Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[SteveTheFish]

I still have leftover paint mix for the Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie I'm building, so I got inspired to start something new. Last night I started on a very old Imai 1:100 Armored Valkyrie. I used my Hobby Base ball sockets to create dynamic hip joints and the hamfists will be replaced with Kotobukiya's M.S.G. hands. With the leftover paint for the armored parts I mixed, I may as well build this older, smaller version and use it up. The decals are kaput and I have no confidence that they will work, but I have some aftermarket UN Spacy decals at least that are in-scale with this kit. I saw someone on here had posted an armored Millia Valk they'd found online, so that's what I wanna do.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, SteveTheFish said:

I still have leftover paint mix for the Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie I'm building, so I got inspired to start something new. Last night I started on a very old Imai 1:100 Armored Valkyrie. I used my Hobby Base ball sockets to create dynamic hip joints and the hamfists will be replaced with Kotobukiya's M.S.G. hands. With the leftover paint for the armored parts I mixed, I may as well build this older, smaller version and use it up. The decals are kaput and I have no confidence that they will work, but I have some aftermarket UN Spacy decals at least that are in-scale with this kit. I saw someone on here had posted an armored Millia Valk they'd found online, so that's what I wanna do.

Curious to see how this one turns out

[Chronocidal]

Coming to the last bits of my print project before I'm going to call the model "done."  Came in at about 200 hours of printing, and what might actually be about 700 grams of plastic, or about 1.5 lbs.    It's a hefty model, and I was relieved that my original display stand design from my smaller version was still plenty sturdy to support it when scaled up to match.

Big upgrades for this version were mostly the cockpit, and the greeblie panels that I had left blank on my first version, since I didn't have good references.  In the end, I just made stuff up that looks decent where I couldn't find decent images.

Tonight.. I decided to get adventurous and see if an idea I had held any merit.  I'd been thinking of buying/making a vacuform machine to make canopies, but not decided on that yet.  I tried something much cheaper.

I printed a two-piece mold, heated a segment of a disposable plastic salad bowl in front of a space heater, then jammed it between the halves, and clamped it shut.  Took a while to trim, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the material was actually able to be sanded on the edges.  I'm kind of blown away it worked at all.  What helped was that the material had a much lower melting temperature than the ABS mold (only slightly too hot to hold by hand, even), so I was able to just sit the mold in front of the heater and let the plastic go limp on top of it before clamping it.

Material quality is kind of literally garbage, since there are a lot of little scratches and wrinkles I'll never be able to polish out, and I probably need a better heating setup to get it evenly soft, but as a proof of concept it worked great.  

Edited October 25, 2023 by Chronocidal

[Urashiman]

My wife 3d printed som toy stuff and is painting that stuff now. Kid wanted to paint something too. Gave him the VF-9 test print.

interesting paint scheme…

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Urashiman said:

My wife 3d printed som toy stuff and is painting that stuff now. Kid wanted to paint something too. Gave him the VF-9 test print.

interesting paint scheme…

It’s for that Macross fleet that had a 1960’s, 1970’s revival.

[Urashiman]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

It’s for that Macross fleet that had a 1960’s, 1970’s revival.

In the words of the great Captain Kirk "I think he did a little too much LDS..."

[Chronocidal]

Ah, looks like he's going for the classic "billboard disguise" camo pattern.

 

[derex3592]

Chris Foss paint scheme going on there! 

[MKT]

On 10/24/2023 at 2:24 AM, electric indigo said:

It's done. No outdoor shooting, but some nice soft light from overcast sky.

Some more in my Flickr album

 

This looks like it can be a miniature model stand-in for the real thing in movies 

[Thom]

Starting a new project, Italeri's 1/72 SM79 Sparviero. 

I won't be opening it up and just going to detail the cockpit a bit, just in case I can see anything through the glazing.

To that end, I'm using some Eduard PE, such as for the IP.

The instructions call for light green on the interior, but I think it should be light gray, but that'll be easy to fix as it is the only painted at the moment.

Thom

 

[pengbuzz]

Some more progress on Breetai:

Still needs work...stay tuned...

 

[Thom]

He's looking real good @pengbuzz!

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, Thom said:

He's looking real good @pengbuzz!

Thanks; I think his body needs some bulking up though.

[Thom]

35 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Thanks; I think his body needs some bulking up though.

I think you are right.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Thanks; I think his body needs some bulking up though.

