Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Papa Rat]

11 minutes ago, Rock said:

The lines you see on the close up of the underside barely can be felt with a finger nail. It is mostly visible because of the way the printer finish. 2 coats of MR. Surfacer 500 and you likely won't see 80% of the texture. Add in a pre-sand and post sanding and it should be cake walk, I use a small 400g sanding sponge attached to a vibrating tool to make most of the sanding rough work.

That’s great! I see prints for sale online but have been hesitant because of my ignorance in handling the material. Thanks for the info. I’d love to see more once you get to work on this. 👍

[Big s]

9 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Over the years, I'd like to think I got good at it.

You didn’t just get good, you became the master of tape sculpting.

[Thom]

On the Ranger, we come across the discovery of gaps... Under the 'wings.' I put a shim in on both sides to stabilize the parts and will be using PPP to fill them.

Then it was onto the gear doors. As said before, the landing feet do not fit the opening, so new ones need to be made. Out came the Scotch tape and a pencil. The reluting traces were then applied to thin styrene and tenderly cut out.

The fit was a lot better! Not perfect, but good enough for my work.

I'll sand those down some and then start filling in the gappage!

 

Thom

[Papa Rat]

22 minutes ago, Thom said:

On the Ranger, we come across the discovery of gaps... Under the 'wings.' I put a shim in on both sides to stabilize the parts and will be using PPP to fill them.

Then it was onto the gear doors. As said before, the landing feet do not fit the opening, so new ones need to be made. Out came the Scotch tape and a pencil. The reluting traces were then applied to thin styrene and tenderly cut out.

The fit was a lot better! Not perfect, but good enough for my work.

I'll sand those down some and then start filling in the gappage!

 

Thom

Nice work!!! 👍

[nightmareB4macross]

19 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Thanks!

When I was a kid, my dad worked for a filter manufacturing company/factory that ordered a lot of 3M Masking Tape. We lived in the projects and could barely get by (factory was the best job my dad could get, as he dropped out of middle school to help his family by working), so most toys and stuff I ended up not getting . If I wanted something, I had to make it myself out of cardboard and masking tape.

Over the years, I'd like to think I got good at it.

In any event, my dad passed some years ago (WWII vet, died August 28, 2011); I continue to use masking tape to honor his memory and the sacrifices he made to keep us fed, clothed and a roof over our heads.

Great way to honor your history and family.

Family first.

Thank you for sharing that great story.

[SteveTheFish]

I'm on vacation at the in-laws' place, and in our room here I have a modeling workbench set up. I took the old Imai Glaug kit with me to work on, repopped by Bandai for the 25th Macross anniversary. I paid only 1,020 yen for this back in the day. I think maybe I bought this around 2013 or so. I've filed down those red sensors and will replace them with Wave's H-Eyes 3.5mm lenses. Since I need so many of them however, I've decided to just create molds of one with Oyumaru and cast them with clear UV resin. No sense buying 3 more of those H-Eyes sets just to get 2 pieces from each!

[Papa Rat]

Finishing up the IMAI 1:720 scale Quel-Quallie Theatre Scout Pod.  Decided to brush paint it with lacquers and did a small amount of acrylic on the stripe markings. 
Decals in this kit were not my friend. I had some disintegrate during application but not surprised.  It was a fun build regardless. Wish it came with a stand so I ordered a very simple generic one that should be here next week.  I may go in and weather it beyond the simple oil wash and layers of thinned lacquers I used. I may also put a gloss coat on it but undecided. 

It’s hard to capture on my phone the subtle texture of the lacquer painting on dark areas of color, but it really adds something. 
 

 

Edited August 10 by Papa Rat

[Thom]

@Papa Rat That is a cool, funky looking lil ship.

[Papa Rat]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

@Papa Rat That is a cool, funky looking lil ship.

Yeah. I like the design a lot. Has sort of an Invid vibe with that eye and curves. 

Edited August 10 by Papa Rat

[Papa Rat]

Tiny base/stand came. Actually not bad for a piece of garbage off Amazon. 
 

Edited August 11 by Papa Rat

[derex3592]

@Papa Rat - Man!  That recon scout came out GREAT! Good job!  I LOVE the texture of the brushing! Yeh, you got luckier than I did on the decals, none of mine survived, they all just disintegrated. I wish I had gone back in and gotten rid of the two seams on the front now where the body comes together on mine, but back then, I didn't have the skills. 

