Shin

Hey Hoops, wonderful work! I've never seen Macross Zero but a boxing of a VF-0B at the local hobby store caught my eye - only time I've ever bought a kit based purely on box art. It'll sit next to the Macross Plus ones I've built up, when I get around to it. I think mine's white, but really like the shade of grey you used on yours. Curious about the added details you mentioned? Have any close-ups of those areas?

Troy dropped some good knowledge on you, please try and read all of that. Personally I use oil paints thinned with odorless mineral spirits - shouldn't be much different with lighter fluid. To determine when it's thin enough for a pin wash, I dab a brush in then poke it to the side wall of the palette well I'm mixing in. If it stays there as a bead, it's still too thick. If it runs down the side of the palette smoothly, it's ready. Hope that helps with your experimentation!

If you want to stay acrylic, give Badger Stynelrez a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's also bottled under UMP Ultimate Primer and if I recall correctly, Mig One-Shot. The biggest benefit is that it's easy to spray and is sandable - doesn't come off in chunks like the Vallejo seems to.

Thanks Dennis. I've already started some testing, definitely not going to have my first shot at it be on the Corsair hah. Hope my chipping turns out as good as yours, keep up the good work. Can't decide whether I like this one or your FAA Corsair more.

The primer sprays great (I used the Badger Stynelrez version) both as multiple dry passes or light wet coats. My biggest issue with it was cleaning - I could never seem to fully get it out of the airbrush, always a little bit was present whenever I broke the airbrush down for a deep cleaning. Even despite that, I'm trying Mission Models primer right now after I ran out of my bottle of grey, but have a feeling I'll probably find my way back to the Badger eventually.

I was thinking about trying hairspray with mine as well. Did you consider a hairspray layer after the aluminum before the YZC? I like what you did, a mix of aluminum and ZYC in parts then hairspray on top of that for the blue to chip into, saves one hairspray layer step but have benefit of both colors.

Hi there! A little late to the party, but here's my entry for my favorite WWII aircraft. I'll be building a 1/72 Tamiya F4U-1D with box scheme. My focus for this project will be attempting a chipped/weathered effect for the aircraft, so figure I'd stick with a smaller scale kit. The only other Tamiya 1/72 kit I've done was a Zero when I first returned back to the hobby a couple years ago, so I'm looking forward to a trouble free and well fitting build. As a fun fact, I picked this model up last year in Tokyo from the official Tamiya store when I had the opportunity to visit Japan. I'm more focused on improving my technical skill and getting a good looking finish than adhering to historical accuracy, and any feedback would be much appreciated. Box/sprue shots. I'll be going with airframe scheme depicted on the cover, I like the splash of yellow in front instead of an all single colored blue scheme. Wonderful detail in this kit, especially at this scale. And finally my first progress shot. Mission Models Black Primer, then US Interior Green for cockpit, mix of NATO black and black for the black parts, "dry-brushed" using a grey watercolor pencil then buttons picked out with white, red and yellow paints. Rear wheel well painted in Yellow Zinc Chromate. All of this was then carefully pinwashed with an thinned oil paint mix of burnt umber and black. Thanks for watching!

hey Andy, not sure I'm understanding - the PE belts have details and color already printed on them correct? They should go on after painting the base seat is complete. The instructions and the video doesn't match because it looks like the guy in the video is using an aftermarket seat. Either way you should be able to follow the same steps: assemble the seat, paint/weather, then put on the PE, weather more if needed. In general if the seat is all one color, I assemble then paint. If the major parts are different colors, depending on the parts breakdown you can go multiple ways. As long as a brush is easily accessible I generally assemble as much as I can then paint. If the cushion is a separate piece and a different color I may paint that separately before attaching. Hope this rambling helps!

Great work on this! Curious about your comment regarding Micro Sol destroying the paint - I have the same paint set for a couple upcoming projects. You have any idea what went wrong? I've used Sol on some Mr. Colors before without issue.

You've gotten good advice so far, but I'm concerned about the pre-built aspect of your model. If it had a clear coat applied over the model after decals, the proposed decal solutions may not affect anything at all (it would sit on top of the clear coat and not penetrate to the decal). Running a knife through the panel lines as Dennis suggested may or may not help in this case.

