Hasegawa 1/72 Macross VE-1 Elintseeker Step by Step Modeling Guide By W M Cheng (February - March 2003)
Hi all, I got such a great response from you all that I thought I would share my next experience with the Hasegawa VE-1. I had planned to start the YF-21 to pair with my YF-19, but they haven't seem to have arrived in the stores in Toronto yet - Damn!! So I'll try to finish this (VE-1) in the next week or two. I started with the cockpit since this will eventually be sealed under the canopy. I had also decided to build this one with the landing gears up, so that I can properly display the lower antenna array (unfortunately it’s an either or dilemma - the kit has parts for an extended array or one that is folded up when the gears are down - although it probably wouldn't be too hard to modify it with some type of polycap to get it to swing). This first photo shows the black wash I did on the pilots and seats to pick out the recessed lines and folds on the pilots.
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It seems that I got a lot of questions on building the Valkyrie with the landing gears up last time so I'll try to outline the steps I took. It’s quite easy, it’s just not illustrated in the Hasegawa instructions - I would encourage all to try it if you've got multiple Valks. The lines are so nice when the gears are up! You will notice that I sliced off the connecting tabs on the gear doors. Also, I added a piece of styrene plastic to the back of the doors to help keep them aligned while I glue the edge (this edge is too fine to withstand much without the styrene reinforcement in the back) I also added strips to the gear well so that the doors would have something to push against when I glue them to the fuselage. There isn't much "meat" to glue these doors to the fuselage - so anything you can provide will help.
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He's a shot of the cockpit tub after a black wash (for recessed details) was wiped off and a lighter dry-brushing was applied (for raised details). Hasegawa did an excellent job in giving us a convincing raised front panel, but I still think I will use the decals provided. I think the dry-brush technique works great when you want to show off the cockpit with the canopy raised (its a more subtle technique). But when the canopy is on, the distortions will not really allow you to see the fine details clearly, only gross details show through. I got a little carried away with the yellow ejection handles in the seats, when the pilots are in, they pretty well obscure everything. In the background are the two pilots in the initial paint stages - before the decals. The forward pilot needs his foot cut off since without this amputation, he will not sit into the seat properly. The RIO pilot needs his legs cut off at the shins, otherwise he won't fit in behind the forward seat. Don't worry; you don't really see any leg beyond the control panels.
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A little more cleaned up pilots, I tried to position them differently (after all they are the same molds) so that when they are in the cockpit they would look more lively. They actually don't look that dirty in real life, but I guess at this close range the macro tends to pick up all sorts of tiny details and imperfections (look at my cutting mat, it looks a bit speckled - I guess it’s time to dust! I love the fact that Hasegawa included the center black line on the helmet as a decal!
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Oh, I am using a Nikon Coolpix 990 - I've had it for years now and I am still quite happy with it although there are much better cameras now. I love the macro lens, it allows me to focus up to 1cm. When using macro, you have to be careful where you focus since the depth of field is extremely small - so background objects tend to blur. The lower fuselage section needs some work here. Notice I added some styrene sheets to the section in front of the wing pivot pins. I don't get why Hasegawa hasn't fixed this yet, but if you don't block the area up, when you are finished and decide to swing back the wings, you will see this cavity. Additionally, the grey "paint" is Mr. Surfacer 500 which is kind of a liquid putty/filler. This will fill in the gaps and the circular mold ejection pins that will be visible when you swing forward the wings.
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Yes Kam63, it is the same kind of wash I use on the panel lines later on the exterior. Its a thinned down oil paint mixture with low odour Varsol. I let it dry a bit (30-60mins) then wipes it off. It will dry better in 24hrs - and I would usually seal it with a clear-coat. What I like about this oil is that you can clean up the excess with a little clear Varsol on a rag and wipe down your model (since I usually paint my model with Tamyia Arcylics - the solvents to interact with each other). I'll provide step-by-step paneling and weathering when I get to it (hopefully). Hey guys, this is the finished cockpit, as you can see a lot of the detail is kind of obscured by the pilots - but better too much detail than sparse!
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Here you can see the extreme lack of depth of field I mentioned earlier when the camera is at extreme macro with a very large f-stop - only the panel is in focus, everything even millimeters in front and behind is blurred. I like how the Hasegawa decal actually conforms to the raised buttons on the plastic part. I used a lot of MicroSol (decal solvent) to get the decal to conform to the irregular surface of the control panel.
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Here's a shot of the fuselage together, notice that bead of glue. I always try to put enough glue so that it oozes out when I press the parts together, especially large center seams. This assures a good bond (hold together for 15-20sec to set) and fills in any gaps. If you're lucky, when you sand down this seam, its all you need to prep for paint. Sometimes I do need a bit of putty or Mr. Surfacer especially around the sprue attachment points.
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Here's the underside with the gear well doors glued in place. Its hard here to keep the seams so they blend into the rest of the panel lines of the fuselage. I used liquid cement on these parts, since there is so little edge/plastic (thin) for the glue to adhere to. The sanding of the seams will blend the pieces together.
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Now that the glue has set overnight, I am sanding the fuselage halves, after the sanding I use a micro-saw to re-scribe some of the light recessed panel lines. Its like a photo-etched part with tiny saw teeth - I got this from HLJ it came in a set of 8 of varying curves and coarseness. It’s also made by Hasegawa.
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Now I am sanding the back plate so the surfaces revealed by the swing wings will be smooth. I use a 200grit plastic/paper and move my way up to a 400. The key is lots of water; the water helps keep the sandpaper grit free and non-glugged.
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This is what it looks like when I am finished. The light grey is the Mr. Surfacer 500 and the darker grey is Tamiya putty (used when there is serious dips or cracks)
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This shot shows the area just in front of the wings that would show if you didn't add that styrene sheet in front and sanded it off, as well as the mold ejection pins that would be visible in the final model.
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This is my attempt to be cheap, since this kit doesn't use much of the photo-etched parts; I thought I would use what's left of a partially used photo-etched set that was initially used on a non-strike/super Valkyrie. In fact I think it works out quite economically if this set used for one non-strike/super and one VE/VT-1. However, the strike or super would use up all the pieces. As you can see, the main parts for the packs and intakes can be used here.
