Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[arbit]

Laying down my door sliding airlock door on its rails. Trying to make sure everything is aligned straight and that it looks right on the front side, all while trying not to scratch up my paint.  Then I will attach the motor and limit switches. 

[Chronocidal]

Wouldn't surprise me if all the work you've put into the hull adding lights and things has stretched or deformed the plastic on the hull, really. 

I've never been more aware of the stresses involved in sanding and shaping kits than I have been with these printed parts.  I've had a few pretty nasty cracks appear between print layers, and the only thing I could really do without breaking the parts entirely was to try and force some thin glue into the layers and soak the area, then sand everything smooth once it dried.

[arbit]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Wouldn't surprise me if all the work you've put into the hull adding lights and things has stretched or deformed the plastic on the hull, really. 

I've never had that problem, unless there is an electric short from my own stupidity, leds are not that hot.

Resistors might get a bit hot, but they are usually encased in tubing or something else.

On the other hand, the process of customizing the model, chipping away bits and pieces to mount the electronics, definitely can impact the fit.

Edited April 24, 2021 by arbit

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about the electronics at all, just the stresses of modifying the parts.

[pengbuzz]

On 4/22/2021 at 10:32 PM, Chronocidal said:

You know, I've looked through the instructions on how that wing hinge works, and I know I've seen an entirely different mechanism for the same system that used stacks of individual panels cut from acrylic sheet, and tied together with a pair of metal rods that formed a sliding hinge, rather than a rotation about a point.

I've built up the design roughly in CAD, so I might try and make something myself... someday.  

I believe that was Cobywan from M-factory. THat kit was expensive, and the site selling it is no longer there.

 

Info I found:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/pa_cbop.htm

And:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/dons-light-and-magic-dlm-352-klingon-bird-prey-positionable-wing-hinge--165313

Personally (because I am insane), I would make my own template for each part using the illustrations and then make my own parts. It would just be a matter then of getting a metal rod to make the joint and incorporating the baffles into the model.

Edited April 25, 2021 by pengbuzz

[MechTech]

@Chronocidal That stand design goes great with the model.

@arbit Oooh, more animated goodness coming our way...

Taking a short break from my ship to work on a themed build...

BACKSTORY - About 25 years ago I was working on designing / making a realistic looking, 1/35th scale combat robot. Something that would work side by side with mechanized tank and cavalry units in a near-modern day setting. I didn't have the parts needed to make the joints and we also were about to move, so it got abandoned. Plus, I was working on Macross stuff too! All these years I keep moving the "project bag" (not really) out of the way to get to other stuff in the spare parts box it resides in. So it kinda haunts me every time I see it as an unfinished "kit."

Most of the model was made from the "Martian Successor Nadesico" Artillery Battle Frame kit. It's like kit-bashing, but with one kit. HLJ recently had a sale for the same kit (only $10.00) and I thought I'd tackle it again for this months sci-fi themed club build. The photo below shows the kit (still for sale at many places). The back supports in the box art are becoming the lower legs and other parts are for the hips and thighs. The arms will be close to the same. It's like having a robot model without the torso. So I have to make that from scratch.

 

When I looked through the old parts, I realized I could STILL use them, so I decided to make two models! In a diorama, it would look more realistic. So everything will be in  pairs. Machined a boxwood male buck for vacu-forming. Used OLD Gundam polycaps for the torso / hip joint.

Next I worked on the hips. I replaced the joints with much beefier joints and made the hips double-poly cap to last longer. I stole Peter's epoxy putty idea for holding the joints, but also glued them into place after the putty set. By the way, JB Water Weld is about the same as Millliput White, but about half the cost!

The feet were redone with heavy duty ball-joints. Stock is on the left and the redo is on the right.

Next, the hips were made with a brass rod that won't break easily and the poly-cap balls to fit into the hips. And the nearly complete lower half of the models...

That's it so far! Have a good week everyone! - MT

 

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE 1: earlier this weekend, the F-18 I was working on had a wing end pop off. In typical fashion, I repaired it, but miscalculated on the glue...

...I just found that it melted a huge hole down the entire inside of the left wing and fuselage.

So, the Top Gun: Maverick project is cancelled. Parts have been reallocated to the scrap heap. At least I still have the Tomcat though.

