captain america Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Hi Chad. Yes, that's right, my bad Basicaly, I'm just in need of the bent-knee part. I kneed to mock up the leg precisely so that I can adjust the hull beneath it and skirt the outer surface more precisely to its contour. As for detailing, the rivets on the bell itself are actually indented; I machined two different sized punch tools to do this more quickly. The lines (horizontal) on the endbell are also scribed. I did those on the lathe for precision. As for the raised ribs in the nozzle wells, those are quite simply strip styrene, as are the little rivets on the nozzle coupling. You just drill a small hole manually, and insert the piece of styrene.... And then do it 200 more times Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 You just drill a small hole manually, and insert the piece of styrene.... And then do it 200 more times Now that's a gooooood tip!!! Quote
Gundamhead Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Man that's looking nice! Great work! I gotta start saving some pennies. Quote
wm cheng Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Fantastic work John! Good pictures, I see what you mean by the right amount of bulge - it looks great! What do you think about the "teeth" details around the bell openings? Would you consider casting that knee/bent part so that we can adapt a regular Hasegawa fighter kit instead of using the strike/super and omitting all the fast packs? They are cheaper - less waste too Looking really good! Quote
captain america Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Hi WM. That's an excellent idea actually. I'll try to include the bent knee parts in the booster kit (depending on if I have any leftover mold material when the main parts are molded). Teeth around the endbell openings: yes, I'll be getting to those in due course. I was initially hesitant to add these, for fear that the gap between the housing and the nozzle would be too constricted and result in binding, but upon more extensive fitting & fiddling, it seems that I have adequate room to add the extra detail and still have plenty of room to adjust the angle of the nozzle. Quote
gnollman Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Sweet... This is gonna be one gorgeous kit.... Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 God that bell is pure perfection, it's just so real looking, wait till I paint it with those Alclad lacquers of mine. muhawhawhawhaw Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Hi WM.That's an excellent idea actually. I'll try to include the bent knee parts in the booster kit (depending on if I have any leftover mold material when the main parts are molded). Teeth around the endbell openings: yes, I'll be getting to those in due course. I was initially hesitant to add these, for fear that the gap between the housing and the nozzle would be too constricted and result in binding, but upon more extensive fitting & fiddling, it seems that I have adequate room to add the extra detail and still have plenty of room to adjust the angle of the nozzle. Since Jessee is doing the casting why wouldn't he just cast those little knee parts from his own super kit? Quote
captain america Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Hi Chad. Yes, Jesse will be doing the bulk of the casting. However, I plan to also make a set of master molds here; particularly for the nozzle/endbells, of which 4 will be required per kit, and because of the high detail in the nozzle area, I'm relatively certain that the mold-life will be far lower than normal. Also, in order to avoid having people impatiently wait months for their kit, Jesse and I can do double-duty, so that kits are delivered more quickly, or in case Jesse just simply bottlenecks from workload saturation. Oh, just for fun, here are a couple of fuzzy, low-quality pics of the Valkyrie mooring point... Simple as it looks, you guys have NO CLUE what bloody hell it was to make. Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 You're nuts, that looks about as simple as a rubix cube. Good idea on the doubling up on the casting. Jesse casts about as fast as molasses in February Just kidding buddy Quote
robokochan Posted August 7, 2004 Author Posted August 7, 2004 Hey John, As always...late to the party. Words can't describe how beautiful that is....I am speechless! Rob Quote
Cdr Fokker Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 OMG YES! I was only partly considering purchasing a booster before this, but now I must buy one! Quote
Angel's Fury Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Even though I don't plan to get one, I must say it was done with fine craftsmanship. Quote