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All I have to do is create a "tailgate" to prevent you from looking into the fuselage while the wings are extended which is a photo-etched piece that was already used. I decided to use a thin strip of corrugated styrene. You can buy sheets of this stuff with various patterns at a good hobby storethey scratch build, model railroad and build doll house stuff with this.
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There's what you would end up seeing when the kit is done. The excessive gap to the left is there because I want the wings to retract, so there needs to be space. Carefully measure the full extent of the swings, because you need to provide clearance for the gear and the wings at both fully swept positions.
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Another modification since the photo-etched parts where already used. The same company that makes the styrene sheets also makes pre-cut strips of varying thicknesses (talk about lazy)I guess you could just cut them yourselves) You can see the various stages of gluing them down with liquid cement, cutting them long, then sanding them down flush with the edge of the exhaust cone. I think that's it for the modifications to effectively use the left-over photo-etched parts. Just a lot of sanding and filling ahead (this is the tedious part - that if you rush, you'll regret it when you paint). I’ll work on getting rid of the canopy part seam next.
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Here's a shot with the nosecone together and the seam filled and sanded. I choose to glue the forward antennas at this point because I did it both ways before (at this stage and after painting with CA glues) and the only way to ensure a good solid bond is to glue them (with solvent type) in while there is no paint. They are hard buggers since the actual glue surface area is so small, and they are delicate and don't take well to handling. The worst thing is if they break off after the painting stage. I choose the pastic ones over the metal etched ones because they are just too thin to look realistic.
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The first step to eliminate the dreaded center seam on the canopy is sanding. The seam is there because Hasegawa need to use a 3 part mold to create the bubble nature of the canopy profile (like F-16s) and a traditional 2 part mold would have left an under-cut condition near the bottom which would of made it impossible to release the plastic from the mold. Thank god there is no seam on the inside of the canopy - its only on the exterior concave surface which makes it much easier for sanding. Just don't use excessive pressure, since these clear parts are more brittle than the styrene counterparts. I am also showing the type of sandpaper I use - it doesn't have to be Tamiya, but it does have to be 1200 to 2000 grit (this is a measure of coarsness). As you can see this package contains 1 sheet of 1200, 2 sheets of 1500 and 2 sheets for 2000 (the higher being finer).
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The first stage is the roughest/coarse-est sandpaper which would be the 1200 grit. This is used to eliminate the actual seam.
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I am lazy, so I usually skip a stage to the 2000 grit next, and I make sure that I cover all the area that the 1500 left behind - just to be safe, I sand a little beyond what I think would be the original sanded areas. It should look foggy but not scratchy - don't worry though.
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To make sure that I got the seam and that the foggy-ness is fine enough to go away and that there are no scratches hiding in the cloudy mess, I usually dunk it in water. Once submerged, it should look completely clear. If there are still any imperfections, then repeat the procress from the beginning again. By the way, use lots of water throughout the entire sanding process, it will help take away the little plastic debris, lubricates the sandpaper and keeps it from clogging.
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Next step comes removing the foggyness or cloudyness. I use a Tamiya rubbing/polishing compound - its essentially a really fine toothpaste with fine abrasive particles in a suspension.
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I apply it to the canopy and rub/polish it off with a clean paper towel. Becareful you are not applying too much force to the canopy, since clear parts are traditionally brittle.
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After the polishing compound stage, it should like exactly like it did when you started (of course you just spend 30-45mins work on it) minus the center seam. There should be no scratches or cloudyness of any sort. But I still think it looks plastic.
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The last stage involves Future Acrylic Floor finish. You can get this anywhere including your local grocery store. I find that dipping the canopy in this stuff provides a much clearer coating to the whole piece and gives it a shine that looks much more like glass or polycarbonate.
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You must make sure that the excess is dripped away or touch the corners to a papertowel to suck the excess away. Too much can lead to a slightly yellowish cloudy cast. Let dry in an DUST-FREE environment. Just like the Tamiya acrylic paint, it is suseptable to windex and other amonia based cleaners. In fact, I had to strip one down before since some dust got to it while it was drying, so I just dunk the whole thing in windex and that took it off. Notice how smooth the reflections are and the clearity of the plastic. My next step would be to seal in the cockpit with this, and protect the canopy with a removeable liquid mask so I can paint the entire fuselage.
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This whole process takes about 30-45mins (longer to type and upload the images he, he) Yes you can skip the compound, however if there are any deeper scratches (missed seam not detected because of the fogging) or imperfections that might of been missed - you won't know until the future is set/dried. The future floor wax does indeed hide a host of sins, however upon reflections, there is a slight difference between the true smooth surface of the plastic and a small surface imperfection/scratch that is filled in with the future floor wax. This is a safer route IMHO. Black or dark washes is best applied onto surfaces where there are a lot of creases or details that are rendered in recesses and reveals. I usually use a thinned down mixture of black/brown (grey for panel lines) oil paint that is diluted with low-odour Varsol / mineral spirits. This gives a very viscous mixture that will run into cracks easily. After I paint the part with the base-coat colour - usually with Tamiya acrylic (so the Varsol doesn't interfere with the paint) I just brush on this thinned down mixture of black and let it seep into all the cracks and crevices. I leave it alone, looking messy for a few hours - so the mineral spirits/Varsol evaporates leaving the black behind. After a few hours, I would take a rag or paper towel and wipe down the piece, removing all the excess black - what's left is black inside all the fine lines and details. I would then let it dry overnight. You can still put a bit of Varsol onto the rag to wipe away stubbon stains. This works best on a base coat that is glossy or semi-gloss. A flat base will tend to stain slightly. A dry brush is something that is best done when there is a lot of raised surface details - or done after a dark wash. Look for a fairly stiff brush that will be dedicated to this task 28
once you use it, the shape or sharpness of the brush will be ruined. Basically, you would dip the brush in a light colour (the highlight colour of choice - I usually use white, light grey, tan or silver) and proceed to wipe off as much of the brush as you can on a towel until when you drag the brush across the towel - it leaves nothing (no paint) behind. You're wondering whats the point? Well its always easier to do a much subtler effect and build up in layers than to over do it and have to repaint the model back to its original condition. With next to no paint left on the brush, I would proceed to brush it over the raised details (this works best if the underlying colour is dark and your highlight is light) and work your brush in random strokes around the edges of the raised details. You want the edges to catch a bit of the lighter highlight, but you want the middle of the panels to be relatively free of highlight. So the ideal condition becomes an area say you painted it medium grey, the panel line / part separation is empasized in the dark wash and the edge of the panel is highlit in a light grey. All of a sudden this grey part now has at least 3 shades of colour that will make it stand out and look as if the edge of the panel is worn. Another long winded answer - aren't you sorry you asked But do try to practice on some other spare parts first - it does take a bit to get a hang of. Tanks are often a place you would see a lot of dry-brushing. I wouldn't do it to the body of the Valks (since they are white) but the fast packs are a great place to do it. A point to note here, this dark wash process works great with models that have recessed panel lines - some cheaper/older molds have raised panel lines (aka latest Hasegawa F-14 Macross edition - very old remold) and the dark wash will look odd on these models since the black will sit on either side of the panel line and the actual line will become the highlight - very wierd! A fantastic idea I stole from Master Cobywan, its best to spray the tailcone assembly separately from the fastpacks, but the way Hasegawa as molded the pins, they want you to place the pivoting tailcone at the time you glue the two fast pack halves. By cuttng a notch in both sides, you can literally "snap" the tailcone piece in after painting. The trick is to cut just enough to snap in (without forcing the pieces apart) but not too much that it will fall out afterwards. (P.S. sorry forgot to adjust the white balance to tungsten for these shots - hence the red cast)
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This is the piece together, the two circles at the top of the inside are just two ends of spare 1/100 IMAI missles that just fills the space as extra engine "gak" when the tailcone snaps into place.