But the fun doesn't end there....

UPDATE 2:

Nearly finished with the Enterprise...

*Now, you folks are probably wondering: "How the heck does all this keep happening to pengbuzz all the time?!" The answer is that I was cursed by a cranky gypsy a few decades ago for stealing her fresh-baked apple pie, and well... you know how it goes.*

Seriously though: when I picked the ship up, my thumb ended up going through the shuttle bay doors on the ship. Being that this was a smoothie kit from the 70's, my only surprise is that another part hasn't collapsed from age!

The damage:

This, on top of the Hornet, was a bit much for me to take. But rather than try to bed a new hangar door for the ship out of styrene, I decided to make a more permanent solution to this issue:

I layered 5 sheets of plastic together into a cube, and then machined it down into a new hangar bay door:

Ship fitting:

Primer and final:

On that note: after this project, I am taking a break from doing projects due to fatigue and just too many of them going sour. Part of it is my frame of mind (current events, stress at home and other issues) and part of it is dealing with older projects. The final element is that I may be getting distracted and careless due to stress and stuff, so I need to regroup and rest.

Stay tuned for this season's finale.

 

 

 

[Rock]

On 4/19/2021 at 7:29 AM, MechTech said:

 

@Rock Unless you tell someone, they may not notice Sometimes parts are accentuated / under accentuated for effect. This could be like that.

 

 

On 4/19/2021 at 9:43 PM, peter said:

I'm not very familiar with Gundam but that looks good to me.

 

I only have 2 saved builds of the kit from a decade ago or so. It just has that wonky 90's kit look that doesn't age well for me personally. Almost every pic of the kit is from the top down so it is hard to show just how odd it is. Next to someones newer HGAC modelkit scaled up for reference. Not terrible but enough where it will require attention.

--

Got my Tomcat (and other) bits in from Russia this weekend. A nice slap to the face with a $62 USD customs fee on top of the already expensive shipping. The Quinta Studio 3D decals are pretty slick. There are essentially 3d printed colored plastic details printed onto decal paper. First time trying them. I now know that I need to first remove the existing details completely to get them to lay flat, trim them a bit to help contour and make sure to do this process well before gluing the cockpit and body halves together. Will let the glue cure and attempt to blend in the white bare raised edges a bit with some paint. Should be fine for a closed cockpit... open cockpit will need a lot more work... I'll be more prepared when I get around to my smaller Flankers.

I won't post the resin pilots and ejection seats I bought... they are pretty awful castings. I can't even tell a difference on the seat itself from Tamiya's minus some seat belt details... live an learn

 

[peter]

9 hours ago, MechTech said:

@Chronocidal That stand design goes great with the model.

@arbit Oooh, more animated goodness coming our way...

Taking a short break from my ship to work on a themed build...

BACKSTORY - About 25 years ago I was working on designing / making a realistic looking, 1/35th scale combat robot. Something that would work side by side with mechanized tank and cavalry units in a near-modern day setting. I didn't have the parts needed to make the joints and we also were about to move, so it got abandoned. Plus, I was working on Macross stuff too! All these years I keep moving the "project bag" (not really) out of the way to get to other stuff in the spare parts box it resides in. So it kinda haunts me every time I see it as an unfinished "kit."

Most of the model was made from the "Martian Successor Nadesico" Artillery Battle Frame kit. It's like kit-bashing, but with one kit. HLJ recently had a sale for the same kit (only $10.00) and I thought I'd tackle it again for this months sci-fi themed club build. The photo below shows the kit (still for sale at many places). The back supports in the box art are becoming the lower legs and other parts are for the hips and thighs. The arms will be close to the same. It's like having a robot model without the torso. So I have to make that from scratch.

 

When I looked through the old parts, I realized I could STILL use them, so I decided to make two models! In a diorama, it would look more realistic. So everything will be in  pairs. Machined a boxwood male buck for vacu-forming. Used OLD Gundam polycaps for the torso / hip joint.

Next I worked on the hips. I replaced the joints with much beefier joints and made the hips double-poly cap to last longer. I stole Peter's epoxy putty idea for holding the joints, but also glued them into place after the putty set. By the way, JB Water Weld is about the same as Millliput White, but about half the cost!

