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1/72 Imai VF-1S Kitbash PART II: The VF-1S STRIKEs back!!!


pengbuzz

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Well, after some snarky comments about my VF-1S in another place and a rough week, I had just about had it. I had started making super/ strike armor for this (the Mauler cannon was a major issue) and I was feeling pretty low.

Thom changed all of that...

 

Thom: "This is UNSPACY Mission Control; sending materiel reinforcements to Pengbuzz's position. Standby for drop..."*

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And the Pengbuzz almost keeled over from shock!

So, I set to work:

 

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Yeah, I need to finish scrubbing down the old paint and whatnot. But so far, a pretty good fit!

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One thing that was not going to work was the arm launchers; they were too small (an issue with the kit, not Thom's kindness!). So, i simply used the ones I had been making.

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On one of the super boosters, I removed the front missile module; guess what's going there instead?

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Stay tuned... this bird's goin' to space...

Edited by pengbuzz
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1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Yeah, I need to finish scrubbing down the old paint and whatnot. But so far, a pretty good fit!

I don't know.  I kind of like that beat up, covered with grime from exploded hydraulic lines, and charbroiled in an explosion look.

So, I recommend cleaning up the worst looking parts (maybe even putting some of that black back on ;) ) - you know, the few parts that look out of place for hard-core weathering - and go with that.  It 'should' be easier than cleaning everything off, too.

Though, my suggestion sort of precludes having an aiframe colour anything other than white...

Edited by sketchley
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Thanks guys; but the "blochey" thing isn't going to work all that well on this one. We'll see on the next project though.

UPDATE: Guess what I'm building here?

 

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Meantime, the rest of the armor's been attached:

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The remaining paint on there is "Stained" into the plastic; that should be remedied by a new coat of primer. Also, need to inscribe some panel lines into the armor sections (good thing the arms and legs are on removable joints!). Also, the new joint for the Gerwalk mode is in the correct place now, which means the VF-1 won't have the "broken femur" syndrome it previously had before the rebuild. Also of note: you can see the arm launchers a bit better here; they're the wooden ones I had started, and they are more in scale so I just went with them.


Stay tuned folks...

Edited by pengbuzz
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Looking great Pengbuzz.

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2 hours ago, slide said:

Looking great Pengbuzz.

Thanks!

 

Minor Update:

Well, the Mauler is nearly finished; just needs some more sanding, smoothing and detail work before jointing it and adding it to the booster. But the majority of it is there:

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Kinda rough still, but as I said: it still needs work, I just need to make sure it will stay in one piece before squaring it all up and whatnot.

 

Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
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It's looking impressive! Nice work on the arm launchers and the cannon, and those barrels are looking good.

As to the finish, a little dinging up would look good on it. Not too much, but something to show the hard use and reuse of parts. They were fighting a long while against the Zentradi with no back up or resupply.

But clean or dirty, can't wait for the next pics!

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1 hour ago, vincemoto7 said:

Nice work on that cannon pengbuzz.  What material are you using? 

Thanks! Styrene, plastic welder and an old metal radio antenna.

52 minutes ago, Thom said:

It's looking impressive! Nice work on the arm launchers and the cannon, and those barrels are looking good.

As to the finish, a little dinging up would look good on it. Not too much, but something to show the hard use and reuse of parts. They were fighting a long while against the Zentradi with no back up or resupply.

But clean or dirty, can't wait for the next pics!

Thanks Thom! Yeah, a little weathering, but I think not as much as I had previously done, and I'll be more careful on it. I generally have an easier time with weathering darker colors, so we'll see how it goes.

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

 

Got the Mauler mostly together in this pic, sans hinge:

 

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Needed some cleanup in this one:

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The part finally together:

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After initial priming:

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I had to touch up a couple of areas by hand on the side here; next up is to sand out some of the "lumpies" and re-prime, then I'll be set to start detail painting (the rest of the valk is primed as well, just need to give some attention to a few trouble spots). But for a start on the strike conversion, not a bad go so far.

 

Stay tuned...

 

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

Paint work now in progress:

 

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Got some initial work done, then went back over it today to try to "fine tune it a bit more. Here's the valk in Battroid mode:

 

 

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And yes: that Mauler Dual-Action Laser Cannon DOES pivot in Battroid mode. Handy for when you want to tell a Regult or Glaug exactly what you think of them in some rather explicit (and explosive) terms> :D

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Next up: clearcoat, decals, weathering, and thinkiing about some Reaction ordnance for this one.


Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
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18 hours ago, Thom said:

That's looking great Peng! Love all the adjustments you made to make it work so well from mode to mode.

Thanks! It took a little Dremeling, but mostly the parts fit pretty well. The biggest issue was the leg side armor parts, as they had one entire side of the leg built into it. But I just cut down those areas until the armor fit over what I already had.

I also took a good look at the head on this and it had several coats of paint on it that obscured details. So i went ahead and stripped it down, re-primed it and repainted it. I also took the liberty of breaking up the paint job on the head a bit so it wasn't a monolithic blob of grey-white:

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While I was at it, I did a little work on the arm launchers as well, adding the "circle" impression at the elbow-end of it as you can kinda see in this pic. I still need to make the missiles for it, and get some other stuff done as well.


