The Official 2014 "All the Rest" Community Build-Extended to April 31st

[mustang1989]

Guys the age of this kit is showing. The air intakes at the wing root are a terrible fit:

So I broke out the Tamiya white putty and went to work. LOTS of puttying and sanding here to get it whipped into shape:

and then I went to work on the gun barrels. What the heck are these? Toilet paper guns????

So I hacked 'em off:

Cut some pieces of a syringe for gun barrels:

Drilled out the gun barrel housings protruding from the wing to create a recessed area and then drilled out the small holes so that the syringe sections could fit so that it looks something like this:

So far it's not going too awful bad. The wings are another story.................................

:

[cobraman]

Much better.

[Agent G]

Very nice!

You are really putting in a lot of work correcting this old kit. I like that!

The Tiger is in primer now. I'll have pics posted soon.

G

[mustang1989]

Thanks Ray and Wayne! Oh the fun aint over yet. As a matter of fact its just getting started.

Lookin for pics soon Wayne. This outta be good!

[mustang1989]

Like I was sayin........... The wings on this old Revell kit were designed to fold up and down. The problem with this is it has some nasty hinge points and wing retainers to hold the wings in either the up or down positions as well as gaps and the like. Here's what I'm talking about:

Here's the parts to fix it:

and here's the tab trimmed up, squared off and fit into place:

Still a lot more work to do...........................

Edited October 28, 2014 by mustang1989

[Danny Lectro]

Wayne: Looking good! I'm curious as to how you made the copper cables. Did you wind them together like that? If so, how? Did you put them in the chuck of a drill to get that twist?

Miles: Those tractors of yours are rather impressive. Did you use a Datsun straight-six? It's hard to see under the cowl.

Joe: I like what you're doing, especially the replacement gun barrels.

I'm not too happy with the kit I'm building. The poorly pre-assembled frame is causing frustration, with way too many sprue scars and some alignment issues at joints. It's disappointing, because some of the other kits in the Frame Arms series have some rather interesting designs, but I don't think I'll be bothering to get any more of them. I would be much happier if I could have built up the frame myself in the first place.

I thought about just putting this thing back in the box, but I've already invested too much time. I'm going to finish, but I'll be doing a straight from the box build. I no longer feel it's worth taking the time to customize it.

[chunkypeanutbutter]

I'll get some better pictures today. It's been painted with olive drab and red wheels. Going to get weathering soon.

It's a Datsun four cylinder engine.

Only after I painted the thing I realized I didn't add the exhaust in yet...

[mustang1989]

I thought about just putting this thing back in the box, but I've already invested too much time. I'm going to finish, but I'll be doing a straight from the box build. I no longer feel it's worth taking the time to customize it.

Man do I ever feel your pain there Danny!! That's where I'm at with this Corsair! Had I known I was going to have to do all this stuff (and there's alot more!) to make a halfway presentable kit out of this I would have bought a Tamiya Corsair and saved myself alot of trouble. At this point I do have too much time invested and now I'm in it for the challenge of seeing this thing through. Hang in there Danny!

[Danny Lectro]

Man do I ever feel your pain there Danny!! That's where I'm at with this Corsair! Had I known I was going to have to do all this stuff (and there's alot more!) to make a halfway presentable kit out of this I would have bought a Tamiya Corsair and saved myself alot of trouble. At this point I do have too much time invested and now I'm in it for the challenge of seeing this thing through. Hang in there Danny!

In spite of my complaints, I think this Frame Arms thing is still much less of a challenge than your Corsair. Much respect to you, Sir.

I've come to see Kotobukiya's injection plastic kits as a mixed bag. On the one hand, their molds are excellent, with so much fine detail. They also produce licensed kits from the Armored Core video game series, which have lots of sharp edges and fine points. They make stuff that is kind of risky for a model manufacturer to make, like stuff from obscure anime and video games. They produce some stuff that's really good for customizing models, from stuff that's specifically for customizing the Frame Arms and Armored Core models (but could easily be adapted to Gundam), to weapon sets good for mecha models in general, to more generic stuff like rocket thrusters, spikes, hooks, handles, panels and even drills that are excellent for all sorts of genres of models.

On the other hand, the plastic they use is pretty bad. It's very soft, making it very easy to destroy those fine details when you are fixing seams and mold-parting lines. The stuff also feels, well, greasy, even after washing off mold-release agents. Fortunately, the plastic does take paint pretty well in spite of the greasy texture. The kits are also really expensive, especially for the licensed stuff. I think that's because they are a smaller producer, and they actually have to go out and procure licenses, unlike Bandai, who actually OWNS the license for most of the stuff they produce, being part of the same company as the anime production house.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Danny Lectro

[Pete J.]

