Gift GB

I broke out the sanding screen last night and went to work. I analyzed the impact and decided that I would sand and polish the wing smooth since so much of the impact area was so close to the lines and even on them. I will then address the loss of the panel lines. I have an idea for the repair of them in lieu of sprue stretching (I tested my skill with that and found I could not meet my own expectations), I will test this avenue after I see the true impact to to the panel lines after I re-prime the area this afternoon.

Go for it, Rich, and good luck!

Sounds like you got your work cut out Rich, but sure you can pull it off.

you cant get the paint off/down without sanding it?

whenever a spray gloss in the wirbrush or a rattlecan it ALWAYS looks like that apart from halfords own appliance white strangely

The wing repair is progressing...not finished yet by no means:

Did some decal scaling work with older renditions and tested...

It appears you're getting the problem solved, Rich.  And the decals are looking good.  Nice progress.

done :)
alclad chrome is ace!!

armerment
3x30mm aden cannons under the nose intake
2 early ir homing missiles (pilots didnt rate them at all)
2 external fuel tanks







from early war to late war

Nice, sounds like this thing packs a big punch. Thanks for bringing this to the GB.

Eatthis, that chrome looks fantastic! Great build, thanks for sharing. And Z, can't wait to see how the wing turns out.

I've been looking for tips on how to paint metal finishes better, and so far I've learned a lot by tuning in here. Thanks to all!

That looks slick, eatthis.  Really great looking NMF.  Good work!

Trying to make the decals I want for my Gundam. I found some 1/100 scale decals for the version I'm building, but I need them in 1/144 scale. I scanned in the decals, plucked out the ones I wanted, cleaned up the images and removed the background blue of the decal paper, and created images of them. Fortunately for me I only needed to get the bigger ones, since I have a very detailed decal sheet in 1/144 scale from another version of the Gundam (which I'll borrow heavily from). I have some resizing of the images to do - the big white image will probably be at most 1.25 inches wide. I put the images on a blue background so I could see the white ones, obviously that won't be there when I print on decal paper. Anyway, here they are.

BL- will be interested to see the final decal work...you are making great progress.

eatthis- love the clad enthusiasm...great results! 

29 Build update: The repair of the right wing paint tabacle is complete. After sanding, I took a piece of landscape wiring and stripped it to reveal stranded wire. Then I took a single strand and pulled it through a small puddle of clear parts glue and touched each panel line and removed the wire. It left a small ridge of glue to simulate the raised panel line...not perfect, but may just be enough. I proceeded with a few touch ups to sanding and polishing...and then on to masking...she is ready for cladding. After that is done, I will revisit some additional panel work as necessary.

Some WIP below: (including engine/prop assemblies)

Masked bottom side-

The assemblies close to their homes...tempting huh?

Smelling the build assembly finish...undetermined yet on washes. Decaling and detail work pending.

Just for fun...I tested the metal plate buffing over a spare part that had been painted and dipped in Future and was completely dry...when attempting to buff, it appears that the metal buffing spray ate through the future and softened the original paint. so when trying to buff to a polish shine, it removed all back to the bare plastic or grey primer. FYI...

Interesting dcals bad, i still haven't come close to makeing my own, looking forward to seeing how this work out.

Z, glad to hear you have the problem sorted. I think i washed my NMF's with my usual pro modeller and then used Tamiya's weathering pastels, the gun metal, on it. But its been a while now and not entirely sure. The 29 is looking good.

I've made a start on my 0/400. Last week was a bit slow and still not got the inside done, even though tehres not much there. But should have some pics in a day or so and hopeing to pick up the pace this week.

Sorry to hear about the set-back, Z.  What did work for the NMF looks really good.

I haven't done a NMF in years, but when I did, I used Floquil RR paint.  They make about three different labels of silverish color--although my can't really see the difference.

I find NMF's to be. . . anxiety-provoking.

