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

[wm cheng]

I'm really liking the design more and more...

[wm cheng]

[wm cheng]

I've decided to mask the areas that I will spray gloss white.

[wm cheng]

I'd decided it might be nice to spray the radome and flaps in gloss white too like the old Tomcats, plus it will differentiates the greys on the aircraft. Anywhere where I can liven up the straight white/grey paint scheme would be nice without going against canon art.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot after the white spray on all the parts. Must leave to dry - DO NOT FIDDLE WITH IT! This is my most vunerable time - when I start to paint the different colours, and I loose patience and start to mask and handle the plane before the last coat is completely dry. I can't count how many scratches or finger prints I've had to sand off and re-paint over the years! I always try to do this late at night, so I have to go to sleep to let the paint cure. Or find something to do on another part of the model while the paint cures.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of the white interior which looks good against the light grey exterior of the intakes. You can see the original coat of sky grey inside feathered out to the gloss white - this exaggerates the apparent depth of the intake - kind of like painting a shadow. When the top is glued on, and the actual intake falls into shadow - the effect looks better.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of the masking I did around the edges to separate the gloss white interior from the light grey exterior.

[wm cheng]

A shot of the white nose cone against the light grey body.

[wm cheng]

You can see the gloss white landing gear bay behind. Quite a bit easier than painting the white onto the dark blue YF-21 body!

[wm cheng]

Here's a overall shot - kind of looks a bit retro eh? or cannon fodderish Once the panels are lined and the post-shading applied, the contrast will be less noticeable.

[wm cheng]

I hand painted the rear interior of the legs black. Then I applied a wash of pure black to the metallic objects. I love the head sculpt - its too bad that you will see almost nothing of it when its buried into the fuselage. Its too bad that there was no clear piece for the top of the head which is supposed to have a red light at the front.

[wm cheng]

I just love the detail on these afterburners !!

I hope you can still see them once the feet are on the legs - a black wash really brings out the effort Hasegawa puts into them.

Ok, must leave the model to dry for the time being. I might assemble the landing gears to prep them for a spray of gloss white too.

(in case you're wondering why I have time to work on this during the week - my film production went down and I got laid off again so its time to hunt for work again - at least I can devote more time to this baby and update more regularly)

[David Hingtgen]

I *love* those afterburners. I just painted my SR-71's burners last night, but you can't really do much on a Blackbird, being ceramic white and all--no metal paint there! (Though I did drybrush some steel, for that "blasted porcelain" look)

Anyways---the white paint helps a LOT IMHO. You can't really tell it's overall grey without out it. Yes, it's Tomcat-esque (and the pureness of the white makes the grey look warm, rather than cool, IMHO---even more Tomcat-esque). However, with that white nose, it instantly reminded me of the standard Su-24 scheme. (one of my fave Russian schemes) See here:

(Bad pic, but all the good ones are 150K plus--but this shows the pale grey w/white nose well enough)

[wm cheng]

Hey a tip,

Don't do a black artist oil wash over anything painted with the silver chrome Tamiya Markers. I just did that to the intake fans, and the Varsol in the thinned down oil paints ate away at the Tamiya silver and I got a mucky mess. Luckily I cleaned it up and plan on sealing it first next time.

Hey any takes on different glues - what about you David? Cool pic of that old SU-24 - you're right, you don't really realize its grey until you get a pure white next to it. Hey I didn't know the tailcones on the SR-71 are ceramic and are white, cool, lets see some pictures.

[hellohikaru]

WM

Is the use of rubber gloves a good idea when handling models ? I too have the problem with fingerprints.

Dave

You should show us some the models you completed

[David Hingtgen]

SR-71's operate in afterburner continuously--almost no other plane does. It doesn't get THAT much hotter than a normal plane, but an F-15 will only be in 'burner for minutes at a time, not hours. That's the main difference. And thus, no metal can withstand it. So the afterburner section of an SR-71 is pure bright white ceramic. (that gets a lot of people, and they think the painting instructions are wrong calling for bright white engines)

It does "bake" a bit, so unless it's brand-new it won't be *pure* white. I just looked at some dinner bowls (seriously) and went with 36495 light grey--lightest grey I had, and next to the BLACK of the rest of the plane, it looks pretty darn white inside. The nozzles themselves are burnt titanium, and I almost always go with plain steel for titanium, unless it's an exterior skin panel--steel and titanium look nigh-identical when "burnt".

The kit is the 80's Monogram kit (there are no GOOD SR-71 kits--you can either have good detail/fit but overall quite inaccurate shape--Hasegawa, or standard Monogram--but a very good overall shape---I went with shape). And no kit has good decals, and there haven't been aftermarket decals in years. Basically, you can't make a GOOD SR-71 without a LOT of work, and custom decals--so I'm just throwing this together in like a week, just to have a Blackbird on the shelf.

