1 72 Hasegawa Macross VF-1A Super Max Final Painting Guide by WM Cheng

Hasegawa 1/72 Macross V1-A Super Max Version Final Painting Guide By W M Cheng (July 2, 2002 - July 25,2003)

Hi all, Just a little update on my latest project, the VF-1A Strike that I decide to do in Max's blue scheme. It's actually pretty far along, and I hope to finish it by this weekend. I last posted a almost complete VF-1A in Hikaru's red scheme with the flaps down, well its finally finished with the canopy up and the air-to-air missles - I just haven't got a chance to photograph it yet. I'll keep ya posted.

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Hey, I don't know if I should start a new thread, but here are some photos of the previous 2

VF-1A I finished (very lightly weathered - I was timid then)

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Well... back to the task at hand, Max's Super VF-1A. Since everyone is asking, here is a little tip on weathering. First off, its post-shading, I airbursh light grey around following the panel lines to get that shading effect. The panel lines themselves are done with a light black/brown/white oil wash thinned down with "odourless" varsol (this stuff is weaker and won't attack my Tamiya undercoats. Then the whole thing is sprayed in a semi-gloss to seal in the weathering and provide a base for the decals. Once the decals go on, I do a dark wash over the light areas to pick out the panel lines again under the decals and a white wash over the dark areas of the decals to pick out the details. This is where I am at now. I still need to spray a thin coat of un-even white over the decals on the main fuselage to blend them into the paint - then seal them in with semi-gloss clear-coat. The fast packs will get a light dusting of grey to blend those decals into the paint finish and will get a flat clear-coat to seal it in - I might do some more white dry-brushing on the packs, as the weathering doesn't show up as well.

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Oh, in response to another thread about the colour of the fast packs, I chose to do the DYRL version, so its bluish/grey. I mixed about 50% XF-18 Medium Blue with 25% XF24 Dark Grey wth 25% XF-53 Neutral Grey (all are Tamiya acrylics) which provides a nice background. Areas would be darker around the nozzles and panels due to the dark oil wash, and the edges will be lighter due to the white dry-brushing.

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Some close ups of the fast packs after I shaded them with the grey over the decals. 7

The flat clear coat has also been applied to them to match the sheen of the decals to the paint. The blue cross bones now match the finish of the packs more - I was always worried that they stood out too much. Only thing left is the exhaust trails left by the forward missle launchers.

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Here are another 3 photos to the stage I am at now. I don't have the cockpit decals on yet (thank God for those, I hate painting the rails!! The thrusters on the fastpacks are not yet on, since I am exploring the Wave/Option nozzles - we see if I can find any that are the right size. Lastly the weapons set, that will take a while...

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Happy Modeling! (And wear a safety mask.)

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