I'm using an iPad.

It's not the best in bright light, but it has autofocus which is handy.

Looks like you might have something smeared on the lens. You might clean it with a cotton swab and mix of 50/50 alcohol and distilled water.

[mustang1989]

Danny: Hang in there Danny. I can certainly understand about the upsides and downsides of model companies. I can extend alot of empathy towards you for some of the blues you have been facing. On one hand it sounds like you have your work cut out for you but on the other hand you seem to be approaching it from a "can do" perspective. I'm very confident you'll get through this and I look forward to the progress.

Pete J: It's great to see you in here. Grab a kit and join in man.

[mustang1989]

Well here's where its at before we get started any further:

and this is the nasty "overbite" and misfit at the wing joints for the starboard wing which will be displayed in the "locked" position. What a disaster...........

Here's after filing away and sanding just so the joints would butt up flush. I have a "buckle" on the top and bottom sides of the wing. Jeez!! Where does it end?

So I stuck an old paint brush between the upper and lower halves to spread the two pieces and dunked the whole assy in boiling water for 10 seconds:

and now we have a fitting wing joint all the way. Revell.............................good grief!!!!

[chunkypeanutbutter]

Looks like you might have something smeared on the lens. You might clean it with a cotton swab and mix of 50/50 alcohol and distilled water.

There wasn't anything on the lens. As I said it just really hates intense light, especially from outside the window mixing with inside fluorescent light.

[Agent G]

Danny- I hoard any and all scrap wire for modelling purposes. In this instance I used copper strands from a power cord I cut from an old vacuum.

First I cut a 1/2 inch long piece of the cords insulation and cut it length wise. I take upwards of four strands of wire, this one used three strands for the main tow cables and two for the side track cable, and fold about 1 inch of one of the wire ends back on themselves. I insert this into the afore mentioned piece on insulation and then place all that in the chuck and tighten her up. I do all this with the cordless drill on the bench. Now I take a pair of pliers and grab the loose ends of the wire up. I hold this end out straight from the chuck and keep a slight bit of tension on the wires like this. I pull the trigger just enough to spin the drill slowly and watch the results. When it winds up tight enough for my taste I stop.

I ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION!

G

[Danny Lectro]

Danny- I hoard any and all scrap wire for modelling purposes. In this instance I used copper strands from a power cord I cut from an old vacuum.

First I cut a 1/2 inch long piece of the cords insulation and cut it length wise. I take upwards of four strands of wire, this one used three strands for the main tow cables and two for the side track cable, and fold about 1 inch of one of the wire ends back on themselves. I insert this into the afore mentioned piece on insulation and then place all that in the chuck and tighten her up. I do all this with the cordless drill on the bench. Now I take a pair of pliers and grab the loose ends of the wire up. I hold this end out straight from the chuck and keep a slight bit of tension on the wires like this. I pull the trigger just enough to spin the drill slowly and watch the results. When it winds up tight enough for my taste I stop.

I ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION!

G

THANK YOU for the answer!

[mustang1989]

Well here's the next step. How to mount this friggin wing with little or no support aside from the hingepoint. First off I needed something strong ....

This should do:

Then cut to size:

Then I got my good ol' buddy JB to adhere these into the wing:

and then mounted the wing. Walah!!

This wing will be permanently displayed down and the port wing will be permanently folded up.

[wrecker388]

I've finally done something with my M1A1! I've not touched it since last December. First, a picture of the box to show the kit I'm using::

Second, a picture of it as it looked when I first took it out of the box a few hours ago:

Third, tonight's efforts:

Edited November 11, 2014 by wrecker388

[mustang1989]

Great to see you with this one Riley! Lookin' forward to the good progress man.

On a sidenote: How old are those salt and pepper shakers? I remember those things from when I was a kid some 30 years ago!!

Edited November 11, 2014 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

Jumping into the pre-shading here. I'm not going to prime this thing because of all the fabricated riveting and panel lines that I've done. I want all the raised detail that I can stand here.

[wrecker388]

Great to see you with this one Riley! Lookin' forward to the good progress man.

On a sidenote: How old are those salt and pepper shakers? I remember those things from when I was a kid some 30 years ago!!

Thanks Joe! My parents have likely had those shakers since they were married in 1981. Lol

[mustang1989]

There ya go. I'm feelin my age now..................

[mustang1989]

And here goes the first coats of blue. Looks like the pre-shading was totally unnecessary on this paint job.

and a little further along...............

Well one things for sure, she's blue!

[cobraman]

Coming along nicely.

[mustang1989]

Thanks Ray

Edited November 13, 2014 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

Don't know what happened with that last post. Thanks Ray