Stay tuned folks...

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

I finally got more decals put on the Strike Valk; as it stands, this one is now a member of VF-33 "Starfighters", a name I thought would be fitting given Space War One:

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Also, I finished construction on the RMS-1 "Angel of Death" Reaction Weapons:

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Just an old pen wrapped in masking tape, glued to some spare missile pylons I had lying around. I plan on spraying these (hand-painting white in large swaths just doesn't work very well, as I found out the hard way recently). But once these are painted and detailed, they should pass suitably for some nuclear-tipped "love" courtesy of U.N. Spacy! :D

Stay tuned folks... next up are some "care boxes" of micro-missiles...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 3/13/2017 at 1:46 AM, Xigfrid said:

The paint scheme really makes it! And all the manual work really shines making it more "bulbous" compared to the latest kits... this is like the difference between the CGI frontier and the old robotech hand painting anime! Really nice 

Thanks xigfrid! :)

Meantime.... some new...fun:

 

 

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Okay...who wants to play? :D

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Stay tuned...

 

Edited by pengbuzz
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On 3/15/2017 at 8:56 AM, Thom said:

Most impressive!

Thanks Thom! I'm thinking of letting the other VF-1 have the first diorama (the carrier), and building an ARMD launch dio with launch arm for the Strike. Although I need to find figures for the dio's (lost both recently :( )

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4 hours ago, Thom said:

Nice plans.

I don't do dios, but I do have two in mind. One is Hikaru and Misa in his VF-1 after the Grand Cannon pops, and the other is the scene of the Yukikaze wreck on Enceladus.

Those sound like two really neat ones! :D Is this the one you mean for the Yukikaze?

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/yamato/images/c/cd/Vlcsnap-2013-04-28-23h34m05s175.png/revision/latest?cb=20140810062445

 

Meantime, starting the launch arm:

 

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UPDATE: Launch Arm and diorama progress:

 

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The setup is pretty basic at the moment; the launch arm needs detailing and more parts (clamps for the valk, wires, etc), and the magic marker on the base are there to denote the panel lines until I can paint them in and detail the "hull" of the ARMD section. They won't be staying.

As for the black square, that will be replaced with artwork of the interior of the launch bay; the idea with this is to hang it on the wall as to conserve space and give that look of being "in space" as it were. I may have some additional ideas; we'll just have to see. I want to attach the Strike Valk to the arm by means of a detachable system (strap or something) that will hold it securely, but will allow removal when needed or desired. I'll have to see what will work.


Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
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Nice and quick progress! That'll look great on the wall.

On 3/16/2017 at 11:03 PM, pengbuzz said:

Those sound like two really neat ones! :D Is this the one you mean for the Yukikaze?

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/yamato/images/c/cd/Vlcsnap-2013-04-28-23h34m05s175.png/revision/latest?cb=20140810062445

Yes, that's the one. I was very close to selling a Fine Mold 1/500 Missile Boat when I saw the image again and realized I'd better keep a hold of it! Don't know when it'll happen, but I kept the major part.;)

 

Edited by Thom
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UPDATE:

Okay folks, some major progress happened between the last post and this one; you can find the progress starting here:

At any rate, here are the final pics of this; I will be building the box missile launchers, but I wanted to get the display done, so here we go with a set of better photos:

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(Yeah, kinda fuzzy, huh?)

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With all of this done, I just have a few more "nit-picks" to do. "What's next?" you may ask? Normally, i would say "the world!!!", but I already took care of that one...

 

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In all seriousness: I'd like to thank:

Thom (for resurrecting this project with his generosity)

Derex3592

MechTech

big F

NZEOD
sketchley

xigfrid

Arbit

And everyone else who contributed suggestions to this, as well as moral support (let me know if I forgot anybody!)

Thanks everyone! :D

 

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Well, I was thinking about an SDF-1 at some point in the future... just gotta find one sometime when I have funds. But until then, I have a scratchbuild of a 1/72 Regult that I think i need to attend to.

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  • 2 months later...

Very cool stuff there! I love the launch bay interior artwork! Did you do that yourself?

Anyway, great work. It seems like you took a bit of a minimalist approach to the scratchbuilding and customizing. It gives a good effect and adds a bit of an organic feel to the valk. Like a previous poster said, it adds to the nolstalgic anime look of original Macross. It's awesome to see that you were able to stick with it and get this project finished even after some setbacks!

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2 minutes ago, jardann said:

Very cool stuff there! I love the launch bay interior artwork! Did you do that yourself?

Anyway, great work. It seems like you took a bit of a minimalist approach to the scratchbuilding and customizing. It gives a good effect and adds a bit of an organic feel to the valk. Like a previous poster said, it adds to the nolstalgic anime look of original Macross. It's awesome to see that you were able to stick with it and get this project finished even after some setbacks!

Thanks! I wanted to stick to the original "feel and flavor" that was present in the anime. I did add some elements in from DRYL, such as the strike pack and some detailing though. And yes: I hand-painted the launch bay interior (guess all the art training helps after all!).

As many times as this project went sour (with one resulting in a high-speed impact with a wall!), I really wanted to get it finished. That said, it was support from folks here (especially Thom!) that got this through the disasters.

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