Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Big s]

10 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

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.

Maybe something in the Re Action line might work. I think there’s also the o-ring line as well. And if I remember right she may have been French rather than American, but it’s still the same issue

[Chronocidal]

Never tried the baking soda, but I can vouch for general thick CA being perfect for filling gaps and rebuilding bits of broken kit.

Lately I've been using it as a filler when my 3D printer leaves a gap, or there's a glitch in a layer.  I've also fixed broken-off corners and edges by CA-ing a scrap of plastic in place and sanding to shape.  I probably could use acetone for the same purpose, and make some ABS putty, but I don't have a good resealable container for it yet, and I'd rather not risk melting something by over-application.

[Urashiman]

Finally got enough willpower to force myself to fix the botched panel lining on the plamax VF-1A.

still looks a bit dirty but much better than before. I tried adding the wings and noticed that the main fuselage is scratching on the paint of the wings, so I had to carefully sand down the cover.

Almost there…

I want to 3D print better wheels for this one. The ones in the box are… not good.

I did some priming on the Alto VF-171EX.

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE:

Well, got his hair done and the figure painted:

Yeah, his expression kinda evokes Grumpy Cat, doesn't it?

Anyways, here he is with the rest of the gang:

Max and Millia will be getting redone as well; both of them are unaltered as far as height is concerned, so you can see what I did to the other figures by checking those against them.

And now once Roy is fully dry and the clearcoat is set, I'll be setting him up with the VF-1S model I have (1.72), much as I did for Hikaru. Some of the next stuff (aside from mods to Max and  Millia) is sourcing a figure for Kakizaki (Ben in RT), I'm also thinking of getting transformable valks for Max and Millia to complete the collection; we'll see how it goes.

So to welcome Roy to the group, here's his theme from RT:

Stay tuned...

Edited November 4, 2023 by pengbuzz

[derex3592]

I built a BONE today... This is the Academy 1/144 kit. What is in the picture is all I have needed to build this. Absolutely FANTASTIC kit so far. Fit is 99.9% perfect. Decals are Cartograph so no worries there. I cut out a little hatch in the back cockpit wall to simulate the tunnel to the back, you'll never see it, but whatever. Decent detail for a 1/144 cockpit. My ONLY nitpick is no pilots! They did include cockpit masks so that's a HUGE help for me! Highly recommended! 

[electric indigo]

Looking forward to see how this turns out! Great details, but the panel lines seem a bit strong, so maybe you refrain from doing a wash here.

[Chas]

Always loved that bird @derex3592 ! Your  gushing about how well  it goes together has got me seriously considering picking one up.

[Thom]

@Urashiman That VF-1 is looking great. Love the decals.

Great to see your collection growing @pengbuzz, and your plans for more!

@derex3592 The BONE sure is a sexy plane. There was a proposal in the early aughts to reengine it and turn it into a missile truck, called the B-1R (regional) Or, wait for it... BONER.😜

 

 

[Urashiman]

5 hours ago, Thom said:

@Urashiman That VF-1 is looking great. Love the decals.

Great to see your collection growing @pengbuzz, and your plans for more!

@derex3592 The BONE sure is a sexy plane. There was a proposal in the early aughts to reengine it and turn it into a missile truck, called the B-1R (regional) Or, wait for it... BONER.😜

 

 

Thanks a lot!

did some test printing with clear resin today. Printed the new cockpit pieces and the canopy. I think I need to polish the canopy. When still wet, it was clear and see through.

[Big s]

30 minutes ago, Urashiman said:

Thanks a lot!

did some test printing with clear resin today. Printed the new cockpit pieces and the canopy. I think I need to polish the canopy. When still wet, it was clear and see through.

A polish would probably do the trick. Maybe even a gloss coat, but with a resin print the polish would probably be better 

[Urashiman]

25 minutes ago, Big s said:

A polish would probably do the trick. Maybe even a gloss coat, but with a resin print the polish would probably be better 

Yeah… just tried it. Polishing kinda git me there, but I would need proper compound now, as the resin would just suck up my toothpaste.

