Sv-51γ (Nora Polyansky) - Macross Zero

Robin (WhiteGlint)
While the acrylic textures on the diorama bases are drying I thought: Why not finally start the next Macross kit?
Here is another Variable Fighterfrom Macross Zero, which is my favourite installment of the Macross franchise, though I have to say that I sadly did not see the original series yet...

Nora's Sv-51γ has a striking colour scheme.
At first I figure that I should paint the yellow stripes but thinking about all that masking I quickly let go of that idea. 😄
I think it should be possible for me to still give this aircraft a slightly weathered look.

Assemblies are all done as far as it was possible. Next steps are cleaning, priming and painting the cockpit and some other parts I should paint first before putting the engines and so on together.

Torsten
😎 Project, I'm watching

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Welcome, Torsten.
Almost everything glued together and ready for more NATO Black base coat. I made a few mistakes and need to paint a few parts of the landing gear bays, as I missed them before. Luckily I did not use any mixed colour yet.
So any mess I make now can be covered with the base coat. Main colour will be eyeballed again, let's see how far off I will be this time. 😄

Masking the engines and nozzles might be a pain in the future. But painting these parts after the main colours and so on might be the bigger pain.

S M
Nice topic 😄 I'm in!

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Welcome S M, nice to have you on the ride as well.
Small progress update: Main colour applied. I had to mix the colour a few times and wasted quite a lot of red, but I think I am pretty close now and I like love it.
It may be not completely accurate, though.

S M
I think that color is cooler than the original bright violet 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thanks mate. Yes I like the colour very much.

Finished painting today and glued the bird together. Sadly I made a bit of a mess with the glue and screwed up the paintjob here and there.
Some corrections are also needed because of sloppy masking. I won't be able to mix the exact same colour again, which is a bit of a problem.
The weapons are now painted as well.

Next will be some details and corrections, landing gear needs some work as well, gloss coats to protect the paint before working with oils.
I won't go too heavy with the weathering, I think.

Torsten
The effort with the masking was really worth it, looks great 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thank you Torsten.

Okay, so the decals are applied and they've been a nightmare.

The decals are thin and it did not take much to tear them apart. It happened quite a few times.
In exchange they were also hard to conform to all surfaces, especially on edges which needed me to apply Mark Fit, which made them rip even faster as well.
I'll let them set for a day before applying more gloss coats and then finally weathering can begin.

Murad ÖZER
worth the trouble mate, looking wonderful.

mecha designs of zero were good, wouldn't be my top choice however. when in comes to macross it ended with plus for me, unfortunately years ago mr. kawamori said it was a mistake on his part and he wouldn't ever go there... then they screened an enhanced macross plus movie edition in movie theaters in the usa couple of weeks ago.

anyway don't get me started.... :]

S M
Decals looks good 👍 Difficult to notice any tears in decals.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
So, next one finished.
This was also a nice kit, just the decals were so brittle.

Still I made some mistakes along the way. I should have waited with at least with glueing the tail stabilizers to the aircraft after finishing decals and oils. They were hard to reach and easy to break. Also the varnish began to swirl and dry in the air and so it sat down as dried particles. But just on very few areas, so it is almost invisible. And some more stuff that went south, but oh well. 🙂

My cleanup on the seams of the fuel tanks and ordnance was too bad and it is very visible thanks to the oil wash.
There was one decal for the canopy that I did not apply. I believe it is to make the explosive cord, that destroys the canopy in case of ejection more visible. But I did not want to apply a decal on top of that clear part.
Not sure how one is supposed to level the surface of decal and canopy and I feared that it could become cloudy after applying some varnish.

Still, I like the result and it looks great next to the blue VF-0D.

S M
Looks great with weapons and all 😎 It seems to be darker in tone compared to WIP pictures. Could it be just the lighting? And this looks much cooler than VF-0D

Murad ÖZER
Indeed next to the zero it's a lot more interesting design wise, lovely build! 👍👍👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thank you very much, Murad and S M. 🙂

Yes, it is a bit darker on the pictures than it is with the naked eye.
I changed my light setup a bit, which is the cause for that. Now I have better light working in the spraying booth but now it is a bit too dark for glueing and especially taking pictures. 🙁

I think I need to change the setup again and maybe buy an additional lamp.
While I think that the white desk is okay for taking pictures the lamps I have generate too much of a spotlight instead of a soft, more indirect lighting.

Simon Nagorsnik
Fantastic work!
Like the style of this fighter, the decals look great!

Torsten
Turned out really great, I find it coherent and looks great 😎

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thank you Simon and Torsten. Much appreciated. 🙂
The decals were a pain in the ass, though. 😄
Decals are the step I fear the most in every build I do.

Chan Li
Nice build! I was always thinking to build a Macross aircraft, and now your results encouraged me to do so.