1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144

[derex3592]

#notmyheatshield  

[spanner]

Thought I'd post a pic of these two lovelies!

 

[Saburo]

Excellent @spanner, I wish I had a set.  One day, I'll will.

I am adding 2 more beauties.

[seti88]

@spanner @Saburo

 

[Vifam7]

On 4/3/2018 at 2:04 PM, Saburo said:

Skull Squadron

 

That's not a squadron. It's not even an infantry squad. In military terms, it'd just be a 4-ship flight or infantry fireteam.

[wm cheng]

Hi all,

After a few months, I finally got a chance to finish up decaling/penciling/weathering/clearcoats my recent VF-1S aquired from #recon (thank so much!) to make my own "Premium Version"

You can see it next to my original Yamato version with the rainbow canopy, its so much brighter and makes my older Valk looked yellowed even though it isn't

I tried to tone down the brightness/pink with a more heavy shading with smudging mechanical pencil shavings to "grey" up the white a bit and it worked for the most part.

Piecing together white data stenciling was the hardest part and set me back weeks trying to get the right thing, in the end, I just scrounged around my spare decals to find what I could even though the actual fastpack armament numbers aren't exactly right (and I was too cheap to buy a 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S Strike kit just for its decals) - so much for accuracy!

At least its finally done!  You can see the pink tinge on the big missiles as I hadn't touched those with the pencil shading.

[Lolicon]

44 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

*snip*

Woo that looks freaking amazing! But then we expect nothing less from you, Master cheng!!

[Kanedas Bike]

Damn WM Cheng, those are amazing 

I feel like it's been way too long since you've posted one of your customs, I think there should be a rule that you're required to post something new at least once per quarter. I'd go in shorter intervals but I don't want to get greedy. 

-b.

[wm cheng]

Thanks KB.  I wish I could get to it more, but having less and less free time nowadays.  Haven't done much lately other than just panel line the Macross Delta toys - they're pretty good with just a light panel wash.  It's the naked Arcadia toys that needs the work and decals. 

[Kanedas Bike]

1 hour ago, wm cheng said:

Thanks KB.  I wish I could get to it more, but having less and less free time nowadays.  Haven't done much lately other than just panel line the Macross Delta toys - they're pretty good with just a light panel wash.  It's the naked Arcadia toys that needs the work and decals. 

Ah yes, free time. Time should be the real currency of the world.

There are pros and cons to the Arcadia Valkyries compared with Bandai Valkyries in that to me Arcadia makes the iconic VF-1 and when those are "dressed up" it really gets to my sense of nostalgia - like a classic car, Bandai makes the newer Valks so it's like looking at a new car in the showroom.

Either way, as long as this still brings you joy, keep going as you find the time. I'm pretty sure that 99.99999% of us enjoy your work.

-b.

[recon]

4 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Hi all,

After a few months, I finally got a chance to finish up decaling/penciling/weathering/clearcoats my recent VF-1S aquired from #recon (thank so much!) to make my own "Premium Version"

You can see it next to my original Yamato version with the rainbow canopy, its so much brighter and makes my older Valk looked yellowed even though it isn't

I tried to tone down the brightness/pink with a more heavy shading with smudging mechanical pencil shavings to "grey" up the white a bit and it worked for the most part.

Piecing together white data stenciling was the hardest part and set me back weeks trying to get the right thing, in the end, I just scrounged around my spare decals to find what I could even though the actual fastpack armament numbers aren't exactly right (and I was too cheap to buy a 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S Strike kit just for its decals) - so much for accuracy!

At least its finally done!  You can see the pink tinge on the big missiles as I hadn't touched those with the pencil shading.

Wow wmcheng, that truly a premium masterpiece! Would you be airbrushing some burnt umber on the thrusters?

Edited April 6, 2018 by recon

[no3Ljm]

Love it, Mr.Cheng!

 

[Saburo]

Simply Amazing @wm cheng!

[ScrambledValkyrie]

Agreed. That is some beautiful work, @wm cheng.

[derex3592]

Take a lesson from the master boys...WM Cheng does it again.

Edited April 6, 2018 by derex3592

[sumyumgoy]

Looks amazing!  Did you just use a regular pencil for the panel lining?

[wm cheng]

5 hours ago, recon said:

Wow wmcheng, that truly a premium masterpiece! Would you be airbrushing some burnt umber on the thrusters?

Close, its a mixture of Alclad Steel with Alclad Jet Exhaust.

