Urashiman

12 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Where did you find the .STL files for that Milia figure? Has anyone made a female pilot figures wearing the regular pilot suits? I don't have a 3D printer, but my friend in PA does. He says he is gonna print the Hikaru and Minmay figures that are made for Hasegawa's Super Ostrich kit. Can't wait to see those.

  

I only recently learned how hard to find polyester putty is in the States from watching a video by Leona's Workshop on YT. Here in Japan it's just another hobby supply to use. I have a tube of Wave's Morimori poly putty, but unfortunately I'm already running out of the hardening agent! It comes in such a small little plastic vial and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around to use with the rest of the main tube. Tamiya's poly putty comes with the hardening agent in a seemingly larger tube. There is a hobby shop walking distance from where I work and I stopped by there to ask the shop owner if perhaps the hardening agent is sold separately, and he said that he has not seen that. I wonder if the home center "polyester hardener" can be used with my poly putty. It's only about 400 yen, so it's worth a shot.

I've been using the poly putty on the Imai Armored Valk kit I'm working on. I've used it to secure the Wave ball joint sockets for the arms and the waist. It sure dries super hard! I wonder if I should still reinforce it with some epoxy putty. I'd hate to have the parts painted up and have the sockets collapse when I try to pop the pieces into place. 

I found the .STL by navigating to the folder where I saved the exported STL.

You probably haven't found one online because there is none out in the wild, I think. I created this pilot figure myself, because there are no Macross M3 suit pilots out there.

I can send it to you after I fixed it. The proportions are a bit bad, as I basically created this with only little reference material (the Macross M3 intro and the back cover of the Macross M3 booklet in the disk case). She got a bit too ... "ample" as well. I am not good at 3D modelling people...

I did it by low poly modelling the pilot and then running turbo smooth over it.

Another thing... I wanted to print a bubbleless canopy for the VF-9, so I went by the "evolution approach". The more the merrier

Here is what I did:

- Filtered the liquid clear resin through a 0.05mm grid filter
- Let it rest in the resin basin of the printer for 24 hours
- made the print bed move really slow during printing

From the visuals, it looks like at least three have bubbles inside. I will know more once I polish them all a bit.

Any advice how to get rid of the bubbles?

EDIT:

@SteveTheFish I remembered that @Xigfrid was creating a set of male and female VF pilots. You can find them here:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VJ23S29SZ/1-72-scale-pilots-for-vf-1j?optionId=299297325&li=shops

4 hours ago, electric indigo said:

@Urashiman The level of detail is amazing!

_

I think I'm in the final round of putty & sanding work on the fuselage.

And it's starting to look like an Invader

Thanks a lot! That is the goal - getting as much detail as possible

Your invader seems to be fun as well. So much putty...

Have you tried Revell putty? I use that stuff mostly, but can be trouble as it sometimes "melts" styrene in the process of binding. It can be too thick and I usually thin it with revell Contacta glue 1:1. It can be brushed on with a brush when thinned that way and usually can give you smooth seam covering. For larger gaps I use milliput. Another hack for small seams is to use Mr. Color Primer 1500. Due to it's properties it fills small gaps easily. But don't use it in case you are using lacquer colors. It can crack.

Printed the pilot figure for testing. It is Milia in a Macross M3 pilot suit (which for some reason is body tight...).

Anyway - the wrists are to small and brittle and the torso is too long. One hand came off while detaching the supports. The figure barely fits and broke the seats ejection handle.

@MechTech Thanks! Floor polish haha. Yeah no, I was thinking more of actual polishing compound going from grid 2000 to grid 10k and stuff like that

@Thom Ooooh yeah!

Just to test, I printed another VF-9 nose, checking the fit and everything, and it works nicely.

But as you can see, the canopy is rather "milky" and not full transparent. That is why I want to try with polishing compound, as dipping things in clear coat or polishing finish liquids doesn't work out fully.

25 minutes ago, Big s said:

A polish would probably do the trick. Maybe even a gloss coat, but with a resin print the polish would probably be better 

Yeah… just tried it. Polishing kinda git me there, but I would need proper compound now, as the resin would just suck up my toothpaste.

I gave it the clear coat treatment- et voilá:

unfortunately, the print went bad. There are some bubbles in the resin. This one was for testing anyways

5 hours ago, Thom said:

@Urashiman That VF-1 is looking great. Love the decals.

Great to see your collection growing @pengbuzz, and your plans for more!

