MOSCATO 1/48 DESTROID TOMAHAWK?

[captain america]

I'd like to propose the next Moscato Hobby Models project:

1/48 DESTOROIIDO THOMAS HAWK

***Conditional upon demand for at least 30 kits received before April 12***

Please send a private message saying “I'M IN” if you want this kit; just posting in the thread will not will not be construed as intent to purchase.

Features:

-accurate profile

-detailed cockpit

-free-pose joints

-open or closed missile hatches

-separate missiles

-full color markings

Price is listed in the image. Shipping to Hawaii and international destinations will be quoted upon request.

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by captain america

[Bolt]

Dude..1/48?! Holly smokes !!

[Big s]

Thomas the tank destroyer 

[Bolt]

@captain america I've been working on the 1/72  version of this lately. I really love your sculpt . This would be amazing in 1/48 ! I hope you get enough interest to make this a go 👍🏼

[tekering]

As much as I love the idea of a 1:48 Destroid (and I really do), we already have Destroid models and toys in numerous other scales... and not one of them is a complete set. 😢

• Imai never made a 1:100 Monster.
• Imai never made a 1:72 Phalanx (or Monster).
• Wave never made a 1:72 Spartan (or Monster).
• Hi-Metal R (approx. 1:83) never made a Tomahawk or Phalanx.
• Yamato (1:60) never made a Phalanx, Spartan or Monster.

After nearly four decades of this, I'm not going to start a new Destroid collection that I know will never be complete. 🤕

Instead, I humbly suggest you:

• Offer a 1:72 Monster to complete our Imai, Wave (or Moscato!) Destroid collections, or...
• Offer a 1:60 Phalanx or Spartan* for our Yamato or Arcadia collections, or...
• Offer a 1:83 Phalanx or Tomahawk for our HMR collections.

Filling any one of these holes in our displays would be preferable to creating a whole new (and much bigger) hole. 😅

 

*I'd spend $400+ on a new 1:60 Spartan in a heartbeat.  Hikaru actually piloted one onscreen! 😃  

[pengbuzz]

15 hours ago, Big s said:

Thomas the tank destroyer 

[Convectuoso]

9 hours ago, tekering said:

, I humbly suggest you:

• Offer a 1:72 Monster to complete our Imai, Wave (or Moscato!) Destroid collections, or...
• Offer a 1:60 Phalanx or Spartan* for our Yamato or Arcadia collections, or...
• Offer a 1:83 Phalanx or Tomahawk for our HMR collections

This, and maybe some Spartas or Aurorans from Southern Cross to display with the awesome Moscato Bioroids 😉

Edited March 30, 2023 by Convectuoso

[captain america]

11 hours ago, tekering said:

Instead, I humbly suggest you:

• Offer a 1:72 Monster to complete our Imai, Wave (or Moscato!) Destroid collections, or...
• Offer a 1:60 Phalanx or Spartan* for our Yamato or Arcadia collections, or...
• Offer a 1:83 Phalanx or Tomahawk for our HMR collections.

Filling any one of these holes in our displays would be preferable to creating a whole new (and much bigger) hole. 😅

 

*I'd spend $400+ on a new 1:60 Spartan in a heartbeat.  Hikaru actually piloted one onscreen! 😃  

-1/72 Monster: I highly doubt there are enough people willing to shell-out a grand on a kit, and then the hundreds it would cost to ship to various international destinations. Further, I don't think I'd even have the facilities to process something that large.

-1/60 Phalanx/Spartan: probably not a bad idea. Both of my 1/72 iterations were excellent, and I could certainly do something cool in 1/60.

-1/83 anything: oddball scale, doesn't interest me.

Ultimately, it's about numbers.

[CoryHolmes]

Hennnngh   I want it, but alas I'm a poor boy at the moment.

 

3 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

This, and maybe some Spartas or Aurorans from Southern Cross to display with the awesome Moscato Bioroids 😉

 

Either of those projects will have me selling organs, my house, my firstborn, and my immortal soul.  Well, more like my brother's organs, house, kid, and soul.  I need mine preferentially.

[tekering]

22 minutes ago, captain america said:

Ultimately, it's about numbers.

I think there would be more demand for a 1:60 Spartan than a Phalanx, but I'd enthusiastically back either proposal...  Of course, there's gotta be enough interest to finance the effort. 

Thanks for listening, Cap'n.

3 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

This, and maybe some Spartas or Aurorans from Southern Cross to display with the awesome Moscato Bioroids 😉

5 minutes ago, CoryHolmes said:

Either of those projects will have me selling organs, my house, my firstborn, and my immortal soul.

