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Thanks both of you, came out better than I'd hoped and will hopefully be more practice for the dreaded cockpit glazing :)

 

I did the decals last night - not too many with the livery ones staying on the sheet:

 

31106105931_ef9ea885e0_b.jpg

 

They behaved nicely - I like Bandai decals although the edges are a little thick. Hopefully some "slight sheen" varnish will help after the limited weathering. I did omit the cockpit glazing since it seemed like they weren't going to fit perfectly there. The portholes were fine though. I applied them all onto brushed Klear which seems to be quite a reliable technique provided you don't have to move them around much on the surface.

 

I suspect the port wing arrowhead is slightly out of true which is why this photo is from a glancing angle! It's close enough though.

 

I was thinking about making a door to apply over the three-slice moulded door, but given that I can't really see the seams at this level of magnification I reckon I can leave it.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Well the model (and I) survived the enamels. I did have a tiny bit of cracking on the undersides of the rocket fins, but I added a little CA as a filler and I think I got away with it.

 

31150405751_ab36aaa77b_b.jpg

 

The gun smoke/exhaust smoke got a bit out of hand (as always) which is a shame - I should probably stop trying to do it.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Took some pictures of the details.

 

31152357551_b7a3615d18_b.jpg

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and my attempt to remove some of the smoke from the underside, which went a bit off. I probably need to redo that, or at least make sure it's not visible.

 

31122876782_8e26ae35c9_b.jpg

 

I used Alclad Light Sheen over the matt red and decals, and then went over the decals again with a tiny bit of Flat to hide the edges. I also worked some graphite powder into the wing leading edges, which is nice and glinty in person but the light is too diffuse to show much in this pic.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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So with the VTOL out of the way it was time to figure out the remaining unknown - how to make an atomic beam.

 

It turns out that hot glue works well :) I rounded one end of my acrylic and drilled out the other for the LED, then sanded the outside a bit for diffusion. After that it was just a matter of applying gobs of hot glue. Once it was dry I sprayed it with a fairly thin layer of Tamiya Clear Blue and then a couple of heavy coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss to seal and level the surface.

 

The LED I epoxied into the end after adding a dropper resistor etc.

 

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And of course after feeding Bemular the equivalent of a barium meal (resistors) and an endoscope (wire) it lights up!

 

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Slightly disappointing that the glow doesn't reach the end. I'm thinking I could make another using tubing with an LED in each end, although avoiding cheesy shadows from the wires will be tricky. It would make the "fireball bit" much more convincing, although the TV series effect is just a rotoscoped beam of fairly constant intensity so neither really match that.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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That looks spectacular Will. Personally I don't think it's a problem that the glow doesn't fully reach the end, but I can see what you mean about having the tip of the beam lit.

Would it be possible to make another one and hide the wire for the tip LED under the hot glue texturing?

 

Andy

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Did you drill a hole in the acrylic rod to take the LED? That would act as a wave-guide for the LED light - also to choose an LED with a narrow light aperture would help illuminate further down the acrylic rod.

 

Still looks spectacular however :)

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9 hours ago, AndyRM101 said:

Would it be possible to make another one and hide the wire for the tip LED under the hot glue texturing?

 

I was thinking of using a tube rather than solid rod and running white wires down that - if I diffuse the tube a bit more than I did the acrylic  the glow will probably hide the wires? At least in my mind. There's also the question of which way to point the LED at the end - probably forwards, but with the envelope sanded and lots of goop around it to get the light spilling in all directions?

 

I dunno, it wasn't that hard to make so I don't mind having another go.

 

8 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Did you drill a hole in the acrylic rod to take the LED? That would act as a wave-guide for the LED light - also to choose an LED with a narrow light aperture would help illuminate further down the acrylic rod.

 

Yes to both of those - and I filled the hole with epoxy before inserting the LED to try and get some approximation of an optical bond. It works OK but it's quite a long rod for a standard white LED even with a minimal dropper resistor.

 

7 hours ago, Carts said:

I kinda like the diffused glow,it adds a dynamism\energy to the display.

