wm cheng

I decide to dab those little dots with red for a bit of interest and decided that instead of the decals for the dark double hexes and the twin vents, the dark oil wash actually gave them more depth than the decals. I also did a little wash to recover the panel lines where the yellow stripe had covered over them - I think these little details are really important in the end for realism.

Here's a shot further along, you see the weathering which seems a bit excessive for a demonstrator is much toned down next to these bright decals now. Those little black and light grey graphics on the front of the leg/engine bulges are also difficult to apply. I used a lot of MicroSET and SOL here, since again, the decal has to curve in two directions, luckily the MicroSET made the decal stretch slightly. Becareful here too if you are using the decals - they also don't conform to the scribed lines exactly, they are a bit larger again. I don't know, but someone different must of been in charge of this kit - too many things just don't fit exactly as we have come to expect from Hasegawa - mind you, its still leaps and bounds ahead of the old ARII or IMAI kits.

Here's a close up shot - sorry I moved the camera at the last second so its a bit blurry, but you get the idea. USE LOTS OF WATER - get it exactly where you want it before using MicoSET, it really weakens these decals and there's alot of fiddling to do. Oh, one suggestion though, I didn't even bother with the grey decals for the forward section of the intakes. I actually didn't even know that the decals were provided, but since the part separated right on the colour change - it would be better to just paint this part. Now, in hindsight, its a really good idea since you have to paint the interior anyways, and to wrap the decal around the leading edge would be a nightmare

Well, here is a shot of just the larger yellow pieces I started out with. Yes, the yellow intake stripes are a pain in the @$$ and its a bit of a toss up to which way to go. I thought that if I totally screw up, then I would fall back and mask and paint the yellow markings on. So I tried it first. The problem is around the little extra side bulge area, there are some surfaces that bend in more than one direction, and you know what happens when you try to bend a piece of paper in two directions - you get bulges, thats what happens here. Also, the pieces are slightly long at both ends, so after you get them down, take a really sharp exacto to lightly trim along the edge at the ends. What I found helpful was that I would slice the pattern into two pieces once it was on the plane in roughly the right position, I separated it at the intake to the little side bulges. This allows the two pieces to be slightly repositioned with the two pieces to slightly over lap if necessary. The problem with painting it, alside from a masking nightmare (lots of little inside corners) is matching the yellow on such a dark blue base. I think that once you mask it, you need to prime it back to a neutral grey before mixing the proper yellow - plus the yellow of the decal changes as its being applied to the blue model - there also is a lot of red in this particular yellow. So masking and painting is difficult too, especially when you see the painted yellow so close to the decal yellow. Of course you could decide to mask all the yellow portions so the yellows all match Good luck!! Actually I would like to see someone attempt that!

Thanks all, I'm back to decalling today, didn't get to do much over the weekend - just painted the little yellow fin (then realized that there was already a decal made for it - arghh ). Becareful with the MicroSET - even too much of this affects these thin decals - and the air intake yellow patterns are a bit tricky - but I'll post pictures later today. Brewtal: I don't ever really need to mask the pilots, I just spray them a base colour - white for Valkyrie pilots and orange in this case, then I hand paint with a fine brush the raised details such as his harness, helmut, gloves ect... I then do a oil wash of dark grey to pick out the crevices and creases in his flightsuit. The wash has a way of "neaten" up your hand painted details, since it fills in the areas with a dark grey outline. I might neaten up further with a Gundam Marker to define the harnesses or details on the pilot. You're right, masking this tiny thing would be crazy Myersjessee: A tip for spraying masked areas, do a dryer spray, so the paint is almost dry on contact (not so diluted with thinner helps too) and build up in very light coats, especially around the masking edge. Lastly, always spray "away" from the edge of the masking tape, never into the edge of the tape - this will prevent seepage. And with all this advice, I still occasionally get overspray too <_< IIymij: Yes, the lines on this kit are indeed very fine, as with most Hasegawa kits. However, when you spray primer, I would actually suggest primer over grey paint, since true primer is very thin stuff. I used the pre-mixed for airbrush primer by Alclad - this stuff goes on smooth and thin and I concentrate on the problem areas. For the VF-1, I don't really prime since its white on white plastic. But this YF-21 is blue plastic, and I need a primer to see the effects of all the seam filled areas. I just tried to keep the coats thin and even - build up in layers.

Great question recon, I never really thought about it till now. Well, I do hold it in my hands for half of it. I usually hold it in my hands for the top half, because I can hold it at different angles to get the optimum spray angle to achieve a smooth coat and the top is more important than the bottom, since its the side you always see. You always have more control with your hands. Now, when its time to spray the underside, I usually jam a toothbrush handle up the intake or the tail pipe (which is still open since I haven't glued the engine afterburner cans in yet) and hold it by the toothbrush. With the YF-21, I jambed two up there and held it like chopsticks while I airbrushed the underside. I determined that the plane will rest on the forward conards (on the underside by the intakes) while the rear section is propped up by the toothbrushes, so I would airbrush the conards first, and it should dry by the time I finish with the rest of the plane - at least enough to me to set the model down to dry.