The feet were redone with heavy duty ball-joints. Stock is on the left and the redo is on the right.

Next, the hips were made with a brass rod that won't break easily and the poly-cap balls to fit into the hips. And the nearly complete lower half of the models...

That's it so far! Have a good week everyone! - MT

 

Obi-wan, teach me the ways of the force.

I have no idea when it comes to adding better joints to older kits. 

I am sitting on a pile of old kits from the 80's that I'd like to add articulation to someday. 

 

[peter]

6 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE 1: earlier this weekend, the F-18 I was working on had a wing end pop off. In typical fashion, I repaired it, but miscalculated on the glue...

...I just found that it melted a huge hole down the entire inside of the left wing and fuselage.

So, the Top Gun: Maverick project is cancelled. Parts have been reallocated to the scrap heap. At least I still have the Tomcat though.

But the fun doesn't end there....

UPDATE 2:

Nearly finished with the Enterprise...

*Now, you folks are probably wondering: "How the heck does all this keep happening to pengbuzz all the time?!" The answer is that I was cursed by a cranky gypsy a few decades ago for stealing her fresh-baked apple pie, and well... you know how it goes.*

Seriously though: when I picked the ship up, my thumb ended up going through the shuttle bay doors on the ship. Being that this was a smoothie kit from the 70's, my only surprise is that another part hasn't collapsed from age!

The damage:

This, on top of the Hornet, was a bit much for me to take. But rather than try to bed a new hangar door for the ship out of styrene, I decided to make a more permanent solution to this issue:

I layered 5 sheets of plastic together into a cube, and then machined it down into a new hangar bay door:

Ship fitting:

Primer and final:

On that note: after this project, I am taking a break from doing projects due to fatigue and just too many of them going sour. Part of it is my frame of mind (current events, stress at home and other issues) and part of it is dealing with older projects. The final element is that I may be getting distracted and careless due to stress and stuff, so I need to regroup and rest.

Stay tuned for this season's finale.

 

 

 

That new hangar bay door looks amazing.  When I broke one, I just added more battle damage to hide the fact that I broke it. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

Flat clear on the Bandai Battroid.

Will have to decide how much more wear and tear to add to it. 

[arbit]

2 minutes ago, peter said:

Flat clear on the Bandai Battroid.

Will have to decide how much more wear and tear to add to it. 

Looks sweet. Nice color scheme, paint finish, and panel lines. Did you scribe those yourself?

[peter]

5 hours ago, arbit said:

Looks sweet. Nice color scheme, paint finish, and panel lines. Did you scribe those yourself?

Haha, no, I can't scribe lines to save my life.  I tried adding panel lines to the top of the chest piece but it came out looking like a 2 yr old drew on it. 

The one on the left is how it comes from Bandai, no detail at all.  The messy collection of jagged crooked lines on the gray one is what I added. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[peter]

Btw, how's this for genius. 

 

Good thing I have tons of spare skull decals. 

[Thom]

7 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

UPDATE 1: earlier this weekend, the F-18 I was working on had a wing end pop off. In typical fashion, I repaired it, but miscalculated on the glue...

...I just found that it melted a huge hole down the entire inside of the left wing and fuselage.

So, the Top Gun: Maverick project is cancelled. Parts have been reallocated to the scrap heap. At least I still have the Tomcat though.

But the fun doesn't end there....

UPDATE 2:

Nearly finished with the Enterprise...

*Now, you folks are probably wondering: "How the heck does all this keep happening to pengbuzz all the time?!" The answer is that I was cursed by a cranky gypsy a few decades ago for stealing her fresh-baked apple pie, and well... you know how it goes.*

Seriously though: when I picked the ship up, my thumb ended up going through the shuttle bay doors on the ship. Being that this was a smoothie kit from the 70's, my only surprise is that another part hasn't collapsed from age!

The damage:

This, on top of the Hornet, was a bit much for me to take. But rather than try to bed a new hangar door for the ship out of styrene, I decided to make a more permanent solution to this issue:

I layered 5 sheets of plastic together into a cube, and then machined it down into a new hangar bay door:

Ship fitting:

Primer and final:

On that note: after this project, I am taking a break from doing projects due to fatigue and just too many of them going sour. Part of it is my frame of mind (current events, stress at home and other issues) and part of it is dealing with older projects. The final element is that I may be getting distracted and careless due to stress and stuff, so I need to regroup and rest.

