EastwindS2k

On 7/6/2020 at 3:06 PM, sh9000 said:

 

That’s a repaint of a Calibre Wing’s F14 right? If so good work

Great work! 

I’m panel lining a standard one and my progress is slow. After seeing yours,  maybe I’ll add glowing paint too.

Do you matte coat before or after applying the glowing paint? Also do glowing paints need thinner?

This is not Star Trek to me

1 hour ago, seti88 said:

Oh yes! The ex gears! I was a huge shirow fan and the folded wings at the back reminded me somewhat of the undeployed guges wings in appleseed.

My alto is sitting buried in the stash but this makes me wanna dig it out again.

Oh how i wish macross expanded more into ex gear variants....

Very nice paint job!  Arnold approves?! 

He said get to the choppa! lol

Update on first post

* Add NUNS Special Forces EX‐Gear

The NUNS Special Forces EX‐Gears appeared in the Macross Frontier movie. They were used against the cyborgs coup d'etat led by Grace O’connor. Besides the unexpected plot twist, I was intrigued by EX‐Gear’s military camouflage.

This is the base toy that I have for a while. Judging by design, it’s the worst Bandai toy that I have handled. It has limited articulation, bad parts connection, greasy plastic surface, and loose joints.

The first step is to degrease the surface with 91% isopropyl alcohol and then apply primer. Beware that alcohol will remove the existing paints, but that’s not a problem because this toy will be completely painted over.

This camouflage is a pain because it has 4 different colors and that means a lot of masking. The colors I used are Mr. Hobby 97, 315, 35, and a custom blue from Tamiya acrylics.

The decals are done, the last step is matte coating with Tamiya TS80.

This is it, have fun!

Maybe Shoji Kawamori like the F104 too, as he designed the SV-154 Svärd in the Macross Delta. I just wish there's a DX version 

'

47 minutes ago, borgified said:

A quick question for those that have the 171EX Luca, Alto or Maruyama opened in full display.

Has your copies discoloured (or yellowed) due to age? 

* I listed one for grabs (not here) for those who are really curious *  

None so far. They should be ok if not exposed in direct sun light.  

11 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

That's a sweet looking aircraft! I can totally imagine a bunch of those getting wiped out by a couple of SV-51s.  (No I'm not making fun of the aircraft; just imagining what would really happen if those two forces met in the Unification Wars.)

Haha no doubt  

Update on first post

* Add VF041H Yellow Belmont

* Add F104G

The F104 Starfighter is special to me. I grew up during the Cold War in Taiwan and the ROCAF (Republic of China Airforce) and many other free world countries deployed a large number of F104s at that time. The F104 remained in service with ROCAF until 1998, and finally retired from the Italian Air Force in 2004. The F104 has poor reliability, but it also has distinctive look and sound so I always want to build a model of it. In the world of Macross, it’s conceivable that many F104s were still active during the Unification Wars.

I bought this 1/48 Hasegawa kit a while back. It’s not difficult to build. The quality is fine but doesn't include parts like pilot, weapons, and pylons. I bought those separately and they cost more than the base kit. Additionally, I bought new decals because the original was useless due to aging, ugh.

I tested the color before airbrushing. I chose Mr. Hobby 73 mixed with white and leveling thinner. The ratio is 1:1:3 and I think it’s good enough to the real F104s. The rest are pictures while building the kit, prime, paint, decal, and wash etc.

Here is the result. I like it and I hope the same for you, have fun   

On 6/10/2020 at 8:47 PM, Lolicon said:

RVF-25 and the rest of the SMS Skull Squadron 

Nice! Love that shading works. Also painting those landing gears must take you a while but it's really good

Update on the first post:

* Add VE1 Elint Seeker

* Add SF3A Lancer II

* Add SF3A Super Lancer II 

If I were a pilot in the Macross universe, I’ll probably fly the SF3A because it’s non transformable and designed for hit-and-run missions, that suits a simple and timid person like me. It’s too bad that SF3A only appeared briefly in episode 1 of Macross.

This 1/60 kit doesn’t have many pieces, but resin needs to be processed before assembly so it has a long build time. A resin piece may need to be clipped, trimmed, cooked,  patched, and repeatedly sanded.

I decided to make a super Lancer after seeing this cool drawing (kudos to the artist). It reminds me of the Stark Jegan captain in Gundam UC. After test fitting with my toys, I purchased a set of fast pack and began modifying the parts.

I made an antenna extension with epoxy putty because the stock piece is too short with the fast pack. The thickness is slightly increased to compensate for the additional length.

