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Bandai Cosmo Fighters


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Hi all,

 

Not been doing too much lately and my office was too much of a mess to paint in so what I have been doing has had to be sofa-compatible. To that end I cleaned up and partially assembled Bandai's Cosmo Falcon and Cosmo Zero from Space Battleship Yamato 2199. These are very nice kits with very accurate fit and the usual sharp details and deep panel lines.

 

I've been reading the 2199 Mooks (I have a couple from the defunct Dengeki Hobby and one from Hobby Japan) which suggest a different approach to assembly - because all the parts interlock in 3D it's hard to build sub assemblies although the fit is usually good enough to allow it. That means doing seam work and painting on the whole model and not being able to take advantage of the parts broken down by colour.

 

But if you look at which pins prevent movement on which axis, you can chop them down and build the model in a much more helpful way. E.g. the front end of my Cosmo Zero is separate to the back end now, so I can deal with all the metallics and not have to mask (along panel lines, which is harder than across them when they're deep) the edges.

 

However I haven't taken any pictures of that yet, so here are the cockpits:

 

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instrument panels

 

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and pilots:

 

31266125404_fab87dec71_b.jpg

 

This all seemed very fiddly to paint, I'm not sure if they're a bit underscale (because the sidewalls and fuselage etc. are quite thick) or it's just post-Christmas cack-handedness.

 

I didn't use washes for the male pilot which I thought I liked better in person, but after varnishing and photographing I think the female pilot looks better so I might go back and add some lining or an overall black wash to him as well to tidy things up.

 

I need to do some work on my black primer ready for metallics, and then I can hopefully show what I've done to the other bits and how they go together.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Great start Will. Love the pilots, very colorful!! They sure win the visual safety award - you can't miss them

 

I totally agree with you about the fit of Bandai kits. They are fantastic. I still have to finish the "wasp" carrier and build the green triple decked carrier (I've temporarily forgotten their names). Maybe this will be the push I need to get it over the line.

Looking forward to seeing more. 

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Very lovely kits, The thrust vectoring on the Falcon was a bit fiddly I recall, lot of little flaps to align, but nice look when it is done :)

 

I'm guessing by the female pilot the Zero fighter is the Orange nosed 02 craft, were you thinking of building them up as in the show or trying a new paint scheme? The Zero was supposed to be a prototype with only three units, but the Falcon was standard issue and we see I think three or four different markings in the show, so probably lots more variations to play with :)

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I took a brave step and decided that the four sets of differently-numbered flaps looked the same, so I took them all off the sprues to clean up and paint. Hopefully they *are* the same so I can assemble them without pain...

 

I think I'm going to go with the box-art scheme for the Falcon, which is blue-grey with white, red and black and looks rather stylish. The Zero will be natural metal but I've joined the contrasting wing leading-edges to the wings and won't be doing them white. I quite like the orange nose though, so that'll probably stay orange or maybe that deep warm red I mixed for the Cosmo Fleet ships last year?

 

I'm also doing gear up and not much in the way of stores, at least that's the plan at the moment. I have joined and cleaned up and primed the Zero's drop tanks though.

 

W

 

 

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Thanks all, haven't had a minute this weekend to do more (last minute social stuff before back to work, plus I need to stay up until 3am tonight to pick my daughter up from the ferry) but hopefully I'll have a bit of time tomorrow afternoon.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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  • 2 weeks later...

That was rather a long gap, sorry. The game I'm working on (Horizon) comes out very soon so I've had rather a hectic time. I did get some primer on earlier and after I cut it back I had a longish paint session applying Tamiya Gloss back and then lots of Alclad to various bits. I thought the primer and gloss weren't good enough but even with Alclad the metal flake hides a lot of micro surface issues.

 

The Cosmo Falcon hasn't had much of this but I did paint the complex engines and then neglected to photograph them. Here are the major airframe parts in primer though:

 

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The nose and cockpit just slot into place, and building it this way allowed me to deal with the seams on the sides and the tail.

 

The Cosmo Zero is mostly covered in Alclad Aluminium, with Polished Aluminium wings and fins. I glued the upper and lower fins in place since there was going to be a small gap otherwise, and I've free-handed the join line. I'll trust to a wash to clean up the edges.

 

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This is also assembled to the point where I could deal with the seams, but the nose is more complex and still needs gluing around the cockpit.

 

I painted the intake duct panels Duralumin with Polished Aluminium leading edges:

 

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As usual the real fun was in the engine: This has had various shades of Chrome, Jet Exhaust, Pale Burnt Metal, Steel and Aluminium with the Hot Metal clear colours over the top:

 

32354625435_33bb178360_b.jpg

 

Oh yes, and I primed the Elysion, cleaned up some stuff and re-primed, but there are still a few rough spots. I also need to decide what colour it should be?

 

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Need to have a non-metallic session for the Falcon next, and maybe start doing some decals prior to pin washes.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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I ended up spraying some lacquers on small bits instead, so I can glue up the nose of the Zero. After a bit of dithering I went with my original instinct to do an EE Lightning homage of sorts rather than follow the colour scheme:

 

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The nose is just clipped together at the moment - I primed and painted it like that so the mating surfaces would be un-glued, next step is to glue them up and then clean up and retouch the horizontal seam tomorrow.

 

There's a black anti-glare panel that fits into the nose and I'm intending to do the cockpit surround and rear fairing in the same black, but leave the fin alone.

