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Well I had to finish by today (I start work Monday again ) Its by no means perfect, but I had to rush it. I weathered it very lightly, but its hard to see in the photos through the semi-gloss finish. The most disappointing thing is you can hardly see any of the cockpit detailing AND when I uncovered the mask, there was some hazing on the inside surface of the canopy glass (I'm just having such bad luck with canopies these days). I've glued it shut a long time ago, I wonder if I should risk it and pry it apart (I'm sure to damage the finish around the fuselage and worst crack the canopy in doing so) to clean the interior - but I hate the hazing - I was so careful to not use any crazy glues in the construction at all. It must of been some other paint off-gassing. Hopefully I will gnaw away at the ordinance/fuel tanks over the next few weekends to finish her up - she's so lank/skinny without any missiles. I do love how this kit has all the spoilers, slats and flaps open with all the proper alignment, but it does take away from a very sleek bird, I think I have to do one where the wings are swept back some day. Close up of the canopy fogging - looks like something I can just brush away if I could get in there... Boy can you see the difference a few decades make, the beginning of 4th gen fighter and the end - even the colours scream 70s. Well this and my C3P0 and R2D2 represents this Covid Pandemic break for me. Lets hope 2021 is a better year for all of us!

@NZEOD those are amazing!!! So small and detailed. Fantasic, what kits are they? @MechTech I still can't believe you make that out of scratch (I know I sound like a broken record) but its amazing. Do you build ships for a maritime museum? What do you do with your big boats afterwards? Getting closer, doesn’t look like I’ll finish before I start work Monday (Love 70’s hi-viz graphics - come shoot me, if you dare) I'm going to try to finish up the plane and leave all the ordinance and tanks till the weekends between work (maybe a big break between finishing it up unfortunately). So glossy, don't really know how to weather it to make it look a little more realistic, its kind of looks like a matchbox metal diecast toy at the moment. I still gotta future clear coat the decals, and fix the lower ventral fins (stupidly I painted them red both sides, and only noticed that they were only red on the outside after I decaled it - argh!) - maybe a light use shading and semi-gloss clear coat would take the "toy-ish" ness down a bit. Gotta do the wing sweep dirt pattern on the wings, but minimally since these are new planes in 1974. I'm not used to the Navy taking care of their planes :P (bunch of little details like the black anti-glare pattern in front of the cockpit and gunmetal gun shield that will be sprayed at the very end along with the wing bags that I want to be flat finish)

Thanks for the tip @MacrossJunkie on those airbrush splatter stencils. Just ordered those - exactly what I was hoping for before I ever get to the newer Tomcats. That Death Star II is looking great @derex3592!! Amazing how much detail they can pack into something that small.

Woohoo!!! After a long journey, its finally starting to look like an airplane... (this is my favourite stage, decaling and weathering :P)

Yes I see what you mean @MacrossJunkie, but I think people who are happy with it have no customizing or modeling expertise at all and are happy with what they get out of the box. The problem for people like you and I and others that customize is that our standards are too high since we only have to work on one at time for ourselves. There is no way any mass manufacturing is going to complete with our level of customization. Those brush touch points are actually intentional, I've seen them in the anime lineart and was considering replicating them for my custom VF-0D back in the day, but then decided against it as it didn't fit with my weathering style visually.

Well you guys have made me spend way more than I had planned to over these years, so I guess we're even!!! Nice work BTW! @Lolicon

I've got the game already - just wondering if the DLCs were worth it (I could care less about more aircraft skins)

I would love it if all the mission were VR instead of just the two. Is this Premium Edition all the missions in VR? Are there any more VR missions in the DLCs?

LOVE IT!!! Awesome work @MacrossJunkie Its tough to weather dark planes and you did a fantastic job on that one. Looks just like the anime and very realistic. Especially the love the orange tinting to the canopy - really adds to the overall custom. @electric indigo - phenomenally smooth paint job as always - I wish I can get mine so smooth. I must try your method of using flat paints (which always goes on smoother and better coverage) and then clear coating for decals. I try to use glossy paints first for decals as I find I want to try to minimize the layers of paint before I do the Flory Wash for panel details, the clear coat over that for decals. I'm having a heck of a time with the white belly on my Tomcat at the moment.

