Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[arbit]

On 5/27/2021 at 6:34 PM, Chronocidal said:

Animation-focused models do tend to be better off than ones designed for games, so you might not fare too badly just trying to print the raw file.  The mesh does look fairly high resolution.

You might get lucky, as some print software will add a default thickness to bare polygons, but the more likely scenario is that you would need to add thickness to certain parts, especially cloth if it has no physical thickness in the model.  The cloth at the top of the boots looks very thin, for instance, and you would probably need to thicken it up to be printable.  Any cloth modeled over the top of the character body would probably need to be made into solid objects, rather than thin layers.

Thanks. The file definitely has a lot of issues for printing. Would you be able to look at it and give me some pointers, or let me know if it is hopeless?

[peter]

7 hours ago, arbit said:

What you do with the second one is extreme battle damage and weathering!

Haha, maybe!  Like Operation Ten Go.  We'll see, I do want to do a battle damage version, or at least some weathering that appears more than factory fresh

Yamato 2199, you can see the bow is more narrow:

Final Battle Version (2202) with more AA guns and up-armored main turrets.  Looks like a few extra catapults too.

\

They beefed up the main turrets so they more resemble the WWII ship:

 

[Thom]

@peter And whose to say that there was no Musashi in the UNCF!? I think that's what they should have named the Ginga, but now you get to build an actual fighting ship!

As for battle damage, I think every now and then of doing that to one of my kits. Something like this...

[Chronocidal]

15 hours ago, peter said:

Slapping this together between paint coats on Yamato/Musashi. 

I don't eve.ike this ship, but I'll build it for practice. 

This thing goes together so easily.  Seems a bit big..... 

The scale on the BoP has been wacky for years.  There are long discussions about it, if you go looking, because the same filming model was used in multiple settings as multiple unique ship variants.  You know.. without actually changing anything about the model like the sizes of hatches, or windows.   From what I recall, the popular size tends to hover around 350 feet long, in order to work out for certain situations in Star Trek IV.

That really is a nice little kit though, and really good detail for the size.  Just keep in mind that the wing baffles are incorrect for the raised position.  I detailed the process to fix them sometime in the last year, but it's a fairly involved mod that involves cannibalizing the lower position parts, so you can't switch between them.  I just wound up buying two of the kit to make one in each mode.

In terms of the Oberth though.. I've got no love of that ship either, but I'm absolutely down for cutting it in half and gluing it to a rock to make a phase-cloak accident USS Pegasus display.  

[Thom]

Or ripe for kitbashing!

USS Joxer, NCC-1996.

 

Not mine.

https://www.deviantart.com/jbobroony/art/Oberth-Class-Types-391749396

 

[Salamander]

I like the ones where it looks like they said "Hey guys, let's be lazy and make a new one where we double the engines by just flipping the warp drives UPSIDE DOWN".

[MechTech]

@peter Nice painting on the Yamato hulls! I agree, the sister ship should have been Musashi. Maybe they changed it for political reasons in the script.

@Thom Good point with the battle damage! Great post with the clear lenses too!

Thanks for the positive comments guys! The second unit will be lighter armored, more anti-aircraft. I have the Tamiya 1/35 35mm barrrels from the Flakpanzer Gepard and thought they looked cool, but also saw them getting easily broken. Like even if the model just fell over. So I machined a slightly thicker version in steel as a single 40mm cannon. I was feeling musical so I fluted it! Sorry, bad pun. I'm thinking of redoing the muzzle brake, but not sure.

Got the second unit's shoulders on and fixed a figure's bust to fit in the cockpit hatch area. He's removable. I also modified some other figures for display to show the scale.

Thanks for checking in guys! - MT

Edited May 30, 2021 by MechTech

[peter]

On 5/29/2021 at 4:12 PM, Thom said:

@peter And whose to say that there was no Musashi in the UNCF!? I think that's what they should have named the Ginga, but now you get to build an actual fighting ship!

As for battle damage, I think every now and then of doing that to one of my kits. Something like this...

I think I'll definitely do a battle damage version, just have to decide which kit to victimize, Hahaha h! 

And that was definitely one of the images that inspires me to build. 

[peter]

On 5/29/2021 at 5:29 PM, Thom said:

Or ripe for kitbashing!

USS Joxer, NCC-1996.

 

 

 

 

This one should have Born to Kill painted on the side of it.  Bet the BOP would have had trouble taking this one out. 

[peter]

On 5/30/2021 at 6:56 AM, MechTech said:

@peter Nice painting on the Yamato hulls! I agree, the sister ship should have been Musashi. Maybe they changed it for political reasons in the script.

@Thom Good point with the battle damage! Great post with the clear lenses too!