@derex3592 The BONE sure is a sexy plane. There was a proposal in the early aughts to reengine it and turn it into a missile truck, called the B-1R (regional) Or, wait for it... BONER.😜

 

 

Thanks a lot!

did some test printing with clear resin today. Printed the new cockpit pieces and the canopy. I think I need to polish the canopy. When still wet, it was clear and see through.

16 hours ago, tekering said:

My unprecedented burst of productivity is now focused on the Quincy Rowe, where I'm compelled to use pink primer. 😋

Not being sexist or anything...  Grey primer just isn't practical on grey resin. 😉

Almost looks like a 3D rendering, because auf the mirror surface.

Finally got enough willpower to force myself to fix the botched panel lining on the plamax VF-1A.

still looks a bit dirty but much better than before. I tried adding the wings and noticed that the main fuselage is scratching on the paint of the wings, so I had to carefully sand down the cover.

Almost there…

I want to 3D print better wheels for this one. The ones in the box are… not good.

I did some priming on the Alto VF-171EX.

10 minutes ago, MechTech said:

ALL: Superglue AND Baking soda will fill just about any Grand Canyon sized gap in a model or scratch build project. Baking soda is also an AWESOME accelerator that's not toxic like those spray-on types. The baking soda also adds strength to the CA. I've made whole parts out of it 😁!

@Thom That Tomcat cockpit looks BEAUTIFUL! Have you added any clear UV or epoxy resign to any of the gauges to build them up? It looks like the Sparviero is being a modeling pain as it was a real pain to the allies in the war😄

@Urashiman Your cockpit improvements are AWESOME! Hopefully the canopy can be opened on it to reveal them better.

@pengbuzz First off, I'm glad your not a real orthopedic surgeon😉 HOWEVER, you're an A-W-E-S-O-M-E plastic surgeon!!! When you add Roy's 80's hair to him, his height may be just right 😁 His proportions look good. If you need more height, it would probably have to be in his torso - what a pain! Then again, there's always those clear platform shoes with goldfish in them🤣 -MT

 

well ... technically you can do that, but you'd have to cut the canopy. I should do a little Mirage as well, so people can do this:

@wm cheng Awesome! I saw that thread about your VT-1 bakc in the days and wondered if you would ever finish that one

Now to my stuff. I have been fiddling with my VF-9, not being ultra happy with the cockpit interior. Especially the panels weren't that good. Just be aware, there is basically little to no stuff about the the insides of the VF-9 cockpit except for what we can see on the VF-9 line art of the whole jet, and some stuff from the beginning of the Macross M3 intro, where things are kept rather vague (everything is just super dark).

In my first version I was aiming to get something that kind of looks like the VF-1 cockpit and a bit VF-11. It wasn't too detailed though. Here are the renders of the old cockpit interior.

And now, the new one. I was going more into the VF-11 direction and was looking at the macross delta stuff with Mirage in the cockpit of Mirias VF-9 during that short sequence. I didn't went as detailed as I could, because a bunch of the stuff is just too small to print properly. The main thing: I am satisfied with it and can go on rebulding the next parts or building new parts. Sometimes, something is bugging me so much, I cannot continue without fixing it first.

Just get the hasegawa decals. They work as well. I got a cheap sheet (~12€ including shipping) on eBay for the 2009 Minmay special VF-1.

10 hours ago, Big s said:

It’s for that Macross fleet that had a 1960’s, 1970’s revival.

In the words of the great Captain Kirk "I think he did a little too much LDS..."

My wife 3d printed som toy stuff and is painting that stuff now. Kid wanted to paint something too. Gave him the VF-9 test print.

interesting paint scheme…

9 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

The Meowmeow's target lock aquired: "I CAN HAS VF-171!"

So last night I finished laying down decals on my Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie. I still have leftover paint from the mixture I made for its blue/gray armor color, so I think I'll build up the old 1:100 scale Imai Armored Valkyrie and use the paint up. (Too bad the decals are kaput...)

The decals are silk screen, and went down very nicely. The only trouble I had were the black stripe decals. They lay down along those gaps and I had a hard time lining them up and wrapping them around. I ended up not using them. Instead I used my Real Touch Gundam Marker Gray 3 (which looks black to me) and it worked like a charm. Very beautiful. I think a bit of acrylic thinner can be used to clean up any mistakes, as I painted the kit with Mr. Color lacquer paints. 

I am also working on a resin garage kit of Asuka from Evangelion I bought on E2046. I do not care for that anime, but I love Sadamoto's character designs. I tried to do justice when painting her eyes, but alas I am not as good at eyes as Sadamoto is.

