Noyhauser

They are 72nd. That Zero Kit is one of the best ever made in the scale, ever (except for the Fine Molds A6M series... which is the greatest kits ever made). I finished one recently and it was amazing. The F4U is awesome as well.... I've built several. Frankly, I'm more excited for to see your build of the Tamiya kits than the VF-25. Here's a in-progress shot of the Zero:

I'm a little confused here. I thought clear coats (most of which are lacquer-based) are what you use to seal your paints in the first place.

I noticed, however, that Tamiya's TS line are supposedly "acrylic lacquers", which I take to mean that they're safe to apply directly on acrylic paints.

No, what it likely means is that its an acrylic medium with a lacquer solvent. Mr Color is the same; its an acrylic paint suspended in a lacquer.

If yellowing is a problem then Mr Super clear line has a UV filter that prevents yellowing. Its probably the main reason why people buy it.

About Hasegawa decals, they improve a lot since 2009, the decals still are somewhat thick, but improve the white (the white is white now) and reduce the transparency a lot. The Vf-19 in 1/48 has a great decal sheet, and the new VF-1 in 1/48 too. The Vf-11 and VF-25 decal sheet are the same, at least looks the same to me. Bandai decals are terrible, Tamiya decals for example its the same as hasegawa. The best decals came from Cartograft,Microscale and Aztec, most of the 3 party manufactures use them as a supplier (fightertown decals, afterburner, etc) but is very hard to find great decals for science fiction subjects.

Actually, most manufacturers use Cartograph as a subcontractors: Tamiya and Academy do. I have Tamiya's 2013 A6M2 and IL-2 boxings and its almost certainly a cartograph set in there. According to people that I know who work in the field Microscale isn't nearly as good technically as them either from ... which is why cartograph is winning the market

Its possible that Hasegawa has also moved to cartograph, or improved their in-house capability. I looked through some of my newer Hasegawa boxes; Mustang III combo (2/2012), Ki-84 combo (8/2012) and Pearl Harbor combo (11/2011.) the Pearl Harbour combo has an older set but you may be right that the newer ones seem to be of a different quality... though the white on the Ki-84 set looks off. The Mustang kit looks and feels a lot like the Tamiya A6M2 sets's decals.

IMHO you can't find better Macross decals than Hasegawa's, there are some garage decals, those are good to replace Bandai ones but not Hasegawa's, http://old.samueldecal.com/ is an example, I use them in two kits, great service from Sam, but the decals need to be treated with care.

Well that's kinda because you really only have two options: hasegawa or bandai. One other option is to scan a bandai sheet and then ask someone to make a set for you. I know a few people who might be able to do that, if you're interested.

Academy was just established back in the 90s. They bought the old steel molds of other big companies like hasegawa. That os why they look inferior when compared with newer molds from other companies.

Umm... I'm talking about Academy's decals, which are legendary for their terrible quality. They were thick, unable to conform to any surface, and do not react to any setting solution. It was only when they moved to cartograph that they improved significantly. Hasegawa has always been mediocre: somewhat thick, big transparency and an inability to make white. Yet they are still better than bandai.

As for kits academy's stuff is pretty good; their tempest and 109 is very good.

From what I've read (in preparation to customising my Yammies) you can't use lacquer over acrylic. In terms of layering you can only layer from hottest to coolest. As mentioned lacquers are quite "hot" so you'd need to have had a lacquer paint to use a lacquer top coat.

For the acrylic paint you can only use an acrylic top coat like Mr Hobby Topcoat.

I also read that decals can be easily destroyed by lacquer top coats.

I don't think that is accurate... otherwise Gunze's own topcoats wouldn't work on any of their paints, as they don't offer a lacquer paint line (its all acrylic.) What you can't do is go heavy on the application, otherwise it will run. just do light misting and you will be fine.

Also, I think Mr Top Coat (versus Mr Super clear) is an acrylic base... but I'm pretty sure you can make that run too if its the application is too heavy.

QFT. I'm near finishing my VF-1 but the decals have gotten me frustrated to the point where I'm not sure if I want to finish the dang thing.

Its telling when people are rejoicing for the decals out of a Hasegawa box. It could only be worse if people thought Academy (circa 1999) was better.

Can't be as bad as this one, which is problematic given the situation in Washington State.

