal]

55 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

VERY NICE @derex3592!  I was just thinking the same thing as @Chronocidal and was expecting all the little panels inside the main fields printed on the decals too.  I guess I don't understand the size, could you put a ruler or something in scale next?

See.. Size should be no problem here.  If they have the printing quality to put the aztec panels on the 1701-A, or even the details for the E's escape pods and transporter emitters, the hull pattern shouldn't be an issue.

I'm thinking they just didn't do it because the surface of the saucer has so many layers.  Or maybe they couldn't pin down an "official" pattern.. or something.  I don't know.  Properly detailing the E would probably require an ungodly amount of massive decals in this case, because the pseudo-random paneling covers the entire ship, and the surface is divided up into so many layers.  (Short reason, it's a lot of work. )

The First Contact studio filming model was an oddity for Star Trek, because I don't think they actually had any particular method to how they detailed the hull.. it just looked like patches of tape everywhere.  The CGI model in Nemesis had the contrast cranked up, but the Enterprise E has probably gone through the most design changes of any of the versions over the years, since each movie used an entirely different model.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Chronocidal

[derex3592]

I know what you guys are saying, I noticed that the E's decals are fairly spartan compared to some of the smaller ships. It's definitely meant to be viewed from about 2 or 3 feet away if not further, one guy said it's like the Mona Lisa this set of ships, don't get to close..LOL....and that analogy holds true. My Diamond Select E which is on my desk at work has more detail in the pattern but it's also more than twice the size and the color palette is taken from the Nemesis movie, contrast turned up as Chronocidal said, which honestly I really didn't care for.  For this scale, 1/2500, the decals are just fine IMHO.  It's more from the First Contact version, heck some of the shots in that movie, the damn thing just looked off white!  It will go together with others just fine, let's just see if I can get over the last hurdle and over the finish line here! 

@wm cheng - I FEEL your pain!  Sometimes a whole weekend will go by and I've only accomplished finishing one little thing that I screwed up on Friday night!  Solider on mate!  The Hornet is looking good!!! 

Pics of a small bottle of Tamiya for scale... 

Edited May 9, 2020 by derex3592

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, at this scale, trying to add all the details would just make them look overblown.  The First Contact ship was -very- subtle in its paneling.

What's actually frustrating though is that Diamond Select went through two versions of the ship.. or maybe one still counted as Art Asylum?  I don't know for sure, but I wound up buying a second.  The first version only put any paneling detail on the saucer, and it was very heavily contrasted, while the rest of the ship was criminally bare.  The second version is much more muted, and they finished the job, completing the paneling on the whole ship, and actually lighting up the blue nacelle grills... yeah, the first version only lit the bussards.. I'm seriously considering repainting the whole thing.

Will be really nice to see them all displayed together though!  Did the kit come with a group stand for the whole fleet, or do you have some plans of your own?

[derex3592]

I guess I got the 2nd version of the Diamond Select E, as a lot of things light up and it has Picard lines from the movie. Guys at the office get a kick out of it. I did my Flory's window wash trick on it quickly when I got it and painted the stand gold and silver like a communicator badge and called it a day. It actually looks pretty cool next to my Defiant model. They scale pretty well in my head cannon.  

No group stand included, only the craptastic ones the models originally came with. No plans to do anything custom at this point. Waaaaaay to many other projects to get finished! 

[Chronocidal]

I'm honestly tempted to pick up the newer version with the massive decals now.  I already have all of the individual ships (minus the NX-01) from two previous kits, and none have anything even remotely like the new decal sets.

The TV, Motion Picture, and TNG set was actually a hilarious mis-pricing at a local shop of the version of the kit that included a giant clear acrylic disc that you could insert the models into for a flight display.  Think it was like $3.00?    But I would love a chance to rebuild all of them in matching scale.

[MechTech]

Derex, you have another fine addition to your fleet! Keep Trekking on!

WMCheng, your hornet is coming along great! I'm glad the canopy trick worked for you. And no, it's just not you! I'm in a model club with a whole lot of members that when we describe how we built our model, we all have LOTS of screw ups! The bad part is when your scratch-building, and screwing up your own stuff! I'm always taking two steps forward, more steps back it seems.

Hi everyone! This is catching up about two weeks of work so sorry for the extra photos.