I gave it the clear coat treatment- et voilá:

 

unfortunately, the print went bad. There are some bubbles in the resin. This one was for testing anyways

[Rock]

Back to my 1/20ish Wing Zero bust this week, put away everything but the upper torso and have had some time refining the shapes. I'm satisfied with everything enough to move onto smoothing and detailing. The only real hangup I see is correcting my boob duct size. I was undersized and with semi-hollow shapes back filled with CA glue... it makes for interesting challenges.

[derex3592]

Massive bench updates :

1/72 Academy Blackbird got Mr Surfacer 1500 Black today, looks fantastic. 

1/144 Academy B1B Lancer is built and ready for priming, 

Construction continues on the 1/35 Tamiya M2A2 Bradley.

Endless sanding of seams and priming engineering section of 1/1000 TOS Enterprise continues. 

Last but not least.... I would like to announce a "resurrection" of sorts... 4 years ago my Captain America Cat's Eye got put on permanent hold due to a massive painting blunder. Over the years I have worked slowly with one q-tip at a time scrubbing away the gloppy hardened mess to get back down to the bare resin. Today I threw some Mr Surfacer 1500 Black on some of the totally clean sections and it looks good! I think eventually I can save this awesome kit! 😁 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by derex3592

[MechTech]

@Urashiman Your valk is looking beautiful! That is A LOT of decal work to be careful with. The details are looking great on it! Maybe dipping the canopy in Pledge floor polish will help (or whatever they call it in Europe these days). Not the bubbles, but you're next canopy.

@pengbuzz Grumpy Cat looks GREAT man! You can't tell you did all that work to him - which is good! He looks like he came in the box like that. I look forward to the rest of the gang being done.

@derex3592 WOW! Somebody was busy! Great looking finishes. I forgot, for the Cat's Eye, were you just trying to strip the paint off it? If so, the "LA's Totally Awesome" (Dollar Tree) is cheap, totally safe and does a great job. Tamiya's paint comes off in minutes. Enamels maybe a couple of hours depending on thickness. A scrub brush helps speed things up. You just need to clean the residue off with soap and water.  - MT

[Thom]

@Urashiman Quickly getting closer to perfection!

@derex3592 You truly have a really busy table! The black on that SR-71 looks fantastic and I would love to see that Cat's Eye moving forward. Reminds me of mine sitting so forlorn on the Shelf o'Doom...

 

[Urashiman]

@MechTech Thanks! Floor polish haha. Yeah no, I was thinking more of actual polishing compound going from grid 2000 to grid 10k and stuff like that

@Thom Ooooh yeah!

 

Just to test, I printed another VF-9 nose, checking the fit and everything, and it works nicely.

But as you can see, the canopy is rather "milky" and not full transparent. That is why I want to try with polishing compound, as dipping things in clear coat or polishing finish liquids doesn't work out fully.

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Urashiman said:

@MechTech Thanks! Floor polish haha. Yeah no, I was thinking more of actual polishing compound going from grid 2000 to grid 10k and stuff like that

@Thom Ooooh yeah!

 

Just to test, I printed another VF-9 nose, checking the fit and everything, and it works nicely.

But as you can see, the canopy is rather "milky" and not full transparent. That is why I want to try with polishing compound, as dipping things in clear coat or polishing finish liquids doesn't work out fully.

Yeah; you're going to need to go from grits 1000- 12000 at least to get that crystal clear (I use that regularly on my canopies). Up to 10K would most likely do the trick!

[Chas]

That's  a really full bench @derex3592 ! Good news Hobby search is having a sale and the Doyusha Boxing of that Academy B1 is 27% off and same goes for the Acedemy 1:72 blackbird. Gues what I just ordered?

@Rock is that 1:20 Gundam a scratch build? Looks awesome. Would love to see some pics that show the relative sine of the build ( maybe a pop can?)

@Urashiman you seem to know what you're doing so I'll just sit back and enjoy the beauty of your process. Looks great so far.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Chas

[Froy]

Are there any Mazinger Z fans in the forum?

Just got my self into building Mazinger Z that Hachette launche a couple years ago in Japan.

Currently we are at number 54 of 100 but just started to put it together this Sunday with a little help from the favorite law enforcer

So far Pilder is done.