(Sorry for the thread hijacking, but this doesn't warrant a new thread).

Anyways, the nozzles are utterly featureless inside, and the the afterburner duct is half as long as it should be---and I didn't feel like scratchbuilding the whole interior of the nozzle/duct/burner/flaps. So I just "adapted" the paint scheme as best I could. Also, since the plastic is black, rather than post-shading, I just painted the nozzles with steel, always brushing in the same direction---thus the black plastic shows through a bit, and I have the appearance of streaking. (Hard to detail and impossible to wash or drybrush when you have nothing but an utterly smooth interior--there should be obvious nozzle segments inside, but it's just not worth it on a kit that'll end up being at best a "C"---so I just lazily streaked the interior). For the afterburners/duct/ring/bypassdoors themselves (one big molded piece---thanks Monogram) it's 36495, with a bit of drybrushed steel, and I actually had to go with a gundam marker to blacken in the hollows between the rings (molded solid in the kit). SR-71 engines are so big, they're an inch across even in 1/72, so you've got to do something, even a kit with as un-detailed engines in this. And with the white interior, you can really see into them.

Anyways, here's the burners, with and without nozzles. I might later airbrush a really thin brown mixture in, for some more "baking". Might try chalk to really streak the exhaust nozzle interior.

Edited April 21, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[David Hingtgen]

Even if we're putting a mostly black cockpit into a black plane with a closed black canopy with small windows, we modelers just HAVE to detail the cockpit!

[David Hingtgen]

The red for the headrests didn't go so well--brand-new paint, thus NO evaporation had occured, so it was thinner than I expected! Runs... But anyways, I wasn't going to retouch anything in the cockpit, since a dry-fit showed only the side consoles were visible when the canopies are on.

Size reference: the whole cockpit tub is a bit shorter than my thumb, and slightly wider.

My current (on hold) big project is my USS Iowa, I'm do "quick" kits right now just to have a sense of accomplishment. And it's still raining too often to airbrush much, so I'm reverting back to spray-cans---thus SR-71 and Blue Angels, since black and BA blue come in cans. Nothing with a complex paint scheme or details/weathering until the weather is nicer.

Edited April 21, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[hellohikaru]

Dave that is one awesome Habu cockpit you got there. Hopefully you do this one with the canopy open.

[David Hingtgen]

Sorry, canopies are closed. You have NO idea how bad the canopies are on this kit. I spent a day sanding them down, just so they'd fit. And they still don't, but they're glued and sanded in place as best I can. Probably the worst-fitting parts I've ever encountered, ever. It is designed so that it's possible to open them, but there's NO detail--simply the backside of the canopy--no decking, no struts to open them, etc. It is not something I'd want to show.

Anyways--as I said, this is just a "quick" build. My next SR-71 (haven't decided whether to do Monogram again or Hasegawa--it's an OLD Hase kit, nothing compared to current releases) will have a more detailed cockpit (button by button will be painted right, rather than the "they're all white" like the one I did above), open canopies, etc. And it will be #964 "my" SR-71. (For I have a photo of me standing in front of it when I was 9). And I'll also take a Hase kit and make it into an M-12, one of the drone-launching ones, #940. (There are no drone-launching SR-71's, they were modified A-12's) This one will probably be decaled as #955. (The one with the Skunk on the tail)

[hellohikaru]

Dave Testor has a SR-71 in 1/48 scale but how detailed or accurate is it ? It would surely make for a huge model though.

Academy has a 1/72 SR-71A on its list too.

Edited April 21, 2004 by hellohikaru

[David Hingtgen]

The Testor's 1/48 is remarkably good, best Blackbird you can buy. I built one when I was like 10, took up the entire top of my dresser. HUGE. But I've considered buying one, just to keep it a few years until I move and get somewhere to display stuff for a few years. (I plan to move within a year or so, and don't want to build a bunch of nice, fragile models--saving them for when I'm "settled" and won't damage them while moving---they're a lot easier to transport when they're unbuilt! )

My current long-range modelling plan:

1:72 for the vast majority of planes, to have many many squadrons.

1:48 for one of each of the "essential" planes, the coolEST squadron of each-thus 1 F-14/15/16/18, and maybe an SR-71 and if I ever get the skill/money to build it, the $210 1/48 YF-23, by far the best YF-23 model there is.

[godfather]

Here's a shot after the white spray on all the parts.  Must leave to dry - DO NOT FIDDLE WITH IT!    This is my most vunerable time - when I start to paint the different colours, and I loose patience and start to mask and handle the plane before the last coat is completely dry.  I can't count how many scratches or finger prints I've had to sand off and re-paint over the years!    I always try to do this late at night, so I have to go to sleep to let the paint cure.  Or find something to do on another part of the model while the paint cures.

