1 72 Bandai Macross VF-25F Step by Step Modeling Guide by WM Cheng

1/72 Bandai VF-25F Messiah Step by Step Modeling Guide By WMCheng November 3, 2008 – August 12, 2009 (Compiled from the www.MacrossWorld.com thread)

Hi all, As promised, I finally have something to start a thread on my Bandai VF-25F which Graham was so kind to track down for me in Hong Kong at a decent price. The kit price itself was pretty good especially considering what you get - I personally thought that with shipping though, it doubled the price of the kit and the resulting total price was somewhat expensive. I was pretty much against this model from the beginning and wasn't even going to purchase one - mainly due to 1

the fact that it’s a transforming model. I'm pretty much an aircraft guy - and it’s obvious that Bandai is pretty much a robot company. However, following the long thread as to its development, it started looking better and better - and it seems like it might be the only decent representation of this aircraft in the near future. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of transforming models - I think models should be models and toys should be toys - I "look" at models but "play" with toys. When I first found out about the "transforming" nature of this kit, I was expecting a lot of compromises that toys make for the sake of movement and durability (which would ruin the accurate representation I would come to expect from a well crafted Japanese kit). I feared the kit would turn out to be like Bandai's previous efforts with Macross Plus with their 1/100 scale VF-2SS (which was also a transformable kit - and unfortunately, the only one Bandai made of this very well designed Mech). Luckily for us all, I am glad to say that this latest effort by Bandai far exceeds those 1980s models and it is an exceptionally engineered kit in terms of movement and joints creating a fairly accurate line-art representation of this Messiah Valkyrie. However, I am still disappointed that although well engineered, it was not engineered from a model builder's point of view, the parts breakdown and assemblies are not geared towards proper painting and finishing easily. The finished product does not lock together well and there are huge unsightly gaps that I can't seem to close up no matter how I try to align the pieces. It is exceptionally delicate and there are very few locking pegs or devices that hold the various modes together, instead it just relies on the stiffness of its joints. Jarrod also has a great review of this kit up at: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php? showtopic=27823

2

Ok, upon initial impressions, the box is big, bigger than I'd expected from a 1/72 scale kit. However once I opened it, it was crammed full of parts, it wasn't a matter of just a big box with a few pieces rattling inside, it was crammed full! There are so many parts - mostly for the complicated internal hinging systems and pivot joints as well as the cleverly designed way it all literally "snaps" together. My usual methodology to starting any new model is that I would study the instructions and parts and mentally build the entire kit in my head as I followed through the steps. This is a way for me to imagine the process and visualize where the pitfalls and trouble spots may be (and flag them mentally). It allows me to concentrate on details that will be seen when finished and areas that might need fixing up that are also exposed in the final model – instead of wasting effort on detailing everything including areas that will be closed up and hidden upon final assembly. It allows me to break out of the normal suggested flow from the instructions to make up my own plan of attack that will allow me to airbrush and mask more easily. However, this was a really complicated kit and was too hard for me to visualize all 3

the components and what they did – so many joints and sub-assemblies! So I decided to depart from my normal way of building a model and follow each and every step in the instructions verbatim. Now don’t get me wrong, there are lots of steps, but its not a complicated model and anyone could follow all the individual steps quite easily, don’t let me sway you into thinking this is too complicated as a kit. It’s quite straightforward as long as you pay attention and follow each and every step. All my extra work is just so that I end up with a model that is more like the Hasegawa Valkyrie that I love.

Since it was a “snap-together” - my plan would be once I had the entire thing together, I would carefully take apart just the sub-assemblies that are needed be glued, sanded and painted. I'd guess that 75% of all the pieces weren't really necessary if the model was just a single mode dedicated aircraft - however I wasn't able to understand the assembly process enough to just pick out the 25% required pieces to build a single mode aircraft only model - it was my initial intention to build a dedicated aircraft-only mode and correct the transformation compromises. As I started into the building (more like snapping together) I started to appreciate more and more the engineering of the moveable joints and marveled at its complexity. So I’m not going to go into the snap together of the kit, I just followed the instructions. What I want to concentrate on is what comes after the initial assembly. I want to document taking it apart and fixing it up and painting it properly into a real model. Maybe identify areas that could be modified, 4

improved or magnets applied to help the model hold together. I don’t know about adding pegs, as I can’t imagine any type of glue that will be strong enough to hold a peg in place.

I’ve included a few shots of the runners/trees of parts that I find particularly interesting since they obviously use a multi-mode process (more than just a top and bottom to the die). There’s an example of the multiple types of plastics used where we get a clear tree of parts mixed in with the white styrene and red styrene parts. Although it’s a nifty feature to have molded in colour parts – I personally find it un-necessarily complicates the engineering of the kit and ultimately I have to mask and repaint all the parts anyways. There’s another part that shows the undercut details at the rear of the forward fuselage which could only be done if there was another part mold process that came in to stamp out the rear details, just as the head laser antennas show a deep undercut recessed details that could only be achieved when a third mold press comes in at the sides as evidenced by the plastic trees that have been routed below to allow the die to travel to the laser antennas. Bandai is amazing, showing off their advancement of technology in plastic model making.

5

On with the show! Ok, a few hours into it and I realize what a delight Japanese plastic is! It’s perfect, not too soft, but not too brittle. After working on a Korean Academy kit (a little on the hard brittle side) to get me back into the groove again, it’s so nice to be with Japanese plastic again. This Bandai kit has the same kind of styrene as the Hasegawa kits, although the Hasegawa kits have finer engraved details than this model. In fact, the Hasegawa has more "made-up" aircraft logical details than this - it’s obvious that their expertise is aircraft construction, and Bandai is robot construction, a lot of the details that are "made-up" are very sci-fi like and not realistic at all, but that's okay for this subject matter.

6

This is the first stages of the kit; we build/snap together the forward fuselage part. The only piece of advice here is to not start with the nose cone as indicated on the instructions, start with the internal hinge mechanism first to get yourself acquainted with cutting the part off the plastic sprue runners and trimming the excess sprue off first. Even a seasoned modeler like me had some problems cutting the sprue nibs off properly and will need some filling and sanding to do when I come to gluing the nosecone halves together. But after a few steps in, you will get the hang of the hardness of the plastic and what to do. It’s funny how some of the most basic skills in model making such as cutting the part out and sanding is still some of the toughest skills to master even with lots of experience behind you.

7

Here we run into the first of the "compromises" already, when all the parts collapse together, there are huge unsightly gaps in the separations between the parts because the pieces need clearance to allow movement - this will be problematic when we paint too so do note of the places where they rub. Unfortunately, the areas which rub are usually at the outside edges or corners which won't hold paint nor clear-coat well. The front landing gear well is a joke - there is no-where near the required room to make it believable that a nose gear can retract into this space. In fact the entire gears are horribly sculpted. They are just like the Yukikaze landing gear sculpts, fat, ill-proportioned and un-believable - as done by a robot company. They are so bad that I think I will skip them all together - not only will I have to rebuild them from other kits, but the modifications to the gear wells (front and rear) will be so extensive that they will interfere with the hinging system and the leg's ability for the ankle to retract. I think I will glue the gear doors closed and forgo the gears themselves, as I will be displaying this with the gears up in the aircraft mode 90% of the time.

8

The next stage is the head - very beautiful how this all goes together. Painting it properly will be difficult due to the size. I don't see why they didn't just give the visor to us in clear green however, due to the sprue attachment points (they could of positioned these at a place where we won't see them) though it’s probably better to tint it ourselves since the tint will hide the sanded sprue points. It’s too bad they chose the ends on the outside to attach this visor piece. Overall, the sprue attachment points are quite good and for the most part hidden, however there are a few places where its awkward or poorly placed and not like the recent Star Wars stuff by Fine Molds where you don't have to worry about these sprue nubs at all!

9

10

The arms next are a nice feat of engineering for movement and joints. It’s clear that I will have to eventually glue the two outside shell together and fill and sand the main seam and paint it white, but not before I spray the internal elbow and shoulder mechanism first and have to mask that all away - again they didn't put any thought as to how a modeler would go about painting this. I wished the lower white portion of the arm was removable from the grey portions even after the two halves where glued together.

11

12

The legs next - again the movement joints designs are amazing, and so is the use of ABS plastics - let’s hope my paints stick to this ABS later on! And we'll see if all this joint goodness translates into a good pose-ability in the battroid mode later on.

13

Not much to say except I followed the instructions explicitly. Once I did one, I thought I understood it and raced through the other leg (just mirrored I thought) - but the joints are so subtlety offset or the tolerances designed so specific that I ended up having to take that leg apart and go through and re-trace my steps with a fine tooth comb to find out that I had two joints reversed. Just pay attention to the hip joints. It all worked, but when I put on the airintake covers, its fit wasn't as perfect as the other side which was the only hint that I had erred somewhere along the way - so if it doesn't fit like a perfect glove, then there's a problem somewhere in the joints.

