1 72 Macross Launch Arm Step by Step Guide by WM Cheng

1/72 Resin Launch Arm kit w/ Max VF-1A Super, Gundamhead & Jesse's resin kit Step by Step Modeling Guide By W M Cheng October 31, 2005 – May 27, 2006 (Compiled from the www.MacrossWorld.com forum thread)

I'm so psyched! I just received a huge box at my doorstep this morning!! I got Jesse's signal arm bits and pieces last week (all non-first run kits will have all the pieces in one box) but the sheer size of the parcel took me by surprise. I would like to thank them for all their efforts on producing this amazing kit - for those of you who haven't ordered one - GO AND PAYPAL THEM NOW! I've wanted a launch arm for my Hasegawa Super Valkyrie ever since Hasegawa put out the kit - and then I saw this crappy photo on these boards at some Wonderfest a few years back showing a launch arm - boy was I disappointed. Then I found out it was limited run and really expensive - so it was salt on the wound. Anyways needless to say, its one of my most sought after mechs to be produced. And what a job they did! From that very simplistic arm Gundamhead has added so much more details (all of which was really appropriate - and I'm pretty picky when it comes to non-canon improvisation) and they really produced a kit in itself. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=14475 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=16293 I promised them I'd drop whatever I was doing, and start on this immediately. Well, I was thinking, how hard or complicated could a launch arm be? It’s essentially a stick with a base at one end and a claw at the other. Well, now after studying the kit for a bit, it’s quite a deal. With all the extra bits and pieces that GH & Jesse put into it - it really becomes its own entity, and not a mere Hasegawa kit addon! So it may take me more than a few days to power through this - I need to give it the time their

efforts deserve. The first thing you'll notice is the size of the box (did I say it was large?! ). It’s basically big to fit the base (presumably a section of the surface of the ARMD-1 or maybe a section of the SDF-1 itself) and it’s a fair hunk of resin. Also included is a few pages of written instructions (with a cool history pre-amble on the Launch Arm mech) and a colour copy of some photographs of the basic parts lists and a few select assemblies.

Upon ripping open the box - the first thing I did was lay out all the pieces. I used the colour copy of the parts list as a guide. This was a good way to double check you had all the pieces (and get familiar with what they look like - remember unlike a styrene kit with sprues and identification on the sprue of the kit part - you need to recognize its shape). Plus there's lots of great little detail bits to add (and possibly loose ) The following are other close ups of the many pieces that go into this kit - I tried to keep their layout and orientation similar to the instructions in the beginning, this helps me become more familiar with them.

I haven't quite inspected the quality of each component yet. However I do have a bit of pitting on the large base as well, but I don't think it’s a huge deal, and actually, I don't think I intend to correct them with sanding, it’s okay to have pitting on the large ship exterior, it could be battle damage . It's great that the resin arm pieces have brass rods embedded into it for strength, but it must of been a bitch to align in the mold as they poured the resin! The good of it, is that it probably easy to hide by adding some extra pipes or wires on either side of the exposed brass rod to hide where the resin ends and the brass rod becomes exposed - just more pipe “gak”! Yes, I have some seams that run through some nice detail too, I'll just have to sand them and rebuild the detail - there's nothing you can do about resin kits in this regard – it’s not a styrene injection kit where each mold is almost perfect. Well the next step after opening and sorting your pieces is to wash them thoroughly with comet. I scrub them with a toothbrush and comet bleach powder to get rid of the release agents used in the molding process. There were so many tiny detail pieces in the kit that I decided to wash them over a strainer just in case I drop a piece, I don't want it to go down the drain! I spent a few hours scrubbing! I'm a bit paranoid, since I had a few incidents where I was too lazy to do a thorough job and went on to building, then when the time came for painting, I'd get a patch where the paint bubbled up like water on wax paper! It’s much harder to wash at that stage. I've tried a few other solutions such as dish detergent, which is good too, but you have to be careful that it doesn't contain any moisturizers for your hands (that leaves a greasy film behind). I've also tried this Polly-S mold release detergent that you're supposed to let the parts sit in overnight and it dissolves the mold release. Well, it doesn't work at all - in the end only elbow grease and scrubbing works. This step applies to all resin models.

Firstly, let’s look at where the brass rod is exposed. It’s fairly linear and parallel with the lengthways of the signal stand. Additionally, if you look at the signal stand or any of the arm pieces, there are plenty of "tube-like" umbilical details that also run lengthwise. Lastly, there are no "canon" line art that truly describes each and every pipe and umbilical that run along the arms - so we are allowed to interpret (as long as it’s within reason). I would suggest cleaning any remaining resin attached haphazardly onto the exposed brass rod making it exposed properly. Use the brass rod as part of the details running up and down the signal stand. Additionally add a few pipe or wires along side of it - especially where it will connect to the next piece. I guarantee you that by the time it’s painted - you can't tell which one was the brass rod and which ones are the surface detail umbilical that run up and down the arm. Remember there are always alternatives to making any mistakes better it just depends on the time you have and whether it’s worth it to you or not.

OK, I laid everything back out according to assembly and the photo of the list of parts again. This time I took some masking tape and double side taped the parts to the card that came in the box which protected the longer pieces - this way, if I sneezed or something, the little pieces are still arranged roughly according to instructions. I also put away those extra/optional pieces that Gundamhead provided (I recognize some of these Gundam parts

) this can be used to spruce up the large base in the end - but I just didn't want to confuse them with any of the essential parts of the arm itself for now.

Here is a neat, tricky joint. I’m glad that the joint isn't just a straight line, but the angle and the fact that a smaller solid brass rod goes into a hollow brass rod helps so much! However there is a bit of clean-up work here. I'd take a rough file to do this work first, since you don't care so much about the inside finished surface (in fact you'd want to rough it up a bit for the epoxy to bite) additionally, the rough file is to file down the hollow brass rod (I don't want to wreck a nice fine file on the brass). I'd just carefully draw it in one direction (towards you) on the file to work down the hollow tube. Keep test fitting the pieces all the time.

I don't think I got a particularly flaw-free cast kit - I believe it to be typical. So of course there are going to be a few seams here and there (it’s not a toy after all!

) That's what separates us

masochistic modelers from toy owners! Always expect seams that separate halves. Most just take some sanding, however when they run into a depression or recess - it becomes a little harder. In my case, I'll sand off all the raised bits, but when it comes into the recess, I'll fill it with some scrap of plastic as detail.

