Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[electric indigo]

Ready for the final bits & pieces

[pengbuzz]

Well... after 7 months of solid "what's going to go wrong this time?", some help finally came our way. One friend of mine in particular sent me a birthday gift (honestly, I felt this year was just shot but they had other ideas in mind); the other came alongside us and helped us out enough to keep us going until we can get things stabilized again.

I know that's the exception and not the rule int his world, but my family is grateful for the help! We literally didn't know how we were going to keep going!

With that in mind, the friend who sent me a birthday gift sent me two models: one is the 1990's Bandai repressing of the Imai VF-1S. The other is Bandai's 2013 1/72 VF-1 Super Armor set:

Apparently, the armor will fit the older kit, provided some mods are made. But I have something I plan on going one further with...

Spoiler

...removable armor, mounted on neodymium magnets.

 

I don't know about everyone else here, but this peng is tired of sitting in the corner feeling like the world just wants to drop another shoe on him.

 

GAME ON.

 

Stay tuned folks... I'm going to use one model to make three....

Edited March 16, 2023 by pengbuzz
forgot to tell folks what the surprise was! OOPS!

[Bolt]

6 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Ready for the final bits & pieces

It's looking awesome!

@pengbuzz good to see you back at it. Best of luck and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with 👍🏼

[Thom]

8 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Ready for the final bits & pieces

Great looking Hornet! "Tower, permission to buzz the shot glass?"

7 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Well... after 7 months of solid "what's going to go wrong this time?", some help finally came our way. One friend of mine in particular sent me a birthday gift (honestly, I felt this year was just shot but they had other ideas in mind); the other came alongside us and helped us out enough to keep us going until we can get things stabilized again.

I know that's the exception and not the rule int his world, but my family is grateful for the help! We literally didn't know how we were going to keep going!

With that in mind, the friend who sent me a birthday gift sent me two models: one is the 1990's Bandai repressing of the Imai VF-1S. The other is Bandai's 2013 1/72 VF-1 Super Armor set:

Apparently, the armor will fit the older kit, provided some mods are made. But I have something I plan on going one further with...

...m

 

I don't know about everyone else here, but this peng is tired of sitting in the corner feeling like the world just wants to drop another shoe on him.

 

GAME ON.

 

Stay tuned folks... I'm going to use one model to make three....

Awesome!! Get to see another Penbuild on the way!

[Mog]

Finally took the plunge and bought this 3D printed Star Wars droid:

Wound up breaking a few parts pulling the pieces off the lattice work(?).  But nothing catastrophic.

Oh!  And I hate working with white paint. 
 

[derex3592]

OPINION NEEDED:  Hull color for NX-01....

Spoons on the left are Alclad Stainless Steel (1st time using it, MAN, this stuff airbrushes like a dream but NOT cheap!) Top is over grey primer bottom is over gloss black. 

Spoons on the right are Tamiya Light Gun Metal from a rattle can. Top is over grey primer and bottom is over gloss black. 

While I like the Alclad, and think the ship WOULD look really cool with that color, I think it's to light and won't look like the CG model at the end of the day.  The Tamiya color is the one I used on my little bitty 1/2500 NX-01 a few years back and really love how it came out with the azteck decals over it. 

What do you guys think? 

[pengbuzz]

The one next to the 60 degrees looks about right; I would use the one diagonally lower opposite from it for a contrast color (like aztecing).

[Thom]

@derex3592 From the option there, I'd choose Alclad over grey.

[pengbuzz]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:19 PM, Mog said:

Finally took the plunge and bought this 3D printed Star Wars droid:

Wound up breaking a few parts pulling the pieces off the lattice work(?).  But nothing catastrophic.

Oh!  And I hate working with white paint. 
 

That's why I rattle can all my white paint subjects; unless it's a detail part, white paint doesn't go on smoothly by brush.

[Bobby]

I wanted to change up my old 1/48 Yammie Angel Bird and first worked up some options...

After TONS of Q-tips, soaking parts (hips, panels, etc.) in medical grade alcohol (99.9%), ELO glycol ether, X-acto's, touchup painting, etc. I'm happy with the result!

 

[derex3592]

Navel and space ship yards UPDATE!  I ended up going with Tamiya lacquer LP-61 Metallic Grey for NX-01 base color. I think it came out great. Also scratch built and installed two new bow planes on the Typhoon, got the Botany Bay built, puttied, sanded, primered and painted along with more painting on the Dallas! Busy weekend! Still absolutely LOVING the new Mr Hobby GSI Creos. 02 airbrush! Great for mottling! Stay tuned! 😁 

[Thom]

All coming along really well there. @derex3592. Nice work on the bow planes.