Stay tuned for this season's finale.

Aah! A dastardly Klingon Thumb Attack! Quite brazen of them. But you certainly repaired it in fine fashion. Sorry to hear the Hornet was a loss though. I'm doing a Spitfire for a GB, and have messed up three times already on simple things, and have substituted a pair of upper wings and now whole fuselage halves! Sometimes I wonder why I do it, as I rarely feel relaxed from a build. Can't seem to stop though! Don't stay away for long!

1 hour ago, peter said:

Flat clear on the Bandai Battroid.

Will have to decide how much more wear and tear to add to it. 

Dang, nice looking paint!

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

Aah! A dastardly Klingon Thumb Attack! Quite brazen of them. But you certainly repaired it in fine fashion. Sorry to hear the Hornet was a loss though. I'm doing a Spitfire for a GB, and have messed up three times already on simple things, and have substituted a pair of upper wings and now whole fuselage halves! Sometimes I wonder why I do it, as I rarely feel relaxed from a build. Can't seem to stop though! Don't stay away for long!

Dang, nice looking paint!

I'll be around; just won't be doing many projects is all.

 

  

2 hours ago, peter said:

Btw, how's this for genius. 

 

Good thing I have tons of spare skull decals. 

Hmm... Roy must've had one too many just before he took Skull-1 out...

Edited April 26, 2021 by pengbuzz

[peter]

23 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Hmm... Roy must've had one too many just before he took Skull-1 out...

Lol!  Actually, I may have been hitting the sauce when I applied that decal.

 

@Thom Thanks   

 

It turned out better than I was hoping for so I'm pretty satisfied.

 

[peter]

Bandai 1/72 Low Vis Battroid done.

[peter]

It came out a bit taller than I was expecting......oops.  The feet from the Bandai Gerwalk are a bit taller (but narrower) than the Battroid feet.  Also, I really Mickey Moused the new knee joint so there's added height there. 

The original Bandai 1/72 VF-1S Battroid I build as a kid on the left, and the Low Vis on the right.  I really like the arms from the Gerwalk, they are definitely less chunky/cartoonish than the original Battroid arms and hands.

The height difference between the Hasegawa and the custom Bandai.

Out of the box Bandai 1/72 and Hasegawa 1/72

The Bandai built out of the box becomes a floppy mess if you pose it too much because it's just plastic on plastic at the joints (or maybe I just played with it too much as a kid.  I was able to improve on it a bit, but did a really crap job on the knees.  I'll probably try to read up a bit more on custom ball joints.

 

[peter]

Inspiration for the color scheme for the Bandai.  Not an exact match, but good enough for me.

I swear the chicken hands that came with the Yamato 1/48 are actually 1/72 scale, lol!  I'll have to find a way to use the spare hands from my Bandai DX on the old Yammies.

 

[peter]

Some beauty shots of the 1A...lens on the camera picks up all the damn flaws, lol!

 

[peter]

All this talk about my low vis and the first Hasegawa Battroid kit I built feels forgotten.

Still a bit peeved about not considering there would be a height difference.  I'll just call the Low-Vis the VF-1 Heavy Duty version.  Actually, I was thinking the DX has those knee extensions which can actually add some height to the VF.

  

Giving boss a high-five

I love the detail on these Hasegawa Battroids.  It was SOOO much easier to build than the fighter, I might build a few more that I have buried in my pile somewhere.

A bit hard to pose though, I still feel a bit nervous around it because it's Hasegawa and because their fighters fall apart if you breathe the wrong way.

Watching Hikki on his first VF-1J sortie

If I had one complaint about the Hasegawa sculpt is the engine intakes/hips seem a touch to big?  I think the smaller Fighter version would have been ok.  The larger intakes also make that complex hip joint pretty useless as they really hinder poseability.

[peter]

Last pic.  Just need a Gerwalk for Roy.