Patience, gentlemen.  The Master seems more interested in pursuing Macross or Mospeada projects for the moment.

Save your pennies in the meantime, so you're ready when the time comes!  😇

[Lord Uglor]

For what it's worth, Mike Salzo did a 1/72 scale Monster kit a while back, 2 versions as a matter of fact.  I've come here for the big boy goodness of a 1/48 Destroid!

[captain america]

Great job, guys! Almost half the slots filled in less than 36 hours! You can really help the project succeed by sharing it with anyone you think would be interested.

[Anasazi37]

13 hours ago, Lord Uglor said:

For what it's worth, Mike Salzo did a 1/72 scale Monster kit a while back, 2 versions as a matter of fact.  I've come here for the big boy goodness of a 1/48 Destroid!

Indeed he did. I have one, currently unbuilt, and it takes up an entire storage tub in my hobby room. Also weighs a ton because it's solid resin except for the cannons, which are PVC pipes.

[CoryHolmes]

20 hours ago, tekering said:

Patience, gentlemen.  The Master seems more interested in pursuing Macross or Mospeada projects for the moment.

Save your pennies in the meantime, so you're ready when the time comes!  😇

But what if I've already scheduled his surgery???

5 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

Indeed he did. I have one, currently unbuilt, and it takes up an entire storage tub in my hobby room. Also weighs a ton because it's solid resin except for the cannons, which are PVC pipes.

 

You know it's a chonky boi when portions are made out of PVC pipe

[VF-1A Grunt]

14 hours ago, Lord Uglor said:

For what it's worth, Mike Salzo did a 1/72 scale Monster kit a while back, 2 versions as a matter of fact.

There are some photos of a completed model here:

And the original “monster-long” Monster thread:

 

[Bolt]

3 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Indeed he did. I have one, currently unbuilt, and it takes up an entire storage tub in my hobby room. Also weighs a ton because it's solid resin except for the cannons, which are PVC pipes.

Same here. As much as it would be amazing for the Cap'n to also do one in 1:72, he's right , the cost would be VERY high. And the shipping... 

That's great if this proposal gets enough support. And i hope the master keeps pumping out more and more Macross, Mospeda and Southern Cross !

[captain america]

10 minutes ago, Bolt said:

And i hope the master keeps pumping out more and more Macross, Mospeda and Southern Cross !

Before we go on asking for other things, maybe we should start by securing the orders needed for the current project. If you can, spread the word. I think I have a good enough history of consistency and excellence to warrant the investment.

[Anasazi37]

6 hours ago, captain america said:

I think I have a good enough history of consistency and excellence to warrant the investment.

You have a gift for extreme understatement 

[CoryHolmes]

14 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

You have a gift for extreme understatement 

Yeah, what he said!

[captain america]

9 spots to fill!☺️

[captain america]

5 spots to fill. I'll let the project run until April 15th, a few days later than expected because the power went down for 3 days in my area and I haven't been able to reply to people in a timely manner.

[tekering]

21 hours ago, captain america said:

the power went down for 3 days in my area

You were without power for THREE DAYS? 😲

[captain america]

On 4/11/2023 at 9:10 AM, tekering said:

You were without power for THREE DAYS? 😲

Three and a half days. Freezing rain accumulated on trees & power lines and caused them to collapse under the extra weight. Anyway, you should really get in on this project. 

[captain america]

Thomas Hawk is a go. I repeat: Thomas Hawk is a go! You can now send in your payments. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by captain america

[CoryHolmes]

Yaaay!  I can't afford this, but I will be following along intently!

[captain america]

Almost 2/3 of payments received. I'll start the work as soon as the remaining members make their payments. In the meantime, I've begun the drafting process.

Also, does anyone have a Hasegawa 1/48 VF-1 pilot figure they'd be willing to part with? Please DM me.

Edited April 24, 2023 by captain america

[ChristopherB]

Great project Captain, and I'm excited to work with you on a resin kit in the future!  I'm happy you were able to get enough orders, but I felt the same as @tekering regarding the scale.  I only have (2) built Hasegawa 1/48 VF-1's and they take up quite a bit of space.  Although, I'm lucky to own a Mike Salzo 1/72 Monster II with lots of details added like a full cockpit, etc.  Still haven't decided where to display it though.  haha

[captain america]

First build update drops Thursday. 

[captain america]

Captain's log: Thursday, May 4th, 2023

It has begun! My silence over the last week was spent planning the build of this massive kit. While I was faithful to follow the front, profile and rear views on my 1/72 build all those years ago, I did something different this time: I took the ¾ view beauty shot of the Tomahawk which was used for the ARII box art, and back-engineered diagrams based off that. This resulted in some rather significant alterations which, in my opinion, will make for a much more aesthetically-pleasing model.

