Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Chronocidal]

Ok, that's incredibly impressive for a hate build, especially one started so long ago.

Not wrong about the snowspeeders, those are -tiny- craft.  There's a reason Bandai made them 1/48, instead of matching their other "1/72" kits.

[peter]

23 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Ok, that's incredibly impressive for a hate build, especially one started so long ago.

Not wrong about the snowspeeders, those are -tiny- craft.  There's a reason Bandai made them 1/48, instead of matching their other "1/72" kits.

Haha, thanks.  It was hard getting things lined up, and the seam lines were huge.  

I was just going to slap the thing together and use it to practice airbrushing on it, but I think I'll go back and address the seam lines on the legs.  It's pretty unsightly.

MPC made some odd choices to have parts come together.  For example the accordion neck thing......top dead center, across the top.  I may just ignore that one, lol!

Anyway, this may end up being a total non-canon experimental build......no markings at all on these things....I guess tanks and other armor don't have a lot of markings either, unlike fighter craft.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[MechTech]

@peter Great work on your projects so far! I'm glad someone's getting some painting done. It's going to be a while for me while I'm still machining and gluing. - MT

[Thom]

@peter Nice looking AT-AT! Esp for such a long ago build. Some putty and a good lick of paint can covers most sins!

[pengbuzz]

14 hours ago, peter said:

They're getting there.

 

Decals are cracked and fractured to hell, a lots of silvering.  I should have gotten the surface smoother and more glossy for the decals to adhere to.  Will have to remember for next time.

Got a little brave with the Gundam marker to draw in the intakes for the nacelles.

That was a mistake.  Shaky hands and bad eyes equals crooked lines, lol!  Plus the uneven surface from my bad decal application.

I still have another Refit of the same size with the Enterprise set so I'll try to remember trying to pen them in before decals.

 

When I built this kit, I faced the same kind of issues (the K'tinga simply fell apart on me, so I never got that far!); the decals just would not play nicely, and even with micro-sol, some of them were a royal pain to get to lay down right. I found a hair dryer on low and multiple applications helped to an extent.

In the end, I ended up doing battle damage to Reliant and Enterprise, which led me to this idea (the pics are old, as this was done a couple of years ago):

The biggest pain here was fashioning the Starfleet pin; that took a piece out of me! lol

As for the 1/537, still wrestling with rebuilding the warp pylons yet again. The following were how far i got a couple of years ago before needing to remove the warp engine/ pylon assemblies (it's still sitting to one side partly disassembled, in need of supplies and decals, and motivation to actually finish it!):

 

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz "KAAaaaaahhhnnnn!" That's a GREAT vignette Pengbuzz! I love how you put the two together and even scratch built a badge! Is Kirk's chair made with "Corinthian leather?" That's cool (And I'm not even a Trekkie - which evidently isn't a word). - MT

 

[pengbuzz]

48 minutes ago, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz "KAAaaaaahhhnnnn!" That's a GREAT vignette Pengbuzz! I love how you put the two together and even scratch built a badge! Is Kirk's chair made with "Corinthian leather?" That's cool (And I'm not even a Trekkie - which evidently isn't a word). - MT

 

No Corinthian leather, but this diorama was done about 3-4 years ago (old relic).

[peter]

14 hours ago, MechTech said:

@peter Great work on your projects so far! I'm glad someone's getting some painting done. It's going to be a while for me while I'm still machining and gluing. - MT

Help!  I'm getting in the weeds, lol!  I found this old Bird of Prey I might refurbish. 

It's missing parts so I might battle damage it.

Another victim to my future airbrush practice/experimentation 

Will have to sit down and focus on actually finishing something I stead of picking up another project.

[peter]

12 hours ago, Thom said:

@peter Nice looking AT-AT! Esp for such a long ago build. Some putty and a good lick of paint can covers most sins!

I covered it in brushed on flat black paint when I was a kid and just left all the parts on the runners, so when I dug it out last week, I wasn't even going to build it.  I just needed something to practice airbrushing with, lol!

