Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[nonner242]

Right😭

[Urashiman]

dude ... 420 - hahahaha

[nightmareB4macross]

The fun continues.

[pengbuzz]

On 7/2/2024 at 2:42 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

The fun continues.

Looking pretty sweet so far!!! Eager to see the full attachment set-up you have in mind for the legs in Battroid mode!

[pengbuzz]

On 6/30/2024 at 8:28 PM, nonner242 said:

Can get sticker paper or waterslide too. Will save a ton of time. But I don't want to go thru the hassle and Photoshop..resizing and vectoring all that crap..which I would prob do.  But I liked the challenge lol. I didn't want to spend much time or money.  Just a side quest lol. 

I have so many other projects to do I'll never get to em if I spend too much on little things. 

I'll never get the SDF1 done if weather keep being crap for painting since I can't inside due to wifes having respiratory issues.

Here are the ones I did for mine, if you want them. I sized them for mine so they should work (let me know if there are any issues and I'll see if I can fix them for you):

Meantime folks, an UPDATE:

I'll have more for everyone in a bit. The short of it is that I found repair parts in a thrift store, but the hip joints disintegrated, and that set off a volcanic blast.....

Stay tuned.

[Thom]

It's up on its feet! Very nice @pengbuzz!

[nonner242]

7 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

 

It's ALIVE! Very nice! Looking good. 

And thank you for stickers👍🏻

[nightmareB4macross]

21 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Looking pretty sweet so far!!! Eager to see the full attachment set-up you have in mind for the legs in Battroid mode!

Way past that stage already. There are pins located in the hips and the FLIRs actually accept them to connect and form the proper hip joints.

Already moving into the knee joints.

[Wewyllenium]

 

1/60 VF-11 V2 repair parts currently in development.

 

[nonner242]

Started another pain in my but...what my problem😆  I really wanted to try out my first airbrush I had again in 20 years. Been alooooong time.  Fun!

This seems WAY smaller than 1/42 scale to me tho.🤔

Gonna have to put it next to the LARGE scale Orguss to compare...

But man my age is showing while doing this..my eyes..I can't see anymore or hold steady😂

Edited July 6 by nonner242

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, nonner242 said:

Started another pain in my but...what my problem😆  I really wanted to try out my first airbrush I had again in 20 years. Been alooooong time.  Fun!

This seems WAY smaller than 1/42 scale to me tho.🤔

Gonna have to put it next to the LARGE scale Orguss to compare...

But man my age is showing while doing this..my eyes..I can't see anymore or hold steady😂

Join the club!!! I need glasses and a magnifier to see what I'm doing anymore!!!

[nonner242]

39 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Join the club!!! I need glasses and a magnifier to see what I'm doing anymore!!!

My magnifier has paint and stuff all over it..and my glasses fall off and end up getting scratched or painted..I go naked😂

Well things are getting a little not the way I wanted do to interruptions family and just bad luck. But I'm pushing thru. Plans never work out as I picture em.

Here's the ugly side of build..I think it's the behind the scenes magic ppl never see much of..

I did a layer of Brite yellow for depth but I decided to go with the original look more. So it's push pop orange mostly.

I have 10 of these kits so I will do more color or metallic variations down the road. I really want a metallic blue and a invid looking purple and grey. Definitely doing a valk variant...not sure of a Rick or Roy inspired color scheme yet.

Just wanted to get a feel for this kit and see where I can make changes or improvements for later...still it's so small😆

Edited July 6 by nonner242

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE:

First, a bit of commentary to get folks up to speed where I'm at with my project now.

When I last left off posting about my project, the arms were hopelessly ruined with parts unable to withstand rebuilding and  having reacted poorly to the glue I was using.

Additional incident: the pegs holding the legs to the torso snapped in half at the internal pivot, which nearly made me throw this project in the circular file. I ended up putting it away for some time, as the thought of spending 50 dollars on a veritable piece of $#1t was more than I could stand.