I still have the feeling that there's too much "old school" thinking going on in another supposedly multi-billion dollar project. I imagine a rocket distributing a swarm of small, disposable recon drones, doing the same job at lower systemic costs.

Except that raises political issues, like when the sentinel crashed in Iran last year. Moreover the speed of this aircraft would be phenomenal; depending on the drone's bases location, it may well be faster to send the hypersonic aircraft then fly the drone at subsonic speeds.

The real question is, what military application would such an aircraft serve since satellite technology has advanced such a great deal, we don't need a high speed reconnaissance jet. A fast deep strike aircraft as they described I guess would be possible. Might have to give it the A designation over SR however.

Plenty, which is why DARPA and the USAF has been funding such work for so long. Satellite technology is limited in two respects. First, adversaries are able to know when a satellite is coming into view, therefore can hide their activities. Relatedly, they cannot easily change their orbit making it difficult to obtain information on demand in a crisis. Finally they are limited by the payload they are carrying from the time of their launch, their altitude, and climactic conditions. The SR-72 would be able to avoid those problems.

Does anybody else think that trailer looks like a modern retelling of 300? I mean I could have sworn there is a scene where a soviet soldier is jumping to stab a guy with the same rolling camera effect as in that movie... just with different uniforms.

I have to strongly disagree with this concerning the nazi nuclear program, and the Horton. First of all, while the Germans were pioneers in nuclear science the actual Nazi program was a mess. It was underfunded, primitive, and phycisists who should have been involved in it were diverted away into conscription to fight as soldiers on the front lines. By 1942 Hitler was informed it would take 15 to 20 years before they could get an A-bomb, so he cut resources again to go to other weapons projects, and the nuclear program itself shifted its focus to energy production. By 1945 they had one barely working hazardous prototype reactor, that in no way could produce the amount of material needed to make an A-bomb. Much of the heavy water the nazi's were gathering went to said reactor just to make it work as they were using a flawed system. The Germans just didn't have the massive resources in terms of knowledge, manpower, and material to replicate anything near the level of the Manhatten project.

As for the Horton HO 229, two months would not have made a difference. If it went into production, it would have suffered the same issues the 262 had with scarce fuel supplies, unreliable engines, and lack of skilled pilots. It would also be worth mentioning that at this point reliable allied jet fighters flown by well trained experience pilots would also be joining the front lines.

That being said, Soviet Russia did help bring a quicker end to the war through their stand at Stalingrad.

Oh it was much worse than that. the German Luftwaffe was basically a shattered force by 1943 due to unsustainably high losses in Russia, Tunisia and in the Reich defence, and completely wrecked in the first few months of 1944. Even in 1943 the quality of their pilots was pretty low. Moreover the vast majority of their aircraft weren't wunderwaffe, but the -109 and -190, which started to get outclassed by newer Western designs ( P-51H, -47N, Spitfire 21, De Havilland Hornet and Vampire.) The 262 wasn't nearly as advanced either. Its greatest advantage was swept wings. However its engine durability was 1/10th of western designs: it had less than 10 hours before needing replacement, but the Meteors could fly for 100 hours. That's a big issue. Actually the Allies were very careful not to use certain technologies over germany in order to prevent them from obtaining them. They included radar fused shells, jet aircraft and certain radar types.

I'd post pics of all my unfinished stuff but then I'd be procrastinating!

Hahah, you have much to learn about the art of model procrastinating!

Nope! I'm just a serial procrastinator!

Actually, my problem is that I get bored easily, have very little time, and my model stash has grown by leaps and bounds since I purchased this kit. All that combined means I find lots and lots of ways to not finish a kit.

You guys help someone like me stay on track though, so thanks!

Pfft. Rookie.

That's probably half of what I've got sitting unfinished. Actually I've made it a bit of a mission to get 12 of them done by Christmas. Current total? 0 out of 20 (almost became 21 when I opened up a 1/72 hasegawa hurricane last night).

Scyla's pretty much said it.

If you want an easy way, go with the Gundam marker for panel lines, the thinnest one. Just line it down like a normal pen. You can just clean any excess and make it look even with a damp towel or cloth or your fingers but that'll be abit more messy.

That solution might or might not work since there's a layer of clear coat on it. I've tried before that it's kinda hard to remove the excess of the Gundam marker after you've painted and layered a clear coat over the model. Maybe I've just missed something but to my experience it's not easy to do so.

