Messages

1

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 08, 2013, 10:34:05 PM »

The Head

After more than 2 years when I finally started on this project again, I realized that two clear parts on the head were missing. When it was obvious to me that I’d lost them for good somewhere in the Infinity and Beyond, I tried dropping a message to Wave Corporation. To my delight they agreed to send me the parts. Great customer service.

For the ‘eye’, I painted the clear part green and the backing with silver (with gloss black beneath). The eye really brightened up when the two parts were fitted together. Sweet.

2

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 08, 2013, 10:30:20 PM »

Shoulder Lamp

The shoulder lamp was painted silver after glossy black. I always find the rectangular lamp looks flat without any details of a typical headlight of a car or something. I wish that the kit could have provided a decal to create that kind of effect (I’d tried to print my own decal for this purpose but the decal i used was too thick and stiff, not the type of thin decal paper for scale modelling. I discarded it in the end.) To make it more interesting, I used Citadel Washes and applied thin glazes of blue at bottom-left corner and brown (Sepia) at top-right corner of the lamp. The glazes reduced the shine of the silver and were not that noticeable after lens was placed over it. However it still looks fine as a whole. The lens was also cleaned up with the polishing compound before assembling.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 08, 2013, 10:05:06 PM »

Thanks Sharkdog.


Clear Parts

The clears parts were mostly airbrushed with silver at the opposite side before coating the front (i.e. the side which is facing us) with red clear paint. On the tiny clear parts, the silver has little (almost negligible) effect to bring the shine through the parts. But this works well with larger clear parts where the clear colour seems to glow with proper lighting and angle.



Several clear parts are tiny. Some are even rhombus in their cross-section where you have to figure out which sides should be facing outward. Initially I found it terribly difficult to press them into their designated recesses on the model; the fitting was tight and the paints around the tiny recesses were chipped off in several areas. Even the paint on the clear parts were scratched when I desperately tried to press them in. Heart-aching moments. I handbrushed the clear red on the scratched paint, resulting streak marks on them although not really obvious as the parts were small. The recesses were then sanded (1000 grit) carefully to remove paint within to open up the fitting tolerance. When this still didn’t work for some clear parts, I sanded them such that they are tapered in to slide into the recesses easier. I’d also use a soft cloth to press the parts in to mitigate the risk of scratching the paint.









The lamps on the knees were airbrushed with silver at the opposite side. The front side was squeakily cleaned with Tamiya Polishing Compound (Finish grade) before fitting the pieces into the knees.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 07, 2013, 12:57:58 AM »

Thanks Will. I'll post the finished model soon.


The Arms

As mentioned in my earlier post, the tips of the cannons were drilled to make a bore. This exposed the peg (highlighted in this diagram) within.



I masked the arm and airbrushed the peg with glossy black before using Gaia Star Bright Silver over it. Once the tips were assembled into the arms, you could see the ring of bright silver when look into the bore of the cannons.





The cannon exhausts (i.e. the elbows of the arms) were also painted in the same way.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 03, 2013, 11:06:58 PM »

Flat coat

After all the panel linings were done, I airbrushed all the painted parts with a flat coat before I started to handbrush the rest of the details in acrylic black.




Missiles

I noted that the base of the top-mounted missiles was visible after I assembled them into the missile box. A look will tell you that the missiles were just moulded into one single piece. As such I painted the base with Citadel Abaddon Black to give it an illusion of depth in the missile box and make each missile looks like an individual piece.







I did the same for the shoulder missiles.

6

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 03, 2013, 12:57:32 AM »

There are many pockets or recesses on the model that have to be painted in black. I tried using enamel to manually paint it with a paintbrush. The black paint with thinner “slipped” on the glossy surfaces in the recesses and gathered at the corners and tight areas, failing to cover the recesses completely.

