Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[MechTech]

@electric indigo Thanks! That sounds like a type of sale

@CrossAir Thank you! Details are what help make everything realistic. I'm trying! Sorry about the glue! You recovered great though!

@peter Thank you! I'd love to get a 1/20th Valk and do that. They are just crazy expensive - before the shipping that costs about the same. Keep up the great work! You'll have a fleet able to rule the universe at the rate you're going!

@derex3592 Thank you! Don't tempt me! Caps are as far as I'm going to go - I hope! That Catseye looks 50% kit and 50% putty. Too bad it doesn't fit better for what he wanted for them. - MT

 

 

[derex3592]

4 minutes ago, MechTech said:

@derex3592 Thank you! Don't tempt me! Caps are as far as I'm going to go - I hope! That Catseye looks 50% kit and 50% putty. Too bad it doesn't fit better for what he wanted for them. - MT

 

 

@MechTech - Don't let your eyes deceive you, all that white isn't necessarily putty, a lot of if is paint/primer sludge that is slowly coming off. For one of Cap's older kits, the fit was honestly very good.  Also keep in mind this was puttied probably TWO YEARS ago, and I sucked at putty then, and I suck at putty now, just a little less so now! 

[MechTech]

@derex3592 Oh, I forgot, that's the Cap'n's kit. I was thinking it was the other one. That's right, I also forgot you're stripping it down. I'm sure your finish will come out smooth as a baby's bum! - MT

[valkyriepm]

Slow work, but coming along!

[Gabe Q]

That's awesome! I've never seen someone build that scheme yet. I've only seen it in Model Graphics. It looks great!

[arbit]

Mechtech, Great detail work as always. I look forward to seeing that internal cross section view. So cool!

Derex, Always painful to see that Catseye! Hope it works out. 

As for Vallejo Air, I do a lot of practice sprays before hitting the model, not all paints are the same consistency out of the bottle; many colors will need extreme shaking, thinner and flow improver. They do smell wonderful, but the drawback is their thinning solution is not very strong, and bottles get clumpy fast, that's why I got a nail lacquer shaker.

[electric indigo]

From today's photo session

 

[Thom]

On 3/15/2021 at 9:55 AM, derex3592 said:

ahhh, superglue, it's such a blessing and a curse! Cursing is just part of modeling. I said a few choice wirtyderds myself this weekend!  "Let's try thinning Tamiya Liquid primer with lacquer thinner and airbrushing it on the deck of the USS Fort Worth so it won't cover up all my hard work on the tiny PE! It worked great for the guy who did it on YouTube!"  Yeeeehhhh....about that. It does work, however, you have to thin the ever loving crap out of it to get it to spray good. Despite my best efforts it still laid down rough in spots so I stripped it off and said screw primer, I'm just gonna paint the plastic. Used Vallejo Model Air - I have to say, that paint is phenomenal! No mixing, straight into airbrush and BAM! perfect mix to paint with and it has NO smell. Not even a whiff of anything. Not that I mind the Tamiya acrylic smell, but the Vallejo is better IMHO. 

Work continues on the Runabout warp nacelles, sanding and filling, filling and sanding..uuhhhhghhh....and then there's the hour I dedicated to working on stripping the disastrous primer/paint mix off the Cat's Eye. Slowly but surely!  Onwards and upwards, maybe by 2022 I'll have something finished! 

@peter- I agree with you on the Ent C - I left it alone. Just so you know, the warp engine decals on that one and the E are some of the most challenging! 

@electric indigo- Love the paintjob!  Great work! 

@MechTech - Soon you'll be making those guns really shoot tiny projectiles! I can see it now! Amazing work! 

 

Reminds me of where my Cat stalled at...

@valkyriepm That scheme is gonna looks so good!

@electric indigo That is one handsome pair of Russian jets! They fit very well together.

 

[Urashiman]

This was on my workbench today.

Cheap PMM TT-01E clone off eBay. But man - this thing is great! Speed test showed it was going 41.2km/h.

[peter]

4 hours ago, Urashiman said:

This was on my workbench today.

Cheap PMM TT-01E clone off eBay. But man - this thing is great! Speed test showed it was going 41.2km/h.

I know nothing of RC cars, but I got this from a buddy ages ago.  Played with it for a bit, then the remote died and the car sat on a shelf for more than 20 years.  Just dug it out the other day, got a new remote and fresh batteries and took it for a spin, forgot how fun they can be

[peter]

On 3/15/2021 at 5:59 PM, valkyriepm said:

Slow work, but coming along!

