TimMather

got a nice render book through the post(bought all 3 of them, but other 2 not delivered yet). and another pla act kit, i love these guys, they have the right mix of cuteness, cool design and small size.

so mechanicore are soon releasing their next totally retarded huge kit, heres the size of the box.... it stands nearly half a metre high and has over 40 leds..... heres some pics, these are test pics, not in final colored plastic...

if anyone want my advise, stay away from ver-ka kits, ive come to the realization that they are total crap for proper modelling, they are all meant for kids to play with with moving engineering, which is great for toys but is impossible to not get scratches and parts rubbing, im done with them, every single time i put one of these ver ka kits together its just heart ache and frustration as you see your wark work ruined trying the put them together. so il carry on, il hand paint over the chips tomorroe, im never doing another one of these damn TOYS. the worst scratching is on the shoulders and side skirts, had abit on the waist, the pipes didnt fit and the metal inner wire snapped on the waist so had wing it and the spring is just held on with superglue, it stays but i can imagine itll ping out and see the painted beads go flying. i sound like im bitching and yeah its true i am, im looking at all the kits ive built and all the master grades have not been fun, the full resin kits, the kotobukiya kits, the bandai RE1/100 and no grade 1/100 kits were all fun to put together. anyway heres the pics, im sure il get some supportive comments, but believe me the scratching is really bad even if you cant see it on the pics.

getting there all the last parts are painted, just finished masking, got to put a few decals on the pistons, panel line then flat coat. you wont believe(i cant) but im actually looking forward to doing some prep again.

i know the feeling, ive invested in some perspex blocks so im gonna take some propper photos for all the detail, like on the stock photos on page 1 of the thread. i love putting the effort in but many times i dont properly lit photos for inner frames and detail that is normally covered up.

right, got the parts fixed and looking good. still got a few bits and bobs to paint, all the small nozzles and some of the gray parts. ive got these 3 part metal pipes, they come in shiny gold... as per photo... i glued them together last night with superglue, this after noon im sanding them up so the primer will stick, its taking forever, super fiddley

right had a little break to get my sanity back, today got the parts out to give it a go fixing it, it all went well. we are back on track, the parts are quite patchy but more LIGHT!!!! coats of flat clear and we'll be good to go.

got another pla act kit by plum, bit annoyed at a £8 booking fee for a £4 customs charge.

something different than all the mecha stuff i buy. used to love this game as a kid. the detail is ok alot like a gundam, no rivitting. it looks smaller than the box art, still should be fun with some LEDs.

well ive figured out what to do, on a last ditch effort doused a part in lighter fluid, and used a thick brush to scrub out the frosting, it removes the frosting(alclad enamel flat coat) but doesnt lift the gloss lacquer underneath. ileaves the part quite patchy but if i then do another light gloss it should be fine to then flat again. dont worry im not shelving the kit, just taking a little break. ive figured out the problem, so will get back to it soon, thanks for the feedback and help.

il be honest i really have considered scrapping this project, i really fuvked up with the flat coat frosting. the amount of work is just bloody stupid and im already annoyed at the project and im just a third of the way in. if im honest if this project was just for the photos i would have considered just photoshopping the the frost out, but even though going to telford this year is off i still plan on taking it next year, so cannot have the frosting. so im going have to redo all the parts that have messed up, this evening i had a go at trying to remove the frosting, i tried to apply the panel lineing, but with the flat coat the panel lining covered the frosting but panel lining spread, then tried using a brush and putting on lighterfluid to see if it would melt and remove frosting, that didnt work, i then tried doing the same with enamel thinner, and that didnt work either. so im now at the point where i think im going to have to just strip about a third of the messed up parts and totally repaint them. i am really in a bad mood, i feel like im going 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.

well with upgrade kits like this most parts will connect but will need superglue to fix properly to the inner frame, full resin kits usually need pinning as they really thick chunks of resin that are heavy.

yep its all in the brain box, i know where each part sits and have the bandai instructions to work from as well, the resin parts are the things im wary of, as i know where they all go but with no instructions to the resin parts you have to work out the order(BEFORE GLUING TO THE MODEL). anybody got any thoughts on how to fix the frosting? could do with some input.