Cue forward 2 weeks:
I had visited a local thrift store and found the remains of a Gobots Leader-1 model kit. It was by no means complete, but it had the parts I needed. It ended up being an incident that I'll put in a spoiler to avoid tainting the rest of the update.

Spoiler

Some jerk got into an argument with me at the register, claiming "he saw it first"  and wanted me to "surrender it to him". He upset me so badly that I ended up having a seizure in public. My wife had to intervene and tell me what happened due to a block of lost memory due to the seizure. As it stands: the guy ended up getting the cops called on him by the thrift shop owner, and my wife was going to pay for the kit when he simply gave it to her.  He "felt bad about what happened, and it was only 5 dollars".

So, with all of that, I began again on the kit. The second set of pegs  ended up snapping on the model, and that set me off.

Never tick off a Pengbuzz....

I decided that since this kit was going to be such a pain, then I was going to be a pain in return, and subject it to every single modification I could think of.

Atomic ThunderPeng engaged.

First: I used the new parts to restore the arms; while building the new units, I ended up scrapping the old polycap pegs for the arms, instead substituting hard plastic ones:

The new arms are also reinforced with styrene and masking tape to keep the joints from splitting from the stress of the pegs.

Speaking of pegs, I carved out the entire stupid peg system for the pelvis, and devised one of my own:

I created a pair of pegs with a "t" shaped cross member that would slide inside a track system. The set would then be glued inside the pelvis, and allow the two pegs to move, slide and even pivot separately:

 

After hollowing the entire pelvic region, I then filled and reinforced the peg holes at the hips so I could then drill them and be assured the plastic would not break down from repeated movements. I then glued the tracks (with pegs held in them) into place:

The solidified system, with a solid block of styrene reinforcing the two tracks and keeping them from breaking away from the inner wall:

While I was at it, I also added a torso rotation system, so that Leader-1 could twist at the waist:

I added plastic to both top and bottom halves, to secure a post and polycap system of joining them together. The added plastic plating reinforces the torso as a whole and prevents crush damage.

Speaking of "twisting": I kept bumping the head on the torso, and became concerned that I would snap the fairly delicate dual hinge for it's transform.

My solution:

I cut the top pivot near the head, glued it to a plastic plate, and then glued a post with a ball joint into place. A polycap plastic-welded into place allowed for the ball joint to insert into the head and permit movement, while retaining full transformability (tested and confirmed as of last night )

On to the legs proper; when I built them initially, they could barely bend at the knee:

Well, a pair of nippers, an xacto knfe, needle file and an hour later, and:

Now he can do squats!

As mentioned in previous posts on this: the scale of the model and the cockpit bothered me greatly. I felt the pilot was crammed into the cockpit, and the fact that this kit was 1/48 meant that against the Valkyries, at scale it would have only come up to their knees:

My solution: change the cockpit and reduce the pilot size-

By necessity, this would also mean cutting the canopy and reducing its' profile to match the new cockpit and provide proper height to the pilot. I began with installing the new setup:

Then I glued the canopy in place and used plastic welder to both reinforce it as well as fair it in:

Then...the long, slow process of sanding and polishing it and the nose/cockpit to ensure it was crystal clear and fit seamlessly:

I also saw that the wings were comically small; I fixed this by adding more plastic onto them and doing my best to blend them in (will paint them soon-ish):

As they look on the fighter now:

So, this is where we stand now on this project. It is now a 1/72 scale, and sizes nicely with the valkyries from Macross. The canopy has been reduced in profile by about 1/3, and frankly, the entire nose looks better IMO.

Stay tuned...

 

Edited July 7 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

@pengbuzz Thunderpeng perseveres! I love it! And to find the parts you need to fix it was really fortuitous...

Spoiler

...except for the idiot in the store. So sorry you had to go through that.

I hereby put forth that you should change your name to Atomic Thunderpeng! (With the exclamation point, of course, it is only fitting.) A model gives you a problem way of out proportion of its cost - and you turn it into your b*itch!

