1/48 Hasegawa VF-1 Strike Valkyrie WIP

[william02]

Do you think you can get that effect with Tamiya paints or Vallejo ?

[chaff.g]

Do you think you can get that effect with Tamiya paints or Vallejo ?

Which effect do you mean?

[william02]

Which effect do you mean?

i mean the metallic shiny effect on the thrusters. Alclad it's not easy to get on my city

[chaff.g]

i mean the metallic shiny effect on the thrusters. Alclad it's not easy to get on my city

Hard to say. I've never worked with Tamiya or Vallejo paints. Others on the board with more experience can chime in with their advice. Judging by the popularity of Alclad in the modeling community, my impression is that it produces probably the best metallic finish one can reasonably achieve with an airbrush. I can't find it locally either -- I order mine from Amazon and eBay.

The shininess on the thrusters was actually achieved with a gloss coat. The Alclad used on the thrusters was not that shiny on its own.

[chyll2]

in terms of metallic, Alclad II has been the most popular and seeing the WIP from different forum, it is worth the hype.

[william02]

Hard to say. I've never worked with Tamiya or Vallejo paints. Others on the board with more experience can chime in with their advice. Judging by the popularity of Alclad in the modeling community, my impression is that it produces probably the best metallic finish one can reasonably achieve with an airbrush. I can't find it locally either -- I order mine from Amazon and eBay.

The shininess on the thrusters was actually achieved with a gloss coat. The Alclad used on the thrusters was not that shiny on its own.

in terms of metallic, Alclad II has been the most popular and seeing the WIP from different forum, it is worth the hype.

thank you both . I'll try to order some alclad II on Amazon then XD

[Darth Mingus]

There are a few other options for the shiny finish. Model master used to make a line called metellizer that was supposed to be oK:

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/metalizer-lacquer-paint

Another option is to use a metal powder like the one linked here:

http://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/uschi-van-der-rosten-25ml-chrome-metal-polishing-powder-4008.html

Most people prefer Alcad 2 but they are extremely hard to find. The key to a good metallic finish is in the prep work and a high gloss black base coat. Spray the metallic paint in thin coats at low pressure and gently build up the shine.

[Chas]

There are alternatives for metalic finishes. http://www.essmc.org.au/Natural_Metal_Finish.html

[chaff.g]

Next I'll assemble the parts which comprise the booster rockets for the aircraft.

Each part is composed of multiple pieces, many of them with seam lines. I'll demonstrate the techniques I used to eliminate the seams using the small sensor apparatus which sits atop the gun. I began by snipping the ends of the pegs on one half of the sensor to make test fitting easy. You can see that the parts don't align because the panel lines on either side do not meet in the middle.

To align the two halves of the part, I snipped the ends of the pegs entirely so that the join of the two pieces could be adjusted freely. I applied plastic cement down the length of the seam's interior. I adjusted the seam so that the panel lines ran together. However, this meant that the ends of the parts were no longer aligned.

I began by sanding down the ends of the part to make them meet evenly and also sanded down the cement which oozed out of the seam to create a smooth surface. I used a rough Squadron brand sanding stick for this.

I applied Mr Surfacer 1000 down the end of the seam where there was a depression and sanded it down to make an even surface.

Since the sanding process destroyed the panel line detail, I re-etched them using the techniques I've demonstrated earlier in the build.

I used similar techniques to prepare the rest of the parts for painting, and then primed them with Mr Surfacer 1000 sprayed out of an airbrush.

To add depth to the panel lines, I "preshaded" them with Mr Color GX 2 black. To achieve the thin bands of paint, I lowered the pressure of my air compressor to around 10 psi while airbrushing. This was my first experiment with preshading, and you can see that the lines aren't perfect. For preshading, accuracy is not essential because a base coat of paint will be blended on top.

Next I applied the base coat, which is a greenish navy blue. The manual calls for a mix of 60:40 mix of Mr Color 14 navy blue and Mr Color 72 intermediate blue, respectively. To ensure I got the mix correct, I used the syringe in the picture. When transferring paint from bottle to airbrush cup, I use the Tamiya paint stirrer pictured. I find that this is essential to avoid making a mess.

The parts after airbrushing the blue base coat. I made sure to avoid completely obscuring the black preshade.

Despite being lacquers, I find that the regular Mr Color paints are quite delicate and easily scratched. They need as much protection we can provide. Gloss coats tend to be harder than semi-gloss coats and work well for this purpose. They also provide a good foundation for applying additional effects like weathering and panel lining. These parts have been sprayed with Mr Super Clear gloss, which comes in a rattle can. It's difficult to make out, but the preshaded panel lines subtly show through the blue base coat.

