Jump to content

1/72 Macross Plus Target Drone Scratchbuild


Valkyrie

Recommended Posts

I posted about this project in the 'what's on your workbench?' thread earlier today with a couple progress pics (a mere 24 hours into the project). I've been working on it a bit more tonight, and I took some more pics to document the project a bit more. And I thought I'd post them here. So if you're at all interested in the project or how it's being done... then by all means, read on.

Keep in mind, I'm by no means an expert at this kind of thing. This is just me applying a few tricks I read on the 'net, and a few more build ideas that I came up with, that sounded good at the time. This isn't exactly my first attempt at a scratchbuild, but it does hold the potential of being the first one that I actually finish. And in less than 6 months, no less! :blink:

First, here's the earliest pics I took of it. I wish I thought to start taking em sooner.

post-50-1145000165_thumb.jpgpost-50-1145000291_thumb.jpg

At this point, the latest application of putty (Avees Apoxy Sculpt) was still curing, so I started on the wings.

I got the shape of the wings onto styrene by drawing them in AutoCAD, then printed them at 1:1 scale. Then I cut them out, used spray adhesive to glue them on to sheet styrene, then cut them out.

I based their thickness on the 1/144 drone kit that I have. They're about 0.04" thick at 1/144, so I'm making them 0.08" at 1/72. But, of course, they're thinner than that at the leading and trailing edges. I could have just cut them out of .08 styrene and sanded down the edges, but I thought it might be easier to make them consistant if I did each wing in 3 layers. Here's what I did:

1) cut out wings on .04 styrene

post-50-1145000855_thumb.jpg

2) cut out 4 more on .02 styrene, with the edges trimmed back, then glued one on each side of each wing

post-50-1145000901_thumb.jpg

3) same thing for the canted wingtips

post-50-1145001163_thumb.jpg

4) fill in the gaps with putty, tapering down the edges

post-50-1145001249_thumb.jpg

And that's about where I left off. I hit the dome with a bit more putty while I was at it, to flesh it out a bit more. Same with the nose, which looks very close to being right to my eye.

I'll leave you now with a couple mock-up pics I took along the way. I may be biased, but I think it's looking pretty good so far :)

'Til next time, whenever I have time to work on it more... I'll probably start on the engine pod then.

post-50-1145001683_thumb.jpg

post-50-1145001697_thumb.jpg

post-50-1145001712_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hehe I have the dreaded modellers ADD too. However I think we can help him see this through to the end.

Keep going valkyrie, you're doing an excellent job!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What can I say. I'm a classic underachiever!

I'm not counting the 48 inch monstrosity (Lusankya) that I've been working on for almost 2 years. I'll be posting pics on SSM soon, I just finally got the angles perfect.

Edited by Sweet-1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool, man. But you seriously have some major modeling ADD (I know because I have modelers ADD too!)... whatever happened to that VF-11 project?

391121[/snapback]

The VF-11 is done. I've just got a bunch of casting left to do at this point (which is mind-numbingly boring). I think I've got 5 kits ready to go right now, on top of the ones I shipped to the kit donor on wednesday. They'll go on sale when I'm closer to having the whole run finished.

And yea, modeler's ADD is a good way to describe my condition...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking good, is it going to be armed? Any approximate price range?

391592[/snapback]

I'm going to at least attempt to make missiles for it. Assuming they turn out halfway decent, they'll be a part of the kit. They'll be optional though.

As for the price, it'll probably be $50 or less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alrighty, got a couple days of progress to post on. Rather than wait until my next days off work, i'm finding myself working on this thing for an hour or so every night after work. I seriously can't keep myself away from it!

So it seems my Modeler's ADD is temporarily cured! But as a result, I probably won't get my Wonderfest project done in time :(

Anyway, onto the build:

(using my own webspace this time)

I'm going to need the engine pod to be a seperate piece, so I started by laying down a strip of styrene to conform to the V shaped groove, and a small block to act as a locator for easier assembly. Then I cut out the intake extension and the vertical guide for the pod.

drone11.jpg

I assembled it with plastic cement, reinforced with CA (superglue) when it was dry, threw on a very rough coat of putty, and called it a night

drone12.jpg

The next night, I drew and cut out horizontal guides for the intake and two 'ribs'. The intake wasn't quite to my liking, so I did without it for the time being.

When mounting the ribs, I immediately regretted throwing on the putty the night before. But I still made it work. Just had a bit more plastic to cut.

drone13.jpg

After gluing them in place with CA, I fleshed it out a bit with more Apoxie Sculpt.

drone14.jpg

Which brings me to tonight. I got the intake guide fixed up. Gluing it on centered and square was the hardest part here.

drone15.jpg

More fleshing out with putty

drone16.jpg

A bit on the fuselage too (the two parts are still seperated though)

drone17.jpg

And here's a better angle.

drone18.jpg

And one more thing, about the missiles -- I completely forgot, I already have some! The Club-M YF-19 and VF-11 come with High-Maneuver missiles!

Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of Tanmen's sculpt of them. But they'll definitely be a good starting point, if nothing else.

Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying watching as I fumble my way through this project. Though I know somewhere out there, Cap'n A is reading this and thinking "Hah! Amateur!" :p

But it's all good. I'm having fun :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm rather partial to Magic Sculp myself. I have yet to try Aves Apoxie Sculpt.

Would anyone that has used both like to start a new thread comparing the two?

I don't want to hijack Valkyrie's build-up anymore than we already have. :ph34r:

Edited by azrhino
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
*BUMP*

Are ya done yet?  ;)

394779[/snapback]

Heh!

Lately, its progress hasn't been moving at the brisk pace that it once was.

I'm going to be spending a good chunk of the day working on it in between casting VF-11s today tho. Planning on building the rear of the plane, fine-tuning the nose, and hopefully fix the shape of the engine pod so I don't have to rebuild it (I'm not too happy with how the shape has turned out)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
"Get back to work!" bump

400918[/snapback]

Heh.

It's on hold for a bit, while I work on my Wonderfest project (which may or may not be entirely in vein -- I've got 4 days left to finish it).

I'm building a resin kit of the Starblade, a space fighter from a Namco arcade game of the same name. I should be pretty damn cool, if I can finish it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Get back to work!" bump

400918[/snapback]

Heh.

It's on hold for a bit, while I work on my Wonderfest project (which may or may not be entirely in vein -- I've got 4 days left to finish it).

I'm building a resin kit of the Starblade, a space fighter from a Namco arcade game of the same name. I should be pretty damn cool, if I can finish it :)

400936[/snapback]

I'm going to be there too. Though I won't have anything to enter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...