Man, when I see Valk builds, I feel guilty for not building one.

 

Nice work!

[peter]

12 hours ago, electric indigo said:

From today's photo session

Nice!  Looks so real!

[peter]

On 3/15/2021 at 5:39 AM, CrossAir said:

Just finished: Sheryl Nome (resin kit from E2046)

Took me five weeks to finish her as I have not much time for hobby left since work is steadily increasing since January.

Though it is a resin kit it was not hard to built - fitting of parts was quite good, not much filling, priming and sanding necessary and everything went fine until the last airbrush stroke which should only be a tiny correction to the sole of one boot. 

From here on I went through modelers’ hell as I had to redo the right leg completly cause somehow I managed to ruin the finished paint job due to color on my fingertip. After this I thought I had overcome the worst part of this build, but it struck me even harder. During assembly of the veil on the back I dropped the idea of screwing it to the body and decided to use solely superglue. When I checked some minutes later I almost got an heart attack as I noticed a drop of glue had run down the right thigh.

Even worse, since the veil came off again I had marks of superglue on other parts, too. Once again I had to sand down the thighs, paint and clear coat it again. this time even on the already assembled figure. Same on some other parts. Took me the whole weekend for the repairs. And this time I attached the veil with a screw. But I still wonder how smoothly I went through the restoration process in the end. 

Final conclusion: I hate superglue!!!! 

I'm not a fan of MF, but that is awesome.  I tried figures, Minmei fig that came with an Arii kit ages ago, and it came out looking like she was from a horror movie, one of those ghosts with no face, hahahaha!

[peter]

On 3/15/2021 at 3:59 PM, MechTech said:

@electric indigo Thanks! That sounds like a type of sale

@CrossAir Thank you! Details are what help make everything realistic. I'm trying! Sorry about the glue! You recovered great though!

@peter Thank you! I'd love to get a 1/20th Valk and do that. They are just crazy expensive - before the shipping that costs about the same. Keep up the great work! You'll have a fleet able to rule the universe at the rate you're going!

@derex3592 Thank you! Don't tempt me! Caps are as far as I'm going to go - I hope! That Catseye looks 50% kit and 50% putty. Too bad it doesn't fit better for what he wanted for them. - MT

 

 

Lol, instead of this fleet, I sort of wish I built something less of a pain in the buttocks, like a Hasegawa Valk or something.

It took an entire can of primer.

I didn't notice before just looking at these kits, but the Ent C has a surprising amount of detail.  Those phaser banks are actually textured.

First up was the NX-01.  I painted it Tamiya Flat aluminum which might be a bit too bright, but maybe it will be better after the decals.  Also painted all the bits I plan to paint with either clear red or blue.

Not sure if shading is appropriate for starships, but I figure it's going to be covered in decals anyway and I wanted to practice.

The Ent C and Ent D got some mix of gray, blue and white, and I totally don't remember the ration, I just kept mixing until I thought it looked about right.

The TOS got a box of gray and white, again, not really sure what ratio, just mixed until it sort of looked right.

Hope the decals don't end up looking too dark against the paint.

Did the shading thing for the Ent B as well, again, just for my own practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

Masking

More masking

A bit more masking

 

Just a bit more.

So this set requires a bit more work than I anticipated.  Model Chili (YouTube) made it look easy, but don't let the small size of these kits fool you.

There is probably almost the same amount of prep work that goes into these little guys as their larger counterparts, if you are building those straight out of the box.

Going to hose these things down with Pledge, paint up the clear red and blue bits and start going to decal town.

 

 

[Chronocidal]

Looking good, the work should be worth it when it's all done.  I just cut loose the E on my set, and snapped it together for a test fit, and decided I might need to build an internal support for the saucer, because I think it's actually collapsing downward... to say nothing of the wacked out nacelle pylons.

You're right though, the B, C, and E are all a much later mold that came out probably a decade or more after the TOS, A, and D, and the NX-01 is I believe the only actual new mold in this kit.  Irritating or not, the detail on the C really makes it stand out from the others.

Did you wind up picking up the fancier decals for the E, or just going with the kit set?

[CrossAir]

4 hours ago, peter said:

I'm not a fan of MF, but that is awesome.  I tried figures, Minmei fig that came with an Arii kit ages ago, and it came out looking like she was from a horror movie, one of those ghosts with no face, hahahaha!

Painting faces is a horror for me, too. When I tried painting eyes they always looked weird in the end. Thus I only built figures which are coming with decals for the eyes!

