Chas

Well I'm going to assume that your talking about a model _ 'cus, well 'cus I'm just that kind of guy. So, you say that and .Which leads me to believe that your previous models have been somehow lacking in your estimation. I think that you probably have what it takes to build the kit yourself and get some satisfactory results, not to mention the sense of accomplishment, but, before I, or, I suspect anyone here, can give you any advice/tips on how to do that more clarification is required. What did you have difficulty with in your previous builds? was it the building of the kit? (i.e. the gluing, sanding, puttying, sanding, re-puttying, sanding, re-re-puttying, sanding etc.?) or was it the detailing?( i.e. the decaling, weathering, panel-lining, painting etc.?)

It's a VF-1J Shadowfighter Just kidding, nice job. I think that, that particular pattern of colouration on the chest-plate (Darker top--light sides and front) should be known from here on out as the "ghostryder scheme"!

Experience only comes from doing. You have to start somewhere. You learn by making mistakes and then trying to fix them. This is my way of saying give mixing a shot! You never know, you might find a colour you like even better!

Hey , cool I like them alot. Thanks, I'm gonna have to find some albums of their's now.

Well I gave it a good two days drying time and so far so good. I'll post if there are any disasters that occur.

Well I guess it looks O.K. I mean it is a nice smooth even paint job, but to my mind that's the problem. Think about any large vehicle, now think about the colour on it. The colour of large vehicles is almost never uniform. There are always sections that are lighter, or darker. This is usualy dew to wear patterns, but on some very large vehicles may also be do to light reflecting off of some parts and onto adjoining sections, thus changing the apparent colour. What about colour bleaching? These kind of considerations really impact the "scale-effect" look of the piece. Like I said right now it looks good but When I think about What it could look like - even with the same colour scheme-, well. . .

O.K. so I'm experimenting with Tamiya Color spray cans (which I'm pretty sure are laquer based) and I know that after they are dry to the touch lacquer based paints are still off-gassing, but how long do I need to wait before I clearcoat with future? Thanks in advance.

Finally did this! Only one in Korea.

Wow this looks great. I must say though, in that line art the 'biceps' loook awefully skinny with the armour in place.

If I had on of those suckers I'd get myself some Armour and Tank references for colour scheme idea's and go to town on the weathering. I think anime subjects look just incredible when given more 'real-world' colour schemes and weathering treatment.

Good now that that's settled I'm off to go Gundam shopping!

OOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!! O.K. I got it now. Thank you so much for putting up with my persistenly stupid questions. So the Skygrasper is a vehicle onto which the Aile Striker-strike pack can be attached - ostensibly to transport the strike pack to the Strike Gundam somewhere in the field. Does that sound about right? So then PG Skygrasper+Aile Striker kit + the PG Strike Gundam kit would be the non Feminized equivalent of the PG STRIKE ROUGE GUNDAM & SKYGRASPER. Whew! Talk about confusing! But thanks to guys I think I've got it straight I hope

Thanks for your help guys, but I'm still a little confused: Ok in most of the images I've seen the PG Skygrasper + Aile Striker kit shows the jet thingy (sorry) with those red fins on the back and then a Gundam with the same red things on the back, and there is a Gundam called the Aile Striker isn't there? But this kit is basically just the skygrasper (jet thingy). Then why does the box say + Aile Striker on it? I am guessing that the Skygrasper is the jet-like vehicle, so I guess I'm wondering wht the Aile Striker is, if it's not the Gundam that I always see pictured with the Skygrasper? It even looks like they share parts. Someone please straighten me out.

O.K. You'll have to pardon my ignorance here ( I know nothing about Gundam, or Gundam models, well except that those blasted PG,MG,HG kits are all over Seoul - I mean evrywhere I look ther are stacks and stacks of them!) Anyway, back to my post. What is the difference in these two PG Kits? PG SKYGRASPER + AILE STRIKER and the [PG] STRIKE ROUGE GUNDAM & SKYGRASPER from what I can gather their pretty much the same, except the first one is a hell of of lot cheaper. What gives? The reason I ask is that my nnephews have been bugging me to send them some model kits and I know that they mean Gundam model kits. Needless to say If I sent them each a PG they'd explode with joy and probably stop bugging me for a while. So any help on what the difference between these two is?