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Hey "gak" is a real technical term in the film business - it means "misc. technical looking machine stuff" This is the boring stage - lots and lots of sanding, refilling, and more sanding... not much to show here. I started to break the parts out that will be sprayed/airbrushed in Tamiya XF-56 metallic grey. They are just masking taped down to a piece of cardboard so that they could be handled easily.
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I started grouping assemblies that will be painted in similar colours. This fuselage section will be light grey, and by gluing these pieces now, I can assure a good bond.
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Here's where I seal in the cockpit. The canopy makes a great mask for the airbrush. I will protect the canopy with a liquid masking film tommorrow. I use this canopy glue now, I used to use white glue, then Weldbond. Now since I found this stuff I wouldn't go back. This stuff is the same price as white glue, cleans up with water, but once its dried, its clear and flexible (fills in gaps), so I could open up the canopy again if I need to.
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Here's a dry fit of a few pieces so I feel like I accomplished something (sanding is always so tedious) Its a good idea to keep dry-fitting ahead of yourself so you can plan ahead if you need to paint anything before it gets glued in. I usually plan glueing things late at night so that I'll be forced to leave it alone overnight - same goes with clear coating or painting. The worst you can do is be impatient and fiddle with it getting your grubby fingerprints and dust over it all.
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This is the liquid masking film I use, you just brush it on. Since Hasegawa has kindly provided the canopy structure in decals, I would just peel the entire thing off after painting and apply the decals, otherwise, you can cut this stuff to act as a mask.
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[...]so, here we are mixing for the airbrush. Its a very old Badger 200 single action - I've had it for 18yrs and its a workhorse! I definitely use the Tamiya thinner 1:1 or 2:1 thinner:paint ratio. Some prefer 4:1 thinner to paint ratio - it kind of depends on how deep the colour is. I think it has some flow enhancing solution in it. I use windex (regular blue stuff with ammonia) to clean out the airbrush and brushes afterwards.
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A shot painted...
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One of the sensor arrays underneath that I decided to add a little bit of detail of my own. The front looks odd just cut off like that, so I used the surplus back pack thruster (there are 4 but you only need 3) in the front and one of the hydraulic actuators for the airbrake to give that flat piece some relief. I believe small gak like this shouldn't be enough to make the kit in-accurate as long as it doesn't alter the silouette. (I hope this meets with the Great Floating Head's approval)
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I painted the interior of the legs black, since when the tailcones are fitted, you still see into the leg via the cracks - I find that whenever there are views into the model - if you black them out, it gives it more a sense of scale.
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Last thing for tonight, I started shading the metallic grey parts with Tamiya X-10 Gun Metal, its a darker glossier shade and provides some realistic burnt look to the edges. I will edge the very ends with flat black nearer to the end. I also dropped a thined black into the "afterburner" to pick out all the "fan" details which can be seen if you look directly up the tailpipe. I left it a bit "hot"/bright since when you look up, its almost completely dark, so any bright spots will show up just subtly.