Just following the instructions given - I'm essentially going to do it in the order that Gundamhead and Jesse laid out in the typed instructions. I was never strong in word problems when I was a kid - I'm a visual learner, so I tend to do a lot of test fit (trial and error) to get the gist of the instructions before I commit too far. The next step is to look at joining the wrist to the upper arm. I've left the upper arm and lower arm still apart for now, since I'm thinking I'd kill two birds with one stone - when I mix up the 5min epoxy, I have 5 minutes to glue both the upper and lower arms as well as the wrist in place with the same batch of glue.

Once it got the orientation of the wrist to the arm, and where the rod goes through. I look at the mating surfaces, and noticed that there are a few little bumps and extra bits of resin here and there to file down to get a nice tight fit.

Now I'm looking at the wrist a little more closely - hmm, the first potential problem surfaces. On my copy, the other side of the wrist is molded very thinly towards the pivot end. This will cause a problem since this is a very visible part of the arm (it will be right above the Valkyrie) and there is the other side to compare too. This must be corrected. First, I dry fit the two halves together, and holding the two halves in my hands, I lightly sand the edges by putting a sanding film on the table and running the part over it - this aligns both edges so that they are parallel with each other. Then I have some extra styrene strips (you can get them at any local hobby/train store) and I'd thought I'd use these strips to create an even visible edge on both sides.

So I laid down a thin film of crazy glue on the edges and ran the pre-cut thin styrene strips along each edge. (You can also just cut thin strips from a sheet of styrene too - I just happened to have some of the right width lying around). Now on the thin side, I used the styrene edge as a fence to fill some Tamiya putty up to. I will put aside and work on something else as the putty dries.

I think it’s pretty essential to get you a set of fine files - it is nice to have a variety of profiles such as a flat, square, round - they are pretty inexpensive. I decided to go around and clean up a few areas around the wrists - mostly to sharpen the details and clean up any circular indentations that did not transfer well from the mold.

I used a 3/32" drill bit to "ream" out the circular indentations - don't attach it to the drill, just hold it in your hands and use the bit like a pin-vise.

I thought I'd look at the wrist joint again. I carefully lined up the hole by pressing the end of the brass rod into the resin to make an indentation - then I used a dremel to drill the hole. Of course I drilled too far and it went out the other end - but not to worry, I'll plug it with some piece of gak later. It’s wise to not use any power tools on this kit, and just use your hands, but I didn't have a pin-vise that accepted any bits as large as a 3/32" bit.

Here's a shot of the parts properly aligned.

I've got to show this amazing cast! Whoever (Gundamhead or Jesse) cast this portion – it’s amazing!! There is a fine corrugated hose on the surface of the upper arm that is casted so that it’s actually free of the arm! WOW! Way to go! I just had to mention it since I realize how hard this must of been. The rest of these shots just show boring old sanding. Like any other kit, I just started to sand any seams I can see. Plus there was an area with some small divots that will be filled in with some Tamiya putty.

I skip all the sections that tell us to attach any of the hydraulic pistons. It’s important to dry fit them to get a sense of orientation and angle, but I usually leave them off till the end because it’s easier to paint the actuator part in chrome silver without have to mask it. So I skip to the 4th item in the instructions, the claw sensor part. I drill out the holes as instructed to locate the other side. The 3 small ones use a 1/16" bit and the large hole uses a 3/32" bit.

There's a bit of excess to this part on one side, so I flats sand the excessive side. I don't mind that there is more resin - as long as there isn't less! Some bubbles might appear as you sand the side down - but don't worry, since these sides will never be seen - they attach to the inside finger plates.

The inside finger plates can also use some sanding to bring their edges down a bit so they are more uniform with each other. On my copy, I have some chipped edges to one of my plates, so I covered them with Tamiya putty to be sanded down and re-shaped to get a sharp edge again.

This is another problematic area - the outside finger plates are molded with an inconsistent thickness again. It’s especially worst at the top of the plate. I'm not sure what to do at this point, I may re-build them out like the wrist with the styrene edged strips - but it may interfere with the claw arms later on. I wait till I get more of the arm together first in a dry fit before I determine what is the easiest way to correct this edge.

I'll put my references here (anyone with any others especially colour ones please feel free to post them here too - for my benefit!

)

Well, I found out my 5min epoxy dried out - so I had to go out and get a new set. Even in the capped syringes they still dried out - hmm, and I never used very much to begin with. Oh, well, at least it’s not that expensive. Below are some of the sanded pieces with the Tamiya putty (this stuff sands beautifully - like butter!) As you can see, the middle piece - you only really have to concentrate on the leading edge, and feathering it back to the resin - because once its attached in place, you really don't see much of the puttied area (reduce sanding wherever possible is my motto!

)

Here's the 5min epoxy - I assume most of you know how this works; you mix up equal parts resin and binder/hardener and mix for 1 min. I usually mix on a scrap of cardboard - and I cut a piece sprue out of the Hasegawa kit (using the numbering tabs as a spatula). Once you mix for 1 min, you have about 4-5 minutes to play with applying it and setting up arm in the correct position. I think it’s quite important to get it straight in plan (top looking down on it) - but in elevation (side view) it can deviate a bit since there are angles throughout the length of the arm when viewed from the side. I first found a way of supporting the arm still with piling up various stuff from around the table. The steel straight-edge ruler is a visual guide to make sure the arm is straight when viewed from above, the four paint bottles makes sure the arm doesn't twist around the joint. The black bottle cap below supports the joint so that its attached at the right horizontal angle. Lastly, I fitted the arm piston in place (not glued) to get the right angle to the wrist piece when attached to the arm.

A shot of the arm after the 5 minute epoxy has set...

I thought I'd tackle the problem of the claw finger plate edge. I decided to sand down the top and two diagonal sides right down to the bulkhead. Then I'd use the same thin styrene strips and crazy glue them to the edges. I started with the two diagonal sides first, leaving them long so I can have something to hold onto. I will be trimming them down afterwards. I then sanded the edge with the sanding film flat on the table surface. It works easier to always sand in the direction of the glued piece - so you're not prying it away from the glued surface. I sanded the top flat so that I could glue a continuous top piece. I found it easier to have a vise hold the piece, than you could have both hands holding either end of the strip of styrene.

