Chas

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!!

Anybody have better pics of this?

I use good old Tamiya Basic. If your planning to paint the kit the colour won't matter.

Only Mac Plus has an English Audio track, DYRL? is: Language: Japanese Subtitle : Korean, Japanese and SDF is:Language: Korean, Japanese Subtitle: Korean. At least according to the descriptions anyway.

This thread needs some images at this point. Here are all of the SDF Macross vehicles I have images of that I think could work in 1/72 ( I've also thrown in some other rarely seen stuff) Now we can discuss them with a little more clarity. Perhaps we should start a thread where folks can post images they have of the more rarely seen items? Anyway I digress :Voila! Sorry tried to use imageshack for a higher res but kept getting this error mess: Sorry, dynamic pages in the tags are not allowed. What's up off-site hosting is now a no-no??

Nice score! I would check with Anasszi and see if he could wip up a set of Hasse. decals in 1/35 for you. The ones provided just don't cut it for my tastes. Congrats.

Penguin. . . you're my new God, where do I go to worship you? That is exactly what I meant but couldn't figure out how to say!

I like to use artists acrylics That I thin with Isopropyl (rubbing) alchohol, the higher the percentage the better! Have you painted any models before? If not, you might want to practice the brush technique out on some other kits as it takes time to develop the skill. Otherwise go with the spray cans and masking tape. A little tip, when painting it is always better to use more thin coats, rathere than a few thick coats. With spray paint try and avoid spraying toward the edge of the tape. It is best, I've found to have the can BEHIND the edge that you want. (if that makes any sense. . . can someone describe this better please? )

Do you mean to use the markers for the pannel lines or to paint the entire kit? I would think they are o.k. for the pannel lines (although to stark for my tastes), but if you're thinking of using them on the entire kit I would think that you may run into problems getting an even layer. Why not use spray cans and masking tape for the base coats and large areas? Or there is my personal pref. Brush painting If you go this route though you may want to practice on a few kits that are not so special to you. And remember, for brush painting with no streaks thin your paint so that it is very thin (almost like water) and apply in thin alternating coats (first coat top to bottom, second coat side to side) In my experience model building is an excercise in patience. Whenever I've tried to take a short cut I've always ended up with a lot more work because of something that went wrong! Good luck, and welcome!