That cat is actually eyeing the empty food bowl there ... XD

On 10/18/2023 at 11:37 PM, Raikkonen said:

You are right. The prototype does indeed look quite stubby even from other pictures of it, but from @Urashiman drybuild it looks right, albeit seems not as long as the DX (?). 

Eventually someone will compare it to the DX. 

I think it is only the perspective.

56 minutes ago, Thom said:

@electric indigo or submersible fighter!

VA-3M? Maybe?

2 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

Dude, you've comparing it to a cell shaded render... 

But if we are going down that road, then shouldn't be a flat metallic orange with zero transparency? 

yeah ... the orange canopy is a bit much, I agree. Maybe do a vacu-form copy of the canopy and use that? I'll stick with the orange one though. Looks nice

On 10/18/2023 at 4:25 AM, SteveTheFish said:

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

Well ... you have it in the other comment there. I use a clear sheet and tape the whole decal sheet to the other side, then carefully place masking tape on it and follow the outline. Here are two pictures of me doing that for the VF-22.

It works quite well.

Another method is measuring everything and placing by hand, or how I do it sometimes: just guessing the right position and putting it on.

For the Kakizaki VF-1 I first marked the whole area for the top of the fuselage, then sprayed it green. Then I masked off the green areas and went on with black paint for the black portions.

Went to the basement and took a picture. Unfortunately the vertical stabilizers went off in the storage. But here is my kakizaki vf-1a.

2 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Oh, thanks. Yes, in that video i realized that I should have painted the intakes and engines first, then assembled, then primed and painted the outside. I ended up making more work for myself the way I did it. Thanks for the link. It looks like I am on the right track. Last night I started decaling the wings. I seem to have lost a tiny "no step" decal, unfortunately. I'm building mine as Kakizaki, but when I purchased replacement decals, they sent me ones only with the red and yellow stripes. They have the other decals for Kakizaki and Max; just not the colored stripes. So I am looking at possibly trying to come up with masking off and painting the green/black stripes myself.

that is how I did my Kakizaki VF-1A. I never use the giant black and colored decals. Too much of a hassle. Just mask the areas and airbrush it. I looks better imho.

12 minutes ago, MechTech said:

@Urashiman In the last photo, that cat is eyeing up the bowl! 😎

Lol, didn’t notice. Hahahah

@Raikkonen here, have all the runners and a dry build

Good I purchased two…

On 10/13/2023 at 1:19 AM, SteveTheFish said:

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit.

I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake?

I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that.

I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

hey ... I actually follow you on youtube and watch your stuff.

I think you are doing it like most people here. The VF-1 from hasegawa breaks down easily into build groups. I am doing one by one so you have:
- The nose with canopy and cockpit
- The main fuselage
- Jet intakes
- The "Backpack"
- Jet engine bays (the legs)
- wings and stabilizers
- wheels and landing gear bay panels

I usually do priming on the cockpit (partially build), the engine bays and the main fuselage first. Then painting. After that I will put together the different build groups one by one and sand them. Then priming again, checking for imperfections, sanding and priming again. Then the paint job, decals and sealing. done. After all of this, I am putting the groups together. Let me check if I have some pictures of old VF-1 builds...

In the beginning of the above video, you have the pieces for the jet intake colored already and then glue them. I usually put that together in one go, safe for the fan, that will be added after painting.

Edit: didn't find anything from mine yet, but just check rocketpunch.biz, he has a great build log there.

https://www.rocketpunch.biz/wip-hasegawa-vf1a-1/

1 hour ago, 505thAirborne said:

The skills & talent I am seeing here is impressive, looking good everyone!!! 

I got this beast in yesterday, so far a relatively easy build, the cockpit has the most parts. I'm going to order the White metal landing gear & a decal sheet for this kit. 

The kit overall is of good quality, so far, every test fits correctly. My biggest issue so far are the decals, they are not even remotely correct for what was used during the ATF project, no Northrop/McDonnell/Douglas, ATF or even YF-23 decals... plus NO Pilot, so for the price tag that's a bummer. 

The plus side is the kit actually has some heft to it and she measures just over 17 inches long. 

 

 

Ah.. that kit is awesome. I wish they did a 1/72 version. Most if not all YF-23 kits are based off of the dragon mold from 1991ish.

28 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, Wave uses hilariously large boxes.  I got all four of my VF-4 kits in one box.  

When you say wings "with and without pylons" though, are you saying they molded the pylons onto the wings, or just added slots/holes to mount them?  I don't figure they would do something so boneheaded as molding them on, but I've seen dumber things.

The did something boneheaded and molded the pylons onto the wings. So there is two sets of wings.