Here are the pieces finished - not too bad eh? A pretty quick fix... it only took like 20mins from start to this end point. I also sanded the front edge to make sure that the resin ended in line with the styrene strips However, if you dry fit these plates to the other half of the plates, you'd see that the solid portion of the bulkhead (near the top) actually extends beyond the inner finger plates (assuming you keep the bottom edge parallel and in line with each other). This is unfortunate - but I tried sanding the bulkhead at an angle in towards the other plate so that there will be a slight lip when attached. It’s not ideal, but it’s the easiest fix and as long as both sides are identical, then who is to say that these bulkheads don't taper in?! I thought I'd apply a thick coat of Mr. Surfacer 500 on the front edge just to be safe and I'll sand that down tomorrow when dry. Of course, I did a test fit of the entire assembly - very cool that it all stays together on its own - snap tight! The pistons are just placed in there to get the right angles (not glued in yet).

Next, I moved onto the four claw fingers - I thought I'd skip ahead in the instructions and concentrate on the making the necessary modifications to attach the Valkyrie onto the claw with rare-earth magnets. The four claw fingers have excess resin on the top side which is easy enough to sand away along with some flash on the top edge/corners. The end tip is supposed to have a squared notch in it to accept the finger tips that "hold" the fast packs - and requires a little cleaning out with a square profiled file. Upon sanding away some of the excess resin, some bubbles appeared that were below the surface. I thought it might be neat to add some detail to the top instead of just filling them and sanding them flat. So I added some strips of thin styrene again (my good friend on this kit!) and ended up adding a square plate of styrene on one of the fingers that hid a bubble beneath - so I had to make all the other 3 the same as well. Oh, I thought I'd add some shallow circular impressions at the ends done with a pin-vise - but not drilling all the way through the resin (I've done it to all four (not shown - only one was shown at the time I took the photo).

I thought I'd do a dry fit to see how all the parts come together. I thought I'd put the magnets on the underside of the fingers and underneath inside the fast packs - well, that’s the plan anyways, we'll see if it will hold.

A set (of magnets) permanently mounted inside the top portion of the fast packs (I built it so the fast packs do come off the Valkyrie - Hasegawa's fit is so perfect that it’s just friction fitted all these years to the Valkyrie) Now I just have to back out the large rear engine bells without destroying them to get access inside (wish me luck ) And another set mounted to the bottom of the claw finger section as shown in red in your sketch. My hope is that the two magnets is strong enough to attract each other through ough that layer of styrene plastic about 1mm thick - but not strong enough that I can't ever use the arm for anything else!

Suggestion by fernarias http://www.kjmagnetics.com/pullforce.asp Thanks fernarias - good tip about the polarities. The boosters to Valk - I will probably end up gluing this area - I only left the friction fit because I knew I was going to need to get at these boosters individually in the near future. Gundamhead & MechTech, I realize this is a small area with only three contact points, but with epoxy on the 3 points, I think it will be enough - the Hasegawa model is really light - and I'll keep it away from small kids or high traffic areas (I don't think there would be any solutions to small kids! ) I'll see when I get it all together then - but I'm leaning away from lancing the entire thing together, however I do agree that it would be the safest way of mounting the Valkyrie. This shot below shows a better view of the placements of the claw fingers in relation to the claw assembly - I had them incorrectly placed at the bottom of the claw in the earlier pictures.

Well - the dreaded time has come to take apart my built Valkyrie. For those of you that have yet to build your Valkyrie for this arm - don't worry about these following steps, sit back, relax and laugh (thank god that you don't have to go through this!) I've wanted to use this Valkyrie for the arm for a while - in fact I was hoping for an arm kit like this to come along when I built this Valk a few years ago (worst case I was going to make my own arm - but thanks to Jesse & Gundamhead, we don't have to do that! ) So I made a few provisions to make as much of the fast packs removable. I always like to have o options. I don't know if you remember, for those of you that did follow along with my original step-by-step step build up for this Valkyrie (on the old boards... I wish someday that they could be retrieved ) the rear large engine bells were one of the last thing things s to be placed. I modified the interior mounts by cutting away a section of plastic so that I could mount the engine bells at the end which eased the painting process. Well that provision will/should allow me to extract the engine bell assembly without cracking the fast packs in half. Well, just pulling them out by hand didn't work too well - I ended up separating the engine bell from the pivoted engine itself. Probably better this way anyways, so I don't damage the very visible bell. I thought I'd wrap up a pair or needle nosed pliers and pull on the engine... There, not too much damage - the engine did split a little due to the force of the pliers, but it was only the bottom area and could easily be mended. Here you can see the cuts I made to those horizontal horizon cylindrical pieces that grab onto and pivot the engines.

I threw in some magnets to see how they'd hold here. They were so strong that I don't think I'd use four of them (one per claw finger). I think I will only use 2 sets of them for the rear claw finger (one on the claw finger and one inside the fast packs) - otherwise I don't think I'd be able to pry them apart again without either damaging the claw fingers or the fast packs. As fernarias said, be mindful of the polarities - I marked the outside of each the magnets with a dot, so I know the side without the dots face each other when it comes to gluing them.

The magnet set was so strong that only one set was able to pick up the entire Valkyrie quite successfully. Also, I found that if I had four sets, they would be too close to each other and tended to either stick together (which would cause the forward claw finger to bend backwards to tough the rear claw fingers) or repel each other. So having the other pack with another set of magnets would be more than enough. I tried using a washer under the fast packs to reduce the attraction - but then it was too weak - so I decide to have it a little over strong than under. I just have to be very careful when trying to separate the Valkyrie (its strong enough to rip the claw fingers out or the fast pack apart).

Damn! Pulling out the engine bell on the other side was not quite as uneventful or successful I think I'll be able to piece it together and sand it all down and refinish it in the end. It will be easier than cracking the fast pack halves. No decals on the engine bells, at least.

I'd also make sure to carefully align up the claw fingers, they are not supposed to be at the same heights or angles if you want the Valkyrie to be attached horizontally when the arm is perpendicular to the direction of the Valkyrie. Carefully line up the Valkyrie and make sure the arm is straight and in the proper orientation to get an idea of where the claw fingers land.

I traced the area to be removed for the magnet on the claw fingers. Here's a shot of the placement of the claw fingers with the magnet under it. I think I will be able to run some wires to it and "gak" it up so that it looks like it belongs. The magnets are marked so that the inner mating surfaces are always identified so that I will glue the right polarities in place. I then transferred the location of the magnet to the opposite claw finger.

