wm cheng

Hmm, I've never measured, you kind of do it by eye - since each colour and finish is a little different, but 50:50 is a good minimum rule of thumb. Flat paints tend to need more thinning since it dries up in the airbrush more easily, and glossy paints needs less since its coverage isn't as good as flat paints. Additionally, you don't want to thin metallics too much or the metal particles will break up. For white paint, thin it to the consistency of skim milk, that should flow well. I'd spend the few extra dollars to get the Tamiya thinner - get the bigger bottle and it will last you a while (as long as you don't use it to clean the airbrush with). The tamiya thinner has a few flow additives in it that also allows it to thin clear colours better. Save the cheap stuff like windex and alchohol for cleaning out your brushes and airbrush (but spend the money on what touches your model - afterall, how do you put a price on all the effort and time you've put into the model)

Hi everybody, nothing new to show - just a lot of scrubing and washing the pieces with comet (nothing to see here... move along...) Hey Ido, the two tubes are just some spare polycaps I had lying around - they look good once the canopy is on (I think the PE parts are wasted if you choose to close the canopy) but styrene tubes do the same job! Hey Chad, nice of you to join in I was thinking that I'd do the white Valk, in Roy's colours of black and yellow 001 but with Hikaru's pilot name on the canopy (since at this point in the series, he's inherited Roy's plane) but I will depart from canon on the boosters. I'm not sure about the white boosters, I was thinking that I'd do it in a grey/blue like the fast packs. I was going to add a few more grey panels to the Valkyrie itself, then lighten the boosters around the Valkyrie connection points to a light grey, so it doesn't contrast as much, but start working in some darker greys and blue greys (panelled kind of like my shades of blue for the YF-21) so that they look similar beside my Super Valks with the fast packs (since I feel they are part of the same mechanism anyways) I was going to decal them similarily too. Hey Berttt, feel free to join in and post some pictures (I would like to see where you're at too) As you can see from my pictures, I have two big bubbles right at the same spot as yours where the boosters contact the avionics hump on top of the fuselage too. Additionally, I also have quite a few bubbles ruining every one of the thin delicate members around the three vertical slots that I have to fill and build up again (argh! ) And yes, I too have a gap between the two mating surfaces around the edge. I don't think any of these is a big deal yet, I intend to try my hand at filling them with some crazy glue and baking soda. This will be a first for me - so wish me luck.

Here's a shot of the two leg halves with the gear doors glued in. The doors are not correctly molded to the curvature fo the legs themselves - but its nothing that a final sanding won't cure. The forward gear doors are left off until the two halves of the legs are glued together, they still needs to be shaved down a bit for a better fit. And I can't glue the two halves together until I spray and finish the feet/afterburning cans.

The forward doors are a little bit tricker. I used to just shave back the bump behind the door to get a nice flat door that will lay in flat against the leg opening - but that often hampered the mounting of the green/red leg lights later on. So I decided to cut away the leg portion of the mounts and allow the forward doors to seat in complete with the light housing. However I still have to cut the support leg off each of these forward doors.

Then I glue the doors to the side of the leg that has a portion of the door round over - this side is more important than the otherside because its pretty crutial to get that reveal seam as smooth as possible. I add some liquid cement to the backside to fill in the gaps.

No work on the weekend (must please wife ) Here's the last for tonight... Closing the rear landing gear doors - there's no right way to do this, I've done it differently on every one of my models, but with each one, I use less and less re-inforcing. I always glue the doors together first with a styrene strip in behind for reinforcing, since the actual edge of the doors isn't enough meat for the glue to properly work with.

Hey, has anyone built this kit in the last year that can offer me tips?! Feel free to chime in...

I just couldn't resist - I had to piece something together before I could leave the table for today! its looking good so far... I still intend to make the Valkryie removeable if I can help it - well see if that's possible, but so far its seem as though the Captain has made such a perfect fit that I might not need anything - friction my just do the trick. We'll see when I get the legs together - theres a large chunk of resin I have to remove to get the legs and feet into the Boosters. Plus there's a bit of clean up on the Boosters themselves (my cast had a few bubbles in the vents and forward part of the Boosters that needs to be filled and sanded first)

I thought I'd dig out the pieces required for the legs and do some pre-assembly to see how this thing all comes together to fit with the resin Boosters. It was so nice for the captain to provide us with the forward intakes so nicely casted allready assembled without the seam. I intend to wash all the resin pieces soon (before I work with them) but I need to go out and by Comet first - its a good idea to scrub all resin pieces with a toothbrush and Comet & detergent to remove any mold release agents that always come with resin kits.