Anyway, great mods to it and so glad its working even better than it was initially designed. And I too am always put off by how small the fighter is. I'm reading how you modded the cockpit and pilot and I'm thinking 'that's what I want to do!' That's why I bought the 1/48 to see how it compared against the 1/72 VFs. Please give a comparison photo.

Edited July 7 by Thom

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, Thom said:

@pengbuzz Thunderpeng perseveres! I love it! And to find the parts you need to fix it was really fortuitous...

  Hide contents

...except for the idiot in the store. So sorry you had to go through that.

I hereby put forth that you should change your name to Atomic Thunderpeng! (With the exclamation point, of course, it is only fitting.) A model gives you a problem way of out proportion of its cost - and you turn it into your b*itch!

Anyway, great mods to it and so glad its working even better than it was initially designed. And I too am always put off by how small the fighter is. I'm reading how you modded the cockpit and pilot and I'm thinking 'that's what I want to do!' That's why I bought the 1/48 to see how it compared against the 1/72 VFs. Please give a comparison photo.

Okay; what comparison did you need Thom? With the old cockpit, or with the VF's?

Edited July 7 by pengbuzz
Misunderstood Thom's request. OOOPPS!!

[Thom]

11 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Okay; what comparison did you need Thom? With the old cockpit, or with the VF's?

If you would, a side by side, both in fighter mode would be nice.

[Duymon]

It just blows my mind that I can literally download highly detailed DYRL pilots in 1/72 for all the hasegawas VF-1's I have that lack pilots. To the naked eye they look amazing. 3d printing at home is so nice. also not having to assemble the official and very janky plastic pilots is a huge plus

Edited July 7 by Duymon

[Gabe Q]

@Duymon Wow! You have 16 valks with no pilot? That's a lot! Those look great! Where can I download the file and is there a TV version pilot? 

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Thom said:

If you would, a side by side, both in fighter mode would be nice.

Okay, I'll have those pics for you tonight Thom!

[Duymon]

3 hours ago, Gabe Q said:

@Duymon Wow! You have 16 valks with no pilot? That's a lot! Those look great! Where can I download the file and is there a TV version pilot? 

I bought the highly detailed stl from https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/1-72-dyrl-hikaru-pilot-cockpit and then modified the head in blender so that the visor was down and faceless. he also has tv style hikaru / roy and even TV milia, though each are the same price so I only started with one purchase. 

Considering  before I was paying 10-15 bucks per hase weapon pack for 2 pilots this was a better option for me as I can make them as cheaply as 3 cents if I do plates of 32

Edited July 7 by Duymon

[Big s]

7 hours ago, Duymon said:

It just blows my mind that I can literally download highly detailed DYRL pilots in 1/72 for all the hasegawas VF-1's I have that lack pilots. To the naked eye they look amazing. 3d printing at home is so nice. also not having to assemble the official and very janky plastic pilots is a huge plus

Seeing these makes me wish I had space for a 3D printer. I’d love to have a few 1/100 tv pilots for my wave kits, that and round hands.

[pengbuzz]

17 hours ago, Thom said:

If you would, a side by side, both in fighter mode would be nice.

Okay, here you go:

[MechTech]

@Wewyllenium Your mods should make things fit a lot better!

@nonner242 Wow! I haven't touched that kit in decades (bqck in the 80's). Though I did buy one when Wise Guys started selling them. Did you buy a case of them or something? The paint colors look spot on!

@pengbuzz First off, finding a model kit in a thrift store is rare. Like I've found one or two in a few years! Then to find exactly what you need -a RARE kit- in a Thrift store!? That is God's Providence - hands down! That's AWESOME! So are all the mods you're making too! The Mospeada scales like all the Orguss model scales are off from the boxes. It's frustrating, but what you gonna do? Especially decades later!😁 I think your work does it justice! KUDOS for hanging in there with it and then kicking butt and taking names! - MT

[Thom]

3 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Okay, here you go:

Thank you! The sizing there is great, and makes me feel better about buying the 1/48.😊 And the work you did on the 'pit really helps the look.