A little more progress, and probably all I'm going to get done before the deadline. Filled in the panel line and rivets with Mr. Surfacer 500 to mimic the puttying of the wings, and sanded the heck out of it. The areas around the raised rivets I wiped away with isopropyl alcohol, which resulted in a little more that wanted removed out of surrounding panel line areas, but wasn't sure how else to approach it. Finally attached the wings to the fuselage, and now waiting for the Mr. Surfacer on those seams to dry before sanding. After attaching a few more pieces it will finally be ready for some primer. I look forward to seeing how well I did with repairing the area surrounding the exhausts, but as you see I was able to butcher and brute force the correct ones in there. Finally starting to look like an aircraft! Thanks everyone for the comments and following along. I'll pop this in RFI once it's done.

Thanks all. I'm definitely finishing this, even if it isn't in time for the deadline. I might have had a chance to make the deadline, but hit a major snag outlined below. Correct that there are no fuel tanks in the box, I'm going to try and fit the bombs in the pylons. Progress: Tamiya Yellow/Green for yellow zinc chromate in the wheel wells. I read a lot of differing accounts of what the color should be - bare metal, interior green, green zinc chromate, yellow zinc chromate, interior green, and combinations of these colors as well for different parts of the bay. Said screw it and blasted it with YZC. Did some detail drilling into the front as well as exhaust pipes. The bad news is after i installed the exhausts and left them for a few hours, I discovered that I had installed the wrong type of exhaust for this bird. I debated leaving the installed ones in, but I knew it would bother me. However drilling them out and trying to fix the mess would hit the limits of my modeling skills. Best way to learn is to try, so busted out the rotary drill and went to work. Currently trying to fix the errant drill cuts with Apoxie Sculpt. While that's setting, decided to test out some metal colors for the fuselage. Painted over Stynelrez gloss black primer, left to right is Mission Models Chrome, Mission Models Faded Aluminum, and Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum.

Thanks for the comments all! Unfortunately life got in the way so I'm doubtful I'll finish by the deadline, but let's see what I can get done by then. Cockpit work: tried hairspray chipping for the first time to try and simulate the wear in the rubber coating, and tried to make some wires twisting a few strands from an unused HDMI cable. Paint is Mission Models Interior US Green & NATO Black + Black and a British AFV tan for the belts. The browns were Scale75. Vallejo Metal Color aluminium for the belt pieces.

If I recall (not at home right now) you have to push the tip in against what you're painting to get the paint going, depending on what surface you're painting on. As if there's a little spring in there. Depending on how porous the surface is, the more/less often you'll have to press to get the paint flowing. If you've been depressing it and nothing's coming out, it may be a bum pen.

I've used Tamiya X-22 thinned with Mr. Color Levelling thinner (lacquer) and Mission Models gloss (water-based acrylic) over this paint, both worked great. The only hiccup was accidently touching an area just after spraying the x-22, the MLT seemed to reactivate the paint a little bit so i left a fingerprint on it. Humbrol I believe is a water based acrylic, there should be no chemical interaction as long as your paint has been given adequate time to dry. If you're still unsure the best way is to shoot some spare plastic with the paint, then try your gloss on it.

You're wading into a subject with lots of techniques, products, and preferences. At the very least some wide brushes for your filters and varnishes. I really think you should go to YouTube, search for the technique you want to try first, and see how people are doing it. Eventually you'll see a pattern between different modelers and can decide what to buy to get similar results. With your acrylic paints, enamels weathering products and/or oil paints may be of interest to you.

Can't answer your last question, but seems to me, use it until it stops giving you the results that it should.

I have to wonder if you're using it properly. Tamiya Extra Thin (TET) is not so much a glue that you apply to one part, then attach it to another - ideally you're holding the two parts together already, then apply the cement. Capillary action seeps the TET between the parts and starts the melting/bonding process. Because this isn't an adhesive and actually melts plastic together, if pieces are falling apart, it suggests to me that your bond wasn't great to begin with. Like bmwh548 states the glue evaporates really quickly, so if you are applying to one piece, then another, then joining the parts, most of it has already gone. That said there are times I do apply the cement this way, but I make sure to really load up the part with a small pool (not for anywhere visible, more like for locating tabs and pins). I use TET for 95% of my plastic assembly, and have had no trouble with my older well used bottle compared to the new one that replaces it. Ooh almost forgot, this isn't so great on painted surfaces, as again it melts plastic to plastic. So if you're trying this, it could be where your issues lie.