If by "Your last part" you mean the section I've highlighted, the an old yellowed Valk. is not what you are looking for. I would suggest checking out the A.R.C. for some tips on weathering techniques. Also you might want to do a search for Rust-All, a product used by Model RR builders to create believable looking extreme rust. Good Luck.

I'm not sure what it is your asking. Do you want the plastic to yellow and wear so that the valk looks like an old plastic toy, or do you want it to look like an old rusted oxidized aircraft?

Well If the Acetone worked as a thinner then I would suggest using a generic off the shelf Gunwash to thin the body filler as they usually have some acetone as an ingredient. (in the 1000ppm range) As far as gloves & protective ware: I would suggest that anyone using any chemicals stonger than Easy-Off oven cleaner invest in a proper respirator, and as far as gloves go, for slovents your best bet is a good pair of nitrile gloves check out this link: link any of their nitrile gloves should work, or if you want to be sure the Power Knight. Hey MT any idea how many hours you've put in on this so far?

And How! I'd hate to see the size of the motor that is too Big for this thing

Well I know that you can puchase Debonders for CA but in my experience they make the CA soft and gummy, this isn't neccessarily a problem, but in your case I don't know what it would do to the VF that the Ghost is attached to. I think it may damage the paint job, and possibly desolve some of the detail, but I've never used CA debonder on Polystyrene, just polyurethane ( doesn't damage urethane at all) Try Googleing Cyano Acrylate Debonder and see what you can find out about how it reacts with Styrerne. Good Luck! Charles.

Wow! I've only ever looked in Canada (where I used to live) and could not find anything higher than 70% in retail. Anyway if the acetone worked as a thinner then I think it was probably the Gunwash that I've seen used as Acetone is an ingredient in most Gunwash solutions. Yeah great work so far MT. Do you have any 1/200 scale mechs you could place on it for the next set of Photos? That'd be cool to see.

Did the acetone thin the body filler? Why would you not use it now, if it worked? (Sorry MT I know this is OT but I'm curious)

The stuff you buy at the Drug Store that most N.Americans call Rubbing Alchohol is indeed Isopropyl Alchohol (Isopropanol) but it is rarely sold in concentrations higher than 40%. I don't think that is strong enough to do the job of thinning the body filler, that is why I specified Industrial Iso-Alchohol, it is much stronger (and thus more dangerous - if using try not to get it on your skin, as it will be absorbed through your pours - there is a reason hospitals have cut back on it's use!- and this is not a good thing) and it can be found in concentrations as high as 99%. Now after saying all that I'm no longer sure it was Iso-Alchohol that was used to thin the stuff, but give it a go anywho. It was either Iso-Alchohol, laquer thinner, or Gun Wash not sure. Sorry

I used to work in rapid protoyping and we did a lot of work for the automotive industry. We used to use this stuff all the time and, used properly, there wasn't anything that it wouldn't hold. I don't know if it's available through retail, but you could always check it out. It is a urethane structral adhesive, for binding plastic, SMC panels, meatals, fiberglass, and wood. As always it is best to sand, or otherwise scuff-up both of the mating surfaces to give the stuff something to bite into. Good Luck! If you can't find this stuff you could try contacting Ashland Chemical, the manufacturer and see if they have any suggestions.

Well I've heard of some guys using industrial Isopropyl Alchohol (like 90+%) to thin it, but I haven't ever tried that myself. That was my one concern whith suggesting it HWR, but I thought that as MechTech was already using, or had decided to use Mori-Mori, he had already considered that. I mean if the thing is sealed really well there shouldn't be a problem should there? Any way, I don't know how expensive it is but there is always the two part epoxy that is used with fiberglass sheets. Might be hard to sand and work with epoxy though.

Go down to your local Automotive supply store and get yourself a big tub of Lightweight Automotive body filler - it's pretty much the same thing as Mori - Mori (although a little more stinky - use a mask or do it in well ventilated conditions) except I find that it is easier to work with: if you want it to dry faster use more of the cream hardner that comes with it. In some shops you can even buy the cream hardner seperately as the different brands all use pretty much the same stuff. Sands like a dream, easy to shape, and pound for pound waaaayyy cheaper! That's my two scents anyway. P.S. I haven't said anything about this yet 'cus it's pretty much all been said, but for what it's worth Beautiful job so far man. Kudos for takeing on such a massive job and sticking with it!!