[pengbuzz]

Really nice job so far on the Hover Pilder (and the Robocop isn't bad either!!!)!

That reminds me: I need to dig my scratchbuild of Mazinger Z (Infinity conversion) out and redo that sometime. It's in pieces right now...

[Rock]

21 hours ago, Chas said:

@Rock is that 1:20 Gundam a scratch build? Looks awesome. Would love to see some pics that show the relative sine of the build ( maybe a pop can?)

Yes, based around the Banpresto head. Here a link to twitter from a while back where I showed it in a rougher state. That little gundam bust at the bottom is the 1/100 MG Proto Wing Zero EW, if you need a reference for the size. https://twitter.com/Kiskay1/status/1505329346227101698/photo/1

[Urashiman]

Printed the pilot figure for testing. It is Milia in a Macross M3 pilot suit (which for some reason is body tight...).

Anyway - the wrists are to small and brittle and the torso is too long. One hand came off while detaching the supports. The figure barely fits and broke the seats ejection handle.

[electric indigo]

@Urashiman The level of detail is amazing!

_

I think I'm in the final round of putty & sanding work on the fuselage.

And it's starting to look like an Invader

[Rock]

59 minutes ago, electric indigo said:

I think I'm in the final round of putty & sanding work on the fuselage

And it's starting to look like an Invader

 

Water based putty?

[electric indigo]

For the thin gaps I use Vallejo Plastic Putty, which is water based, so excess material can be removed immediately. But it's onyl useful for those cases, since you can't sand it. The larger areas are white Tamiya putty.

Is Tamiya polyester putty universally banned? I ran out of my last batch, and it's unavailable everywhere.

[Urashiman]

4 hours ago, electric indigo said:

@Urashiman The level of detail is amazing!

_

I think I'm in the final round of putty & sanding work on the fuselage.

And it's starting to look like an Invader

Thanks a lot! That is the goal - getting as much detail as possible

Your invader seems to be fun as well. So much putty...

Have you tried Revell putty? I use that stuff mostly, but can be trouble as it sometimes "melts" styrene in the process of binding. It can be too thick and I usually thin it with revell Contacta glue 1:1. It can be brushed on with a brush when thinned that way and usually can give you smooth seam covering. For larger gaps I use milliput. Another hack for small seams is to use Mr. Color Primer 1500. Due to it's properties it fills small gaps easily. But don't use it in case you are using lacquer colors. It can crack.

[pengbuzz]

Just now, Urashiman said:

Thanks a lot! That is the goal - getting as much detail as possible

Your invader seems to be fun as well. So much putty...

Have you tried Revell putty? I use that stuff mostly, but can be trouble as it sometimes "melts" styrene in the process of binding. It can be too thick and I usually thin it with revell Contacta glue 1:1. It can be brushed on with a brush when thinned that way and usually can give you smooth seam covering. For larger gaps I use milliput. Another hack for small seams is to use Mr. Color Primer 1500. Due to it's properties it fills small gaps easily. But don't use it in case you are using lacquer colors. It can crack.

I prefer Plastic Welder myself.

[Big s]

8 minutes ago, electric indigo said:

For the thin gaps I use Vallejo Plastic Putty, which is water based, so excess material can be removed immediately. But it's onyl useful for those cases, since you can't sand it. The larger areas are white Tamiya putty.

Is Tamiya polyester putty universally banned? I ran out of my last batch, and it's unavailable everywhere.

It’s not universally banned, but not something that is sold in the States. There may be a few places like China, but wherever you find it, it’s priced like gold and isn’t worth it. It almost like twenty or thirty bucks a tube and then you gotta cover shipping and then you don’t know the quality of it when it does arrive. I’ve given up on the stuff personally due to the difficulty finding it.

one thing I tried with the water based putty that worked the one time I tried it to get it to sand was to get it to shape and then hand brush a bit of Mr color primer over it. I then sanded it after it dried for a few minutes and the lacquer seemed to bind it better 

[Chas]

Umm you guys know that Bondo autobody filler is polyester putty right? Still pretty widely available in its original formulation ( in Canada at least).

