honneamise Posted May 24, 2005 Author Share Posted May 24, 2005 Whole ship with all the parts I built so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 So what is your technique for cutting out the little triangles in the wings? I can see one of the cut-outs and it has a bunch of little dots on it. They look very accurate and semetrical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 25, 2005 Author Share Posted May 25, 2005 Grayson 72 I cut these pieces out with my cutter knive. These little dots you can see are little holes. I drilled them with the intention of making my first cut along these dots and then working to the final (bigger) outlines with a very little file (made of sandpaper glued to a very thin sheet of styrene). I did so with the first triangle but then I found out I was able to cut along the final outline and this reduced the amount of sanding I had to do. Still, I drilled holes into the other triangles as well because I found it much easier to cut against a "non-solid" portion of material. Have you ever noticed that is much easier to cut a thin strip from the edge of a styrene plate than making a cut in the middle of the plate? I´m not sure but I guess drilling little holes into a cut-out portion has a similar effect. Just found this out by accident or you could say by laziness because I actually wanted to avoid too much sanding. Sanding sucks, well at least it is not my favourite part of bulding a model! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Most impressive . I will follow this one closely since I also planning for making a scratchbuilt model myself . Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myersjessee Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 This is extremely cool! Thanks for sharing your work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zentrandude Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 waves hand like a jedi.youmust not make this a kit but just give the original to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 I drilled holes into the other triangles as well because I found it much easier to cut against a "non-solid" portion of material. it is not my favourite part of bulding a model! Awesome, that's a great tip! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 25, 2005 Author Share Posted May 25, 2005 Zentrandude, the selfish speech stop you must or to the dark side it will lead. Patience you must seek and owning this model you will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zentrandude Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 Zentrandude, the selfish speech stop you must or to the dark side it will lead.Patience you must seek and owning this model you will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bromgrev Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 I drilled holes into the other triangles as well because I found it much easier to cut against a "non-solid" portion of material. it is not my favourite part of bulding a model! Awesome, that's a great tip! Thanks Yes, excellent idea! I've done this with 30mm steel plate when cutting out engine cranks. Dumb of me for not thinking of using it on plastic models ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 I´ve started with the engines. It is so hot in here I can hardly work but still there is some progress. First I prepared the counterpart to the styrene "rail" on the ship´s sides. This will be a slot on the final engine and should provide a perfect fit. I added some formers to provide the inner, triangular shape of the engine. More styrene pieces are glued to the other side to provide the shape for the three big intakes (front). The intakes are then covered with styrene ribbing (0.5mm) just to make them more detailed and of course to match the lineart. Then I added a backplate with a "grid" structure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 I added more styrene plates - the shape is beginning to look like an Oberth engine - but at this stage it´d make a nice little warehouse for a 1/700 naval diorama . To show where it actually belongs I´ve tacked it to the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 On these pics you can see the triangular section taking shape. I built a spar with a cut-out inside. The spar will be the end piece of the forward section of the engine while the inside piece will be mounted to the rear end - I will build that separately because it will be easier to cast that way. On one pic you can see the corresponding "rail" parts that form the engine/ship connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 Another pic of the ship with the engine. You may have noticed that I have built only ONE engine. Well I´ve noticed the two engines are completely symmetric so I´ll have to build only one!! Since I´m going to cast the whole ship anyway I will make two molds of the same engine. Quite a shortcut, but on the other hand quite a hell to build since this thing must be spot on on each side or it will be noticeable that one engine is mounted upside-down! I hope to get it right though. That´s the other reason why it takes so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadshore Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 That is one Hard Core Kit Bash man. What is the Scale of the ship? Looks almost 1/100? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 That is one Hard Core Kit Bash man. What is the Scale of the ship? Looks almost 1/100? Try 1/1000, it's a spaceship not a fighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viceland Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 ...and I would hardly call this a kit-bash , even though a few parts from other kits have been used due to their convenient shape (saving the time of having to sculpt them, which he proved by now he would have no problem doing), this is a fine example of pure scratchbuilding and sculpting talent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadshore Posted May 28, 2005 Share Posted May 28, 2005 Sorry Scratchbuild. Actually that last post I was thinking about the VF-0D. My Bad. Anyways! Awesome Build man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 28, 2005 Author Share Posted May 28, 2005 Thank you guys!!! And yes, the VF-0D is AWESOME!!!! You can´t say it´s "only" a kitbash, I guess it´s way more work to figure out a working transformation than to build an entire ship from scratch. I´m soo glad my Oberth doesn´t have to transform! