1083 replies to this topic

[cowie165]

Looks great Ron Nice Wave/Imai combo and really nice shading in the white/gray areas.

Hey in the "Daedalus Attack" shot, it looks like you photochopped in a domino and pasted it onto the back of the Macross TIC

Edited by cowie165, 16 August 2008 - 04:13 PM.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Looking really good ron!!!

[MechTech]

Thanks Gunny for the rack link! Everyone should check that out!

Ron, the SDF-1 looks great! I must say, you did the Daedalus justice ! Cowie's right, that does look like a Domino! Domino shields up! - MT

[wm cheng]

Hi all,

I thought I could share what I'm trying to start on. After almost a 3yr hiatus on model making (my new daughter as some of you know - with the minor exception of finishing off a almost finished anyways Resin Atmospheric Booster) I thought I'd get my feet wet again on a simplier kit (my Macross stuff is too valuable to me to experiment and get my skills back on!). Its also an experiment to see if I could carve out any personal time for me (I'm sure some fathers here can relate!).

After hearing so much good things about the new tooling of the Academy 1/72 scale F-16CJ - I decided to pick one up, and it was indeed amazing! Worth every penny and more, it is better than all Hasegawa kits except for its newest toolings and much cheaper too! Actually I find it better in most aspects - it was a very pleasant surprise as I had my doubts on anything not Hasegawa nor Tamiya. It was originally just to be a straight OUT-OF-The Box build to get my skills back, but as I got more and more into the subject (F-16) and the kit itself proved to be such a delight I ended up getting more and more into modifying it! When you got an already great kit to begin with, it lets you get creative and do mods - as opposed to spending all your time just correcting and filling in the kits errors!

Anyways, just a few progress snaps for now. Its an amazingly small aircraft, around the size of the original VF-1 Valkyrie, so all the pieces are correspondingly small to. I started to detail the main gear wells with some additional parts, wires and photo-etched parts based on photo research. This is just the preliminary stage, it still has to receive its oil wash, some warning stenciling decals and another layer of brake lines and various wiring bundles (but I included a penny for scale). I spruced up the cockpit with the Eduard photo-etched kit and added small sprue switches and toggles - definitely the smallest I've ever worked on! I also used a True Details resin seat and fixed that up too, it didn't come with the ejection rails which I scratch built and the very distinguishing environmental sensor pitots "horns" on either side of the seat head-rests. I also borrowed a friend who has this tool called Rosie the Riveter and tried it out on the wing surfaces to do some structural revits of my own on the main wings. Since I decided to drop the flaps slightly, I also corrected the kits molding of the flaps (added the body piece to the flap and corrected the mold panel lines. I also cut apart the rear split airbrakes in preparation to build them in the open position.

Anyways, if you guys are still interested in this non-macross related kit, I'll posts some more when I get more done.

Thanks for sharing!

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[renkenjutsu]

The cockpit detail is AMAZING! o.o

[Valkyrie addict]

................................................................................
............................wow..............................................
............................ .........................................

please do a step by step master cheng!!

how exactly is this rosie the riveter tool of your friend??? I did some rivets with a pinwise tool and ended up with a very sore index finger...

Edited by Valkyrie addict, 17 August 2008 - 09:22 PM.

[miriya]

in awe!

[orguss01]

Please more master and also any pics of Rosie The R??Looks very effective.

One of those tools you find after completing tons of model that makes you want to go back and do them all again....

[Berttt]

1/20 MaK modified Gustav:





1/48 Jadgpanther:






And 1/35 scale Puma:

Edited by Berttt, 18 August 2008 - 04:49 AM.

[wm cheng]

Thanks guys,

I won't go into a step by step on this one... Its not really Macross related, plus I just want to get it done in what little time I can carve out for it! Thanks for the kudos and interest though. I'll periodically post any snaps I get as I get a chance.

You can find info about Rosie the Riveter here;
http://www.largescal...er/riveter.html

Additionally I've found a cheaper alternative here (although I don't know how good it is);
http://www.ares-serv...M...ct&ID=15200

Actually now doing a little research on it, I've also found a Hasegawa alternative;
http://misc.kitrevie...rreviewjh_1.htm

They do get some getting used to - I practiced on a spare piece of styrene until I got the hang of it, but I still made a few mistakes which I had to sand over and fill with Mr. Surfacer to redo.

Edited by wm cheng, 18 August 2008 - 05:32 AM.

[HWR MKII]

good to see you getting back into the swing of things WM. more time will free up as they get older.

[cowie165]

Nice Berttt! I love the Gustav. MaK is such a cool genre and you really did well with that kit. You were modifying it to be a night fighting version, right?