But then I figured cutting the parts off and adding a bit of glue couldn't hurt, so I guess I'm building it, hahahaha!

[peter]

A bit more paint today.  I sort of like that splotchy look.

[peter]

10 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

When I built this kit, I faced the same kind of issues (the K'tinga simply fell apart on me, so I never got that far!); the decals just would not play nicely, and even with micro-sol, some of them were a royal pain to get to lay down right. I found a hair dryer on low and multiple applications helped to an extent.

In the end, I ended up doing battle damage to Reliant and Enterprise, which led me to this idea (the pics are old, as this was done a couple of years ago):

The biggest pain here was fashioning the Starfleet pin; that took a piece out of me! lol

As for the 1/537, still wrestling with rebuilding the warp pylons yet again. The following were how far i got a couple of years ago before needing to remove the warp engine/ pylon assemblies (it's still sitting to one side partly disassembled, in need of supplies and decals, and motivation to actually finish it!):

 

Holy crap, that diorama is AWESOME!!!!  It's effing Jenius (see what I did there?) using Kirk and Khan figured, just wow!

And the background....perfect!  I've always mickey-moused my display stands and bases....I should probably out in some effort sometime.

The 537 has potential to look good, but the source material from AMT makes it a long and arduous road.  I choose to ignore the inaccuracies and just aimed for better than my attempt in grade 8 

BTW, contact Round 2, they offered to send me new decals.

I just wanted them to acknowledge they sold a batch of crappy decals, because some other decals from AMT for other kits weren't this problematic.

[peter]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:13 AM, pengbuzz said:

When I built this kit, I faced the same kind of issues (the K'tinga simply fell apart on me, so I never got that far!); the decals just would not play nicely, and even with micro-sol, some of them were a royal pain to get to lay down right. I found a hair dryer on low and multiple applications helped to an extent.

In the end, I ended up doing battle damage to Reliant and Enterprise, which led me to this idea (the pics are old, as this was done a couple of years ago):

The biggest pain here was fashioning the Starfleet pin; that took a piece out of me! lol

As for the 1/537, still wrestling with rebuilding the warp pylons yet again. The following were how far i got a couple of years ago before needing to remove the warp engine/ pylon assemblies (it's still sitting to one side partly disassembled, in need of supplies and decals, and motivation to actually finish it!):

 

If the 537 is really pissing you off, you can always pour some hate into it like I did  

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, peter said:

Holy crap, that diorama is AWESOME!!!!  It's effing Jenius (see what I did there?) using Kirk and Khan figured, just wow!

And the background....perfect!  I've always mickey-moused my display stands and bases....I should probably out in some effort sometime.

The 537 has potential to look good, but the source material from AMT makes it a long and arduous road.  I choose to ignore the inaccuracies and just aimed for better than my attempt in grade 8 

BTW, contact Round 2, they offered to send me new decals.

I just wanted them to acknowledge they sold a batch of crappy decals, because some other decals from AMT for other kits weren't this problematic.

Thanks for the encouragement on the 1/537; my model is an old AMT "smoothie", so I doubt Round 2 could help. Besides, i would prefer to get a better set, as Ertl's were a bit too small (particularly the top hull registry).

The WoK display is actually a dual bridge diorama that I built surrounding a Photoshop-doctored printout of the actual nebula scene from the movie (both backdrop and underneat hthe ships joined in PS). I hand-painted over some of it to add my own touch. The data printout was all done in Photoshop, as if this were a display diorama in the Federation's Museum of History

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, peter said:

I'd the 537 is really pissing you off, you can always pour some hate into it like I did  

 

The 1/537 was something of a poor model, but I get the feeling it was a "rush job" and was tossed together as best they could. I just don't have the endless materials to figure out how to correct the problems with it. Otherwise, it's actually not too far from being finished; just needs the engines re-glued and some work done to prep it for paint and detailing.

[Thom]

15 hours ago, peter said:

...