Here's the nosecone forward fuselage - the part I spend the most time sanding. The nose seam has to be perfect - its the thing most people (incl me) see first on the model. I followed the same technique as most of my other pieces - put a little more than needed tube cement on the seams so that some of it oozes out (becareful to not put too much - otherwise the cement may continue to melt the styrene and cause sink depressions) and paint the seam with Mr. Surfacer 1000. I sand down until the entire seam dissapears and that you can run your fingernails across the seam and its perfectly smooth. I then washed the assembly, decaled the pilot and cockpit control panels and gave both a bit of white dry-brushing to highlight the details (I did a dark wash last year that picked out the crevices). I'm not going to go overboard on this, since I intend to keep the canopy closed, and with the distortions in the canopy, not real details can be seen. Ok, I've started to cut corners on the cockpit... I rather spend the time on detailing the rest of the Boosters. And yes I know, its the wrong pilot - I'm a bit impatient, and I've really been wanting to see this Booster kit on my display shelf for over a year now - so I thought if I corrected the pilot for the TV-version, that itself could take a week or at least a few days - plus sculpting such small collars is not my strong point anyways. Plus I like the DYRL pilot suits so much better than the disco collars!

Here's the same seam after sanding (notice that I took most of the Mr. Surfacer off - its almost used as a marker for me, especially on white plastic of how far I still have to sand down to the seam). I'm using the Hasegawa PE micro saws to "re-etch" the circular panel lines that have been lost due to the sanding

Here's the gun pod - originally glued together last year (with excessive glue so that it oozes out to fill in minor seams) plus I "painted" Mr. Surfacer 1000 to make sure its all sealed in. I intend to use that Alclad metalizer here, and its very unforgiving - any blemishes and it shows!

Hmm, the new boards handles attachments differently now (is there a way to get it to show like the old way - instead of clicking on them and having them open in a new window?) or do you guys prefer this way? Anyways, the arms are show below, with the left before the sanding (a little overkill on the tamiya putty - but there are some severe elevational differences sometimes especially with flat parts) and the right after sanding (you see most of it is sanded away, but there are a few sink holes that remain) (ohh, I like this multiple attachments)

Hey everybody - I'm back... Hopefully I'll have enough time between jobs to finish this baby (after a year long hiatus!) Man! it feels good to be building again... - first day back, kinda rusty, so I just kind of kept to sanding - to get back into the goove again. I'll keep posting to this thread (until this section closes down - I hope that when that happens Roy could move it over to the appropriate thread and PM me about it). This shot shows the corrugated "fencing" I put in (with styrene bought from a local train hobby store - comes in sheets) so that you don't see into the fuselage. I originally fitted the Valkryie against the booster packs to get a tracing of the swing wing's inner most swing extents to get the line to glue these styrene strips to. I was too cheap to use the PE parts that Hasegawa provides for this area.

Sorry, that baby was way before I even knew about MW or did any build ups. I have a few works in progress snaps if you're interested.

Hey Chad, Great minds think alike!! (fools seldom differ ) Nice car! I too love it (originally I just loved the look of the thing - but now having been on the track, I can't believe how it handles!) Don't you love the type68 M-rims, I was hoping to get a set of replicas for my winter tires too (can't afford the BMW OEMs again - luckily they came with the car) I also prefer the pre-facelifted headlights like ours - they look more M3 like. Yeah, I was thinking of getting body coloured reflectors too - but with the OEM clears I had on the cars already, I'm in no hurry yet (plus there's all these new Macross goodies, GBP, VF-0S and the FM M.Falcon - I've gotta watch my spending). Plus I need winter tires & wheels in the next few months! I thought about getting the BMW OEM rear spoiler for our car though (not the M3 lip) its quite unusual, very few people have it, plus its understated without being too pimp (maybe next year)

Come-on Captn! I'm pulln' for the Booster Launch Vehicle!