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I really like the plane mecha more than anything else, but that super/strike battroid seems really tempting. If I can get a Hikaru VF-1S into that last pose in DRYL without substantial modification to the joints then yah, I think I will attempt a Battroid. To tell you the truth, I haven't really built any models since high-school, I kind of took a 10 yr hiatus - but those Hasegawas were so good - nothing like the ARII or IMAI stuff I was used to. The quality of these new kits really lured me back into the fold. Practice, practice, practice... I would love to see some of anyone's works. I catagorize the glues into 4 sections: Solvents: Testor's orange tube (the blue one is too slow) - for really strong bonds like fuselage halves Liquid cement (testor's or Tamiya) for hard to get at places that require detail and small pieces lke antennas. I used to use Methyl-hydrate (or something like that) its a styrene solvent - but it was just too toxic and smelly - plus liquid cement is very much like that and cheaper. CA glues: Cyano-Acrylate (or something like that - Crazy Glue) I have two types: thick (gap filling) and thin (very viscous). These are good for gluing dissimilar materials such as metal photo-etched parts to plastic or pieces that have broken off (repair). But it is brittle and 41
in-flexible and releases a fogging fume that will ruin clear parts like canopies if you are not careful. Avoid CA glues anywhere near the cockpit and use in well ventilated areas. Epoxy: I just use the household 5 minute epoxy - I used this mostly for resin kits but also when ever there is a need for extreme strength in the bond. Oh, I guess lastly there are the white glues: I use Weldbond and that canopy glue - both of which dries clear and flexible - good for canopies and clear parts. I really believe that an airbrush is an excellent investment - you don't need a top of the line Iwata - I just have a old Badger 200 single action - its simple and has lasted me for many years. Simple is good for cleaning thicker hobby paints. My SilAir compressor is made in Italy, I did spend a pretty penny on this since I used an old converted refridgerator compressor I rigged up for 10 years. I totally believe in a good compressor it smooths the airflow, its slient with auto-shut off, with 1/2 gallon resovior and mosture tap which I believe is important. I get my airbraush and compressor supplies from art stores not hobby stores. I did a VF-1 Super a while back in Max's colours, that I think I did a step-by-step, I'll look up the thread. You could do a search for it. I did a old resin VF-2SS thread a while back too, but I think that has been cleaned out since. Sorry not much to report here, just a lot of sanding and filling... My first digital camera was the Nikon 950, I spec it for work - secretly wanting to buy it from production after it was through with it (but everybody dropped it too many times). I do love that camera - its what made me get the 990! Same macro lens capability. I worked briefly as a fashion photographer in high-school (great way to meet girls - highly recommend it!! it helped pay for the equipment. One thing I learned is keep the lighting simple - nothing beats natural light. Northern exposure is the best, since its fairly constant throughout the day and is consistently on the blue side if its a clear day. Luckily, my dining room has lots of natural light, even under overcast conditions its quite bright (overcast/cloudy is the best condition to take pictures - unless its landscapes) Usually I use the camera meter on a grey card first - this is pretty essential since the Valks are primarily white. If you don't meter for some light neutral grey - all cameras or light meters will try to convert the Valk white into this light grey. My dining room table is frosted glass, which provides some nice underside reflections, and I just usually prop up a white card behind so you don't see the rest of my house which can be distracting. KISS (keep it simple stupid) is my motto. I get as close to the model as I can as though I am photographing the real plane - I use the standard built in lens on macro setting and use the smallest f-stop that light will allow me to increase the depth of field. Small depth of field often gives way to making the object seem small. Wide angles also helps to give the illusion of size/large-ness. OK, photo lession over for now (sorry to ramble again) - I could explain further if you want to be bored - but I'll reserve that for when I finish this 42
sucker and get to photograph it. The modifications for the rear landing gear wells is a little more involved but not too complicated. The most important part is to shave away the excess behind the front most gear door so that it can sit flush with the leg. As you can see in this photo, I got carried away and took out too much, but don't worry, that clear lens piece (red & blue) nav lights goes over this. I usually paint the back of the piece silver, and clear coat red & blue for the front lens, so this hole won't show. I also file down the leg plate portion with the square hole in it - you need to do both for it to sit down properly.
Again, I glue the rear two pieces together first and structurally re-inforce it with an extra piece of styrene in the back. You would have to sand the edges of both these pieces slightly smaller for them to fit into the well opening.
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There lastly is the completely leg - the doors do not perfectly match the contours of the leg but thats ok. When the glue dries, I will give this an overall sanding to bring down any large differences. Remember that the doors will have panel lines around them so it further looks as though its a functioning door.
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Just to be absolutely safe my paint sandwich is as follows: [TOP] ModelMaster Clearcoat (laquer based) -desired finish Tamyia panel shading & airbrush weathering (water acrylic) Decals Oils thinned down for panelling (Mineral spirits based ModelMaster Clearcoat (laquer based) -gloss or semi-gloss Tamiya basecoat colour (water acrylic) [BOTTOM / plastic] I make sure that each layer is sandwiched with something that has a totally different solvent base so that I can limit the interactions between layers. I usually only use Future for canopies since the glossyness is so high it seems un-realistic for a military vehicle - maybe a car model though. Did some more sanding this morning (boring!!! and a little putty to help out some of the lower areas that doesn't meet with the high areas as well. As you can see, the whole thing is smoothing out pretty well. I used to just putty over the whole thing and sand it down smooth - but the gear doors seems just drawn on after the fact (which is what I did). I find that this way, letting the individual doors read with little imperfections in alignment and the deeper panel gooves - once properly weathered looks more realistic as a piece of 45
equipment that opens and closes. (IMHO)
On to the back packs. I do find that the Hasegawa molds have deteriorated a little bit (nothing like Revell or Monogram - but noticable for Hasegawa's standard of perfection) especially when compared to my first Super VF-1A - the molding was absolutely crisp and the alignment was dead on. I find I have to do a lot more sanding and filling with this kit. As you can see there are spots of putty all over the seams. Here you can see the left over metal etched parts applied. Thank God for the back "floor" panel it hides a terrible joint/seam that would be very difficult to sand away in that tight space. Also the front panel fits the contours of the pack much better than the supplied plastic part. By the time I sand the top smooth, I usually loose most of those molded raised panels - its lucky that they are supplied on the photo-etched kit. Gotta take a break - shovel snow before the wife gets home!!
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Since the nozzles were painted before we glued the halves together - we have to protect it when we spray the legs. I use the good Tamiya masking tape (thinner yellow stuff) for areas that actually contact the painted surfaces, and I wrap cheapo masking tape around that to create a large masking area in case I over spray. The Tamiya stuff is great - its a little more expensive, but it totally doesn't lift or damage any delicate paint surface beneath and it keeps a very straight light when using it for masking. I am definitely a believer in the right tools for the right job!
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Here is a break down of the parts for painting. I intend to keep these assemblies separate while weathering and decalling because it makes it easier to get my big fingers around to all the tight crevices. Especially in this model more so than any other Valk, you really need to decal before you assemble it together or otherwise you can't get into all the little spaces such as the red stripe on the back panel and folded arms.
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I couldn't resist just doing another refit just to see all the colours together. I'll list the colours I used below: XF-19 Sky Grey (straight out of the bottle) -for overall light grey fuselage XF-18 Medium Blue + XF-53 Neutral Grey + XF-24 Dark Grey (40:40:20) -leg armour and radome XF-53 Neutral Grey + XF-59 Desert Yellow (50:50) -fast packs and sensor array I had a little dark grey left, so I pre-shaded the radome a little.
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The pockets for the maneuvering thrusters are hand painted in XF-56 Mettalic Grey.