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Navel and space ship yards UPDATE!  I ended up going with Tamiya lacquer LP-61 Metallic Grey for NX-01 base color. I think it came out great. Also scratch built and installed two new bow planes on the Typhoon, got the Botany Bay built, puttied, sanded, primered and painted along with more painting on the Dallas! Busy weekend! Still absolutely LOVING the new Mr Hobby GSI Creos. 02 airbrush! Great for mottling! Stay tuned! 😁 

Some nice scale mottling there, derex!

[MechTech]

@electric indigo That Hornet is looking great!

@pengbuzz Three models from one!? "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" I gotta see this one!

@Mog Interesting choice of droid, with option parts too!

@Bobby Your painting revamp looks REALLY clean! Congrats! If you do it again, try "LA's Totally Awesome" cleaner from the dollar store. Won't harm your plastic, and just needs a bath of soap and water afterward. Works great!

@derex3592 You got some busy shipyards! Your work is REALLY looking good!

OK, wanna hear something funny? This month's model club contest theme was "Open Mouth, Insert Paint - any subject with a larger than normal intake, A-7 Corsair, F-8 Crusader, etc..." At the beginning of the year I thought about this year's themes, and what to bring. Jesus reminded me of the Cup Noodle model for this month. I thought it was funny, but went for it anyhow.

I brought the model in and said, "It's got a mouth, definitely has paint in it, and it has an intake (for water). I'm saying it's in the "Etc" part of the theme. The guys laughed and we joked around about it. I said it;s the first time I shaded shrimp! I mentioned finding some chop sticks to go with it. Somebody said, "Those are aftermarket parts" to which I laughed and agreed. It was funny!

And the REAL punchline, I won the contest for this month!🤣 It was all just TOO funny! Full disclosure, there were only two other models in this month's category, so it wasn't all that great!

The Bandai model is great! AWESOME parts fit for the complicated pieces too! Look closely, the letters are all pieces that snap in. I forgot to photograph the back, but it was filled in with furniture crayon and permanent markers. I left the stickers (yeah, stickers, no decals) alone.

The leek pieces had to be shaded too with a lighter green. The solid green looked way too fake. I left it on the living room coffee table, my son kept wanting to throw it away thinking its an empty cup! Get some hot water and enjoy! Oh, and the box AND instructions warn not to it eat or pour hot water into it! - MT

[Thom]

Looks good enough to... well... eat!

[Mog]

I don’t think the shrimp in my Cup Noodle have ever been that large! 😅

11 hours ago, MechTech said:

@Mog Interesting choice of droid, with option parts too!

Yeah, the dome on CH-33P is fairly unique.  And no Hasbro or Disney figure has a matching dome.  Also, it’s extremely unlikely Hasbro or Disney will ever mass produce this droid.

However, I’m beyond satisfied with how well and immaculately detailed the guy’s 3D print came out.

And yes, I did add the arm as my own personal custom touch.

[pengbuzz]

19 hours ago, MechTech said:

@electric indigo That Hornet is looking great!

@pengbuzz Three models from one!? "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" I gotta see this one!

@Mog Interesting choice of droid, with option parts too!

@Bobby Your painting revamp looks REALLY clean! Congrats! If you do it again, try "LA's Totally Awesome" cleaner from the dollar store. Won't harm your plastic, and just needs a bath of soap and water afterward.

@MechTech How long does that LA's Totally Awesoem cleaner take to work? And does it remove acrylic and rattlecan Rustoleum primer? I have a model I've tried denatured alcohol on, 91 isopropyl and easy off to strip and they're not having a lot of success!

19 hours ago, MechTech said:

OK, wanna hear something funny? This month's model club contest theme was "Open Mouth, Insert Paint - any subject with a larger than normal intake, A-7 Corsair, F-8 Crusader, etc..." At the beginning of the year I thought about this year's themes, and what to bring. Jesus reminded me of the Cup Noodle model for this month. I thought it was funny, but went for it anyhow.

I brought the model in and said, "It's got a mouth, definitely has paint in it, and it has an intake (for water). I'm saying it's in the "Etc" part of the theme. The guys laughed and we joked around about it. I said it;s the first time I shaded shrimp! I mentioned finding some chop sticks to go with it. Somebody said, "Those are aftermarket parts" to which I laughed and agreed. It was funny!

And the REAL punchline, I won the contest for this month!🤣 It was all just TOO funny! Full disclosure, there were only two other models in this month's category, so it wasn't all that great!

The Bandai model is great! AWESOME parts fit for the complicated pieces too! Look closely, the letters are all pieces that snap in. I forgot to photograph the back, but it was filled in with furniture crayon and permanent markers. I left the stickers (yeah, stickers, no decals) alone.