I’d also tried using un-thinned oil paint and the result was lumpy. I should have stick to enamel using only a bit of thinner to made the paint thicker. Instead, I skipped this step and flat-coated all the parts to continue with the project. Only after 2 years later I bought a fine Gundam marker to fill in the recesses. The parts were still flat-coated when I did this and it was of course a mistake; I’d to use a 2000-grit sandpaper to gently remove any accidental marker stain. This removed not only the stain but also the paint beneath, creating a patchy but less obvious mark.





The end result of the recesses was semi-glossy black and there were unsightly streak marks if looked closely. I finished them up with another layer of flat clear coat.

7

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 03, 2013, 12:48:36 AM »

Thanks Hunter Rose.

For the shoulder missiles, I fancied using white for the lining and tried it.



I thought it looked good up-close. I really liked it. However the white lining seemed to diminish and lost its visual impact when I viewed the missiles from a distance. Reluctantly I wet a cotton bud with enamel thinner and scrubbed the white paint away. I’m not sure whether the surfaces had reacted with enamel thinner wash as they became a bit rough when scrutinised. However one can’t really notice it especially after the surface was coated with flat clear later. Black lining was eventually used.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 02, 2013, 01:43:17 AM »

Panel lining.

As the surfaces were glossed earlier, I proceeded with panel lining, using Tamiya enamel paints.



I used dark brown for most of the panel linings. For the guns, I used black.









There were many panel linings to do but these are what made the parts look good. A few areas were either not properly glossed earlier or with poorly painted surfaces that turned out rough. Instead of running along the grooves and corners smoothly, the enamel paint spread over these surfaces messily. I found myself using many cotton buds wet with thinner to literally scrub the runaway paints. Tedious work with strains of cotton residue here and there to be picked away with tweezers.

Some panel linings were not deep enough; the paint in the linings were either wiped away too easily when cleaned up with cotton buds or failed to flow smoothly along the shallow grooves. I found myself using a paintbrush to draw the panel linings literally. These lines were cleaned to a uniform thickness with another clean paintbrush wet with thinner. I started to appreciate the need to deepen panel linings with a scriber before painting.

9

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 01, 2013, 08:22:22 PM »

Decals. For the legs, I’d decided to use the available triangular decals for convenience instead of masking out the shapes. However the white decals are never as opaque as the airbrushed white. One can really see the difference between airbrushed and decal-ed white. I tried applying brown oil filter on both whites with the intention of bringing both whites closer. It didn’t really work although they still looks ok in general. Eventually I left it as it is.

10

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: October 01, 2013, 08:10:54 PM »

Thanks Hemish. Sorry for taking so long to reply.

It has been more than 2 years lull but I’m finally finishing the project. More details coming.

11

Model In-Progress / Re: Pair of Remoras

« on: January 20, 2012, 09:50:32 PM »

I see a jumble of colours but they come in together very nicely. Fantastic!

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Model Gallery / Re: First post, Maschinen Krieger Krote

« on: January 16, 2012, 06:12:42 PM »

Nice work!

I like the way the soil turns out. I presume the Khemri brown is from Citadel. What thinner did you use with Khemri Brown for airbrushing?

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Model In-Progress / Re: Revell Republic Attack Shuttle

« on: June 08, 2011, 07:43:32 PM »

Very nice. I like all the little details you have put in.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 08, 2011, 08:50:14 AM »

The progress has been slow and discouraging. To perk things up, I assembled a few parts to delight myself.



Not really 100% identical to the initial colour concept, but guess it has to do.

15

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 08, 2011, 08:47:29 AM »

Thanks Hemish / Steel-Mark / Bawoo.

I have been visiting the gym lately. My newfound strength.



I was attaching the nozzle to my airbrush with a mini-spanner and with a little twist, the nozzle broke into two…

Wasted time and money to buy a new nozzle. Ok, back to work.

16

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 07, 2011, 12:19:26 AM »

White Markings

I had also masked and airbrushed other white markings on the cannon barrels, shoulder plates, collar and head.






