V2 Monstar Instructions thread, first build

[mslz22]

Mods, hope it's ok to start a new thread for the instructions, lot going on in the old thread, just wanted the instructions and any discussions or ?'s separated out.

thanks

mike

Ok, here we go, you don't have to do this in any particular order but i am starting at the bottom.

First thing to note is that there are likely a few ways to approach this. My approach is to assemble the kit in such a way that almost everything can be separated out for ease of painting.

Also note that none of the hardware is included in the kit. For the feet i am using 1/4 brass, 5/32 brass and 5/32 styrene (for location only).

There are some location pins etc on most of the parts, these are there only to give you a starting point for aligning the parts. In some cases i will abandon those for various reasons and will note that when i do.

First thing i want to do is get a sturdy connection between the upper foot and the main leg strut.

Holding the parts together for alignment i first drill a pilot hole with a smaller size like 5/32, then work up to a 1/4 inch hole that passes thru the foot and into the strut.

Be sure to drill in a location that is hidden by the part that i call the riser it's the transition part between the main upper foot and the back foot pad.

There are 2 risers, one mentioned above and one mid foot

Edited January 10, 2015 by mslz22

[mslz22]

Make sure the bottom of the back foot pad is as flat as possible by sanding with a sanding block..

Drill holes in the mid foot plate, then hold centered upside down and drill thru to the main upper foot.

This mid foot riser has only 1 pattern with some notching required by the toe to have it fit the left and right feet respectively. The taller side will go to the outside of the foot.

Repeat that operation with the lower foot pad, and drill thru to the bottom of the foot. You can then put in some alignment rod, in this case 5/32 styrene. Put a dab of CA on the foot pad section only to hold in the rod, you will then be able to slide the 3 parts together and apart for more work. Trip back the rod when done.

[mslz22]

You can repeat that same operation with the other riser, this is one of the cases to ignore any alignment marks left from me making the pattern and just hold the parts in place, centered to each other and drill an alignment mark.

This area on the left side has a bit of a gap, either from a bit of mold distortion or some other mystery resin issue.

To address it, protect the back foot pad with some tamiya tape, then put a layer of petroleum jelly on just the tape.

Add a bit of bondo or apoxie sculpt, I usually prefer apoxie sculpt but was in a rush today. Then squish the hole thing together, trim the filler and sand.

Sorry about that, not sure why such a bad gap there, it's not on the pattern, I have a feeling the mold may get a bit over compressed when i bind it. It may vary from kit to kit if that is the case.

Left main foot after alignment pins installed. Repeat the operations for the right side.

Up next is to do a similar brass pin for the upper leg.

Select an area in the middle of the leg strut that does not contain any rivet details and is in line with the appox middle of the contact area between the leg strut and the upper leg.

Drill thru deep enough so that a 5/32 brass rod can used to firmly pin the upper leg and the strut. Then trim back the brass enough to fill the hole created by drilling thru. I use apoxie sculpt

Main leg components held together with only pins, will be super strong when glued.

[Jasonc]

Looks awesome. Can't wait to get one.

[Petrov27]

Excellent - following...

[mslz22]

More on how i got to this point soon, but did i mention this thing is massive.

mike

[ChaoticYeti]

That is impressive.

Edited January 15, 2015 by ChaoticYeti

[Cesar Enrique]

Hey, I´m sorry for the off topic, but...how´s going your Inbit 1/10 - 1/12 sculpting? I am interested in one of them.

Thank you.

[MechTech]

...and it fires actual 30mm rounds too! That looks awesome and I'm seriously sorry I don't have the budget to buy one now.

Those that can get one of these have a great kit!-MT

[GMK]

Too late to buy?

Greg

[spanner]

yes please let us know if you want us to throw money at you for these!!! This thing looks class!

[mslz22]

Not too late, PM me or ordering info below.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=41638

thanks

mike

[spanner]

thanks for that, will check it out.

[GMK]

Check your PM, Mike.

[Jasonc]

Got mine Friday. All of it looks to be there. The box got beat up by the shipper, but it was all there in good condition. Thanks. Can't wait for the rest of the build instructions.

[mslz22]

Hope to get back to this sometime this weekend. I made a mod of the arm cannons that i will share too. Decal art is done and will be getting my order into JT Graphics for the print out sheets. Reminder that i will forward that to everyone once i have it in hand.

thanks

mike

[mslz22]

Back at it a bit. Playing with the colors and the detailing, always hard to highlight panels with the darker colors, but important so it just does not look like a big green blob. Especially with something this big. As usual there is the panel highlights, the wash and the drybrushing to make the details pop. I will post color formulas if you guys want, it's all custom mixed Tamiya.

thanks

mike

[Jasonc]

Any updates on the building and painting. Love the work you did on the panels and paint BTW. Can't wait to get to mine. I started getting the reinforcement materials. In regards to that, what size and thickness of bar did you get?

[mslz22]

I am back at it after a bit of delays, weather, family stuff and i was sick last week. Some of these are from a while ago but want to catch everyone up.

Arms are pretty easy, i just mark the center of the 3 components, drill thru with 1/4 inch bit so i can have a 1/4 inch brass rod run thru all three. The upper arm terminates a bit into the arm, it's can't pass all the way thru because of the angle, however the lower arm does pass all the way thru to connect this assembly with the arm cannon.

The upper arm has a center mark to connect to the main body, same 1/4 brass used.

[mslz22]

Hopefully this will make sense for the legs. You will need to drill the 1/4 holes on the hip (marked) and attach the hip to the main body.

