Five Star Stories V Siren Neptune IMS 1/100

[banzai]

Recently I found that Volks has started doing injection plastic Five Star Stories kits in 1:100 scale instead of resin. Being a little allergic to resin dust (messes with my skin) I figured this would be a great chance for me to finally try out one of these beautiful kits. Also I've been hanging around here long enough to feel bad that I haven't contributed, so here we go!

First, a picture of the box.



FSS has such unique designs... I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. So without further ado, lets get started!

Upon opening the box I realized how much work this would be... Volks is supposed to be one of the bets when it comes to resin kits but I don't think they have a lot of experience with plastic. Either that or I've been really spoiled by Bandai. There are issues with this kit that will make this a very difficult build, as far as prep is concerned. In fact, building this kit will be mostly sanding, filling and flash removal.

So here we go!


First piece, the face. Check out that extremely thin strip of plastic near the corner of the eye hole. Those white bits are just stress on the plastic... Plastic quality isn't as great as Bandai's unfortunately but it cleans and sands just as well.


Since its not a snapfit like a Gundam, I've resorted to using tiny bits of blu tack to keep the smaller pieces in place for when I put it together. The detail is insane... There's tiny little panel lines around the eye and a tiny little "eyeball" lens construction even. Very impressive.


This kind of thing was what I was expecting... This piece is TINY! I put a pencil in the shot to give you guys an idea of how small it is... I've cut off pieces of plastic scrap that are bigger than this! I started getting scared when I cleaned up this piece... The nub is positioned in quite possibly the worst place... Sticking right out of the side! Very careful scalpel work and very gentle sanding cleaned it up quite well but it was nerve wracking. I held it in place with my trusty inverted tweezers but the whole time I was afraid the piece would slip out and go flying never to be found again.


Here's another example of nastiness... The gates are attached to the piece in the worst possible place, in 4 places both sides of the piece. Exactly in the middle of the curved, chamfered edge. I'm beginning to think it was planned and moulded this way on purpose.


One of the unique things I'd noticed about these FSS designs is that they all incorporate sweeping sexy looking curves that end in almost needle sharp points. Sharpening the tips of the horns seemed to make sense.


The head so far, including teeny tiny ornament on the top held in place by blu-tack.


I'd just started on the neck when I noticed this... You guys know how orange peel happens when you make a mistake with your airbrushing right? Beat this! Orange peel on BARE PLASTIC! The right is the opposite piece, unsanded, the left is after some light sanding. Not even sure if I can get all that orange peel off, its pretty nasty.

More hopefully, soon! I'll be doing this on weekends.

[Rayloke]

darn..... u r like working on a monster here...... huhu enjoy n Ganbate!!!!!

[banzai]

Neptune... Monster from the deep!

More updates.


This is meant to be something like a clavicle. Originally it was pitted with a whole lotta orange peel and really muddy details. Sharpened up the details, sanded away the orange peel and rescribed all the lines.


Finally a piece that I can glue together before painting. Except... The MASSIVE gulf of mexico sizes gap to fill. Had to break out the epoxy for filling this, didn't think that regular tamiya basic would work... Too big a gap. This would not be the first fit issue I've had though, definitely not the worst. Thankfully this gap will be mostly covered so it doesn't have to be too clean.


Here's the sub assemblies put together so far. Neck, clavicle and as you can see... The gap is almost completely covered by the extra pieces. The fit of those pieces in the puttied area originally was terrible. Was very difficult aligning the pieces together.






And here's pictures of the assembly with the upper chest and upper back area assembled too. Had to sharpen the point in front of the chest... Initially it was quite blunt. Thankfully the pieces on the light blue sprue were not affected too much by the wierd orange peel on the gray ones, so cleanup wasn't too bad. There were some small scratches though and imperfections on the plastic so I broke out the Surfacer 500 and cleaned them up. The 2 separate chest plates on the left and right were glued in place and were extremely hard to align. They aren't even aligned in this shot since I'll only be gluing on the outer armor pieces after painting. The two small back plate tiny "wings" have also proved to be troublesome so I' think I'll be keeping them aside for the test fitting.