Thanks for the positive comments guys! The second unit will be lighter armored, more anti-aircraft. I have the Tamiya 1/35 35mm barrrels from the Flakpanzer Gepard and thought they looked cool, but also saw them getting easily broken. Like even if the model just fell over. So I machined a slightly thicker version in steel as a single 40mm cannon. I was feeling musical so I fluted it! Sorry, bad pun. I'm thinking of redoing the muzzle brake, but not sure.

Got the second unit's shoulders on and fixed a figure's bust to fit in the cockpit hatch area. He's removable. I also modified some other figures for display to show the scale.

Thanks for checking in guys! - MT

That rifle barrel is amazing.....the fluting on such a small scale, wow! 

The brake on my 50:

Check out the fluting on my buddy's rfile:

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[MechTech]

Thanks, Peter! The adapter I made some months back made it relatively easy. Your muzzle brake is so big it must block part of your scope view! Your buddy's barrel must be expensive! Plus powder coated. For that I would have some kind of widely opened stock just to show it off! - MT

[pengbuzz]

12 hours ago, peter said:

That rifle barrel is amazing.....the flouting on such a small scale, wow! 

The brake on my 50:

Check out the fluting on my buddy's rfile:

 

 

 

Wow...no wonder no one sneaks into Canada!

[Thom]

16 hours ago, peter said:

This one should have Born to Kill painted on the side of it.  Bet the BOP would have had trouble taking this one out. 

She gave better than she got!

[Salamander]

FFFFFFFFFFF...

Warning to anyone who has still laying around event-only Japanese mecha garage kits that are not from a big manufacturer like B-Club, Kotobukiya, Volks, or Wave, and that need the use of aftermarket poly caps: It appears that Kotobukiya has quietly discontinued their older poly cap joints, meaning that whatever stock you can find is what is left available.

Now I'm left with a bunch of high-end, rather expensive garage kits that need specific Kotobukiya joints - that I don't have, and likely won't be able to find...aaargh!

 

Edit: Hmmm, Kotobukiya's site still shows them as not out of production...did HLJ.com drop those products?

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Salamander

[peter]

Yamato 2202 in 1/1000 more or less complete. 

First illuminated model, but honestly this kit was designed specifically to be illuminated.  I think smarter people than me could do better as the Bandai lighting system is a bit of a pain.  Need to remove two panels to access three different switches. 

Comparison to the older 1/1000 scale.  One of the first models I built after a long break from building models.  I think I built it two years ago?  I just needed something to practice on before building the 1/500, which didn't turn out that well.  Rattle can paints, no primer, no clear coat, no preshading or post shading, just two colors. 

This older kit suuuuuuuuucked to build, lol!  A lot of fitment issues.

Despite its shortcomings and how plain and boring it turned out, it was the cleanest model I'd ever built at that time. 

I tried to copy the deck color ot IJN Musashi.  It looks like a closer match in person. 

Next to my older 1/500.

The colors of the 1/1000 that I went with are definitely not anime accurate (WWII colors of Musashi).

The panel lines look a lot bolder in the photos, more subdued in person, but I think in the future, I'll have to add a few more layers of paint next time to cover up more pre-shading.  

Engine nozzle is too bright and contrasts the rest of the ship pretty bad. Might use a darker metallic next time. 

Captain Okita's Room..... Way too small for me to mask properly and paint, so I just left it. 

Anyway, got to practice a lot of techniques on this build, made a lot of mistakes, got lazy in some parts, but overall, it doesn't seem horrendous.

I think the next 1/1000 Final Battle version will be easier to build.  I also want to figure out how to light my larger 1/500 2199 kit. 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by peter
Edited for spelling

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, peter said:

Yamato 2202 in 1/1000 more or less complete. 

First illuminated model, but honestly this kit was designed specifically to be illuminated.  I think smarter people than me could do better as the Bandai lighting system is a bit of a pain.  Need to remove two panels to access three different switches. 

Comparison to the older 1/1000 scale.  One of the first models I built after a long break from building models.  I think I built it two years ago?  I just needed something to practice on before building the 1/500, which didn't turn out that well.  Rattle can paints, no primer, no clear coat, no preshading or post shading, just two colors. 

This older kit suuuuuuuuucked to build, lol!  A lot of fitment issues.

Despite its shortcomings and how plain and boring it turned out, it was the cleanest model I'd ever built at that time. 

I tried to copy the deck color ot IJN Musashi.  It looks like a closer match in person. 

Next to my older 1/500.

The colors of the 1/1000 that I went with are definitely not anime accurate (WWII colors of Musashi).

The panel lines look a lot bolder in the photos, more subdued in person, but I think in the future, I'll have to add a few more layers of paint next time to cover up more pre-shading.  

Engine nozzle is too bright and contrasts the rest of the ship pretty bad. Might use a darker metallic next time. 

Captain Okita's Room..... Way too small for me to mask properly and paint, so I just left it. 