I've placed a large goop of 5min epoxy inside the fast packs and the magnets on top help keep the magnets inside the fast packs in the proper place as the epoxy glue dries to secure them in position. This shows the top and bottom of the rear claw fingers with the magnets glued in place with the 5min epoxy glue. This last shot shows the engine section that got damaged while trying to remove them from the fast packs. I'll just apply some Tamiya putty, re-sand them round again, and re-paint these small parts. It’s too bad that it got damaged, but in the end the fix isn't too painful and should be seamless in the end.

Yeah! I'll have to separate them very carefully in the future, I supposed I won't be doing it all the time (it’s just nice to have the option). Good idea about filing the magnets down... for me it might be just too much work to justify the effort. The rare earth magnets are like little pieces of metal and it would take a lot of work to file them to the correct shape - additionally I don't know how much weaker they might be due to the size decrease. Just trying to rough them up to be epoxy’ed into the claw fingers were a lot of work. I wouldn't be able to "hand" file them down - I need power tools. So, today I started working on the claw finger tips. There's a bit of cleanup on the pieces themselves, just a little sanding here and there to get rid of any seam lines or unevenness. I also cut a little cardboard guide to the right angle based on the fast packs that the finger tips should be glued to. It’s really important to get these angles right - this will ruin the illusion that the finger tips are "gripping" the fast packs if the angles are not correct. Additionally, the magnets and the strong magnetic force interfere with getting a correct angle if I leave the fingers on the fast-packs. I wanted the magnets to self-centre - so I glued those inwards towards each other a little bit - because of this; I couldn't let the fingers sit on top of the fast packs, since they would naturally be drawn towards each other a bit thereby creating the wrong tip attachment angle. Also, I was afraid that any excess epoxy might drip from the tips onto the finished fast packs if I were to leave them on the fast packs to dry.

I would recommend using 5min epoxy to glue the little finger tips since the contact point is actually so small - I actually let a bit of epoxy spill out the top and bottom to ensure a proper strong bond. I then tacked the little lock cylinders that attach themselves to the ends of the finger tips. There's a cool minus mold detail on the ends of the cylinders, however, I was missing this detail on one of my cylinders and had a missing chunk from the other two cylinders (which would of been really easy to fill and sand). However, I happen to have some spare minus molds lying around from a few years ago when I ordered a bunch of option parts from HLJ. I think I've found the exact minus molds that Gundamhead used for his original masters

so I thought I'd cut the tips off and mount my own minus molds in place. Here’s a little clean up to the cylinders themselves. Make sure you maintain the little bevel at the end when you sand them - I used a self closing forceps type tweezers and a file to clean up the beveled end.

Remember, I accidentally over-drilled a hole through where I was mounting the wrist to the upper arm? Well, I found the perfect part to hide that mistake in the Wave Option parts (the same one with the minus molds). Here's a shot with the part glued in place and another cylindrical doodad to hide some excess epoxy glue that I was too lazy to file down. And remember that I'd said it was a bit of a pain or nuisance to sand the seam in recessed areas well I'll find something to fill it up instead of sanding it down. The same part works perfectly for this portion of the arm. So now I'm getting a little carried away with using some of the extra gak I have from this Wave Option kit - I like putting these vents over the top solid portion of the finger plates because I can hide the fact the that the solid portions underneath don't line up properly against each other.

Here's a shot underneath the claw with the fingers friction fitted in place and the central umbilical shaft glued in place. I find that the entire assembly was a little askew - wasn't entirely symmetrical along either axis. (Again this can be fixed by grounding off the resin pins to the central sensor piece between the two finger plates - but I personally don't feel that it’s worth the effort) This isn't a huge problem since it’s such a complicated shape that it’s difficult to discern this unless you are looking at it straight on or from the top. So I glued the umbilical shaft asymmetrically towards one end to further hide the fact that it’s not perfectly symmetrical. I find that if you purposely position items asymmetrically, it can hide symmetrical problems

Here's a shot of the arm/claw/fingers assembly as I let the 5min epoxy to dry. I really gooped the epoxy underneath inside the finger plate area and fingers - since there isn't a whole lot of surface area for the glue to work against. I don't think it will be much of a problem, I'll paint it black let it disappear into shadow and plus there's a supplied hydraulic actuator that will be fitted into place beneath each of the four fingers anyways. The pencil beneath provides the right orientation for the booster packs. The only thing is that when viewed directly from above, one of the rear arms is slightly askew (because of the placement of the magnets below the fast-packs, it actually pulls the arm incorrectly. However, its only noticeable directly from above - I may deal with it later if it becomes too much of an eyesore - but I just want to get all these parts properly glued in the right orientations first. It’s a lot of pieces to get the angles right - work slow and carefully.

Okay, I didn't do too much today... I only pieced everything together - and it was the first time I had the arm and magnets holding the whole thing up. I am proud to say, that the two magnets did its job - it is very secure up there. I think the resin claw fingers or the wrist pivot joint or the three contact points between the Valkyrie and backpack will break before the magnets give up its hold on the Valkyrie. Hence I used 5min. epoxy on all these critical areas, and used a lot more than I needed - I gooped extra around the joints, but most of them are pretty hidden, so I do think it compromises the overall looks too much. Wow! I never realized how long this arm was! It can be half as long and still work. Maybe it will allow some type of retraction mechanism like a ball bearing kitchen drawer hardware be used if there were a hanger to retract into?! (That’s maybe another project sometime in the far future) Maybe that will be Jesse or Gundamhead's next project - build a hanger for this - we could use just the claw portion to hang another Valk inside waiting in line? Hint, hint... I don't know how I want it displayed now - originally I thought it would be neat to display it vertical, but its so cool hanging horizontal too! I can't wait to paint it! That’s when it will come alive. I think its time to assemble the signal tower next, tomorrow. I'm really happy with the way the arm has turned out. It would be so much easier if I was building a new Valk for it (most of the problems came in the retrofit portion) - I would place the internal magnets for the fast packs farther back (but I couldn't in my case since I had place additional details in the rear opening of the fast packs that would of interfered with the placement of the magnets). Enjoy... till tomorrow...