14

Ok, 10 hours later from start till finish, I've completed the assembly / snap-together of the VF25F - I only have the gun to do tomorrow. Initial impressions now... it’s somewhat overengineered. The model has a nice solid heft to it, unlike most models which are hollow, this one is jammed packed with a internal mechanism, half there to allow the kit to be snapped together, and half there to allow the kit to transform into the other modes. While it’s a novelty for this to happen, I'd rather get a decent aircraft mode model kit and purchase a real toy for the transformation, but from the ugly looks of the Bandai DX toy, this model might be our best bet at getting a decent looking toy for the time being.

15

Because so many parts move and slide and interlock with each other and each joint is multiaxis, its near impossible for all these parts to align properly. The result is some pretty serious gaps all over the model. Now I don't know what to do, do I glue everything together and fill up all these seams in an attempt to create a decent plane, or do I live with the gaps and keep on trucking towards a transformable model? Some of the worst areas include; the shoulder chest plate sections on either side, its just about impossible to properly seat the hip gun piece to look flush with these shapes and the back leg calf to sit higher up and engage the rear of the wing roots properly (without gluing the wing roots to it). Initially I've identified 3 possible places to add rare earth magnets that MIGHT help to stabilize the aircraft mode. Although I have no idea if they'd work, one in the arm sides and leg sides to pull the leg closer to the folded arms might help, another at the lower wing root section to the leg knee sides to pull the wing roots down closer to the legs might help and lastly maybe one at the split intakes one on the upper half and one on the top of the lower half to help them stay together.

16

17

For the time being, I'll have to learn to transform this a bit more and to see what the smallest rare earth magnets I can get before I can decide anymore. I'd love to see what you guys are up to and your thoughts on this model too. Feel free to contribute any ideas and suggestions you might have to this thread and any references. I'd love to get more painting references for myself too.

18

19

20

21

22

Hi all again... a little more progress.

23

bishop, yes I did get your photos via e-mail, once you get your camera, you should also post a thread here too. Right now your cell phone photos are a little too blurry and grainy to see anything constructive. Nope I did not trim the pegs; I tried a few and managed to successfully pry them apart very gently and carefully. The key is to get something right in to the base of the pegs and twist - I find a soft fast food plastic knife works best and a jeweler's screwdriver (but 24

be careful not to damage the surrounding surfaces) - just gently ease it back and forth and the parts should come apart easily without damage.

25

Yeah it does seem like a waste to forgo all this nifty movement, hence I'll try to make it work on this one, but Ozma's VF-25S might be just an aircraft only mode depending on how crazy this one gets by the time I'm finished with it. There is just so many movement areas that rub that I don't feel any decent paintjob will hold up after any number of transformations regardless of how many coats of clear-coat one applies. Plus, I only really care about the aircraft mode however Bandai has done a marvelous job on the Battroid mode on this one!

26

So I spent the afternoon transforming it through the Gerwalk to the Battroid modes to get a sense of where the joints are, the extent of movement and where the pieces rub against each other - and unfortunately, there are quite a few problematic areas (as far as paint is concerned). At this point I would suggest anyone to try lacquers and enamels over acrylics (unfortunately I am almost exclusively Tamiya acrylics, since they are so much easier to clean and better for my 27

working environment) since lacquers and enamels have a better "bite" to the plastic and will probably adhere better and be more durable. That being said, I'd still probably use my Tamiya acrylics since I'm so comfortable and familiar with them. However if anyone has any good White lacquer that they'd recommend me try, I might be open to it.

Here's the Battroid mode which exposes the most of the internal mechanism - luckily there aren't a lot of exposed seams. I've included a shot of the base of the neck, there's a sliding plate (E32) that looks like it should lock into an upper position (on top of J5) but I can't seem to get this piece up there - is this the correct alignment/orientation for the neck assembly? (The top of J5 looks like there's a little triangular shelf on the two corners where the collar E32 looks like it should rest on) - However the HJ scans show the same orientation as I have.

28

29

I've identified some of the most problematic areas in terms of paint durability. These areas seem to rub against each other quite a bit, and no matter how much we clear-coat it, I feel it’s only a matter of time until its worn down enough due to movement that it will eventually damage the paint job. I've outlined the areas which rub in RED. I will definitely apply multiple coats here and multiple clear coats too - but the knee will be a real problem because when the dark grey gets scratched, the white plastic will show through underneath. Also the forward LERX (I don't know what it’s called, forward wing roots) is a highly visible area and it takes quite a bit of abuse from the upper thighs during Battroid transformation.

30

31

Additionally I've also identified the only seams that need to be puttied filled and sanded everything else seems to be pretty well hidden. These seams are outlined in GREEN. Lastly, I don't know what to do about this yet, but the canopy will get scratched eventually by sitting against part J5 - it’s almost like I should glue some soft pads there to rest the canopy 32

against when in the Battroid mode. I've outlined the problematic areas in PURPLE.

33

Its also been suggested that one can reinforce the fat antenna at the bottom of the forward fuselage part D18 which snaps into part A14 crotch piece for the battroid. It was suggested that one could drill through and leave a tiny metal pin or bit within it to reinforce the tab/antenna. While initially I thought it was a good idea, I didn't do it yet - the other school of thought is that drilling through will weaken the area, which can promote breakage. I would only attempt it as a 34

repair to it if it had broken, I will tempt fates and leave it alone for now.

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

Finally I think I might try and get some small rare earth magnets tomorrow to see if they are small enough to be used in this kit. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of cavities that allow for the placement of these magnets within the plastic parts. They may need to be drilled and surface mounted so they have direct physical contact However, initially I thought that if we had some magnets placed where I outlined in BLUE in these areas that it might help hold the aircraft mode together better. The primary concern is that I wish the legs were snapped closer to the folded arms and higher - they somewhat drag down a bit due to gravity. Additionally if the wing glove was attached more snugly to the leg sides, it would tilt them down a bit and look more natural head on - as it stands now, they have a tendency to sit pointing up at the wingtips which is a bit odd for any aircraft. Lastly those gun shields (B14 & B15) at the hip sides are so problematic, they never seem to sit right maybe a magnet to pull them closer to the lower hip might help them align themselves.

42

43

44

I've found these rod-type magnets that are apparently 1/8"X1/8" which is pretty darn small! http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...,42348&ap=1 I'll pick some up tomorrow or the next day to see if they'd work.

45

46

I also put together that Bandai stand (this did not come with the kit - I bought it a few years ago, I thought it was pretty neat when I saw it, little did I know it fits this kit). Mainly I wanted to see if I could modify it so I didn't have to use that stupid piece J4 to attach it to the stand. It’s really poorly thought out; A) it’s not even at the centre point / center of gravity of the model, it’s too far forward and puts un-necessary torque on the gun pod and B) it so poorly designed that it will scratch the finish on the gun pod every time it’s put on or off and lastly C) it just looks like an afterthought, it doesn't work with the design of the Valkyrie at all! Well using one of the universal adapters supplied with the stand, I was able to find the middle size to straddle the gun pod and hold the plane up - or course its slides around, but maybe again with some magnets, it might hold to the underside of the arms - I think it will be a better solution than using the kit part J4.

47

Oh, BTW, the way the gun pod holds onto the aircraft mode is a joke! That J25 piece is just a 48

poor afterthought, and the gun pod is constantly misaligned - with all this thought gone in to the all the movable pieces, it’s a shame they couldn't of come up with a more elegant solution to holding the gun in place while in the aircraft mode

49

Lastly I ran across this Humbrol clear purple in a spray can for R/C polycarbinate shells - I picked it up. It’s my fall back for the canopy tinting and clear-coat over an Aclad metallic base for the gun pod. I also found this food colouring dye at the groceries store, and the pack even has mixing instructions on the back, I will try that with the future first, its more reversible if it fails, I can always strip off the future off the canopy if I don't like the results. The Humbrol clear purple might actually etch into the clear canopy (but it’s there if all else fails - I too will try the Tamiya red & blue clear paints too). I'm sure the spray can will work for the gun pod though - I just hope the purple is right. But we are getting too far ahead of ourselves, I think I will tackle the magnets problem first and get the plane to hold itself together with all the gaps minimized first before thinking about painting.

50

51

Hey those magnets are even smaller! I wish I knew about those first, I might get myself some to try out on another project, I wonder if they'd be as strong as the ones I got.

52

53

Well, it’s been a few days and I've only had a bit of time to try these magnets out and they do seem to be working (not as well as I hoped... but they do tighten up the gaps). I wish they were stronger, because the force giving the gaps in the model seems to just barely equal the strength of the magnets, I was hoping that they'd be strong enough to be completely hidden behind the plastic, but they aren't. So there will be exposed magnets so that they can have actual surface contact - with the exception being the arm pieces, I made the back shallower so the magnets could be closer to the surface, but I still want that surface to be smooth and the magnet hidden.

