Model thread

Spartan303

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Back in the day I used to do Model Aircraft Carriers. World II models and then up to a few of the newer generation like the Enterprise and Nimitz. They're gone now but this kind of takes me back.
 

Battlegrinder

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The trouble with repainting them won't just be the old paintjob, it'll be the plastic they're made from isn't ideal, but it's a nice job.

This one seemed to work out fine, no chipping or poor adhesion on the primer, so I don't see why other models would be different, particularly since I also have a MWDA kodiak that likewise reprimed without issue.

The only real issue I can see is that a lot of MWDA models have translucent plastic cockpit canopies, and priming the rest of the mech but not that part might be tricky.



Speaking of plastic cockpits, does anyone know if those no-fog cements they make for model kits work on resin? I've got a FW arvus lighter (you can see it in the background of that picture, actually) that's almost done, but the canopy needs to have the clear plastic panels glued into it and I'm not sure how to do that on resin without fogging up the panels with superglue fumes.
 

Vargas Fan

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Back in the day I used to do Model Aircraft Carriers. World II models and then up to a few of the newer generation like the Enterprise and Nimitz. They're gone now but this kind of takes me back.

Ships are an expensive thing, I've got a 1/350 scale Sovremmeny, complete with photo etched masts which I'm dreading. Zvezda do an HMS Dreadnought which I'd like, and Trumpeter do an HMS Warspite.
 

Spartan303

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The Academy Warspite is said to be better, especially the one with all the bells and whistles


British Battleships and American Battleships are pretty big deal model wise. Lots of details go into them.
 

Vargas Fan

Head over heels in love :)
Further progress on the Confed carrier.

71168465_3001150136578879_7017356840832860160_o.jpg
 

Battlegrinder

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Speaking of aircraft, I just got some:

DOyEdOL.jpg


I've mentioned liking crimson skies before, and now I have an entire squadron of planes from there! And soon, will have had most of them repainted into....I dunno, maybe fortune hunters colors, but I've never had good results with reds.


Weirdly, the broadway bombers (NYC air militia) have F6 Brigands, which is an airframe more assocaiated with pirates then legitmate forces. The other ones are more correct.
 

Battlegrinder

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Just wished I could get it working decently on my PC. :/

You getting that weird texture bug on all the text that happens with newer versions of direct X? If so, I know a few places that have patches or fixes for it.
 
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I have to admit I am very impressed by these efforts. Model building is actually a very detailed artistic talent with a lot of patience.
 

Battlegrinder

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So, mega construx recently released a number of new sets in their Halo line, including a model of a halo ring itself.

GUEST_8a98ae11-d23f-49ee-8ccd-de6cde6ed1df



As it turns out, if you buy several copies of that set (5, to be exact), you can build a whole ring.

I bought 5 sets.




After finishing it, here's my review.

1. Mega has done a lot to close the gap in part quality between them and lego, but they're not there yet. They do, however, leverage some of there unique parts quite well. Mega has mixed color bricks that have other colors mixed in, so within the part there's variation. This is best seen with the water bricks, which have darker blue and white mix in, creating the impression of waves and current.

2. The kit isn't quite designed to work with this kind of combined assembly. Each kit contains 3 ring segments, but you only need 14 to make the full ring, not 15. And the baseplate has some design issues, it's a set of large flat plates with bricks underneath to give it it support and a layer of smooth panels on top to create a flat surface. This works fine in the offical kit build, but when scaled up, the combined baseplate desperately need a second set of plates the sandwich the bricks and make sure the base doesn't curve. That said, the ring sections themselves easily snap together with no modification required, and mega used a a set of ball and socket joints connected by long bars to suspend the model above the base, and that system is fantastically flexible and can easily be used to create a new suspension system to hold up the combined model at any imaginable angle.

3. The kit comes with plenty of parts, more than enough to build varied interior sides of each ring segments which is very important. Varied interiors make it look like it was designed to be like this, not like it's 5 smaller kits jammed together.

4. That said, the scale is a bit off. Surface details should not be visable on an object this size, I would rather the interiors have a wider variety of colors and shapes printed on the inside of the bricks. It also doesn't include anything to scale the ring against, I wish mega had made a tiny little UNSC ship thst could be suspended alongside the ring to show its size. One of Megan's strengths has been that they're willing to create greater accuracy in a kit by making single use parts like that, they should have used that here.

Overall, I'd give this kit a B, maybe a B-. It's good, certainly far better than Mega's offerings back when they were mega blocks and not mega construx (in fairness, the subpar part quality back then was not thier fault), but there's a fair bit of room for improvement. They frankly should have just sold it as a single, complete ring.


Also, as a side note. If you want to buy one of these, get it from target, even online if you have to. It's $15 cheaper there, for some reason.
 

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