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE: finals on the Refit:

I ended up doing a wash over the ship, as I figured by the time of WOK, the Enterprise had been used quite a bit and was fairly worn even as the Refit. I wanted to accentuate the corners and lines of the ship, and give it something to bring out the details. I figured as long as it didn't look "beat-up", it would be fine.

So, during the course of the finishing, I took one of the shots and darkened the background in a bit...

Well... that ended up taking on a life of its' own, let's just say...

 

And I'm calling this one done. Thanks for watching, folks!

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by pengbuzz

[peter]

Woah, you lit it too!  I have no idea how to photo shop or edit photos.... That looks really good! 

[arbit]

Peter, Nice to see LOTS of valk photos.  Personally, I liked your scribing. (And those imperfections are called weathering )

Pengbuzz, Wowzers your final photo and background looks great! Could be a movie poster for all I know.

Edited April 27, 2021 by arbit

[Thom]

@peter Those are some good looking VFs! Loved those posed shots.

@pengbuzz Love that last shot! Real nice work. Brought her home in fine fashion!

 

[derex3592]

Loving the E shots @pengbuzz!!! Over here, the Runabout puttying, sanding is going well, just have a few very faint light leaks to deal with on that main seam before final painting. In the mean time, my attention is turning to the base for this thing. I'm thinking that this graphic, printed on glass, (my brother in law owns a print shop and he can do that!) , glued to a wooden base painted with black spray paint with little shiny silver bits in the paint that kinda looks like a star field.  Thoughts? 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by derex3592

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Loving the E shots @pengbuzz!!! Over here, the Runabout puttying, sanding is going well, just have a few very faint light leaks to deal with on that main seam before final painting. In the mean time, my attention is turning to the base for this thing. I'm thinking that this graphic, printed on glass, (my brother in law owns a print shop and he can do that!) , glued to a wooden base painted with black spray paint with little shiny silver bits in the paint that kinda looks like a star field.  Thoughts? 

Well, hmmm, somethings wrong with the pic upload feature. I'll try again later. 

 

 

 

I like that idea!

[Thom]

9 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Loving the E shots @pengbuzz!!! Over here, the Runabout puttying, sanding is going well, just have a few very faint light leaks to deal with on that main seam before final painting. In the mean time, my attention is turning to the base for this thing. I'm thinking that this graphic, printed on glass, (my brother in law owns a print shop and he can do that!) , glued to a wooden base painted with black spray paint with little shiny silver bits in the paint that kinda looks like a star field.  Thoughts? 

 

 

 

 

I think that would look really cool.

[Thom]

Cockpit going together. Since the canopy is going to be closed, I stayed with the kit instrument panel, but sanded it thinner, drilled out the holes and put the dial decals on a thin sheet of stryene which was then glued to the back.

[derex3592]

amazing detail on those dials! Love it! 

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz Great repair and final finish on the Enterprise! That finished photo looks AWESOME! Congrats on a great finish to your model!

@peter Great finish and photos with the valks! Natural sunlight makes a big difference when photographing.

@derex3592 You KNOW that will look great! Definitely go for it. That is better than the heat transfer to metal which looks cheaper and the colors aren't as vivid.

@Thom For a closed canopy, that cockpit looks great! - MT

[pengbuzz]

Now I have to do a base for my ship; thanks derex!

[peter]

@arbit

LOL, I used weathering and battle damage to hide some flaws. 

@Thom

Uh, yeah, my recommendation is to not get too comfortable posing these things...

BTW, I want to do something WWII now.... Really want that 1/32 B17,  ut that's a quick way to get on the wife's $hitlist. 

@derex3592

That would be amazing, a glass base!  I just find a chunk of wood and spray it charcoal.  I should put more effort into the displays. 

@MechTech

I also used a real camera as opposed to my cell phone, hahahaha!  

So about posing the Hasegawa Battroid.... I've come to realize it's best to pick a pose and leave it.

After the photo session: 

I knew this hip assembly was a weak point.

First one shoulder peg broke. 

Then the other. 

8 year old me would not be impressed, lol! 

Anyway, I don't usually play with my models after I build them anyway, but the plastic on the Hasegawa is Ike butter. Pose able, but not really. 

Hahahaha! 

I superglued the pegs back in place, and they are holding, but I don't think I will mess with it anymore.  On to the shelf and leave it alone.