For one, the chest sits higher, the arms are shorter and have smaller cannons. Also the legs are longer, giving Thomas a more elegant and less ape-like appearance.

 

Pic 00: once all the diagrams have been made and re-checked, they're printed out at 1/48 scale, along with some line-art reference pics. The ruler gives you an indication of the size of the parts.

 

Pic 01: now begins the tedious task of cutting out all the plots. By hand. Because crazy.

 

Pic 02: the blocks of modelling board I had lying around weren't big enough to accommodate the plots for this kit, so I had to trim a new section from my slab of Ren-Shape. This will then need to be trimmed and milled into smaller, more manageable blocks.

 

Pic 03: I first begin by trimming sections of modelling board on the band saw. I eyeballed the plots and cut sections larger than what I need.

 

Pic 04: here I'm testing the plots for fit, and gluing the first plots to the board. Now I have to re-face the rough sides created by the band saw.

 

Pic 05: because these are larger surfaces, I use a tool called a face end mill to create a perfectly flat surface.

 

Pic 06: this is the main body/back module, and it's huge! The mill can not only create flat surfaces, it can create perfectly square angles when cutting.

 

Pic 07: as I said, perfectly square! I use a pair of steel right angles to check my work, and with that first 90* angle made, all the other surfaces are child's play. I may do a tutorial on that next week.

 

Pic 08: While it's not ideal, sometimes I have to turn Ren Shape parts on the lathe. There's a whole procedure behind this, and it's a hack that you just can't do with metal parts. The down-side, as you can see, is the awful mess it makes.

 

Pic 09: when I need to create parallel surfaces, I will sometimes resort to the drill press grinder, just because it's quicker. Sometimes I have to use this method for larger blocks which won't fit in the jaws of my mill. The disadvantage with this method is it makes more fine dust.

 

Pic 10: these are the heel modules. I create one, thick block, which I will then segment in two. This method ensures both left and right pieces are identical, with no fit problems.

 

That's all for this week. Not the most exciting of updates, but there are just so many blocks to cut, and it's a very long process. Since next week will be more of the same, I'll offer up some useful machining techniques in the next update, so stay tuned!

 

[tekering]

There's no school like the oldskool! 

16 hours ago, captain america said:

I took the ¾ view beauty shot of the Tomahawk which was used for the ARII box art, and back-engineered diagrams based off that.

Given ARII literally painted over the line art, I'd say that's the best reference to work from. 

[Big s]

11 hours ago, tekering said:

There's no school like the oldskool! 

Given ARII literally painted over the line art, I'd say that's the best reference to work from. 

Not even gonna lie, I’ve done that before to figure out color schemes. I remember a few gundam kits that were either pink or purple, and I really can’t stress how much I hate those colors on mecha so I had figure out something else 

[captain america]

Captain's log: Thursday, May 11th, 2023

 

Get ready, kids! I'm going to show you a wonderful hack for turning modelling board chunks on a lathe to make perfectly round parts. Composite materials are wonderful in that they can be worked more quickly and allow you to do things you'd never be able to get away with in metal—much like this little trick.

 

Pic 11. I need to make the crotch module for Thomas Hawk, and because of it's largely cylindrical shape, I opted to turn it on the lathe. I first begin by chopping a slab of modelling board slightly larger than what I need. Then I attach a perfectly round mandrel using CA glue. That nub is what the chuck will grab onto when I turn the part. Let this dry thoroughly.

 

Pic 12: using a crudely made compass with my caliper, I scribe a rough circle around the mandrel, then take the part to the band saw to remove as much excess material as possible.

 

Pic 13: this is now adequate to mount on the lathe. It doesn't have to be perfect, just round-ish.

 

Pic 14: now proceeding at slow speed, I use a small knife and remove a milimeter of material at a time. Resist the urge to go too fast, otherwise the pressure may cause the part to split from the mandrel, and damage your part in the process! Have a cleaning brush and your shop-vac handy, because this makes a dusty mess!

 

Pic 15: I now have the part at the diameter I need, and have even added an extra piece on the right (using CA glue) which will allow the crotch to mate with the waist. That extra piece will also be needed for milling operations later. The pencil line at left is where I will saw the part off, separating it from the mandrel.

 

Pic 16: once that's done, I pencil in the guide lines, then take the part back to the band saw to remove the excess material.

 

Pic 17: yet more pencil lines are drawn so I know where to cut. But first, I need to smooth-out the rough texture left by the band saw, so...

