Last time I posted an update, it was for the damn V-fin that broke a few times. So with that, we go back a few days before the break as I was continued to paint the kit in parts. The upper torso was done so I took the painted parts and did a quick assembly. I’m liking this paint progress because I’m not getting burnt out with masking a ton of parts and I’m getting decent visual cookies that keep me chugging along.
The upper torso done, time to get on with the legs and feet.
Getting the legs painted, here’s a quick comparison with the other set of replacement thrusters. The original on the right, and the new more can like on the left. The new thrusters are bigger and there is much more detail in comparison to the originals.
The legs and feet done, another assembly session to keep the visual motivation in high gear. I created a custom display stand with an acrylic rod and some styrene. I’m using the original kit’s bottom base attachment part and the fit is perfect. And this hold the kit up nicely.
I still got the funnels and rear venier piece to paint up. I’m using the standard Hi Nu color scheme which has a fade between the white and blue. I first masked off the funnels and painted in the white, then unmasked and freehand airbrushed the blue to get the slight fade.
Having finished all the principal painting, I start putting the last bits together. The two solid resin fuel tanks, the partially solid resin funnel holders, the solid resin center venier and the plastic funnels with a small resin detail that I scratch built. The original stand was designed for the original kit, not the resin conversion. So with all this extra weight in the back, the kit started tipping off the styrene/acrylic rod stand I made and fell off it. This was when my finger caught the V-fin and snapped the stupid thing. Read about that fix here.
Pealing away the masking tape, some of the paint on the funnels came off too, so I needed to remask and spray some touch ups to these areas.
V-in is being fixed so time to continue with the project. A clear gloss was sprayed over everything. Decals. I dug though my decal box and found that I had collected a rather large collection of Nu/Hi-Nu decals for 1/144 and 1/100. The decaling was a fairly long process and took two days. I ended up using a ton of decals for this kit, more than what I’ve usually done for other kits. I think the decals work well for this kit. Especially for a clean build.
The underskirt details were hand painted with enamels. I thought about masking and airbrushing this, but I did not want to risk pulling up paint and hand painting such details is much faster. And now many people are really going to upskirt this bugger?
The decals got a clear gloss to protect them and a panel line wash was applied. It’s when I was cleaning the panel line wash that I BROKE THE FUCKING V-FIN AGAIN! Ugh. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have glued the damn fin into position until I was completely done with the kit and doing final assembly. But too late now. it broke again. I glued it together and there was a visible line. I thought for a night about just leaving it, but chanced my mind the next day when I looked at it.
Rather than pull the V-fin off and risk more unwanted damage, I just parafilm wrapped the head, masked off the blue section of the v-fin and started working on a fix. Light curing putty applied. Cured. Sanded.
Then Primed. Base coated. Shaded. And the quick fix is done.
The last piece of work is always the weapons for me. This is nothing new, so it gets painted, clear glossed, decaled, clear glossed, then panel lined and a final semi gloss sprayed to complete the project.
And with that, 8 years later; the damn thing is done.
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