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

[David Hingtgen]

Bay behind the cockpit--looks good! Just some "stuff" there, but not purely thrown in randomly. That area in the F-15 is actually that "Russian cockpit green/blue" color, but shiny metallic! Not quite chrome shiny, but still quite smooth, not "flakey" at all. Nobody makes that color, and I think it's purely an F-15 thing, not common to most jets. (maybe an MDC thing? Will have to check F-4/18 pics) The parts themselves are of course metallic grey/black.

[Angel's Fury]

Angel's Fury: the "sprayers" don't work at all. Trust me. However, I find this very easy:

http://www.testors.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=2207

Also available in a box with a can of propellant from Wal-Mart for $18. Not the 30-40 buck set, this is different (and simpler). Well worth trying out just to see how airbrushes work. Now, due to lack of precise controls it won't be doing free-hand feathered camo or narrow stripes, but if you simply want a nice smooth coat of paint over something, it'll certainly do that well.

The main thing is, being "even more external than an external-mix" airbrush, it's super-easy to clean. Especially with acrylics. The brush itself usually gets nothing on it, it's all in the jars/caps.

I use it basically like I would a good spray-can, but able to use ANY color paint.

Thanks for the advice David & William! I think I'm gonna follow William's recommendation to save up and get a real airbrush. Btw, what particular type of compressor and other equipment should I purchase together with the airbrush?

[wm cheng]

Okay, I've re-epoxed the canopy rod and we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if this will hold.

I've glued those two orange thingys on now, they look pretty cool.

[wm cheng]

Here's a view down into the cockpit.

[recon]

Hey WMcheng, Awesome job once again. Hope to see the finished model soon.

Cheers

[wm cheng]

Here we go, I've glued the top and bottom fuselage halves with tube cement, because I need this to be strong and the tube thicker glue with help with the seam - in fact, that seam/gap at the rear bulkhead of the cockpit closes up nicely when you glue the top and bottom down tightly (I guess Hasegawa did know a thing or two, and weren't just being lazy).

[wm cheng]

I've painted a thick stripe of Mr. Surfacer500 (the grey line) along this horizontal seam so that it will help fill in some gaps when I sand the seam down tomorrow. Thats it for tonight...

[hellohikaru]

Awesome cockpit work Master Cheng

Can't wait to see more.

[Stamen0083]

Wonderful work.

I had severe doubts earlier when you mentioned that you won't be painting the helmet, but instead will use the white of the plastic. I don't anymore.

There's something to be said about the minus molds you placed on the sides of the seat. In the illustration you showed earlier in the thread:

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/uploads/po...-1077953813.jpg

You can clearly see the orange mold on the side of Shin's seat. It's sunken in.

I wonder if it might have been a better idea if you bored a sink hole into the seat bigger than the minus mold, then glue the minus mold into the sink hole, it would have achieved a better effect. As is, the molds look quite out of place.

Also, I wonder if a smaller mold might have been a better choice?

Aside from that, the cockpit is beautiful, and the added details behind the seat add quite a bit to the barren area. Using a paperclip to hinge the cockpit is also ingenious as well.

By the way, since I'm new here, I don't know you from atom, but were you ever planning for custom paint schemes, or do you only paint in anime accurate colors? I think a VF-0S in low visibility scheme would kick some ass!

[Valkyrie]

Looking really good, WM! You've given me a few good ideas for mine

I was also planning on adding the ejection handles to the seat, and I did quite a bit of research on the cockpit to figure out what details I could add and what the proper colors for everything are.

You're quite right that the wire you used was too thick. I'm guestimating that the actual handles are about 0.4" in diameter, so that's a miniscule 0.005" at 1/72 scale. The closest thing that is readily available is 30 guage wire-wrapping wire.

http://www.radioshack.com/images/ProductCa...278/278-502.jpg

With the insulation on, it about 0.015" thick, and the conductor alone is 0.010". I'll be using that, probably with the insulation on, just because paint should stick to it better.

I'm also going to be making the trangular shaped plates that sit horizonatally on top of the seat, which the ejection handles are atatched to.

Also, looking at your clear HUD display, I think it looks too thick. I'm going to cut a new one out of some clear plastic sheet.

[GunnerX]

Great work Master Cheng! Always an inspiration!

I know a LOT of us are building the VF-0S right? (myself included ) So rather

than have so many threads, why not someone start a thread on the completed VF-0S's? Then we can all post our pix there!

Of course, may not be the best idea.....

[Mechleader]

Great job!!!!

Inspiration from the master!!!

Damn you make it look so easy!

[Capt Hungry]

Just beautiful thus far WM!!

I look forward to the finished product. Thanks again for taking the time to do another write up for us drooling fanboys!

[Angel's Fury]

Beautiful work! Can't wait to see more!

[Jung]

looking incredible as usual, looking forward to the finished masterpiece!

[wm cheng]

You're right stamen, the orange minus molds do look a bit out of place - damn, I wished I hadn't glued everything together yet. Oh, well here goes - wish me luck. I am going to try to drill out a larger hole to sink the orange minus mold into. I used the largest drill bit I had for my hand pin-vise, but it was still too small, so I used it to drill a pilot hole, now I am using a 7/64" bit on a dremel with a really steady hand at the slowest setting.