Your Trek fleet project comes along nicely. I admit I won’t have the patience to deal with these multiple ships of which each has its own issues at the same time!

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE:

I had thrown this failure in the trash last time I had posted:

Well... the BLASTED thing showed back up on my desk a week ago!!!

When I came out of my "shop" (more like a room for various stuff, really), my wife came over to me and explained that she had rescued it from the trash shortly before city sanitation came to collect the garbage. She hit it for a while, then placed it back on my worktable.

She pleaded with me not to destroy it.

*Okay...when your wife is just about in tears over this, how the heck do you just say "no"?*

I relented and told her I would spare it, but I would need a new canopy and windshield for it.

To make a long story short (too late!), she had me locate a canopy online, and she paid for it. I ordered one from Tamiya, as they were the only folks who didn't run me around like an idiot over it. I know it's going to take some work to fit it, but I can handle that.

She also found some extra decals  that had been kicking around the house which would be of great use for this project.

(yeah... I'm really blessed to have her. She knows my limitations and still stays with me!)

So with that, I figured this much effort on her part to save this 'cat deserved an equal effort on mine to bring it the rest of the way back:

And of course, Maverick and Goose:

Hopefully the new canopy should be here in a week or two (California's getting really hard on shipping times), so we'll see. Meanwhile, just need to find or make the tail logos for Maverick's plane in 1/48.

Stay tuned... this cat seems to have more lives left!

[CrossAir]

Pengbuzz, that’s love, isn’t it?! 

My wife wouldn’t mind a second  to trash all my Macross and other sci-fi stuff if I gave the ok . But at least she tolerates the shelves in the living room (until now).

So this cat really deserves lots of love to make her fur shiny once more 

 

[MechTech]

@valkyriepm It's cool to see that scheme being done! I haven't seen one in a while. It's looking great!

@electric indigo Beautiful finishes as always! That pair looks great together! Great focusing in the photography too!

@Thom You gotta finish that Thom! It's looking good. So close, yet so far away...

@peter Peter, you need to name your house the "Utopia Planitia Shipayrds." You're knocking them out like an ammunition production line! They're looking great too.

@pengbuzz That is AWESOME Pengbuzz! You gotta give your wife kudos from all of us! Having that support is way more cool than any model - MT

[Thom]

On 3/15/2021 at 8:39 AM, CrossAir said:

Just finished: Sheryl Nome (resin kit from E2046)

Took me five weeks to finish her as I have not much time for hobby left since work is steadily increasing since January.

Though it is a resin kit it was not hard to built - fitting of parts was quite good, not much filling, priming and sanding necessary and everything went fine until the last airbrush stroke which should only be a tiny correction to the sole of one boot. 

From here on I went through modelers’ hell as I had to redo the right leg completly cause somehow I managed to ruin the finished paint job due to color on my fingertip. After this I thought I had overcome the worst part of this build, but it struck me even harder. During assembly of the veil on the back I dropped the idea of screwing it to the body and decided to use solely superglue. When I checked some minutes later I almost got an heart attack as I noticed a drop of glue had run down the right thigh.

Even worse, since the veil came off again I had marks of superglue on other parts, too. Once again I had to sand down the thighs, paint and clear coat it again. this time even on the already assembled figure. Same on some other parts. Took me the whole weekend for the repairs. And this time I attached the veil with a screw. But I still wonder how smoothly I went through the restoration process in the end. 

Final conclusion: I hate superglue!!!! 

Very nice work!

[Thom]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE:

I had thrown this failure in the trash last time I had posted:

Well... the BLASTED thing showed back up on my desk a week ago!!!

When I came out of my "shop" (more like a room for various stuff, really), my wife came over to me and explained that she had rescued it from the trash shortly before city sanitation came to collect the garbage. She hit it for a while, then placed it back on my worktable.

She pleaded with me not to destroy it.

*Okay...when your wife is just about in tears over this, how the heck do you just say "no"?*

I relented and told her I would spare it, but I would need a new canopy and windshield for it.

To make a long story short (too late!), she had me locate a canopy online, and she paid for it. I ordered one from Tamiya, as they were the only folks who didn't run me around like an idiot over it. I know it's going to take some work to fit it, but I can handle that.

She also found some extra decals  that had been kicking around the house which would be of great use for this project.

(yeah... I'm really blessed to have her. She knows my limitations and still stays with me!)

