Aoshima Super Oversize Thunderbird 2 (Completed)

[rastanz]

Keeps getting better .
So cool

Thank you.
.............................................

Back into it after a brief distraction of real world studio recording adventures with my fellow band mates.

My original plan was to leave some of the back area of the pod bare to house my battery clip but that all change as I redid my wiring for the pod lighting because the normal gauge wire was just too bulky and was a pain to try and route due to it's springing nature that made it awkward to tuck out of the way.

I rewired a set of fairy lights that come with some 28 AWG magnetic copper wire which is perfect for bending and holding it's shape, I may go back and rewire the main cockpit fuselage with this wire as I think it's way easier to work with and besides, since I'm running my LED's from a DC source there's really no need for thick wire since we're only talking milliamps and not high powered mega watts of current.

Also decided that three LED's were plenty to light the pod interior rather than six (two rows of three), I wired three SMD's for the fiber optic filament as I didn't want all the strands (ten in total) to be dependant on just one source as each bunch which consisted of 4x 4x 2x strands were targeted for a specific area.

Dry fitted the new lighting which is way more tidier than the recent rats nest.



As you can see I made a few adjustments to the pod by adding some structural beams as these would also act as support for my lighting, they presented a bit of a challenge to curve to the shape and correct size of the pod interior, they aren't perfect but they serve their purpose, I also drilled random holes in them just for added detail.

For the battery clip, I used the space under the floor for the compartment but then realising in doing that, the whole rear bulkhead had to be removable if I wanted to access the clip to change batteries or even turn the lights on and off. I applied the neodymium magnets trick for the rear bulkhead and the rear doors outer plate.

I'm at the moment trying to source some thin rubber seal to light block around the edge of the bulkhead, I was thinking of using some of the softer foam kind that conforms easily.



Another light test as I've been doing a bunch of them after every step just to make sure everything still works, all seems well.



Now that the bulk of the work is done on the pod I'm left with adding some greeblie detailing here and there to fill space, one final lighting test and finally paint the interior then seal the top and lower sections together.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

 

[Quaralane]

Looking really good with the mods here

 

[Hagoth]

This is really fun to watch this project materialize. Realy cool work here!

 

[rastanz]

Looking really good with the mods here

Thank you

This is really fun to watch this project materialize. Realy cool work here!

Thanks

Excuse the lack of updates, been getting back into work mode plus weather sux for painting although I managed to sneak a session in today but it was short lived.

Not much moving forward really, just been trying to tidy up work and add details, laid a vallejo black primer and a base coat of tamiya neutral grey over much of the interior sections, tested for any light leaks through the plastic and pretty much just getting things prepped for when I seal the upper and lower sections together on both the main fuselage and the pod.





Painted the rear boosters three times as I wasn't happy with the red colors I chose and the way they looked over my black primer, boxcar red was too dark, firey red was also too drab so after I stripped down the boosters (messy work) and re-primed I eventually decided on vallejo flat red applying six thin coats which actually turned out pretty good... also painted the four lower spot lights? well I think they are as one of my photo's shows them as lights, I thought they were vertical boosters, oh well... I'll ruin everything when I hand paint the rest of the details as masking would be a huge mission LOL.



I like how the grey makes the raised details pop.

Cheers

 

[rastanz]

Painted the cockpit and pod sections, didn't follow the colors of the studio model as I just winged it, my wonky paint skills came out better than I expected LOL, also installed the fiber optics but kind of messed up as I trimmed the ends a little short, oh well, at least I can see the effect in person as the end glow doesn't capture as well on camera, sux how the photo's make the grey color seem blueish.

Painted TB4, I'm not going to detail it as it's only a space filler.





Squeezing this in between rehearsals and family so updates have been a little slow lately but thanks all for popping in and looking.

Cheers

 

[Quaralane]

Cockpit looks good there

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

Extraordinary interior detail on the Pod - Wow!

 

[dogfish7]

Amazing work.

 

[rastanz]

Cockpit looks good there

Thank you, I think it makes a pretty good space filler.