No pics, but the 1/1000 TOS Enterprise got detail painting finished up and ALL her decals this weekend! She's alllmost ready to depart Space Dock! 😀

[Papa Rat]

20 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

@Papa Rat - Man!  That recon scout came out GREAT! Good job!  I LOVE the texture of the brushing! Yeh, you got luckier than I did on the decals, none of mine survived, they all just disintegrated. I wish I had gone back in and gotten rid of the two seams on the front now where the body comes together on mine, but back then, I didn't have the skills. 

No pics, but the 1/1000 TOS Enterprise got detail painting finished up and ALL her decals this weekend! She's alllmost ready to depart Space Dock! 😀

Hey thanks. I had fun with it. I might go in and hand correct one of the main decals on top with some yellow acrylic. Not sure. Maybe just leave it be and call it weathered. Lol.

I’m excited to see the Enterprise!

[Big s]

21 hours ago, Papa Rat said:

Finishing up the IMAI 1:720 scale Quel-Quallie Theatre Scout Pod.  Decided to brush paint it with lacquers and did a small amount of acrylic on the stripe markings. 
Decals in this kit were not my friend. I had some disintegrate during application but not surprised.  It was a fun build regardless. Wish it came with a stand so I ordered a very simple generic one that should be here next week.  I may go in and weather it beyond the simple oil wash and layers of thinned lacquers I used. I may also put a gloss coat on it but undecided. 

It’s hard to capture on my phone the subtle texture of the lacquer painting on dark areas of color, but it really adds something. 
 

 

Looks great, thanks for keeping us updated on this one 

[Papa Rat]

24 minutes ago, Big s said:

Looks great, thanks for keeping us updated on this one 

Thanks. Went dark and dingy on the scheme for this one. 

[wm cheng]

Wow that looks amazing @Papa Rat!  Congrats.  You might want to do a bit of a lighter dry brushing around the edges of the plates/panels and a silvery chipping in the edges to compliment your excellent darker weathering.  (The Zentradis weren't known for their upkeep :P)  I love the look of these old kits and they really captured what was in my mind as a kid.

 

I love Interstellar @Thom - can't wait to see what you do with that kit!  It looks to be a bit of a bear - American kits tend to be gappy (I think we've been spoiled with Japanese kits)

[wm cheng]

Since I have a bit of time in between shows now, after the VT-1 I decided I would try my hand at a 3D printed prop.  Just before we finished my last gig, I had a little time to learn how to 3D print with our printer at work and downloaded and printed a Star Trek TOS Phaser.  I just got the amazing Wand Tricorder and I had their Communicator from before, but I didn't learn about them till after their Phaser was sold out and now they are going for crazy prices on eBay.  So I thought I could learn 3D Printing and get some decent metal aftermarket upgrades for $150 and get a half-way decent finish to my landing party toys.  Unfortunately they don't light up and I have to supply all the pew pew pew sounds

Someone mentioned earlier about 3D prints - this is my first try and its a PLA printer that I used (A decent one) but not a Resin with are much better but much more involving in the finishing and drying of the print.  Unfortunately, with PLA prints, there are very fine print lines / kind of like stepping which you have to sand away.  I HATE SANDING - its the worst part of modeling for me.  But I have enough experience to know that the final paint job is all about surface prep - the more time you spend prepping the surface, the better it turns out in the end painting stage.  So here are the bits and pieces...

Even though the print looks great to the naked eye, I know there's a tone of sanding to be down even before the primer!

I find PLA material harder to sand than modeling Styrene plastic, it needs a harder bite and goes through more sandpaper than the softer Styrene/ABS plastics.  It does leave a fine dust everywhere that you need to vacuum up (or you'll get killed spraying and having it pick up onto the paint surface) and you should wear a respirator paint mask to make sure you're not breathing this (probably toxic) stuff into your lungs.

Here it is primed, I used a Krylon spray can hoping to get something more substantial and robust than my modeling primers because I'm probably going to be handling this more like a toy and looking at it like a model.  I would spray, then sand down any blemishes with 2000 and working my way up to 6-8000 grit to get a nice smooth finish and spray again.  Hardest part is leaving it alone overnight or a few days to make sure the primer cures before touching it again. 