Thanks for the kudos all! I'm sure there'll be another round of casts. Personally, I'm hoping that they do a reduced version with just the upper part of the arm and claw/fingers assembly - I didn't realize how big this baby really is when it’s all together. Ok, I got a good chunk of time today! Now, I start on to the signal arm. The first thing to do is trim off the excess brass rod that was embedded in the two parts of the signal arm. Look for the two ends that look alike, a larger square section with a smaller rectangular section with a space/slot detail running up the center. I would leave the excess brass rod at the base connector end and the signal connector end alone for now so that we have something to mount to. I just snipped the excess with a pair of pliers, and ground the extra down on a rough file the same way I did for the two parts of the main arm. Then I cleaned up the casting on the arm - there are some expected seams the run the length of the arm. A flat file was perfect to rough down the main areas (I don't mind sanding down extra - its filling in holes with putty and sanding that I hate! ) it also was the perfect thickness to get in between the slot and file the interior a little bit to get rid of some of the flash. On some of the other hard to get to areas, I used a x-acto knife and scraped it first. In the end, I sanded everything down with a 200 grit paper to get rid of any filing marks.

Now here comes the joint portion. I filed flat the mating surfaces to make sure we get a tight fit and get rid of any extra resin that might be in there. I'm not exactly clear the exact orientation of the pieces - and it’s hard to describe in words from the instructions. Do I line up the brass rods and it made sense that the two bigger squared ends lined up. It doesn't really matter too much in the end which side the L-shaped joiner piece is on anyways there are no real "canon" line art that says either way. After fiddling around for a bit, I chose the following orientation - I think it made more sense when you have the pieces in front of you than to try and decipher the instructions (word problems where never my strong suite ) Now I've noticed that after sanding, some of the surfaces had a few bubble holes which appeared. Instead of filling and sanding, I thought it was easier to just cover them up with a strip of styrene glued over top of the affected area.

I used to be a photographer (still a hobby) and my old Nikon 990 has a great macro feature (it allows me to focus down to a 1/2") and has a manual focus reticule in the view finder so that I am able to selectively choose where the camera focuses. Glad you' you're enjoying it - nice to know people are following along (makes the effort worth it). Although I was hoping that some of you who have this kit would build along so I could steal some of your ideas! On to the signal assembly itself! Again, there is the ty typical pical sanding and filing of the edges to clean the part up a bit. I shortened the legs on the side "fire" indicator so that it sat next to the main signal a little closer. I also filed the shape of the side markers a little bit to be closer to the line art art.. Now there are conflicting line arts (if you look at the reference drawings I posted earlier in the thread) - but I just picked an choose which shapes I like better. Again, there's a little excess resin on one of the triangular paddle like signals which iis s very easily remedied by a file and some sanding. Now if only someone can make white decals for these paddles that follow the line art! There's no way I can paint that small - but it would look great!

Anasazi... are you there?

[Ok, for those using this thread as instructions... I've goofed, don't mount the signal the way I have.]

I also started to add little extra bits of styrene plastic here and there to more match all the little sensor gak all over the signal. Here you can see a breakdown of the pieces showing the elbow piece that connects the signal arm to the signal assembly itself. Actually, I choose to invert the piece instead of using Gundamhead's instructions - because I wanted the larger end towards the arm, I believe it should go from big (base end) and taper to small (fragile) at the signal end. Additionally, if you look closely, I also drilled a 1/16" hole in the bottom of the elbow (the larger end accommodates this more easily) so that it can take the excess brass rod poking out the top of the arm. This provides a near friction fit and is a more secured attachment than just crazy gluing it to the top of the arm. I then started to detail up the signal itself - I wanted it to look more delicate like in the line drawings. On the elbow, I used d a square file to file down the end of the arm so that it looks more like a pivot. I also drilled very fine holes with a pin pin-vise vise to mount antennas as per line art. I happen to have very fine styrene rods which I used for the antennas, but I was consideri considering ng fine wire or stretched sprue (a process where you melt the plastic sprue and stretch it to form fine antennas) but being the lazy sod I am, I just used what I had lying around.

I also started looking at mounting on the base now (although I want to concentrate on finishing the arms first). I drilled a 1/16" hole in the signal arm base and proceeded to measure out the distance 2" as indicated by the instructions. Although I moved it down a little bit to expose the fine panel line Gundamhead scribed on the surface. I also measured 5" in from the edge for the main arm and proceeded to drill a slightly smaller hole 9/64" so that the main brass tube will friction fit into the resin base. I left the excess tube poking out the back for now - but was thinking that I will eventually cut it down and anchor it in place with a screw through into the tube backed by a large washer to more evenly distribute the torque at the mounting hole. All these pictures show everything friction fitted (I don't want to glue anything in until I finish painting) it’s always easier to paint in separate pieces.

OK, here's a series of shots with the Valkyrie in place!

I loved the look so much I kind of got

carried away with the number of pictures Its really easy to remove the Valkyrie - just pivot it backwards while holding onto the claw, it levers the magnets apart - but when its on – it’s really strong (so my worries about the magnets are finally put to rest). Enjoy... hmm... the ball jointed vise is kind of cool to mount the entire display to - I wonder if I can find a smaller version somewhere.

OK, so now the kit looks like so. And is ready for painting (finally!) one of the parts I've been looking forward to. I love the Tamiya chrome markers - I haven't really found anything that beats it for shininess yet. I paint all the hydraulic actuators at this point with the chrome marker, then I'll hand paint the hydraulic cylinders afterwards. Here are a couple of shots of the first basecoat. I'm using Tamiya dark grey as the main arm's base coat. I was so looking forward to painting that I forgot to spray a primer first on the resin model. One should always spray primer onto resin kits first - that being said, I forgot, and the grey turned out excellent, so I'll skip this step (but it’s not recommended) I love how the grey unifies everything so all the add-on bits and modifications disappears into a cohesive whole! The signal tower only has the primer grey on it - I am using the Alclad pre-mixed lacquer primer - I love this stuff and it’s so easy to use (it’s just a little expensive). But I think this grey is the proper colour for the signal arm anyways - so I'll just clear coat it as it is. I am clear coating all of this in the Model Master Acryl semi-gloss so that the oil wash will not stain the flat finish paint that I've used. The next step will be a black oil wash to pick out all the recessed details and give it more depth. Now, I've got to let the basement air out a bit - with the primer lacquers and clear-coats, it’s just hangs in the air. I still need to get a spray booth - at least some kind of vent to vent all the crap outside. Thank god I have my respirator - remember you must use an organic filter in the respirator.