But then I figured cutting the parts off and adding a bit of glue couldn't hurt, so I guess I'm building it, hahahaha!

Good to hear, and good to see!

[peter]

On 3/2/2021 at 1:11 AM, pengbuzz said:

Thanks for the encouragement on the 1/537; my model is an old AMT "smoothie", so I doubt Round 2 could help. Besides, i would prefer to get a better set, as Ertl's were a bit too small (particularly the top hull registry).

The WoK display is actually a dual bridge diorama that I built surrounding a Photoshop-doctored printout of the actual nebula scene from the movie (both backdrop and underneat hthe ships joined in PS). I hand-painted over some of it to add my own touch. The data printout was all done in Photoshop, as if this were a display diorama in the Federation's Museum of History

Oops, sorry for the confusion, I meant contact Round 2 for that Cadet series Klingon/Reliant/Refit set for replacement decals.

But for the 537, if someone put a gun to my head and I had to build another one, I might try to either pencil in the Aztecs, or order them from HDA again.

After all the fun and and excitement I went through with 537 builds, I think I deserve something nice like the 350 Polar Lights Refit.  Apparently they are less headache 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

So while I'm waiting for the Pledge costs to cure on my Cadet series and my AT-AT, I decided to revisit that little BOP I found.

It's missing all kinds of parts.  An entire winglet, the barrels on the phaser cannons, a couple of panels to cover the baffle holes, and a peg for the right wing so it just flops right off.

Rebuilt the cannons, not screen accurate, because I can barely see what I'm doing.

I don't know what these are called, runner part markers?  Anyway, I should just go out and buy some sheet styrene and keep it on hand, but for now, I just cut these sections off, sanded them thinner and cut them to shape (sort of).

I used these things for the patch plates on my auto destruct Refit.

I know, this is being Mickey Mouse.

Port side cannon

Starboard side battle damage.  I still have to trim the mesh once the glue dries, but what I did was drill a few holes into the wing and stuck some pegs (might have been spare 1/700 destroyer AA gun parts) so the mesh had something to stick to.

Also split the wing so it sort of looks flayed open.

 

More to follow.

 

 

[peter]

Port and starboard winglet comparison

 

[Thom]

@peter Some nice work on the wing damage.

[Thom]

Finally got a primer coat onto the Ampere. I'll need to clean some edges around the side of the saucer, but I think I'm just about ready for paint.

[Gabe Q]

You guys are displaying some amazing creativity! With @pengbuzz's diorama and @peter's custom wing damage. And @Thom, your Ampere looks like it's coming along nicely. 

All these StarTrek builds! You'd think I was in the wrong place! Maybe I need to check out some episodes and see what all the popularity is about...

Anyhow, I just finished a paint sesh. Got my clearcoats in, some base white sections, and a bit of blue and aluminum for my R2.

[pengbuzz]

10 hours ago, peter said:

Oops, sorry for the confusion, I meant contact Round 2 for that Cadet series Klingon/Reliant/Refit set for replacement decals.

But for the 537, if someone out a gun to my head and I had to build another one, I might try to either pencil in the Aztecs, or order them from HDA again.

After all the fun and and excitement I went through with 537 builds, I think I deserve something nice like the 350 Polar Lights Refit.  Apparently they are less headache 

 

They have the issue of the sheer size of the parts; one warp nacelle is nearly as big as the 1/537 refit! I would build each component as an individual model were I to do it again.

Really, i wish ROund 2 would do a new 2 foot Refit-E that was essentially a shrunk-down version of the 1/350 (don't we all, right?).

[Thom]

12 hours ago, Gabe Q said:

You guys are displaying some amazing creativity! With @pengbuzz's diorama and @peter's custom wing damage. And @Thom, your Ampere looks like it's coming along nicely. 

All these StarTrek builds! You'd think I was in the wrong place! Maybe I need to check out some episodes and see what all the popularity is about...

Anyhow, I just finished a paint sesh. Got my clearcoats in, some base white sections, and a bit of blue and aluminum for my R2.