captain america Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 Hi Rob! Congrats on the new baby girl!!! I'm sure you'll have your hands full with your new bundle of joy, so don't worry about this little trinket; I'll get it done in timely fashion. Besides, you're probably running on lack of sleep from caring for the baby... Cranky as you may be now, you'll look back on the sleepless nights & diaper-changing fondly in 20 years Quote
EXO Posted August 7, 2004 Posted August 7, 2004 awww... Cap... thanks for making my visits here so worth it... Quote
ChristopherB Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 John, Thank you very, very much for taking on this project! Everything looks wonderful, and I'm amazed at how quickly you've been able to go from nothing to what you've shown, and without sacrificing any quality whatsoever. I can only dream that you will focus your talents at some point upon the launch vehicle. They'll go together like strawberries and cream. I really hope I win the Grand Prize. To own something built personally by you would be awesome. Sincerely, Christopher Quote
Mechamaniac Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 Any plans to kick this up a notch to 1/48? Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 You say take it up a notch like he's got a 3d copy machine with an enlarging feature. He'd have to create a brand new sculpt starting from scratch. I doubt that will happen, especially since it'd be huge. Quote
Major Johnathan Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 Impressive work Mr. Moscato. Did I read right, your planning on making the launch/trailer thingy for this as well? Quote
captain america Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 Hi guys. Mechamaniac: in so much as a 1/48 booster would be both enormous and hugely expensive, absolutely not. Major: yes, you read correctly. Though the production of the launch vehicle will be predicated on sales of the booster, it looks very promising so far. My only real concern will be price control, as the launch vehicle is a surprisingly-massive little bugger at well over a foot long. Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 Hi guys.Mechamaniac: in so much as a 1/48 booster would be both enormous and hugely expensive, absolutely not. Major: yes, you read correctly. Though the production of the launch vehicle will be predicated on sales of the booster, it looks very promising so far. My only real concern will be price control, as the launch vehicle is a surprisingly-massive little bugger at well over a foot long. Money shmoney, I take two Quote
ChristopherB Posted August 8, 2004 Posted August 8, 2004 Money shmoney, I take two Same here, count me in for (2) if you go for it. Quote
captain america Posted August 9, 2004 Posted August 9, 2004 Hi Eric. There's currently a raffle going on as we speak. Basically, you have the possibility of winning the VF-1 Booster with a Valkyrie, all built & painted by me as the grand prize. I believe that all the details were made available by MonkeyN at the very beginning of the post. And yes, if the booster sells well, I can't immagine why we couldn't organize the same type of raffle for a built-up launch vehicle later Quote
Mule Posted August 9, 2004 Posted August 9, 2004 Would you consider casting that knee/bent part so that we can adapt a regular Hasegawa fighter kit instead of using the strike/super and omitting all the fast packs? They are cheaper - less waste too That sounds like a great Idea. I'd hate to buy a whole super kit only to have to exlude half of it. Besides, I've got a VF-1S sitting around with nothing to do Quote
Grayson72 Posted August 12, 2004 Posted August 12, 2004 Got anymore pics John? I need a booster fix today. Quote
captain america Posted August 12, 2004 Posted August 12, 2004 Hi Guys. Quick, pictureless update. I'm actually almost finished with the masters at this point; I had a minor hiccup with some parts that I still need, which is putting me a bit behind schedule, but all that said, the masters for the booster will be finished on Monday, and I'll have a full picture show then. Quote
captain america Posted August 17, 2004 Posted August 17, 2004 It's finished. As you've most probably assessed from my previous updates, my pictures are simply poo, and I appologize for that ahead of time; there's a great deal of very fine detail and scribing that isn't really clear in the pictures, but I assure you that it is indeed there. The large gap running horizontally fore-aft along the outer hull is simply the junction between the upper and lower hulls. I didn't glue the parts for the photos, as this would damage the masters needlessly. Now that the masters are done, I'm tasking myself with making the first set of master molds, and the test-shots that will lead to the actual finished castings. These should be done by Sunday of next week... Depending on how quickly my mold material is delivered. Hopefully I'll have a new (proper) camera to take better detailed pics by them. Quote
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