Upgrading a classic: yet another custom Bandai/Matchbox 1/3000 SDF-1

[tekering]

8 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

So you opted to leave the 1/3000 SDF-1 in lieu of the Hasegawa 1/4000?

A lot of the research and prep. work applies equally to both, as they both require modifications and painting (and I intend to paint them concurrently)...

...but I suppose I've gotten a little sidetracked.  

[sketchley]

I'm really enjoying the work being put into this.

I agree with Pengbuzz: I think it needs one, maybe two more layers.

Edited April 13, 2020 by sketchley

[pengbuzz]

On 4/9/2020 at 12:44 AM, Gabe Q said:

Everybody's doing SDF-1 mods now! Therefore, it only stands to reason, some company will announce a proper modern version of the ship in this scale! Happens all the time!

Right? Hopefully at that point, I'd be able to buy it!

[MechTech]

Your idea is coming along great. Look at a lot of the multiple layer paint jobs people are even airbrushing. Looks similar!  You're on the right track. - MT

[Rogueload]

Added a matte finish and now starting to add the PF glow in the dark details to mine.  

[claude grant]

Looking good there.  Man that white is WHITE!

[DYRL VF-1S]

3 hours ago, Rogueload said:

Added a matte finish and now starting to add the PF glow in the dark details to mine.  

Looking great! Are you going to remove decals as well?

[tekering]

Very toyetic, Rogueload! 

Did you mean to paint the entire engine housing black?  By painting over the couplings, you've lost that iconic three-segment look.

Looks like the white stripes on the Daedalus will need a couple more coats of paint, too...

[Mog]

So, I found a Macross with practically no yellowing, all the tower pieces in good condition, no broken rail-guns, and a complete unused sticker sheet.

BUT. . . as soon as I took it out of the styrofoam, this happened:

Both.  Arms. 

Should have followed and read @jenius’ review advice more closely.

Oh well, live and learn.

[tekering]

22 minutes ago, Mog said:

Should have followed and read @jenius’ review advice more closely.

It's a lot easier to repair the shoulders than it is to remove old stickers, replace the tower pieces, or whiten old plastic.  You're still ahead...

...depending on how much you paid for it, of course.  

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, Mog said:

So, I found a Macross with practically no yellowing, all the tower pieces in good condition, no broken rail-guns, and a complete unused sticker sheet.

BUT. . . as soon as I took it out of the styrofoam, this happened:

Both.  Arms. 

Should have followed and read @jenius’ review advice more closely.

Oh well, live and learn.

Is there some 1984 symbolism that I'm missing. Or was that book being their coincidence? 

[Mog]

Just a coincidence.  Plus, it’s high away, so the kiddos’ won’t mess with the WIP Macross.

Went on a “get favorite books I wanted for my personal collection” binge last summer.

Plus, the 1984 and Animal Farm combo put me over the $25 free shipping threshold for my cheapo Amazon account. 

[pengbuzz]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:53 AM, Mog said:

So, I found a Macross with practically no yellowing, all the tower pieces in good condition, no broken rail-guns, and a complete unused sticker sheet.

BUT. . . as soon as I took it out of the styrofoam, this happened:

Both.  Arms. 

Should have followed and read @jenius’ review advice more closely.

Oh well, live and learn.

I had this happen on the SDF-1 I had several years back (before my brother destroyed it on me) How to repair:

1) Take apart each chest piece (one at a time), and set the metal pieces aside in a container, with screws in another. You may want to photograph each step so you can document how parts go together.

2) unscrew the shoulder peg from black plate in the white shoulder piece.

3) obtain either a solid piece of ABS sprue the same size, or PVC from your local hardware store (Home Depot or the like).

4) if the piece is solid, drill a hole slightly smaller than the shoulder screw into the plastic; otherwise, drill out where the center post was, being careful NOT TO DAMAGE either the gearteeth on the front, or the screw post for the shoulders to come together on the other side.

5) Using Devcon Plastic Welder (epoxy is too brittle and super glue has ZERO shear strength), glue the new post into place from the REVERSE side. This way, you don't have to dig dried adhesive out of the gear teeth. Set up straight with tape to hold the post straight and let cure for 24 hours.

6) Once cured, measure to the old post length, cut and lightly sand the end to smooth it. insert and tighten screw GENTLY to prep the post to accept it when assembled.

7) Once you're certain it will work, reassemble the blue chest piece, then reassemble the black shpoler piece to the shoulder post and screw together. THen reasemble the white shoulder piece around it.

[sqidd]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:53 AM, Mog said:

So, I found a Macross with practically no yellowing, all the tower pieces in good condition, no broken rail-guns, and a complete unused sticker sheet.