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 With the heat wave over (lasted three days, hope the summer is not over now... ) I´ve been able to do some more work on the engine. I built a matching aft end and added the same grid structure that was already used on the front. Now I have a nice but very edgy box in front of me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Next step is detailing the inside of the "exhaust". The lineart shows a ribbed inner surface similar to the intakes but with bigger ribs. I used Evergreen styrene plates for this but rounded the edges by using a section of tube. All the outside edges of the engine will be sanded smooth in the end so I want the insides to match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Now it is time for the final plating of the outside. I added 0.5mm styrene to all surfaces except for 7mm of the main part aft end. This will be the part that is shown black in the lineart and I thought it´ll look better recessed. The outside will have another recess as you can see in the first pic. This is where a big intake will be installed, but I will cast this as a separate part since it is not symmetrical like the rest of the engine and so I will need one for the left side snd one for the right. After all plating is done I left it to dry overnight. Then I sanded all of the edges to get a more rounded shape. While the engines still look enormous and quite boxy their appearance is now more adequate to the rest of the design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Here is the ship with its engine attached. Too bad I have only one but I´ll soon make a mold and cast the other one. With the added engines the whole model looks MUCH bigger and massive than before, it is quite a handful now and it will take slightly more shelf space than a 1/72 VF-1. I guess the 1/1000 scale is just right for this ship. An ARMD built to scale will be a different story then, BIG chunk or resin this will be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zentrandude Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 (drowns in his own drool) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 I went on with the guns. Just glued tubes of different diameters into/onto each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Now the ship is beginning to look a little more menacing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 Side view Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 (edited) My god man, I think I'm gonna cry, not only because that thing looks great but your skill in building it makes me feel so inferior. You must tell me, when cutting out styrene, how you get things so square and plumb to each other? Also, do you really think you'll be building an ARMD in the same scale (please say yes)? Edited May 31, 2005 by Grayson72 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobywan Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 All you need to do is get a machinist's square. That is a very usefull tool to have for about a hundered reasons. You should have one. If you don't...get one. http://www.geocities.com/budb3/arts/toolm/sqrbvm.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 All you need to do is get a machinist's square. That is a very usefull tool to have for about a hundered reasons. You should have one. If you don't...get one.http://www.geocities.com/budb3/arts/toolm/sqrbvm.html Thank you Woody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobywan Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Woody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 (edited) Oh I thought you were quoting Toy Story where he tells everyone to get a moving buddy. Too much TV watching with the kids, everything sounds like a Disney reference to me Anyway... the machinists square will help me with gluing the parts together square but what about getting nice straight, square edges when cutting the styrene? Edited June 1, 2005 by Grayson72 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honneamise Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Well I have a machinist sqare but I don´t really use it that often because it is so heavy. For the most part I use those geometry triangles (hope this is the correct expression to use here) and even the plastic ones! You are not too wrong if you say that´s pretty stupid because cutting along a plastic ruler with a knive/cutter will of course kill the thing in about a week - if you work very careful! Still, this ship here demands very small parts and these see-thru-triangles come in handy and they are quite cheap. Making parallel or angled cuts is much easier if you can see the rest of the part through the triangle, gives you better control IMO. Grayson72, as for the "square and plump to each other" parts the magic is just to use the parts where I got it right and go on with these. I wish I could say I´d manage to get everything right at the first try but in fact it is all trial and error. You should see the amount of crappy discarded parts covering the floor and my workbench. I just didn´t take any photos of these . The other importand thing is to have file and sanding tools to fit all needs. I often glue sanding paper to bits of styrene in the oddest shapes to get a tool for a special angle I need. The usual tools are mostly oversize or have an unsuited shape for some tasks like say cutting a 3mm triangle out of a 0.5mm styrene piece, so I make my own styrene strip with sandpaper attached and filed to a triangular cross section. That way you can avoid distorted contours or rounded edges where none should be. And, well...the ARMD. I´d definitely love to make one, but it will be quite huge so I´m a bit afraid when I think about casting such a thing. And it will be quite expensive so I´d first have to check if there´s enough interest. After all I guess having more ships would be cool but when it comes to Macross most people will think of the mecha first. Maybe a Destroid or another VF will better suit the demand.... But first of all I have to get everything right with little ship here I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobywan Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 If you want to do it I suggest selling the pattern to, or cast through Federation Models or another caster. FM has a rotocaster and it does quite nice work. I say don't worry about the casting issues. There are many options. If you build a matching ARMD model it can be cast quite affordably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bromgrev Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 After all I guess having more ships would be cool but when it comes to Macross most people will think of the mecha first. Maybe a Destroid or another VF will better suit the demand Ah, there's plenty of mecha out there. We need more ships! .... But first of all I have to get everything right with little ship here I think. So, going by the progress seen here, you'll be starting on the ARMD next week, then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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