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@arbit I'm just starting this month, it will be for Season 3 which we are prepping to shoot.

@MacrossJunkie  As I've said, I've just started but will be Art Director - but I do miss Set Design.

4 hours ago, MKT said:

This just arrived:

I had always hemmed & hawed on the rare instances a Yamato Motoslave becomes available.

On one hand, I like Aramaki’s designs of all his transforming bikes, yet Yamato’s Motoslaves always look just a bit too plain & drab in its colours.

So when a Priss metallic version showed up at Mandarake recently, which I did not even know existed before this, I had to grab it.

 

And what a beauty it is!

The metallic candy red, plus the additional paint detailing on other areas really makes the bike pop.

How I wish Yamato also released metallic versions of the other bikes..

Now to see if the Figma versions will ever see the light of day, after being previewed some years back..

Oh wow, I never knew these existed too!!  May I ask how much and was it from Mandarake?

@MacrossJunkie  When you're done, could you summarize the process, what type basecoat, clearcoat, filter and solvent to wipe off the filter please?  I'd love to try it.  It looks so good.  I love that you discovered this process and it looks so anime accurate.  Does real planes weather like this?  I wonder if I can apply your process to F-14 TPS dirt realistically.

Well I finally finished it after way too long...  I did manage to saw apart my canopy to get inside and wipe out all the fogging.  I managed to repair the saw marks which chipped the paint all around the canopy - its not as good as it was before, but given the canopy is not fogged now, I guess the remedy was worth the damage in the end.  Its weird to have a glossy bird and sometimes looks a bit toy like, but I really tried to keep the weathering down because it was brand new when they delivered it to VF-1 in 1973/74.  I do love this colour scheme almost as much as the VF-84 Jolly Rogers.  All the ordinance is on, but unfortunately, I followed the instructions in decals and they were wrong with some of the placements of the stripes on the missiles (should have doubled checked with reference) - but its too late now.  Overall a very detailed kit especially for 1/72 scale, but lots of mistakes in the instructions.  Its almost like I had to build one to find all the mistakes and then build a proper one after (but there's too many kits in my stash to rebuild something).

Enjoy... (I think I did when I built her, but now I will enjoy looking at her more! - back to work, no more models in a while - everyone go watch "The Boys"! my next gig)

Beautiful @MacrossJunkie - just so beautiful - the best VF-0D I've seen yet!!!

9 hours ago, MacrossJunkie said:

 

There's a lot more work that will need to go into it, but I think I finally have a good starting point.

Wow!!!  Never occured to me either (i would have just tried to airbrush it) but it looks absolutely fantastic!)   Now, I'm not happy with my VF-0S...   Might try that on an F-14 one of these days.  How did you rub the top grey filter off without disturbing the white layer underneath?

That's pretty amazing!  Thanks for share @arbit

6 hours ago, Dobber said:

Beautiful build William! Which kit is that?

Chris

Great Wall Hobby L7206 F-14A Tomcat in 1/72 scale

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/great-wall-hobby-l7206-f-14a-tomcat--1249151

Definitely not a beginner kit, lots of mistakes in the instructions, must piece together a few steps ahead before gluing things down, could use a lot more pegs/surfaces to glue or align parts and mistakes in decals both in instructions and sizing (a little over sized).  But with all the flaws, its an extremely detailed kit with the most option parts for an early block Tomcat and only one with proper spoilers/flaps assembly for the wings.  Plus how can you pass up that Wolfpack scheme?!

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!

6 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

I keep contemplating getting the VF-19 Advance in addition to my YF-19, but really thinking I shouldn't since the YF-19 has everything I need.  The VF-19 had like two sec of screen time anyway.  Is there a compelling reason to grab the VF other than to just have the SMS version?

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.