Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Chas]

On 9/13/2023 at 10:18 PM, 505thAirborne said:

So many great builds & customs, looking good everyone!! 

Here is my update with the Aoshima Ride Armor kit. Still a pain in the butt to assemble but once that part is done, painting is a bit easier. I'll just have to do a lot of masking on the parts. Once this baby has the decals on & a Flory's wash she should be looking really good in the end. 

I've learned quite a few things with this first attempt so that (fingers crossed) Yellow's Ride Armor should go much smoother.

 

Hey 505th I meant to comment on this earlier. The Mospeada is looking really good. What colour did you decide to go with in the end.

[505thAirborne]

Thanks @Chas, I went with the Tamiya Grey-green and up close it looks good, I like it. I figure when the decals are on & then a wash plus clear coat it'll look spot on. 

Now I just need to settle on a color for Yellow's Ride Armor. 

[Chas]

Yellow's will have to be a compromise if you want to do it without mixing and in a spray can.

The instructions call out a 90:10 mix of H56 intermediate blue with H5 blue. So a little bit darker, more saturated than straight intermediate blue. In Tamiya's Ts spray paint I would be looking at ts57 blue violet. It may be a little on the lighter side in tone, but in that line it's the closest I can see, and it doesn't  look that far off.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Chas

[pengbuzz]

I'm finally calling this one finished. I got the replacement plane painted and glued in; time to move on...

    

[Focslain]

@Thom That is a fine looking patrol group you got there. 

[foundshaian]

@Thom That paint is very clean. And, Is that a Yamato in the back of the last picture? I know next to nothing on the SBY series. But i feel like the design is too iconic to miss

@pengbuzz Styrene joints sound like a complete nightmare. Especially for a transforming kit. Also, the attention to detail on that carrier is crazy

Edited September 19, 2023 by foundshaian

[Big s]

8 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

I'm finally calling this one finished. I got the replacement plane painted and glued in; time to move on...

    

Nice little puffs for the take off

[Thom]

It feel great to finish a model, right, @pengbuzz? She looks ready for open sea.

Thank you @Focslain!

Thank you @foundshaian. And yes, that is the Yamato herself, from the reboot series Space Battleship Yamato, 2199. That's my second kit of it as I gave the first to a friend, but until recently this one had been sitting on a shelf gathering more dust than paint. Now I finally got some paint going again!

And next on the table is the Asuka! This one is commanded by Captain Yuki Mori in the third series, 2205. Except for a goof on my part and some greebling, this is almost a shake-n-bake kit.

[arbit]

On 9/17/2023 at 8:05 PM, Chas said:

A quick shot with tha base coat down and most of the detail paint done most of the markings (yellow and red) have decals. I'll give them a try, but I don't have a lot of confidence that they will turn out. If my fears are correct I'll have to do them with a brush.

Looks great.  Love those 80's starship designs, so organic looking.

On 9/16/2023 at 6:59 AM, Chronocidal said:

I might have slightly underestimated how big this model is going to be once I make the rest of it....

Very solid looking 3D print.  It looks very hefty. Is it solid or hollow?

On 9/14/2023 at 6:18 AM, 505thAirborne said:

I've learned quite a few things with this first attempt so that (fingers crossed) Yellow's Ride Armor should go much smoother.

@505thAirborne Your Ride Armours are looking great.  A  full set will look nice.

9 hours ago, Thom said:

And next on the table is the Asuka! This one is commanded by Captain Yuki Mori in the third series, 2205. Except for a goof on my part and some greebling, this is almost a shake-n-bake kit.

@Thom Love your workbench. Keeping up the Yamato love!

[arbit]

This was something I was planning, but I was way too tired to focus on it before.  I find that with a break and some rest, you can come back to something you really like with new approaches to problem solve, think about methods with a new perspective, and the patience required to get your idea done.  

I had the guy's jumpsuits ready from before, these can be used as stand-alone figures for dioramas and such, unlike my couples poses.  I cobbled together Lynne Kai pretty quickly, just for completeness sake.  I couldn't figure out what exactly Minmay is wearing, because she doesn't seem to wear that in the film, so I took the opportunity to put her in the yellow concert dress from the billboards scene in DYRL.  And since this is the DYRL version, I got Claudia and Misa in the new uniform sculpts I have been meaning to finalize (The uniforms I had for SDF were some of my first modeling, and I was never that happy with them).  