BUT. . . as soon as I took it out of the styrofoam, this happened:

Both.  Arms. 

Should have followed and read @jenius’ review advice more closely.

Oh well, live and learn.

My custom was broken just like that out of the box (they should be shipped disassembled). It was as easy as taking the broken out part of the ratchet and super gluing it back in. Worked perfectly.

[tekering]

Progress report: 

I have progress to report!  

It was quite time-consuming and labor-intensive, cutting those sections out of the feet.  Lots of different tools were required.

Now, what color are they supposed to be painted?

As our resident jenius has demonstrated, Takatoku wasn't at all consistent with their toys...

...so we can't rely on the original toy colors for reference.

An early shot of the engines seem to suggest they were close, though.

Mind you, there was so much variation in their anime depiction, there's no way to establish a "correct" color scheme...

My research suggests this particular scheme was most consistently applied, however.

Modern merchandise, on the other hand, seem to have settled on this scheme...

...and there's certainly enough evidence from the anime to justify it, I suppose...?  

I'm wracked with indecision.  

 

[DYRL VF-1S]

All of the above?

[DewPoint]

Well it's all 80's animation errors, but I'll attempt to justify it anyway! Since they left Earth is a hurry, they probably were not totally done with all of the painting. So the changes you found are all correct as they were finishing the painting as they traveled back to Earth when they were not getting attacked. 

[Mog]

Space rust and the constant temperature changes OF SPACE!!11111!! caused that 'ish to turn blue over time!

[pengbuzz]

How about you just weather it there so it's "afterburner dark burnt" whatever metallic paint you want?

[tekering]

1 hour ago, DewPoint said:

Well it's all 80's animation errors

We all know of the financial and time constraints the production was under in '82, but the issue here is not merely a matter of sloppy drawing or coloring mistakes.  When it comes to Vermillion squadron, for example, they're remarkably consistent with the little bits of blue or brown on the white VF-1As, or the red stripe on the 1J... so I think it's clear that, in the case of the Macross itself, the studios just didn't have adequate color reference for the engine block.  Nobody knew what color it was supposed to be!  

39 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

How about you just weather it there so it's "afterburner dark burnt" whatever metallic paint you want?

In my experience, it's really difficult to do convincing weathering on anything above 1:350.  It has to be really faint and subtle, or it destroys any sense of scale.

Don't be Stormtrooper Larry!  

[Sanity is Optional]

For stuff like that, I'd just go with an inkwash rather than something like chipping or dry-brushing.

[pengbuzz]

23 hours ago, tekering said:

We all know of the financial and time constraints the production was under in '82, but the issue here is not merely a matter of sloppy drawing or coloring mistakes.  When it comes to Vermillion squadron, for example, they're remarkably consistent with the little bits of blue or brown on the white VF-1As, or the red stripe on the 1J... so I think it's clear that, in the case of the Macross itself, the studios just didn't have adequate color reference for the engine block.  Nobody knew what color it was supposed to be!  

In my experience, it's really difficult to do convincing weathering on anything above 1:350.  It has to be really faint and subtle, or it destroys any sense of scale.

Don't be Stormtrooper Larry!  

Acually, I would use water and ground-up graphite to deepen the effect all over on that one, then a couple of modulated white wash passes, then some dry-brushing.

 

On a side note: about a decade ago, I had done a conversion on the Matchbox SDF-1 I had at the time (back before they cost a mint) into the DYRL Macross. While it didn't transform ( joints snapped at the shoulder and I wasn't skilled/ resourceful enough to repair it at the time), I did manage to get a 1/3000 scale DYRL Macross several years ahead of everyone else:

   

Sadly, this met a tragic end when I moved.

Anyways, I remembered having done some "thruster burn" on the ends of the engines and remembered this project. If I ever get my hands on another Matchbox SDF-1, I think I'll try my own mods for a TV version.

Edited April 24, 2020 by pengbuzz

[nightmareB4macross]

3 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Acually, I would use water and ground-up graphite to deepen the effect all over on that one, then a couple of modulated white wash passes, then some dry-brushing.

 

On a side note: about a decade ago, I had done a conversion on the Matchbox SDF-1 I had at the time (back before they cost a mint) into the DYRL Macross. While it didn't transform ( joints snapped at the shoulder and I wasn't skilled/ resourceful enough to repair it at the time), I did manage to get a 1/3000 scale DYRL Macross several years ahead of everyone else:

   

Sadly, this met a tragic end when I moved.

Anyways, I remembered having done some "thruster burn" on the ends of the engines and remembered this project. If I ever get my hands on another Matchbox SDF-1, I think I'll try my own mods for a TV version.

