GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Posted September 5, 2003 (edited) Hi all! Ok, i've been following the board for a LONGGGG... time, but never actually posted, so this is my first! Anywayz, i saw WM CHENG's hasegawa Valks and man, was i blown away! That REALLY spurred me on to build my VF-1J! It's coming on quite ok now, probably not up to standard, but it's my 1st try at a Valk kit! Hopefully i can upload the pix soon and have your expert comments! Thanks a lot for looking! ================================================== Update : 7-10-2003 For those who've just read this, maybe i can help a little more by giving a list of materials i use for my work! Badger Model 200 Airbrush - Fine/Medium heads/needles Badger Compressor - Very old stuff! The usual range of brushes Gunze Sangyo Acrylic Paints and Thinner Tamiya Acrylic paint (metallic grey / sky grey) Tamiya Enamel Paint and Enamel thinner (X series for washes) Tamiya Putty Tamiya Polishing Compound 1000 (Canopy polishing) Master Modellers Polishing Compound 2000 (Canopy polishing) MicroSET/SOL - (for decals) Gunze Mr Cement Deluxe ( Careful! This melts styrene very fast!) Tamiya thin cement Testors Canopy glue <- Avoid this, too thick, i think microscale also makes a canopy glue, might be better. Tamiya masking tape - various widths FUTURE FLOOR POLISH! (for that canopy shine!) Edited October 7, 2003 by GunnerX Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 Here's the pilot, didn't expect it to be so small! Quite a challenge to paint! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 Here's the pilot with the decals added, The MicroSet comes in useful here. And that's my pinkie for size comparison! It looks pretty rough in the photos, but looks quite ok to the naked eye actually! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 The Cockpit painted! (Sorry about the Yellow and Black stripes!, borrowed idea!) dabbed MicroSol on the panel to get the decal to conform. Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 Had to put in the pilot to see how he'd fit! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 I bought a couple of the photoetch sets, but i decided to leave them out this round! I'm basically using this as my testbed for my future kits, so i'm not expecting anything great. Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 WM CHENG'S canopy polishing tips were invaluable here! Using about 800 sandpaper till the finest at 2000 to get rid of the line, then using TAMIYA polish (1000 grit) and another type called modeller's polish (2000 grit). It looked pretty good, but i wanted to see the effect of Future Polish that everyone's been talking about! So i dipped it in the stuff and it looks great! Quote
recon Posted September 5, 2003 Posted September 5, 2003 Looks awesome for your first try!! Keep up the good work. By the way what do you use for the extra details on the side panels of your cockpit, are they photo etched parts from a military aircraft or hand painted details? cant wait to see the finish product. Im also finishing up on my first valk a 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S Hikaru Valk. Sorry no pictures to post as i aint got no digicam Cheers Quote
GunnerX Posted September 5, 2003 Author Posted September 5, 2003 (edited) Looks awesome for your first try!! Keep up the good work. By the way what do you use for the extra details on the side panels of your cockpit, are they photo etched parts from a military aircraft or hand painted details? cant wait to see the finish product. Im also finishing up on my first valk a 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S Hikaru Valk. Sorry no pictures to post as i aint got no digicam Cheers Hi! Thanks! Hope it'll turn out ok! I found the side panels sooooooo bare, so i cut up little strips of tamiya pla-plate and just glued them on! Hope to see your kit too k? Cheers! Edited September 5, 2003 by GunnerX Quote
recon Posted September 5, 2003 Posted September 5, 2003 Looks awesome for your first try!! Keep up the good work. By the way what do you use for the extra details on the side panels of your cockpit, are they photo etched parts from a military aircraft or hand painted details? cant wait to see the finish product. Im also finishing up on my first valk a 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S Hikaru Valk. Sorry no pictures to post as i aint got no digicam Cheers Hi! Thanks! Hope it'll turn out ok! I found the side panels sooooooo bare, so i cut up little strips of tamiya pla-plate and just glued them on! Hope to see your kit too k? Cheers! What are pla plate? Any pictures for reference as i seldom see or heard of stuff like this? Cheers Quote
wm cheng Posted September 5, 2003 Posted September 5, 2003 Fantastic work GunnerX!! Great to see all the modellers starting to come out of the woodworks! The cockpit is lookng great. I also put some photoetched instrumentations on the side panels when I did my first cockpit form left over spare photo-etched parts - but later found out that the actual TV version of the cockpit had olive green smooth arm-rest on the side panels!! Wierd eh. Quote
TheFrenchOne Posted September 5, 2003 Posted September 5, 2003 Had to put in the pilot to see how he'd fit! Look great ! Congrats! Just for info : How many hours for making this? Quote