Actually that does bring up a question I wanted to throw to you guys... I'm finding that the blu tack isn't quite strong enough to keep this pieces in place since the fit is extremely loose for this kit. Its so loose in fact when I peg something in to a notch or a hole its supposed to fit in to it will definitely not fit without some blu tack.

Any ideas? Sure blue tack is good but I'm wondering if there's something stronger that I can use that will not be permanent so I can fit this better during this test fitting stage. After the test fitting even... Not sure what I can use to glue this together since the fit is so loose that parts rattle in their housing. Filling with epoxy? Not sure. It definitely has to be something that doesn't dry as quick as liquid cement, since I'll need to align the pieces first.

[OzanBG]

i believe this going to be such a fantastic built...looking forward to see the end result... keep it up...

[banzai]

Some progress from this weekend.




Here's a piece I noticed when checking out some Japanese blog sites for research before building the kit. Most Japanese modellers seemed to custom build this part. I can see why now. Its so muddy and moulded together as one lump. Eww. Inspired by their example, I did...



This... And...



This. There were other sites that had created small chains instead of the brass rods I elected to use, but I feel brass rods keep with the original silhouette of the part. I think I got a bit of eye strain doing these bits because they were so tiny. I need to get a magnifying glass! Replaced the cut corners where needed with pla plate. Smallest pla plate pieces I think I've ever cut.



All in all though it turned out alright, except for that single slightly crooked rod on the left side. I might have to go in there with a pair of pliers and adjust that. Not sure if I want to mess with drilling more holes in to this part.



From the side... (with the waist section... Oh yeah finished that too, forgot to mention. Boring stuff. Lots of orange peel sanding. )



And from the front.



These 2 bits are meant to go on the side of the head in those empty polycap sockets you can see, but I don't think I'll be putting them in till after the painting.


Overall so far having a great time with this. The cleanup is pretty crazy especially sanding off the orange peel from the gray parts but its rewarding work. I've noticed that they are very inconsistent with detail... Some areas will be ridonkulously detailed, but other parts they seem to let slide. Oh well... Apparently Volks is quite new at making injection plastic so I guess its inexperience with the medium.

For now. Some muddy details to clean up isn't so bad. At least there's no broken parts. I am getting paranoid about lost parts though... They are so SMALL. This is the exact reason I never want to do HG kits! In the meantime I've taken to laying a white towel on the ground when I start modelling so no tiny plastic pieces drop and bounce away never to be found... I almost lost one of those little blue ends on the brass rods. Wasn't looking forward to scratchbuilding something that small!

More in the following weeks. Working on the pelvis, and probably the upper thigh and legs next. Maybe I'll revisit that crooked brass rod with a pair of needlenose pliers.

[Rayloke]

nice work bro!

[banzai]

Thanks Ray. Okkkkayyy more updates!



The pelvic inner frame region was horrible to clean up. I think the 2 halves were mis-aligned on the mold, so tons of scraping and levelling with putty. Nasty nasty fit.




This is one of the rear side skirts. From looking at the resin version of this kit, the moulding wasn't exactly accurate... Those two little notches on the side are actually meant to be part of the outer piece. So a bit of trimming later I was left with...



This. A bit more cutting, trimming and epoxying later and I'm left with...



This! It looks pretty ugly right now but I checked with a quick layer of surfacer and its level with the outer piece. It should be level after painting. I hope. Fingers crossed!



And here's the other parts of the pelvic region, without the rear side skirts (which you just saw.) I didn't glue them in for painting purposes.



See that tiny gray piece on the back on the side skirt? That's where the other side skirt pieces attach. Tiny... No way I could mount that for a photo without some cement. Removed the horns for safety as well... I think I did TOO good a job sharpening. Pricked myself and the damned things drew blood. Now I've bled for this kit!



Dramatic lighting! Well... Actually crap lighting. I definitely need to get a white bulb for this table lamp.



Here's another example of just how mean these guys were when organizing their mould... See where that ejection mark I filled is? Yeah... Right in between an elevated edge. I swear they do it on purpose. Had to fill then chisel out the shape again. Evil EVIL EVIL.