Yeah, he needs some epic pecs

[pengbuzz]

  

12 hours ago, Thom said:

I think you are right.

Thanks; the body looks a little too scrawny in comparison to his head. 

10 hours ago, Big s said:

Yeah, he needs some epic pecs

Working on that now...

Also, generally not happy with the uniform or the face for that matter, so going to be removing the uniform and redoing that, as well as totally resculpting the face with a woodburning tool and a hot melt glue gun.

This isn't meeting up to my standards; I expect better from myself than this dreck.

Stay tuned...

Edited October 28, 2023 by pengbuzz

[Chas]

The face looks pretty good, albeit perhaps a little to soft and rounded in places, but waaayy better than I could do. I think redoing it is the right choice as it is proportionally too large for the body. Perhaps build up the body 'till you get it where you want it then sculpt the head to match?

Currently on my bench is the Bandai HG 1:144 UFO Robo Grendaizer. I'm filling in all the extra panel grooves in the kit to try and get closer to a more screen accurate look.

Essentially taking this:

And trying to get closer to this:

This is where I'm at so far:

And just for fun some posing.

The hips aren't going to be the correct shape, but it should look better than the base kit (I hope).

Edited October 29, 2023 by Chas

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE: Stripped the head and body down and redid them entirely; hair still needs some work, but I'm happy with most of it:

I told Hikaru and Max not to mouth off at Breetai!!!

[Thom]

@pengbuzz He's looking great! Far far better than I'd be able to do!

[derex3592]

@pengbuzz Breetai looking GOOD!

Haven't had much model time to speak of lately due to family situations/work life and a million other things.  I did however pick up two new kits for the stash with Amazon reward points and finally got my Blackbird pilots painted and in the cockpit, the cockpit masks on and in place. Stay tuned! 

[Thom]

@derex3592 Academy does a really nice F-14. I haven't finished mine, but its a good kit so far. I 'splurged' and got some resin intakes though, rather than deal with the seams in there.

And the seat, on the Puking Dogs boxing, needed some work.

Before I get back to it, I may get some resin seats to replace those.

 

Current build though, and the internals are painted and loaded up.

 

There may be some seam work to take care of...

But that'll be after the upper panels are added and the glue has set.

Thom

[electric indigo]

@Thom I wouldn't have worried about those intakes since you really need a flashlight to spot the seams on a finished kit. But since you got the replacements, it will look better just in case.

@derex3592 The pilots look cool, and I can't wait to see the B-1 being build.

_

After all the brain surgery on the WZ-10, it finally feels good to have someting for the inner lumberjack modeler. The Hobby Boss Intruder is by no means a bad kit, but since I almost exclusively do gear up builds, some trouble is to be expected.

[MechTech]

@Chronocidal Your model came out great! The canopy is not that bad either. DON'T buy a vacuum form machine. They're way too expensive and limit what you can do. Just get a wooden box and a couple of frames to fit snug over it. There's ton's of "How to's" out there. Then hook it up to your vacuum cleaner. Save the money for more models😄.

@Urashiman That's one of the newer dazzling camouflage schemes!😁

@Chas Now that's going old school! Your mods look cool so far.

@pengbuzz You are AWESOME with figures man! People would be looking at my sculpt and be asking, "Is that Mary Poppins?"🤣 He looks GREAT and accurate too! Photo 5: "The man's always keeping me under foot!"

@derex3592 Your pilots look accurate and nicely painted!

@Thom Wow! Talk about night and day! Two completely different builds! They're BOTH looking great, though.

@electric indigo Bummer! Already looks like it needs a lot of putty work.

 

I've been slacking with doing posts - sorry. One complaint: I don't have enough "likes" for each day to appreciate all the work you guys are doing!

Under the Oto Melara on most ships is some kind of walkway to cover cables and installation hardware. It's also some kind of diamond tread plate or open grated material. So I went with the open grated material. Like I say, save cool looking bits for later on. This aluminum grated mesh went to some house decor we no longer have. But I KNEW it would be great for something later on...

The white HO tread grating pattern SHOULD be smaller than 1/72nd scale, but as you can see here, it is WAAAAaaay out of scale with the figure.

Thankfully the aluminum mesh is just right. A chrome paint marker made all the pieces go together.

The gun magazine has a guard rail around it so people don't get into the carousel while it rotates. I've tried machining MANY shapes to make this, but they all failed! Too small to be strong enough. Thank God I got this ring machined correctly! To this I added "spokes" and soldered them in place. A TINY piece of solder was placed ON TOP of the joint and the flame's heat gently melts it into place.

