Urashiman

I was a bit bored today, so I grabbed a kit, which a friend brought me, during a Japan visit. A re-issue of the original bandai 1980 RX-78 kit. Gonna be a quick in between build.

The kit is okay, for a 1980s kit, but by today’s standards, it is super bad. I had to use clamps all the time to make sure stuff isn’t taking itself apart.

here are some progress pictures.

It‘ll be primed tomorrow and then be painted with acrylics.

Box contents on 1999.co.jo

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/m/image/10884508

Okay, so the Plamax VF-1 will be in my hands soon. And I already have an idea what to do with it

just got my charge mail from HLJ. The VF-1 will now be shippable. I will wait till the WAVE VF-171 is charged and ready as well and then have it shipped.

My fingers are tingling to get my hands on it

21 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

No, it's okay. I'm the one who should apologize. I flew off the handle when I should have just read what you said without assuming anything was inferred. Please forgive my attitude.

On that note: a family friend talked with my wife and pulled some strings for her to get me a couple of gifts for this Christmas: Photoshop CS5 Extended and a Digital Camera with an f-stop setting (Kodak Easyshare Z650), so by the time my new CVN-65 carrier is finished, I'll be able to photograph it properly and do all the stuff you suggested in Photoshop (finally!).

No worries - and man, that is awesome!

@Thom Thanks a lot! Paint masks ... I haven't seen them around here in Germany. Would have to order them and ship them across the world.

@MechTech Thanks! I have the humbrol latex stuff, and used it on my VF-22. Ripped a bit of the paintjob with it. Next time I will peel more carefully. Hahaha!

@wm cheng I actually had that with any primer and any color, no way how and with what I mask it. It always rips if not peeled slowly and with care. I actually saw the Alclad primer in one of your old build threads and wanted to give it a try.  For testing I sprayed some left over sprues and then used thinned revell email color over it. It worked so far. I know that the tamiya primer is really bad with the revell email colors. So tamiya spray can primer and acrylics works super good. The revell primer is super bad, but once you get it to stick to your model, it works good with any lacquer color. I had some humbrol primer for lacquer colors year ago. That was good stuff. I used mr. color lacquers on my SV-51 nora and totally wrecked that model. The color started to get britle and fall off, and as I lost a wing during a move, I just canned it and purchased a new kit (which still is in queue). If you want to mix lacquer and acrylics, always follow the rules:
1. Give it time to cure.
2. Never lacquer over acrylics, the lacquer thinner easily melts away acrylics even when cured.
3. Acrylic colors over lacquer colors work, but not acrylic colors over lacquer primer. It'll just fall off, or will brush off easily.
4. Lacquer colors can work over acrylic primer if you apply the first two coats super careful and thin.

At least this is my experience.

As for pre-thinned lacquer colors, the revell airbrush ones are really crazy. I got the blue for my old YF-21 (build around 2003-2004ish). That color sticks like crazy. You don't even need to prime or seal.

@wm cheng yeah, the gwh f-14 is super awesome so far. I like it. The detail is awesome and it fits together nicely. The Finemolds F-14 has more open panel options though and I found the finemolds one to have better panel accuracy in general. I am going to use Hasegawa Macross Zero F-14 decals (purchased them as a reproduction from some Chinese company).

I got the clips off of eBay. They are like 8-10€ish.

Now on to my favourite task (not). Canopy masking!

And after that, it was prime time!

This is my first time using Alclad II lacquer primer. This stuff is really rising the game compared to any other lacquer primer I used before. 100% recommended for anyone still using lacquer paint.

On 11/6/2022 at 6:44 AM, Rock said:

A few corrections left. Mainly on the visor for the RIO and the rubberized coating on the forward pilot's helmet. Those mishaps fixed results in the base colors being done. Next on to shading, detailing, washes- the fun parts! Before the next kitty, I'll need to invest in some new even finer brushes.

Nice F-14 man

On 11/3/2022 at 3:16 AM, Goodman Models said:

Before giving up on your airbrush try using a bit of beeswax on the threads of each connection - it really helped me seal up brush.

I did not throw it away, but it is way beyond it's operation time. I got a cheap BD130 now and the revell pro.

Some progress on my GWH F-14.

I‘d recommend those clamps to everyone. Really great helper.

2 hours later:

canopy sits without glue, still need to add seats and the pilots.

i also stared to prime my vf-19, but my 20+ years old airbrush is leaking air on almost every seal, causing ugly drops to splash all over my kit. Had to sand down the primer again. Ordered two new airbrushes and will wait for them to arrive before doing any further paintjobs.

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Sure...just as soon as I can afford something other than a cheap point and shoot digicam from the thrift store for 5 bucks (about 1MP). Also working with photoshop from the 1990's, so I'm lucky I can get it to do what it does now.

Anyways; since the pic apparently doesn't meet your criteria, it has been deleted from both my psot and my pc. I won't be putting any artwork back up soon. And since this topic is yours, perhaps I should just avoid it from now on...

Aww man, I didn’t mean to disencourage you. Feel free to post as much as you like. I started off with a 0.3MP cam and a super old photoshop version as well. I just wanted to give some advice.

I apologise 

14 hours ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:

Boxart
 

 

Looks nice

54 minutes ago, Goodman Models said:

Whoa! There's a lot great builds on this thread! I missed quite a bit, lol. I've been working on a few non-macross projects lately. I'll post them here?

 

 

sure, go ahead.

