VF-25S Armored Messiah

[Cowpeeler]

I have recently begun work on my VF-25S Armored Messiah, and so far my work is going very slowly due to lack of skill (and needed materials such as paints). I started off by deciding that I wanted to paint the internals a nice steel color instead of the standard grey. That took most of the time, trimming parts and getting them on toothpicks.

From there I began work on the missiles, as I cannot stand that they are solid red, so I painted them white, blackened their holder, and use a craft sponge to paint the tips. It worked surprising well, a few did not come out perfect so require a little touch up before I proceed.

Plastic still has a tearing issue like the Alto, so there are still a lot of imperfections when I remove them the spruce, but I lack the skill to really fix it the way I want to. Noticed on the far lower right of the attached picture

The thrusters too I did not like how they were molded with lots of swirling, so I painted those a nice dark aluminum color that I really like how its results turned out, the inside is painted to look like burnt metal.

I am currently working on the battroid head; I have to bypass the clear canopy parts and front sensor til I can get my hands on some FW Ink.

Edited August 22, 2009 by Cowpeeler

[Thom]

I'd say it's looking really good. As for tearing off the sprue, I've taken to cutting it just short of the piece, leaving some sprue on which is then gently sanded down.

And have you seen this thread yet? - http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=30923

My Valk has been on hold for a while, and now I'm glad. I can't wait to add that to mine!

[honkhet]

gosh i myself havent come roud to painting those missles yet

but really glad to see more and more people doing justice to the VF-25 model kit

keep it up man, ur doing good

[MechTech]

Your build is coming along nicely. I'm tempted to buy that kit! - MT

[Cowpeeler]

This kit has been quite a learning experience, being my second model building attempt in many years. I did learn a lot from my Alto w/ Super Packs build, but I did not learn enough it seems. For example, it is a good idea to go through the instruction booklet and cut out and prep all that is to be the same color. I have found a total of 15 peices (though not entirely my fault as i cut out the parts that are used if youre building the non armored version and painted them instead of the ones from the AA,AB etc spruce trees) which has halted a lot of the forward progress, and since I have run out of the paint(s) in question, I am stuck until my stock is refilled, hopefully this week.

Please note, some of these peices do not have thier top seal coat and matte coat applied so they are still shiny (perfect example, left and right shoulder and arm assembly)

Okay, starting off we have the ankle section with thrusters. I did not like the color that it was molded in originally, so i chose to do them in ALCLAD II Steel, it gave it a little bit more realistic and metallic sheen to it, the inside is painted with ALCLAD II Jet Exhaust, I figure they are discharging some sort of propellant, and that has the burn the metal so...

The ankle stripes I am really proud of, compared to my Alto ankles (third picture) they were much straighter, gave me fewer problems, and fit a little better, either from gained knowledge, or Bandai improvements I am not sure.

I am not sure what these next parts should properly be called...pauldrons maybe...I am not sure, either way, these were quite simple, quick wash with my Millenium pen on the plate, inside section is painted with ALCLAD II Dark Aluminium. Doesn't really do anything spectacular, just the metallic particles sink into the recessed lines.

Next up is part of the main battroid leg assembly, nothing to really write home about here, except for the decal on the yellow portion. It is an odd shape, and contains a seperate decal for the red triangle should you want to paint the part rather then decal. If I had the painting skill and knew the color combination for Ozma grey I would have, so I had to go with the full decal. I trimmed off as much of the excess as I could then when it was dried I Mark Softed the hell out of it and it molded pretty nicely, though in hindsight I should have sanded off the little rivets the placed around that section so the decal would sit more smoothly.

Shoulder and arm sections next, for some reason I like putting these together as its the first parts that really seem to take shape quickly, a lot of the other steps have you making all sorts of subsections and what not before you put them all together much later.