Edited April 2, 2015 by chaff.g

[chaff.g]

Next I painted the interior of the parts housing the rocket boosters. I masked off this area using a combination of Tamiya masking tape of varying width, and Micro Mask applied to the corners that were difficult to reach with tape. I used Mr Color 13 neutral gray to color the interior.

The interior of these boosters has a lot of great detail which can be brought out with a wash and dry brushing. I applied Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color black liberally with a brush. Ordinarily, I'd apply a wash over a gloss coat, but the grey is fairly shiny and the enamel wash doesn't interact with the lacquer coat. I cleaned up the wash with Zippo lighter fluid dampened cotton swabs. On the left is a part after cleanup.

In this closeup of the part, you can see that the black wash only remains in the crevices of the detail.

To further highlight the detail, I'll apply a couple rounds of dry brushing. I chose a flat brush with stiff bristles for this. When dry brushing, I dip the bristles into the unthinned paint directly out of the bottle. Next, I wipe the brush against a paper towel until the brush no longer leaves streaks of paint on the paper. Though the brush may appear clean, there's still pigment which can be transferred to the part.

To dry brush the part, I flicked the bristles over its surface, concentrating in areas where I wanted to lighten the detail. To avoid leaving brush strokes, it's important for the brush to be as dry and free of paint as possible. It may take several rounds to build up the detail, but the result is worth the effort. I did the process twice, using two shades of grey from the Citadel acrylic paint range. In the picture on the right: after and before dry brushing. The part on the left has been dry brushed.

A closeup of the result. The effect is reminiscent of ambient occlusion techniques used in computer graphics and is based on the same principle. Note how the surfaces most exposed to light have been lightened by successively lighter shades of grey while the nooks and crannies, which received less light paint and more dark wash, are darker.

To paint the black stripes which run down the sides of the boosters, I masked the surfaces with Tamiya masking tape. I airbrushed the stripes with Mr Color GX 2 black.

Remember how I said that Mr Color paints are delicate? After peeling back the tape, some of the paint came right off! The stripes look great, though. I had to repair these locations with another round of airbrushing the base color. To ensure a color match in situations like this, always mix more paint than you intend to use initially.

Edited April 2, 2015 by chaff.g

[chaff.g]

The last application of paint the parts will receive will be the metallic depressions which house the vernier rockets. I masked these off with Tamiya masking tape and airbrushed a coat of Alclad 2 gloss black base followed by Alclad 2 steel. The Alclad 2 steel produces a good dark metallic effect.

Next is the fun process of detailing each and every panel line on the surface of these parts. The coat of Mr Super Clear gloss provides a good surface for panel lining with the enamel. This part is as easy as dipping a thin paint brush in the Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color and touching the tip of the brush to the panel line. Capillary action causes the enamel to flow through the channels, creating a sharp demarcation between the dark line and the blue "panel". On the right is a closeup of some parts after applying the accent. You can see that the enamel collects into tiny pools at the surface of the part touched by the brush. These will be cleaned away with cotton swabs dampened with Zippo lighter fluid. The Zippo fluid is a very weak solvent for the enamel and will not react with the lacquer clear coat.

This process goes through cotton swabs quickly.

After cleaning up the panel lines, I began applying decals. Some modelers might apply another gloss coat before beginning decal work, but I was impatient. You can see that the decal spans the gap created by the panel line instead of hugging the surface. Sometimes decal softening fluids like Mr Mark Softer can help, but it did not in this case.

To restore the detail of the panel line, I carefully cut along the line with a sharp hobby knife and applied Mr Mark Softer to encourage the decal to sink into the line. If you look closely, you can see that the letters appear to be cut by the panel lines. On the right are the boosters with all decals applied. The decals supplied with this kit are really fantastic.

A random shot of my work area taken while decaling.

To finish up the FAST packs, I applied one more coat of gloss to protect the decals and surface followed by a flat coat to give the parts a more realistic looking finish. Because I want to retain the shiny finish of the metallic impressions, I masked these areas with sticky tack putty. The paints I used for the two clear coats were Mr Color GX 100 super clear III followed by Mr Color 182 flat clear. The super clear III is tough and seems very durable.

The parts are finished, minus the small vernier rockets and various transparent pieces. I also included the UUM-7 missile pods included with the weapon set option parts because they are the same color. Here's a few shots of the results.

Next time: magnets!

Edited April 2, 2015 by chaff.g

[mickyg]

Looking outrageously good!

[505thAirborne]

Damn Son, that is a sweet set of Fast Packs!!

[EXO]

Gorgeous build up!

[spanner]

fantastic build up pics! looks sensational so far! well done and keep up the great work!

[vincemoto7]

Next time: magnets!

Magnets?!?! What are you gonna do with magnets?

Oh man... I can't wait to see this!