 

[SteveTheFish]

13 hours ago, Urashiman said:

Printed the pilot figure for testing. It is Milia in a Macross M3 pilot suit (which for some reason is body tight...).

Anyway - the wrists are to small and brittle and the torso is too long. One hand came off while detaching the supports. The figure barely fits and broke the seats ejection handle.

 

Where did you find the .STL files for that Milia figure? Has anyone made a female pilot figures wearing the regular pilot suits? I don't have a 3D printer, but my friend in PA does. He says he is gonna print the Hikaru and Minmay figures that are made for Hasegawa's Super Ostrich kit. Can't wait to see those.

  

4 hours ago, Big s said:

It’s not universally banned, but not something that is sold in the States. There may be a few places like China, but wherever you find it, it’s priced like gold and isn’t worth it. It almost like twenty or thirty bucks a tube and then you gotta cover shipping and then you don’t know the quality of it when it does arrive. I’ve given up on the stuff personally due to the difficulty finding it.

I only recently learned how hard to find polyester putty is in the States from watching a video by Leona's Workshop on YT. Here in Japan it's just another hobby supply to use. I have a tube of Wave's Morimori poly putty, but unfortunately I'm already running out of the hardening agent! It comes in such a small little plastic vial and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around to use with the rest of the main tube. Tamiya's poly putty comes with the hardening agent in a seemingly larger tube. There is a hobby shop walking distance from where I work and I stopped by there to ask the shop owner if perhaps the hardening agent is sold separately, and he said that he has not seen that. I wonder if the home center "polyester hardener" can be used with my poly putty. It's only about 400 yen, so it's worth a shot.

I've been using the poly putty on the Imai Armored Valk kit I'm working on. I've used it to secure the Wave ball joint sockets for the arms and the waist. It sure dries super hard! I wonder if I should still reinforce it with some epoxy putty. I'd hate to have the parts painted up and have the sockets collapse when I try to pop the pieces into place. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by SteveTheFish

[Big s]

17 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

Where did you find the .STL files for that Milia figure? Has anyone made a female pilot figures wearing the regular pilot suits? I don't have a 3D printer, but my friend in PA does. He says he is gonna print the Hikaru and Minmay figures that are made for Hasegawa's Super Ostrich kit. Can't wait to see those.

  

I only recently learned how hard to find polyester putty is in the States from watching a video by Leona's Workshop on YT. Here in Japan it's just another hobby supply to use. I have a tube of Wave's Morimori poly putty, but unfortunately I'm already running out of the hardening agent! It comes in such a small little plastic vial and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around to use with the rest of the main tube. Tamiya's poly putty comes with the hardening agent in a seemingly larger tube. There is a hobby shop walking distance from where I work and I stopped by there to ask the shop owner if perhaps the hardening agent is sold separately, and he said that he has not seen that. I wonder if the home center "polyester hardener" can be used with my poly putty. It's only about 400 yen, so it's worth a shot.

I've been using the poly putty on the Imai Armored Valk kit I'm working on. I've used it to secure the Wave ball joint sockets for the arms and the waist. It sure dries super hard! I wonder if I should still reinforce it with some epoxy putty. I'd hate to have the parts painted up and have the sockets collapse when I try to pop the pieces into place. 

Tamiya used to sell the hardening agent separately, don’t know if they still do. 
If you’re doing a joint that needs a part popped in, I recommend starting by using glue like extra thin cement first and then the putty after the glue has been sanded down and you find imperfections. Also if you want the putty a little softer, experiment with the mix of hardening agent. A little less hardener seem to make it slightly softer, but too little and it won’t really dry right.

[Chas]

32 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

I only recently learned how hard to find polyester putty is in the States from watching a video by Leona's Workshop on YT. Here in Japan it's just another hobby supply to use. I have a tube of Wave's Morimori poly putty, but unfortunately I'm already running out of the hardening agent! It comes in such a small little plastic vial and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around to use with the rest of the main tube. Tamiya's poly putty comes with the hardening agent in a seemingly larger tube. There is a hobby shop walking distance from where I work and I stopped by there to ask the shop owner if perhaps the hardening agent is sold separately, and he said that he has not seen that. I wonder if the home center "polyester hardener" can be used with my poly putty. It's only about 400 yen, so it's worth a shot.

