1/72 Hasegawa VF-0S Step-by-step...

[Grayson72]

yea, I'd love to see the rest of it...

Try the link at the bottom of bhop's post

[Pazu]

Truly outstanding work!!

I understand your predicament in choosing to build gears up/down and canopy close/open models, Cheng. But I guess we gotta choose the lesser of the 2 evils right?

Once again, very nice Valkyrie.

[Akula]

I usually build my models gear up... aircraft are meant to be in the sky, not sitting on the ground... unless they are put into a diorama, i usually figt with whatever kit to get gear up.

I love the Tamiya Zero in 1:32nd because you can raise and lower the gear after completion.

Not to hijak the thread, but what does everyone else prefer, up or down?

Edited May 8, 2004 by Akula

[Aurora-7]

All my aircraft/spacecraft kits are gear up.

[xMaDxPeNgUiNx]

Just absolutely beautiful work. I wish I had that skill.

[David Hingtgen]

I usually like down, since gear is a distinctive part of a plane, as much as its nose or tail. Also, I don't like putting holes in my planes for stands. I'd build a lot more gear-up though, if the gear doors actually fit! It's usually less work to simply build the gear, than to try to make new, fitting, gear doors. (It's a rare model that the "gear down" doors actually fit when closed, and even rarer the model that includes "gear up" doors--then it's easy)

[Stamen0083]

If given the option, gears down, canopy up, nose cone open, speed brakes deployed, and afterburners on frickin' full blast!

[wm cheng]

Hey everybody, finally finished!! Woohoo

That's a rather long explaination tetsujin - thanks, but some diagrams or pictures would be more helpful Actually, what would be better is if you can make a few tiny double hinges - I would be glad to buy them off you (seriously though). I think it will be a while before I can graduate to building small canopy hinges - I think metal is the way to go for such a small scale, but I don't have a proper machine shop yet. I am just looking for a double jointed hinge 1/16" wide by 1/8" long - is that so hard?!

Thanks for the tips on the wheels, I did sand them down a bit and it looks good (at least I am happy with them). As I feared, the sanded down surface isn't perfectly flat, but close enough. I don't tend to use the melting method on jet aircraft, like David has said before, the low PSI tires may bulge on older WWII prop aircraft (that may land on fields), but newer jets are high PSI tires and do not bulge appreciably when the plane sits on them. They do flatten out a bit though - see how you guys like my interpretation of it on the VF-0.

Here's a series of shot I took on the work bench for now to close off this thread. I will post better pictures to the Model thread (higher traffic ) as before when I get a nice sunny day around here.

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

Walk around.

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

Detail shot of the back weathering which I am most proud of.

[wm cheng]

A shot of the underside.

[wm cheng]

Cockpit closeup!

[wm cheng]

Ground crew view with the packs on.

Let's see... parting tips: don't glue the front pilots tube till the very end (you will snap it off otherwise ), Decal the lower ventral fins (grey & black) at the end, since the plane rests on these fins most of the time - before the gears are glued on - the grey tips will rub off and you need to touch them up.

Can't wait for the VF-0D or a low-viz fodder to come out - will do that one with the gears up.

Its so much bigger than the VF-1, they look out of scale when placed next to each other - hmm, kind of like a 1/72 next to a 1/100. I'll post some shots of the flight line up soon.

I would like to say again a big thank you to Myersjessee for sending me this kit - It was an unexpected surprise and I really appreciate it. Also I am most grateful for David H.'s expertise in aircraft - thanks for all the ideas and reference materials. Also thank you all for following along and providing input and feedback - it really made this model better than I could of done by myself (thanks Shawn & Graham for making this possible). I know... I can hear the music start up... - just 30 more seconds... Hasegawa really out done themselves this time - I think its their most detailed best kit yet. Come on, lets see everyone's VF-0 soon!

Hey, any model contests comming up soon

Wow, its been a long ride (with working in the middle there) - I'd really appreciate it if someone would edit this thread and turn it into a PDF file for me. Its too bad I lost some of the older threads on the old boards.

Edited May 9, 2004 by wm cheng

[Nani?!]

sniff*

God, it's perfect.

your best so far William.

[Wicked Ace]

Damn! Awesome job.

[Hurin]

Stunning! WM Cheng. . . thank you for not only sharing your images with us. . . but for taking the time to be so verbose and helpful. I suspect you spent a lot of time taking images every few steps, processing them, uploading them, and writing these posts. It is greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

H

P.S. You can always save these pages to your hard drive via IE. Even the images will be saved.

[J A Dare]

Detail shot of the back weathering which I am most proud of.

I love this view so much.... The weathering streaks behind the vents. The wing sweep weathering lines. The airbreak metal struts. The panel & rivet fading on the black. etc. Those little bitty details and the rest, make it more than just a model. A masterpiece. Bravo!

[Myersjessee]

Wow...Im in tears! I just dragged my son over...I shall now quote him:

"OH! ....WOW! ....MAN!!! ..THATS JUST COOL! ....IT LOOKS REAL! "

Gorgeous work WM! My thanks for sharing the construction and the results. I hope you are enjoying it. Please pass on our thanks to your wife for sharing your time as well!

