rockpopandchips Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) So Just after Christmas this landed on my desk at work, a colleague as said he had just bought the Chogokin version of this so he would never build it so I could have it. How very cool is that! So any way I have never build one of these before and have never built and transforming plastic kits so I was very interested it what it would be like. I know I must have at least 3 or 4 WIP on the go at the moment but I have put them all to one side for now and I started to snap fit the VF-31J together. All the parts go together great as you would expect from Bandai but i already have concerns about parts falling off. We will see how it feels when its completed, it might be a little more stable then. There are a few seam lines that will need filling on the nose but thats to be expected. There are some very nice details on the inner frame parts and the outer shell, lots of panel lines. I will be doing a custom paint job on this and at the moment I really like the idea of painting it in the same colours and pattern as a German WW2 BF109E. I wanted to uses blocked camno pattern from BF109 , like the first picture with the yellow nose but I just can not get it to look right on the shape of the VF-31, so I might go with the full mottled patern like second picture. Edited January 10, 2017 by rockpopandchips 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I think you could make the splinter camo (first pattern) work on the airframe - something like the PAK-FA might be good inspiration. Are you going to glue it to paint it, or keep it transformable? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Oh man I wish I had work mates like you! I really like the macross jet designs, this one looks cool. Man doing it in the classic german mottled scheme with the yellow would look killer! Will be following with interest dude 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 3 hours ago, Will Vale said: I think you could make the splinter camo (first pattern) work on the airframe - something like the PAK-FA might be good inspiration. Are you going to glue it to paint it, or keep it transformable? Will Thanks for the tip on the PAK-FA not being much of a aircraft fan I don`t know much about them, I know a bit more about the WW2 stuff but only through films etc and I didn't know the Russians liked Macross so much they made a 1:1 scale version......... The plan will be to fix and glue most of the parts and have him in the Gerwalk mode. I think having him transformable it will rip any painting I do off him fairly quickly. Ok don`t laugh to loud but I did some ruff ( and I mean ruff) sketches to see what I could come up with for painting this. These are the best of about 5 I did, they are a bit crap but Im still not convinced a splinter pattern is going to work. I tried to copy as much of the pattern as I could for both and I think the mottled wins. I have know idea if I can pull of this type of paint technique so that should be interesting, the paints been ordered and Im going with a full set of vallejo modle air. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 2 hours ago, Hunter Rose said: Oh man I wish I had work mates like you! I really like the macross jet designs, this one looks cool. Man doing it in the classic german mottled scheme with the yellow would look killer! Will be following with interest dude Its the same guy who gave me the optimums prime I did on job on, if this turns out OK I might have to give it back to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I vote for the block pattern. That looks awesome in your sketch! Beware if you build it so it can transform, your paint job is gonna take a beating. I wouldn't attempt to use Vallejo, it comes off too easy. You might want to try enamel paints. That or do you have any advice on Vallejo? Because I am about to rage quit them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 1 hour ago, Thud4444 said: I vote for the block pattern. That looks awesome in your sketch! Beware if you build it so it can transform, your paint job is gonna take a beating. I wouldn't attempt to use Vallejo, it comes off too easy. You might want to try enamel paints. That or do you have any advice on Vallejo? Because I am about to rage quit them! Cheers Thud When Im using Vallejo I will top coat in alclad gloss to give it a bit more protection. As long as you leave the Vallejo a good few days to go off its ok. I will build this one into the Gerwalk mode and as I will be have to glue a few parts its probably not going to transform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Kiker Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Hi RP&C, Interesting ideas for the camouflage scheme. You may already know this, but plenty of German aircraft wore splinter schemes on their wings with mottling on their fuselages. You might consider doing splinter on those big wings, maybe into their hinge point, then going with the mottling between the main wings and forward on the fuselage. You could still do a yellow nose to all that. Just thinking outside the box a bit... Cheers, Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) Cheers Jim, im open to ideas as nothing is definite yet. Finished the legs and the dame thing would not stand in Gerwalk mode as this is the mode i want to display it in, that was untill i added a big lump of blue tack to the back of the wing as a counter weight. I will what its like after fitting the wepons but i