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1/72 Hasegawa YF-21 Step-by-step...


wm cheng

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Hey don't worry about it Capt Hungry :p I love reading what others have done - the more info always the better. It helped me out as to what to expect and what to avoid - I will always welcome all modellers point of view (until I am old and crotchety :lol: ).

Good point Gerwalker, I hadn't intended to go the expoxy route either - I generally find that the epoxy is harder than the plastic (especially this Hasegawa plastic) and thus harder to shape without damaging the surrounding plastic. I still intend to use the lenses supplied, I find it hard to believe that after all the good engineering that Hasegawa has done, that these wing tip lights will fit so poorly. I'll come to that bridge when I have to cross it.

Here's a shot of the lighter tone - I hope t doesn't dissappear when I gloss coat the entire thing in prep for decals :(

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And still more masking... I was thinking that I will do a shade lighter and a shade darker - then with three shades, I will vary the finish from semi-gloss to flat, giving me a total of 6 shades in the end I hope.

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Jawjaw, I heartily agree.. the canopy is really the only feature I dislike on the YF-21... But then, I don't think the VF-22 is any better. I still don't understand that idiotic canopy frame. It would make much more sense to replace the whole thing with a single frameless bubble, or at least something streamlined.. that nasty bulging dome on top just looks ugly, and kills the sleekness of the design... not to mention the aerodynamics of it. :blink:

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Hmm, I think I'll do a colour inbetween the two blues tomorrow instead of a darker one. When I weather it slightly, the different shades will tie together better.

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The more I see your topics, the more I realize why they are the most viewed... B)

keep' em (pics) coming!!! Please!!!

BTW, just two words in my mind: amazing work.

mcpaz

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Well, the 3rd shade of blue is on there - damned if I can tell :p Its tough getting something inbetween. What I'll do later is weather around it a bit to pick out the colour separation, and alternate the flat / semi-gloss finish at these areas - it should work out (keeping my fingers crossed).

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This top view shows off some more of the different panels. I'll give it a few hours to dry and I'll do a clear-coat to protect it before I do a little weathering post-shading. The plan is to do a black shading on the crevices, and a light grey/blue to pick out the highlights and convex surfaces.

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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.

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Oh my goodness it is going to be amazing...I can see it already!!!

Thanks for the Mr Surfacer information WM....I just ordered some!!! Hopefully I will get my digital cam back from the shop soon so I can post some pictures of my newly finished VF1 Angel Birds. It's not up to your standards...but I am amazed at how many of your techniques really show through...its easily the best model I have ever done! Thanks William!

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Hey guys.

I don't check in MW forums often, but I was tipped off that this thread was going on.

The YF21 model does benefit from shading, and wm cheng's is looking hot. I was just trying to do a basic review to let people know what to watch out for, and got pretty ticked off at a few things so I just did a very basic paint job. Hopefully I gave some information everyone can use.

I'd love to see wm cheng's buildup as a feature article on starshipmodeler, you've got it well-photographed and documented. This is just the sort of feature we need on the site. I'd like to encourage everyone to send even just a couple pics and basic information for gallery shots. We need some more Macross on the site!

Here's a pic of a kitbashed gerwalk supervalk (made before the supervalk battroid was released).

http://www.spacemodelmania.com/models/wfes...3/diorama18.jpg

I'll have to get some better pics of that little diorama. The markings are from a current Marines AV-8 Harrier unit.

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Hey guys.

I don't check in MW forums often, but I was tipped off that this thread was going on.

The YF21 model does benefit from shading, and wm cheng's is looking hot. I was just trying to do a basic review to let people know what to watch out for, and got pretty ticked off at a few things so I just did a very basic paint job. Hopefully I gave some information everyone can use.

I'd love to see wm cheng's buildup as a feature article on starshipmodeler, you've got it well-photographed and documented. This is just the sort of feature we need on the site. I'd like to encourage everyone to send even just a couple pics and basic information for gallery shots. We need some more Macross on the site!

Here's a pic of a kitbashed gerwalk supervalk (made before the supervalk battroid was released).

http://www.spacemodelmania.com/models/wfes...3/diorama18.jpg

I'll have to get some better pics of that little diorama. The markings are from a current Marines AV-8 Harrier unit.

You should really check out his other build ups too, they're amazing.

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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 :D 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 :p

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!

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Hey WM, this a great thread you have going here. All your work is fantastic. It helps me out alot with my models. In fact, your work helped me with one of my custom paint scheme valks a while back. I put up in a contest won by Kanata67. I built this model about a month ago. If I am able to give some advise about this kit, I hope it helps. The canopy is not as hard as some people think. The decal provided works great, and you don't need alot of decal set for it. It's a good fit, so long as you cut directly in the edge of the decal. The other problem decals however, such as those that go on the engine intakes, the yellow and baby blue ones, you're better off painting those. These wrinkled up for me, but I was able to perfectly match the light blue similas to the canopy. Also, use the gloss cote to finish up the model. i tried the semi-gloss, but it didn't look right to me. Plus the the flat-cote is obviously not a good choice with this. The clear pieces that go on the nose actually do fit, but alittle like a snap fit though. Those are just my thoughts, but hopefully they will help. Thanks for all the good work you do. Because of your work, I send a few shops a ton of money for hasegawa models to work and experiment on. Keep it up!!!!

Hagan

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I'll see what I can do. It would be good to get the content mirrored into build-up articles, so people can read the process from start to finish. Perhaps I can eke out some time this weekend to glean text and images. If you don't mind, I'll just try to edit your posts together into a single article.

It will be a little while before I get back to a Macross kit, I've got too many other projects on my desk right now, both review build-ups and masters to make.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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