Amazing @MechTech - almost a shame to paint over all that metal goodness. Fantastic weathering @Return To Kit Form - always love seeing your stuff!!!

@Dobber That's gorgeous!!! I love all the different shading you did, I can't believe that's pencil. Yes, much better design than Discovery or the JJPrise.

Wow @derex3592 your SD looks fantastic!!! I just received the Greenstrawberry resin engine and photoetched upgrade parts for this kit and if I don't go back to work, it will be my next build (if I ever finish my F-14) - you're inspiring! The upgrade is pretty crazy, they included separate antennas for the little pointy tips for the shield generators - don't know if I can get that small. Congrats on a beautiful build! BTW I'm curious about that bowing your talking about and the light leaks and not fitting - could you point me to any threads about that and if there's anyway of mitigating this problem if you were to do it over again? @MechTech your scratch builds are just astounding to me. You are the opposite of me, I hate the building and will pay through the nose to get all the upgrades and the most detailed kit just so I don't have to make stuff up so I can get to my favourite part which is painting and decaling. I can't even imagine what you do, but I love the real metal materials. Can't wait to see it finished. @Gabe Q those packs are looking great, can't wait to see them on the birds!

What a flashback to be getting decals from @Anasazi37 again! Thanks so much for doing this. Here's what I did with the last ones he did for 1/48 scale for my old Yamatos, how long was that?!?!

Woohoo!!! I'm finally finished the 1/72 Hasegawa F-18F Superhornet. Didn't really have the time to setup a proper photo session, but got these on my cell phone. Thank you so much @NZEOD for sending me a replacement canopy after I cracked mine all the way from New Zealand! I'm pretty happy with it especially after a few years off from modeling. Its given me enough confidence to finally start on one of my 1/72 F-14 Tomcats in my huge stash. So much more work matching paints, researching on these real birds than Macross planes!

That's exactly what I thought so I skipped on the YF-19 on the initial offering. I do like my Bandai VF-19 DX over my Arcadia YF-19 in every way, but I spent so much time and effort in weathering and designing and printing decals for that bare naked expensive Arcadia toy that I can't just sell it now (it came first, so I had no choice, if I were to do it all over again, I'd skip on the Arcadia). But when they announced the Bandai YF-21, I realized that I can't really put that next to my Bandai VF-19 (markings wrong and wrong booster) and the lack of Tampo on the Arcadia and bulbous sculpt just doesn't match the angular sharp presentation of the Bandai YF-21. So I cracked and ordered the Bandai YF-19 and its so much better than the VF-19. I think its slightly better articulated (at lease easier to pose for me), they added a hing/joint, love the green fold booster (way more than those Frontier boosters), love the arm folding cannon/missile pack, all the extra missiles. Again, if I knew that there was going to be a YF-19, I wouldn't have gotten the VF-19. I just can't decide to display it in plane mode with the fold booster or battroid with the arm canon/missile pack? (the only solution is to get yet another one ) - that's how much I ended up liking the Bandai YF-19 when I didn't even have any interest in the initial pre-order.

THANK YOU, thank you!!! @NZEOD I just got your canopy for my cracked F-18F - it arrived safely. Holy smokes talk about packaging... I felt like opening a russian doll all the way from New Zealand. It must of come over the ocean by ship during this pandemic. What an amazing forum here, I've received so much help for the last 17yrs (or maybe longer - when was the overhaul), thank you so much. I'll post as soon as I get it painted up and on my F-18F.

Hey @peter if it makes you feel any better, I chickened out on drilling out the space underneath my pilots masks. I'm too far along, with the pilots glued into the seats and in the fuselage, I'm worried I'll make a mess of it and have to repaint so much of the pilot too. Oh well. Your decals are making that POS Enterprise model kit look way better than it should - you should be proud!