Kirbashing an R2 with a VF-1! What?!

Some nice paint work happening there!

[pengbuzz]

Well, I thought I was retiring from kitbashing, but well...so much for retirement:

Redoing this Tomcat as Maverick's from Top Gun, but the canopy (main and windshield) shattered when I tried to remove them. Apparently, monogram/Revel likes to mold their stuff paper thin. And of course to make matters worse, Revell is now owned by their German division and operate out of Germany, and they stated on their website: "Please note that currently no spare part orders can be delivered to the USA. Since the shipping has been stopped by the service providers. This is in connection with the COVID 19 virus. Enquiries are therefore currently not being processed. Please try again at a later date."

So much for that.

None on ebay, and a new kit is out of the question (bills this month...the internet jacked their rates again).

*No...I don't want to do a crash version. Poor Goose died once already in the movie.*

Anyways... more details soon. Stay tuned folks...

Edited March 3, 2021 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

9 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, I thought I was retiring from kitbashing, but well...so much for retirement:

Redoing this Tomcat as Maverick's from Top Gun, but the canopy (main and windshield) shattered when I tried to remove them. Apparently, monogram/Revel likes to mold their stuff paper thin. And of course to make matters worse, Revell is now owned by their German division and operate out of Germany, and they stated on their website: "Please note that currently no spare part orders can be delivered to the USA. Since the shipping has been stopped by the service providers. This is in connection with the COVID 19 virus. Enquiries are therefore currently not being processed. Please try again at a later date."

So much for that.

None on ebay, and a new kit is out of the question (bills this month...the internet jacked their rates again).

*No...I don't want to do a crash version. Poor Goose died once already in the movie.*

Anyways... more details soon. Stay tuned folks...

Vac form canopy?

[Chronocidal]

Clear styrene is just fragile across the board, never really known any company able to make it flexible, it just shatters.

Might be worth looking for incomplete copies of that kit on ebay for just the canopy, that kit's been around for pretty much forever.

[peter]

On 3/2/2021 at 6:51 PM, Gabe Q said:

You guys are displaying some amazing creativity! With @pengbuzz's diorama and @peter's custom wing damage. And @Thom, your Ampere looks like it's coming along nicely. 

All these StarTrek builds! You'd think I was in the wrong place! Maybe I need to check out some episodes and see what all the popularity is about...

Anyhow, I just finished a paint sesh. Got my clearcoats in, some base white sections, and a bit of blue and aluminum for my R2.

Ok, I think I should take a break from Trek and go back to Macross kits.

[peter]

Speaking of Macross kits, I dug out my Bandai 1/100 VF-1S Strike to try and give it a bit more character.

I built this last summer and I thought I was done with it.

But something compelled me to make it a bit less cartoony.

So I took it apart to add some paint chips here and there.  Black marker on the lighter parts, silver marker on the darker parts, then a bit of Tamiya Weathering Master.

Then I decided to add a bit of damage, but nothing too crazy as Roy shouldn't be taking too many hits (apart from that pineapple salad incident).

After drilling out a bit of plastic, I filled the crater with some putty and then took the back end of a brush to squeeze it out like a zit.

Then I just painted the spot with steel.  No penetration damage, just impact marks.

Just used on of my plinking plates as a guide, except the 5.56 just drilled right through....the 22lr and 9mm just took paint off.

I didn't want to go too crazy with the damage because I have a habit of getting carried away and it ends up looking derelict 

Edited March 4, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

Calling the Walker done.

It was a terrific platform to practice air brushing because of the large flat panels.  The kit itself is a bit of a mess, and it's a miracle the thing is actually standing.  The design is just nutty.  The plates/hip joints where the legs attach....it's like they were designed to pop off if you pushed the legs in too hard.

Anyway, wont bother ranting more about it.

I got to practice pre-shading which is something I'd never done. Have to thank 12 year old me for brush painting the thing black and leaving the kit alone for 33 years so I could practice, lol!  When the Pledge went on after the gray, the brush strokes really popped, but after the dull coat, they sort of blended in again (you'll see them if you zoom in).

