Klingon Vor'cha Cruiser WIP

[fubar]

Hahahaha......another 'midnight modeller' like me. ;D

Looking good dude, love the markings you've given her. I see you have the same soldering iron stand i have! I hope you iron fits better than mine does, it came with the iron yet it only fits into the stand halfway because of a stupid great screw head that secures the irons tip in place. lmao

Great design guys....not. :

Anyhoo, keep it up mush i'm looking forward to seeing this get 'dirty', what type of pigs are you going with?

TTFN Matt

 

[Igard]

Cheers, Matt.

A great big screw blocking the iron from fitting properly you say? Sounds like we've bought the same set of irons. It wouldn't have a yellow handle would it? And you didn't happen to buy both stand and iron from Maplin would you?

I bought them because they were the same brand, so I figured they would fit nicely. :

 

[fubar]

Haha that sounds exactly like my iron and yes it was a Maplin purchase....never again, next iron I buy I get through work. Certain things like tools it's worth spending that little I think and not go cheap.....oh well. lol

 

[smusno]

Dear Mr Igard.

When you weather the green machine, would you take some piccies whilst your doing it.

I have to weather my D-7 soon, and would like some pointers

 

[Igard]

I'll see what I can do, smusno. I'm learning this stuff myself, so can't guarantee I'm doing it the right way! ;D

Might have some wee snapshots later on.

 

[Igard]

Got the first wash done. Only for the darkest, dirtiest areas of the ship. Not much at all at this stage.

Any comments, tips and suggestions are very welcome. I'm still learning.

I used approximately 3 parts dark dirt to 1 part light dirt to make the first wash.

Applying into those filthy areas.

Being quite liberal with it. Doesn't matter if I make a mess, this stuff cleans up really easy.

And after about 20mins, wiped it down lightly with a cotton bud. Here, there are only 4 areas with the wash, hope that's obvious. :-\

And a nice effect on this nacelle.

I might get the second wash done late tonight. In the mean-time, here's the base before it gets a gloss coat.

 

[fubar]

Love that base.....just love that base. ;D

 

[Grendels]

The base looks good and just the right amount of weathering...

 

[java]

Good looking work,i agree with Grendels and fubar the matt paint finish on the base looks choice.

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely moving in the right directions with this

 

[Solander]

Yeah, the base is a gem!
And looks like You're almost there with this build.
Excellent work all the way from the beginning till this point, my friend! Thumbs up!

 

[Igard]

Thanks very much for the kind words guys. It means a great deal. Been kind of struggling with a couple of things on this. Getting there now.

So, I figured that the light wash should be a slightly rusty, muddy wash. I thought about buying more products, before realising that I've got this stardust stuff that I bought way back. So, why not experiment?

I used this mixed with flory's light dirt and a tiny bit of washing up liquid and a splash of water.

Gave an interesting muddy effect that I kind of liked. It did leave some large grainy bits of dust behind though.

I had to use an old paint brush (it's about 15 years old!!!) to remove those grainy bits of dust. Wasn't too hard. I don't think the brush liked it very much.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Here's a couple of pics of the ventral hull. Haven't shown any images of this yet!

So, a couple of problems. You can see from the above pics that the decals now look very wrong indeed. This only really became evident to me after the wash was applied and I couldn't figure out why.

Then I read the label of the Tamiya clear coats. Actually it's written on the top of the can. "Do not spray on decals and stickers". Well, I know I should read everything and this was quite clearly printed on the lid of the can, but I would have thought a brand that was designed for model building would develop something that could be applied over decals. Something that is quite often found on models.

And the finally, you might have noticed I've not taken off the masking yet in the above pics (windows nacelles etc). Well, it didn't go according to plan. I've done most of the fixing up now, but this was a nightmare!

I the future, when drilling so many small holes in the model for windows, I'll make sure to put down a base coat before construction. I don't like doing that, but it seems the only way.

Hope the above few paragraphs don't sound too negative. I think it's important to document the ups and downs, and to show you all that I'm not 100% where I want to be yet.

Now onto the real star of the show, ;DThe Base!!!! ;D

Gave it a nice splattering of flory's dark dirt...

Masked off the areas I want to remain glossy, the emblem and the sides.

And gave it a flat coat (not Tamiya :-X) over the brown panels.

At least something's going right.

I've now got the final wiring of the switch and battery done. Got most of the fixes done. Very small amount to do now, so final pics will be coming in the next couple of days. ;D

 

[Quaralane]

Very nicely done here

 

[Grendels]

A clear coat that can't go over decals?

Well I won't be buying that any time soon.

Good work on it!

 

[Rentar1]

Looks great! Congrats! Maybe try Future as a clear coat and then a dull coat next time, it works for me.

 

[Igard]

Thanks Q, Grendels and Rentar1.

@Rentar, Thanks very much! I've used Future (or the UK version of it) a couple of times on my earlier models and it did work well. I'm experimenting now with different brands to see which I prefer, but I may go back to Future in the future.

 

[Solander]

Now this looks awesome!
The work of a noble warrior whos not afraid to gather a bit dirt, the Klingonish high-council would be very proud with how this bird looks now
And the base looks exactly like it should to, excellent work bud!

 

[Splashcoat]

Looks great.
And that base is outstanding!

 

[Igard]

Thanks Solander and Splashcoat.

I'm gonna to call this done. I might get the final pics uploaded tonight. I'm moving my workstation, so I'm gonna be busy cleaning up and organising. Hopefully, a more organised work area will yield more models and more better results! ;D

 

[smusno]

Viva la Florywash!