So with that, I figured this much effort on her part to save this 'cat deserved an equal effort on mine to bring it the rest of the way back:

And of course, Maverick and Goose:

Hopefully the new canopy should be here in a week or two (California's getting really hard on shipping times), so we'll see. Meanwhile, just need to find or make the tail logos for Maverick's plane in 1/48.

Stay tuned... this cat seems to have more lives left!

Way to go, Wifey!! Your true gold mine, right there!

@MechTech Ugh, I know! It needs new canopies, as I ruined the ones on it. At least its safe in a display shelf, not collecting any dust until I finally get back to it.

 

[peter]

21 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Looking good, the work should be worth it when it's all done.  I just cut loose the E on my set, and snapped it together for a test fit, and decided I might need to build an internal support for the saucer, because I think it's actually collapsing downward... to say nothing of the wacked out nacelle pylons.

You're right though, the B, C, and E are all a much later mold that came out probably a decade or more after the TOS, A, and D, and the NX-01 is I believe the only actual new mold in this kit.  Irritating or not, the detail on the C really makes it stand out from the others.

Did you wind up picking up the fancier decals for the E, or just going with the kit set?

Oh, the E is a bit wierd.  I had to squeeze the hell out of the saucer set of the body before it "snapped" in place.

The circled parts gave me a bit of grief.  The saucer has a hook that actually does seat into that hole.

On each side of the neck, there are slots that someone capture the the "fins" (not sure what to call them) on the saucer.

It didn't want to go together at first, and it looked like the saucer was sagging, so I just gave 'er and she snapped in place.

Then I couldn't get it apart l again, lol!

I didn't order the decals.  I wanted to get new decals for the Refit, detailed decals for the Ent C, the phaser decals for the D, and the new decals for the E, but by the time I looked at my shopping cart, th decals cost almost as much as the entire kit.

I've spent more on after market parts before on kits that worked out to costing more than the kit, but I decided not to on this one.  Figured the whole draw for this kit was the complete with markings and Aztecs so I decided to build this one straight out of the box.

Edited March 18, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

19 hours ago, CrossAir said:

Painting faces is a horror for me, too. When I tried painting eyes they always looked weird in the end. Thus I only built figures which are coming with decals for the eyes!

Your Trek fleet project comes along nicely. I admit I won’t have the patience to deal with these multiple ships of which each has its own issues at the same time!

Oh man, if figures come with decals for eyes, I might have to revisit figure again.  Without the eyes the figures feel lifeless.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, those bits do give it trouble.  I think the bigger thing I noticed was that it felt like the lower half of the saucer was collapsing up into the upper half, raking the entire saucer forward, and making the nacelles even more cockeyed.  

If I follow the centerline profile of the main hull forward, the saucer doesn't look right.  I think the lower saucer is actually warped down a bit, which is pulling the whole thing out of alignment.

[peter]

17 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE:

I had thrown this failure in the trash last time I had posted:

Well... the BLASTED thing showed back up on my desk a week ago!!!

When I came out of my "shop" (more like a room for various stuff, really), my wife came over to me and explained that she had rescued it from the trash shortly before city sanitation came to collect the garbage. She hit it for a while, then placed it back on my worktable.

She pleaded with me not to destroy it.

*Okay...when your wife is just about in tears over this, how the heck do you just say "no"?*

I relented and told her I would spare it, but I would need a new canopy and windshield for it.

To make a long story short (too late!), she had me locate a canopy online, and she paid for it. I ordered one from Tamiya, as they were the only folks who didn't run me around like an idiot over it. I know it's going to take some work to fit it, but I can handle that.

She also found some extra decals  that had been kicking around the house which would be of great use for this project.

(yeah... I'm really blessed to have her. She knows my limitations and still stays with me!)

So with that, I figured this much effort on her part to save this 'cat deserved an equal effort on mine to bring it the rest of the way back:

And of course, Maverick and Goose:

Hopefully the new canopy should be here in a week or two (California's getting really hard on shipping times), so we'll see. Meanwhile, just need to find or make the tail logos for Maverick's plane in 1/48.

Stay tuned... this cat seems to have more lives left!

Hey, the F14 is looking good.  I've gotten pretty pissed at some of my builds, but lately I've been resurrecting old kits just to practice or try something I saw on YouTube.

 

Just use them as guinea pigs now

[peter]

13 hours ago, MechTech said:

@valkyriepm It's cool to see that scheme being done! I haven't seen one in a while. It's looking great!

@electric indigo Beautiful finishes as always! That pair looks great together! Great focusing in the photography too!

@Thom You gotta finish that Thom! It's looking good. So close, yet so far away...