GunnerX Posted September 6, 2003 Author Posted September 6, 2003 RECON - > It's just pieces of polystyrene strips, you can purchase these plastic sheets at most model shops WM CHENG -> Thank you so much! i'm hoping that more people will do their model kits up because i don't want it to be a dying art! Especially with all these prebuilt toys out there now TheFrenchOne -> Thanks thefrenchone! lessee... about 4 to 5 hours for the pilot (waiting for paint to dry and decaling it) and about slightly longer for the cockpit? It do the model only on weekends though! Work cuts into my building time a lot! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 6, 2003 Author Posted September 6, 2003 Ok, here's the base body. The grey stuff over the whole thing is Gunze Surfacer, a sort of base coat i use. Quote
GunnerX Posted September 6, 2003 Author Posted September 6, 2003 Remember to fill up the spots ( circled red ) with putty! These are not hidden and will show up quite clearly. Also, place and pice of styrene plate in the gap ( oval circle ) and cover it up, if not, there'll also be a gap when the wings are swept back. Quote
yellowlightman Posted September 6, 2003 Posted September 6, 2003 Looks great GunnerX, that pilot turned out really well. Can't wait to see the Valk in it's finished form. Quote
Myersjessee Posted September 6, 2003 Posted September 6, 2003 Looks great so far..can't wait to see more! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 7, 2003 Author Posted September 7, 2003 Here's the feet shaded. I used Metallic grey highlight with metal black. Might need to do some touchup later anyway, it doesn't look right yet! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 9, 2003 Author Posted September 9, 2003 Internal area of the leg painted black! Another hint i took from WM cheng. Quote
GunnerX Posted September 9, 2003 Author Posted September 9, 2003 Here i joined the foot/thrusters and the leg portions together. The fit wasn't very good! You can see the large gaps in the legs. Well, that's more puttying to do! Quote
recon Posted September 10, 2003 Posted September 10, 2003 Hey gunnerX, good to see that you are still at it again. A tip from me to ya, Mask the foot thrusters, then apply super glue on the seam joint on the legs wait for it to dry before filing it off followed by sanding. Finish off the a diluted putty with thinner, than Mr Surfacer. And there you have it, a seamless leg piece. Cheers Quote
GunnerX Posted September 10, 2003 Author Posted September 10, 2003 (edited) Thanks recon! Gotta... keep... going! Here's a shot of the cockpit area. Admittedly i had to use a lot of sanding and putty to get the seam for the coclpit halves filled (again they didn't fit very well). I didn't glue the pilot in until later too! Edited September 10, 2003 by GunnerX Quote
GunnerX Posted September 10, 2003 Author Posted September 10, 2003 I decided to mask the cockpit area then base-coat the rest, wasn't very comfortable with using the canopy cover as a mask! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 10, 2003 Author Posted September 10, 2003 A test fit for the kit! Wanted to see roughly how big it was! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 10, 2003 Author Posted September 10, 2003 Whew! That's it for tonite! But i wonder, are jet cockpits really THAT cramped? Quote
Commander McBride Posted September 10, 2003 Posted September 10, 2003 Whew! That's it for tonite! But i wonder, are jet cockpits really THAT cramped? Fighter cokpits are often really small, that's for sure. Depends on the aircraft itself, though. Older jets especially have small cockpits, especially lightweight fighters and interceptors. IIRC, the F-14's not too bad, though, because it's designed for longer duration flights. Of course, there's always my favorite, the Su-32. It maintains the performance of the standard Su-27, but adds a two seat, side-by-side, cockpit, with standing room inside, a sleeping area, an oven, and a toilet!!!! And it has all the usual fighter perks, plus some new ones, like a rear radar allowing it to shoot missiles at pursuers!!! Quote
Grayson72 Posted September 10, 2003 Posted September 10, 2003 Next time do the canopy finishing last, then you can use it as a mask, I made the mistake last time and scuffed the canopy kit a bit Quote
Kurt Posted September 11, 2003 Posted September 11, 2003 Looks great! I do like to use the canopy as the mask for the cockpit. If you are using acrylic paint, and after all painting is done, just soak the canopy in Windex. It cleans up in a matter of minutes. Quote
GunnerX Posted September 11, 2003 Author Posted September 11, 2003 Whew! That's it for tonite! But i wonder, are jet cockpits really THAT cramped? Of course, there's always my favorite, the Su-32. It maintains the performance of the standard Su-27, but adds a two seat, side-by-side, cockpit, with standing room inside, a sleeping area, an oven, and a toilet!!!! And it has all the usual fighter perks, plus some new ones, like a rear radar allowing it to shoot missiles at pursuers!!! No way! I like the Su-37 myself, with those crazy vectoring nozzles! I saw it do a full 360 in a airshow video once! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 11, 2003 Author Posted September 11, 2003 Next time do the canopy finishing last, then you can use it as a mask, I made the mistake last time and scuffed the canopy kit a bit Hmmm.. good idea! I'll upload a pic to show you what i currently did with the canopy! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 11, 2003 Author Posted September 11, 2003 Hi all! Another test fit pic! Quote
GunnerX Posted September 11, 2003 Author Posted September 11, 2003 (edited) Oops! Ignore this! Duplicate post! Edited September 11, 2003 by GunnerX Quote
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