Love Mori-Mori, but I thought Wave stopped producing it. A while back, when HLJ still carried it,  I got a larger tube of the hardener. Here's a link to what I got (from a different seller)

https://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/606004571

I can't  find any sources for mori mori (that have it in stock) anywhere aymore. Wish I could, that stuff was the perfect consistency when it dried and soo easy to sand and shape.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Chas

[SteveTheFish]

5 hours ago, Chas said:

Love Mori-Mori, but I thought Wave stopped producing it. A while back, when HLJ still carried it,  I got a larger tube of the hardener. Here's a link to what I got (from a different seller)

https://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/606004571

I can't  find any sources for mori mori (that have it in stock) anywhere aymore. Wish I could, that stuff was the perfect consistency when it dried and soo easy to sand and shape.

Thank you! Thanks to you, I now know what they call it and I managed to buy a tube on Joshin Web. It's actually made by a company called Work, but Wave sells it. It may be discontinued? I did find a tube of the individually-sold Tamiya poly putty hardener, but I do not know if it is compatible. I ended up paying more for the Morimori hardener than I had hoped to, but at least it looks like a larger tube and should last me.

Edited November 9, 2023 by SteveTheFish

[Chas]

Your welcome! Glad you got some. I have no personal experience with Tamiya poly-putty, but from others who have used both it, and mori mori, they say the hardener are compatible/interchangeable (intercompatible??). Either hardener can be used with either putty.

 

As far mori mori being discontiued - I haven't actually read that anywhere, just my own supposition based on it being out of stock everywhere.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Chas

[Urashiman]

12 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Where did you find the .STL files for that Milia figure? Has anyone made a female pilot figures wearing the regular pilot suits? I don't have a 3D printer, but my friend in PA does. He says he is gonna print the Hikaru and Minmay figures that are made for Hasegawa's Super Ostrich kit. Can't wait to see those.

  

I only recently learned how hard to find polyester putty is in the States from watching a video by Leona's Workshop on YT. Here in Japan it's just another hobby supply to use. I have a tube of Wave's Morimori poly putty, but unfortunately I'm already running out of the hardening agent! It comes in such a small little plastic vial and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around to use with the rest of the main tube. Tamiya's poly putty comes with the hardening agent in a seemingly larger tube. There is a hobby shop walking distance from where I work and I stopped by there to ask the shop owner if perhaps the hardening agent is sold separately, and he said that he has not seen that. I wonder if the home center "polyester hardener" can be used with my poly putty. It's only about 400 yen, so it's worth a shot.

I've been using the poly putty on the Imai Armored Valk kit I'm working on. I've used it to secure the Wave ball joint sockets for the arms and the waist. It sure dries super hard! I wonder if I should still reinforce it with some epoxy putty. I'd hate to have the parts painted up and have the sockets collapse when I try to pop the pieces into place. 

I found the .STL by navigating to the folder where I saved the exported STL.

You probably haven't found one online because there is none out in the wild, I think. I created this pilot figure myself, because there are no Macross M3 suit pilots out there.

I can send it to you after I fixed it. The proportions are a bit bad, as I basically created this with only little reference material (the Macross M3 intro and the back cover of the Macross M3 booklet in the disk case). She got a bit too ... "ample" as well. I am not good at 3D modelling people...

I did it by low poly modelling the pilot and then running turbo smooth over it.

Another thing... I wanted to print a bubbleless canopy for the VF-9, so I went by the "evolution approach". The more the merrier

Here is what I did:

- Filtered the liquid clear resin through a 0.05mm grid filter
- Let it rest in the resin basin of the printer for 24 hours
- made the print bed move really slow during printing

From the visuals, it looks like at least three have bubbles inside. I will know more once I polish them all a bit.

Any advice how to get rid of the bubbles?

 

EDIT:

@SteveTheFish I remembered that @Xigfrid was creating a set of male and female VF pilots. You can find them here:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VJ23S29SZ/1-72-scale-pilots-for-vf-1j?optionId=299297325&li=shops

Edited November 9, 2023 by Urashiman