The problem won't be the real canopies being swappable, it's whether Kinetic and Hasegawa's interpretation of them would be. Lots of modern jet model kit canopies (most of them?) have a center mold seam line on the exterior. Scrape it off with a hobby knife, sand with 8000 then 12000 grit (maybe a lower grit if needed depending on how much damage you did with the scraping job) , then use a polishing system (Tamiya compound, Novus plastic polish, or similar).

Not sure what paint you're using or if anyone else has had similar experiences, but the only time I tried masking over paint with Masking Sol R, it lifted the paint when I tried to remove it. I just use it for canopies now. In my case I applied on acrylic paint after a day of dry time, so it may not have cured enough for such a product.

Hi all, just finished my first group build and thoroughly enjoyed the process. Saw this was going on and figured I had a model in the stash to enter. Backstory: My local model shop inherited a large stash from someone who had passed away and was having a sidewalk sale on the excess inventory. All items were sold as is, as it seemed that the departed modeler/collector had started some projects and combined some kits into different boxes, which meant there was the potential for incomplete kits. I saw it as an opportunity to get some kits for cheap to experiment with, as I'm still relatively new to the hobby. One that caught my eye was a boxing for a 1/48 Tamiya P-51D (8th AF version) as I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out a natural metal finish aircraft. Upon initial inspection it seemed the major parts were in there, so I added it to my shopping basket. After reaching home and further examining the kit, it appears the modeler had started this kit and had a specific idea of what he wanted to do with it. There were weapons from another kit included, as well as an aftermarket decal sheet for a specific aircraft, the "Short Fuse". In fact, the major parts were already cut from the gates and some parts of a resin cockpit had been put together. I'm going to attempt to finish this aircraft for our fallen comrade, hopefully I do it justice. I'll be using the parts included in the box as intended to be built by him, and hopefully there aren't any missing pieces that I'm overlooking to make a complete aircraft. A quick Google search history of the aircraft - it was flown by Richard E Turner of the 354th Fighter Group, an ace in WWII before serving in the Korean War. Apparently his plane originally had art depicting "Short Fuse Sallee", but after finding out Sallee was with another man, he had the name removed. I'm open to any tips, pointers, comments, and critiques, but am more interested in doing a good technical job than digging into historical accuracy. I'm most apprehensive at this point about how decals will do over the metallic paint, but we'll get to that eventually. Planning on extremely limited weathering on this one, as it's my first natural metal attempt as well as my second 1/48 warbird model. Thanks for reading and following along! all the plastic inside the box aftermarket resin cockpit, sidewalls already installed bombs and rocket launchers (?) from another kit, it's in a different color grey plastic the rest of what's in the box

My second entry into this group build, a Polar Lights 1/1000 Klingon Bird of Prey as seen in multiple Star Trek movies and series, to try and balance out the myriad of Star Wars kits. WIP and more photos below, always looking for comments and critiques. Thanks!

Thanks Dennis! I was actually able to finish this morning, then saw your message. It did give me more time to take some photos though! Klingon BoP done. I'm very happy with how this turned out. My original plan was to try oil paint rendering to weather this, but as the deadline grew closer I realized I didn't have time to experiment too much. Especially when I didn't have the oil paint colors I wanted, but discovered I had pigments of the correct colors... My first time using pigments was on the exhaust of an Abrams tank and was surprised how easily they went on and how great they looked. I tried to do the same here on a larger scale. Was also able to try out an AK weathering pencil a bit. This is the first model I've heavily weathered, and found the process more enjoyable than I thought I would. As always, looking for critiques and comments. Thanks to the hosts for this fun group build, and everyone who followed along.

Cutting it real close, but completed 95% of the weathering today. This included using a Mig enamel wash for stippling on grime, a flat coat of Tamiya X-86, then experimenting with pigments and an AK weathering pencil to try and match some of the effects on my sources. I'm pretty happy with the result! Painted up the engines and torpedo launcher via hairy stick, and will finish attaching them tomorrow when everything is dry. Full reveal after the final touches, but here's a little quick preview!

thanks for the comments Dennis & Chris! quick update - gloss coated with Tamiya X-22, decals slapped on, and panel lined with olive green & black oil paints mixed to a dark green, and with just black on the metal areas. I've also started experimenting with weathering at the top middle, using some brown enamel wash that I'm stippling on. I should be in some state of completeness by the end of the group build!