On 9/26/2022 at 1:31 PM, Big s said:

That kinda is how it worked. Imai and aari had certain items one company could do in 1/72 scale or 1/100. Nichimo did most of the smaller scale stuff. Supposedly it was due to the licensing agreements one company got versus others the other got. Even more recently Bandai had to deal with other companies that got agreements over Star Wars, both in kits and for a bit over the issue of selling 1/12 character kits versus hasbro and their black series figures.

on this particular case Bandai may have been the ones that picked the scale, since their item is transformable or at least partsformable, they could’ve possibly gone the 1/72 route. They did do 1/72 transforming kits of subjects that hasegawa did of non transforming ones like the VF-1

as far as real world models, I don’t know that companies like Grumman or Boeing know or care that much about giving exclusive rights to produce something like a model kit in a specific scale to specific model kit companies 

Hasegawa, Max Factory and Bandai have 1/72 VF-1s

Wave and Bandai have 1/100 VF-1s

Hasegawa and Bandai both have 1/72 VF-25s, VF-31s and SV-262s.

What I am saying is, it depends on what the License holder would allow.

On 9/25/2022 at 7:55 AM, Shawn said:

Perhaps there is a scale assignment license issue going on...Hasegawa has the 1/48 and 1/72 plastic model lines locked for Plus, so Bandai can only get the 1/100 or other.
Keeps Hasegawa's competition in the primary scales away.

Just a guess.

n/m....Bandai and Hasegawa had some overlaps with their Delta kits (like the 1/72 sv262) so it has to be something else

Erm ... that is not how things work, else we wouldn't have that much 1/72 F-14s out there. You go to the license holder and request specifically what you want to do. So Bandai basically talked to big west about making a 1/100 YF-19 kit and big west said "okay, pay this and this much, and you are offically allowed to do it".

When it comes to Bootleg kits, you can recreate the likeliness of something, but are not allowed to lable it with the franchise names etc., at least that is how I remember it being in the past. Specifically in Germany, they came up with a "3D Copyright", making it impossible for anyone in Germany to create kits like this.

On 9/17/2022 at 9:16 PM, pengbuzz said:

Nice!

Just a small protip for photoshops. Make sure to adjust the background to the same pixel density and ISO before merging. Focus is also important. For example on this picture the bow is clearly out of focus, and the hulk is in focus. The stern is out of focus again, so anything in the background should be out of focus as well. Compositing shots is not easy, specifically with miniatures. You'd want to get a macro lens in case you use a DSLR or SLR. If not, you can take the picture from a bit farther away. You just need to make sure you digi cam has enough MP.

1 hour ago, MechTech said:

He he, why does that look like an album cover?😁 Arbit's getting the band back together!

Is is just me, or does cannon fodder on the far right need more hair? He looks more 90's than 80's 😎 They all look awesome though! - MT

Backstreets back, ALRIGHT!

@pengbuzz Oh man ... I am sorry for everything that happened to your collection there. Good luck with everything and let's hope this stupid inflation will regulate soon. In Germany, prices for food go up like crazy, but I haven't seen any price surges in the hobby sector yet. Just when importing stuff, things get expensive due to EUR vs USD. The EUR lost some value over the past months. So, importing stuff from Japan will be expensive for me. At least I still have an impressive stash to work through and several 3D modelling projects on my hands to keep me busy.

2 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Up for preorder, must have been shown off recently somewhere.

HLJ: https://www.hlj.com/1-72-scale-vf-171ex-nightmare-plus-ex-alto-machine-wavmc-074

Amiami: https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=TOY-RBT-6785

Pre-ordered one

While working on the VF-9 today, I found another issue that I have to deal with.

That canopy is not rounded at the front, but has edges ...

I am unhappy and need to rework this again, but I don't feel like doing that today.

18 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

If you're really careful, and have the right tools, might be able to trim the second jaw so it doesn't protrude? Would probably still be ruined for cuts near the end of the blade though.

The thin single-blade cutters are very fragile if not used carefully (or even if used on harder plastic).

I am confused, you probably wanted to quote someone else

On 8/22/2022 at 10:35 PM, electric indigo said:

Looking forward to see the text prints! 👍

If you are expecting a VF-9 test print, I don't have one. The test print is just a small rounded block, with panel lines and holes with varying hull thickness.

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Guess what I'm working on right now folks?

Hint:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

A 1:1 VF-1 made from duct tape and cardboard?

3 hours ago, electric indigo said:

I did a quick & dirty check in PS - you nailed the nose, but the canopy could be even less steep (no idea if this would leave too little room for the pilot, though). Also, if you raise the lower frame of the canopy, it would look sleaker.

I wonder if you could make the panel lines with a V-shaped cross section? This would give a more scale-adequate appearance. But I have no idea how this affects printing.

well, it might be due to perspective but the canopy aligns with line art. The render is not orthographic, but has perspective and is slightly tilted from up to down as well.

only the nose needs a bit more tweaking here and there.

Edit: forgot about the panel line thing. What do you mean with a V-shaped cross section?

I think I understood what you mean, but the model is not going to be 1:1 scale, but specifically designed for 1/72. I did some test prints for panel lines with a friend, and doing them like an edged U has given the best results so far.

@electric indigo Adjusted the nose and canopy. Does this look better? Let me hear your thoughts

This time I joined the nose and the head piece into one mesh and will put the seperation as a baked panel line later on. I think it will give the model a smoother look in the end.

First render: The old (new one from yesterday) nose
Second render: The new one from today, no panel lines yet.