However, I found that the white marking on the head was too thin for my liking. I decided to re-airbrush it to make it wider and more prominent.

17

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 07, 2011, 12:13:03 AM »

There is a decal with many wordings on the back of the shoulder lamp. Maybe my eyes are getting old, but the printing is so small that I can’t read it without the zoom-in on my camera. As you can see, dirt was trapped beneath the decal. Better luck next time.

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Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 07, 2011, 12:10:32 AM »

I faced problem using the decals for the legs.
There are two parts for the white stripe on the leg. The decal is supposed to place over a raised “disc”.



After putting the decals on the surface, I had a lot of difficulty trying to match the two decals together, especially when one of them was supposed to wrap over the disc. As the surface is uneven, there were harsh ugly folds on the decals which even Mr Mark Softer couldn’t get rid off. At first, I thought of using hobby knife to cut away the protruding folds. Eventually, I simply scraped the entire decals away using wet brush (and fingernail) and resorted to masking and airbrushing the white stripes.

19

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 06, 2011, 06:32:02 PM »

Hi Bawoo. Thanks for reading.

I tried to avoid too much shading (to avoid looking too artificial if I overdid it) so I covered most of them with base colour. Moreover, the colour of the preshade is rather light. That is why you can't really see them clearly. Say if I want to redo it and the desired result is to have a more prominent shadowing and heavier shading, I will use a much darker colour for the preshade.

I used Gaia White, Black and Clear at the moment. They seems to behave the same as Mr Color. The reason why I bought Gaia is that I use White/Black/Clear more frequent than any other colours and they come in bigger bottles (50ml). They can mix with Mr Color as well. And I like the stickman logo

20

Model In-Progress / Re: 1/72 Destroid Tomahawk

« on: June 05, 2011, 08:09:54 PM »

Decals

I airbrushed almost all the parts with Gaia Ex-03 Ex-clear (gloss) to prepare the surfaces for decaling and panel lining. For decaling, I used Mr Mark Setter and Mr Mark Softer.



After cutting out a decal and submerged it in water, it took about a minute before the decal came loose from its paper backing. I found that the decals from this kit are quite thick but because of this, the decals were easier to handle and push around with a wet brush without fearing it folding upon itself or tearing apart especially after applying Mr Mark Softer.

After a decal was loosened from its paper backing, I used a small amount of Mr Mark Setter to wet the surface where I wanted to place the decal. Mr Mark Setter helps to soften the decal slightly and hold it to the surface better. On flat glossy surfaces, Mr Mark Setter was optional and I could simply use water instead.

Using the brush, I slid the decal off its paper backing and moved it onto the intended surface. The brush was then used to shift the decal around until it was in proper position. At times, the decal will stick firmly to the surface too fast before I could move it to its correct position. In this case, I wet the decal with water until the decal was able to move around again. Once the decal was in the correct position, I used a small piece of paper towel or brush to dry the decal gently. I also used the brush to push out any air trapped under the decal when it was still wet.

For a decal on round surface, the decal folded along its edges and did not stick down to the surface completely. I used Mr Mark Softer and brushed a THIN layer over the decal, allowing the solution to seep into the folds. I put it aside to let it dry. Mr Mark Softer significantly softened the decal, causing the folds on the decal to settle down onto the surface gradually. As the decals from this kit are rather thick, most of the time I needed to apply Mr Mark Softer two to three times (after each layer was almost dried) over the decals before the folds managed to settle on the surface. I had experience with thinner decals from other manufacturers. They tend to soften and wrinkle up almost immediately upon application of Mr Mark Softer (In fact, care must be taken when applying Mr Mark Softer as the solution is quite strong and can eat into the decals if too much is applied), but I did not see this effect on Tomahawk’s decals.



For this project, I placed the decals on locations as indicated in the instruction manual. The original decals allowed me to customise numbers to my needs. One example is shown in the photo above (D3 as in the name of this project, Destroid March)