Extraordinary interior detail on the Pod - Wow!

Thanks, I went a little further on detailing than I planned but I am pleased at how it's turned out.

Amazing work.

Thank you, having a lot of fun with it.
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Thanks guys I really appreciate all your comments and feedback, you all inspire me to keep on going.

A little progress as I've completed the detailing which I think was the best and fun part of this build but I am happy to finally seal the top and lower halves of the pod together which was something I wasn't looking forward too because I knew that I wasn't able to fix a slight warpage which caused about a millimetre of misalignment on one side which doesn't sound like much to the average mathematician but looks like the grand canyon from a model builders point of view. Lots of grinding and filling involved to eradicate the step but I succeeded in getting reasonably flush results and now it's back to my good old friend's 'putty n sandy' in which throwing on some Netflix seems to make the activity less tedious.

I noticed that my rear boosters still feel a bit tacky four days after my clear coat of Tamiya semi-gloss, damn it! I should've just stuck with using future which I have been doing with my previous builds and have had no problems with, I really don't want to strip the paint off and start again but knowing my paint work on it is unsatisfying is annoying the eff out of me.





I almost forgot, I still need to scribe in some panel lines before it'll be ready for a primer and base coat.

Thanks for looking

 

[rastanz]

Hey guys, hope you're all well and life is good...

Minuscule update... As I have been working non-stop and my modelling time has been scarce, what I could manage during the daytime I now have to sneak in during the evening.

Modifications on the pod is section is complete, it's more or less ready for paint but I want to paint both the pod and the main fuselage at the same time just to keep my colours consistent.

The toughest part of this model so far? not the lighting, not the sanding, nor the scratch building, wait let me correct that, yes the scratch building the bloody windows.

Tried various methods for the windows, my original plan was I wanted the windows to be flush with the exterior but no matter what I tried they just didn't look right, tried everything from Kristal Klear to cutting each window shape out of clear styrene sheet ended up looking messy and con caved, so to avoid further frustration I had to change my plan and install the windows from the interior.

Using paper thin clear styrene sheet I cut out just enough to overlap the window edges, I glued them in place with some Tamiya extra thin cement which worked out well as the cement didn't cloud the clear styrene.

Hot glued the cockpit and the observation deck lighting in place, the cockpit lights I installed more towards the rear of the ceiling as the light seemed to cover the area pretty good because too far forward would've made the rear space look dark, the observation deck lighting I moved the light slightly forward towards the nose as this allowed for a more dimmer look through the windows. I tried the deck lighting in another position so there would be more light but it just reflected too much and killed the extra greeblie details I had installed.

Routed and hot glued all the fibre through the main control panel and the landing lights and also positioned the rear booster rocket LED's in place, you can actually see the different blue and red colours I painted on the fibre ends in person but not much so in photo's as the photos make them look washy, I'll try some adjustments with my phones camera once she's done and ready for exhibition.

I finally sealed both top and lower sections of the main fuselage together, filling and sanding stages are next.

I'm excited at how this looks and I think the modifications don't look too overkill.





More to come

 

[rastanz]

Hi fellow modellers, hope you are all safe and well out there.

Excuse the lack of updates, I'm still cleaning up some areas here and there but I'm not too far from hopefully laying her base coat as I am waiting on paints to arrive from the other side of the world, yes this pandemic has surely put an inconvenient extension on international shipping so for the moment it's uncle 'fill' with putty and cousin 'sandy' with sticks n paper.

Used some liquid frisket to mask the windows and 2 part epoxy to fill the holes on the intakes.



Cheers

 

[rastanz]

EDIT: I actually forgot a photo.

Hi guys,

Thanks for popping in while I've been back at work duties...

Good news, mister postman delivered my paints (finally after nearly a month) as I had a couple of pots of Humbrol 80 Grass Green (flat) and Humbrol 131 Mid Green Satin enamels on back order with my local hobby store.

The colors were the most mentioned and highly recommended by a couple of members of who I think are the top gun builders on the Gerry Anderson group on Facebook.