Edited September 20, 2023 by arbit

[Chronocidal]

On 9/20/2023 at 2:59 AM, arbit said:

Very solid looking 3D print.  It looks very hefty. Is it solid or hollow?

It's definitely hefty, but mostly hollow, since it has a cockpit and internal mechanism to link the wings together.  I think the walls themselves are mostly solid ABS, about 3-4mm thick.

Frankly though, I don't have the room for a project that big right now, and the plastic spool I was using ran out in the middle of it, so I'm holding off on the huge one, and have been focusing on one about 60% of the size.  It's about 9 inches long with a 14 inch wingspan with the wings spread.  I would guess that's something like 1/48 scale?  It looks about right for a pilot I have sitting around, but the physical dimensions of this thing are nonsense, since the cockpit in game only had a disembodied head under the canopy, and barring insanely compact propulsion technology, the pilot would have to be riding the engine like a bicycle.

Printing is pretty much done, with maybe one or two parts left to re-print if I decide to roll the dice and see if I get a better result on some of the details  It's obviously due to the N64 polygonal nature, but this thing is pointy, and there are lots of little bits that can snap off easily.  I actually had to thicken up several of the parts to allow them to print correctly, because my printer software was having issues trying to print parts with infinitely sharp edges.  

The original large design was made with metal rods and dowels in mind, but shrinking it down let me break it up into a press-fit kit that holds together really well.  He also had the laser pods mounted on magnets to let them be extended, but I changed those to friction tabs to be more compact.

Was really shocked by how sturdy the ABS spool I got is, I was able to print the parts at half size, and they hold up very well, even the wing hinges.  They stay on the pivots on their own, and I just ran a section of thick paperclip through them to hold them in place.  Still easy to pull apart with some effort, so it will be simple to paint.  

Fun fact.. I separated the wing sections right about the same place the wings would break off in the game, so I could even display it with damage if I wanted.  

Edited September 21, 2023 by Chronocidal

[Urashiman]

On 9/21/2023 at 9:52 PM, Chronocidal said:

It's definitely hefty, but mostly hollow, since it has a cockpit and internal mechanism to link the wings together.  I think the walls themselves are mostly solid ABS, about 3-4mm thick.

Frankly though, I don't have the room for a project that big right now, and the plastic spool I was using ran out in the middle of it, so I'm holding off on the huge one, and have been focusing on one about 60% of the size.  It's about 9 inches long with a 14 inch wingspan with the wings spread.  I would guess that's something like 1/48 scale?  It looks about right for a pilot I have sitting around, but the physical dimensions of this thing are nonsense, since the cockpit in game only had a disembodied head under the canopy, and barring insanely compact propulsion technology, the pilot would have to be riding the engine like a bicycle.

Printing is pretty much done, with maybe one or two parts left to re-print if I decide to roll the dice and see if I get a better result on some of the details  It's obviously due to the N64 polygonal nature, but this thing is pointy, and there are lots of little bits that can snap off easily.  I actually had to thicken up several of the parts to allow them to print correctly, because my printer software was having issues trying to print parts with infinitely sharp edges.  

The original large design was made with metal rods and dowels in mind, but shrinking it down let me break it up into a press-fit kit that holds together really well.  He also had the laser pods mounted on magnets to let them be extended, but I changed those to friction tabs to be more compact.

Was really shocked by how sturdy the ABS spool I got is, I was able to print the parts at half size, and they hold up very well, even the wing hinges.  They stay on the pivots on their own, and I just ran a section of thick paperclip through them to hold them in place.  Still easy to pull apart with some effort, so it will be simple to paint.  

Fun fact.. I separated the wing sections right about the same place the wings would break off in the game, so I could even display it with damage if I wanted.  

That is a nice print man

I wonder how it'll look in SLA. FDM always has those ridges...

I finally managed to motivate myself to finish the nose of the VF-9. Looks a look better and much sleeker now. Constructive feedback welcome.

 

[Rock]

56 minutes ago, Urashiman said:

That is a nice print man

I wonder how it'll look in SLA. FDM always has those ridges...

I finally managed to motivate myself to finish the nose of the VF-9. Looks a look better and much sleeker now. Constructive feedback welcome.

 

I've got feedback, I'll take one in 1/48 scale please and thank you!

[Urashiman]

6 hours ago, Rock said:

I've got feedback, I'll take one in 1/48 scale please and thank you!