Unfortunately, there was another painting disaster where my final clear coat (Mr. Color lacquer) went over top of my Aclad metalizer (phaser handle) which was over an Aclad enamel black gloss which was over Krylon grey primer where the final clear coat, reacted to the enamel black gloss under the Aclad metalizer (I though the Aclad metalizer lacquer was enough of a barrier but it wasn't).  I tried to sand it all off to start again, but someone the grey primer underneath it all also was affected and turned gummy and clogged up all my sandpapers and couldn't be removed.  I spent days at it and it was still a gummy mess.  I ended up starting from scratch on the phaser handle again with another one of my 3D PLA prints, but this time I didn't use the enamel gloss black undercoat!

What a mess!!!  The weird thing is I used the same colour and when I re-sprayed it without the black gloss undercoat, it turned out too dark.  I put in magnets to hold the P1 phaser onto the P2 body and magnets at the base of the stand and base of the phaser handle to I can take it off the base.

Here is where it is for now, I am going to have to re-spray the handle with a lighter steel Aclad metalizer colour and I'm missing the top jewel in the watch crown and the acrylic half-moon until I print a scale with power settings graphics to glue on top.  It's also missing the darkened plexiglas front which I have to find somewhere and cut into place, but its 80% there after 2 weeks.

Oh, I didn't work on the base at all, that's just a straight PLA print and I just sprayed directly onto it without primer or sanding.

[SteveTheFish]

I am surprised. The bottoms of the feet segments of the old Imai Glaug kit are hollow. I was looking for pieces that would fit on the bottoms, but there are no such pieces. I'm compelled to cut some Tamiya Pla-Plate to make my own bottoms of those pieces. I've built other Imai Macross models and they all had proper bottoms, complete with molded detail. This is weird.

[Papa Rat]

59 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

I am surprised. The bottoms of the feet segments of the old Imai Glaug kit are hollow. I was looking for pieces that would fit on the bottoms, but there are no such pieces. I'm compelled to cut some Tamiya Pla-Plate to make my own bottoms of those pieces. I've built other Imai Macross models and they all had proper bottoms, complete with molded detail. This is weird.

I used some .5mm to close up the bottoms. No details though since I’ll never look at the bottoms. Lol

[SteveTheFish]

14 minutes ago, Papa Rat said:

I used some .5mm to close up the bottoms. No details though since I’ll never look at the bottoms. Lol

Oh yes! You did a good job. That's what I will need to do. 

[Papa Rat]

4 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Wow that looks amazing @Papa Rat!  Congrats.  You might want to do a bit of a lighter dry brushing around the edges of the plates/panels and a silvery chipping in the edges to compliment your excellent darker weathering.  (The Zentradis weren't known for their upkeep :P)  I love the look of these old kits and they really captured what was in my mind as a kid.

Thanks so much. I appreciate your suggestion and will be doing some light chipping with sponges. Since this has a matte finish, a more reflective chipping like you mentioned “silvery” would look really nice and give it some visual interest. I also love these old kits with all their charm and interesting challenges they present. 
 

Also, wow! That TOS Phaser is absolutely beautiful. 🤩 Thanks for all the info and process images. It wouldn’t be a proper build without some sort of disaster. Hahaha. I had some major paint issues  where MR color lacquer did not like the Rusto rattle can primer. It bubbled and was also a gummy mess to sand off. Yuck!

Anyway, you have some major skills, and persistence pays off for you. Very inspiring, I really need to try out a 3d print one of these days.

Edit*  For Alclad have you used their Aqua Gloss Clear ALC 600?

It plays nicely with their gloss black base and metal colors. 
I love their black chrome! I used it on the Bellows on the Volks Daccas VSMS kit. 

Edited August 12 by Papa Rat

[Thom]

Thank you @wm cheng Great work on that phaser!

[pengbuzz]

Calling this one done; 4 years is long enough:

  

  

It's now up on the shelf (will build permanent stand later, after I've had some time away from it); next project, not sure of at this point. Finances are tight again and more uncertainty in the air about the future.

[wm cheng]

omg @pengbuzz - THAT'S AMAZING!!!  I can't believe the stuff you create from scratch/masking tape!  It's especially nice to find out about your Dad and the background behind your masking tape creations (I've always wondered why you chose that particular medium).  It's so much more meaningful.  How did you get the clear parts for the canopy to follow such good profiles?

