Budokhan Posted January 24, 2015 Posted January 24, 2015 Hey Folks! Just wanted to share a tiny bit of scratch-built fun! A bunch of years back I got an old 1/5,000 IMAI SDF-1 Cruiser Fortress kit & thought it'd be neat to have a few Valks lined up for launch on the carriers. Bear in mind that the Tiny valk itself is no more than 1.74 mm in length (.0685") & really has no surface detail, just waay too small to even try ya know? It was made by Supergluing a super thin piece of sheet styrene down to a thicker sheet & then, using powerful opti-visors, little by little carving away til I had a semblance of a Valkyrie! Id love to cast it up & see if I couldn't add tiny Fast-pack boosters to the top of it. I had thought about getting a pair of ARMD carriers in scale to swap out for the Daedalus & Prometheus to go for more of the DYRL look but no dice. I Guess I could scratch-build one & cast it up twice but if someone had already made one up, it'd make my life a lot easier! Anywho, just thought id share, hope you guys enjoy the mini-madness! Quote
cool8or Posted January 24, 2015 Posted January 24, 2015 This is insane!! Where is my magnifying glass?? Are you thinking in paint it? 😱 Quote
MechTech Posted January 25, 2015 Posted January 25, 2015 That looks great man! I always thought of doing that, but thought of going the photoetch route (my kit is still in storage). You could easily cast that and make a block of the casted ones for mass use.-MT Quote
Budokhan Posted January 25, 2015 Author Posted January 25, 2015 This is insane!! Where is my magnifying glass?? Are you thinking in paint it? 😱 haha! Thanks! Yeah, you pretty much need a pair to see 'em! But yeah, the plan is to eventually mold,cast & paint up a bunch of 'em in various schemes. I could probably get away with minimal paint work too..like only the wing,rudders & strongback stripes, the canopy & the feet/afterburner cans. Who has access to the Hubble? I do! I do! I actually made this little guy via satellite imagery redirected back down to my workbench! wowzers! Thank ya veruh much! That's fantastic man.. Keep it up.. Thank you! That looks great man! I always thought of doing that, but thought of going the photoetch route (my kit is still in storage). You could easily cast that and make a block of the casted ones for mass use.-MT Thanks for the kind words! Photo-etched huh? Hmmmmm....Ya know, I bet I could get just a top-view silhouette to use for the outline for a PE buck & build very carefully onto it to get a better representation! That way, I'd actually have thin wings & not big blocks that went straight down the the ground. But to answer your question, yes, the ultimate goal is to make a gang mold of at least ten, cast those up to the max & paint 'em all up to be mounted either on the carriers (whichever ones I wind up using that is ) and/or having them mounted in flight patterns for C.A.P. around the SDF-1. I've done something similar a number of years back for some scratch-built Micro-Vipers that are in scale with the old school Revell/ Monogram BSG so I think The Valks would look cool done that way too ! & a very large thanks too for inspirational idea of PE! Hadnt given that a thought before! Quote
derex3592 Posted January 25, 2015 Posted January 25, 2015 Those Vipers are just about the coolest thing EVER! Quote
MechTech Posted January 26, 2015 Posted January 26, 2015 (edited) Those Vipers do look great! Hats off for a good finish that's so micro too! You can go two ways I can think of. The first is to do one thickness and waste away the wings while the fuselage is untouched thickness wise. The other is to build it in steps. The fastpacks can be built folded over for thickness. If you connect the packs with a tab it would double as the "backpack" on the fuselage back. Also decals would take the pain of painting away-a full body decal. Just some ideas...-MT Edited January 26, 2015 by MechTech Quote
Budokhan Posted January 26, 2015 Author Posted January 26, 2015 (edited) Those Vipers are just about the coolest thing EVER! Thanks very much for the kind words, glad you like 'em! Those Vipers do look great! Hats off for a good finish that's so micro too! You can go two ways I can think of. The first is to do one thickness and waste away the wings while the fuselage is untouched thickness wise. The other is to build it in steps. The fastpacks can be built folded over for thickness. If you connect the packs with a tab it would double as the "backpack" on the fuselage back. Also decals would take the pain of painting away-a full body decal. Just some ideas...-MT Thanks for the compliment on my Vipers, coming from an uber talented guy like you, thats high praise indeed! Those're some mighty fine inspirational ideas you wrote there, I do have a home Photoetching set I should really make good use of & I think these little guys would make a great first use for it! If you wouldn't mind granting a tad more advice, would you have an ideal thickness & material you prefer for such a project? Also guys, Im sure many of you have seen this already but I having not been keeping up to date so much over the last few years on all things Macross-related, just caught wind of this via a great friend of mine over in Japan! : http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/mc05/ I cant wait for this to come out as Its pretty much exactly what I had planned for my kit & lets face it...its Frakkin Hasegawa which pretty much means its gonna be gorgeous!!! Edit: I just found this guy for cheap here: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10308073 Edited January 26, 2015 by Budokhan Quote
s.t.r. sho Posted January 28, 2015 Posted January 28, 2015 Your technique overcomes the Chinese tech to write letters on a rice! Just Wow! Quote
MechTech Posted January 29, 2015 Posted January 29, 2015 Actually there's a lady in Venice Beach, CA who writes peoples names on rice with a pen, she prefers Uncle Bens:-) Looking at thicknesses, maybe .005 thick brass if you layer it, base w/ wings, back/breastplate area, then fast packs. Just an idea...-MT Quote
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