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I used some black in the finest setting on my airbrush to create a little shading on these arm door panels, this makes it look as though they can shutter open - the tape I move down as I complete each leaf.
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Maskng for the intakes - also used XF-56 Metallic Grey.
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Masking for the little fins - they have a dark grey forward edge, I think Hasegawa missed a decal here.
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A picture of the completed backpack.
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Okay, on to the black panel wash - actually medium grey. I mixed white and black oil paint and thinned it down substaintially with low-odour Varsol / minieral spirits.
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Here's a shot of my spotted bird with the oil wash applied to run into all the cracks and crevices. Its messy in this phase but don't worry, you can wipe it off soon. I would let it dry for a few hours before wiping it down. From the sheen, I did a semi-gloss clear coat before I did this oil wash - flat base-coats tend to stain with the oil wash. I also found out that if I added a little Tamiya Clear to the flat paint, it covered better and was better at hiding small scratches and imperfections (I think it thickened the paint a little better at filling).
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A close up, showing everywhere I dabbed the oil wash. I will use a black wash for the moveable surfaces.
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There it is wiped off with a paper towel. Its still a little dark for my taste - I'll wipe it again but with a little varsol on the paper towel. Also when I airbrush the shading on with a darker grey, it will lighten the panels slightly and darken the surrounding fuselage creating less of a contrast.
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I suppose Vasol is some type of mineral spirit. I choose it because its the mildest of all these chemicals, I don't want to chance it damaging the lower layer. Low odour Varsol or Minineral Spirits should be easy to get at any local hardware store. Just don't do it over enamel paints, since they share the same solvent. Be very careful when you do the wash on your 1/48, I tried a bit on the 1/60 and the Varsol started to remove the painted black and coloured stripe. It seems as though the 1/60 paint (it doesn't affect the plastic colour though) is sensitive to the mineral spirit solvent somewhat - I assume the 1/48 is similar. I still did it with gundam markers and then took off the excess with Varsol - since the gundam markers were too fat and dark - it did work, but I did get some colour on my wipe down cloth - just becareful you don't rub too much. The wash only colours the recessed panel lines and rivets. Here's a shot of the components so far...
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This is a comparison when I am starting to do the dry brush technique. As discribed earlier, this is where I use a relatively stiff brush and wipe off as much excess light grey paint as possible with a towel, leaving only a slight residue left on the bristles. I then drag/rub the brush over the highlights of the model (works best on dark base coat objects). As you can see the photo-etched parts stands out nicely on the left after the dry brushing - where the right only has the dark wash applied.
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Again, here, the bottom has recieved this dry brushing around the edges and highlights, and the top piece has yet to be done.
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I just couldn't help piecing it together at this point just to see...
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Another shot... The different colours in the packs and radome are a little strong for my taste - especially next to the light grey of the overall aircraft. However, I think that once the decals are on, I would lightly dust the overall plane with light grey which will blend the decals in and tie together the various colours a little more.
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I started to do a little pre-shading on the panel lines first so that I don't interfere too heavily with the decals yet. After this pre-shading, I seal it in again (the pre-shading is delicate and scratches off easily) with ModelMaster (Testors) Laquer based clear-coat. In this case I mixed gloss with semi-gloss - I find that this provides a decent base for decals. Just gloss seems to attract fingerprints too easily.
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Here's a shot of the legs with the gear doors up and panel shaded slightly. I wanted a worn anime look, but no real battle damage, since this baby would be well protected.
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The nozzles are glued on, I tried to glue them toed out like the anime line drawings. You can see just the tips of those extra missles in the hole of the packs as well as just a bit of some corrugated plastic sheet I glued to the underside of the ceiling to add to that corrugated edge look on some of the line art. The dry-brush is complete, and the photoetched parts stand out pretty good.
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I use the decal SET (milder, only use SOL/solvent for very tough surfaces as it makes the decals extremely fragile - you have been warned) usually after I lay the decal down, position it and blot out the air bubbles with a damp piece of paper towel. I then brush on SET around the edges and anywhere there are panel lines underneath while the decal is still wet. Its is less effective when the decal is dry - since there is no room for movement of the decal once its dry. When you first brush (brush sparingly) either SET or SOL on, the decal will soften considerably, do not touch it! the decal will wrinkle - don't worry, as long as you don't touch it, it should dry out flat. That being said, I already ruined four decals on this bird. I don't know what it is, but they seem to be extremely thin - more so than any other Valk I have built (VF-1A, VF-1A Super & YF-19 all by Hasegawa) which is very strange. I would use extreme caution when using SET on these decals - maybe its just my batch. You can definitely use the liquid mask on any other parts - it is pretty good at not lifting paint. However, to get a straight clean line, you need to cut the mask to the shape after it has dried on the model - the brushed edge during application isn't straight or thick enough to hold a clean line when you airbrush. Here's the rub, if you cut the mask with an exacto knife to get the clean edge, chances are that you might cut through the liquid mask and into the base-coat paint which would royally suck. Yes also I have found special plastic cleansing agents - I think Polly makes one - but I haven't really used them on styrene models yet - only on resins. As long as there is no grease you seem to be fine I haven't had any problems yet (knock on wood). If you are concerned, just wash the model in the kitchen sink with mild dish detergent (without hand lotion stuff) - I don't think you need special cleaners unless there is a problem. The panel shading I use is usually very close to the undercoat colour. On white Valks, I usually use XF-19 Sky Grey, 67
while in this case were Sky Grey was my base-coat, I used XF-20 Medium Grey - just usually a shade darker. The idea is that you don't want to make it too obvious. Hope this helps. Don't dunk, just lightly paint a little darker colour thinned with Varsol into the cracks. This Varsol mixture shouldn't take off the paint if you used Tamiya acrylic which is what I use - I don't know about other mixtures. I haven't always used an airbrush - use to brush by hand, its a real skill to do so without brush strokes showing (I've seemed to have lost that skill now that I rely on my airbrush). I have seen amazing hand brushed results - but I think the only thing you can't do is the pre-shading of the panels - however, an airbrush does make everything else much easier and smoother. I don't know much about painting metal figures - I'd assume they would be some kind of enamel. All I can say is that these effects I do are entirely based on my choices in paint - I don't know how other choices in paint types will affect subsequent layering and weathering. The most common mistake is layering with common solvent paints thereby interacting with the previous layer (wiping it off accendentally or have the top layer dry cracked or puckered). Okay, back to the task at hand. This is a pin-vise, you can pick them up at local hardware stores or hobby stores (but the latter usually sells them for more). Its a great little tool for drilling precise tiny holes - I use it alot in resin modelling to drill holes for metal pins to structurally re-inforce joints.