[Papa Rat]

@pengbuzzHell yeah! Love it and I was also curious about why your material of choice is masking tape. I always love a story too and thanks for sharing yours. ♥️

[pengbuzz]

29 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

omg @pengbuzz - THAT'S AMAZING!!!  I can't believe the stuff you create from scratch/masking tape!  It's especially nice to find out about your Dad and the background behind your masking tape creations (I've always wondered why you chose that particular medium).  It's so much more meaningful.  How did you get the clear parts for the canopy to follow such good profiles?

That was just luck: I had the clear soft inner plastic tray from my Koss KTXPRO-1  Titanium Headphones, and the part where the earpieces sat provided me the shapes for both canopies.  A little heat for the upper one and a wooden sphere helped refine it further (I prefer "soda bottle plastic" when possible, as it can be ridiculously thin at scale and still look much clearer than styrene. Also: clearcoat doesn't bother it!).

21 minutes ago, Papa Rat said:

@pengbuzzHell yeah! Love it and I was also curious about why your material of choice is masking tape. I always love a story too and thanks for sharing yours. ♥️

No problem! Curious to see how yours comes out! :D

[Papa Rat]

3 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That was just luck: I had the clear soft inner plastic tray from my Koss KTXPRO-1  Titanium Headphones, and the part where the earpieces sat provided me the shapes for both canopies.  A little heat for the upper one and a wooden sphere helped refine it further (I prefer "soda bottle plastic" when possible, as it can be ridiculously thin at scale and still look much clearer than styrene. Also: clearcoat doesn't bother it!).

No problem! Curious to see how yours comes out!

I think @derex3592 is working on one. I unfortunately don’t have one. 

[pengbuzz]

12 minutes ago, Papa Rat said:

I think @derex3592 is working on one. I unfortunately don’t have one. 

Sorry; I meant your current project. O.o Sometimes my brain vapor locks on me while typing!  

[Papa Rat]

23 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Sorry; I meant your current project. O.o Sometimes my brain vapor locks on me while typing!  

Hahahaha. Same here

[Big s]

8 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Calling this one done; 4 years is long enough:

  

  

It's now up on the shelf (will build permanent stand later, after I've had some time away from it); next project, not sure of at this point. Finances are tight again and more uncertainty in the air about the future.

You’re definitely the Master Tapesmith

[tekering]

My giant SDF-1 languishes while an even older ship design lies on my workbench...

I'm sure some of you are old enough to recognize this one. ☺️

Despite its diminutive size, it demands a great deal of internal lighting...

...not all of which I've managed to achieve so far.

What's more, I want it to display it with the Palomino, at a matching scale of 1:3000:

A daunting task, for such a tiny model!

[Papa Rat]

@tekering USS Cygnus and look at the Palomino!!! The Black Hole is one of my childhood favorite movies. I was obsessed with B.O.B. and V.I.CENT and the Sentry robots. Wow this is bringing back found memories.  I am blown away at the amount of detail in such a small package. ♥️

Edited August 13 by Papa Rat

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Papa Rat said:

@tekering USS Cygnus and look at the Palomino!!! The Black Hole is one of my childhood favorite movies. I was obsessed with B.O.B. and V.I.CENT and the Sentry robots. Wow this is bringing back found memories.  I am blown away at the amount of detail in such a small package. ♥️

That reminds me: sometime I gotta scratch up V.I.N.C.E.N.T. ...

[Papa Rat]

5 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That reminds me: sometime I gotta scratch up V.I.N.C.E.N.T. ...

Maximillian would be a fun model

[Big s]

6 hours ago, tekering said:

My giant SDF-1 languishes while an even older ship design lies on my workbench...

I'm sure some of you are old enough to recognize this one. ☺️

Despite its diminutive size, it demands a great deal of internal lighting...

...not all of which I've managed to achieve so far.

What's more, I want it to display it with the Palomino, at a matching scale of 1:3000:

A daunting task, for such a tiny model!

That brings up some old memories of when sci fi had original ideas and would take risks

[Papa Rat]

26 minutes ago, Big s said:

That brings up some old memories of when sci fi had original ideas and would take risks

Yeah I think it came out around the same time as Alien.