I will always say, “Save things you think you can use - without hoarding.” Someone was about to throw away some orange toner cartridge covers that were cool shaped and styrene. So, I kept them! They are now consoles on the bridge. The bridge is a combination bridge and combat information center (CIC). So, there are several rows of consoles in it. First, pieces were trimmed so they were the right shape. Then angles cut and pieces glued together.

Details are what make models believable so instead of only plain rows of consoles, I wanted louvered vents like many consoles have. “Louvers” were cut into styrene and then the louvers were cut out like islands, so they stick out from the surface. If I had Evergreen cladding sheets, I could have just used them, but I don’t. Ordering from hobby shops stateside is about two weeks wait right now. The louvered sheets were then glued onto the sides and allowed to dry for a couple of days.

The ship needs about 24 seats for the bridge crew. Besides Shapeways, where are you going to find them? Thankfully I had some HH-60 parts in my spare sprues’ boxes. They were glued together with an angle piece to support them. These were then cut out when dry.

The bridge needed simulated two-foot floor tiles for "under floor cabling and cooling" like in computer centers. When I made the 1/200 Daedalus years ago, it needed nearly six feet of embossed deck area to simulate tie-downs. The hand-cranked machine I made was modified to accept a Dremel (which moves manually across the rails). The machine feeds according to how many cranks you make. This is easier than trying to grid-out the sheet and manually scribe/screw-up all the lines. One side was done, then flipped 90 degrees and the other side done. Clean-up STILL needed scribing which still created some mistakes – which thankfully were cut-out. Why not mill this? The sheet is too big for my little mill. Once again, Evergreen makes the right sheets, but I'm already waiting on other parts in the mail - so time to push through...

Then everything was dry fit together. The consoles still need desk areas and maybe cup holders. Anyone know a good deal on 1/72 keyboards? - MT

[big F]

51 minutes ago, MechTech said:

 

This machine needs it own thread on here I think. It looks awesome.

[wm cheng]

NICE!!!  Love that jig for the Dremel.  Where did you get that?  Was it expensive?  The louvers, were they also done on a jig with a dremel?

[David Hingtgen]

wm_cheng----have you decided on a load-out for your Hornet?  A LOT of Super Hornet kits are quite wrong when it comes to "how they actually carry missiles", so don't trust the instructions! 

[NZEOD]

Almost done...

[arbit]

9 minutes ago, NZEOD said:

Almost done...

Nice weathering to beat up the old guy. The scratches and gunk are nicely in scale too. I don't have the patience for that level of detailing.

And some of those photos are very well done with the angles and lighting. 

Do you plan a matt coat or semi-gloss at the end? Or is that how you want it?

Nice work. Keep em coming.

[NZEOD]

That IS a matt top coat... might need a second one I think.

The weathering is stupidly easy to do... you undercoat with a metal coloured Lacquer (bonds to the base plastic better for later), put down a coat of hairspray or chipping fluid like MIG fluid, spray your acrylic layers, get out a tub of water, some tooth picks, a dremel wire wheel and an electric toothbrush and wet the model and scratch it, scrap it and rub it with the wire wheel in your hand (not in the tool!) and the tooth brush.

Then flory wash it, wipe it with your finger and clear it. 

Decal it.

Scratch up the decals to match underneath.

Clear it.

Flory it again.

Wipe as needed.

Matt Clear it.

[NZEOD]

Decals are a mix of Wave Destroid, 1/100 Gundam Builder warning label packs, 1/144 Gunslinger F/A-18 and VF-1 packs

Edited May 10, 2020 by NZEOD

[wm cheng]

4 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

wm_cheng----have you decided on a load-out for your Hornet?  A LOT of Super Hornet kits are quite wrong when it comes to "how they actually carry missiles", so don't trust the instructions! 

Thanks for piping up @David Hingtgen I've been having a lot of trouble deciding this too.  I have really great references (especially of the actual aircraft) but most of them are un-armed, it was really rare to find anything other than just the wingtip (station 11 & 1) AIM-9X or dummies.  I was going to go with; station 11 & 1 with AIM-9X, stn 10 & 2 AMRAAM, stn 9 & 3 just the empty rack, stn 8, 6 & 4 wing tanks.  I'm a missile guy, I like the way they look.  How's this layout?  It will be the last thing I do after all the painting.