What ever happened to this incredible build? Did you keep it or sell it?

[sqidd]

2 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

What ever happened to this incredible build? Did you keep it or sell it?

Sounds like it crashed.

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

What ever happened to this incredible build? Did you keep it or sell it?

 

8 hours ago, sqidd said:

Sounds like it crashed.

As I said folks: it met a tragic end. As in it ended up shattered in a billion pieces shortly after it was photographed in a freak mishap (thanks to a certain malicious/ psychotic sibling who later ended up serving time in prison and was disowned).

Anyways, at least I had it for a little while...

Edited April 24, 2020 by pengbuzz

[big F]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

 

As I said folks: it met a tragic end. As in it ended up shattered in a billion pieces shortly after it was photographed in a freak mishap (thanks to a certain malicious/ psychotic sibling who later ended up serving time in prison and was disowned).

Wow harsh penalties in your state.  

[pengbuzz]

13 minutes ago, big F said:

Wow harsh penalties in your state.  

Well, he didn't go to prison for that; he was kicked out of the house, got married and moved away. He ended up nearly killing his 4 month old daughter (shaken baby syndrome) and the state took her away, and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.

Anyways, enough of me derailing the thread; I wonder if tekkering finanlly decided on a color for the engines?

Edited April 24, 2020 by pengbuzz

[big F]

Just rewatched DYRL last night and the colours change a surprising amount. Some of its down to the animators trying to convey the lighting in space, some of it seems to be that they had a different pack of crayons that day.

[tekering]

Sorry to hear about your niece, pengbuzz.  

But that DYRL conversion was unbelievable!  I never would've believed there was a vintage toy under that.

On 4/25/2020 at 5:17 AM, pengbuzz said:

I wonder if tekkering finanlly decided on a color for the engines?

Lots of work still to do before I need to worry about painting, I suppose... Like kitbashed thrusters for the engines:

I'm trying to maintain that slightly retro toy look.

Two down, ten more to do.  

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

Sorry to hear about your niece, pengbuzz.  

But that DYRL conversion was unbelievable!  I never would've believed there was a vintage toy under that.

Lots of work still to do before I need to worry about painting, I suppose... Like kitbashed thrusters for the engines:

I'm trying to maintain that slightly retro toy look.

Two down, ten more to do.  

 

Yeah, there was. It took a lot to do the conversion; I wish I had pics of that, but I didn't have a digicam at the time. But maybe someday I'll get another crack at it.

Meanwhile... I'm really liking what you're doing with the main engine clusters here. It's really going to be very interesting to see it assembled up!

[tekering]

On 4/27/2020 at 2:19 PM, pengbuzz said:

I'm really liking what you're doing with the main engine clusters here. It's really going to be very interesting to see it assembled up!

It's gonna look something like this...

And, under low lighting, more like this...

...provided I can figure out where to mount a battery pack so it remains accessible.

[pengbuzz]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

It's gonna look something like this...

And, under low lighting, more like this...

...provided I can figure out where to mount a battery pack so it remains accessible.

Maybe in the "tummy" of the SDF-1 (which has a natural hinged compartment) and run wires to the legs? That would allow you to access the batteries without ruining anything.

[Mog]

Lotta rotating parts and extending parts if you go through the center/“tummy” area.  Would be kinda tricky to wire it that way.

It’s kinda small, but what about the leg compartment that acts as a cannon?  You probably have to mod it to make it open up completely (probably have magnets to lock it in an open/firing position and in a closed position?).

But it’s close to the feet thrusters, and you can still wire it in a way that you can still move forward with your leg extension idea.

[nightmareB4macross]

On 4/26/2020 at 7:52 PM, tekering said:

Sorry to hear about your niece, pengbuzz.  

But that DYRL conversion was unbelievable!  I never would've believed there was a vintage toy under that.

Lots of work still to do before I need to worry about painting, I suppose... Like kitbashed thrusters for the engines:

I'm trying to maintain that slightly retro toy look.

Two down, ten more to do.  

That’s a pretty neat idea! Can’t wait to see the completed parts.

BTW Mog has a valid point about the space in the legs.

[tekering]

So, I've been experimenting with a way to give those flat, featureless portions of the hull a greater sense of scale...

Still using the Hasegawa as a guinea pig, I tried the ol' ILM approach, with intersecting lines and raised panels.  This is how the Star Destroyer studio models were detailed.

Unfortunately, the results looked crude and sloppy, so I abandoned the analog approach and decided to rely on digital tools instead.

I created this pattern in Photoshop, and printed it onto clear decal paper.  This is far more detailed than what I could do by hand.

The results were definitely more encouraging this time.