philp Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Ok, my second build will be a bit more complicated than the Dragonfly with over 10 times as many parts (150). This is a review kit for IPMS/USA and supplied by Hobbyco. I got special permission to build it as part of this GB. First up, the box art shows the ship in a little bit of action. Instructions and decals. Some of the main sprues. And a shot of some of the details. Biggest challenges look like painting the different colors which have areas that overlap other areas which means I will have to try and paint this in sub assemblies and not screw things up too much when putting them together. The other thing you may notice is all the gold scrollwork on the decals. This would be nice except there is raised details for this in the areas the decals go. Not sure how well the decals will conform over the detail and not sure of my painting skills to try and do this all freehand. If anyone knows a good decal softener for Hasagawa kits that I can find in the US, please let me know. Not sure my Micro Set and Micro Sol will be able to handle these. I picked up some rattle cans to spray the main parts so been planning out the paint approach. This should be fun. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Av8fan Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Always wanted one of these. I will follow your build. One of my favorite musical pieces from the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_kOiv__RQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 ...waiting to see how this builds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 10, 2015 Author Share Posted March 10, 2015 You and me both. Not doing a good job following the instructions so far. Decided since my painting plan will be awkward I might as well try and put together some of the sub assemblies that are the same color and see how things work. Fit so far has been fabulous. Will build a superstructure parts today and then try some paint in places to see how things look. Will post some pics later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 Ok, sorry for the delay in updates. Frankly just been putting together parts that are the same color so I can spray them at one time. Got the last main color sprayed today so put together a few of the sub assemblies. Here you can see the main body getting there. Also the engines that go underneath and a few of the other parts. The wings need the darker blue sprayed and one of the chin pieces needs to be resprayed as I knocked it off my holder right after spraying. The 2 pods on the toothpicks also need the darker blue sprayed on the ends. Here is a close up of the body. The fit has been fantastic with no filler required which is good the way the ship is painted. Still not excited about trying to apply the decals over all that scroll. Might have to see if I can find a pen or something to try and paint them. You also can see one of the 2 fighters that come with the ship. They both still need painting. Daughter is coming up for acting this weekend so I will probably be too busy to do more until next week but it is nice to see it coming together. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 14, 2015 Author Share Posted March 14, 2015 Ok, little bit more done today after all. Masked and sprayed the wings (winglets, stabilizers???). They came out ok. Underside with engines attached and the front bits on. And a few more bits added to the topside. You can also see the two turrets and the bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 looking good like the colours. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Been plugging along on this one so figured I better show some more pictures. So first up an overall shot. Not really that much more to see. The wings are on as are the turrets and the skull and crossbones. The last are interesting as you add a black decal first and then glue the skulls over. The black then becomes the eyes and nose. Also about the only decals that worked as advertised. More in a moment. You can also see (barely) some of the gold scrollwork. This will need some touch up to the base colors to hid a bit. So, speaking of scroll work. The three yellow windows are decals. Number one, had no desire to try and paint that part over the molded details and two, it proved that the decals weren't going to conform to the details without a stronger decal solvent. So, visited a couple craft stores today and out of my purchases decided to try the Pitt artist pen first. You can see in the pictures that this wasn't fully successful with a bit of extra gold flowing around. You may also notice some gold color on the paper. After playing with the back plate and having the pen extrude more gold then necessary when trying to get more to the nib I finally decided to try and drybrush the scrollwork on the sides and fuselage. I used the overflow from the pen so they would match and this didn't turn out too bad. Not great but not too bad. Tomorrow will have to run to the LHS and grab a bottle of Blue Angel Blue and hopefully a Bright Blue so I can do some touch ups to hide the more obvious errors and a bit more detail painting on a couple of parts. One being... The bridge. The yellow windows were also supplied as decals and I did try one of the larger ones for the lower windows first. Again, they would not conform and I really didn't want to fight with all the little sliver windows that would have to be added so grabbed my Testors yellow and painted them in. Once I go over the frames with the blue I think they will look a lot better than the decals would have and a lot less time involved. You can also see I added the red to the two fighters. A couple bits of blue and some gun metal on the exhausts and they will be ready to go. Go where I don't know but will see how I feel. So, once I get the touch up paint done I just have a few antenna (masts?) and the wing pods to add to her and she should be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Ok, calling this one done. All the fiddly antenna bits are on and the Cosmo Wings are painted (just sitting on the base while I try and figure out how to display them). Overall the fit was Hasagawa good. There are a couple gaps putting the hull together but they probably relate more to my build than the kit design. One thing that I think could be better were a lot of the bits are just glued to the hull without positive alignment tabs. The front two antenna and the underwing pods especially. Other than that, nothing to complain about, oh, yeah, except them decals. If you want to use the scrollwork decals I would suggest sanding/filing off the molded details so you can get a good fit of the decal. But painting them probably give the best look, just not the easiest. Thanks again to Hasagawa for continuing to provide quality kits of Japanese Anime, to Hobbyco for supplying the kit and to IPMS/USA Reviewers Corp for letting me build her. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Cool that turned out great! I love the whole pirate ship meets space cruiser look Nice one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) love the colour scheme - very eye catching! I really like some of the design aspects - like the wings (very FireFlash like) but some not so much. Still, it's making me want to go buy one now - thanks! Edited April 8, 2015 by Madhatter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Cracking build Phil, nice finish. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Av8fan Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Very nice. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knikki Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Great build, think that may be another kit to add to the wants list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 That is suitably bizarre and looks fabulous! Nice work on the scrollwork! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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