Ohh the hexes, how you haunt me so. I messed up so badly on my Alto I was terrified to attempt them again. This time however I got some tips from reading other peoples build posts. This time to start right off I blackened the exterior and immediately it looked ten times better then my Alto hex (picture number eight). After the paint dried, I scraped the areas where paint was not supposed to be with my knife and gave it a nice clean edge then I dipped the part in Future and let it dry overnight. I am not sure if there is any benefit of having a layer of Future down on a part before decaling, but I have noticed that I am getting much less wrinkles using this method then I did on my previous build.

With a layer of Future down I then trimmed off much of the excess decal, including some of the black (since it is already borded black to begin with the black decal part is not needed) the 001 hex my hand unfortunately slipped and I cut off more black then I wanted so it is a little lopsided on the hex, while the SMS side is much more even and sits properly.

Here is the battroid head peice naturally. I do not like foil decals because they tear so easily and you can just as easily put down a layer of silver then a clear color over it to get the same, if not better, effect. On this however, I did not use a silver, instead I used a Tamiya Gunmetal wash then applied the red, gave it a little bit of a darker reflection then a silver would have. Not seen is the black outline around the eyes which really gives it some depth and bad-assery.

I don't know what gold dye Bandai uses in thier thruster molds but it really, really sucks, full of swirls and discolorations. All future kits I am going to be painting with ALCLAD II Dark Aluminium, makes them look so much better, and the metallic specs naturally weather the part and make it appear like it sees a lot of use. Inside is painted with the same ALCLAD II Jet Exhaust for the same reasons as stated above with the ankle thrusters. It just gives it a little more realism in my opinion.

Last comes the hands. I really really dislike the way these came out, I started with an ALCLAD II Steel base coast, then painted them with a grey mixture. They didn't look half bad, then I got the bright idea to try an oil wash on them. More power to you guys who know how to do this, but I followed the steps on Aircraft Resource Center and for the life of me I cannot get it to work well. The turpenoid ate right through the future and dissolved the paint when I dabbed it up with a Q-tip the next morning. Two weeks later, run under soapy water, dried, Future'd and clear coated, they are still a bit sticky from the turpenoid. However, I am not anal enough to strip the paint off and do it again, I will just justify it to myself by saying those hands are constantly being pulled out and moved when transforming, so that is just normal wear and tear.

[Cowpeeler]

Made a little bit of progress so I decided for a little update. Right leg assembly is completely finished, and all that remains on the left is the topcoat. I have now moved onto the chest missile launchers.

I did not like the white color that was used in the decals, so I just cut them out and used the red stripes, didnt turn out as well as I had hoped due to the tons of film surround the lines, tried to remove as much as I could but I think I could have taken off a little more.

Learned an important truth during these steps...do not paint all sides of the missiles when they have to slide into a holder, I added so much resistant friction, my fingertips are still numb from pressing them into place.

Also know that I suck with water slide decals, no matter how hard I try I end up messing up something, and for symmetrical aestetic reason I have to discard the dacal on the opposite side.

Case and point, the red leg stripes and spheres, I tore one completely apart so I had to free hand paint the whole thing.

[Cowpeeler]

Spent the weekend working on the backpack unit and the skull emblem decal.

Emblem was such a pain...curled in on itself as soon as it was removed from the water. Thats drying now. Didnt get it position as well as I would have liked, but it was starting to dry and I didnt want to risk tearing it.

I used a little bit of creative license on the backpack unit in terms of coloring, but I think it looks good.

[honkhet]

keep going cowpeeler!

ur work is looking good

[Cowpeeler]

I am entering the final stages now. The only thing that needs to be mounted is the antenna assembly, but since that gets removed in transformation (this kit is going straight to battroid) I am going to leave it off.

Just a few decals drying then its off to completion.

[Cowpeeler]

It is now finished. Was extremely difficult to transform as I have no experience transforming my Alto this was really scary. I noticed the wing joints showing fatigue, I do not think they were designed to hold the weight of the armor packs. Will have to watch those closely.

On the plus side I had zero decal chipping during the transformation process