Photogirl

9 hours ago, peter said:

I get the sense that the Max/Milia colors are a lot of masking......

yes. its molded in blue. and the even if the decals were not damaged, the nose, and "Legs" need to be white, so, yes, lots of masking, and thin layers to retain the panel lines. 
so everything had to be primed in grey, then white, then masked, then repainted blue. 

progress update.
some lines need to be cleaned up, but for the most part, its worked out. 
Made some learning points for the next build.
managed to get 3 out of 4 pilot names on the canopy. 4th one disintegrated, so i'll pretend thats battle scuffing.
going to go for it tomorrow with the rest of the decals, and see what i can get on from the damaged sheet.
the UN.Spacy you see on the gun is from a Battloid kit sheet. 
worst case scenario i need to wait a few weeks for a 3rd party detail sheet to arrive in the mail. 

I can't wait to woooooosh it around the apartment with the soundtrack playing.
Other people do that right....??

11 minutes ago, Gabe Q said:

@Photogirl is that white stripe a decal or painted on? Looks good so far! 

painted

i'm no longer worried about the white details. I tried some more decals, and even with clear coat to keep them together, its hit or miss. big or small. 
 

18 minutes ago, arbit said:

Lots of greeblies going on!

Looking forward to this one! I treat Hasegawa VF-1s like resin kits, lots of puttying and sanding to get the forms I want out of this ancient (yet beautiful) mold.

If only it came with M&M in wedding gear!

Ya, but i decided that since later in the episode, max is in his flight suit, and Milia is in hers, with a yellow helmet, that i can just recast the pilot that came with the Gerwalk kit, and just have the plane from after the wedding, LOL. 

I;ve decide to modify the kit with gear up, so that its in flight mode, and that takes some careful alignment and sanding.

Since the Virgin Road kit was an afterthought, the kit was molded first as a VF-1A/J/S. The special D parts were on an added sprue, so, had they included two canopy glass and head options, this could have been made as any model, so there was a nose cone, and main fuselage spare. 
Thats what i built up here as practice, to see how white would go over the blue, and if i could mask off to make the white stripes since the decals were toast.

I am happy with results, and will now get on to the kit proper. 

HAAAA!!

i tried the light coating of clear last night, and let the decals soak in near boiling water for a while, but they still fell apart.
I tried again today but only just dipped them in for a minute, and got this result.

the UN. Spacy decals were OK, but the warning decals were still a bit iffy.
but they went on. 

There is a balance i have to find. if you look at the decal sheet in the right light, its not an even level of "damage" so some decls may be salvageable, and some not.
I'm already out 6 or 7 important decals on failed tries.
Also, the seller on ebay i bought the spare decl sheet from canceled my order because HongKOng post won't ship to Canada due to Covid.

FFFffffffffff. 

16 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

That's the single 1/72 Hasegawa kit I have, and I believe that one actually covers Hikaru, Max and Milia, since the only difference between the decals for the M&Ms are the numbers and names.

You won't have the fancy wedding decals, but I'm actually not sure if the Virgin Road VF-1D has a canon number.

I caved and picked it up.
i tried some of the suggested tricks for the decals and they are just toast. 
Hopefully with this i can finagle something together.

SOOOO..
Look like this kit:  https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10013237
has a double decal sheet you can pick Max, or Hikaru.

I found one on Ebay, and asked the seller if he can show a photo of the decal sheet before i purchase. 
it can be a good insurance policy if i fail on painting the white stripes. 

3 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Wow, that's terrible. I have some of the original Hasegawa Macross kits, which are a lot older than the Virgin Road kit, and none of them have decals with that amount of yellowing. It's possible that the sheet got wet at some point, but if that was the case, I'd expect to see decals shifted in location and probably wrinkled. The blue paper backing would probably be warped, too. What's more likely is that the sheet was exposed to a lot of heat and humidity, so the glue on the back of the film was activated and the decals fused to the paper. I don't know if these suggestions will work, but you can try them on the text decals in the bottom left corner of the sheet (e.g., 65764, 1/72, VF-1D) since you don't need those:

• If you can get it, brush some Microscale Liquid Decal Film on top of the decal. If you can't, you could try airbrushing on a very light layer of glossy clearcoat (like Future Floor Polish). The goal is to put a flexible clear film on top of the decal film so the decal holds together when you try to move it.
• Cut out the decal and place it in warm water, not room temperature water. That might help to loosen up the glue.
• Wait several minutes before trying to slide the decal off the paper, to make sure everything is saturated. Use gentle nudges, but a little more force might work as long as you're careful.
• You might need to repeat the dunk-in-warm-water-and-wait routine several times to loosen up the glue.
• Nuclear option: brush some decal setting (not softening) solution on and around the decal while it's still on the paper. Since setting solutions can be strong, I recommend thinning it out with some water first. Saturating the paper with the weakened solution might be enough to free the decal.