Anyway, got to practice a lot of techniques on this build, made a lot of mistakes, got lazy in some parts, but overall, it doesn't seem horrendous.

I think the next 1/1000 Final Battle version will be easier to build.  I also want to figure out how to light my larger 1/500 2199 kit. 

 

 

You could "knock down" the overall brightness of that engine nozzle with a slight dark metallic wash, followed by some drybrushing with alternating base-color metallics (gunmetal) and a very fine drybrushing with a lightened near-silver drybrushing. It doesn't look too bad now, just kinda obvious; a slight revision with what I mentioned would make it look better, I think.

Overall, incredible job, Peter! Your paintwork looks better than mine! lol

My latest project: another custom Transformer-

On that note, I threw Maverick's Tomcat into Photoshop:

(probably should have thrown it out while I was at it!)

[David Hingtgen]

When the IJN Mushashi had a dark deck, it was literally just soot gathered from the exhaust stack, rubbed into the deck's planking to darken it.  So an exact match is pretty much impossible, and any variation/unevenness would be accurate.  So long as it's "dark", you're good with any attempt to match it.     

[arbit]

I got my first resin print off the Mars 2. Did I print a practice duck, or a boat, or a screw? A chess piece?

Noooooo! We print Minmay.

Overall it's a success for first time transfering a game .stl file to a printable figure. 

There are some damaged areas around the chest, but this is user error, because I placed the supports too close to the body and they stuck.

So all thats left is to improve my supports,  and it seems we will have some Macross figures.

There are some tutorials on youtube on how fix game files for 3D printing, but there is no easy step-by-step. Each file is different and it takes a lot of trial and error and multiple iterations and software apps until the file is somewhat printable.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by arbit

[Thom]

@arbit Very cool with the print. Congrats. And I had that on zoom, and I don't see anything wrong with her chest...

@pengbuzz That is another fine looking Transformer. Cool work.

@peter Nice looking Musashi! Compared to the older 1/700 they are worlds apart!

Edited June 2, 2021 by Thom

[arbit]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

@arbit Very cool with the print. Congrats. And I had that on zoom, and I don't see anything wrong with her chest...

A gentleman only looks a lady in the eyes 

I plan to make free Minmays for the regulars on this thread. PM me if your interested, you just pay shipping and handling.  I have 2 poses, and once I get good prints I will get back to you.  

Edited June 2, 2021 by arbit

[MechTech]

@peter Those Yamatos look great!

@pengbuzz Cool Transformers design. Your Photo shopped photo looks great! Don't toss the model, that's what Photoshop is for

@arbit Does she break dance? Congrats on a good print! I've got to get a 3D printer one of these days. - MT

 

[arbit]

7 minutes ago, MechTech said:

@arbit Does she break dance? Congrats on a good print! I've got to get a 3D printer one of these days. - MT

I would be fired if I printed the breakdance pose! 

I went though so much misery trying to mold and cast stuff that I finally gave up, and  took a dive into the resin 3D printers. They don't have those print lines and the new hobby ones are cheap too.

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by arbit

[arbit]

Here is the second and final run. Fortunately, I avoided my previous mistakes. A lot more details show now.

Do you think she is a bit chubbier compared to the print preview screen cap I posted last time? I don't know what causes this. The print preview render looks much thinner than the actual printed object,  It may have to do with shadows and perspective, or it may be that  resin printers make everything look thicker.

I did solidify her to add some thickness to the clothing and other thin layers for printing, which effects the whole figure. But not this much.

Side by side of render and print. Maybe Minmay needs to try the cibo diet.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by arbit

[Salamander]

@arbit Are you sure your screen's pixels are perfectly square? If they are slightly taller than wide, that might also cause the effect.

[arbit]

2 hours ago, Salamander said:

@arbit Are you sure your screen's pixels are perfectly square? If they are slightly taller than wide, that might also cause the effect.

@Salamander  Hmmmm, Thanks I'll look into it. I thought there was something wrong with my eyes.

[Thom]

@arbit I don't know, some guys like the ladies a little thicc. But for serious, I can hardly see the difference.

[electric indigo]

Regardless of the thickness issue, the print from the Mars looks awesome; such a smooth surface! What are the max. printing dimensions?

[CrossAir]

Here I have my slightly yellowed DX VF-25F, this sticker sheet that just arrived today and lots of white paint. So it is time to start my next project with working title „Sheryl Guard Custom“ 

First step is dismantling the toy as much as possible without breaking it completely…

[arbit]

3 hours ago, Thom said:

@arbit I don't know, some guys like the ladies a little thicc. But for serious, I can hardly see the difference.

Thanks. But I don't know, seems something is not right. 

3 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Regardless of the thickness issue, the print from the Mars looks awesome; such a smooth surface! What are the max. printing dimensions?