Another way would be the paint. You can just work with any acrylic or oil paint which can be easier to get than Gundam markers. Thin it with some water, dip a brush and just run it down the line. Same process of removing excess, use a damp towel/cloth after you've let it dry for some time. How hard you remove the excess is up to you to even it out with the other panels.

You can google it up or youtube. There are lots of helpful tutorials, tips and videos on the oil/acrylic paint wash method.

I might have missed some things so hopefully some of the more skilled modellers would come by and have more inputs about it.

The only concern I have with doing a wash is the presence of a flatcoat. Depending on what they used (like if its a proper modelling flat vs an industrial treatment) the area itself will tend to soak up a bit of the paint and give a darker appearance. That's actually not a bad thing; its an excellent excuse to do some weathering across the entire model. Its suuuuper easy. IF you have some artists oil paint and thinner for it (white mineral spirits) you can thin the paint to a consistency and dab it into the panel line. The advantages of this approach is that you can try several times to get the right match with the rest of the line. A Gundam marker is binary: its going to be all or nothing.

Also you can use the wash to create darkened areas, discolourations and the like if you do it gently. Check in a non-obvious area if the wash/thinner damages the flatcoat, and if it doesn't, then make light small dabs of the very thinned paint across the model and wipe it off lightly with a rag or paper.

Hervé: awesome AWing and BGS suit... can't wait to see more!

From Zero to Hero! Nice job Noyhauser; that came out beautiful! - MT

Thanks MT... its been a pretty interesting build.

Before starting on my biplanes I've been trying to clear some builds.

So its a hasegawa 1/72 F-11F Tiger. Its a short nosed version, so it has a little resin insert for the nose which you're supposed to cut off. I didn't want to do a full cockpit, so I rummaged through the spares box and pulled out a pilot.

There are several different modifications beyond the nose. One of them was the wing strake which was added to long nose version and not on the early version. The modified wing is on the left and the original one is on the right.

Here is it all put together. The nose needed puttying to get to fit right, as it is a bit big. I also rescribed the entire aircraft... as the kit itself is raised panel lines.

Here is a first primer coat to see what I need to do with the kit.

Needs a bit more work, but its getting there.

Sci-fi Sengoku period? Sounds kinda like what Southern Cross was supposed to be before the toy sponsors demanded a change to transforming futuristic mecha.

Sounds more like a prequel to Gintama.

Glad it arrived intact! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

Yeah! It arrived a few days ago and I wanted to get going on it asap without thinking of telling you it arrived. It looks awesome actually... I'm really excited as its my first biplane since I was a kid.

I don't doubt humbrol's brushing quality.... its really just not a great AB paint. Tamiya is the exact opposite; terrible brush paint, awesome AB paint. Gunze really is the best of both worlds, particularly with the various paint solutions that go with it (mild retarder and leveling thinner). I also think its the best bang for your buck... the thicker paint goes further with the thinner, which is cheaper than tamiya's stuff.

A lot of this also has to do with growing shifts in the computing/gaming world on the accessibility of platforms for development. The start of this emerged with the apps store for apple and later PC. The previous step was the steam for linux, and now this. It really is trying to preserve the gaming market dynamics from 1990 to today.

I'll try electric, and thanks for the compliment. Basically I didn't use the tripod and I took the photos in poor lighting with a flash. I'm _by no means_ a photography expert, so the results are pretty typical of my thumbs.

In all honestly sebastien (and apologies to those who use the stuff) but I could never get humbrol paints to work for me. I use them only for brush painting as a primer. I'd really urge you to wait on painting the VF-19 until you get an alternative, preferably gunze or tamiya if they are available and affordable. They will make a big big difference.

After watching the Robin Olds episode of Air Aces on The "Hitler" Channel, I pulled out my old 1:48 F-4 Phantom to look at it. The decals are pretty bad off, being a 80's kit bought at an airshow for $4.oo. Anyone know of a source for decals that would be for his bird?

What kit is this? The monogram one? Its still considered quite good. I can ask around to see if anybody has that decal option.

The guy selling the COANG A-7 decals didn't have his set...

So... did you get the airdoc set for the A-7 or no?

Ive heard of of that specific problem ahab. I've never had it and it certainly does not sound fun. It might be the case since tamiya white is one of the better primers you can find.

What's your primer derex?

Any in 1/72? I'd LOVE to see the starship as well.