@electric indigoDamn you!!! It didn't even occur to me, now I can't see it without that mod. Argh, all painted too, lets hope I don't make a mess of it. I just want to get to the painting, weathering and decals - all this is stuff I hate to do to get me to that stage of modeling which I love.

Thanks @MechTech I don't think its good enough to show with the canopy open, the seats are kit seats (you really need resin seats & tub for canopy open) and the pilots are just the ones that Hasegawa comes with on their ground crew set (I think they are actually Air Force not Navy pilots too - although I don't know how different their suits were) - I'd prefer resin sculpted pilots for open canopies. The worst part those is the RIO's console coaming is too narrow for an open cockpit. I've never been to an IPMS show (I don't know if they have those in Canada) but I would probably nerdgasm out at one of these :P

Oh @peter make sure you are very careful when masking to lighten the grey on the strongbacks as you have some decals on the secondary hull now and don't want that to be pulled up. I'd even suggest using posted it notes or use the Tamiya masking tape but put it on your jeans first to take the initial tackiness off. I wouldn't even do the strongback details in a different colour, I'd go with the base white and let the decals darken the colour - which version are you doing (silvery grey for TMP, blue for WoK or green for the subsequent movies?)

Ok here we go again!!! Just got the new GWH 1/72 F-14A with one my favourite schemes the VF-1 Wolfpack! Its a pretty amazingly detailed kit, but its not for beginners, there are lots of missing instruction steps and things don't exactly lock together, so you have to constantly go a few steps ahead and dry fit before you glue everything down. Once everything is aligned it should fit well, the key is getting everything aligned and massaged before gluing which is often 4-5 steps ahead of where you are. Well I wanted to make it easier on myself by not going nuts on the cockpit, the kit supplied seats are really well done, except for the seat cushions and no belts so I thought I'd use two pilots from my Hasegawa ground crew set (not as good as resin ones, I have those on order for my other Tomcats eventually) and decide to do this with the canopy closed. I just used kit instrument decals, but there were such good raised details in the cockpit, luckily I managed to get the decals snuggle down to the switches really well, they even included molding and decals for all the fuses including the sidewalls! My big ass quarter makes a comeback! Just amazing in styrene, but as you can see, once its in the fuselage with the pilots in, very little can be seen. I don't think there's enough detail in this tub to support an open canopy (gotta save my resin cockpits, seats and photoetched for the Hasegawas or FineMolds) Amazing that they included so much detail, but missed out on the overhead ejection seat handles. Had to make that out of wire - I hate scratchbuilding in 1/72 scale, my eyes are not what they used to be. Oops forgot the shoulder belt harness I made of tape and haven't attached those from the pilot to the seat yet. This should keep me busy while I wait to finish up my F-18 from before.

@peter those decals are really pulling it together man! You might want to lighten up that grey before you put the "stongback" decals on it, it might be too dark especially considering how good it all looks aready!

Beautiful!!! What plane do these bombs belong to? Yes I love Tamiya acrylics too mostly for the easy in clean up - I use windex and it eats through that stuff great! However they don't come in all the Military Greys now a days. I've added Mr. Color lacquers to the mix mostly because I need to get the right kind of grey. I haven't used the Mr. Color Aqueous line yet, but I think they behave like Tamiya Acrylics but have the right colours? However upon using the Mr. Color lacquers I find that I can sand and feather them like a primer where the Acrylics do not sand well.

Hey @peter its looking great in the photos and I think the faint panel lines will add interest and texture to your aztec decals. If you're buying spray paint, why not get the Tamiya Pearlescent White TS-45. It should give that sheen underneath your aztec decals (is what I want to do if I ever get around to building my 1/1000 E) I admire your tenacity! Since you've already invested so much sanding, don't give up on it, its looking like it could turn out great.

Yes I saw his stuff on YouTube, amazing! It would be at least $5K-$8K I would guess (maybe more). I've got to replace my crumbling deck at my house... SAME HERE!!!