 

Then the spokes were bent upward. Note the marks on the pliers for bending and cutting the spokes.

I used a pastry stone to do this work. Its FLAT and is also heat proof.

"What can I use to hold the pieces down while I solder them together? A WWII 30mm training round!" It worked!

Test fitting the guard rail...

And a coat of silver on them to stand out against the black magazine. The other guard rail goes around the spinning part at the bottom.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in! - MT

[wm cheng]

Hey @Thom - looking good, what's in the cockpit of that F-14 - looks like a 3D cockpit set?  I'm surprised you got the seamless intakes before resin seats - you see the seats up front and personal, you really have to shine a flashlight into the intakes to see that far back.  I'm always disappointed with all the work I do to the fan face when its so difficult to see afterwards.  What do you think about the Academy F-14 (I've been meaning to get one) compared to the GHW or FineMolds (I've got too many old Hasegawa that I don't think I will ever get to nowadays with so many better kits out!)

@electric indigo - that's a lot of bad seams on that HobbyBoss kit.  I wonder how the new Trumpeter Intruder at that scale will be fit wise.  I just race through to get to the painting and decaling stage - I hate doing all the filling and sanding.

[Thom]

@wm cheng No, that's the decals from the kit.I had to cut them up some in order to use them on the D-version control panel, seeing as the decals are for the A-version Puking Dogs scheme. But no PE or 3D set was used. They bedded down wonderfully.

As for the seats, I was going forward with the kit ones before decided to change them and, at the time, I was doing this in a GB so there was a time constraint and I didn't want to wait for resin seat so show up. So I took a set from a Revell FA-18F and started to combine them with the kit seats. And then I ran out of time and ended up putting the kit aside anyway.

As to the quality of the kit, I have no experience with the other manufacturers, but found the Academy kit to go together very well. I'd rather buy another one of these (and have) because it has a good amount of detail without being overly gimmicky and it is a little cheaper. Or was, at least when I bought it last.😁

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Thom

[wm cheng]

That looks great @Thom can't wait to see more!  Would love to get my hands on the newer Academy kits but its not that readily available here in Toronto (lots of older Revell, Monogram & Hasegawa, but any of the newer FineMolds, GWH are hard to find and usually expensive online shipping only).  At least I believe the Academy is supposed to be cheaper than the FineMolds & GWH ones.

Those cockpit decals really bedded down amazingly!  Wow, who needs the 3D stuff when they lay down so beautifully especially if you've going to leave the canopy closed.  I wonder if the rear RIO coaming is too narrow like the GWH version (reason why I did mine with the canopy down in the end) but that lump above seems odd as well as those lines in the forward coaming too. 

 

I've finally started on my VT-1 (after about a 20yr wait...) thanks to @arbit amazing 3D print.  I've always wanted a Minmay in the back seat without her helmet off (on her lap and @arbit was kind enough to make it a separate piece for me) yelling at Hikaru in the front and finally got my wish.  Thanks so much to @arbit for his amazing sculpt.  The only things are both of their legs are a bit long and I have to cut their butts at a 45 degree because the Hasegawa has this strange seat bump that comes out like butt cheeks that pushes the figures too far forward.  I wanted them to look seated into the seats, I ended up having to cut poor Minmay's legs at the ankles.  I didn't realize how brittle these 3D prints are (never worked with them before) - I ended up breaking Hikaru's right arm at the elbow (weak spot) and Minmay's left leg at the knee.  A little crazy glue fixed it and I'm in the process of painting now.  I thought I'd try to use crazy glue as filler this time around (I'm sick and tired of using multiple coats of Tamiya or Mr. Surfacers only to find out they contracted during drying and having to do another coat).  I've been told crazy glue is a good filler and it doesn't contract - we'll I'll try to learn something new.

Edited November 1, 2023 by wm cheng

[Big s]

1 hour ago, wm cheng said:

I thought I'd try to use crazy glue as filler this time around (I'm sick and tired of using multiple coats of Tamiya or Mr. Surfacers only to find out they contracted during drying and having to do another coat).  I've been told crazy glue is a good filler and it doesn't contract - we'll I'll try to learn something new

I hat the tamiya stuff personally. The superglue does work really well for parts that aren’t meant to move. In a static aircraft, it should be fine. When working on gundam kits it tends to crack if there a little stress in the wrong spot, like a the wrists while popping in a ball jointed hand. My favorite method is starting with cement and then doing the imperfections with polyester putty, but that stuff is getting hard to find these days. Epoxy putties are good as well, but sometimes need a little more. If it gets something like a stubborn hole or add line, the super glue does great to finish it up.

