N-Scale Robotech

[mangozac]

I think it's nice to have a bit of colour, but select the colours so that when printed as greyscale tones they are still distinguishable.

The layout looks good!

[paulson games]

Paint!!!!

With the exception of priming one of my large scale battletech models I realized that it's been over a year since I've painted anything. I picked up some new paints as the old ones were getting a bit dried out and gummy. This has a long way to go before it's finished but I started blocking out the color and it's starting to look like something other than a boring white piece of plastic.

I'm not the worlds best painter and I'm going to have to do about 30 of these so I'm simply aiming for a good tabletop standard rather than anything flashy. Once I get the panel lines tightened up it'll get a wash and maybe some basic highlights. I used a mix of GW and PP paints, the blue is GW enchanted blue, the P3 paints are frostbite which is an off white blue and thamar black.

I may lighten up the white a bit but I was aiming for an offwhite for a couple reasons, in the animations the white is almost always a milky off white color that reminds me of white out which is probably a result of how they paint the animation cells. It also has the benefit of seeing what areas I've already covered. The plastic is a pretty stark white color so skull white wasn't showing and I couldn't tell how thick the paint was going on and where I'd already covered.

Anyways not much to look at just yet, but a small personal milestone as it's been ages since I touched a brush.

[Vaaish]

cool! It's looking good so far. I don't think I'd do much beyond highlight the white you've got there. Works well on the model.

[paulson games]

A small update before I crash for the night.

At first I wasn't sure about adding red to the tips of the laser barrels, technically it breaks the offical color pattern (slightly) but I think it helps and I can just claim it's because they are actively shooting.

Think a wash would make the white look dirty?

My concern is that the blue and white areas looks kinda flat at current. Fits with the feel of the anime but not particuarly realistic.

The off white blue tint doesn't really show in these pics, my camera seems to have issues with certain colors I suspect it's because it's shot under a shop lamp I will try and take daylight pics tomorrow assuming we don't get rain again.

[paulson games]

Seb took a crack at some graphics for the PDF, I think these came out killer. Much better than my earlier grey scale version, feels very at home with the Robotech design.

[mangozac]

The pod looks great. I personally feel that the white is fine as is and it's the blue that needs something. I wash? I don't know. Highlighting maybe? I know I'm not a fan of the black lining between the blue and white.

Seb did a great job of course

[Seb]

Cheers Paulson

I've been inundated this week with desktop work, aiming to provide you some sample ideas of text layout. Perhaps modify the background slightly for two column rules text.

The Zentradi pod is good, look forward to more pieces. Agree with you on the brush issue, been awhile myself. A few scattered projects, but mostly snatched moments with my paints

- Seb

[paulson games]

I put the chop to one of the bandai gashaponfigures, sacrificing it's hand for the greater good.

As both models are the same scale the hands are pretty much spot on in scale, they are probably slightly larger but only when you really sit and look at it, on the table nobody will care. The gun pod however is noticably larger.

The original gun pod is udnersized, the new one is probably over sized, I think the ideal size is probably at a point about 50% between the two but I'm not sure if I feel anal enough to scratch build one unless it looks grossly out of place. Any thoughts?

I ordered up a set of Mission Set 1which has a two more options for the left hand, open and a clenched fist so that way I'll be able to add a bit of variety between models. Mission Set 3 which I took this one from only has one hand set shared on all 5 models.



This is probably the best rendition of the GU-11 gun pod and what I'm aiming for. I think the diameter is correct on the gashapon gun, maybe shorten it's overall length slightly?

[mangozac]

I don't have a problem with the oversized gashapon gun. Yeah compared with the "correct" last picture it looks slightly too big, but come on we've all come from the world of 40k

I wouldn't bother trying to shorten the gashapon gun. It will be pretty difficult to chop a section out without a noticeable seam, and might make it look a bit stubby. Maybe just sharpen up some of the details instead?

[paulson games]

Small update but time consuming.



Started base coating the mechs, it seems like it's next to impossible to get the base layer of paint down on these plastics. The paint goes on nice and smooth and then 10-15 seconds later pulls back leaving exposed areas. It's moving a round simular to how water beads up but in jagged patches instead of droplets.

I'd given them all a good wash in dishsoap, rinse, and air dried before starting them so they should be free of oils. I'm wondering if the age of the plastic might have something to do with it? I know the standard back then was for enamel paints (not acryllics) so maybe the plastic formula is differant and more oily? I've tried paint straight from the pot and paint dilluted on the wet pallette and both are having the same effect, although moreso on the pallette.

Whatever it is has been driving me nuts, I've been getting coverage but it takes a lot of extra passes. I probably should have just spray painted these but about a month back when I went to spray prime my Hatamoto-Chi it got over done and flooded and I spent a good hour soaking and cleaning it before the spray paint set all the way. Total sticky mess and it had me freaked out about ruining these models as well, so I've been hand priming and painting them.

These should be ok from here out, I'm leaving them over night before I add any further layers on as they rub off kinda easy right now. Once I get the colors blocked out a bit better it's a simple matter of black lining and touch ups so I should be able to have these table ready with a couple hours work tomorrow.

(The one on the left was white plastic where the right two are in dark grey so the whites and blue look cleaner despite the paint coverage being the same)

[Lane]

I know for a while some model companies were using a silicone based mold release on injection molded kits. It played hell with painting them and did not clean up using soap.

[Seb]

Hate to mention this, due to extra work, but did you give them a wet sanding with fine grit paper?

I see a lot of 15mm gamers strip down 1/72 scale and HO scale models, they always seem to scour the painted areas to give the base spray some tooth.

[paulson games]

New hands fresh from the casting pot. The larger size gun has grown on me and I think I'll leave it as is without any further mods. The piece that forms the upper part of teh gun grip is pretty thin so it was bending everywhere while i was trying to put it together, future casts I'll make sure to leave sit for extra time so it can cure more before using.

Hands still need to have the mold lines scraped down but they are a vast improvement over the old ones.

[mangozac]

Looks good - just don't forget to drill out that barrel

[TomG]

Nice. I was always fan of Macross series. Only Macross 7 was a bit strange. I want sometimes buy and built kit of Valkyrie as mecha probably type from Macross Frontier.