still might have to add some weights in there some how.... Edited January 11, 2017 by rockpopandchips 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 Finished snapping it together and its in plane mode in an attempt to stop it falling apart. A quick paint colour test as well and some line part to plan the painting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 14, 2017 Author Share Posted January 14, 2017 (edited) Started to re build the VF-31J now, painted the cockpit but need to finish the pilot. Allso started sorting out the big seam on the nose cone but after sanding down i have had to redo sone of the pannel lines under the cockpit. Need to fix the pannel lines. Well they turned out ok. Edited January 14, 2017 by rockpopandchips 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 (edited) Started on the paint, the frame is done in mix of flatt aluminum and gun metal with a black wash. Also stared on the yellow nose. Edited January 15, 2017 by rockpopandchips 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 I really need to go back and finish this series. What little I saw of it was weird, but good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, Thud4444 said: I really need to go back and finish this series. What little I saw of it was weird, but good. I have never seen any of this series but its on the watch list along with about a million other shows that Im probably never going to get t see, I still haven't even found time to see Rouge One yet. A bit more paint lats night. Edited January 16, 2017 by rockpopandchips 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misrule Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Didn't really like Delta, it was more pop idol magic girls in space fighting mind control through the power of song and not really offering any set piece combat. A real tragedy as it had some amazing aircraft and warship designs, this jet in particular looks superb, but never really exploited them. The original Macross series was solid for it's era and Macross Zero remains excellent, the rest is a bit of a mixed bag. That said I'll definitely grab one of these one day, maybe wait for Hasegawa to do a simple jet kit, and I really, really want the VF-31A variant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 22, 2017 Author Share Posted January 22, 2017 (edited) Quite like how this one is going at the moment. Sub assembly needed as a few parts needed glue. All base colours are done just a bit of masking and finishing of on the nose end and then i will start the camo pattern on the upper wings and a bit more yellow on the fail end as well. Need to think about getting some decals as well. Edited January 23, 2017 by rockpopandchips 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 Nice! Like the shading under the light grey 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 On 1/22/2017 at 10:43 AM, Hunter Rose said: Nice! Like the shading under the light grey Cheers Hunter, I think I need to go back a post shade the dark green to try and even up the shading Im really just putting off painting the camo. My practices on paper are not great at the moment, if fact Im getting worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 That looks a bit better and more like the blue/gray i think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Yeah nice colour! My small bit of advice when freehanding camo, especially mottling is have a piece of paper in your other hand as you go so you can keep using it to spray on and get a feel for the pressure as your doing it, I find that helpful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 4 hours ago, Hunter Rose said: Yeah nice colour! My small bit of advice when freehanding camo, especially mottling is have a piece of paper in your other hand as you go so you can keep using it to spray on and get a feel for the pressure as your doing it, I find that helpful. Cheers for the tip, I had a bit more practice last night and I have found a practical use for the screw paint flow handle adjuster thing on the on the H&S airbrush. I pushed the air pressure up to about 20 psi and wound the screw in so I was getting minimal paint flow and it seam to work a treat for the free hand work. I dont have to think about what my hands doing to much I can just point and spray, it takes a bit of time to build up the paint but the blurred edges are look nice and I can build up the squiggly lines with 3 or 4 passes of the airbrush. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 7Camo painting the VF-31 was very much out of my comfort zone but im happy with how it looks, not exactly as i had the image in my head but its close enough and its sort of like the picture i was using as a guide. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Well that came out well! Looks great Brian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 8 hours ago, Hunter Rose said: Well that came out well! Looks great Brian Cheers, added the yellow wing tips and started to build it up and managed to snap a peg for his left arm, so that is going to need a pin and glue. Still want to tint the canopy. Added some weights to the legs but the dame thing is still wobbly as hell. Should finish toughing up the paint this weekend. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom216 Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 That looks awesome! I love the colors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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