54

55

The first one is the leg; I wanted it to be tucked tighter to the arms in the fighter mode as the arms actually have some tab/peg lock to the underside of the back plate. The magnet is surface mounted so that its flush with the surrounding details, and I think once it’s painted up, it will just blend in and look like another circular detail in amongst all that made up "gak". I had to make sure that the depth of the magnet didn't interfere with the movement of the foot/ankle assembly too - luckily it isn't deep enough to interfere. In the photos I show where I could mark its corresponding magnet placement on the forearms. The last photos show that it does indeed work, the gap on the left leg between it and the arm is evident (even when the plane is upside down - gravity works for us, when you flip it around, when gravity is no longer our friend, the gap is worst) and the leg on the right has its gap closed up tight due to the magnets working.

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

The next spot is the forward intakes; I've always hated this seam between the main lower ones and the smaller upper intakes. I was hoping the magnets will help here. It did work when the parts were free, but the magnets just weren't strong enough to really close the gap when everything was back and assembled again. It does sometimes hold if you press everything together tightly, then the magnets seem to work, but I'm not sure if this is worth the effort now. I'll still do it onto the other side just to make it symmetrical, but I guess I was hoping for more of an effect. You have to dig out a little divot (careful to not go through) on the rear of the intakes because of the depth of the magnet for the intake covers to sit properly again.

64

65

66

67

68

Well, this snap together thing actually comes in quite handy for doing these magnet modifications, you can take it all apart over and over again to get the fit and alignment just right on the magnet placement.

69

Here's some shots of the thing together again, the left side (if you're in the cockpit looking forward) has got 3 magnet attachment points and although I didn't think they worked that great individually, all together I think they do an OK job of aligning and minimizing the gaps and making it feel in general a little less flimsy. You can certainly see how the right side leg/engine sags a little due to the weight and how it doesn't quite tuck up to the wing roots as nicely as the left side. I wish there was more I could do, but for now, I'll do the other side as well and see how the whole thing ends up - that might be it, and I might start gluing and putting the only 2 seams and hopefully start painting.

70

The main trouble spots left are that damn flip down gun/shield thingy on the hip/upper thighs - I can never really get that to seat properly and as a result, it’s the primary reason we get the ugly gaps in the upper chest/shoulder pieces. I wish I can see a way to get it to lock in properly - any ideas?

71

72

73

74

75

I'm not a huge fan of Future yet. I've used it for clear-coating canopies, and its great for that. However the last time I used it (I don't know if any of you caught my F-16CJ on ARC - it was my attempt to start modeling again after a long break) I wasn't too impressed with the results. I may of laid it on too thickly, but it partially obscured or filled in some very fine panel lining so the oil panel wash didn't take as well as it should, it did allow the decals to sit remarkably flat and made them disappear and appear painted, but when it came time to airbrush the matte/flat clear-coat finish overtop, the clear coat developed micro-cracks and fractures in the surface (as though the future undercoat was just too slippery to grab hold of, too smooth) and the top matte coat looked like it had slightly shrunken uniformly. In the end after a lot of careful micromesh sanding and multiple coats, it looks somewhat acceptable, but still it was a hassle. Maybe it’s the mixture of ModelMaster acrylic clear-coats over Future that the combination doesn't like, but for now, I think I will stay with ModelMaster clear-coats all the way and only use Future for canopies & tinting.

76

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have a solution to this chipping paint or decal problem. It was one of my first criticisms of Bandai when I first heard that this kit was going to be transformable - in fact I had originally intended to build it in the aircraft only mode and fill in all the seams and gaps. However its moving parts are so well engineered that it seemed a shame negate all that goodness. My plan is to apply many layers of clear coat to help protect it and minimize on the number of transformations - realizing that it is a model and not a toy after all. The tolerances are so tight and the transformation relies on these parts being so tight so that friction can help it stay together that I don't think this problem will ever be truly solved, I think all the clear-coats of whatever people decide to put on will only delay the inevitable, at first its only the clear coat that gets damaged, before it eventually works its way down to some visible part such as the decal or paint finish. Just my opinion, but I'd love to be proven wrong - so if anyone comes with a better solution, let me know! OK, on to the VF-25, I haven't done much, but did get in a day over the holidays, I basically took the whole thing apart and separated it into painting assemblies (it ended basically un-building the whole thing). I took some pictures which I'll try to get around to posting sometime soon. But there's not much to see but a bunch of parts ready for paint. I also filled and sanded a few pieces (nose cone, forearm seams, shoulder seam and the knee mechanical joints) that I 77

thought needed the seams to be removed, but overall the seams have been successfully kept to a minimum by Bandai's excellent assembly design - as HWK MKII correctly states - unfortunately Bandai did not design for painting assemblies so a few parts will be awkward to mask and paint. Just an update, I haven't forgotten and I desperately want to get back to this baby (especially since I picked up the Ozma one too now).

Basically I've separated out all the parts that get a white spray (it takes away the slightly purplish cast that the Bandai white plastic has) and taped them to a cardboard tray for painting. The key thing here is that the wings need to be fully finished, clear coated, decaled and weathered before attaching them back into the wing glove pivots so that can then be glued and the seams be filled and sanded, then painted, so we have to basically re-paint and seal that part all over again after the wings are finished.

78

I also broke down the parts that needed filling to get rid of the seam; I used Tamiya putty for the bigger stuff and Mr. Surfacer 500 for the smaller stuff. There's a shot after the sanding too.

79

Lastly I sprayed everything else Steel from AlcladII metalizer paints as the base metal skeleton to be detailed over top of. Then I masked that little circle detail on the ankle - it would of been so simple for Bandai to mold this piece separately as an add-on later, but they weren't really thinking about people who paint (it was a bitch to mask decently, I'm still not happy with the demarcation between the colours, but once I do the black oil wash over this part, I think it will hide the masked line nicely (I hope!).

80

Today I've clear coated the flat white. I used flat white (Tamiya Acrylics) because it seems to have a better coverage, I find gloss white to be too translucent and requiring too many coats to cover anything underneath. I then used ModelMaster clear-coat semi-gloss with some gloss added into the mixture to cover the flat white. The flat white is fairly fragile and is prone to scratching off if not protected. If I use pure gloss, I find the shine too much that it attracts finger prints, this semi-gloss mixture I find is just smooth enough to take decals and an oil wash successfully, but not glossy enough to keep fingerprints. Also I want to mask the white areas to spray varying shades of off-white and grey because I find the overall white too flat or dull, but I don't want to stray from the canon scheme too much, so I think some off-white (tinted light grey) panels will make the white plane jump out a bit in terms of paint finish. This clear coat allows me to use the masking tape without fear that it might pull up some of the white paint (which has happened in the past). So I do not have much to show for today, just the clear coat which doesn't look any different.

81

What I did was use the back of my x-acto knife (the fine no.11 one) to trace a rough circle in pencil, and then I cut the circle out of the Tamiya masking tape. The size was not crucial, just close was good enough. As it happened, the hole cut out was a bit smaller than the circle I wanted to mask, so I cut a slit in one side of the hole to open it up, and I "stretched" and massaged the cut circular opening around the circular ankle detail until it matched the curvature. I've found that you don't necessarily need to match the curvature that much as long as you're close (it wasn't even a true circle, just a free hand one...) but with these masking tapes, you can push, nudge, pull and bend it to fit the proper curvature. Because I had to open it up a bit, there was a small portion unmasked which I filled in with a small thin piece - I found that this way it was easier than with many built up pieces and that the curvature was too tight to do it with a small thin strip. Sorry I didn't take any photos of this process, I didn't really think much of it - especially because the edge wasn't that crucial since it’s in a crevice and a dark wash will be applied so the oil wash will hide any masked messiness. Here are just some photos of the grey panelization process. Found out that I liked it better 82

(from my YF-21 & starship Enterprise) that if it was a fairly straightforward scheme like an all white or all blue scheme that it adds interest to vary the panel shadings a bit - so I wanted to get some off-white/grayish tints in there, the overall end result will still be a white plane close to the canon scheme, but I thought that it adds interest.

My first attempt was just to tint the white with Tamiya Sky Grey (its warm) - it looked fine in the airbrush cup, but by the time it was evenly applied, it appeared way too dark against the white parts. So I mixed up a batch of thin white again, and airbrushed over it to lighten the grey panels so there was more subtlety in the shading. It’s still a bit on the strong side, but I will "postshade" the panel lines (which will further blur the edge distinctions between the white and light grey) weather on top and the relatively high contrast decals will all fight with the grey panels in the end. I still want to see the effect. My past experience with the VF-0 showed me that by the time all those other layers were on top, the panel difference was so subtle that it hardly showed through, so this time I was going a bit heavier. If it’s still too heavy in the end, I can still spray a light coat of white over the decals to tone them down a bit and tie everything together a bit more as well as lighten any overtly strong paneling. Well... at least that’s the plan. 83

Now the next step is to completely finish the wings so I can glue the wing gloves together and fill and sand that seam. I think I will paint the grey stripes on the wings, as well as any of the grey decaled areas such as the back of the leg stripe and the knee patch. Firstly, I hate seeing screened areas on the decals - and unfortunately, the Bandai grey on their decals is a screened element, plus the knee and wing glove will be a "high-traffic" area (lots of movement - so the decal will be more prone to scratching and chipping) - so the hope is that the painted grey will stand up better than the decals.