[Urashiman]

@wm cheng Awesome! I saw that thread about your VT-1 bakc in the days and wondered if you would ever finish that one

 

Now to my stuff. I have been fiddling with my VF-9, not being ultra happy with the cockpit interior. Especially the panels weren't that good. Just be aware, there is basically little to no stuff about the the insides of the VF-9 cockpit except for what we can see on the VF-9 line art of the whole jet, and some stuff from the beginning of the Macross M3 intro, where things are kept rather vague (everything is just super dark).

In my first version I was aiming to get something that kind of looks like the VF-1 cockpit and a bit VF-11. It wasn't too detailed though. Here are the renders of the old cockpit interior.

And now, the new one. I was going more into the VF-11 direction and was looking at the macross delta stuff with Mirage in the cockpit of Mirias VF-9 during that short sequence. I didn't went as detailed as I could, because a bunch of the stuff is just too small to print properly. The main thing: I am satisfied with it and can go on rebulding the next parts or building new parts. Sometimes, something is bugging me so much, I cannot continue without fixing it first.

 

 

[Thom]

Some great improvements on that cockpit, @Urashiman.

@wm cheng Those figs do look good, and can't wait to see the VT-1 taking shape. As for superglue (CA) as filler, I've used it successfully to erase panel lines and even redo the entire wing join on a Do335. I messed up when adding it and had a really bad seam. This is after CA, sanding smooth and then scribing a new seam line.

 

For my SM.79, I encountered a problem. The back half of the hump on the back, can be opened to allow the gunner to move about and return fire. However, this kit only has it modelled open, and the parts suit that.

The two pieces still on the sprue are for the very rear of the hump, and can be added closed up or folded out

BUT, there is no piece for the middle section that folds forward and inside. Or I should say it does have that piece, but not another piece to model that areas closed, which leaves a big gap. And since (before realizing that) I had decided to make the plane all closed up, I  left out a lot of the interior detail inn the middle fuselage. So leaving it open is not an option. There is only one other kit of the Sparviero in 1/72 and that's the old Airfix kit. It's a lot more simple on detail compared to the Italeri kit, but it actually has open/closed options for the upper hump. However, I do not have that kit and I don't feel like spending $20 minimum for a kit that I'd only use one part from.

I do though, have a lot of stryene strip! I cut that part off of the model to work on it and started laying down the styrene.

I'll let that dry, 'painting' CA onto the inside for strength, and then again on the outside before I sand it all smooth and then add the panel lines and such.

Thom

[pengbuzz]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

I hat the tamiya stuff personally. The superglue does work really well for parts that aren’t meant to move. In a static aircraft, it should be fine. When working on gundam kits it tends to crack if there a little stress in the wrong spot, like a the wrists while popping in a ball jointed hand. My favorite method is starting with cement and then doing the imperfections with polyester putty, but that stuff is getting hard to find these days. Epoxy putties are good as well, but sometimes need a little more. If it gets something like a stubborn hole or add line, the super glue does great to finish it up.

I learned that lesson the hard way when I designed and built my own transforming fighter; super glue has good pull strength, but lousy shear strength. For model kits that have high-stress moving areas, I prefer Permatex/ Devcon Plastic welder, as it's stronger and less brittle than either super glue or epoxy and outperforms just about anything else I've ever used.

[pengbuzz]

Meantime, I have a new project: RT Matchbox Roy Fokker figure:

The good news is that I finally found a Roy Fokker figure; the bad news is that he's kinda short compared to his given official height:

(kinda embarrassing t that he's shorter than Misa as a figure...)