 

I think it works well from the mouth to the middle, but it leaves the far end hanging a bit - if it's a big blob that's shooting along and not falling down, it should be more energetic-looking IMO.

 

Thanks for the comments and suggestions all!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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So I made putative ATOMIC BEAM 2.0 which was much more difficult owing to the need to install the LEDs before doing all the decorative stuff.

 

31276344226_a992813c79_b.jpg

 

This is a piece of slightly narrower plastic tube (I think it's polycarbonate from a Tamiya spares bag.) The only really thin wire I had that I thought would come out past the LED and not foul Bemular's throat was conspicuous black, so I've twisted it up after installing it and then spiralled the hot glue so hopefully it will look like it belongs a bit.

 

I went a bit further with "sculpting" (blobbing on glue) the beam, so it widens and has spiralled flutes towards the big end. I also added a little Clear Red at the other end.

 

In the pictures I don't think it looks great at the thin end, but I'm using a higher-valued resistor for testing, I think once I get the 12 ohm one back in (and a higher value for the hot end) the balance will be better. I couldn't build the resistors in this time because the bundle of resistors, wires and heat-shrink didn't fit down his throat. I had to chop that off and make a smaller wires-only joint.

 

I also wrapped the end of the tube in aluminium tape (light block/light guide) and heat-shrunk it to bulk up the diameter a little and provide some strain relief for the cables.

 

I think I prefer this one although the previous one looks better in pics. I hope with the right resistors and a better pic it'll be an easier sell :)

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Thanks all!

 

2 hours ago, Thud4444 said:

The second atomic beam looks like Gamera's fire breath rather than Bemular atomic beams. Or is it just an trick with the picture? 

 

Which one are you going to use?

 

I don't think it's as full and billowing as the fire breath, but I see what you mean. I think Bemular's beam is like a laser and you don't see the end of it in the episode? So there's obviously going to be some kind of compromise in the model...

 

I think I'm probably going to use the second one but I reserve the right to change my mind once I've tried it :P

 

In other news I put together the Mecha Colle Elysion from the new Macross the other day - another neat little kit of a humungously big ship. I will try and get some pictures of it.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Blimey, it feels like I've lost a week somewhere betwixt work and such. I did clean up some Bloodbowl figures, I guess that's modelling of a sort although not for this thread.

 

Here's the Elysion I mentioned:

 

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and here's a crazy Kotobukiya Zoid kit:

 

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shown here in the "relatively sane" configuration as compared to the insane "bombed up" version. Doesn't stand up very well and I think I'm going to have to make some modifications to get it to a point where I'll be happy to paint it.

 

Not forgotten about Bemular, just trying to put off an airbrushing session as I need to tidy my space first.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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  • 3 months later...

Poor Bemular, he languished in the cupboard for some months, but today he got some paint at long last:

 

33695871085_363e31da0a_b.jpg

 

I had to start by fixing the cracked-and-re-attached lower lip, which still had a big crack underneath - I filled it with CA and scraped/sanded it back a bit.

 

He was already primed with Tamiya Red Primer, so I airbrushed the inside of his mouth with Hull Red, then a Hull Red/Flat Red mix and then a lighter version with some Flat Flesh in it. After that it had a heavy coat of Aqua Gloss.

 

A bit of drying time later, and I was able to go on with the body - this started as JA Green, then a mix of that and Flat Earth for the belly area. I added highlights with a couple of JA Green/Flat Flesh mixes and shaded with Black Green. The belly plates had Flat Earth/Flat Flesh highlights and Black Green/Hull Red shading. I also touched in the very tips of the spines with thinned Rubber Black.

 

After that was all done I re-touched the lips and gums with a mix of the two reds where they'd become too green.

 

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It's all a bit low-contrast at the moment but it's really only the mid-tones - washes and highlights/drybrushing will provide some more range. At least that's the plan! Also I have to brush-paint the teeth which is going to be fiddly, and for once it's all my own fault and not e.g. Games Workshop's fault that the access is bad :P

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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