84

OK, got to sneak in a few hours over the weekend to work on this bird, its finally starting to come together - but boy, Bandai certainly doesn't make it easy for you if you want to paint this model!

85

I first concentrated on masking the areas that the grey stripe decals would be, since they were relatively simple, the knee part would see a lot of rubbing, binding or chipping and the fact that I hate seeing screened decals on any model, it made sense to me to paint these details. I mixed up a bit of White with Neutral Grey (I was going to use Tamiya Sky Grey, but it had too much of a warm tint that it looked a bit brown next to the white of the plane). Unfortunately only after I removed the masking did it appear too dark compared to the decals supplied, however between the various animation cel references, they sometimes appeared quite dark too, so I decided to leave it alone for now instead of repainting it.

86

I then hand painted the small details in the cockpit and pilot area. I actually airbrushed the pilot and the area immediately behind him (the two cylinder details) flat white to get a good white coverage first, then hand painted the greys and purple stripes. Then I brushed a bit of gloss clear coat (to prevent the next step of the oil wash from staining the flat white). The oil wash really picked out the details. I then brushed some gloss clear coat over the helmet and white shoulder pads and flat clear coat over the grey/purple body suite which really played the contrast well. You'll probably not see any of this well after the purple tint is applied to the canopy in the end, but you never know, I'll know how much I should detail after this one for the Ozma bird. I wished there were decals for the chest SMS logo, I ended up have to approximate something with a yellow marker and a red sharpie marker - it's okay to the naked eye, but by no means great. Maybe it would be a good thing to do a custom decal for as well as the shoulder patches (again they were just drawn on with a sharpie marker).

87

Lastly I did a thick black oil wash over all the metallic parts to pick out all the nicely engraved techno gak! I love this part... and Bandai doesn't disappoint here!

88

89

90

91

Next is masking mayhem! There are a lot of little details I wanted the Alclad metalizer on. I find the occasional glints of metal really go a long way to make a model feel like a piece of machinery that's been clad in a shell to hide complex internal mechanisms. Of course, Murphy's Law means that this is an extremely tedious step!

92

I masked areas that will be hit with Aclad's Steel and Dark Aluminum. Whenever possible I try to place these two metals next to each other to give a contrasting yet subtle sheen difference as though the mechanisms are made up of multiple alloys

93

Unfortunately, the arm pieces weren't glued as well as I thought (they're quite thin) and that when I was pushing the forward arm collars in place, the pressure of my fingers gripping the part caused a slight crack to form where the parts were glued together - ARGH! - After I filled and sanded this seam! At this point, I think the repairs would be more obtrusive than just leaving the hairline cracks - fortunately the off-white tint panel details I invented on the upper elbow arm part kind of hides this breakage (which was what I wanted the off-white panels to do was delineate any flaws or imperfections in surface sanding). And I'm lazy (ok, that’s the real answer! ;-) and I just want to get this done!!

94

Did I mention I love Tamiya masking tape!! I should have bought stock in this miracle stuff. Yeah, the nose cone is a bit much eh? But the little tiny diamond shapes turned out great!

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

One of my favourite steps... is removing the masking! Right up there with decaling and oil washes.

106

The nose cone turned out pretty well - for me, the most important part of any plane is the nose cone and I will go to any lengths to get it absolutely flawless. To me it’s the first part I look at on any plane model and it’s usually jutting out in front, so any flaws will be magnified!

107

I then got to do another favourite step, the oil wash! I usually do a black oil wash first to pick out the moveable surfaces (such as flaps, slats, airbrakes and such) and any grillage or vents. Then I follow up with a light grey oil wash to pick out the finer panel line details so there's a variation to the panel detailing.

108

109

110

Next I thought I try my hand at some wing swept marks I first tried with the VF-0 that I ended up liking the results quite a bit. I wasn't sure at first since I wasn't going to weather this bird anywhere as much as the VF-0, but I thought it would add a bit of aircraft character and realism to a otherwise very "robotic" kit.

111

First I included some real-world F-14 references...

112

113

I first loosely assemble the wing-glove pieces to get a profile line to where the sweep marks should end. Here I took artistic license since the wings sweep back really far in Battroid mode, so much of the wing would be dirtied by the sweep, I picked an arbitrary point to stop it so that it only exposes some sweep marks without over-powering the entire wing surface. I then just used post-it notes (nice low tack) to "trace" the wing-glove edge and removed the wing from the wing-glove pieces to work on it. I then used some graphite (mechanical pencil) shavings I collected from a mechanical pencil sharpener and an artist smudge stick (it’s basically a pencil like stick made up of tightly wound paper that you can shave down with a knife to sharpen they're really cheap at a local arts and crafts store) to "draw" the sweep arcs. They initially lay on a bit too dark, but I then just use a Kleenex to rub the excess out and keep rubbing until I get a level of lightness that I wanted. I repeated the procedure for the underside of the wing sweep area, except much lighter since not as much dirt gets trapped underneath as on top.

114

115

Of course once you're satisfied with it, you have to seal it in with a clear coat, its only pencil smudges, so it will rub off if you're not careful.

116

(Hmm, for some reason... it doesn't display the images in the order in which I uploaded them well you guys can make out the steps of the smudging right?)

117

118

119

120

121

Lastly I started to re-assemble some of the leg pieces back together again to gauge the overall effect. The metallic steel on the leg split doesn't appear so dark in person, I think it’s the camera trying to adjust for the stark white panels so I took two exposures, one for the metal insert details, but the white details got blown out and another shot for the white panel details with all the subtle white panelization, but the darker metal insert details went too dark to see anything. There might be a bit too much contrast between the two, as the anime has it as just a medium grey (although anime has never really been able to portray a good metallic sheen yet) so I don't know if I'll do anything about it yet. I just enjoy seeing the pieces together for now; I like how the arm is coming together. And I thought the wing swept areas were a bit dark, but I was counting on the stark high-contrast black decal stripes to offset the dirtied sweep areas. I think with the heavy bold black stripes next to the weathered sweep areas are just about right in terms of intensity. So I sealed it all in within a rather heavy clear coat again (to help protect the weather and the paint beneath from chipping - I think I've lost count of how many clear coats I sprayed on this plane, I'm obsessed with not wanting this model to chip! but I think it will be a lost cause!!). 122

123

That's it for now... next steps are to mask the black areas and spray those as well as tint the canopy and sensors purple so I can start to assemble the fuselage together. And of course finally assemble the two wing glove areas to glue them in place and fill and sand the seam there so I can paint those as well. It’s so awkward to assemble it this way, but it’s the only way Bandai has forced us to completely paint the wing and stripes and decals before the inner wings gets hidden away inside the wing glove slot.

124

125

126

So many pieces all with so much masking! Firstly I masked the black or dark grey strips on the chin piece (I don't get why Bandai chose to decal some stripes and not others - sloppy if you asked me!). I also masked the nosecone, it’s really a horrible process of assembly whereby if you intend to glue the nose together to get rid of that nasty seam line, Bandai forces you assemble all the parts for the nosecone to be glued in first, and then you have to jump through hoops to mask the interior detail. I masked for the metalized interior with Alclad first, then the black nose piece. (do you get the impression I'm not so happy with Bandai right about now?) don't get me started on having to paint and decal the wings first, then glue together the wing root and masking the entire wing to paint the back/chest plate piece.

127

I also hand painted some details of the head, the chin grey stripes and cheek intakes and the "mouth". My hand painting skills are somewhat lacking, that's why I mask and spray everything (I honestly don't know what I'd do with an airbrush!)

128

Hearing that the Bandai decals are too small or don't cover the black fins well, I decided to also mask them and paint the edges white (especially where there are odd antenna bumps and stuff, nothing adheres to weird shapes as paint!). Plus I wanted a white background to paint the red stripes onto - it would take too many coats of red to get a true red on a black background, so I painted the areas underneath the red white first.

129

I masked the wing roots / back plate area in a lighter off-white to vary up the white a bit so I get some shades of grey happening to add interest to an otherwise white plane. It stands a bit strong now, but when I add the very high contrast black decal markings and do a bit of weathering over top of it and some light post shading, it should all tie itself together a little more naturally.

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

Now here's another little annoying detail that is the fault of Bandai's dumb assembly process. The black stripes on either side of the forward fuselage do not go all the way back to the break point. Instead, they end at angles just behind the cockpit. But since I had to disassemble the forward fuselage I could glue the these black pieces in either side to putty and fill that seam, so I decided to just paint that part white and allow the seam to run though as a panel line.