The leek pieces had to be shaded too with a lighter green. The solid green looked way too fake. I left it on the living room coffee table, my son kept wanting to throw it away thinking its an empty cup! Get some hot water and enjoy! Oh, and the box AND instructions warn not to it eat or pour hot water into it! - MT

Er, MT.... when we said "go make yourself some soup for lunch"..... this isn't quite what we MEANT!!!!  

Edited March 21, 2023 by pengbuzz

[Bobby]

19 hours ago, MechTech said:

 

@Bobby Your painting revamp looks REALLY clean! Congrats! If you do it again, try "LA's Totally Awesome" cleaner from the dollar store. Won't harm your plastic, and just needs a bath of soap and water afterward. Works great!

Thanks for the tip! I'll pick some up and try it!

[sh9000]

Have you considered painting the heatshield a different color?  Looks kind of like a mankini.

[MechTech]

Thank you guys! The box CLEARLY says not to eat it or pour hot water into it. Can't say I wasn't tempted though!😁

@pengbuzz Yes, the cleaner will strip acrylics (Tamiya very quickly). Spray can may take longer. You may need to agitate it a bit too with an old toothbrush or something. A few pages back I mentioned having to use it on my gun turrets. The spray paint was horribly rough and orange peeled. I didn't trust anything else because of how thin the plastic was. It took about a couple of hours. After stripping the paint, there will be a weird greasy film on the plastic. Common dish soap will remove it. Didn't harm the super glued joints either! - MT

[Rock]

Tool time!

 

[Urashiman]

4 hours ago, Rock said:

Tool time!

 

Looks like a dragon ready to blast!

[Thom]

10 hours ago, Rock said:

Tool time!

 

Looks like a work of art!

[electric indigo]

Some tinkering

[derex3592]

Aztecs are going down beautifully over the LP-61 Metallic Gray! 

 

[MechTech]

Taking a pause from the Oto Melara gun turrets for a short bit to do the Nausicaa Gunship. That's this upcoming month's theme "Any kind of gunship." The first two photos are from a couple of years ago or so. I've picked the model back up and redid the massive guns in the cockpit with smaller ones (still needing detailing). And the hing pieces are self explanatory. They are kinda toy-like, but heavy duty and there should be no seams if all goes well. You can already see my screw-ups and fixes😁. Thanks for checking in! -MT

 

[Bolt]

3 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Aztecs are going down beautifully over the LP-61 Metallic Gray! 

 

That's looking most excellent!

 

2 hours ago, MechTech said:

Taking a pause from the Oto Melara gun turrets for a short bit to do the Nausicaa Gunship. That's this upcoming month's theme "Any kind of gunship." The first two photos are from a couple of years ago or so. I've picked the model back up and redid the massive guns in the cockpit with smaller ones (still needing detailing). And the hing pieces are self explanatory. They are kinda toy-like, but heavy duty and there should be no seams if all goes well. You can already see my screw-ups and fixes😁. Thanks for checking in! -MT

 

Great subject! Looking forward to seeing more 👍🏼

[arbit]

3 hours ago, MechTech said:

Taking a pause from the Oto Melara gun turrets for a short bit to do the Nausicaa Gunship.

Nice to see it back on track. Been wondering about it☺️

[arbit]

5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Some tinkering

It's a start! Are you going for sci-fi or accuracy?

[electric indigo]

@arbit No need for SF when the real thing is already pretty wild:

@derex3592 The decals look perfect over the metallic grey.

[foundshaian]

Hey, does anyone have experience with weathering? I'm not sure where to ask about this but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for cheap but effective weathering and detail.

[Big s]

36 minutes ago, foundshaian said:

Hey, does anyone have experience with weathering? I'm not sure where to ask about this but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for cheap but effective weathering and detail.

One of the more fun weathering items if found lately are water color pencils. If you’re going over a kit that’s already been dull coated then you can do simple things like draw on it like you would a color pencil or dip the tip in a bit of water to make smudges and you can wipe away extra mess with a damp tissue or a q tip. AK sells a set, but you can usually get some from a generic art company cheaper through something like amazon.

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, foundshaian said:

Hey, does anyone have experience with weathering? I'm not sure where to ask about this but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for cheap but effective weathering and detail.

chalk pastels do wonders for weathering. Also: drybrushing and washes with acrylic paints (apple barrel variety, 50 cents at most stores.)

[foundshaian]

It's quite perfect as I have a mountain of apple barrel and cheap acrylics, I also found a artist briefcase lying around full of every water color pencil you could want or need. There also are oil pastel sticks and pads for dipping inside.

[foundshaian]

17 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

chalk pastels do wonders for weathering. Also: drybrushing and washes with acrylic paints (apple barrel variety, 50 cents at most stores.)

What is the effect of chalk pastels compared to acrylics?