Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Chas]

Thanks for the compliment, but I am nowhere near professional level at scratch building/ kitbashing. Plus I am really, really SLOW! Here are a couple of early pics to show a bit of my ad-hoc process. Cardboard and Styrofoam were used to get a quick and dirty idea of basic forms that had to be scratched.

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Chas
typo

[foundshaian]

@Chas Slowness can be patience. Do you keep the cardboard as part of the structure? Or do you replace it with styrene 

Edited July 10, 2023 by foundshaian

[Chas]

Definitely replace with styrene sheet. The cardboard and Styrofoam are used to quickly work through ideas. When I settle on a shape I like it is used as a pattern to build a styrene Part. Then bonds, or Apoxy sculpt is used to smooth out the mating boundaries between the scratched pieces and kit parts.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Chas

[Thom]

6 hours ago, Chas said:

Wow! You guys are all pumping out some really great builds. After a really, really long hiatus I've been bitten by the bug again and gotten back into building.  Well After moving my workbench and stash around a bit.

I started this scratch/bash many years ago and decided to break it out and see what I could do with it.

It started out life as a Trumpeter 1:700 scale USS Abraham Lincoln CVN 72  aircraft carrier, but I decided to make it my own version of a EDF carrier from the Space battleship Yamato universe.

There's a bunch of parts from all sorts of stuff in here so far. I've ued bits from Gundam kits, Macross,  Armoured Core, S.B.Yamato, a Trumpeter 1:35 Morsar Karl, a Revell Magnaguard fighter from Star Wars and more.

I've taken inspiration from a few Japanese scratch builds I've seen, but I sort of making it up as I go along.

The super structure and guns are just placed there for now  to mock things up to get a sense of where I'm headed.

Dude, I love how this is looking! It does look like it came right off of the show. And what's nice is that you can barely tell the base model for the build.

If you'll  take a suggestion, make the front under hull scoop half again larger

[Chas]

Yeah that scoop has been bugging me for a while. I've hesitated redoing it, cus it's  so much work to rip it out and replace it and I work so slowly that I hate to take such a big step back,  UT I know if I don't  It'll bug me forever.

Thanks for the kick in the pants!

[foundshaian]

@Chas What Armored core kit did you pull scratch parts from? They are REALLY expensive

[Chas]

Think it was the Mirage. I got cheap in 2006, when I was in Seoul. I'd built it up ( straight OOB build) and kept it that way for a few years, but it never really grabbed me, plus the joints had gotten all floppy and it was either glue it in a fixed pose or strip it  down and throw it all in the spare parts bin. I figured it was worth more to me as spares to build other stuff from, still got a butt load of goodies in my parts bin from it, so all in all I think it was a good choice.

[foundshaian]

I've heard about the AC kits having horrifyingly flimsy parts and articulation. Hopefully Kotobukiya or another company will make better kits for AC6. And when you say the kit was cheap, how cheap, in SK wons? I remember about a decade and a half ago seeing alot of AC kits on hobby store shelves, and I assume they were better priced with their high quantity

Do you have any pictures of the mirage built? 

Edited July 10, 2023 by foundshaian

[Chas]

Gosh, I have no recollection of the price I paid. I just recall that the main reason that I decided to pick it up was the cost was so much less than what I had seen online before I left Canada.

I don't  have any pics of the kit built up, but it was this version here (except mine didn't have the rocket launcher on the left arm.

 

[Big s]

3 hours ago, foundshaian said:

I've heard about the AC kits having horrifyingly flimsy parts and articulation. Hopefully Kotobukiya or another company will make better kits for AC6. And when you say the kit was cheap, how cheap, in SK wons? I remember about a decade and a half ago seeing alot of AC kits on hobby store shelves, and I assume they were better priced with their high quantity

Do you have any pictures of the mirage built? 

Oddly it seems the just rereleased the old kits. I wouldn’t mind seeing new versions though.

[Chronocidal]

The AC kits weren't that expensive in the first place, they've just been out of print for so long that the prices have climbed with what seems to be no upper limit.  Before the re-release announcement, the White Glint kit had been going for upwards of $250 on Amazon, but the re-release is under $50 USD.

[MechTech]

@arbit Great sculpts as always! I like the MinMei in the plaid outfilt from the artwork. You don't see that much.

@derex3592 Great decal work and paint on the Enterprise. It has a really nice depth for a smallish model. Your LA sub looks great too! The paint layers also added depth to it too.

@Chas That is a VERY COOL looking concept! I like where its going and honestly don't know why they never went with that in the anime. - MT

[Thom]

11 hours ago, Chas said:

Yeah that scoop has been bugging me for a while. I've hesitated redoing it, cus it's  so much work to rip it out and replace it and I work so slowly that I hate to take such a big step back,  UT I know if I don't  It'll bug me forever.

Thanks for the kick in the pants!

Sure thing! I had the same thing when I built up my old Bandai Andromeda years ago, though in reverse. The one I made was too large (on the right) so I had to make a smaller one.