Of course I added a minor bit of battle damage.  Another bit of experimenting really.

Shots taken from further away, broadside of the Walker, no penetration.

5 more rounds close range to the cockpit.  First two went right in, two more were stopped by the armor, and the 5th round was armor piercing.

55mm rounds.....from what I wonder?

 

 

 

[peter]

Both apparently 1/100 scale

 

Roy flew right up to the cockpit and scrambled the soft stuff inside.

I still can't seem to get the hang of taking good photos of models and toys.

 

Just experimenting with different backgrounds and lighting.....only so much I can do with the phone cam.  Will have to get a real camera out one of these days.

 

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, Thom said:

Vac form canopy?

Haven't seen any that aren't ridiculously expensive (the kit was 10 dollars back when i lived in Colorado a couple of years ago).

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Clear styrene is just fragile across the board, never really known any company able to make it flexible, it just shatters.

Might be worth looking for incomplete copies of that kit on ebay for just the canopy, that kit's been around for pretty much forever.

Yeah. amen to that! Revellogram F-14 kits have stupid thin canopies on them; sneeze and they break.

Looking on Ebay now, but the wife is freaking out over bills this month, getting me to see a doctor (tummy issues), and just life in general. Now's not the time for me to rock the boat, or I may need a "new canopy"! lol

What's nice though is picclick: saves me a lot of trouble looking for stuff on ebay! Just wish they had it for the other sales sites...

Edited March 4, 2021 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

6 hours ago, peter said:

Both apparently 1/100 scale

 

Roy flew right up to the cockpit and scrambled the soft stuff inside.

I still can't seem to get the hang of taking good photos of models and toys.

 

Just experimenting with different backgrounds and lighting.....only so much I can do with the phone cam.  Will have to get a real camera out one of these days.

 

Some nice work on both of those! That decades long AT-AT build has paid off in the end.

[Thom]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Haven't seen any that aren't ridiculously expensive (the kit was 10 dollars back when i lived in Colorado a couple of years ago).

Yeah. amen to that! Revellogram F-14 kits have stupid thin canopies on them; sneeze and they break.

Looking on Ebay now, but the wife is freaking out over bills this month, getting me to see a doctor (tummy issues), and just life in general. Now's not the time for me to rock the boat, or I may need a "new canopy"! lol

What's nice though is picclick: saves me a lot of trouble looking for stuff on ebay! Just wish they had it for the other sales sites...

Shame for the cost. Even little bits can be prohibitive with pricing, esp when more than half could be just for shipping!

[peter]

Some references for battle damage.

One of my target plates rated for 22 and 9mm.  You can see paint chips and some minor Spalding from the splashes.  The mushrooming effect came from 5.56 I stupidly drilled into it.  556 went through, no scorch marks, just metal deformation.   

FMJ, shot from 100m.  No incendiary, high explosive or depleted uranium here, haha!

50bmg against AR500.  No penetration, a lot of spalding. 

The splashes appear to be scorch marks, but it's actually the spalding exposing the metal (we painted the plate Bright Silver for better visibility).

Might have been a different story if Incendiary, tracer, HE, or depleted uranium was used...or if there was a fuel source behind the plate.

Edited March 4, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[pengbuzz]

10 hours ago, Thom said:

Shame for the cost. Even little bits can be prohibitive with pricing, esp when more than half could be just for shipping!

Yeah, that's the rub right there! Shipping can turn a 2 dollar part into a 12 dollar one! And when you only paid 5 bucks for the kit, that is often more than one's better half can tolerate. o.o

Anyways, setting that aside right now: got an early birthday gift from a friend that I'm currently working on:

My progress so far:

Wish I had this kit when I built the "Storm Attacker" version; I think i like the carriers on this better, as well as the booms! Anyways, this means I can now fix the Storm Attacker into solid position and leave it that way, while having both versions for photography.

Stay tuned...

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by pengbuzz
I cannot spell, app[arently! lol