wm cheng

Nope, I haven't built my Bandai VF-2SS yet - its not high on the priority list yet, it will be a while before I get around to that one.

Yep, the regular blue windex with ammonia (I think the ammonia does the trick).

Wow! Fantastic work Devin, sorry to hear about your printer - I hope all is well. You know I am always a great fan of your work! Keep it up, lets see some pictures of your properly finished master pieces sometime or even a great family picture when you have the time.

Hey there, great to hear another modelling entering the fray!! Keep it up, key is practice - don't be discouraged! I personally find Tamiya paints best, and I have tried them all! Additionally, acrylics are easier to clean up (water or windex) and don't smell like enamels often do. You can start off with white, black, blue, yellow, red, gun metal, metallic grey and such basic colours. From the basics, you could mix most of what you need. I often mix colours - as you build more, you will start to realise which colours you use more often and start to buy those (white is always needed in quantity) . I usually use watercolour brushes to paint with, they are more expensive than some synthetic testors like brushes, but the end results speak for themselves. Again, I also use Tamiya masking tape for the the stuff that will site against a painted surface - the low tack nature of this tape will save you hours of headache when you find the cheaper stuff rips and pulls the previous layer off from underneath. I often use the cheap masking tape (after I remove some of its tack on my jeans) to cover large areas but I still use the good stuff for the edges. I find that using the right tools and spending that little extra really enhances your modelling experience and reduces potential frustrations (which I think is worth the extra money). Plus instead of spending your energies fixing mistakes or poor molds, you can spend it adding to the model and making look better! Good luck and welcome to modelling.

I guess you are starting on the M0 F-14 from Hasegawa? I haven't tried this myself, but what about sanding the whole thing smooth, and drawing the panel lines on with a 2H or 4H mechanical pencil lightly after the paint process. Then when you seal it in, it might look more to scale. It seems easier than re-etching all the panel lines by engraving - however, you could re-etch only a select few such as any of the moveable surfaces. I've drawn panel lines with a thin hard mechanical pencil before (and it seemed to work great) - but only additional ones, not the whole bird yet. There are even 1/72 scale photo etched templates that have all these little access panels and hatches that can be traced out. Good Luck!

Sorry to hear that man! Real bummer... yes on the sanding, I would try a 600 grit first with plenty of water, then work your way up to 2000. If you've got some of the Tamiya polishing compound, that would be a good way to finish it off - don't worry if you still have a slight haze. Dip it in water first, if the haze dissappears under water, then the cuts are shallow enough to be hidden by a coat of future floor polish. Otherwise, if you still see scratches or haze underwater, then keep rubbing until it dissappears. But remember the last coat of future, it does wonders!

Very cool job on the Valk!! I like the battle damage a lot, very consistent with the Regult fire - inventive scheme for these Valks. Wow with all these great ideas, I may need more than two of every Hasegawa produced !! Nice weathing job, not too drastic. Are there any internal details in the "blast" holes? Is the carrier deck ground the Verlinden card at 1/72 scale? Keep posting the great works.

Yes rubbing alcohol works and the regular blue type of windex (not the green stuff) with amonia. DON'T use windex to thin tamiya paints EVER!! The windex will break apart the paint into little particles that will clog your airbrush - only use it to clean brushes or remove old dried up paint.

We are just a country of "sheep"!! I can't understand how they can tax us 50% income tax at the source, then another 15% on GST and PST on just about everything we buy!! What citizen duty? - that's jury duty and voting, not giving another portion of our income to a foriegn made toy that the government had absolutely nothing to do with. Even if Yamato exported, I'm sure our Canadian Government wouldn't allow it into the country because the box isn't in French also!! Sorry, I just had to rant! I hate the taxes and customs duty, I had once had to pay $90 in taxes and customs on a $100us item!! and for what! boy! its a long way down from this soap box

Hi all, just caught this thread, Glad you got your Bandai kit - i've got one, and paid a lot more for it before the re-issue - ouch! I think it only looks best in Gerwalk mode, maybe even Battroid mode (stretching it a bit ) IMHO. My kit was a Musasiya recast from HobbyFan.com - modified to have removeable fast packs. The lines for the fighter mode are by far the best of any (very limited selection) kits out there - however, the recast comes with a milky frosted canopy (which I had a friend vac-form a clear one for me). When you build it, make sure you post pictures!!

Any donations to my cause for a VF-1S Hikaru with Packs - I will gladly show them on these boards!!

Here, here... I definitely second that!!

Wow! I'm salavating... drip, drip... All in 1/72 scale eh? Great minds think alike!! (fools seldom differ ) Thats great Grayson, I showed my wife, "hey honey, see I'm not the only one!" but all she did was glare at me - and asked when am I going to ever build them! Although I do like that ClubM VF-4G! Where do you live... ha ha! Just kidding, cool collection though - I am secretly hoping that Hasegawa does the VF-4G ad VF-11. I got burned paying over a $100 each for the resin YF-19 and YF-21, only now I probably would never get to them after I built the Hasegawa equivalents.

I have used ModelMaster Acryl clear coats on both anasazi's waterslide decals and the Yamato supplied stickers, and it seems to work great. It correctly evens the sheen on both the painted, plastic and stickered surfaces. It hasn't scratched off yet- but I don't transform them too often.

Hello all, great tips! I normally haven't primed any of my Hasegawa models - the fine engraving details are just too shallow to stand up to too many coats of paint. However, because the YF-21 is molded in dark blue, I thought to get my shades of blue to show up - it would be wise to start on a neutral base of light grey. Its always easy to darken a lighter base colour, but it will take a lot of coats to lighten a dark base colour. Additionally, there were more filling and sanding of this kit than usual for a Hasegawa kit, so the primer provides a nice indicator of how well the fill and sanding job went. I would only prime after I have filled and sanded (if I were to prime). A lot of the other valkyrie kits are molded in white, especially if you intend to paint them in white, you don't need to prime - just make sure your sanding is complete when you eliminate the construction seams. Hey its all a learning process, I learn with every one of my models. It would be great to post your experiences with your model (I for one would love to read them) including mistakes and all. I often include my mistakes - then post a solution too, since it might come in handy for similar problems (like when my masking tape pulled off my decals for my VE-1 radome ARRGH!). Good luck,

Got any I.D.? Special thanks goes to Anasazi for his wonderful work on the waterslide decals.

Have you seen my new dandy packs??

Hold it right there...

Rear view

Heelllooo...

Darkening/black the rear of the missles works well...

Gerwalk mode...

Touch down...