[william02]

simply amazing . I hope I can do 70% of what you have done here when my VF -1 is in my hands

[MechTech]

Great buildup and it's great how you're sharing your techniques! - MT

Edited April 9, 2015 by MechTech

[william02]

It's there any way to do that good panel lining using tamiya acrylics and Future as a clear coat? will Zippo lighter fluid peel off the Future Finish when cleaning? y have some "Gundam Markers GM301 Pour Type Wash". never try them though. it's the same thing as the "Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color"?

Hope you can help me

Sorry for the terrible english

Edited April 13, 2015 by william02

[chaff.g]

It's there any way to do that good panel lining using tamiya acrylics and Future as a clear coat? will Zippo lighter fluid peel off the Future Finish when cleaning? y have some "Gundam Markers GM301 Pour Type Wash". never try them though. it's the same thing as the "Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color"?

Hope you can help me

Sorry for the terrible english

I don't think acrylics work that well for the kind of wash I did in this thread. Certainly not over Future as a clear coat. This is because Future is itself an acrylic. When you went to clean up the acrylic wash, it would strip away the Future. For washes, you typically want to use a paint with a different solvent than the clear coat. Zippo doesn't interact with the Future, because the Future is a water-based acrylic and the Zippo fluid is petroleum-based.

The Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color is a thin enamel paint -- that's why the Zippo fluid is able to clean it up.

I believe that the Gundam Marker you mentioned is alcohol-based, and it would probably be too thick to use for panel lining. It cleans up with rubbing alcohol, and I'm afraid the rubbing alcohol would interact with the Future clear coat. You can certainly do panel lining with Gundam Markers, but you'd want the "Real Touch" kind -- these are ink-based markers with a soft tip. You can clean them up with saliva :-) They also make a Real Touch eraser marker that you can use for clean up.

If you can't easily get ahold of Tamiya Panel Line Accent color, any thinned down enamel paint will work exactly as I showed here. Testors paint in the US would work fine if you thinned it down with the Testor thinner. You can use Zippo to clean it up as well.

[abbadon]

This looks amazing! Top notch skills man!

[william02]

I don't think acrylics work that well for the kind of wash I did in this thread. Certainly not over Future as a clear coat. This is because Future is itself an acrylic. When you went to clean up the acrylic wash, it would strip away the Future. For washes, you typically want to use a paint with a different solvent than the clear coat. Zippo doesn't interact with the Future, because the Future is a water-based acrylic and the Zippo fluid is petroleum-based.

The Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color is a thin enamel paint -- that's why the Zippo fluid is able to clean it up.

I believe that the Gundam Marker you mentioned is alcohol-based, and it would probably be too thick to use for panel lining. It cleans up with rubbing alcohol, and I'm afraid the rubbing alcohol would interact with the Future clear coat. You can certainly do panel lining with Gundam Markers, but you'd want the "Real Touch" kind -- these are ink-based markers with a soft tip. You can clean them up with saliva :-) They also make a Real Touch eraser marker that you can use for clean up.

If you can't easily get ahold of Tamiya Panel Line Accent color, any thinned down enamel paint will work exactly as I showed here. Testors paint in the US would work fine if you thinned it down with the Testor thinner. You can use Zippo to clean it up as well.

That helped me a lot . I will try your techniques with gundam marker believe are oil based , I'm not sure about that. but if they are alcohol-based , forget the idea.

thank you very much

[joscasle]

You can use oil paints too.

[dbh1973]

You can purchase all three Tamiya Panel Line Accent Colors in a single pack from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/TAMIYA-Panel-Accent-Color-3-colors/dp/B00M58FWVC. It's what I did and it included Prime shipping. I've used the gray color on a Gundam Astray model and they work really well. The capillary action over the Future'd pieces is fantastic.

[chaff.g]

You can use oil paints too.

This is a good point. I've never tried oil paints myself, but in the videos I've watched on Youtube, they appear to behave very similarly to enamels for washes, when thinned down enough.

[chaff.g]

That helped me a lot . I will try your techniques with gundam marker believe are oil based , I'm not sure about that. but if they are alcohol-based , forget the idea.

thank you very much

A Google search suggests that you may be correct that the pour type Gundam markers are oil-based. Unfortunately, I've never been able to use them properly and they've always seemed useless to me. Maybe it's just because I didn't know what to use to thin their paint :-)

Anyway, try it out and let us know what happens!

Edited April 15, 2015 by chaff.g

[william02]

You can purchase all three Tamiya Panel Line Accent Colors in a single pack from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/TAMIYA-Panel-Accent-Color-3-colors/dp/B00M58FWVC. It's what I did and it included Prime shipping. I've used the gray color on a Gundam Astray model and they work really well. The capillary action over the Future'd pieces is fantastic.