Making more progress on the Gundam. I thought I took more pics of my work in progress, especially some of the little pieces that I painted, but I'm putting up what I got.

Base coat of the beam saber. That's kind of like a lightsaber for giant robots.

Shiny brass band on the back of the legs. I saw it on another one and I liked the color contrast, so here it is.

Beam saber with some pink on it. I have no idea how to paint a piece of plastic to look like a lightsaber, so I'm winging it.

More beam saber.

Here are the bits and pieces ready for clear. With the exception of the hands and the rest of the weapons this is pretty much the whole thing. I'm going to clear and decal and then get to the weathering. Sometimes I put these models together before I weather and sometimes not. I think this time I'll weather before I put it together. Making decals now, I'll post pics when I get them done.

I've never said this to a guy before, but...nice GAMS!!

You might try using Future and Tamiya clear paints for the light saber thing.  Looks great.

I just realized I never posted a pic of the bits and pieces! Anyway, here it is.

Good tip about the Tamiya clears, for some reason I keep forgetting they exist! Maybe I'll pick up a bottle and experiment a bit...

Nice work there bad. Those tamiya clears do come in very handy. I have all the clear colours and often forget about them.

Yeah, I can think of a couple spots on this model alone where the effect I was looking for would probably have been achieved better by a silver/chrome base with a clear color on top. I definitely need to start working with them so I remember they're there!

Nice-looking parts, BL.  Should build up fine!

Are these Tamiya clear colors acrylic or enamel/lacquer?  I haven't used them or even looked at them.  Maybe they'd be useful.

That mech is going to be "pretty trick"...anxious to see the continued progress!

Happy Easter to all...

29 build update...the cladding of the 29 is complete.  She received 3 shades of clad including: airframe aluminum, dull aluminum, magnesium and also took on some silver plate buffing metalizer, (which I really liked the control of even though it meant extra work!)

Wing tabacle abated...but I'll let you folks be the judge on that! LOL...the shortcomings of the overall result is in the base coat and sanding (surface prep before clad). I would definitely do some things different now, but feel I made a "fair" recovery. Intrigued to see??

...doing some touch ups this evening and should get images up by Tuesday/Wed.

Here we go...

Wing before:

Wing after:

Her cladding:

I think the first image of cladding (after the wing before and after shots), is the best of the cladding as it shows more of the true shading because of lighting adjustments.

I failed to get an underside shot, but it looks slightly better than these because of limited surface work I had to do on it. You'll get a chance to see that after the assemblies have been secured in place.

Thanks for looking.

Vast improvement.  Great recovery!

checkmateking02

Nice-looking parts, BL.  Should build up fine!

Are these Tamiya clear colors acrylic or enamel/lacquer?  I haven't used them or even looked at them.  Maybe they'd be useful.

I believe the Tamiya clears are acrylic (the rest of their colors are). Z, nice looking 29! I really love the effect different metals have when applied that way!

Question for you (and anyone else who may know) - how do Alclad metals compare with Testors metalizer as far as how to use them and how they look? I have a project in mind that I'd like to use a NMF on and I could use the advice.

BL- I have limited experience with both, but used both on the 29. Suface prep is the key to alcald!

the metalizer I really like because in an hour you can buff it to whatever degree of "shiney" you want. I used it on the cowlings. If you peruse back to those images you can see I went to a high shine on the front edge and left a section more dull and then went back to shiney.

checkmateking02

Nice-looking parts, BL.  Should build up fine!

Are these Tamiya clear colors acrylic or enamel/lacquer?  I haven't used them or even looked at them.  Maybe they'd be useful.

They are Acrylics. X-23=Blue. X-24=yellow. X-25=Green. X-26=Orange and X-27=Red. I don't think i have hardly used the blue yellow or orange. But the green and red come in very handy for wing tip lights.

Z, thats looking really nice.

Wingtip lights were what I was thinking, Bish.  

Do you paint them silver, then apply the clear colo(u)r?