Thanks for bringing the signal arm orientation to my attention I have since corrected it, unfortunately not before I did my oil wash to pick out the recessed details. So I applied the artist oil wash thinned down with low odour varsol the same as my other styrene plastic kits, except I used pure black on the dark grey main arm and a medium grey wash for the lighter grey signal arm. I let the mixture dry for a few hours before I wiped the excess off with a paper towel - leaving the dark wash in the low-lying recessed areas. The highpoints will be highlight with a lighter grey dry brush technique after I apply a clear-coat of flat finish over the decals.

So correcting the signal was a little more involved than I thought. First I filled in the hole I drilled in the base with crazy glue. I let that set before I drill a new hole in the location appropriate to swinging the arm around 180 degrees. Then I detached the signal arm from the signal assembly - carefully... but I still broke the attachment elbow, so pieces in the back of the signal assembly and two of the signal paddles before I was able to extract the signal I scraped away some paint to where the elbow will attach to the signal (since I wanted the crazy glue to attach to the resin and not the paint). I also changed the location of the antenna to the lower signal paddle (as shown in the line art). I then stuck a piece of gak from one of those Wave Option parts on the back of the connection elbow to hide the piece that broke off.

YAY! Decal time... I have a huge collection of leftover decals from old kits spanning 20 yrs from when I was a kid. I even knew enough to save the decals to the kits I built when I was too young to paint and apply decals! Anal eh?! But Macross has a certain sensibility that I wanted to maintain - I didn't want it to look to military, but it needs a certain air of Japanese animation too. I thought this was a great opportunity to use my old leftover bits from my other Hasegawa kits and these great

Wave Option decal sets I ordered from HLJ a few years ago. I highly recommend them - two are Macross Option decals, and two are just Misc. Option decals (more Gundam like). http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?Maker1=WAV&Ma...eCode=Sci&Dis=2 they contain fantastic stenciling and various sci-fi like warnings "Zero Gravity" and graphics. I've dry fitted some of the hydraulic actuators in some of the photos - I love how the Tamiya marker chrome makes it look like real metal especially contrasted next to a flat grey finished hydraulic cylinder. The key to some of the graphic stenciling (IMHO) is to position them next to something, some kind of feature on the arm - so that they are pointing to, or warning some aspect of the machinery. It lends an air of credibility to the what's being applied. The semi-gloss clear coat allows the decals to lay flat against the surfaces without the silvering that can appear on dark backgrounds. When I seal everything in with a flat finish clear coat, it will blend the decals into the finish of the arm more. Then I will dry brush and airbrush a lighter grey over them to tie them into the arm at the end.

I sprayed the entire thing down with a clear coat of Model Master Acryl flat finish to seal in the decals (helps blend the decals in with the same finish as the paint) and the oil wash. Plus dry brushing works best on flat finishes. You'll also notice that the flat finish lightens the entire arm up quite a bit.

Now, I work on, a favourite part of mine which I rarely get to do on a Macross model, dry brushing. It is usually a technique quite common in tank modeling. Together with the oil wash which picks out the low lying recessed details, the dry brushing will pick out the opposite highpoints in the molding - it will look like worn metal when it’s done. I usually find a flat edged brush that is fairly stiff (I used an old water-colour brush with synthetic bristles) - this is the only use for this brush because the process is fairly rough on the brush and will ruin it for other use. It can be done with white (which I did for the fast packs on the Super Valkyrie) or I'm using Sky Grey in this instance. You dip the brush into the paint, then take it out and using a paper towel, remove most of all the paint off the brush. Then take a scrap piece and start to work the brush around all the raised edges of the model - what little paint is left on the brush (the brush should be dry to the touch - hence the name dry brushing) should catch on the raised bits of detail. You will need to go over areas a few times to build up a lightening of the edges. It works best around the edges of panels and any highpoints in the molding. I would do this first with the grey, then I do it again with a bit of silver, but only hitting certain areas, so that certain edges gives a glint of silver as thought the paint has scrapped off. If the painting is done subtly it should give the impression that there's metal underneath the paint (hard to capture on the picture).

Not to forget, I added the four little hydraulic actuators underneath the claw fingers. I painted a portion of them with the Tamiya chrome marker (I don't know about the Gundam markers - I haven't tried them yet) and the rest with Neutral Grey so that they would stand out against the dark grey fingers. I also had to trim a bit of them off on the rear arms since the epoxy from gluing the magnets got into the way a little - but when you flip it over, you can't tell. With just a hint of metal mechanism, it is very cool.

Oh, at this point, I masked the big yellow and black warning area - and sprayed. I actually took off that little detail in the lower centre with the red dot on it, since it interfered with the masking - and added it back in after I removed the masking. I would suggest leaving off until the yellow and black stripes are done next time. I then went around the edges of the warning area with a thin light spray of dark grey to dirty it up a bit (it was too bright, clean and new) and work it into the arm so that it didn't stand out too much. I also dry brushed a little sky grey around the edges to show this area was worn as well.

Final shot of the night for now... I added the hydraulic actuator/cylinder between the wrist and claw portion - again I used the Tamiya marker for the actuator and Neutra Grey for the cylinder. I crazy glued it in. I left the main large hydraulic actuator/cylinder between the wrist and arm off for now - I need to let the Silver Tamiya marker dry first. Its pretty close to finishing, I just need to add all those hoses and wires to connect up the arm and the signal piece as well. Lastly, I'll finish the base, but that will be in the end. Enjoy...

Viceland – It’s really hard to describe the brush motion (a video would be so much easier) but it’s something that is best achieved through practice. It’s best done on dark surfaces (shows up better) that have a flat finish to them. You "work"/rub and scrape what little paint there is on the brush into the raised details. Keep in mind to wipe almost all the paint off the brush so that it’s dry (hence the term Dry Brushing) so the brush is merely "stained" with paint. Because you are "working" the paint in which involves some perpendicular dabbing and rubbing, you will ruin the shape of the bristles - so don't use an expensive sable hair brush. I just ruined one brush and keep using it for dry brushing from then on - I prefer a flat edged brush as shown in the photo. Good luck... it’s something that is best experienced than describing – it’s actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. Hope it helps a little... Grayson72 - Yep, thanks for the heads up, I am going to do a dirty brown wash to simulate some hydraulic oil staining later on - one step at a time... Thanks, if only FSM would pay me or if I could make a real living from doing this - BUT also get to keep my creations! Didn't get much time today, just put it together with the base plate and finally got to assemble the wrist/arm main hydraulic actuator in place. Here are a few shots with the arms in place. The red stripes on the yellow signal paddles were just done with a ruler and a red fine tipped sharpie laundry marker. I need to repair and paint the Valkyrie engine housing that got damaged while being removed to gain access to place the magnets in the fast packs. Then I need to concentrate on the base plate itself - mostly a paint job with a few extra optional parts to add on. Then lastly, add the extra wiring and hoses to both the arms. Please... Gundamhead, Jesse or Anasazi - consider making some small decals for the signal arm white lettering and graphics to fill those triangular paddles and the top and bottom of the signal...