137

138

Yay! I finally get to install the hinged back/wing roots - this is the first time I see what the result of all those varying shades of grey... neat... a little strong for now, but as I mentioned I can tone it down later once I get the decals on and do a little weathering. I was much more subtle when I did my VF-0 and after the weathering, I lost all the panel variations, so I'm more obvious this time around.

139

Masking... masking and more masking... some progress shots of the red markings on the black fins. Now if they just left the part white and provided decals it would have been so much easier (ala Hasegawa!) I also decided to mask the fin intakes to spray them Alclad dark aluminum. I also clear-coated the Alclad steel feet thrusters with Tamiya clear yellow (mixed with some clear red and smoke to get a brown) and I dusted the tips with Alclad exhaust to give it a burnt edge look.

140

Finally I took off all the various bits of mask and assembled the legs together!

141

142

143

144

I finally get to put this bird together, all those many pieces lying around for so long - it was just begging for something to happen ;-(

145

I also took this opportunity to apply an oil wash to pick out all the low lying areas and recessed panel lines and details. Similar to all my other models, I use a light grey for most of the panels, and going darker grey to a black for the moveable surfaces and vents. I used a light grey for the black parts. It’s important to use varying shades of grey oil washes to give the model some depth.

146

I hand brushed some extra Model Master Semi-gloss clear coat at all the areas where there are corners that come into contact with other pieces during movement and transformation - in vain hopes that this will delay any chipping that will eventually occur. I plan on doing this on top of the decals as well as spraying the entire model in several layers of clear-coat. The loaded brush lays on so much more/thicker clear coat than the airbrush. (at least that’s my hopes).

147

I hope to get a few more hours this weekend - my favourite part! DECALING!!

148

Oh, count me in as one of the many that is having one heck of a time trying to tint the canopy! Argh, I must of spent a mint trying different things out... here's a list of things that DON'T work;

149

1/ Humbro Purple Polycarbonate clear - remember that picture I posted at the beginning of the thread of that spray bottle ($12 worth!) - well it doesn't work, luckily I tried it on the clear sprue first, the lacquer is too "hot" and actually etched into the styrene causing it to create a fine pebbly surface which would have ruined any clear un-distorted translucency.

150

2/ Food colouring dyes - remember that picture I posted at the beginning of the thread of that box ($5 worth!) - well it to doesn't work, I can't make a strong enough purple out of it, any tries at making the purple stronger resulted in a brown/black mixture - argh!

151

3/ Citadel purple wash - they no longer make the purple ink that HWR MKII used, it’s been replaced by the "Purple Wash" ($5 again!) and it’s not the same thing, it’s got a flattening matte agent in it now - although it worked better than the previous tries (I tried 3 times) it still wasn't satisfactory in my books - it kept leaving streaks as it dried and a matte frosted finish that ruined the translucency of the canopy.

152

4/ Yep, Tamiya red and blue do not combine to make a purple - it makes a muddy brown/black again... confirmed...

153

5/ I checked at 3 local hobby shops, there is no clear purple made for styrene plastics available! About $30 on various purple solutions and still none have worked yet...

154

6/ Lastly I went out to buy purple ink ($7 acrylic for airbrush) which I will try to dilute and use in a Future dunk - wish me luck this weekend when I try!

155

Hey, I just noticed the decidedly negative tone of this update... (I apologize, it’s just frustrating sometimes) I must say I'm not enjoying this build up as much as I have others in the past. Maybe, it’s because I have absolutely no time now with a toddler in tow and I am constantly exhausted. Or it could be that this Bandai kit is not orientated to the serious modeler - don't get me wrong, I applaud them for such ingenious engineering and the ability to get so many nonmodelers building (which is always a good thing) - it’s just that I keep getting "boned" by Bandai everywhere I turn! I love this design! I just loathed thinking I have to go through these hoops again three more times to get the full squadron (maybe by the next decade at my pace!). I may just bite the bullet and glue all others in a permanent mode!

156

Keep your fingers crossed that I can sneak away some decaling time this weekend! ;-)

157

Yes, I'm not looking forward to transforming it, but I'm trying to take every precaution such as applying more layers of clear-coat to the areas that rub (which I will do the same after the decals are on it too). I don't intend to transform it often (after all it IS a model) I might just do it a few times in total (for the photo shoot of course) and will probably leave it in the plane mode afterwards. With all this work on the off-white paneling (which will be hidden by fast packs) and the fact that I glued and filled some seams that were required for disassembly for the fast packs (again... Bandai bones me! - seriously dumb design for the fast-packs attachment) I may just leave this one naked. Unless I can figure out a way of attaching those fast packs without taking apart the whole model again. The vertical seam around the nose cone still bugs me, the gap is so big, I don't know what to do about it (If I glue it, then I can't transform it). Unfortunately it’s not the magnets holding the shoulder parts together, it’s just a little massaging and tweaking to get all the little shoulder plates and pieces to properly align 158

however it is possible to do so, it’s just playing with the angles of the shoulder hinges and arms to lock underneath that will affect how they should plates lock on top of the plane. The magnets merely help tuck the leg pieces up to they sit higher (so the back of the chin tucks itself higher on the back of the plane) and brings/pulls down the dihedral of the wings so they are more horizontal with the ground (I think it looks weird to have the wings tilt up front head view). Although I suspect I wouldn't need these magnets for the fast-pack version since the wing packs will probably droop the wings down a bit and I would guess the legs will have a different attachment point with the leg packs on. Right now its factory clean (and hopefully with the decals this weekend too!). With the exception of the wing swing sweep weathering (which I didn't think I could do after the back/wing roots are glued together). I will weather it slightly after all the decals are on to tie them in to the paint. Thanks for tuning in! Keep your fingers crossed for me this weekend...

Well I got a full day 2 weeks ago and a few hours this last Victoria Day weekend to finish (don't 159

get your hopes up) the Bandai supplied decals on this bird. Keep in mind that this is the first stage of decals, there are other warning data stenciling (like "no step") that I want to add, some more oil wash over the decals to allow the panel lines to run through them, some post shading weathering to lighten them and tie them in (look a little bleached and faded into the white to look painted in) and some oil staining and streaking over them on the moveable surfaces (I will keep the weathering light on these since they don't seem to be as used as the VF-0). Of course to protect all this delicate weathering with many, many, many protective coats of sealant (semigloss clear coats).

Ok, first off, my thoughts on the Bandai decals... they aren't the greatest unfortunately. They are better than the Revell or AMT stuff of the 80s, but they are definitely not state of the art or even what I'd expect from a tier A Japanese Company. I'm quite disappointed. My issues;

160

1. They achieve their colours by screening. WTF?! It’s the newsprint pattern of dots that I'm talking about, good quality decals are "spot colours" which means every colour on the decals is achieved by the actual ink in that colour - not mixed together through some pattern of dots very amateurish, and gives the finished model a toy-like appearance - definite giveaway that decals were used for the markings (the whole goal of good decaling is to make it look like its painted on - no one paints a pattern of dots?!). It’s most apparent on the lighter colours such as the orange in the SMS symbol or purple areas, but even in extreme close up you can make out some patterning even in the blacks! Very disappointing.

161

2. The do not react at all to MicroSET and hardly react at all to MicroSOL (decal setting solvent). I don't know what they are made of, but you can dump a bottle of MicroSOL on this stuff and it won't melt the decal. Good if you don't want to damage them, bad if you want them to conform to unusual contours. The decals themselves are quite thick, and do not conform to a lot of the unusual contours well anyways. #17 on the rear ankle didn't conform well (it didn't help that it wasn't printed in the correct curve to start with) and #2 red/black borders on the shoulders didn't conform well to the 3D shape. I wonder if I used some other type of decal setting solution such as Mr. Mark or Mr. Setter would work better.

162

3. Not only are the decals thick with a lot of excess carrier film that needs to be trimmed off around each image, they are brittle. The decals from a Korean manufacturer Academy (my recent F-16CJ in 1/72 scale) were amazing!! The carrier film hardly needed to be trimmed and they were so thin that they appeared painted on even without MicroSOL. I was expecting more of the same, if the Korean manufacturer could do it, then of course Bandai could, but I was sadly mistaken. It’s so weird that they are thick decals (don't like to telegraph much detail through them) but they are also brittle and tended to flake apart as I was moving them around. There are several where I had to piece some broken pieces together. It may be a bad reaction to my MicroSET/MicroSOL combination, but I consider myself pretty good at decaling and yet it still flaked off at least 3 spots. I actually accidentally flaked a piece after it had dried on the model just through handling - that has never happened to me before; I thought once it has set, it's pretty permanent. Funny though, once it has dried, I cannot re-soak it or apply liberal MicroSOL to lift it back up to move it - it’s really weird stuff; I've never come across this type of decal before. Needless to say, I didn't like it. ;-(

163

4. They're not cut to the right size or the right pattern! Come on Bandai!! This is modeling making 101, yes there are some contours, but the least you could do is work out the proper 2D patterns and create the artwork to the right size or curvature. Luckily thanks to David, I was made aware that the red rudder and ventral fin edges don't fit so I painted those. And luckily the head decal #15 with the two thin white stripes actually fit, I was lead to believe that they didn't work out and the white fell in between the cracks, but it did work out. The curvature of the two top ankle bits #17 were the worst, they had to bunch up to maintain the curvature of the part and no amount of MicroSOL (since it had little if no effect) would cure this - funny since the lower ankle ring (decal #5 are properly curved to fit the part). Additionally #2 took a few tries to lay it properly and then still a lot of finagling to get it lay down correctly, I'd suggest cutting a slice at the 4 corners so they can fold and lay flat. Remarkably decal #16 fit perfectly?! And it’s one of the most complicated contours I couldn't believe it was a single decal - but it worked out. #52 is undersized and don't follow the panel lines and of course the black stripes # 54 the thruster doesn't line up with the molded detail on the plastic. I think I will add some plant-on detail to cover this up.