I'll reiterate that I don't know if any of the above will work. I've never tried those methods, but I've made and worked with decals for a very long time, so I'm trying to think through what might help you. Good luck.

Yea, i'm thinking the glue was activated somehow, and they're stuck down. i tried soaking them up to 15 minutes, and they still wouldn't budge. 
The damage you see in the photo is me actually picking them with the tip of my blade. 
I think i'll just get one of the battloid sheets off Ebay and paint the white bits. 
I won't have the specific wedding decals, but o'll see if i can find another virgin road kit and just build this one for fun, and experience.
I won't feel bad swooshing it around my apartment that way. 

6 hours ago, peter said:

Geez, sorry to see that you're having decal trouble.  I've seen others have that same issue with that particular decal.  I only had one that almost fell apart, but I got it onto the panel and somehow managed to save it. 

 

Are the other decals on the sheet wrecked as well? 

 

ya, i've tested decals from all around the sheet. they just will not come off the backing. 
soaked up to 12ish minutes.
Its like they've been glued to the sheet

10 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Cooked right on? Wow... I've only ever seen that if something seeped onto the backside of the decal paper (had that happen once with  a clearcoat spill), or the paper wasn't printed with the water soluble adhesive.

Tell me what decals you need and I'll see what I have in my stash. Also, maybe some of the gang here can help out...

Well, when i got it, it had a musty smell, like old kits get. didn't think anything of it. kit was sealed inside, but the labels and instructions were loose on the bottom. also no biggie i figured. no tissue over them though, which i did find odd. thats never happened before.

I can source the White UN. Spacy logos from a Battloid sheet and maybe do OK with paint for the stripes and such, but ANY of the details are toasted. 
I'm looking at "Detail Up" sheets on ebay now, but the sheets alone are as much as an entire Battloid kit, and still don't come with the specific wedding details. 
One of the cool features of the virgin road sheet is it has the dual pilot names for the cockpit.  Those aren't available on any other kit, i don't believe. 

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

After seeing your previous work Photogirl, I'm looking forward to your progress on this project!

 

Well, something happened to the decals.
THEY WILL NOT slide off the paper. 
they seem COOKED right on. its hard to see, but they are also very yellowed. 
I've worked with yellowed decals before, but i've never seen a waterslide that wouldn't come off. 

This project is garbage without the fine details. 
The white strioes and such i can paint, and i have spare UN.SPACY logos but none of those details are paintable. 

Heartbreaking, and the kit ws expensive. 

Started this today

I'm looking for an actual copy of this sheet.
I know i can scan it and print it out on printer slide paper, but if i can find the original, id prefer it. 

Hasegawa 1:72 

I wanted to actually build Max and Milia, and have 3 kits, but i wanted to do something easier paint wise to get a field for the build.
Now i wanna do the whole Vermilion Squad, so have to track down 2 more kits, lol.
 

Miriya Showed up today.

Looking for Miriya action figures from Toynami and Matchbox. 
Preferably the matchbox has her helmet. 

Looks like the Game rules, and new minis will be out in Feb

niiiiice

I just ordered the Miriya VF, but can't find the stands in stock ANYYYYYYWHERREEEEEEEEEeeeeee

got this beauty in the mail today, complete will all posters

Just got this friday.
Going to try and modify some to look like they have UN Spacy flight suits to go with my 1:72 Vf-1Js Max and Miriya

Did a little work on some Tactis minis this weekend.
Work has been crazy, but finally had a weekend off.

9 minutes ago, slide said:

Theres a few one on shapeways to go with  Hase's two-pack with both a red and a blue molded VF-1J

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10027747

 

https://www.shapeways.com/product/Q5CXFTCNZ/1-72-milia-jenius-micronized-wedding-dress

can't seem to find a max, will keep searching

I have that Kit, no pilots, and the VT-1D wedding 2 seater, no pilots.