Well, I spent most of the time repairing the damage I did to the Valkyrie fast packs trying to remove the engines to get inside the top of the fast packs to mount the rare earth magnets. I managed to glue all the pieces back together and used a lot of Tamiya putty to restore the round shapes to the engine housing (luckily the engine bells just popped off and was spared the destruction).

Here are some shots after I re-attached the engines back onto the fast packs. I updated the engines a little with some Alclad metalizer steel and jet exhaust highlights. I hadn't discovered Alclad metalizer paints when I first built this Valkyrie, so the engines were originally painted in Tamiya Metallic Grey with black burnt weathering. (I think they look better now - must resist going back to my old models and trying to improve them... too many un-built ones to go...)

I started to work on the resin base as well. I gave the main hanger doors a coat of Alclad metalizer Steel while the exterior of the ARMD was given a coat of 1:3 Medium Blue mixed with Skey Grey. I notice that in the animation cells, there was a distinctive blue hue to the exterior. I then also started playing around with the extra pieces that Gundamhead provided to detail up the exterior of the ARMD. I decided that I would probably want to paint these pieces differently, so I would keep them separate and attach them in the end when I'm weathering. Here's a shot of the base as it stands now. I used the cheap regular masking tape for the darker grey areas - and a combination of not waiting long enough, or cheap tape and the lighter grey dusting of highlights - when I peeled the tape back, it removed a few chunks of the blue/grey surface I'll probably mask that area off and spray another shade of grey on it to hide it.

Argh!

I should add the yellow and black warning stripes next.

Nothing much to show, just masking for the yellow warning area and letting the yellow paint dry before doing the black stripes. Well... here's some shots of the masking involved with the yellow and black warning stripes. It’s nice of Gundamhead to etch in the diagonal lines to follow.

Unfortunately, I bought cheap tape! The base was so large, I started using the regular masking tape - and boy was that a mistake. I forgot how fragile the Tamiya flat paints were, especially on resin. I've been sealing each coat under a clear coat of some kind on my styrene models - which works well at protecting the paint from being pulled up with the masking tape. But I didn't seal each colour in with the base - I just started painting and masking... well, the cheap ass regular masking tape pulled a lot of paint off - the Tamiya stuff worked wonders - I guess you get what you paid for You can see all the white specks as the resin showing through from beneath.

I just painted patches/panels of a different colour of grey to hide some of these spots. Also, I had a few imperfections on the surface of the mold - I was going to just fill them in and sand it smooth, but I thought I'd do some battle damage on them to add a bit of interest. I airbrushed some burnt black on the affected areas and trailed them off as though the ship was moving when it got hit - an effect I

did on my X-Wing fighter I stole from ILM model shops It’s a little heavy now, but in the end after I clear-coated and decaled everything - I will spray a dark aluminum metalizer panels over some of the blasted damaged areas as though some of them were repaired with a new panel. I then sprayed some Neutral Grey to lighten the edges of the dark grey surround and darken some panels of the lighter grey surfaces - to tie the surfaces closer together in terms of tonal range. I also faked in a darker shadow line at the top and side edge of the hanger door to give it some depth. I may spray a partial white number on the hanger door. I have sprayed a semi-gloss clear coat to seal in this paint and prep the surface for decals & oil wash. Just a bunch of misc. warnings and stenciling with some bits of orange, yellow and red colour to match the cell a bit more. Then a final flat clear coat over top of it after the decals & again some dry brushing to pick up the highlights. Somewhere in there I will add the extra optional details.

I will definitely take some proper pictures when I'm finished - but I'm not done yet. Although it is shaping up to be a big one, so it will be hard to find proper lighting and a neutral background large enough to shot this baby when I'm done. Ah! I've long given up on "the" perfect model - I now know with my immense expertise that it does not exist - and I should strive for it... but not kill myself when I don't achieve it. It’s kind of Zen now...

I just have to learn of more creative ways to turn mistakes into opportunities. Well... I was kind of a worried when I couldn't log into MW for the last few days?! I got a few more things done. I started to decal the base as well. I was trying to take clues from aircraft carriers and hangers - but I didn't want to overdo it and take too much attention away from the arm and Valkyrie, since that is the actual model piece. The base, to me should remain in the background to the main model. However, I wanted to add the "dots" of colour that we see in the animation cell - so I mainly chose yellow, red and orange decals. (Excuse the next few shots - I forgot to turn the tungsten while balance setting back on my digital camera - hence the orange cast on the photos)

I started working on the few extra pieces that Gundamhead had provided as optional add-on detail for the base. I first sanded off some of the extra resin on the back of the pieces by rubbing it against a rough sandpaper (it’s actually good to rough up the back side - save time in using a coarse paper, gives the surface some tooth for the glue to bite, plus we never see the backside) place flat against the table surface.

You might have noticed that I found some cool orange decals "01" from an old Crusher Joe kit - so this became Hanger 01. I thought the main hanger doors were a little barren, so I decided to mask a partial "01" on the large doors themselves to add a little interest. I lightly airbrushed a very light coat of flat white on the masked area. I also took this opportunity before I glued down the optional details to dry brush some white and a little silver onto the raised details of the hanger surround. This ties it into the launch arm a little more and evens out the weathering while tones down the decal colours. Additionally, I added a few panels of Alclad "Dark Aluminum" on the surface of the base - I thought the blast marks were a little overdone, so I'd tone them down by "performing a few repairs" as though someone had come by and welded a few new silver panels to cover the blasted areas but hadn't painted them the hull colours yet (ala Star Wars rebel fleet) The newly applied optional details were airbrushed with Alclad's Dark Aluminum for the pieces to be

applied to the lighter grey backgrounds and Alclad's Steel for the ones that were applied to the dark grey hanger surround. They kind of stand out right now, but will receive a dark oil wash to pick out their vents, and a lighter grey dry brushing to tone them down a little bit (not too much since I wanted a little bit of a metallic gleam for the base surface). Lastly, I wanted to show a close up of the "battle damage". I quite liked the molding "mistakes" - I guess there was something in the mold when the resin was poured - but they sure don't look like bubbles. With a little creative airbrushing for some charring and streaking, and a little silver dry brushing to pick out a metal edge - I think they look like "blast" marks quite convincingly. And it was easier than filling them with putty and sanding! Anything to reduce sanding!!