That was the knee that you saw... Here's the completed leg. Looking at the level of detail though makes it worthwhile. Its a sexy leg. Woooaaar!



And here she is showing a little bit more leg. *wink*

Still plenty more to go! Other leg is only 1/2 done and I still need to clean up some areas on the legs but I want to fit over the armor plates first to make sure I'm not wasting my time on an area that might be covered. More in a week... Next, the arms!

[OzanBG]

one sexy heel... hehe
keep it up..

[banzai]

Sexy indeed... The designer of this mech is one warped guy. I was reading up on it and apparently this one is piloted by a woman named Christine. At first I thought... "Ohh that's why it has heels."

I was wrong though. Almost all his mechs, male or female pilots have heels. Almost all his pilots, male of female look... I don't know what they look like. Words fail me. Androgynous? Tall, anorexic and you just can't tell their gender from looking at them. The women look like men. The men look like women. Its all very confusing!

I can't deny he designs sexy looking mechs though, unlike anything I've ever seen anyone else design. Just weird wild and wonderful. I think I'm in trouble... I'm getting addicted to these designs, and the kits are a bit on the expensive side. I think I'll be getting another one after this. We'll see... I might take a short break in Bandai Master Grade territory before going back to one of these.

[bayu]

Hahaha, be careful, Bro. Ur getting the FSS disease. The next symptom would be Mortar Headd resin kits.

[banzai]

I think tis too late bayu. Already caught the disease. For now I'll stick to the plastic first though. There's a few plastic FSS kits I can get. Also, some types of resin make my skin itch, so If I get one that's made of that kind of resin, I will probably sell it again since I don't want to kill myself when I start sanding. If it makes my skin itch, I can't imagine what it will do to my lungs.

[banzai]

Okie dokie! After about a week of no updates because of our beloved election drama (better than any soap opera I tell you!) finally I've snapped some progress pictures to upload. Sorry, I was hooked on the election developments. Very exciting! Enough of that rubbish though, back to the model!

In the meantime I've finished both legs and outer armor pieces. Here's the other leg loosely taped together.







Notice that I had to putty where the two halves of the shin plate join together... Slight misalignment in the pieces and my OCD tendencies made me do it. I had to have an absolutely perfect sharp edge. Sigh.


With both legs complete, I moved on to the arms.





Looking at the shoulder pieces I immediately spotted a huge flaw. First, I had to chisel some details in because the original details were too muddy. (Not sure if I was wasting my time... They are internal details, after all.) What I absolutely couldn't stand though were the two puttied areas, HUGE sink marks.



Externally though the details is absolutely gorgeous. SCULPTED raised details of the mermaid on the right shoulder. Never really seen that kind of detail in a kit before! Usually they'd use a decal for this sort of thing. Not so, FSS! Unfortunately the dreaded orange peel strikes again. I'll sand it eventually but its going to have to be a very patient job... I don't want to sand off any of the sculpted details.



Here's the upper arm and the forearm. I'm thinking of replacing the tubes which are rubbery polycap material with something else. I've always hated that polycap material... Can't sand it, can't smooth it... Grrr.



Here's the test fit of the shoulder pieces...



Arm and hand. See those annoying rubber tubes? Arrggh.





And 1 shot of the constructed arm. I'm thinking of getting some really thin air hose from an aquarium shop to replace those tubes. Hopefully its thin enough. A bit of brass tubing and aquarium hose and I think I can recreate the forearm tubes with possibly sharper details than the original.

2nd arm is almost complete as I post this, so next will be the complete test fit, and finally I'll be moving on to dismantling and priming this monster!

[banzai]

This project and I'm afraid all my others will have to be on hold for a bit, as we're having some renovation done. Which means I can't paint or do any sanding.

Hope to get back to it by next month. Sorry guys.

[banzai]

Started back up again after a long break. So from where I left off, pieces were ready for priming except for one technicality... Its a glue kit, and I want to use cement to ensure a strong bond. So after a little research I found a guy who had the same problem and solved it by using small amounts of masking fluid to mask the mating pegs before priming and painting. Fingers crossed, hope it works.