164

Anyways, my suggestion is to assemble the aircraft in the plane mode - get all the pieces of the back plate aligned as best you can and decal the red stripes #24,25,26,27 all together - that way you can move them about, tweak here and there so the red and black parts line up and create a continuous pattern. Since they are not too accurately created, it will create some slight white cracks on the edges in order to line up the pattern. I had to fiddle for hours to get both sides looking good and leave the edges for a later step. Once it’s in position, I left it alone to dry and set. Then my plan was to fill in the white slivers at the edges with a black Gundam Marker and red sharpie marker. In fact I tried to extend the decals to wrap around and down each of the edges slightly - since this is what you'd see if some of the back panel pieces are improperly aligned - it will minimize the effect of seeing the cracks which accentuates the misalignment. I just wished they oversized the decals to allow some wrap-around - but they didn't. Hey, I'd just be happy if they were the correct shapes - they couldn't even get that right?! This edge condition will get sealed in and protected by clear coat.

165

Now I leave to dry and disassemble the model again to get to parts that are only revealed in Battroid mode. Also this allows me to get at all the edges of this complicated back red/black stripe pattern - I use the black marker and red sharpie to edges around all the pieces and fill in the white slivers left by the decal movement. Once I apply a clear-coat to protect it, the black marker and red sharpie are a pretty good match on the white paint to blend in the areas left behind by the decals.

166

Now I took those little shoulder shield pieces out to apply the #2 black/red border surround, after a lot of tweaking I finally got it where I wanted them and got them to lay down flat against the plastic. I then painted the white areas around the outside black up to the decal so it looked more like the anime marking. Why Bandai didn't include blacker border to allow this to happen without painting I'd never know.

167

I also dabbed a little silver in the end of the head sensor piece, then some Tamiya clear green and used my black gundam marker to edge around it (I had considered hollowing it out, but it was so small and I already had to do so much to get to this stage that I feel like just taking the short-cut way out of this one. (Sorry for the blurry photo, it's so small that I had to hand-hold both the piece and camera).

168

These photos show the model in partial transformation to get at all the edges of the back piece to allow me to clear coat them to protect the edges from chipping. I hand brushed Model Master Acryl semi-gloss clear coat on them. I hand brushed because I wanted several thick coats - it would take dozens of airbrush coats to come up to the thickness of a few hand brushed coats. The problem is the edge, the clear coat doesn't like to stick to any edge conditions, so you have to build it up in layers, the problem is that when you build it up, it makes the parts bigger and the transformation may not be as tight due to the slight over sizing of the parts due to the multiple clear coats. Oh, well, it’s a lose-lose situation if you want to use this model as a transformable toy. I'd be happy if it stands up to a few transformations, enough for a photo-shoot without damage.

169

Lastly another shot of the decal #52 and that it’s undersized, but not evenly so, it’s actually not the correct shape, not just uniformly too small. You can see the horrible dot screening in the purple area. I may paint it next time (omg, I have 3 more of these too build... argh!)

170

Lastly it will sit in this disassembled state for the next few days as I add a few more clear coat layers - then I will transform it back into the plane mode to add the additional warning data stencils.

171

The remaining forward LERX nav lights and wingtip lights I was planning to not use the decals and paint some silver with clear red at the end with a coat of future, it looks better than the decals.

172

Oh! p.s. I finally got the purple tint on the canopy to work! Woohoo, I can't believe what an ordeal that was. What finally did it was purple acrylic ink from an art supply store mixed into future (maybe 1:10 ratio) and then I dunked just the outside surface (so it didn't get caught in all the pegs on the inside) and used a paper towel to wick the excess mixture and allowed it to dry under a cup (to keep dust out). I'm pretty happy with it, will take pictures of it the next round. The real challenge lately has been trying to find time to get back into modeling. So a lot of my decisions are governed by a lack of time and the desire to finish this model - maybe not the wisest but I like to get things done. I will paint more of the decals next time (I knew the grey stripes were screened/dots so I painted those, I had no idea that they were such ill fitting decals before I started - no one else who has built these models had bothered to mention that the actual shapes were incorrect, I just assumed Bandai knew what they were doing). Now I know and this will serve as a reference for my other Vf-25s and what I choose to decal - however I read somewhere that the decals for Alto were the worst fitting ones, and that Bandai had corrected their mistakes with the other release - is this true? can anyone confirm this? I'm so happy to hear that I actually got someone back into modeling!! It’s such a dying art, that 173

it really makes all this posting up worthwhile if it got one more modeler into the world. I always try to get my friends into it, but sadly, they're not interested with all the electronic games around, parenthood or work. This is the site that got me back into modeling too! I built in high school, but dropped it for University and work afterwards; it was when I discovered this site and got back into Macross that I decided to get back into modeling. Got to thank Shawn & Graham for that! Yeah, the dot printing really irks me, but I can't imagine masking and painting all the SMS symbols - that's insane! More power to you if you try. Maybe someday Wave Option parts might put out a option decals set like they did for Macross a while back. Oh well. Not much on the model front in the next few days, I will just let it dry thoroughly (hand brushed clear coats are much thicker) and should be allowed to cure several days before "mashing" it back together in the aircraft mode. I worried that if it doesn't cure properly that it might weld the parts together and crack on first transformation again. The plan is to transform it back into the aircraft mode before I airbrush a clear coat over the entire plane and continue to decal the warning data stencils from my spares box (not included by Bandai) whenever I get some time again. I actually don't use Tamiya smoke, I use a very thinned down flat black only, however I might try smoke since everyone else uses it and it might be more durable (more scratch resistant) - I'd usually mix 9:1 thinner to paint ratio for the black paint, maybe I'd alter it a bit for the smoke since its already a transparent clear colour to 6:1 I use a Iwata double action airbrush (I used to use a badger single action - which is just fine) now so there are no nozzles per se, it’s just the finest setting you can get. Just remember less is more, you can always build up, but it’s a lot more effort to remove if you go too heavy. Look up one of my older threads, I'm sure I've outlined my panel post shading process. Remember... SUBTLE! Goes a long way. Post pics when you get the chance. OK, here's my first successful attempt at tinting the canopy purple... I just used the ink mixed with future 2-3 drops in - straight colour. After a few days, I wasn't happy with the purple, it’s too reddish and too strong - the anime had a more bluish cast and I thought that a lighter bluer tint might look a bit more realistic with the model - the strong purple looks anime cartoony.

174

175

I tried to add some blue food colouring to the mix. I stripped the old tint by dunking it windex (with ammonia). I tried a lighter 2-coat this time. The first time was only one coat, but I feel that if I did two light coats, it would be more even. I grabbed the canopy with tweezers by the mounting pegs on the underside (very handy - if you don't remove them, I was going to remove them to get a more realistic model effect, but all the other effort I had to do to this Bandai kit compounded with the fact that it still had big ass hinges exposed made me forget that idea - it wasn't offensive enough to me to justify the added effort).

176

I've dunked only the outside surface, careful to not get it into the inside where the pegs are so that there won't be any pooling of colour around the pegs. Its under a cup drying now, after my second coat, I'll post some shots again.

177

I had to transform it back into the plane mode to start with the data/warning stenciling. Wrapping the black and red down around the edge of the panels worked wonders in blending all the decals together and minimizing the gaps left behind due to the complicated shoulder/back transformation pieces. I could probably massage the pieces in a little better to tighten up the gaps, but it is good enough now for me to decal (hopefully I might sneak a few hours this weekend).

178

179

180

To dunk only the outside, I held onto the inside pegs with a set of tweezers and put the ink/future solution in a small mixing cup, I tilted the cup and dunked only the outside of the canopy, just allowing the plastic surface to touch the ink/future mixture, but don't immerse the entire canopy in. Then took it out and kind of swirled it a bit allowing the excess to run all over the top surface to get an even coating. Once it’s even I set it down proper and took a paper tower to wick a the excess pooling around the canopy frame - even with this wicking, it’s still thicker/more purple around the frame (opposite from what you showed in your photo - don't know why). But this extra thickening isn't too bad, since I'll be painting a black canopy frame right there the contrast of the black will lessen the purple tint. It appears purpler now than when I get the black frame painted.