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Here I am going to drill out the little thruster? flarings on either side of the intakes.
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Here it is drilled out.
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And painted.
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I painted the nosecone last night to let it dry overnight without my fingerprints getting all over it.
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A view from the top plate, I didn't panel all the top backplate details because in the next picture, when I install the backpack, it obscures most of this texture anyways.
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See whats left - thats why I decaled the red stripe first.
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The packs on...
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The radome on...
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I fashioned a makeshift stand out of a coat hanger for now just to see the entire bird with the lower antenna array in place, don't rest the model on this array - its too delicate - my array will remain detachable until I make a proper stand. This is one of the drawbacks of retracting the landing gear. However, if the landing gears are out, you can never extend the lower antenna array - which is what makes this bird special IMHO. The rest is decals for the next day or two - be careful, my batch was very thin as I mentioned earlier.
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I find the dry brushing works better on flat base-coats than glossy ones. The Tamiya sandpaper is the same as generic 1500-2000 grit paper - its just harder here to find the generic stuff than the Tamiya stuff - BUT don't use a nail file, they are much too rough and will scratch up the canopy to a point where no gloss coat will help. Remember, if you see scratches, or feel something when you run your fingernail over the seam, then no amount of gloss coats will fix it - the gloss coat will only fix that fogging that is very smooth. I would still use future floor wax over the Tamiya gloss coat (its too thick). The guy is right, you don't use the tube glue to fill (too much glue will weaken the plastic and becareful, if there is too much, sometimes it doesn't stop and a month later you might find "sinkholes" or depressions caused by too much solvent type glue). Perhaps I wasn't clear, I use the tube glue when there really is no gap, so I would sand down the seam. If there is a substantial gap (which is rare with Hasegawa models since they are so high quality anyways - but tons in Monogram or Revel) I always use putty - I use Tamiya putty again for the larger stuff as I mentioned when I did the leg landing gear doors. Can't wait to see your VT-1 - way to go! Remember to make sure that if you are incorporating other plastics to the model that it is also styrene which is the type of plastic the model is made of. IF you've got similar plastics, then you can just use the same modelling glues to attach to. However, if you've got a dis-similar plastic, then you must use crazy-type glues to adhere them. 78
I really didn't need to dry brush the control panel if I was using the decal, I just wanted to test my technique (since I don't model all the time - once or twice a year, I need to practice on something that might not be seen) and see how the panel will turn out. Knowing how well detailed it is, I think that if I were to build another Valk with the canopy raised, I would dry-brush the panel, and only cut out the display portion of the front panel so that it is a combination of the raised details (which I find more realistic) with the CRT display panel. There are 3 types of heads and needle assemblies for the Badger 200, I think they are XL (Heavy), IL (Medium), F (Fine), I purchased and installed the F (Fine) head and needle for my airbrush. I usually can get a 3mm thick line at 1" from the model - you must turn down the paint flow to get a thinner line, you might have to go over the same area a few times to get something that is dark enough to read. Remember its alway better to go lighter and darken it in layers - and long smooth strokes, start the spray off model and end the spray off model where possible (panel shading you can't do that). I've finished the decals and I've ruined 8 pieces in total. I just don't get it, the film isn't that thin, but a few select items seem to just desintegrate on me, and I had to piece a few small stencils back together - as though someone scratched and knifed the decal sheet very slightly. I would love to hear if anyone else has had any difficulties with these decals - or I just might be too picky. The decals aren't too bad for conforming to shapes and panels on their own, but to actually bring out the revits and fine details, I use MicroSET (or MicroSOL for really stubborn irregular surfaces) to soften the decals a bit once they are on and properly located. I try to blot out any airbubbles with a damp paper towel and press into the body with the paper towel to try and get as much of the detail to show though before I light brush a thin dab of MicroSET over the decal. I know the instructions on the bottle suggest laying some MicroSET down first then the decal over top. This helps eliminates bubbles underneath the decal, but I find that it softens the decals so much upon contact, that it doesn't really allow any time to re-position it before the decal gets too soft to handle. These Hasegawa decals are thinner than their north american counterparts ie: Monogram or Revell.
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As you can see, I do another black wash just over the decal areas where there are panel lines underneath. You might ask, why not just do the wash in one step after all the decals instead of in multiple steps like this? Well, if you are not careful in trimming all your excess decal carrier film (sorry, by the way, did I mention to trim away as much decal carrier film as possible before dipping it into water?) and sometimes it isn't possible to trim away all the excess, such as stencils. Then the black wash actually will pick up and highlight the edges of the carrier film and create a little un-intended halo of black around your decals.
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Things like redoing the access panel at the "U" really makes the decal look more painted on. After the decals dry, I am going to dust down the model with a very fine mist of light grey to lighten up the black decals and darken the white decals so they don't stand out so much from the model. This will tie the colours together a little more and give a slightly worn appearance to the decaled areas. After this, I get to remove the canopy masking woohoo!! and apply the canopy decals. Finally I would clear-coat gloss or semi-gloss over it to tie in the different sheen of the decals. The gloss clear coat is thicker, and somehow hides the edges of the carrier film better. After its all one sheen, I usually go back and re-coat the Valkyrie in a semi-gloss while the backpacks and armour packs get a flat final finish.
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So this is where I am now...
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the rapidiograph pens [is] still too thick even 0000 or six zeros is pretty good, but they clog too easily. Never draw them into the paint, always draw away from the paint - I had jewel tipped ones, and they scratched the hell out of the paint finish. Also if you make a mistake, its pretty hard to get the india ink off without damaging the paint surface. Yes I have used them in the past - but no longer because of the above problems. Ok, another decal disaster AARGH! I decided to mask across the black strip on the radome, put look what the low-tack Tamiya tape did to the decal. Well, live and learn, never put (even low-tack) masking tape ontop of a decal. I should of known, but it did it anyways, it lifted and torn a section of the decal off! I am just not having much luck with these decals.