I get the feet/leg strut assembly together, still just pinned so that i can paint all these disassembled later on.

The inner connection part for the leg gets a countersunk screw, but no glue yet. You will want to drill a bit undersized relative to the screw size. The ideas is that you will "thread" the resin in the upper leg so that it will be tight enough to play with the pose a bit.

PRIOR to doing this you should drill a hole all the way thru the upper leg in approx this area. This area will be covered by both the inner and outer leg parts. The idea here is that we will be putting a 3 inch screw thru the upper leg into the thigh. Drill this hole the same size as the tread on whatever 3 inch screw you choose.

Once the hole is drilled and you attach both inner connection parts you will be able to attach it to the hip joint on the main body and work out the "pose" you want. The body can be positioned a bit up and down relative to the legs. Play with it a bit and figure out where you would like it.

[mslz22]

Once you have the pose you want, you will drill thru the inner leg connector, seen in tan above with the screw. However only drill thru that part and enough into the hip part to mark it. You will want to drill that hole with a drill bit slightly smaller in diameter than the 3 inch screw that you will be using. Again the idea is the be able to thread the resin a bit.

Once all that is done you can drill a counter sunk hole to fit the head of the screw in, but only deep enough to get it under the cover.

This may seem like a lot but it makes for a SUPER strong connection, and because you have the screw connection a the center of the leg and the large 3 inch screw, which counters the center screw so it will not pivot, this should stay in place no problem.

Also if you wind up attaching the outer leg cover with a magnet or telescoping pin, you can assemble and disassemble if you need to.

More soon.

thanks

mike

[Spitfire_BR]

sometimes i look to the Monster and see... ED-209 !

[mslz22]

Feel free to paint these anyway you would like, but here is what i did and what i had in mind for the "risers" It's tamiya german gray lightened up a bit.

Note that the "toe' will need a bit of trimming to fit in with the main foot, just a bit of dremmel work to thin out the area where is meets up with that joint at the main foot.

One of the neat tricks i use, at least i think it's neat, is to use a bit of black powder pigment mixed in with the 5 minute epoxy that i am using to glue up these joints. The epoxy is super strong and by adding the black any bit of run off or squeeze out can be wiped up and the run off will wind up looking more like a bit of a grease stain or something. Not great on something that needs to be clean but on mecha it seems to work, also if there is a bit of a gap it fills it nicely and looks like a bit of grease on the connection point.

The glue up sequence here is, lower foot pad to riser, heel to heel riser, main foot to foot pad assembly, heel to main foot. Foot assembly to main strut assembly, upper leg to main strut assembly, lower strut to foot/main strut, upper short strut to main strut/upper leg. Do not put the mid leg guard on until last.

[mslz22]

Progress...

[mickyg]

What a beast! I'm super curious about how you make the main gun barrels sit straight. Every example of this thing I've ever seen, even the small ones, seems to really struggle to get a solid enough mount that they all point the same direction. Come to think of it, even the anime shows them splayed out a bit.

[mslz22]

What a beast! I'm super curious about how you make the main gun barrels sit straight. Every example of this thing I've ever seen, even the small ones, seems to really struggle to get a solid enough mount that they all point the same direction. Come to think of it, even the anime shows them splayed out a bit.

I've never really been 100% clear if they are supposed to all point in the same direction, at least in the sense of them being at a perfect 90 degree angle relative to say the back of the monster.

It seems like it's more important that the top 2 and the side 2 have the same elevation relative to each other, then if they do splay out a bit that angle should be the same. Then it will look symmetrical if not straight relative to the body.

I do have a plan to address that and will cover it when i get to the barrels.

thanks

mike

[mslz22]

So maybe i should have done this a bit earlier but it does not really make a difference, but now that we are in final assembly with the legs etc i made a working stand out of plywood. Really simple, a piece of scrap from Home depot, mark the feet location. Drill a hole for a self tapping screw and a counter sink on the bottom. Place partially assembled monster onto stand, drill a pilot hole (again a bit undersized for tapping) into feet. Screw the screws until feet are nice and secure. Now i can transport this to the spray booth for gloss coat on the parts that will get decals/touch ups etc. I can also move it around without having to touch the actual model.

To secure the assembled drive unit thingy i use the usual 5 minute epoxy and use a rubber band to hold it in place while i make sure it's centered.

For the arms, it's pretty straightforward to attach them at this point. What i did was kind of pick where i wanted them posed, found some junk to hold it in that place while the 5 minute epoxy cured, repeat with the other side using the same junk.

[ChaoticYeti]

That is awesome. Very exciting to peak in and see new pics every now and than.

[mslz22]

Thanks, here is the reinforcement for the cannons, a little tricky to mark the centers but not bad, using 5/32 tube because it's strong but still has some give for positioning.

[mslz22]

Decals have arrived.

Moved the pretty much done monster to the spraybooth/fan area for future clear coating on the parts that need to get the decals. Hope to decal tomorrow, few more tweaks, flat coat and done (hopefully)

[mickyg]

Absolutely incredible!

Whatever competition fears they may have been about the upcoming vinyl offering - well one look at those pics should convince those who purchased this that they have nothing to worry about!

[mslz22]

There is not a ton of decals, but they really add that extra little bit. Getting close to done.

Thru the building of this i have found that i will need to make and send out a few little bits, I will send them along with the decals. One of them is this bottom leg strut cover, seen in grey It's a simple little part but makes a better transition into the foot. Also need to send out those vents and 2 detail bits for the backplate.

[spanner]

that looks friggin AMAZING!!!

[Wasabi-san]

Any word on the extra bits and decals?

Cheers.