Whoa!!! That looks awesome!!! 

Great job! 

 Now go hit those forest fires!

Completed the fire extiguisher.  Calling this done.

Gamera

Oh that's really cool! I love the idea of a giant fire-fighting mech!!!

 

Sorry I haven't been around. I've been looking at your posts but been on vacation/holiday and the Wi-Fi has been horrible so I couldn't really post much. Then I get home and have a pile of work to catch up with.

Hope you had a wonderful vacation/holiday. 

Response are always welcome, but not expected.  I take no umbrage from a quiet topic. 

Oh that's really cool! I love the idea of a giant fire-fighting mech!!!

Sorry I haven't been around. I've been looking at your posts but been on vacation/holiday and the Wi-Fi has been horrible so I couldn't really post much. Then I get home and have a pile of work to catch up with.

Fairly big update with many pictures.  Finally got the pack assembled and 95% of the decaling done.

Torso with the single Fire department decal.

And assembled with pack mounted.  Some lens distortion making it look more squat than it is.

Comparison with to his partner.

The foam dispensing gun still needs finishing and a little bit of detailing left but all the major work is complete! 

I was surprisd at the amount of work  needed to create a clean looking model.  Making something look dirty is a lot easier. 

Quick progress update.

Pack frame is pretty much done.

Longer cylinders are cut to length and bottoms glued.  Will finish shaping them after they've finished setting.

The legs have been a real b***.  Lots of warping in the plastic causing misalignments and valleys.   Drawn the line in the sand and they are what they are, tired of monkeying around with them. 

The light at the end of tunnel is visible and I am pretty sure it's not an oncoming train. ;)

Been working on the backpack.

Started with this.

And finally removing the top of the pack.

Layout of what it should look like.  The image on the right has the pieces held together with poster tack.

Sanded the topof the cylinder so it matches the angle of the top.  That way the cylinder looks as if it is poking through.  Not sure I like the length of the cylinder.  Probably make it longer so the pack has a more balanced look.

Decals I printed for the model.   Thought it would be amusing to have some fire extinguisher and warning signs on it.   Will probably reprint the checkering as it came out more green than yellow.

Lucky to have an old copy of Photoshop Elements as I was able to use calipers to get the sizing and Elements can resize images based upon inch measurements.  Saves on a lot of trial and error for fit.

Gamera

Lookin' good!!! 

I got some mysterious black stuff on my cyborg figure- I have no idea where it comes from... 

Something I'll have to keep an eye out for then. 

Your cyborg turned out amazing!

Lookin' good!!! 

I got some mysterious black stuff on my cyborg figure- I have no idea where it comes from... 

So while all the above was happening the clear coat was drying and since I couldn't work on the backpack, went to work more on the legs and found this.

No idea where that black stuff came from but it wasn't there when I put it down and I can't find what it may have come in contact with.

Started to sand it off before realizing it wasn't hard but gel like.  Gunked up one sanding stick with it.  Had to use a rag to rub off most of what was there which peeled up the paint.

With lots of cleaning and sanding got it back to this. 

Taking a break from the comedy of errors that was the last couple of days.

So it's been a rather frustrating couple of days working on this. 

Final check before disassembling the legs for a clear coat. 

While that was drying I started in on the build of the fire extinguisher backpack.

This is going to be hacked from parts of a Super Valkyrie kit. 

These packs are attached to the back of the robot.  I am going to try and  use the attitude jets as connectors for feed lines between the two pods and the foam dispensing gun.

Didn't like the bit that stuck out so hacked it off

The original part was fitted for a different model so cutting having to remove some of the raised detail to create a better fit.

used the tip I learned from FSM to mask around the part to minimize loss of detail.  Had to remove it to take off the remaining stub.

I have plans to further mod this so it looks like there are pressurized tanks in the pack.  That means removing more of the existing structure.

Got that final bit removed.  But broke three blades doing that to get both sides.  I kept binding the blade in the created gap while I was scraping out the plastic.  A fine tooth saw is on my wish list.

Haven't done any scratchbuilding before so no styrene bits available to use.  Went to the hobby store to pick up some cylinderical styrene.  Came back, wrong size.  Measured.  Went back.  Wrong size again.  Sigh.  One more trip in my future.

Legs masked and painted.  Forearms and shoulders seams cleaned up and filled.  Arms need another coat of the white grey before removing the mask on the red.

Photos of test fit.  Masking not yet removed on the legs.  

Like how the head and visor turned out.

Panel lines were done with a light grey pin wash.  I think the subdued color looks better.  A black pin wash would have been too dark.

Thinking of repainting the hands in red.  The black doesn't flow with the rest of the color scheme.

The high gloss isn't working for me.  Will try the final clear coat as a satin.

Pledge is officially on my limited use list now.  It does not react well to Vallejo thinners.  Thinned some model color with airbrush thinner to detail a section and everywhere it touched turned into a gooey mess.  Been cleaning up the aftermath.

Maybe it was a weird set of circumstance that caused it or carelessness on my part.  Regardless, done with the clean up and moving on. 

Looks good! I agree on the white arms. 

I tried Pledge as a gloss overcoat a few times and got the same pebbly 'orange peel' look. So I stopped using it. I've heard it's 'self-leveling' if you brush it on but I like airbrushing to get a nice even overall coat. 

Gloss coated and test fit with foream and shoulder pieces.