@peter Peter, you need to name your house the "Utopia Planitia Shipayrds." You're knocking them out like an ammunition production line! They're looking great too.

@pengbuzz That is AWESOME Pengbuzz! You gotta give your wife kudos from all of us! Having that support is way more cool than any model - MT

It's funny you should mention ammunition production line.

My buddy gave me a reloading press, dies, tumblers, brass cleaners etc.....set it up maybe 5 years ago and I still haven't used it yet, lol!

I got this airbrush, compressor and accessories thinking it would probably end up the same (I have and habit of collecting man-crap), but I used the airbrush within a week of setting it up and I can't get enough of it.

I'll get to reloading one day, but right now, my current addiction is this airbrush.

[peter]

I was going to clear coat the kits with Pledge last night and brush paint all of the clear red and blue bits, but then I wanted to see if I had the patience to mask for it.  I almost binned it halfway through, but then decided to just finish the masking.

  

I was literally on my last drops of clear red so if I decided to brush it on, it would have been game over anyway.  The airbrush sure made it last.

Then it was on to paint some of the smaller details.

The NX is damn tiny, but it was probably the least painful to get this far.

I should have gone a bit darker with the clear blue, but decided to leave it.  If I continued to muck around with it, I would probably ruin it.

Hosed them down with Pledge.  Wanted to give the decals a nice slick surface to bond and settle into.  Hopefully they will suck right in with a bit of Mr. Mark Softer.

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by peter

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE: more paintwork and a wash, before going over the dark areas with main color (to simulate spot repaints):

I'll need to do this repeatedly to get the effect of continually being repainted due to harsh sea duty. The wings need work (in particular, the right wing is pretty basic on the detailing), so it will be some time before this looks a bit more respectable.

 

Stay tuned...

[derex3592]

@peter - free bit of advice...if you have any red left, mask off and airbrush the red front bussard collectors on the E. The red decals suck for those. I wish I had done it. I airbrushed the saucer impulse engines red which looked great and I wished my red on the nacelles would have been the same. Just my .02. 

[Chronocidal]

Speaking of the E, boy I wish someone would tackle that ship with a new mold.  The Polar Lights 1/1000 kits are just so much better than the old AMT/ERTL molds.

I'm messing with that same kit right now, and the plastic just has this mushy, gummy look and feel to it.  Molding is all soft, and despite the white stress marks I'm making all over the pylons, I cannot for the life of me get these nacelles aligned.  They sit evenly for a couple hours, but the plastic just slowly drifts back into the default cockeyed position.

Far as assembly goes, I'm considering clipping off the assembly tabs, and detailing the saucer, hull, and nacelles separately.  I'm almost considering doing the aztec pattern using pencils like I remember seeing someone (I think it was derex?) use on one of the 2009 Trek kits, but the tiny patchwork of panels on this particular ship is just a load of chaotic nonsense.  

Found the box with my older version of this kit.. same nacelle alignment issues, but the saucer fit seems better somehow?  Maybe the paint helped it.  I think I sprayed the whole thing with a white rattle can in the mid 90s, before brushing the details on, with what I felt were pretty acceptable results for the time.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Chronocidal

[derex3592]

Any of you guys ever heard of or tried this method? I'm gonna try it! 

 

 

[Chronocidal]

Never tried it, but it's essentially using scrap plastic to make a color-matched putty.  Not sure what type of cement that one is, but I know you can use the same sort of process with acetone and ABS scraps to make a thick ABS glue.

Great method to use with thin glue, but at the end of the day, it's essentially the same thing as just using thick styrene glue as a filler, and I would expect it would inherit the same sort of extensive drying time to avoid any shrinkage issues.

[peter]

3 hours ago, derex3592 said:

@peter - free bit of advice...if you have any red left, mask off and airbrush the red front bussard collectors on the E. The red decals suck for those. I wish I had done it. I airbrushed the saucer impulse engines red which looked great and I wished my red on the nacelles would have been the same. Just my .02. 

Ohhhh.....good to know.  Maybe I better stop nickel and diming and just go out and buy some more clear red.

[peter]

25 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Never tried it, but it's essentially using scrap plastic to make a color-matched putty.  Not sure what type of cement that one is, but I know you can use the same sort of process with acetone and ABS scraps to make a thick ABS glue.

Great method to use with thin glue, but at the end of the day, it's essentially the same thing as just using thick styrene glue as a filler, and I would expect it would inherit the same sort of extensive drying time to avoid any shrinkage issues.

Looks like a great technique if you don't plan to paint your kit.