Rather than pulling the old one off and risk doing any damage, you could just build up the new one around it.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Thom

[electric indigo]

Just another day at the clone factory

[Thom]

3 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Just another day at the clone factory

[foundshaian]

For future reference, Is there anyway to buy through Japanese websites with USD? The re-release kits from koto are actually cool but I'm really interested in the C05 Selena and there seems to be better deals for it on yahoo.jp rather than ebay

Edited July 10, 2023 by foundshaian

[Chas]

5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Just another day at the clone factory

Are those miliput molds?

[foundshaian]

@electric indigo Does your J10 have any hopes of coming out of stencil hell?

[wm cheng]

@derex3592 that turned out amazing!!! Congrats.  Did you go with the pearlescent over top in the end?  What a beauty.

@Chas amazing kit-bash, really captures the era's design language.  I can see the Zeta Gundam backpacks too what an ingenious use - can't wait to see you finish this gorgeous design!!!

 

So much work showed here!  Amazing.  I'm still in decal hell...

[derex3592]

@wm cheng - Thank you!  High praise from a master!  You know, I didn't. I had a half can of Tamiya Semi-Gloss left over from Bandai's Buzz Lightyear model years back. I hit it with that and called it a day. It looks fine to me. I didn't risk putting down something that I didn't like. Going to work on TOS Enterprise next and finish up my sub models and get busy on my Hasegawa Regult!  Plenty of days off coming up so there will be lots of updates! 

Edited July 11, 2023 by derex3592

[MechTech]

@foundshaian Sorry, I forgot to reply to you. The carrier model is of CVN-78. It was just for a display, so not much more being done to it. - MT

[Urashiman]

Not really my workbench, but I gave my kid my over 20 years old yf-19 to play with. He loves planes. I knew what would happen and I didn’t mind, because I have a brand new YF-19 kit waiting for me in the basement.

this is what pros call „natural heavy weathering“ XD

the kit falling apart due to heller glue (useless kit glue, takes ages to dry) and was heavily damaged by my siblings less than a year after I finished it. It was in bad shape already…

[electric indigo]

On 7/10/2023 at 10:06 PM, Chas said:

Are those miliput molds?

Nope, it's funky green silicone.

On 7/10/2023 at 11:24 PM, foundshaian said:

@electric indigo Does your J10 have any hopes of coming out of stencil hell?

Slow progress since it's too hot these days and I don't want to ruin the paint with my greasy fingers. But here's another pic.

[foundshaian]

@electric indigo Model building is kinda hard when the planet is melting.

 

 

[derex3592]

Living in TX I can attest to the accuracy of this. It's over 100 degrees now in my garage where I paint BEFORE you put hot cars in it......NOPE.  My KINGDOM to have a house with a dedicated back room that I can have a professional ventilation system to outside in so I can paint indoors. My build progress would increase exponentially! 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Living in TX I can attest to the accuracy of this. It's over 100 degrees now in my garage where I paint BEFORE you put hot cars in it......NOPE.  My KINGDOM to have a house with a dedicated back room that I can have a professional ventilation system to outside in so I can paint indoors. My build progress would increase exponentially! 

The house we looked at before settling on this one had a shed with electrical lighting, a work table and extra outlets. It wasn’t too ideal otherwise since it had stupidly thin stairs that would’ve infuriated me daily since they built the main floor on top and there was next to no yard at all. Most of the yard was the shed. It had other issues as well, but at least the temperature was pretty low for Southern California.

the shed did seem pretty cool though and is something I would consider building at this house 

[electric indigo]

I actually like to take some modeling outside on the patio in the summer, like endlessly sanding resin parts. It's just not the time for the more refined procedures.

[foundshaian]

@electric indigo What kit is that?

[Bolt]

That's definitely a 5 Star Stories kit! LED Mirage, I believe.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Bolt

[foundshaian]

I just had a look. I'm not sure if I looked at the exact same kit, but the design is amazing and box art is too, unless the kit hes building is solely resin, then its probably a different one. There is a mountain of parts and especially decals in the kit I looked at

[electric indigo]

@foundshaian It's an old garage kit from Volks' Super Spirit Series from the mid-90s.

[arbit]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CurjRHFs8ya/?igshid=MmU2YjMzNjRlOQ==

 

[foundshaian]

@electric indigo I don't know that much about the properties of resin but those parts look really good for mid 90's

 

[derex3592]

Show and tell day from Prime Day sales! Little magnetic parts holders that have flexible metal stands! Brilliant! I bought 2 sets, $12 each. Also picked up (both from Barbatos Rex's recommendations video) for $47... an airbrush and USB-C rechargeable portable mini compressor with 3 adjustable PSI settings. Now the airbrush is, let's be honest, crap. It sprays, at one speed. Basically a point 03 single action. Fine, whatever. The real draw here is the mini compressor! Because look what screwed right onto it after some trial and error.. My Iwata Eclipse! Unfortunately my GSI Creos point 02 won't quite line up with the threads. Darn. Whatever, this now gives me an EASY way to spray small parts indoors at my model desk (100 % true acrylics only of course) Vallejo / Mission Models etc... NO SMELL and water or Windex cleanup. No more BAKING TO DEATH in the garage in the heat for me for small part painting! YAY! 

Edited July 15, 2023 by derex3592

[Thom]

Nice haul @derex3592! you'll have to give some performance reviews, such as how long do you have to spray and if there are any moisture issues.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Thom