I just had to fit it all together for the weekend - and I'm happy to announce that its been supporting my Valkyrie up like this for the last 72 hours without a hint of sag - now I did goop on the extra 5min epoxy at the claw fingers - and I highly recommend doing that especially if you intend to display the base flat instead of hanging it against a wall. The inner fingers are what really supports the Valkyrie, but then again, the Hasegawa model isn't that heavy to begin with (also I did re-glue the three connection points on the backpack - the two hinges and that flat finlike area with 5min epoxy too - but that was all it needed, I think screwing it would be a little over kill).

Lastly for tonight... I thought the base was kind of cool just for other aircraft - it really has an aircraft carrier quality to it - especially the outboard elevators. Hmm... Maybe Gundamhead & Jessie can sell it with just the base. So I need to weather and oil-wash the newly added optional details. And lastly, (which I'm looking

forward too) I get to add all the wiring and hoses to connect up the arm, wrists and claw portions in the next few days.

As I mentioned earlier, I started attaching the extra hoses that were supplied. I first drilled out the circular depressions that Gundamhead provided so that I had something to seat the wires into (it allows for a better glued connection) There is a photo in the instructions which show where the supplied wires go into on the arm. It also makes sense that you'd need connections across a major "joint" in the arm which slack in the hose for potential movement. The kit supplies the hoses with a bit extra on the ends which I trimmed off and I bent the hoses/wires into shapes that approximated the line art drawings before gluing them into the holes I drilled in the resin arm. I did change the forward mounting position of the thick black wire so that it tucked in at an angle - the original location forward of the bulkhead seemed to be in the wrong direction.

I then added some smaller scale hoses up forward on the arm. Instead of using the supplied yellow wire for this (I found that the supplied yellow was too flexible and did not hold its shape) I used some wire I had lying around that has a stiffer wire core that allowed me to shape it the way I liked and it held that shape. The photo below showed one of the line art drawings I was using as a guide. Of course I had to paint the wires black first, before I glued them in place with crazy glue. I also had to touch up some of the wires and mounting holes with a brush with ModelMaster Acryl flat clear coat to disguise some of the excess crazy glue that showed around the edges. The crazy glue dries glossy and shiny, and the flat clear-coat helps blend it into the rest of the flat finished arm.

I think I'm about 98% done... just a bit of a oil wash on the newly added optional surface detail pieces and some hydraulic oil leakage on the actuators and some clips to look like they are holding the newly added hoses in place. What do you guys think about that red wire/hose near the base? Does it stand out too much? Does it look too much like a red wire? I can't decide whether I should paint it out dark grey to match everything. Then it will be off to a decent photo shoot against a dark background...

I added some small wiring/hoses to the signal arm today as per the line art. I had to paint the wires dark grey before I glued them down with crazy glue. Again, I drilled little holes so that the wires had something to seat it into. I also darkened and weathered the red hose - thanks for the reference pictures and suggestions, I agree, the red hose is nice in there - and now that it’s weathered and darkened, it doesn't stand out so much. I also did a dark oil wash over the newly added surface optional parts to pick out their recessed details. I also added a brown wash to the hydraulic cylinders - a word of caution here, the thinned down oil/varsol mixture actually attacks the Tamiya silver marker. I forgot about this (I actually learned it doing one of the intake fans on an earlier model - some of you might of remembered the?!@#$@ incident) of course I forgot and watched it attack the silver on the cylinders. It’s not too bad, luckily I didn't add too much. Remember what I said about the fact that there are never any perfect models?!

Well, here's a tease of some pictures I took... I'm not very happy with them; firstly, I don't have any solid background big enough (it’s a tough shape to photograph), secondly all the photos are somewhat blurry (or at least not as sharp as they could be) because it’s been so dim lately, and the model has such odd dimensions that I need to stop down to try and maintain any sort of depth of field to keep as much of it in focus - however by doing so, I don't really have enough light to keep the shutter speed as high as possible to avoid camera shake at these low lighting conditions. Lastly I can't go outside – it’s too cold now to photograph in natural daylight. I'll see if I have anytime next week to try again (or I can get back to work on the Boosters!

)

Get some dark grey or black mat board or paper next week to try again. Oh, I forgot one thing, the red and white lettering on the signal arms. I might try to do my own artwork to get my inkjet printer to create something. Here are a few shots with the Valkyrie attached. If I get around to a better photo shoot next week with a proper background - I'll post larger sized photos on the Models forum like I used too and link it to this build up.

A little update... I got a chance to scan the signal arm lights into the scanner and I was trying to print my own decals. I thought I'd try to follow the anime screen capture, but mirror it (since my orientation for the signal arm and launch arm is actually mirrored from the opening sequence in DYRL). Here's the preliminary graphics overlaid onto the resin signal arm. I plan on trying out the "inkjet" Bare-Metal Foil clear decals and I will also try the laser decals by the same company which I will colour copy at work (yay! our production has a colour copier this time!) Since I can't print white, I will probably paint the paddles white or silver underneath and apply the red/blue decals over top of that, so the white letters are the negative which will show through what’s beneath. If they are successful, I will post the full resolution graphics here so you can download and try to print them out yourselves for this kit.

Yay! Finally finished... I had a few minutes tonight and decaled the signal arm. Luckily the graphics worked perfectly. I first painted the paddles with a Tamiya silver paint marker to get highly reflective silver. Then I decaled over them with the graphics I created in photo shop (by first scanning the part in and drawing it out) and inkjet printer onto "inkjet" decal paper by Bare Metal Foil http://www.bare-metal.com/gateways/decal_supplies.html onto clear decal paper. The "white" is just areas where there were no inkjet ink, so the silver underneath showed through. I took the photo immediately, so some of the silvering on the blue areas of the paddles is just the decal setting solution catching the light (it’s still wet as I type this). But its drying perfectly - I am really happy with it now (it’s that finishing touch which was missing). So as promised, below is the graphic I used - its sized perfectly, so print your own and give it a try! Photoshop work is on top of the scanned part. This is the photo of the decaled part. Raster graphics file at 100% at 600dpi (Good luck!)

Happy Modeling! (and wear a safety mask.)