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Well, here's a quick lesson in decal recovery or quick fix-it. I see I have two choices, either splice another decal in or strip all of the old decal off and paint that stripe back in. If I just paint the black in the area where the decal torn, then I would have a slight level and texture change plus its next to impossible to get the same black as a decal with paint. I thought I'd try to splice since I had a sheet of black decal strips. First thing I did was carefully cut a straight line across (light enough to penetrate the decal but not the paint or plastic) to remove a square section of the decal - so even if there is a slight over lap, it might look intentional like a access panel or something.
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Here's a shot of a sheet of generic black stripe decals - this one is made by Microscale (same company as the MicroSET solutions). My sheet was purchased some 15 yrs ago when I was modelling in high-school, I'm not sure whether Microscale still makes these sheets anymore. Luckily its even 1/2" strips already. I originally purchased these sheets, also grey, and yellow which comes in handy for striping underwing ordinance. If you ever see them, its great to have in your kit/shop.
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Here's the result of the repairs. I cheated a little and lightly sprayed a little dark grey (which is still lighter than the black) around the edges and used a sheet of paper as a mask (moving it down as I sprayed each line) to spray a subtle cross pattern over the black to co-incide with the cut/repaired line. This wasn't the original intent (I know the purist out there will cry herisy - its not in the anime!! but I thought that these light shading hides the seam line quite well.
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Those circles are nicely provided by Hasegawa! Bless their hearts for being thoughtful enough to include them on their decal sheet. I used a lot of decal solvent (MicroSol) to get my panels to adhere to all the buttons. I haven't really thought about the colour to my VT-1 yet, I still have to finish this one first. But most likely I would mix up something like Desert Tan and White - I don't believe there is any right colour straight from the bottle. Please use my tips, that's why I'm doing this - and hopefully also see the models of others and learn as well!! I got to uncover the canopy last night -YAAHHH! I put the liquid mask on a little thin and some parts did bleed through. Fortunately both the Tamiya basecoat, and the future floorwax dessolves in windex, so I pryed open the canopy (thank god I used that canopy glue instead of some solvent) and dunked the whole thing in a bath of windex. 15mins later, it was stripped, and I re-dunked it in future floor wax/polish. I let it dry over night.
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As you can see, it turned out pretty well. I got to decal the canopy frames this morning. I think that black strip does wonders mediating the orange nose cone and the grey fuselage. Thank god Hasegawa provided these, I hate masking out canopy rail structure.
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Here's a overall shot, with the clear-coat already done, I think it does a good job of sealing the decals in and making them the same sheen as the rest of the aircraft - thus giving the illusion of it being painted on. I also chose to glue the back pack on at this stage. I did scrap off the clear-coat and paint at the points of contact so that the solvent cement has actual styrene plastic to work against.
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You can see that light dusting of grey lightened up the black numbers "071" and the grey kite symbol to match the grey paint scheme a bit more. You can notice the difference when you look at the black strips around the canopy and nose area. Unfortunately I couldn't tone these down as well, since the canopy mask is off now, but next to the glossy canopy and orange radome, I don't find the contrast too unsettling.
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This under shot, you can see the photo-etched intake doors in place as well as this cool sensor array (best feature IMHO). I absolutely love the attention to detail Hasegawa has given this anime bird - look at the little sensor pod imediately lower right of the lower orange circular radome - they included a clear lens that is molded concave with a convex detail on the back side - it actually looks like a tiny camera lens. Mind you, this is 1.5mm across in diameter! At this point, when there are no more sprays of any kind to go on the model, I start glueing all the clear lens, nav lights and details on - again with that clear/white canopy glue I'd mentioned earlier.
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Here you can see the contrast between the semi-gloss aircraft and the flat armour/fast packs. I like this contrast as it adds to the idea that they are interchangable and the aircraft receives more mantenance. I think models that get different sheens also look more assembled/manufactured and parts replaced during use.
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Here's a shot with the top packs on, also in a flat finish.
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Here's a side view showing the details on the packs
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Here's the view with the radome on - it always cast a shadow so that photography is difficult in areas underneath it, it just goes to black...
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Here's a dramatic rakesh lighting - this is where all that thankless sanding pays off, if there are any flaws, this is where it shows up!!
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Of course that famous view from DYRL - is this the only view it appears in?
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Now what to do with the thrusters?? Should I modify them with the option parts like my VF-1A super and get large nozzles or should I use the Hasegawa supplied ones which are smaller (and I don't think they look like manuevering thrusters IMHO) but more accurate to line art? I haven't decided yet - I only have enough to do another Valk (which I am planning for a Strike) so maybe both the VE and VT should get the Hasegawa thrusters or should I splurge and order more from HLJ enough for all my birds. I know there is an on-going debate here on whether to large thrusters or not - I'd like a show of hands here...
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I like this view, kinda like from a refueling tanker POV. I like the tandem seats and I find the newly molded chestplate to have crisper detail than the regular Valks.
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Here's a slightly under-exposed shot on my shelf for now - I know its not finished yet but my wife will be on March Break, so I better take a week off from this modelling thread. I should return after next week to complete it.
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Here's a parting shot - a little better exposed. The last one was without a grey card - so it turned my white walls grey. This one I just over-exposed it by +0.7 /EV stops to get a truer exposure. I still need to paint wing tip nav lights red & blue (I already have painted the silver undercoat and will paint over them in clear red and blue to give it more depth and reflectance). Then there are the horizontal antennas from the back packs - but they are fragile and will be left off till the end. Finally there is the question of the thruster nozzles from the back packs, I think about it for a week and see what your replies are like before I proceed. The lastly is my real photo session with this completed bird. I guess at some time I should make a real stand for it that would be a little classier than this coat hanger eh?