Well, it is designed for 1/72, but you could always rescale the stl to 1/48.

[Chronocidal]

17 hours ago, Urashiman said:

Well, it is designed for 1/72, but you could always rescale the stl to 1/48.

Fortunately scaling up tends to work better than scaling down, since you tend to lose a lot of detail when shrinking a model.  This Arwing was designed to be printed twice as big, and the original was done on an SLA printer, so it had much finer detail.  I had to make quite a few adjustments to support some of the finer details to keep them from getting warped or marred by the extruder.  The wings had do be thickened up significantly before the edges just completely disappeared in my slicer, because they were thinner than the printer could register.

Still, the lines on most of it are so fine, I might just see if I can get away with a good primer, and not sand the whole thing down.  The wingtips are far too thin to sand that much, and a lot of the points and edges would disappear.

I took a little time yesterday to design and print a stand for it though, and this is the kind of thing I will always love my printer for.  I love making custom display bases for kits.  

Edited September 24, 2023 by Chronocidal

[MKT]

*Peeks into this thread*.. Love me an Arwing. That's a nice print @Chronocidal!

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz Your Enterprise looks awesome - again! Why is the song, "The Final Countdown" going through my head😁 That was a cool movie!

@Thom More Yamato action! She's looking good!

@arbit Awesome! We get the WHOLE crew now! And the look GREAT!

@Urashiman Your rendering looks accurate to me! The nose does look sleeker. The cool part about digital sculpts is changing things you want to fix.

@Chronocidal I never played Starfox, but your print and build looks GREAT! The stand makes it look like a kit!

 

 TWO small updates. The mold worked great! I was low on silicone, so I used shreds of old molds as filler. That's OK, except I shoved them in there. Remove the original subject / pressure, and that made the mold bulge out slightly in a few places. Which in turn made small depressions. So the castings need a little fixing, but not badly.

The original is on the bottom. The top three are casts. The top one has a primer / base coat on it. The driving bands are all tests coating the molds with either brass dust or "gold" dust. The colored fuse is only resin and the mold coated with the gold. The gold "leaked" into the top white part, so it didn't come out as planned. But the cool part is that the fuses screw into the casings like the real thing.

For paint, I'm going with the hairspray technique to chip it as the original is for realism. The color will be Olive Drab for the HE rounds.

Speaking of realism, which fuse is the original, and which is the model? I'm VERY happy with how it turned out. The molds picked up the lettering perfectly making that part easier.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in guys! - MT

[Thom]

Very good work on those molds/copies @MechTech. Except for paint, I can't tell the difference!

As to the Asuka, I got some paint on her. I was going to go with Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Gray 2, but that turned out too dark. So, I mixed some X2 white with XF-18 Med Blue and that looks a whole lots better!

And with the masks off the fore and flight decks.

Some little touch ups still to do.

Thom

[pengbuzz]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:40 PM, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz Your Enterprise looks awesome - again! Why is the song, "The Final Countdown" going through my head😁 That was a cool movie!

Thanks! BTW, you mean this:

Or this: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7tmbf3

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by pengbuzz

[MechTech]

@Thom Thank you! That paint is looking sweet!

@pengbuzz BOTH! 😁😄

[electric indigo]

Added legs & tons of little stuff, this thing has more sensors than a deep space probe.

[Chas]

Always love seeing your builds come together electric indigo. That looks superb.

@Thom the Yamato builds you've been posting look Saweet! and they're whetting my appetite for more. I've got a 1:1000th 2199 assembled and waiting for finishing on my shelf, maybe that'll be my next project.

Calling the Cordoba build done for now, just gotta work on the stand. Gonna leave the mini Minerva and other ships on the spruesfor now.

Edit: the full sun obscures  the metallic nature of the paint. This is more representative of how it looks on the shelf.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Chas
added image.

[derex3592]

Looks great @Chas!