Hey will they release a version with both the parts and a VF-1J? or do we have to purchase them separately?

Hey Grayson, I got a 328Ci with all the bells and whistles! Man I love this car! http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...=1420&p=328130& Hey EXO, I know I just posted to it - I was referring to Roy's pinned thread at the top of this thread. I just know I won't bother to submit a full report after I'm done (I'll forget what I did in the early steps). I keep getting bugged by ARC or Starship modeller to submit for years (but I never get around to it). It was just easy here (at least it was...) Oh well, maybe we'll get a wider audience at the general model forums.

very nice, how much did you pay? i have been seriously looking at the BMW M-series and the 5-series. maybe i can someday soon join you on the track. chris 327996[/snapback] Its a 2000 328Ci with all sports pkg upgrades, new brakes, rotors, rims & 17" staggard setup - I got it for just under 30K canadian with the remainder of the factory warranty till Dec of this year (its a BMW Certified Pre-Owned from the dealer). Its a little more because of the immaculate condition and the CPO (the previous owner only had 78,000km on it and drove it so little that the on-board computer didn't even require a Inspection II till 100,000km) - although I am changing that with the way I'm driving it I got it on the 1.9% financing - look for it, its quite reasonable if you can find a good CPO. An new M3 would be over 80K!

Hi all, Its been a busy summer - and my new "baby" (newish BMW) has taken all my time and resources. With fall approaching and winter inevitable - I look forward to cuddling up with MW What's this with the "How to Build" forum closing down? Where should I post any future progress builds? (if I ever find the time again... ) I can't really submit a finished step-by-step (it would take so much time to compile it all in the end, I'd rather start another one if I had that kind of time) - I do it as I build along (its much less painful that way), and I do it for the feedback I get from the kind folks here - often suggesting different ways of solving my problems as I build them. A submission is a "one-way" conversation at the end with me "talking" at you. I don't want to do that. Plus I enjoy following along your builds when I'm at work and don't have time to build anything myself. My 2-cents!

Hey all, Just returned from my first track with my newish BMW - I'm hooked! This new baby has eaten into my Macross time this summer - but with Winter approaching, I'll cuddle up with MW again... I promise...

Hey fellow William! Looking forward to your bases. Personally, I'd prefer a bit more slope (chamfer) on the base but without the four rectangular tabs - I prefer a cleaner look. As for models, check out some of my previous threads; http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=691 Unfortunately the first few (with a *) are on the older boards and are not yet accessible - but the ones further down are here. I'd start with a YF-19 or YF-21, I think they were the easiest and yielded the best results with minimal effort. Always good to hook new Macross modellers!

Silvering occurs when there are tiny bubbles that occur between the decal and the surface the decal lays on. When a flat finish is applied, the flat coat is actually microscopically full of ridges and bumps (thus scattering the light and elminating reflections which appear glossy). The clear (or yellowed if old) carrier film lays over this rough surface and air bubbles are formed beneath making the film stand out against a dark background. MicroSET (vinegar like) softens the decals so that it may conform to irregularities in surface easier. MicroSOL (solvent like) almost melts the decals into the paint or surface irregularities (use with extreme caution - it can dessolve the decal to the point where you can't handle it without wreaking it). So these decal softeners can allow the decal to conform to rough surfaces thereby reducing the amount of bubbles beneath the carrier film. I always trim as much as I can off the carrier film - even with the NO-STEP & DANGER, I trim as close to them as possible. Future or any other gloss-coat merely smooths over the surface (when a surface its glossy - it reflects all the light back at the viewer, creating reflections) so the microscopic surface is smooth - providing a better surface for the decal to adhere to (less bubbles are trapped) As I said before, I only decal over a semi-gloss surface and it seems fine. However, keep in mind that if you decal on a light background, any silvering is harder to see than decalling over a dark background. Decalling is a black art - you learn by feel & experience. Don't worry, take it slow. Generally the thinner the decal, the better - but also much harder to handle and takes a lot less decal softeners or solvents to apply.

DEFINITELY!!