Thought I would take a photo of the loose fit to give an idea of where this is going.

Was originally going to do the forearms in red but I am liking the current color scheme and may stick with it.

I used Pledge Gloss and not sure if I like it this glossy or how it is going down.  I chose the PG because of the "self leveling" feature.  Not sure I am seeing that.  I am getting this uneven pebbly texture and in some places what looks like crazing. 

Appreciate any thoughts the group may have on this unexptected behavior from the Pledge.

Gamera

Looks friggin' perfect to me!!! 

I rarely get masking to work out that well. I don't get much paint to peel up, just leakage under the mask. I'm tried lower spray pressure and carefully spraying away from the mask and I've been having much better results. 

 

Looks friggin' perfect to me!!! 

I rarely get masking to work out that well. I don't get much paint to peel up, just leakage under the mask. I'm tried lower spray pressure and carefully spraying away from the mask and I've been having much better results. 

I have discovered Vallejo paints are sensitive to surface contaminants.  I now wear gloves when doing any work on the models and it seems to have greatly improved the adhesion of the paint.

I probably built 5-6 of these way back when.  None survived the trials time.

Since resuming the hobby 2 years ago I have built three the ARII models.  A VF-1D Battroid, VF-1A Gerwalk, and a VF1-A fighter.

This VF-1J battroid will be the fourth but the first to be airbrushed.

That looks great! I've had some issues with Vallejo's surface primer, but it's not consistent.

I haven't seen one of these kits built in a long time. I still have one in gerwak mode where I'm missing the right hand and gun to antiquity. I'm wondering if I still have the decals for it lol.

Anyways, sweet project! How many of these do you have completed?

So I finish masking up the parts, painting on the primary color and decide to take a break by reading through the forums on airbrushing.  In my random perusing ,run across several articles about how twitchy Vallejo Primers are and how poorly they do with masking.  
Which has me leaning over and  looking at my recent work.  Because everything was done with Vallejo primers...

Looks good with the red.

So it was with great trepidation I started peeling off the tape after the paint had a chance to cure.

HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.  The tape came off without the feared peeling of the primer.

Some clean needed up as expected.

It turned out better than expected and thankfully my fears about using the Vallejo primer were not realized.

Next up:

Finish blocking in the black areas, do any needed touch up, clear coat, and then initial assembly can begin. 

ikar01

I hope my informer was correct, but he's a well known seller so he should know.  I;ll have to start saving money for those kits.

Boy did I pick the wrong time to become budget conscious. 

Gamera

You might just flex the joints between each coat if you want to make sure she's not going to lock up.

That makes total sense.  I am over thinking it.  Fighting a lot of bad habits that built up when I first started making these.  Getting paranoid.

Sometimes you have to just pull up stakes and accept your losses.

Each attempt to clean this side up just made it worse.  Thankfully this area won't be too visible.

Apparently I greatly exaggerated the truth about adding color.  This is about as far as I got.

Trying to emulate the box art color scheme. 

3.5 hours of work to mask that off.  At some point I am hoping masking will become little less tedious and a lot faster.  So far it's a really weird jigsaw where I get to decide how the pieces fit.

There's a second round of masking in the future once the legs and pauldrons (sounds so much more awesome than shoulders) are assembled.  But not until these are finished!

I hope my informer was correct, but he's a well known seller so he should know.  I;ll have to start saving money for those kits.

Interesting news that more Macross kits will be reissued.  The big Arii kits have never been repopped (1/72 Galug, 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk, 1/160 Destroid Monster, etc.).

Wave had announced a new tool 1/144 Monster a number of years ago, but plans apparently fell through.    Wave made a 1/72 Tomahawk, and is an improvement compared to the Arii kit.  Hasegawa is releasing a 1/72 Armored Valkyrie this December, so the Arii kit is now superfluous.  I wonder if Hasegawa will do a 1/72 Gnerl fighter?  Too big maybe?

The Spartan remains to get a new tool 1/72 kit, but I'm not sure if Wave will tacke it, as it is not modular like the Tomahawk/Defender/Phalanx.  I bought the recently repopped Imai kit, now rebranded by Bandai, in the hopes of finally having a nice model of the Spartan.  I completely hosed the original kit back in the day.

Oh that looks cool!!!

I'm not sure there's any issue with a couple of paint coats- it shouldn't freeze the joints unless you absolutly flood the paint on. You might just flex the joints between each coat if you want to make sure she's not going to lock up.

Quick progress update on the model.  Did a second round of putty and sanding last night.  Second round helped soften the edges more.

Working from home does have some benefits.  Took part of my lunch hour to prime the parts.

Next up is some color. 

Question for the group. 

I can add gloss medium to the paint to turn my flats to gloss.  Because of the articulation of the joints I am concerned about trying to paint flat and then apply a complete gloss coat.  Seems like it could be inviting incomplete coverage as well as frozen joints.  Appreciate any sharing of experiences.

Been collecting images of Search & Rescue and Fire Department emblems to make decals with.  It's got me thinking of using a Destroid Spartan as a companion vehicle to create a Heavy Rescue team.

ikar01

I heard at Modelpalooza that the old kits, or at least most of them are going to be produced again soon.

That is dangerous news.  Resisting Hobbylink Japan has been hard enough as it is!

That massive SDF1 would be a blast to see in person!