 

Pic 18: into the mill it goes! That round puck I added earlier on the lathe allows me to clamp the part securely for machining.

 

Pic 19: Yet more milling. This was a tricky pass to set-up properly, and I'll have to get it right for both left and right sides.

 

Pic 20: moving on to other components, here is the main body module in the center. This part, much like the crotch, will require many milling operations to be hollowed-out. Pencil lines are drawn, and then the milling fun will begin.

 

Pic 21: another challenging part to make is the foot. Because I decided to add a taper to the ankle mating joint, it makes machining that much harder. Here I'm removing as much excess material with the band saw, proceeding in diagonal cuts, removing a little material at a time.

 

Pic 22: before anything else, I take the main body block and drill-out the shoulder mounting points on both sides. The foot (left) and waist joint (far left are both waiting for their turn on the mill

 

Pic 23: the shin armor being carved on the mill. Because of the complex, tapering shape this part will receive, I need to perform milling operations now, while the lateral sides of the block are still square.

 

Pic 24: the curve on the shin armor is too tight for my rotary sander, so I use my milling machine like a crude CNC router, removing small amounts of material one pass at a time. Afterwards, I'll be able to sand that perfectly smooth by hand.

 

It may not show in this update, but the masters are coming along very nicely. The fact that the parts are large means they require more time and effort to make than their 1/72 counterparts. Also, I made my own job more challenging for the sake of improving the aesthetics of the model. It'll pay off, just wait and see!

[CoryHolmes]

Awesome, as per usual.  I've taken an interest in machining channels on YouTube, so I'm beginning to get an appreciation for just how much effort goes into making each piece just right.

 

Speaking of, I notice a distinct lack of your usual kvetching about how difficult it is to turn 2D anime designs into 3D objects.  Is that because the original design is better thought-out, or are you just numb to that kind of minutiae by this point and accept it as par for the course? 😂

[captain america]

1 hour ago, CoryHolmes said:

Awesome, as per usual.  I've taken an interest in machining channels on YouTube, so I'm beginning to get an appreciation for just how much effort goes into making each piece just right.

 

Speaking of, I notice a distinct lack of your usual kvetching about how difficult it is to turn 2D anime designs into 3D objects.  Is that because the original design is better thought-out, or are you just numb to that kind of minutiae by this point and accept it as par for the course? 😂

While there are always discrepancies in the various views, the Tomahawk is one of the better subjects in that respect. The knee joints are poorly thought out, but I can work with it. I have to add a few milimeters of clearance here and there to give better range of motion, but knowing that resin shrinks, it will be compensated for.

[captain america]

Captain's Log: Thursday, May 18^th, 2023.

 

I'm going to begin with a quick tutorial on parts shaping. That is to say, the process which follows machining which you saw last week. Let's begin with a simple part like the ankle joint module, which is what we see in pic 25. You'll notice some penciled lines over the top and also at the edge, which is where I intend to create a deflection in the surface. These pencil lines will guide me in the shaping process.

Pic 26: using some sanding blocks, I begin going over the part in the area I want to sand down. Take your time here and watch the lines, otherwise you may remove too much material.

Pic 27 shows what I was going for. I can now smooth the piece down further with some finer (3-400 grit) sanding blocks for optimal finishing.

Pic 28: the next piece to work on is the foot. Starting from a square block, I very carefully remove some excess material with the band saw. I could have used the Dremel, but this is faster and makes much less dust. As you can see, I'm still leaving a good 3mm from the pencil line when I cut. This is because the band saw isn't precise, and it's easier to remove a little material at a time than have to putty and re-shape.

Pic 29: this is freshly hacked on the band saw.

Pic 30: now I can take the Dremel and remove a bit more material, and simultaneously smooth out the odd angles.

Pic 31: yet more block sanding. As you may have guessed, I make my own blocks using modelling board and 80-100 grit sandpaper. Because of the sheer amount of sanding I do, the sandpaper covering needs to be replaced every 2 projects or so.

Pic 32: the shoulder missile housing. this is one component I was dreading, but the fabrication was much easier than I anticipated. Everything is eyeballed, yet everything lines up perfectly when I put it in the chest cavity.

 

Pic 33: the main body/chest/back module, now with substantial amounts of material removed! In addition to cost-cutting, this also helps to keep the finished model as light as possible, while still retaining structural rigidity.

Pics 34-36: this is where I'm at right now, and it's coming along very well indeed. Pics don't quite convey how big this thing is, so next time I'll look into using a familiar object for size reference. Next week's update may tarry or be a bit underwhelming, so I ask forgiveness in advance.