 

I also sprayed the drop tanks (?) Gunship Grey with some highlights and Camel Yellow end-caps, and gave into temptation and painted the very front part of the Falcon's nose yellow as well :P Now I need to find some angry eye decals...

 

The little Elysion got a couple of coats of IJN Grey-Green, then I highlighted with a mix of that and white, and shaded with thinned Tamiya Smoke.

 

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I forsee some fiddly brush-painting of details in that one's future, but does it need any other masked livery colours - stripes etc?

 

Will

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21 minutes ago, Will Vale said:

31516205874_fb64d732b0_b.jpg

 

what is this? Forgive my ignorance.....

 

Loving the paint work on the Zero - nice touch with the blue nose

Edited by Madhatter
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The little ship is a ~1/8000 Mecha Colle kit of the Elysion from whatever the latest Macross is called. It's basically a smaller, more modern, SDF-1

down to the aircraft carriers and transformation.

 

The kit is lovely but didn't seem to deserve a WIP of its own.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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The Zero engine looks lush and the blue nose is a nice change. What about purple and lilacs for the Elysion, I have the impulse to paint  some sort of space ship purple just not brave enough to try yet, maybe you could give a go..........;)

 

starter%20layer%20set%20900-228x228.jpg

Edited by rockpopandchips
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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't think I'm brave enough either, but I quite like the colour (grey-green) it is now. The photo I took is bad though - just looks like primer.

 

After a bit of a gap I've been fixing up the nose seams on the Zero, which has meant some fiddly filling and sanding. I also ran CA into the gaps in the various panels under the nose spike so after cleaning that up there's a fair bit of a re-spray required. But the metal guns which poke through the blue are are fine so not too bad really.

 

The other thing I did was set the two upper prongs in place - these had a bit of room to wiggle in their sockets. I lined them up carefully and ran CA into the gaps to fill them, eliminating the wiggle. Worked great, but just like on the VTOL the CA found a flow line and cracked the upper surface of the fuselage! Really annoying but has been sanded back now.

 

I should get a photo really...

 

W

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Here's the post-sanding-and-filling-and-fixing stage. You can see the split panel on the upper right of the nose in the first pic:

 

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and here's the result, with a second coat of primer, couple of coats of blue, and some fading:

 

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which I think will look quite nice.

 

I also masked and painted the cockpit fairing semi-gloss black as an extension of the anti-glare strip:

 

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The canopies have had the same treatment but I didn't bother taking a pic as they're not very exciting yet!

 

It looks like there's some black overspray in the picture of the metal fuselage, but I masked quite thoroughly so it's either lifted metal particles, or just a reflection from the metallic paint. I might give it a buff though.

 

I think that's all the basic colours done on all the parts, I need to get the decals on and start the (very nervous and careful) enamels step.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Pity about that Bandai plastic, you'd think big company like that would use a less reactive formula. Probably some guy in a suit with an abacus responsible :P

 

Glad it is still on track despite obstacles and it looks superbly spiffy, blue and silver always a great combination :)

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Thanks all, the blue is a bit nicer in person - the photo of the plain blue and sanding is a better representation of the tone. I lost my grey card and I've been taking the white balance off the paper and subtracting the difference between the two - which should give consistent results but feels a bit off. Maybe this is the year I get a booth and some lights? Anyway in real life it ooks a bit like denim :) I realised that it's going to make people think more of the blue-nosed Mustang than the Lightning as I didn't carry it down the fin, but that's OK.

 

The plastic is weird, I think they're optimising for certain characteristics (sharpness, minimal mould release, opacity, surface finish) at the expense of others (flexibility, unity). The pigments might also affect things - I know Games Workshop's coloured plastics feel much harder than their usual grey. I'm following much the same route I did with the VTOL and encountering similar issues, but I'll be careful to avoid CA during final assembly!

 

I'm currently applying stencils and other decals - there are quite a few! I might need to find some new unit numbers as the black ones are a bit invisible on the dark blue.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Here are the decals - well, most of them - there are a few stencils on the intake fairings which I haven't fitted yet.

 

32203947160_e9ef347b1b_b.jpg

 

No real problems to speak of although it meant handling the Alclad so I may find wear spots when I look closer... I found some white 02 numbers on a Gundam sheet for the nose, and I wanted to wrap the probe in a band but the decal cracked so much that it was a non-starter. I salvaged a bit to have a flash of black and yellow on there.

 

Need to add a bit more Microsol. fix some silvering on the nose, and seal them in with a bit of Klear. Then I can start on the enamels.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Started using some enamels to pick out the panel lines and hatches on the duct fairings this evening, all looking good. But on the undersides of the wings (always start on the undersides!) I found that when I cleaned up after the enamels I was lifting the metal particles from the paint :( It's not too bad as I stopped in time, but it is noticeable.

 

I think it's because I used Polished Aluminium, which is a high shine Alclad. Maybe that has some enamel-like attributes which make it vulnerable to the thinner? The other stuff (regular Alclad) seems fine.

 

I'll gloss-coat the wings with Klear as a barrier, I think, I can't see another way to do it apart from acrylic washes which are a bit rubbish in their own way.

 

Oh yes, and I also managed to get some cracking in parts which I thought were a gentle push-fit rather than a jam-it-and-hope fit around the rear engine while I was weathering that and putting it together. Nothing too awful (and the worst of it is underneath) but annoying nonetheless.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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