So sad, they don't ship to Mexico

[chaff.g]

This time: hardpoints!

Next I began planning out how to install hardpoints into the underside of the wings. These connections will carry the missile pods and reaction warheads from the weapon set. On each wing, there are five hardpoints. The manual suggests opening a hole in each position through which a small plastic peg will be inserted. The peg inserts into a connecting port on the pylon carrying each armament. To accommodate the peg, the hole needs to be 1.5mm in diameter.

I used the sharp tip of a scribing tool to create a guide point to use to drill each hole.

To drill through the hardpoints, I used this Tamiya Electric Handy Drill. This is a small battery-operated drill which is an alternative to a pin vise or Dremel tool. I find it's more efficient and precise than either of these. Ironically, you assemble the drill yourself from parts cut from a plastic sprue!

When drilling tiny precision holes like these, it's helpful to gradually build up to the diameter you need. I began by making 1mm holes. Because I worked my way up like this, the finished 1.5mm holes came out pretty clean.

I test fit one of the plastic pegs through the hole and attempted to attach a pylon. It was immediately clear that the tiny peg would not bear the weight of the pylon, much less the full load of the missile pod. There is simply no friction between the peg and the connecting port on the pylon. I began looking for another solution.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to experiment with rare earth magnets. These are small, strong magnets that often show up in modding projects. Here is a stack of 2 x 1mm magnets beside a US quarter. They're quite tiny. I widened the hardpoints to accommodate the diameter of the magnets and did the same in the connecting ports on the armament pylons.

A perfect fit. I affixed the magnets with CA glue. It goes without saying to ensure that the polarities are correctly oriented before gluing. In the lower half of the second picture, the wing is shown with the interior side facing up. The magnets acted as plugs and no glue seeped through to the exposed side.

I test loaded the wings. With only a single magnet per hardpoint, the connections were a little wobbly and the pylons tended to spin in place.

Hoping to improve the strength of the connections, I added an additional magnet per hardpoint. You can see that their axes are not well-aligned, which causes the armaments to point in slightly different directions. In retrospect, it's clear I should have used a single larger magnet per hardpoint. The wings are thick enough to bear a thicker magnet, and I'd be able to freely orient the armaments with a single connection. Better luck next time.

[valhary]

wow great idea

[spanner]

those magnetic hard points are just brilliant! I shake your hand good sir!

[chaff.g]

wow great idea

those magnetic hard points are just brilliant! I shake your hand good sir!

Thanks guys! I hope if someone sees this and tries it on their own they learn from my mistakes :-)

[chaff.g]

This time: missiles.

After the hardpoints and pylons were magnetized, next I finished the missiles. These are the large reaction warheads pictured here, and micro missiles that fit into the missile pods and FAST pack booster. After assembling and fixing surface details, I airbrushed a coat of Mr White Base 1000 thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner. Mr White Base 1000 is essentially white Mr Surfacer 1000 - a lacquer-based primer. I airbrushed the tips of the RMS-1 warheads with Mr Color GX 4.

I pre-shaded the RMS-1 missiles with Tamiya X-19 smoke. This is a transparent grey. It comes out a little brown, but the base coat of white will cool it down. I airbrushed the missiles with a coat of Mr Color GX 1. The preshading is barely visible but applying a wash to the panel lines will emphasize the gradation.

I used Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color grey to bring out the panel lines on the white surfaces, and black on the yellow. After applying decals, I gave the missiles a protective glossy coat of Mr Color GX 100 Super Clear III. I only finished the tips of the micro missiles because the rears won't be visible when housed in the missile pods.

Closeups of the panel lining. The lines on the RMS-1 missile are a bit broken because the lines are not sunken channels -- these details are ridged rings that wrap around the missile. You can see that the decal itself wraps around the ridge.

After panel lining, I applied another coat of Mr Color GX 100 Super Clear III to protect the details. Finally, because I wanted a semi-gloss look on the white surfaces of the aircraft, I finished the surface by airbrushing a coat of Mr Color 181 Semi-Gloss Super Clear. The contrast between the matte FAST packs and glossy white aircraft should be interesting.

The finished RMS-1 warheads attached to pylons and micro missiles in their housing.

The finished UUM-7 missile pods. I think it's cool how the metallic pylon magnets add detail of their own.

The finished RMS-1 reaction warheads.

Next time: magnets and monoeyes.

[vincemoto7]

Great work so far, thank you for sharing.

[spanner]

those reaction warheads and missile pods looks friggin sweet as! dang it I can't wait to see this thing finished! I wish I had the skill and patience to do this!

[ce25254]

I have so many kits in 1:72 that I haven't considered the larger scale, but the 1:48 kit sure looks like a lot of fun, and your finished product is going to be fantastic. Thanks for letting us join in!