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[J]ust a quick note - don't coat your regular stuff wth Future (They both can be dessolved with Ammonia based windex - so I would assume they are both acrylic based on the same solvents) it might attack the under/base coat of Tamiya. Try switching to the ModelMaster Acryl Laquers - which has a different solvent base to seal in the white. Then, if you screw up the pre-shading, just wipe it down with Windex and start over, since the white under/base coat would be protected by the clear-coat. You can't do that if you use Future, since what ever removes the panel shading will remove the Future as well. [M]y ModelMaster Acryl clear-coats are thinned down with their recommended thinner and airbrushed out. I have tried brushing it by hand for really thick coats and they come out glossier that way - but I would always recommend airbrushing it if you have the equipment. [A]lways try to keep the camera above 1/15sec shutter speed unless you have it on a tripod or are resting it against a stable surface - this is the threshold of hand-holding camera shake. When you get better at holding the camera, some may graduate down to 1/8sec The theory [of dry-brushing] is to use a paint of different solvent than your basecoat to do the panel lines. Enamels and other petrolium based paints are always going to share the same solvent as mineral spirits - I'm sure you found that out much to your chargrin. That is why I used acrylics as a undercoat which is different than the mineral spirit oils - now 102
getting low odour or odourless is also key, since its a less aggressive mineral spirit and would be gentler on the basecoat whatever it is. That being said, if you stil want to go with enamels as your basecoat, then why not switch to acrylics to do your panel lines? Just get some Tamiya black and thin it down with the Tamiya thinner - apply just like the thinned down oils (but allow less time for it to dry before you wipe it off) It may help to use a cloth with a little bit of Tamiya acrylic thinner on to wipe down your model of the excess acrylic. So in essence, you are doing the backward sandwhich as suggested; enamel base-coat, clear-coat seal (also enamel based) then use a acrylic wash. So even if the wash doesn't turn out, you can still remove it with acrylic thinner and start over again without it affecting your enamel base-coat. Hope this helps. I should be starting up again on Monday to finish this baby off. Just a word of warning though - I really would recommend against using Windex to thin anything. First off, Tamiya acrylics are highly suseptable to Windex, I use it to strip down parts to re-paint if I make a mistake, I also use it to clean brushes and my airbrush. The ammonia in it is the solvent for the Tamiya acrylics. Its good that you clear-coated the entire thing in a laquer first (hopefully this will provide the protection) - but if you missed any spot or is thin, the windex could get at your basecoat and ruin the finish. Also, windex does have a bluish tint. Oh, by the way, I am not sure if I wasn't clear, but several people seem to be under the impression that I use Future to clear-coat the entire plane at some point. I do not, and I do not recommend it either. Future and Tamiya acrylics are similar in solvent base that the two coats may interfere with each other. Additionally, there isn't a "real" thinner for Future that will allow it to be sprayed from an airbursh and can therefore create a splattering effect or worst, and interact with the undercoat. I believe that its too think to brush on sucessfully and not fill in the delecate details molded on the Hasegawa surfaces. I only use it to coat the canopy. [...]Well it seems as though there is a majority [approval to use] the smaller thrusters supplied by Hasegawa, so I think I will try those, if I don't like them I can always replace them with the wave option parts nozzles. So here, I have carefully separated them from the sprue and used a 400 grit sandpaper to "file" down the sprue connection points at the nozzle edges so that they read circular. I tried to trim it close with a knife, with its too easy to trim away too much which is a very visible mistake at the edges of these nozzles. Here I have sprayed them with Metallic Grey.
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While I am letting the nozzles dry, I decided that I would further dry-brush some white onto the darker fast packs. I found that after some lighter airbrush shading to tone down the decals, some of the previous dry-brushings were just too subtle to read. So I concentrate mainly on the edges - the above pack is being worked on, while the one in the lower half of the picture is the existing condition before the newly added white drybrushing.
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Similar case the leg boosters, I again added the white dry-brushing to the edges only, it especially works with the darker wash beneath to create a contrast between certain panels. As you can see, I had mentioned that it works best with a synthetic sable hair brush that is fairly stiff. However, this will be a dedicated dry-brush, since you can see the process ruins the brush. I like this shape to the brush since you can easily do straight edges.
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Here's a close up of the finish re- dry-brushed packs.
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I always try to pan my work so that while something is drying or curing, I can work on something else. Now that the nozzles' metalic grey paint has dried while I was drybrushing, I am applying the black wash to the newly painted nozzles. I am using a much thicker wash this time, because I want a lot of that black to stay behind.
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For the large nozzles on the VF-1A Super, I replaced all the Hasegawa supplied ones witha combination of these Wave Option parts - you can order them online through Hobby Link Japan. I decided to try out the Hasegawa supplied smaller thrusters nozzles this time around due to overwhelming demand here. However I did decide to just replace one nozzle with the wave option parts, as you can see this one just sat too flush in this deep well to look right. I used one of the bell shaped ones, and glued an extra small Hasegawa nozzle inside of it to tie the details to the surrounding nozzles.
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Of course, you need to scrap away any paint from the surfaces that you want to glue to. Otherwise the solvent glue has nothing but paint to adhere to - plus its designed to bond styrene to styrene plastic.
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That's it, here's a shot of the completed model. All I need to do is to replace the crappy little coathanger with a decent stand with a clear plexi-rod on a wooden base or sandblasted glass or plexi and I did forget those little wingtip navigation lights red & blue. I have painted them sice, but not before I took all these photos though.
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Happy Modeling! (And wear a safety mask.)
Addendum: I would love to keep [these models] in a glass display case, but my tastes are very particular, and I have yet to find a display case that suits my modernist taste or that I can afford. Nienkamper made one several years back, but it was several thousand dollars imagine how many Valks I can get with that!! I just keep them on el-cheapo Ikea specials for now - I play with them too much to put them behind glass. I guess that will change once I have kids.
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Here's a close up - excuse the model work - these were from my high-school days (circa '85-'86) I believe the Valks up top are 1/100 ARII fully transformable kits - I still have a few in shrink-wrap.
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That Queadluun-Rau is the old plastic model IMAI 1/144, I'm not sure - I didn't know there was a resin kit? hmm... Its also built around '85-86 era. I remember it had a half figure of Milia (but the box art was green with decals to match accordingly), but it wasn't very good so I tried to improvise an interior out of spare parts. I did try to follow the line art where-ever possible though
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