[wm cheng]

Here's the other side, I painted the shallow hole dark grey as well.

[wm cheng]

I'd thought that while I was waiting for that little hole to dry, I'd start sanding the side seams - the Mr. Surfacer from last night had dried. I put some masking tape on either side of the seam to help protect some of the really fine engraved details from accidentally being sanded off.

[wm cheng]

Okay, bad idea... wait till you temporarily glue on the canopy and seal it in with a liquid mask before you start sanding away. Man I got all sorts of little fillings, particles and water inside the cockpit. In fact I almost lost that HUD display glass since it came off sometime while I was handling the fuselage while I was sanding. Valkyrie was right, it is a bit thick, I was going to fashion a new one from some clear styrene, but it had the cool hud display decal on it already. Luckily I managed to find it in my mess.

The sanding of the side seams was done with 600 grit paper/film using the wet method, whereby you use a lot of water to help prevent the sandpaper from clogging.

This shot shows the orange minus mold properly seated within the larger hole. Stamen is absolutely right, it looks so much better this way - I just wished I did it with the seat out before it was glued in.

[wm cheng]

I didn't inset it totally, just left it sticking out just a tad. You know what, the circular impressions on either side of the seats are not symetrical - oh well, not a biggie.

[wm cheng]

Here's the other side. These will probably be some of the last shots of the cockpit for a while. I plan to seal it up inside the canopy till I'm done with painting. It took me half an hour trying to clean all that sanding gunk out of the finished cockpit! Remember, sand after the cockpit is protected (duh!)

[wm cheng]

My camera is having a hard time focusing on a white object with little detail - excuse the photos. The nose cone should look pretty smooth - the hints of grey are the Mr. Surfacer doing its job filling in the hairline cracks - remember to be careful not to make the nosecone round, it is somewhat squashed with a bit of an edge like the YF-19 - over sanding can dull this lateral edge.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of the side seam - the otherside has a larger gap, so I'd have to use some more Mr. Surfacer to fill it in and let it dry.

[wm cheng]

I've glued the forward windscreen on, and attached the rear portion of the canopy. The paper clip idea seems to hold for now, I re-inforced it with a piece of plastic in the back cut to resemble a bulkhead. As long as I don't try to pivot the rod, pull it out and stick it straight in for the open position or take it out and stick it in for the closed position the canopy works fine. I'd love to see someone attempt to actually make a hinge for this baby - I'd buy a few. But at least, this option allows us to display the plane with the canopy open or closed - I always hate being forced to choose one or the other.

[wm cheng]

Cockpit bye, bye (for the time being...)

[wm cheng]

I'd thought I would skip ahead a few steps to fit everything together to see just what injector pin holes or crevasses need to be filled and in what order. I don't get why Hasegawa chose to make the wing in these pieces - I'd just like the old method where they were in two halves, nice easy edge seam that can be sanded away. Now with these panels - its just more work. I noticed that this wing root panel is a bit thick, I would sand down the thickness of it a bit to lay flat/ in plane with the surrounding surface.

[wm cheng]

I've temporarily pieced together the wing and swing mechanism to see what portion of the interior slots are exposed when the wing goes through its sweep. As you can see its not a lot. Valkyrie was right, this time Hasegawa did not provide the plastic inserts to fill in that negative space so we would have to make one up. But as you can see from the pencil lines, its not a big area to cover. I'd also fill in those two injector pin depressions - yu can see a dab of Mr. Surfacer in each.

[wm cheng]

I've cut some stryrene triangles and fitted them in as well as the little portion just ahead of the pins that pivot the swing gears (they can be seen just a little bit with the wings fully swept. I'd thought that with these little pieces of plastic in place, I'd only have to fill in the cracks around them and sand them smoother (the laziness in me talking )

[wm cheng]

Here's a clearer shot with the Mr. Surfacer500 on.

[wm cheng]

Odd, that the intakes on the chest plates are a different piece. e very careful to align them properly when you are glue these parts, they need to line up from the outside, if you let them seat tightly from underneath, the are a tad too high from the outside. This is a poor fit area for Hasegawa - I'm a bit surprised.

Everything is drying for now.

[Valkyrie]

Those intakes have been a pain in my ass for days now. I shimmed them up by gluing some 0.01" sheet styrene on one side to fill in the gap, but I still couldn't get it to fit quite right. But it's close.

On top of that, I'm painting the gray interior of the intakes before I glue them to fuselage. I have a feelnig I'm going to need a lot of luck to pull this one off...

I should have pics of the process in my build-up thread today.

[Stamen0083]

... (the laziness in me talking )

Sometimes, the lazy ones are the more sensible ones :-P

Thanks for taking my advice, WM. The seat looks so much nicer than before :-D

And I'm glad I'm able to see buildups before I build my own. Now I'll know to cut clear plastic for the HUD instead of using the kit supplied piece.

[Myersjessee]

Looking amazing William!!!! I can't wait to see more....course...now I have lots of trick you made look easy that I have to try on mine!!!

[Captain Angel]

Wow, Truely Amazing... How do you go about using this "Mr. Surfacer" stuff?

Well done with filling in the empty space behind the cockpit too.

Kepp it coming!

[J A Dare]

The unofficial MW drool thread!