[cowie165]

Thanks guys,

I won't go into a step by step on this one... Its not really Macross related, plus I just want to get it done in what little time I can carve out for it! Thanks for the kudos and interest though. I'll periodically post any snaps I get as I get a chance.

You can find info about Rosie the Riveter here;
http://www.largescal...er/riveter.html

Additionally I've found a cheaper alternative here (although I don't know how good it is);
http://www.ares-serv...M...ct&ID=15200

Actually now doing a little research on it, I've also found a Hasegawa alternative;
http://misc.kitrevie...rreviewjh_1.htm

They do get some getting used to - I practiced on a spare piece of styrene until I got the hang of it, but I still made a few mistakes which I had to sand over and fill with Mr. Surfacer to redo.

The Hasegawa one (TT-30) is no longer listed with HLJ? http://www.hlj.com/h...p;GenreCode=Sup

And boy o boy that is one great looking cockpit there!

[cowie165]

Played with the URL and found it. Discontinued. Bummer. http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGTT-30

[Berttt]

good to see you getting back into the swing of things WM. more time will free up as they get older.

Thanks Cowie and yeah, a night fighting version - or something. I had to do something considering I broke the clear windscreen and really didn't want to scrap the kit. I still have to add lenses and stuff.

[flyboy]

Additionally I've found a cheaper alternative here (although I don't know how good it is);
http://www.ares-serv...M...ct&ID=15200

For what it's worth, I'd caution against getting one of these. I picked one up before the "Rosie the Riveter" tools came out, and they are vastly inferior. These pounce wheels aren't built well enough that you can create a decent set of rivets from them. The wheels are wobbly, and the actual rivet pattern comes out looking like a row of widely-spaced rectangular indents.

The Rosie the Riveter tools, while more pricey, work great!

[cowie165]

Thanks flyboy

[wm cheng]

Hi all, I got a little more progress on my workbench...

Boy, I'm feeling my age... gettin' old - these parts are so damn small!! I'm really happy about the Eduard Photo-etched kit I got for the F-16 and I'm learning a lot about applying the photo-etched parts to the cockpit. I love the HUD that's built up for the front console and the wrap around canopy gasket.

Finally got past that damn intake!! After six separate tries and re-tries, finally got it together and looking decent, but there's still 3 flaws inside, but I've had enough - they will be flaws that I'll have to live with. I've learnt that there's no such thing as the perfect model (its the holy grail) that keeps me building for that hope one day...

I've made a major mistake with detailing up the main undercarriage gears now. To get me onto something else other than that stupid intake, I started to work on the gears and got carried away before I started to look at my painting and assembly process. I should of waited and applied these details in the end, it would have been easier to mask a completely bare gear well when I came to painting the rest of the aircraft - oh well, live and learn, thats why I'm practicing in this piece of plastic and not a Valkyrie! So I've left off all the wiring, brake lines and hydraulic hoses till the end after the painting. You can get a sense of scale when you see the penny next to some of the images.

Lastly, I just couldn't wait and wanted to paint up the fuselage portion of the cockpit and work the photo-etched parts into the rest of it with a very light bit of dry brushing to bring out the highlights and details.

Well, a lot of sanding ahead of me! Finally the fuselage is together.

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[miriya]

OMG!!!!

YOu are a genius.

[MechTech]

AWESOME job! Is it real or a model? - MT

[007-vf1]

I've been working on this since last year..finally done 1 of them and 4 more close to be finished..

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[007-vf1]

OK...Well, just a few hours later and just finished this one...

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[HWR MKII]

Not to be an ass or anything WM but ummm....Your cockpit colors are off. 7 years with my head in the guts of 16s has taught me alot about them. PM me if you want the fixes. Most can still be done.

[Kylwell]

Still on the Grille II.

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[HWR MKII]

MPC AT-ST on my bench. Trying to update the old kit and give it studio style detailing.

[PetarB]

Very interested in seeing that one! What scale was that again? 1/48? I've never seen the real thing.

[HWR MKII]

Ill make a post for it on SM later Petar. Overall the MPC kit is proportionally correct. just alot of missing or badly executed details. nothing some sheet and strip styrene cant fix.

[wm cheng]

Hi guys, some more updates...

Thanks for the info HWK MKII! I'll try to incorporate as much as I can (without redoing too much or damaging what I already have done).

Some of the photos here show the exhaust can that I worked on. The Eduard photo-etched kit is for the older Hasegawa kit, so I had to modify the parts somewhat to fit into the Academy kit. I cut off the exhausted turkey feathers and glued them into the interior of the kits styrene can which is molded quite well for a stryrene kit, so its a hybrid thing which looks quite good given how small the part is.