[nonner242]

On 7/8/2024 at 8:18 AM, MechTech said:

@Wewyllenium

@nonner242 Wow! I haven't touched that kit in decades (bqck in the 80's). Though I did buy one when Wise Guys started selling them. Did you buy a case of them or something? The paint colors look spot on!

@pengbuzz!😁

Same I absolutely ruined my original from 80s when I was young..it turned out like crap from glue.

Yes a case of 10.

Thank you..was a pain to get close but after this I get to have fun..might add some legs too.lol

Edited July 9 by nonner242

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz First off, finding a model kit in a thrift store is rare. Like I've found one or two in a few years! Then to find exactly what you need -a RARE kit- in a Thrift store!? That is God's Providence - hands down! That's AWESOME! So are all the mods you're making too! The Mospeada scales like all the Orguss model scales are off from the boxes. It's frustrating, but what you gonna do? Especially decades later!😁 I think your work does it justice! KUDOS for hanging in there with it and then kicking butt and taking names! - MT

Thanks. Suffering a seizure in public due to a jerk who also wanted the parts; not so much.

More about the mods: I may add even more to the wings, as they still look a bit small to me. We'll have to see about that as I go. As it stands last night, the slide joints for the legs that I designed and built snapped,  and I had to scrap that and do yet another new setup (this time with ball joints in the hip sockets and a single connected metal bar).

Edited July 8 by pengbuzz

[nonner242]

You are building from scratch! 👍🏻

I'm waiting to see more.

I had a horrible incident with glue last night. I just finished everything on a fixer up dougram round face and my tube of testors glue pour out like a stepped on ketchup packed all over the models front from head to toe. Looks like he was in a porn video. Sad to say all the paint is ruined.. thank God most of decals were missed or not to bad..but he didn't have much on front. Im lucky to say the clear dome for cockpit didn't get hit. But he is gonna need a ton of work and repaint sanding and bondo...I'm afraid to start 😭

And it all happed because a balled joint in should chest area came loose and I was gonna take his toso off and dap some glue into his chest cavity joint to fix it. And he would be done other than some random paint details and some new extra decals.

This place is bad luck😂😂

[nonner242]

Oh I did get a very short amount of time the other night to do annoying detail line work on m lover. I'm not looking forward on the shoulders arrow details..so many curves ..so small and 3 different colors with black outline😭

Maybe I'll leave him plain..?

Naw

 

Haven't glued anything yet just testing out what he should look like.

Edited July 9 by nonner242

[Big s]

5 hours ago, nonner242 said:

You are building from scratch! 👍🏻

I'm waiting to see more.

I had a horrible incident with glue last night. I just finished everything on a fixer up dougram round face and my tube of testors glue pour out like a stepped on ketchup packed all over the models front from head to toe. Looks like he was in a porn video. Sad to say all the paint is ruined.. thank God most of decals were missed or not to bad..but he didn't have much on front. Im lucky to say the clear dome for cockpit didn't get hit. But he is gonna need a ton of work and repaint sanding and bondo...I'm afraid to start 😭

And it all happed because a balled joint in should chest area came loose and I was gonna take his toso off and dap some glue into his chest cavity joint to fix it. And he would be done other than some random paint details and some new extra decals.

This place is bad luck😂😂

I stopped using the tube glues years ago due to too many similar incidents. One little stop up and a tiny bit of pressure and the dang thing doesn’t quit spilling out like it had pent up rage and was finally relieving stress by letting its fluids fly, like Homelander on a rooftop after getting humiliated or something. 

There are other issues with that stuff that I hated, like the unpredictable glue hairs and such. I honestly haven’t found a use for the tube stuff since I switched to the thinner stuff from a bottle. 

I personally use Plastruct Bondine ABS glue since it not only bonds well for styrene, but also the hard ABS plastic that a lot of gundam parts used for sturdiness. A little dab and it does pretty well. And you can run it down the seams really well to reduce the need for putty. Some people like the Tamiya extra thin , I’m sure just using what works and hasn’t failed me yet , but I really don’t know which is truly the superior product 

[nonner242]

I'm gonna look into getting some real stuff like u mentioned. I ran out and that's just what I had as back up..so not worth the hassel

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, Big s said:

I stopped using the tube glues years ago due to too many similar incidents. One little stop up and a tiny bit of pressure and the dang thing doesn’t quit spilling out like it had pent up rage and was finally relieving stress by letting its fluids fly, like Homelander on a rooftop after getting humiliated or something. 