[Angel's Fury]

Magnificent work William!!!

[Brianw76]

man, the detail on that thing is amazing. i love how you added the dirt to the wings where they sweap back. bad ass!

[94medition]

First time posting in this forum. I have been lurking around for a while though.

William, your VF-0 is so impressive that I just can't resist not to join this forum. It is just awesome! Great work(art)! You give me so many ideas in building models, thanks! I really wish I could get to the threads of your other works.

[bhop]

Amazing.. I wish I could say more, but i'm practically speechless. Can't wait to see your 'sunny' pics.

I hope mine comes out as well. Although it'll be awhile till i'm able to build it.

Edited May 9, 2004 by bhop

[newca]

impressive as usual!

one small question, should the bottom of wing has those "dirty area" also?

Edited May 10, 2004 by newca

[David Hingtgen]

The underside does get wear, but very subtle, and not "streaked". Not really visible unless it's a VERY worn wing. (As in, the upper surface has flat-out BLACK STRIPES for wear--then the bottom would be worn enough to be readily apparent) The sealing surfaces are completely different for upper vs lower surfaces on that style of wing-sweep seal. The upper surface is many small metal plates, the lower is a single large inflatable bladder---they cause very different effects. The lower seal is the large dark grey area just aft of the wings. It's basically a very heavy-duty inflatable balloon.

(Just going by F-14's, but the VF-0 has the most "F-14-esque" wing-sweep area of any VF by far--which is why I suggested it be done in the first place)

Edited May 10, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[Grayson72]

Hey WM, I didn't see what color gray you used for the main body?

[Toonz]

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

BRAVO!!!!!!

[wm cheng]

Hi all,

The sunny day completed photos are posted in the Model section:

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=7956

The light grey is really white with a few drops of sky grey maybe 90:10 ratio - its amazing how little you need to ruin a pure white

[tetsujin]

Hey everybody, finally finished!! Woohoo

That's a rather long explaination tetsujin - thanks, but some diagrams or pictures would be more helpful Actually, what would be better is if you can make a few tiny double hinges - I would be glad to buy them off you (seriously though). I think it will be a while before I can graduate to building small canopy hinges - I think metal is the way to go for such a small scale, but I don't have a proper machine shop yet. I am just looking for a double jointed hinge 1/16" wide by 1/8" long - is that so hard?!

I did all my hinge work with just a pair of pliers. It's tough, though. I'll see if I can scare up some images of my finger hinges. I understand about the explanation, it's really hard to explain something like that with words. I'm sure it didn't help that I was trying to be so thorough. Times like this I wish I were a better illustrator.

The basic technique is just to take fairly hard wire and wrap it around (in a single loop) relatively soft wire, and make the loop just a little bit too small. That way, once you finally do get it onto the soft wire and move it around a bit, it'll dig into the soft wire, forming a groove. That'll give the joint a nice fit and all.. but when I've made joints like this I think they've always still needed pressure from the sides of the hinge to keep the two loops from working their way off the center wire. I'll have to do some more experimentation one of these days, see if I can improve the hinges. Maybe I could send you a sample at some point, too.

I do wonder if a better solution might just be to have the hinge itself be floppy, but install a strut like you did on your canopy, but install it in such a way that it not only provides support in the "up" position but also resistance to keep the canopy where you put it. If the strut wire extended down into a drilled-out polycap or something. That way the hinge itself could be really tiny, and wouldn't need to be installed so rigorously, but you'd still get the effect of having a strong hinge. The weak hinge in a case like that could be made out of something like music wire - which is strong and resilient at small sizes. (Music wire might also be good for making the loops for the hinge... I haven't tried it yet, though. Music wire is pretty hard to bend, too.)

I'm curious about what you did with the VF-0's canopy hinge.

[daggraa]

Ahh, my favourite part... the oil wash, what a pleasure on such an amazingly detailed model. I must admit, I'm a real fan of hasegawa's interpretation of the lineart by adding all these panels and bolts, I find the new Macross Plus planes a bit scale-less (even if they are accurate). I tried to vary the washes a bit like my shading now. I use a light grey wash for all the overall panel lines, a black for any vent openings or moveable surfaces and a brown for any hydraulic leakeages. This is just the panel line pass - I will clean it all up and do a separate weathing streaking pass later on (finally now is the fun part!!)

hi there... i am very impressed with ur work and i must say u r one of the inspiration toi make me start modelling. just a simple que may i know how u create the panel line

[Jim C]

Wm Cheng,

I usually frequent the ARC forums, but after

someone posted a link to your builds, I had

to register here as well.

EXCELLENT work!! And I appreciate that you

relate your triumphs AND your defeats.

Maybe I'll build me one of these, although I've

got a ton of other stuff in the pipeline.

(Monogram ProModeler F-15E in 1/48, 2 Academy

F/A-18C Hornets, and 1 Tamiya F-16 Viper,

all in 1/32. 2 F-16C Vipers in 1/48 from Hasegawa...)

You get the idea...but what amazes me is that you

put that much detail in 1/72...amazing, and keep

up the great work!

Jim