So I set about correcting that; although poor Roy probably didn't like what that involved:

I cut the legs at two different points: just above the ankle and in the middle of the thigh. I then put in a piece of thick styrene plate that I then filed and sanded to shape.  While the initial fit was good, I felt the figure lacked the needed height, so I doubled the lower extension to two pieces:

However, that didn't bring the height up to my satisfaction, and the torso looked a little out of proportion; so, I added some Plastic Welder to the lower torso whole, and then when soft-cured, I split it along the seam with an Xacto knife:

 

He seems to scale a bit better with Hikaru now, but still not quite Anime scale. I'm concerned that if I go any further, he may look out of proportion, and I don't want to have to bulk him up any further and lose detail on the figure in the attempt:

Here is is with Max (whose height is unaltered), as a reference of how much his height has been increased):

(Max is next on the list to be accurized)

And this is where I stand with my SDFM Macross figure collection: hoping at some point to make Kakizaki, the Bridge Bunnies and Claudia, as well as maybe a couple of others:

(Yeah, Millia's in progress as well; I need to redo her hair and finish modding her flight suit. They reused the "Lisa" body mold for "Miriya", which had a backpack and no harness)

Next up: Roy goes to the paintshop (and while I'm at it, I may as well get Max and Millia set up so all three can go!)

Stay tuned...

[MechTech]

ALL: Superglue AND Baking soda will fill just about any Grand Canyon sized gap in a model or scratch build project. Baking soda is also an AWESOME accelerator that's not toxic like those spray-on types. The baking soda also adds strength to the CA. I've made whole parts out of it 😁!

@Thom That Tomcat cockpit looks BEAUTIFUL! Have you added any clear UV or epoxy resign to any of the gauges to build them up? It looks like the Sparviero is being a modeling pain as it was a real pain to the allies in the war😄

@Urashiman Your cockpit improvements are AWESOME! Hopefully the canopy can be opened on it to reveal them better.

@pengbuzz First off, I'm glad your not a real orthopedic surgeon😉 HOWEVER, you're an A-W-E-S-O-M-E plastic surgeon!!! When you add Roy's 80's hair to him, his height may be just right 😁 His proportions look good. If you need more height, it would probably have to be in his torso - what a pain! Then again, there's always those clear platform shoes with goldfish in them🤣 -MT

 

[Urashiman]

10 minutes ago, MechTech said:

ALL: Superglue AND Baking soda will fill just about any Grand Canyon sized gap in a model or scratch build project. Baking soda is also an AWESOME accelerator that's not toxic like those spray-on types. The baking soda also adds strength to the CA. I've made whole parts out of it 😁!

@Thom That Tomcat cockpit looks BEAUTIFUL! Have you added any clear UV or epoxy resign to any of the gauges to build them up? It looks like the Sparviero is being a modeling pain as it was a real pain to the allies in the war😄

@Urashiman Your cockpit improvements are AWESOME! Hopefully the canopy can be opened on it to reveal them better.

@pengbuzz First off, I'm glad your not a real orthopedic surgeon😉 HOWEVER, you're an A-W-E-S-O-M-E plastic surgeon!!! When you add Roy's 80's hair to him, his height may be just right 😁 His proportions look good. If you need more height, it would probably have to be in his torso - what a pain! Then again, there's always those clear platform shoes with goldfish in them🤣 -MT

 

well ... technically you can do that, but you'd have to cut the canopy. I should do a little Mirage as well, so people can do this:

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz First off, I'm glad your not a real orthopedic surgeon😉 HOWEVER, you're an A-W-E-S-O-M-E plastic surgeon!!! When you add Roy's 80's hair to him, his height may be just right 😁 His proportions look good. If you need more height, it would probably have to be in his torso - what a pain! Then again, there's always those clear platform shoes with goldfish in them🤣 -MT

Thanks MT!Yeah; I had already added some to his torso; I just don't want him to become a wiener dog! lol

Seriously though: if you apply the material while the torso is whole and then split it while it's soft-cured, it's not so bad. But the height I'm going by is the difference between Hikaru's eye-level and Roy's, for example. I want the proportions and masses to be accurate.

On another note: I need to find helmets for him, Millia and Max. Ebay wants 14-25 bucks APIECE for them! 😬 Then there's the matter of sourcing a figure for Claudia; the body isn't an issue, but I need to find a good African-American female head in the 4 inch figure lines (think classic GI-Joe). I don't want "modern" toys because I'm going for a certain aesthetic here.

Edited November 2, 2023 by pengbuzz

[Rock]

5 hours ago, MechTech said:

ALL: Superglue AND Baking soda will fill just about any Grand Canyon sized gap in a model or scratch build project. Baking soda is also an AWESOME accelerator that's not toxic like those spray-on types.

 

But, that is the best part. CA accelerator spray will unclog any nose during allergy season. This way I can tell the misses that modeling is the medicine!