TER-OR

I plan to hollow out the fuselage to lighten it anyway - so the stronger resin is a welcome bit of news. I did evaluate it a little, and the struts do seem quite strong. I'll have to keep my eye open when you re-release the Obereth. So far my wife isn't complaining too loudly about these purchases..

I have seen guys make molds in which the interior is silicone, and stiffened on the outside with plaster (I think). I can find out more information in needed, but these were meant for large shapes which likely would have suffered from mold droop without such enhancement. Regular regeneration of the silicone, and using talc gave the molds a long life - though the frequency of casting was low due to the heat build-up and wanting to avoid burnout.

My copies arrived yesterday. It's quite nice. This is one of the better-engineered GK's I've purchased. In the picture I thought the landing gear may have been metal. I can hook you up with a guy who does metal casting if you want... Oh, and if you do make Obereths available again, I'm in for one or two.

I did enter a VF-4 Lightning painted as a Tancho - Red-Capped Japanese Crane. Pictures will be posted, I'm sure.

I've got a VF-4 and a VE-1S in progress, but waiting for other projects to end... Once I get to the painting phase, I'll post some pics.

Looks great. Count me in for one, once they're ready. Actually, make it two - a buddy will want one for sure. And thanks to Brian for cluing me in...

Personally, I'd get the Badger 360 double action. It's the most versitile brush on the market. It's the 155 Anthem with a swivel mount for paintcups.

Well, here's what I'd do. Since you're using paper mache, you'll need something which won't soak in. Urethanes are probably out. I'd use epoxy putty. You can use the cheaper plumber's putty for the rough part. If you want a finer surface, you'll need to switch to something like Aves. You can use a rolling pin and saran wrap to make a very thin sheet, but you probably don't want it too thin. just spread out the putty and apply to your surface. It will cure very hard. For something like Aves or Miliput (I prefer Aves) you can use water to smooth the surface. Be careful, too much will begin to thin the epoxy putty. It will look a little ugly for a while, but will cure smooth when smoothed with water. You should be able to remove the paper mache beneath. Or you could soak the paper mache with Envirotex light then do the epoxy trick.

I've tinted before, and it's worked well. Watercolors work as well.

I prefer PolyScale's dullcoat, and it doesn't need thinning. Toward the end of the jar, I may thin with a bit of water.

I've taken to using Tenax most of the time, with the capillary applicator. If you align your parts well, and tape them together, you just touch the joint and it flows in place. Dries quickly too. Essentially similar to Ambroid. MEK and MeCl2 are much more dangerous than a lot of other glues. For instance, the microscale and non-toxic testors cements are just orange terpenes. Not toxic, but very slow solvents. I generally prefer to do all the dryfitting first and then spot on the Tenax.

I generally prefer oils, but am going to try the watercolor method soon. http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-bin/php...pic.php?t=11201

Here's a trick you might want to try on the rear thrusters. Hold the plane aft-end-up, and apply some Tamiya Clear Smoke in the thrusters. Then, after dry, brush a bit of dullcoat atop that. You'll get a gradiated darkening which should give the illusion of more depth.

Yeah, put the decals on, then seal them beneath glosscoat. Then you can do your washes etc, dullcoats, drybrushing, pastels etc. Be aware that there might be a slight ridge at the decal film edge which could catch drybrushing. I like to get most markings on just after colors, because those painted-on markings will weather along with the rest of the vehicle.

Worth an experiment. I've heard that since Future changed their formula a couple of years ago, people have had problems airbrushing it without having orange-peeling. Who knows, the cheap stuff could well be better than the new Future.

I usually find it easiest to mask the canopy and place it to protect the cockpit. A drop or two of the masking solution works OK for this. I've had to mask canopies though, and usually just go with a built-up area of masking tape, paper towell and/or cotton balls. It's a bigger pain in the butt, but if you're doing something like a biplane with an open cockpit, you're SOL...

Gotta love Tamiya clear paints....

www.meteorprod.com carries a number of good decal lines, too. www.squadron.com is a very good supplier Eagle Strike has consolidated a number of producers, including Aeromaster. http://www.eaglestrikeproductions.com/ Some great decal sets in there.

Most nail polish removers are a mixture of acetone and ethyl acetate. The -ate suffix just refers to an ester bond, in this case the ethyl alcohol ester of acetic acid. Acetate plastic is a polyester of acetic acid. Just for clarification's sake. I think the debonder should work, I haven't had any luck using acetone to remove bonded parts glued with CA. But the caps are cheap. I've stopped buying very large bottles of CA at hobby shops because it always gets clogged or gummy before I'm halfway through.

I've switched to using oils diluted in mineral spirits for washes, when the solvent (mineral spirits) evaporates, the excess pigments can be removed with a soft cloth or cotton swab. The only disadvantage is that you don't get a streaking effect you can with an enamel wash which is removed with solvent on a cloth. If you look at the upper wing surface on an airliner, you'll see lots of streaks back from bolts, panels etc. Targeted enamel washes or even later pastel work can help provide this. I do like the combination of postshading and washes, though. I'll have to try that next time, I rely too much on pastels and drybrushing.

I'll see what I can do. It would be good to get the content mirrored into build-up articles, so people can read the process from start to finish. Perhaps I can eke out some time this weekend to glean text and images. If you don't mind, I'll just try to edit your posts together into a single article. It will be a little while before I get back to a Macross kit, I've got too many other projects on my desk right now, both review build-ups and masters to make.

Evergreen styrene strip is good too, flexible enough to bend but can be taped in place. I always tape my ruler in place before scribing. I've learned the hard way...filling errant scribe marks is no way to spend your time!

The 155 is a great brush, and the 360 is the 155 with a swivel tip so you can do gravity feed. Practice, practice, practice. Looking good, gonna bring that next weekend, LTSO?

I've tried a lot of different putties and have found the Aves Apoxie to work the best. It has a fine grain, but doesn't cure as hard as A&B, it's finer then milliput and thins well with alcohol. Plus, you get lots of working time to shape before it even starts to cure. With practise epoxy putties can pretty much eliminate your need to sand. http://www.scififantmodmadrealm.com/ELEP.html Here's Erin's sheet from 2002 Wfest with more info. http://www.avesstudio.com/Products/Apoxie_...xie_sculpt.html This is the putty product, the clay is much thicker.

Hey guys. I don't check in MW forums often, but I was tipped off that this thread was going on. The YF21 model does benefit from shading, and wm cheng's is looking hot. I was just trying to do a basic review to let people know what to watch out for, and got pretty ticked off at a few things so I just did a very basic paint job. Hopefully I gave some information everyone can use. I'd love to see wm cheng's buildup as a feature article on starshipmodeler, you've got it well-photographed and documented. This is just the sort of feature we need on the site. I'd like to encourage everyone to send even just a couple pics and basic information for gallery shots. We need some more Macross on the site! Here's a pic of a kitbashed gerwalk supervalk (made before the supervalk battroid was released). http://www.spacemodelmania.com/models/wfes...3/diorama18.jpg I'll have to get some better pics of that little diorama. The markings are from a current Marines AV-8 Harrier unit.