This is the affordable small hobby printer Elegoo Mars 2.  Build Volume: 129mm(L)*80mm(W)*150mm(H)

The smooth surface of resin is why I decided to give it a go, despite my utter lack of computer experience. You can learn anything with youtube these days.  It seems Macross can motivate me to learn anything too.

The first few days on Blender in a 3D environment had my head spinning. The last video game I played was Tecmo Bowl!!! I still can't design anything. Tutorials bore me to death, so I skipped ahead to 3D printing stuff right away, and working my way backwards.

Edited June 4, 2021 by arbit

[MechTech]

@arbit In all honesty, her proportions look fine. The real test is print something mechanical and check the fit of parts, like a nut and bolt - with calipers. That should help you troubleshoot.

Going backwards is the only way to go! Reverse engineer it! A buddy and I back in the 80's had a Japanese VCR tape rental place near our homes. We would go to check out videos, and they only had the end of the series available. So we saw the series backwards. It makes things more interesting. - MT

 

 

[MechTech]

Whet the heck happened!? I was a kid building models, and then all of a sudden, my oldest "child" has graduated high school! It's been a good, but bittersweet week! Where does the time go?

Sorry for all the photos, there was a lot I got done between last weekend and this week. Progress is going well with the "Bobbsey Twins." I spent last weekend trying to up-gun the second unit. I originally built the 57mm cannon barrel in the last post, but decided to go with a 75mm cannon instead. At the same time (25 years ago) I was working on the original mecha, I got a bunch of Tamiya brass ammo on sale. It too has been sitting around waiting to be used. So I made the bigger barrel to go with it. The barrel was easy. Making realistic muzzle brakes was another story. I went through five types before settling on the final version. I just didn't like the smaller muzzle brake. It looked like the vents were too small to actually work. That's what drove me to redo the whole design.

The old barrel and the new one, both fluted for detail.                                              The 57mm muzzle brake and newer ones. The middle was a reject due to spacing.

 

Here's the new 75mm cannon recoil dampers close up...                                        And an overall shot with the new muzzle brake (the aluminum tubes will be cut shorter).

 

Close-ups of the new muzzle brake. The vents aren't perfectly spaced, but it will have to do. I'm at the limits of my machining abilities drilling at an angle.

 

The gun is now complete for the heavy unit. The ammo drum got some anime styled details and bolt heads to make it look that much more convincing.

 

And finally, people spend so much time trying to make model gun barrels look so realistic. Since these are machined in steel, I thought, "Why not blue them like a real gun barrel?" So here's a test on a reject part. It doesn't get any more realistic than the "real thing." So the barrels will be blued and I won't have to worry about paint peeling off them. Bluing is about the same cost as getting the paint for them. Thanks for checking in! - MT

[derex3592]

Out of town down to the TX coast with the wife's family last week, it came up in conversation that back in the late 90s my mother in law and my wife and her brother had purchased a model of the Titanic for my father in law as he loved the movie and the history behind it. Now he hasn't ever really built a model as far as I know and never really expressed interest in the hobby.  So I piped up and said "oh really? Why don't you let me build it for him!!?? "... thinking to myself they went to some hobby store and bought some little Revell kit for $30, I can slap it together in a weekend or two and get some cool son in law points. Well, yesterday my wife brought it home. And uhhh yeh... IT AIN'T THAT!!! Open mouth, insert both feet and bend over.. LOL. Ohh dear GOD... what have I gotten myself into???...I've been doing my research yesterday and this morning on this kit and it's really a kit from the mid 70s repackaged after the movie came out in 1997. I feel a year long battle ahead... I'm already looking for PE upgrades for the railings....LOL 

[slide]

1 hour ago, MechTech said:

And finally, people spend so much time trying to make model gun barrels look so realistic. Since these are machined in steel, I thought, "Why not blue them like a real gun barrel?" So here's a test on a reject part. It doesn't get any more realistic than the "real thing." So the barrels will be blued and I won't have to worry about paint peeling off them. Bluing is about the same cost as getting the paint for them. Thanks for checking in! - MT

How well does the bluing hold up on unhardened steel? or did you go the extra-extra mile and harden them?

[arbit]

21 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

I feel a year long battle ahead... I'm already looking for PE upgrades for the railings....LOL 

That actually looks like a fun build. Ain't no Revel though 

You're gonna have to put Macross aside for a bit.

[arbit]

On 6/4/2021 at 4:41 PM, CrossAir said:

Here I have my slightly yellowed DX VF-25F, this sticker sheet that just arrived today and lots of white paint.

I always wondered what kind of paint people use when customizing their valks, and what are the steps for clear coating to avoid scratching during transformation? 

I would scare me to death to touch my gokins.

Edited June 6, 2021 by arbit