god damn this kit is fighting me, or maybe its me and they more work it takes the more problems are showing up. so got everything done and half way through noticed the flat clear was pooling and frosting up. also one of the black parts i think the paint crackled? mostly things have turned out ok, but afew need the frosting removed, im thinking a micro brush and some flory wash to paint over it? or perhaps a thin paintbrush with a light thinner like lighter fluid(lighter fluid wont thin/melt laquer paint) and jast melt it away? first pic is the mess ups, rest seem ok though.

looks awesome, photos look top notch as well

found a vid of the original model that this guy bought for 10 grand in sterling(pre-brexit) lol, i guess its worth it considering the time/effort but still, crazy.

no pics, but finally finished all the decaling, just the upper body of this kit is more work than alot of master grades. nive just put second coat of microsol over decals and any part where i see no silvering is put aside, the parts that shows any silvering when liquid is applied gets pricked to remove silvering and put aside, il give it 10hours then go through the process again until every part is done. then il leave everything to dry for 24hrs, then another coat of clear. then il panel line and finally flat coat. theres still some tiny bits to do, but they wont need decalling so should only take a day or two. im pretty sure ive got no chance of finishing this kit in time for telford, im running 21 days behind, still with many things to do on just the first part of the 3parts of the kit. lol, im gonna miss the deadline by 3 months.

doesnt come with a rub on declas, comes with waterslides, that i need for the white lines and zeon crests.i do also have a back up 3rd party set, that i only need the middle crests and lines. you can have that if you want?

done most of the big parts decalling, that use logos and warning, the rest should only take another day.

good job, so much easier to just replace and start again than trying to fix it, with me i tried to fix it and the dent kept growing.

ok, so i cleared everything yesterday, and again in some spots i had cloudy spots on about 4 parts, i cleared with the faster mr color thinner so didnt expect it to happen again, anyway it was only on the bright red and didnt show on any of the russet, which leads me to think ive just not been putting enough of the bright red over the primer and the clear just eats through because the red coat is so thin? anyway it was a super easy fix as the red is gloss just masked the russet and lightly went over areas effected. so today i started my favorite part of modelling, the decals. im only using the custom logos i had made and HIQ warnings, i take forever doing this part, its taken the whole day just to do about 10 pieces, the really annoying thing is im super super anal about angles and degrees and symmetry, which i usually fine with a bandai kit, but this resin isnt as perfect as id like, so im having to pick areas for decals to line up as they wont line up perfectly. EXAMPLE the winged zion symbol doesnt lin up perfectly with the dark gray thin line directly above, but it is correctly in the middle of the part so chose to go with getting the middle right. last second design choice, the blue wasnt working for me and seeing how easy it was to just use masking tape to make a template and cut out some carbon, i went with that. i think it works really well, this is the underside, it may be odd, but i think itll be really cool to have huge logos barely showing. adding to the custom logos with the hiq warnings brings everything together. doesnt seem like much, but i spend forever on this part, took a full day.

right finished afew last bits more of masking, and also afew touch ups, tomorrow il put over a coat of gloss for a nice shiney base for decals.

still masking, just gonna write down the grays here now so i have a personal record, because il probably forget. panel parts and grates.... gaia neutral gray74 light gray long lines... gaia neutral gray73 central rectangles... mr color dark sea gray central long rectangles pointed... mr color dark gray 32 blue mr color 72 ok nearly finished masking the red parts, had my first bit of paint lifting, which is quite annoying seeing how the paint came away from the primer so you can see the white primer and not the yellow resin. its only a tiny bit that i will only take 5mins fix, you can see it in the bottom left of first pic. finally seeing some progress.

i had this exact issue when modding the fuel tanks on the mk3 gundam. took a week for a big dent to show and came from the inside to out.

as i use alot of lacquer and try and keep everything glossy until i flat coat, i use faber and castell indian ink pen (B), which is a big nib that i scuff up so its more like painting a wash, i used to use flory model washes but with lacquers base the washes seem to bead up. also the indian ink gives a really nice blend when taking it off, which is better than washes i find.