This is my planned weapons layout too (for our resident experts David & HWK MKII) Its what I tend to see in the photos online. However I originally wanted the Sidewinders on the wing tips, its seems more aesthetically pleasing to have the missiles diminish in size and mass as we get out to the wingtips. Any comments?

Additionally, I started to drill some holes into the pylons (as per HWK MKII's suugestions) - but realized that the forward holes on the HARM pylons have nothing to contact with on the lower HARM adapter thingy? Hmm, I double checked the orientation of the glued part and its correct, I don't have any reference photos of the pylon attachment to the HARM missle do you have any?

Thanks for all the info and suggestions so far!
Wm

(p.s. it really looks better in real-life, or maybe my eyes are just blurring the imperfections together, but all these MACRO photos really bring out the microscopic roughness of the paintjob that isn't seen in real life...)

A comment about the kit so far; its really an excellent kit, the best I've but in a while, however some of the engraving is quite shallow so one must take care in sanding, there's a bit too much ejector pin marks for my taste, especially around some of the ordinance which I don't think is too complex that requires so many pin marks, and there seems to be a little over complex in terms of pieces, some really tiny avionics humps and bumps that should just be molded on are separate pieces requiring gluing or the tiny NAV lights on either side of the main intakes are clear pieces, but do we really need the extra hassle at this tiny scale? Sure its great for 1/32, but it all seems un-necessary.

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[HWR MKII]

Looks great overall. Your Exhaust can looks really good but i think your PE parts make the segmented look of the inside of the turkey feathers really pop.

Your weapons loadout looks good too. Wish i knew if the kit came with the ALE-50 towed decoy.

[Noyhauser]

Looks great overall. Your Exhaust can looks really good but i think your PE parts make the segmented look of the inside of the turkey feathers really pop.

Your weapons loadout looks good too. Wish i knew if the kit came with the ALE-50 towed decoy.

Would you mind posting some of the information on F-16 details? I've also got this kit, as well as a Hasegawa kit (and a lot of aftermarket stuff for it) and I'd love to hear (and maybe see) your views on it.

[wm cheng]

Looks great overall. Your Exhaust can looks really good but i think your PE parts make the segmented look of the inside of the turkey feathers really pop.

Your weapons loadout looks good too. Wish i knew if the kit came with the ALE-50 towed decoy.

Yes it does include the towed decoy, I didn't use it since I think it looked a bit bulky on the ends of the wings there. The kit is really good, lots of good little details and modifying the Eduard Hasegawa PE parts to fit wasn't to difficult.

HWK MKII, do you think I can put the sidewinders on the wingtips instead and switch them with the AIM-120s - even though I haven't actually seen any reference photos that show that layout configuration?

Noyhauser, what info do you want to see or hear?

[David Hingtgen]

At this point and time, you can put either a Sidewinder or AMRAAM on the tip, but just a few years ago it'd usually be an AMRAAM, unless it was an ANG plane. But the original configuration was the "logical" choice of AMRAAM outboard, Sidewinder tip. Then they switched, but now they're back to the original way for the most part. The only real rule is that an AMRAAM can only go on an AMRAAM rail, while a Sidewinder can go on either a Sidewinder or an AMRAAM rail. (Backwards compatability)

HARMs are rail-launched, and most missile launch rails are basically a wide flat track with thin lips on the edges---the missile has (hard to describe)---flattened "T" shaped brackets that fit into (or around) the rail--the missile slides on and off.

This is the best pic I have showing how a HARM physically attaches to its adapter:

[HWR MKII]

I got that handled dave. Told him about the S-210 and the Lau-129 and the physical differences. WM confirmed that the kit comes with 4 LAU-129s so he can config the AIM-9s and AIM-120Cs any way . There is no set rule on where you put the missiles actually. its just something we do across the units to help pilots. imstead of having to re learn what missile is where. Trust me i have met alot of pilots that dont think.

[HWR MKII]

Yes it does include the towed decoy, I didn't use it since I think it looked a bit bulky on the ends of the wings there. The kit is really good, lots of good little details and modifying the Eduard Hasegawa PE parts to fit wasn't to difficult.

HWK MKII, do you think I can put the sidewinders on the wingtips instead and switch them with the AIM-120s - even though I haven't actually seen any reference photos that show that layout configuration?

Noyhauser, what info do you want to see or hear?

You can put the missiles any way you like really. Some units like sidewinders first others like AIM-120s. Pilots like to have the missile they use first on the outboard stations.

On the ALE-50. Id use it. On a Wild Weasle mission they would want that there. Its a towed decoy that goes behind the aircraft. If its hunting SAMs you would want every option you have with you in case they get a couple up.