There are other issues with that stuff that I hated, like the unpredictable glue hairs and such. I honestly haven’t found a use for the tube stuff since I switched to the thinner stuff from a bottle. 

I personally use Plastruct Bondine ABS glue since it not only bonds well for styrene, but also the hard ABS plastic that a lot of gundam parts used for sturdiness. A little dab and it does pretty well. And you can run it down the seams really well to reduce the need for putty. Some people like the Tamiya extra thin , I’m sure just using what works and hasn’t failed me yet , but I really don’t know which is truly the superior product 

A lot of times, I use a polypropylene pallet and put a puddle of tube glue in there. Then I use a toothpick to apply it where I need it.

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE:

I revised the hip/ pelvic slider setup into one metal bar with ball joints at either end. This allows the hips to splay out and for one single unit to slide the legs/ engines forward for transformation:

It's far more stable now, and the wait/ pelvis is mostly solid styrene/ plastic welder resin at this point.

Which is MORE than I can say for the rest of this PIECE OF--

*clears throat*

To the point: the sensor unit on a hinged flap (the one that partially covers the gaping maw in the back of the fighter) snapped off on me today. Needless to say, I was not impressed by this in the least:

The joint was flimsy to begin with, but I suspect the styrene mix this run of models was pressed from is like that of the RotJ large X-Wing fighter: soft and possibly including air/ gas in the mix, making it more porous. But as stated previously: every time this thing gives me grief I take my frustration out on it with more modifications:

I extended the sensor door/ torso cover so that it covers the entire cavity and not only half of it. I'm seriously thinking of putting it on a ball-jointed swing-arm so that it can go to either shoulder. Not sure how that would work; we'll see if I can make that work.

One other issue are the stupidly-small (pretty much asinine-small ) ailerons that stick out of the arms (from previous pics of this model earlier in the build):

Since this kit is supposed to be Leader-1 from Gobots, I'm taking some liberties here with the final config on this build. This is my baseline here:

While I'm not trying to build an exact replica in 1/72 (already have a MP Leader-1 I did several years ago); I'd like to include enough "hallmarks" to indicate who this is supposed to be. So my idea is to relocate the ailerons elsewhere on this kit:

The pencil line (it's on both sides) denotes where the hinge for the aileron(s) will go. In robot mode, the aileron will simply flip backwards on the leg and should neatly tuck just under the raised area (on an angle). This way, I can make it "much larger without it interfering with the arm transformation.

As for the old ailerons: I simply put glue on them and folded them back into place.

Stay tuned....

[arbit]

On 7/8/2024 at 1:10 AM, Duymon said:

I bought the highly detailed stl from https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/1-72-dyrl-hikaru-pilot-cockpit and then modified the head in blender so that the visor was down and faceless. he also has tv style hikaru / roy and even TV milia, though each are the same price so I only started with one purchase. 

Considering  before I was paying 10-15 bucks per hase weapon pack for 2 pilots this was a better option for me as I can make them as cheaply as 3 cents if I do plates of 32

@Duymon Thank you. Glad you like the details!

Next time you need a file, PM me to get you some discounts.

Your prints came out clean. Your orientation is the best for getting clean results 👍 

Edited July 10 by arbit

[arbit]

13 hours ago, nonner242 said:

 

I didnt realize those old kits could look so good! Great detailimg work and paint. Very nice yellow on there too! Looking forward to seeing all ten of your kits painted 😏 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, arbit said:

I didnt realize those old kits could look so good! Great detailimg work and paint. Very nice yellow on there too! Looking forward to seeing all ten of your kits painted 😏 

I believe those were Imai kits. That company was way ahead of their time as far as sculpt. It took Bandai another decade or so before they started really looking good