 Back about 7 years ago I scoured the internet for some reasonable facimily of Macross pilots for my (still as yet not finishd) 1/72 Cat's Eye recon plane. I found two little resin 1960s French High Altitude pilots that looked cool from somewhere in Malaysia and ordered them. They still sit, painted, in the Cat's Eye waiting for me to finish the build, which I can do know thanks to a fellow MW member who recently made new canopies for me!  Fast forward to me WANTING pilots in my 1/72 Academy Blackbird... I was looking for canopy masks on the interwebs and found a set on a French website. My eye just also happened to catch a link for... 1960s High Altitude Pilots..! I'm like.... OK, SOLD! So I finally got them from France today. Yup, exact same figures. Glued the arms on and after a bit of trimming.. BOOM! My SR-71 will now have more or less accurate looking pilots after I get them painted! 😁 

[Chronocidal]

Decided to go back and actually build a cockpit tub for my old Excalibur model (and scale the whole thing up to 1/72 in the process), and been testing the limits of an FDM printer.  

Now if only there was a way to print transparent parts.   Depending on how melting properties compare, I might just try printing a two piece mold, and pressing a heated piece of bubble packaging between them to make one.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Decided to go back and actually build a cockpit tub for my old Excalibur model (and scale the whole thing up to 1/72 in the process), and been testing the limits of an FDM printer.  

Now if only there was a way to print transparent parts.   Depending on how melting properties compare, I might just try printing a two piece mold, and pressing a heated piece of bubble packaging between them to make one.

Could try cutting and heating a water bottle 

[Thom]

Thank you @Chas, and that is an excellently done Cordoba!

[HWR MKII]

Couple things off my bench the past few months

 

 

[MechTech]

@electric indigo AWESOME details on that chopper!

@Chas That Cordoba looks beautiful! You did a good job of bringing out the details.

@derex3592 Cool 'ole pilot work! Have you seen the SR-71 flying AGAIN in people's social media posts? They occasionally resurrect it for special missions. Looks like they did it again.

@Chronocidal You ARE pushing the limits of FDM, but it looks COOL!

@HWR MKII Long time, no see! That Enterprise came out beautiful! GREAT finish and the lighting effects REALLY make it come alive! - MT

Edited October 2, 2023 by MechTech

[Urashiman]

I was fiddling around with the VF-9 and was like "man - these RCS could be 3D and not just panel lines". Just like on the Plamax 1/72 VF-1 or the 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1.

So ... I did that...

In the process I was unhappy with some parts - so I have a plan to rebuild some.

Green = Done
Blue = In progress
Red = Planned for a redo.

I hope I will get this VF-9 thing done some day. hahahaha...

The RCS is really delicate, so I would have to print it, to test if is works. If not, I will have to revert back to the panel line RCS.

[Thom]

So, after some repaints/repairs, and remining myself why I should NOT try and use Krylon gloss for a clear coat (it easts pretty easily through Tamiya) I'm getting some parts together.

I still need to put some details into the opening in front of this, but it is basically done.

And here's Asuka lurking in the background.

I still need to paint thrusters and engines and then do panel lining on it. But, closer and closer!

[Focslain]

She's looking real good there @Thom.

[Chas]

3 hours ago, Thom said:

So, after some repaints/repairs, and remining myself why I should NOT try and use Krylon gloss for a clear coat (it easts pretty easily through Tamiya) I'm getting some parts together.

Thanks for the warning. I used Krylon Cryatal Clear gloss over tamiya acrylics on my Cordoba without incident, but the Tamiya colours had been on for about a week. I'll have to keep your warning in mind If I decide to use it again.

The colours look good! Love that mix of cool gray and orange.

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Chas

[Thom]

Thanks @Focslain and @Chas.

This is what the Krylon did to the paint.

[Urashiman]

New stuff for my never ending stash. The stash must grow.

little macross 40th anniversary stickers on the Hase kits now.

 

BTW: Any ideas for the two VF-1's? I bought them like "you need new VF-1's - always... there will be a time they will come in handy", but I have no idea what scheme to use on them...

I know what I want to do with them. I want to create 3D printable upgrade parts like better RCS and a better cockpit and so on.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Urashiman

[Thom]

4 hours ago, Urashiman said:

New stuff for my never ending stash. The stash must grow.

little macross 40th anniversary stickers on the Hase kits now.

 

BTW: Any ideas for the two VF-1's? I bought them like "you need new VF-1's - always... there will be a time they will come in handy", but I have no idea what scheme to use on them...

I know what I want to do with them. I want to create 3D printable upgrade parts like better RCS and a better cockpit and so on.

Lovely box of Macross plastic! 

As for alternate schemes, maybe you could do a 'space proving wing' or a factory fresh unpainted. Or one of the trainers from Delta or a Tiger Meet scheme.

I do like this one.