2 hours ago, sumyumgoy said:

Looks amazing!  Did you just use a regular pencil for the panel lining?

I did some Flory clay panel washes of varying greys to black and used a mechanical pencil to draw in the really light panel lines that were too shallow to hold the wash.  I then smudged the panels like a post shading with a pencil shader/smudge stick with some ground graphite (leftovers from the mechanical pencil sharpener).  Its easier to control than the airbrush.  There's some light white dry brushing on the darker fast packs but it was too subtle to pick up on the camera, it looked better in person.

 

Thanks for all the kudos!  Spent way too long cleaning up my workbench to just get to work - argh.

[Slave IV]

Looks amazing! I really admire the dedication and skill to get those kind of results. 

[recon]

On 06/04/2018 at 1:06 PM, wm cheng said:

Close, its a mixture of Alclad Steel with Alclad Jet Exhaust.

I did some Flory clay panel washes of varying greys to black and used a mechanical pencil to draw in the really light panel lines that were too shallow to hold the wash.  I then smudged the panels like a post shading with a pencil shader/smudge stick with some ground graphite (leftovers from the mechanical pencil sharpener).  Its easier to control than the airbrush.  There's some light white dry brushing on the darker fast packs but it was too subtle to pick up on the camera, it looked better in person.

 

Thanks for all the kudos!  Spent way too long cleaning up my workbench to just get to work - argh.

Epic. If i was living near ya, i would be sending all my premium valks to you to weather them up. Truly enjoy the subtle touches you put on your models to bring them to a whole new level

[Saburo]

Just taking a trip down memory lane. This photo was taken in 2015 and it was actually meant as a test shoot for the new base I wanted to try out. I wasn't planning on keeping the photos but I thought it turned out well and it is still one of my favorite shots.  I decided to reprocessed the photo with everything I have learned since then to refine the photo.

Can't believe I have been taking Valkyrie photos since 2014, maybe its time to go into retirement. 

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by Saburo

[wmkjr]

Lovely shots as always. Now use all those tricks you learned for that Coffee table book.

[Saburo]

On 4/7/2018 at 9:43 PM, wmkjr said:

Lovely shots as always. Now use all those tricks you learned for that Coffee table book.

Mahalo @wmkjr!  Hehe, the coffee table book is still on the back burner, one of these day I'll surprise you guys.

 

Here's another pic of a couple of 19s.

[Kanedas Bike]

^Advanced for the win.

And great shots as usual @Saburo.

-b.

[Saburo]

2 hours ago, Kanedas Bike said:

^Advanced for the win.

And great shots as usual @Saburo.

-b.

Thank you @Kanedas Bike!

[no3Ljm]

11 hours ago, Saburo said:

Mahalo @wmkjr!  Hehe, the coffee table book is still on the back burner, one of these day I'll surprise you guys.

 

Here's another pic of a couple of 19s.

Love it, Saburo.

 

[Lolicon]

Looks great, Saburo! The YF-19 still looks better, though. 

[no3Ljm]

@Saburo, I just noticed that YF-19's biceps wasn't pull down properly.

 

[Saburo]

19 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Love it, Saburo.

 

Thanks @no3Ljm!

 

15 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Looks great, Saburo! The YF-19 still looks better, though. 

Thank @Lolicon!

 

10 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

@Saburo, I just noticed that YF-19's biceps wasn't pull down properly.

 

@no3Ljm, thanks again.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

A Zentraedi grunt and his mecha:

[no3Ljm]

4 hours ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

A Zentraedi grunt and his mecha:

Nice.

 

[505thAirborne]

May not be the DX version. But these Hasegawa & Bandai kits are working out just fine! 

 

[seti88]

Nice! You took the hase's 31A wingtips and applied em to hayate kits?

[505thAirborne]

2 hours ago, seti88 said:

Nice! You took the hase's 31A wingtips and applied em to hayate kits?

Yep! Only that was originally Mirage's 31C Bandai kit. 

I bought quite a few VF-31A Hasegawa kits, so lots of spare parts for customizing. 

[Ignacio Ocamica]

10 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

May not be the DX version. But these Hasegawa & Bandai kits are working out just fine! 

 

Wow awesome!!!! They turned out great, congrats!!!

 

[505thAirborne]

5 hours ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Wow awesome!!!! They turned out great, congrats!!!

 

Thanks Ignacio! I still have three more 31A kits to work on.... no idea where I'll find space for displaying them.