I am aware that rubbing alcohol works as well, but there were concerns that when thinning glossy Tamiya paints, the just alcohol method didn't produce the same glass like finish the Tamiya specific thinner would yield. Since one of these bottles last me for years, I wasn't so concerned about save a few dollars over the course of a few years if it might put any of my models in jeapardy - its just not worth it for the piece of mind. I've had experience in my youth with cheap alternatives, only to find out something yellowed over time or cracked or something like that years after the fact. For the amount of time and effort I put into these things - a few bucks is nothing next to my hourly rates I say cheap out on the cleaners or solvents and rags (the backstage stuff) but put the best quality up front on the model where it will be seen (IMHO). I mean, how much would it cost or would you save to make the little extra frustrations worth it?

Hey, is that anyway to treat me... lets play fair

Ready for decals - well actually, I think I should attach that delicate yellow antenna/fin to the top at this point and mask and paint yellow. I am afraid to mask and paint after the decals for fear of the tape pulling off the decal beneath - but I am also afraid to handle the model too much with that delicate yellow fin in place begging to be knocked off

A top view with the excess oil wash wiped off.

Here's a close up shot of the forward gear with the oil wash - I haven't painted the chrome silver of the actuators or shock strut yet.

Here's a shot with the gears test fitted into place and the excess oil wash for the underside wiped away.

One of my favourite parts - the oil wash. I used straight black this time, since it would be pretty hard to see it against the dark blue otherwise.

Since its gloss white over a dark base colour, I decide on a really thick mixture. I used 4:1 paint to thinner ratio and bumped up the pressure to 20PSI. The glossiness of the paint works against you when you want to cover up dark undercoats. So I sprayed it on pretty thick - a few passes holded the airbrush far enough away that the paint is almost dry on contact. It looks pretty good, there were some bit of overspray because I was attempting such a heavy coat - I would suggest multiple light coats next time. The little bit of overspray around some of the edges were cleaned up with some windex on a brush - since the previous gloss coat of ModelMaster Acrl protected the blue beneath.

Again, the cheap stuff to prevent overspray. I still stick the tape to my jeans first to take away some of the tackiness first. I made the area extra large since I would be trying to spray at odd angles trying to get into the crevices of the wheel well.

The white wheel wells are now to be masked and painted. I thought this would be the easiest way - I wasn't sure. One could always paint the these areas white first, then mask it off to paint the rest of the plane blue, but I tought that masking around the holes would be easier.

This shot shows the intake bleed doors painted

Here's the rear thrusters finished. There will still be a wash and a light black burnt dusting to simulate some wear.

Here's the cheap masking tape around the good stuff to provide more of a barrier in case I over spray too much metallizer. I am spraying AlcladII steel for these areas. You can see that I usually build up lots of little masking pieces for more complicated shapes.

Thats not the final gloss finish - I'm not a fan of glossy models either (unless its a car or bike) its just a gloss coat for the decals. I will tone it down to a semi-gloss after the decals with some flat panels. Here's the masking for the bleed intakes and rear thrusters. I decided to mask the little triangular plates behind the intakes as well - I have seen references that have them blue as well as metallic grey.

Welcome to MW Ter-or!! Always glad to hear other fans of modelling - the more the merrier! Yes, I wished Starship modeller had more Macross too - thats why I'm here I really like how this posting step-by-step works, I like adding to the thread as I build along - and especially the input I get while I'm building from all the wonderful people here, it always makes me build a better product in the end. If I were to finish the model, I would never get a chance to sit down and comment or write about it after the fact. Now if someone were interested over at Starship Modeller to compile my threads into a gallery submission like yours then great - but I know I would be too lazy to do it that way Thanks for your article in the Starship Modeller, it was really great to get a heads up on the kit and it really informed me as to where the potential trouble areas could be. Feel free to post some of your other works here - I'd love to see (I don't really check over at the other boards much ). Again, welcome - its a great community here!

Good Job!! I may have an answer to that shrivelling decals - it used to happen to me too. Its too much MicroSOL while its still wet. I have found that you could use as much MicroSET as you want and its still okay, but MicroSOL is powerful stuff. I find it best to pre-brush MicroSET onto the surface, then lay your decals down, and once in position, press in down into all the engraved details with a damp soft cloth or paper towel to get the details to "telegraph" through. Then, I use a bit of MicroSOL to brush around the edges and just where there are panel lines or details only - not the entire decal - so the wrinkles are usually confined to the panel lines or details - and they usually flatten out when they dry. However when you brush MicroSOL over the whole thing, it will tend to wrinkle everywhere and sometimes it doesn't completely flatten out when its dry. Good work so far, can't wait to see more.

I'm not sure, I think it was lost - it was done so long ago that I couldn't find it in the old boards, I think there was a cleaning of the old boards some time ago. If anyone has a link to it, I would really appreciate it too.

Hey, has anyone noticed that the Hikaru pencil sharpener is around 1/48 scale, pretty perfect to pose beside the 1/48 Yamato Valkyrie. Anyone taken him off the pencil sharpener?

Here, after the gloss coat, almost all the lighter weathering has dissappeared. I'll bring them back after I decal this sucker, and selectively airbrush a flat clear coat over where I want a lighter shade to show though. I need to mask off the underside white wheel wells and the little bleed intake vents above as well as the rear little thrusters above the engines.