I had all day Sunday to catch up on some paint work woohoo!!!... well the weather was mint so it was a toss up between mowing my lawn or painting TB2... the latter won me over.

I wanted to try something different with paint application so I watched a video about post highlighting / shading and thought to give it a go, bare with me, it's my first attempt at this paint technique so it looks a little rough with only the first color (131 Green Satin) applied.

Once the first coat's had a whole day to dry I'll start misting the 80 Grass Green over her and see how it turns out, I must admit, I'm kind of liking this Green hue over the black primer.

Oh yes, forgot to mention, Thunderbird 4 got her stripes today as did the rear booster rockets, yay!!!







Looks better in person as the photo's don't do it justice.

Thanks for popping in.

 

[Belugawrx]

This is looking great, nice start on the paint work !

 

[dogfish7]

Very cool.

 

[rastanz]

Thank you guys,

I've been reading up about enamels and drying times, some recommended 3-4 days for them to cure, as I am not familiar with enamels I thought I'd better listen to the experts.

Laid my second coat of green and I'm liking the effect of the different tones coming through even though it's very subtle, I may have went a little heavy here and there but it looks damn good to me.

I'll give it a 3 day dry then add a tiny bit of highlighting then continue with masking off for the yellow stripes.





Cheers and Happy Holidays

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

I'm no expert - far from it - but I read that enamels need up to a week to fully cure. I would def get a second opinion on that, but I don't touch my enamel body coats for at least a week before sanding. What you have done with this TB2 is absolutely amazing - and yes, I am insanely jealous!

 

[rastanz]

I'm no expert - far from it - but I read that enamels need up to a week to fully cure. I would def get a second opinion on that, but I don't touch my enamel body coats for at least a week before sanding. What you have done with this TB2 is absolutely amazing - and yes, I am insanely jealous!

A week sounds safe as even after 3 days my first coat still felt sticky.

I was going by the advice of some members of the Gerry Anderson group on Facebook as they've built and painted some awesome TB2 replica's and saying nailing it's colour is the hardest part.

I think one more pass of green after this coat dries then I can move on to the yellow markings and the weathering stages.

Thanks for your input.

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

A week sounds safe as even after 3 days my first coat still felt sticky.

I was going by the advice of some members of the Gerry Anderson group on Facebook as they've built and painted some awesome TB2 replica's and saying nailing it's colour is the hardest part.

I think one more pass of green after this coat dries then I can move on to the yellow markings and the weathering stages.

Thanks for your input.

I agree re: TB2 green! It's an elusive color to capture, but I think you've done a fab job of it. I always thought that in different settings and lighting situations, the "real" TB2 on the show presented different shades of green, so the definitive color remained somewhat a mystery. Fantastic job, one I could not replicate in a million years!

 

[rastanz]

Hey Happy 2021 guys, hope your New Year got off to a great start.

Well, it's been a fair while since an update as real life stuff has been keeping me busy but here's where I am with my TB2.

I did some masking and painting on the booster rocket intakes which turned out pretty good considering that some of the curves were a bit tight for masking.

I also masked off and started painting the yellow stripes but for some reason the the masking tape pulled up the paint when I peeled it off
which is totally my screw up for not allowing the paint enough time to cure proper before removing the masking tape, oh well

The only stripes that survived are the stripes on the tail plane.

I completely removed the yellow paint which peeled off quite easily? sanded areas where had I painted the stripes (wings and main cockpit fuselage), re-primed and repainted the green base then sealed with a gloss, I will try the kit decals and see how they go because I want to avoid re-masking and painting them again.

Also removed the liquid masking on the windows, still a bit of clean up to do on them as I'll need to paint in the edging of the windows with green.



Cheers!

 

[rastanz]

Thunderbird 4 complete, decals went on quite good considering they're old, added some extras decal's to her that were spare from another kit.

Weathering stages on the pod, looking to do a real world weathered effect because I want this bird to look used and abused similar to the weathering I done on my Thunderbird 'The Mole'.



Thanks for looking.