Mounting boosters on the Lancer is a challenge due to their weight. I heated the dorsal piece and then carved out 2 cavities for connecting joints.

The Home Depot white paint works surprisingly well. It’s inexpensive and has good coverage (but dries slowly). Just spray carefully because the nozzle was made for larger objects.

I trimmed the adapter and then glued it with 2 arm armors. Later, the armors will be mounted on the SF3A’s ventral section like the drawing. I also added extra weapons to make it more “cool”. Now this little fighter can fly gloriously like Roy!

The included decals were not enough for this project so I used a few extras. 

This is it. Have fun and be safe to you all

Bought the Yamato VF19S from Actar with no issue. He’s a good seller

23 minutes ago, wmkjr said:

It's been awhile since I saw this. 

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/44539-3d-printed-battlecity-7/

I watched the video, amazing work! Thanks for the link

Not sure if this has been posted before. I found this project on a Chinese Macross forum and the owner said he built this in 2016. It looks fantastic  

On 4/22/2020 at 3:04 PM, Lolicon said:

For years I've derived the most enjoyment out of my valkyrie toys from the work I put into improving them from their stock condition. Though I actually consider myself bottom of the barrel among the customizer world, I do it because it's fun and for the satisfaction of knowing that a toy has been improved through my own efforts.

On 4/20/2020 at 2:26 PM, Bolt said:

I've recently been going thru the last of my 1/60's. The Alto , Maruyama and RVF 171's all seem fine. Though I haven't transformed any of them . Curious to know who has and how their's are doing.

The mess production type is known to break so I only partially transformed it once while I was coating it. My first VF171 mass production suffered a catastrophic break down (torso joint) even when I handled like a baby. Fortunately Amazon Japan let me returned the item.

The rest of 171s seem to have improved quality so they are safer to transform. Just be mindful when handling the small black plastic triangle    

Update on the first post:

* Add VF31S & Armor

* Add VF19S

The VF19, Yamato’s last effort before its demise. The VF19 improved significantly from the earlier YF19, but it also has new issues. For one, the panel lines are terribly shallow so I re-scribed all of them.

Re-scribe a fighter is tiring process. I carefully aligned the tapes to ensure the results are satisfactory. The progress was slow because my eyes were sore after brief work. Sigh, I’m feeling old.

I airbrushed the canopy to better match the line art. The color is Gaia 047 clear purple. Beware it won’t solute in acrylic solvent despite it’s an acrylic based paint. A good thing is I had an old bottle of Gaia solvent at the time.

It’s time for the decals. Unbelievably, Yamato forgot to include an application guide in the user’s manual, what a bummer! It was frustrating because I couldn’t find a guide anywhere. Fortunately, a Macross forum member came to the rescue with his YF19 master file book, thank you Mommar!!

The last step is coating. Kawamori probably saw the Blue Angels when he designed the Emerald Force VF19. I want to honor that color scheme and I used semi gloss instead of matte or full gloss. 

I tried the Gunze Premium Acrylic semi gloss for the first time but it was disappointing. The effect was inconsistent and looked too glossy to me. Later, I switched back to the lacquer based Tamiya TS-79.

This is it and I hope you like it just as I do. Thank you for viewing, and I’m working on the 1/60 SF3A Lancer II next.

This is exactly what I need, BIG thanks to you! 
 

I have water slide decals, and I’ll share some pictures later 

Does anyone know a decal guide for the VF19S (or VF19F)? Unbelievably, Yamato did not include it on their instruction. 

Perhaps the VF19 master file has it? If so please share the page if you have one, thank you. 

I’m waiting the VF4 from NY too  

14 hours ago, chyll2 said:

Nice, I noticed that some Frontier DX are in satin/matt finish. Am I correct or is it the soft lighting that causes it?

 

Really really beautiful sets. Clean shots, really like the usage of acrylic blocks and another case why Yeti Stands are really superior for this hobby.

Thank you. The Yetis are great

You were right and I coated all of them. I posted the how to in one of my earlier reply.

Update on the first post: 

* Added VF0 Shin Kudo

* Added YF19 No.4 

* Added VF31A

* Added Mospeada 

Here are some outtakes 

14 hours ago, Lord_Of_Tetris said:

Awesome photos! But what does “gallery walk” mean?

It’s an activity from school. People walk around the classroom and see each other’s works

I think it looks pretty good from factory 

56 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

HMR VF-2SS Sylvie Gena use

The added decals look real good