A bit of a silly question... do you wear gloves while doing the final paint job?

If yes, which kind. If not, how do you keep the fingerprints from the finished kit?

Edited April 21, 2004 by godfather

[Stamen0083]

I've used the same bottle of testors for 6 years now, and finally I had to go out to get a new one...

I have started using Gunze Mr. Cement recently, and I refuse to go back to CrapTastic Testors.

It's very thin, sets in a few seconds, melts the plastic and gives a very powerful bond. I love it, especially for scratch building.

It's cheaper than Testors too, per bottle.

[David Hingtgen]

Anyone have a glue that is "cleaner" than most when working through paint? (I know I know, but I'm lazy and hate scraping off paint when gluing--and on some things, like gear-doors/wells it's very hard to scrape accurately). Or in summary--is there a "paint-safe" glue? Doesn't need to be strong, it'd basically be "pitot tubes, gear doors, and antennas" glue.

I'm literally sitting here waiting for the paint to dry on my SR-71 wheels, figured I might as well check MW.

Words of advice: prime the whole kit if you ever build an SR-71. I'm going straight over the black plastic, but everything's taking 2-4 coats to cover. It's well worth the effort to prime the whole kit, even though 99% of the kit will be black paint over black plastic. All the little bits quickly add up.

[Vince]

Anyone have a glue that is "cleaner" than most when working through paint?

CA super glue won't eat though paint, but must be careful not to make a mess. Tester clear part cement actually works pretty good.

[David Hingtgen]

CA fogs, at least in my experience. Even though it's much less noticeable on non-clear parts, it still leaves white "deposits" on everything if you look.

[wm cheng]

Nice cans David

I should wear gloves - those rubber latex should be fine, but I don't.

I did get one small spot of slight finger prints (easy on really glossy surfaces - thats why I usually go semi-gloss) but luckily a coat of clear-coat eliminated that.

I am doing a little burning on the feet/afterburner nozzles. I airbrush shade these with flat black, later to be sealed in with a clear coat of semi-gloss.

Edited April 21, 2004 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

Here's the gun pod with a bit of shading.

[wm cheng]

Here's the intake vanes, I've tried to bend the ends up slightly, and I am going to glue them in at a slight downward angle like the F-14 excess bleed ramps in the intakes, plus it will partially obscure the fans and the interior of the intakes. The back of the knees are shaded now, but you really don't see much of them once the legs are glued in place.

I've given the entire thing a coat of ModelMaster Clear-coat of semi-gloss mixed with gloss finish to seal in the paint so far (letting it dry overnight), so I can do an oil wash tomorrow and hopefully some post-shading.

Edited April 21, 2004 by wm cheng

[Grayson72]

Here's a shot after the white spray on all the parts.  Must leave to dry - DO NOT FIDDLE WITH IT!     This is my most vunerable time - when I start to paint the different colours, and I loose patience and start to mask and handle the plane before the last coat is completely dry.  I can't count how many scratches or finger prints I've had to sand off and re-paint over the years!     I always try to do this late at night, so I have to go to sleep to let the paint cure.  Or find something to do on another part of the model while the paint cures.

A bit of a silly question... do you wear gloves while doing the final paint job?

If yes, which kind. If not, how do you keep the fingerprints from the finished kit?

I were latex gloves when I'm painting, keeps the hands and the model clean. I buy them in bulk at Costco.

[J A Dare]

As always, you rock Wm!

BTW, someone asked for pics of his finished buildups. Checkout his signature link and the following threads....

My finished 1/72 Hasegawa YF-21

1/100 Bandai FRX-00 Mave Photos

Anyways, Wm should either post all his finished buildups at yellowlightman's MFC or have Shawn set aside a section for his work at MacrossWorld's main page. Definitely deserves it.

[wm cheng]

AARRGHH! Wha, what happened, it looks like the clear-coat shrank and peeled away from the gloss white undercoat leaving this crack I don't know exactly what happened, I'd guess I laid the clear-coat on too thick and maybe the undercoat wasn't completely dried yet?

Man I hate it when this happens, I am going to try to very gently sand the clear coat down with 2000 grit sanding film (I hope the crack doesn't extend down to the plastic) to eliminate the crack and will have to put the white gloss over it again and a careful light clear coat.

[wm cheng]

In the meanwhile, I am masking all the steel parts on the fuselage.

[wm cheng]

Again, I am using this Alclad steel metalizer stuff - the tape protects the light grey/white on the exterior. Doing it in this order, exterior paint first, then interior metallics will bring the steel colour up to the light grey creating the illusion that the metal is thinner.