181

I'm pretty happy with this second round of tinting with the shade and density. I found that dipping it and letting dry and repeating the coats gives a more even finish than one heavy dark coat (that's where you see the colour tint running un-evenly.

182

So I got almost 5hrs today to finish up the data/warning stenciling. I got out my older VF-0 and VF-1 as guides to where would be appropriate places to add these extra decals. I feel they make a world of difference. They are mostly made up of extra bits from other models, I scanned the Hasegawa sheets and printed them from a colour laser onto decal paper and coated them with a decal spray so I got my own sheet of extras that I can draw from (hopefully enough to do the entire squadron). The great thing about a mostly white model is that these laser printed decals will work, however on the darker Luca blue one; I don't think any of these will show up. I wished we could print white! I've got some old Wave Option decals saved for that one. So everybody, keep all your old unused decals or decals from failed builds, they come in useful eventually. I wished Bandai added some more, but I guess since they weren't in the anime, they didn't improvise. I will let it set and spray a clear-coat Model Master Acryl semi-gloss over them a few times to seal and protect them in before my next stage. Post Shading and weathering. I guess I've got to look at the gun pod sometime too.

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

Before I forgot and closed up the cockpit with the canopy. I decided to do the front instrument panel. Thanks to David who did the screen captures for me, I resized and cropped the front panel image to about 7mm wide which would fit the front console.

194

I have provided the properly resized graphic. I printed it onto photo-quality gloss film (better than paper since it doesn't bleed) but you can print it onto whatever you want. I placed a few in one go so that I'd have enough for the squadron later on without having to print it again. I just used white glue to set it in place, once the canopy is on, it’s pretty well protected. Once the glue dries, I'll take a fine brush and edge the film with flat black to blend it into the front console and prevent the edge from catching the light as its doing so in these photos. I think it adds a nice touch once the canopy is on, it’s something Bandai should have included - oh well.

195

Let’s let this sucker dry before I clear coat it tonight!

196

I'm printing it on a 10yr old Epson Photo Stylus 1200 - on best quality mode 1440dpi onto photo quality gloss film. I think its the film that does the trick, the film is like a thin sheet of plastic mylar, so the ink just sits on top and doesn't soak into the paper and spread. Once its printed, you need to let it dry for at least 15mins before handling it, and be really careful when cutting - I suppose you could spray a light clear coat over it, but I was lazy!

197

I started to weather it, starting with some ground graphite on a smudge stick to get some tight post shading and streaking going on, will post pictures later.

198

199

Well, my canopy is waiting masking and spraying for the frame.

200

I got a few hours in to play with the smudge stick with some graphite to do a preliminary light weathering over the clear-coat protected decals. Ahh, it’s starting to look like a plane! I sealed in this graphite rubbing with another coat of semi-gloss clear-coat to prevent further smudging with my fingers once I had it the way I liked. It’s a bit on the light side, but I build up in layers, this is the first step. I will then take it apart again to get at the legs and arms so that that I don't get this brand new naked Battroid mode. Then I'll re-assemble it back in plane mode and do a light post-shading with a very thinned light grey to tone down some of the white hotspots and bring up some of the black decaled areas to overall blend it all together a bit more (currently the black stands out too much) - then I might do another layer of graphite weathering on top of that to get it to a point that I like. I don't want to overdo this like the VF-0, I think this bird is a bit cleaner since we really didn't see any weathering in the anime. Just enough to tie all the high-viz black and red stripes together and blend the various white/grey panels a bit.

201

(P.S. I should have waited to do the nav lights and hud green lens, all the movement and handling has caused me to chip some of the wingtip nav lights and the subsequent clear-coat semi-gloss has dulled the light finish, I will have to touch them up and brush a bit of future over them in the end to get back the lens effect (I painted Tamiya marker silver underneath and Tamiya clear blue and red over top to get bit more depth an refection to them - next time wait till the very end before doing up the lights!)

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

I still haven't managed to get to the light white filter yet, it should tie the contrasty black and red stripes in a bit more to the white paint finish. I've got to take the who thing apart again! to weather the arms and inside legs so it doesn't look weirdly clean when its in the Battroid mode (maybe a few data/stencil decals too in that mode). We'll see how long this "flawless" paint finish holds up after a few transformations ;-) ...the great

thing about this kit is that there are so few seams. Its only really the nosecone (but that was my personal preference as the anime art does show a panel line running down where the parts separate, its the crack that separates that bugs me, plus usually real aircraft nosecones are seamless) and a knee internals that need the joint filling everything else is just "snapped" together, no real gluing. Oh I forgot the forearms are glued and puttied and sanded to remove the seam - but its pretty minimal.

...I find

the decals really poor quality. They just flake off or is really brittle, even after application and it had the chance to dry. You really need the clear-coats to protect the decals just from handling, let along the scraping due to transformations. 211

Ok, another few hours and several clear coats later... I've lost count of the number of coats now. My first time to transform this puppy, I need to get it into the Battroid mode to see if there are any unpainted or un-clear coated gaps and weather all the bits that I couldn't access while in fighter mode. Believe me, I don't want to do it more often than I need too! The initial transformation seemed to have gone well. I love seeing the metal bits poke out through the skin like a motorcycle.

212

213

214

So far so good... I can see areas that were in pressure while in the aircraft mode now. Mostly the top of the shoulders, inside of the arms (forearms) as slight rubbing on the clear coat. There's nothing that can be done, I just hand-brushed another coat (much thicker than airbrush) over these problematic areas. That too will eventually damage, but the idea is to not transform it that often. Now I'll selectively add a few more data/stencil decals that are exposed while in the Battroid mode so that it doesn't look too bare. The main purpose is to weather it to look in place with the top of the aircraft weathering job done previously.

215

216

217

218

219

I've lost count (of the number of applied clear coats)! AND it still scratches too, I guess the airbrush coats are too thin, but nothing can really withstand the scraping abuse. I've hand-brushed the clear coat (much thicker application) where I think are the most problematic areas. I've learnt a lot from this build though and I would try to streamline my other builds (for one thing, I'd paint more parts before assembly and I would only do a final assembly instead of constantly assembling and disassembling all the time to see where the parts go and where they rub!). Finally finished the light weathering, I weathered it very lightly since it mostly looks new 220

in the anime. I mostly did the weathering on the legs and forearms (to cover up parts where there was tiny damage from the rubbing of the arms folded together, but after the weathering, it just kind of blends in together. I think I'll leave this in the aircraft mode for the majority of the time, it looks too skinny without the fast packs. Hand painted the white covers to the fingers in the hands - I think it makes a huge difference to the hands. I wished continued the black stripe on the underside of the lerx (?) forward wing roots. I missed it before and now its too much disassembling and masking to do it. Unfortunately the forearm pieces started to crack along the seam after all this handling. The parts were too thin and didn't have enough surface area for the glue to hold, plus the parts flex a lot during tweaking to get the aircraft mode all fitted together properly. I'm not sure what to do differently next time, but I am not going to repair it now since it would mean completely stripping the arm down and re-gluing, puttying and re-sanding and then all the subsequent coats of paint and weathering. Yes, I'd love to do the Ozma Armoured one next! that deserves to be in the Battroid mode most of the time. I'm thinking it shoud be easier without all the subtle panel shading since its almost all hidden under the armour! I love the designs and the look of the finished models, but building is pretty laborious. I can't say that I "enjoy" these Bandai kits. The plan is to have the Michael's with the super pack in Battroid, Ozma with the Armour in Battroid, Luca naked in aircraft mode and Alto naked in aircraft mode. I still have the shoulder lights (which I save till the end, a dab of Tamiya silver marker, then Tamiya clear red over top, it gives more depth and reflection than the decals). I have the gunpod, which I will spray with Alclad metalizers first, then clear-coat with purple future to get the outer casing a metallic purple sheen. I am not even going to attempt the landing gears (this is what happens when a fantasy robot company tries to interpret wheels! ) - they are a lost cause! If I was going to do one of these VFs with the landing gears down, I'd have to deepen all the gear wells (they are a shallow joke at the moment) and completely scratch build the gears probably from the Hasegawa VF-0s as a base, but they would not be removeable and it would be a huge undertaking in itself. I still need to mask and spray those yellow/orangy thingys on the side of the wingroots - now that really should of been a decal! I don't know if I might try to hand-paint them. Lastly its back in the plane mode again awaiting final light shading/wash spray of thinned white to tone down the panel shadings, off-grey panels and tie in the contrasty black and red markings to generally tone down the markings to look more "painted" on. It survived the transformation rather well with only 2 or 3 chips or scrapes (even with the clear coating). Warning, the black top area to the forward nose cone seemed to be rubbed the most in the Battroid mode - unfortunately its a prominent part when in the aircraft mode I handbrushed more clear coat, but you should all watch out for this area.

221

222

223

224

225

I was just going to call the plane finished when I realized that I forgot those yellow/orange sensor thingys on the wing roots (again!) - oh well, I see if I can try to hand paint those later when I work on the gunpod. Ok, so the canopy is finally on!! YAY! Here's some shots after the white shading and subsequent clear coats. Its 90% there! Argh, this has been a long haul.

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

Ok, a little bit more... the gunpod. Again, Bandai bones us again with a stupid assembly staging that isn't friendly to painting. You have to glue the two rear halves together to fill and sand the separation seam, however you have to insert the gun barrel part, handle and bottom hinge when you glue the two haves together. Argh, they should have allowed the gun barrel portion to slip in afterwards, then you could paint all the purple parts in one shot, and all the metallic parts like the barrel in another shot without un-necessary masking. But Bandai wasn't thinking of modellers... actually, I find that in general, Bandai doesn't think about the actually process of assembly and finishing. Oh well, I should have gotten used to it by now with this kit! So I wanted to do a metallic purple sheen to the gunpod. I saved the purple ink mixed with future that I used to tint the canopy and used that as a clear-coat over the metallic Alcad paints. I did the base reflective coat in AlcladII Dark Aluminum. Unfortunately, the Bandai plastic isn't that smooth and that there are swirls in the plastic which I thought would dissappear once I painted - I was wrong, the slight swirls telegraph through a bit. With all Alclad metallizers the key is surface prep, it needs to be absolutely smooth, the smoother the more metallic it appears. On hindsight, I will prime these parts next time and go over them with some micromesh cloth for my next few VF-25s. My main reason to paint these models is to get rid of the slight swirls present in just bare plastic, even if you clear-coat the bare plastic you still see the imperfections in the plastic. Anyways, I let the future/clear-coat purple dry for a few days on top of the dark 235

aluminum. To make sure the future is hardened and won't take fingerprints. You can see the high-gloss sheen left behind by the future. I will tone this down with a coat of semigloss clear-coat afterwards, its shouldn't look like a showroom car! Now on to masking the purple for the darker Alclad Steel colour to be applied to the gun barrel. Once sprayed, I let dry and hand painted a dark grey section just to break up the long steel barrel to add a bit of interest to the internal mechanism. I will let it dry and spray a clearcoat of ModelMaster semi-gloss before I do a black oil wash to pick out the dark recesses, details and vents. Then I plan on another clear coat to protect the oil wash and lastly to hand paint some silver to the lights and sight and paint Tamiya clear red and green over the top of the silver. Such a lengthy process for just the gunpod, I wished there were clear parts supplied for those. Then I might be able to finally finish! My only complaint is that the purple is just too "purply" to strong... I would have preferred a little more blue and maybe a lighter coat so that it wasn't as strong, it looks a little too "candy" and anime like, I'd like it more realistic with just a hint of purple. Oh well, learn with this one, I'll try to do better on the next one.

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

I did a oil wash on the hands too, to separate the fingers and details more from the white fingertip caps. I think painting the hands was a really important part that makes the overall Battroid mode much better, its one of those small effort things that make a big contribution in the end (I love those items, little work... big bang! - lazy me coming out ) The metallic Alclad gives a nice glint in between the joints (more robot/machine like) and the dark/black oil wash defines the features and gives definition to the joints. Luckily the semi-gloss clear-coat did wonders to tone down the "toyish" quality of the purple gunpod - it lightened the overall tone and soften the sheen. Its still a little too purple, a little more blue and grey will be in the books for the others (but I like it enough to not fiddle with it further - that's the hardest call that comes from experience I find in model making, knowing when to make the call to STOP fiddling... at some point it just makes it worst, without having to totally re-strip and re-paint - since there are flaws in everything I do, if I didn't know when to quit, I'd never finish any models!!) Anyways, I'm pretty happy with it, its just got the silver basecoat under the red & green lenses left and it's done! I do love the sheen and depth I get from doing the metallic undercoat, its got an almost iridescent quality that's hard to capture on film (I wish my car had that!). Woohoo. It almost wants me to do Luca's blue like this (but I'm not that crazy, if it wasn't transformable I might consider it, but the rubbing and scraping would be prohibitive). I hope I get the Ozma Armoured soon - I'm iching to get started on that as my next build 247

(mostly left in Battroid mode, but I will still build it transformable, maybe without the magnet modifications to speed things up). Those new HJ scans are inspirational! I just wished they weathered it a bit. It doesn't seem that the Japanese like the metallic joints, they grey all those parts out - I personally feel that you can't really do a real metallic or chrome in anime, so they chose grey, but the metallic parts really add that glint I love from machinery (I guess its just me). Hey how about a joint/group build on MacrossWorld, we can all post our progress together?

248

249

250

251

252

I actually didn't apply it over any base coat (although they recommend it). The undersurface needs to be smooth, the more glass-like, the better the metal effect in the end. I often take shortcuts like not doing any basecoat if the plastic is smooth and I hadn't sanded the part - but unfortunately the plastic swirl did telegraph though, so I will undercoat it next time. The gloss black is only really needed with the bright polished aluminum or chrome - the other darker colours you can get away with just a good smooth undercoat, but never on a flat/matte surface since flat/matte is actually microscopically bumpy. Nope I don't know of a way to paint all the missile tips red easily, I was hoping someone would come up with a better way than painting each one. Maybe dipping? I don't know, any tips would be appreciated! I think the automotive gloss coat was too "hot" and may have ate your dullcote a bit. You have to be very careful when mixing paint types. Acrylics are usually water based paints and are the most gentle to the plastic, as such, it merely sits on top and is the most fragile and can be easily scraped off. Isopropo (sp.) alchohol is usually a good thinner/solvent for acrylics. Then comes enamels, these are solvent based and you use emamel solvents to thin or clean them. Lastly are lacquers, these are the most "hot" (meaning they are the most reactive and have a tendency to eat away or slightly melt the surface that they are sprayed on - because they "etch" into the underlying surface, they are the most durable impossible to get off without sanding, but thats whats great about them, they can be 253

sanded down to feather an edge for seam removal, thats why primers are usually lacquers). There are lacquer thinners/solvents out there, but most will probably eat away at the plastic styrene as well. Automotive lacquers are by far the worst of the bunch by several magnitudes since they have to endure the harsh environment and resist fading in the sun and cracking in the cold - they are made to not be removeable. You have to be very careful when mixing paint types. I never use automotive paints on models - just too harsh. Just try to stick to hobby paints, there are so many different types, there really is no need to go outside for any colour unless its some special effect you're trying to achieve. Once you have an understanding of the reactive qualities of the paint types you can purposely mix them to achieve layers that "seal" each other in and protect each other. I usually use Tamiya Acrylics, they are the most mild and are completely inert, they do not react to the plastic at all. I like them because they don't smell and are easy to clean up - but they are fragile and scrapes off easily. I then usually seal them in with the Model Master Acryl clear-coats. Again, they are acrylics (hence "Acryl") not the lacquer line, but these arcylics are just different enough that the Tamiya solvent or Windex (which I use as a cheap solvent due to the ammonia content) doesn't seem to affect the MM Acryl clear-coats. So I use it as a stop-barrier to seal in steps of painting that I like - so I can experiment with other layers on top and if I don't like it or it doesn't turn out as expected, I just strip it down using the solvent/windex to the last layer of clear-coat with all the previous layers of paint beneath the clear coat intact. The artist oil wash uses again a different solvent (low-odour varsol) so it wipes away easily without affecting the underlying clear-coat. I only use lacquers for priming so I can sand it or Aclad metalizers since there is nothing else like it. So what to do now. See if you can find a solvent for that automotive paint you used, then try it out on a piece of sprue to make sure it won't eat the plastic. If a solvent exists that will remove the automotive paint you used BUT not eat the plastic then you're laughing chalk it up to a learning experience. Believe you me, I've had all sorts of funny paint mixtures effects in my build experience. Definitely do not add more paint! p.s. Generally always leave a flat/matte clear-coat till the very end, flat finishes are microscopically bumpy, when you clear-coat over it will a gloss coat, it needs to be fairly thick to fill in all the bumps to make something glossy (its the smoothness of the coating that reflects the light) - I usually try for a semi-gloss first since it resist fingerprints, then go glossy for the decals, the flat for the final finish if that's the desired sheen. Always try to use the right solvents for the right paints and try to stick to modelling paints. I tried experimenting in the past with alternatives, it just isn't worth it in the end think about how many hours of effort you put into the model, you don't want to ruin it trying to save a few bucks. (some stuff doesn't ruin your work till a few months or years down the road!) I'm a firm believer in the right tool for the right job! Happy Modeling! (And wear a safety mask.)

254