This should ensure bare polystyrene on the mated pegs so the solvent can properly melt the plastic. Anyway, this is the boring bit. Just masking off bits with masking fluid so I can start priming. Lots of parts so I won't show it all. 






Just gotta clean up and make sure I don't have any overflow now. Slow work. Next post will be figuring out colours for the inner frame and the overall colours for the kit. I'm hoping you guys can help me with that! Spoon painting, how exciting.

[OzanBG]

ouh.. never had thought about this.. thanks for sharing ur tips on how to paint before glueing this kit...

[banzai]

Quick update-

Spoons primed with this stuff I'm just trying out now, Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500. Usually I use the 1000 or 1200. This stuff certainly is fine. Wish I could dedicate more time to doing this but I can only paint on weekends and there's just so much else that needs doing too. I guess it gives the paint a chance to cure well.





The picture of the spoons with just primer was taken under my regular fluorescent lighting, the picture of the painted spoons was taken after I changed my lamp bulb to a 6500k daylight balanced bulb. MUCH better! Amazing what a difference the lighting can make. Clearer pictures from now guys, with more accurate colour. It also means I can paint at night now since my old bulb was making impossible for me to judge colour when painting at night.

The masking of the spoons is... Horrible. But bleh, this is just for test. Real quick and dirty to test and compare Alclad II, Mr. Super Metallic Plate Silver and Chrome Silver on gloss black and gloss white undercoats. Still got a bit of prep left... Need to lightly sand and compound the b&w spoons to a mirror shine. For that I'll also be testing this product...



I've seen people use this stuff in a variety of ways. Some say its a replacement for Tamiya compound but its a single step - no coarse, fine and finishing just all in one. I've also seen Japanese modellers use this stuff after Tamiya finishing compound... Not sure if it actually enhances the shine further. What I do know though is that this stuff leaves zero residue unlike Tamiya compounds, and its like a thin milky liquid. 2 spoons, 2 tests. After finishing compound comparison and without any compound just this product. I see a lot of buffing in my future...

Got many things I want to experiment with these 2 spoons. Other spoons are just gloss white since I want to try to follow the FSS colour scheme since its apparently sacrilege to change the original colours. The Alclad is for the 2 sexy swords! Will update tomorrow with erm... Shinier spoons! Thanks for viewing as always!

[banzai]

Sorry for the delay guys, wanted to make sure the paint had completely cured before compound work. Arright, down to business! Compound/polishing done! Here's the results.





I did pretty much what I would always do - Sandpaper to smooth out imperfections with 2000 grit on both spoons then start compounding with separate buffing cloths for each. Coarse, Fine and Finish. Most of you guys who done stuff with cars and bikes would be familiar with this process. Its kinda slow, laborious and takes a long time but its very rewarding seeing the sheen that slowly intensifies with each compound.

Now, the Hasegawa stuff was totally different. I applied it to the cloth ONCE. I started polishing and surprisingly the shine started to appear within 20 seconds! This stuff is pretty amazing. The results from what I can see, are pretty much the same except for a few notable differences.

Hasegawa compound doesn't require as much work nor as much product to create the same shine. Hasegawa compound miraculously DOESN'T TAKE AS MUCH OFF THE SURFACE AS THE TAMIYA COMPOUND. This was a shocker for me.I figured that to achieve the same shine it would need to remove the same amount at least, from the surface. I was completely wrong. The cloth with the Hasegawa compound had near zero discolouration. The Tamiya compound had varying levels... Coarse left a little light grey/white stain on the cloth, the Fine left a little less and the Finish almost nothing. The Hasegawa compound left about as much as the finish compound from Tamiya and with the same shine in really a VERY short time. This stuff is incredible I'm really curious to know what's in it now.

Impressively as well, it leaves absolutely NO residue. I usually have to wash the piece after using Tamiya compound especially when it gets in the grooves of things. This stuff leaves nothing on the surface after polishing. It didn't leave anything on the grooves near the end of the spoon as well. Impressive indeed, I want more now.

Next tests - Alclad II vs Mr.Colour Super Metallic Plate Silver NEXT.

Man that's a mouthful.

[Phoon]

Very extensive WIPs which I might add. Thanks for sharing your works and does gave me a total whole new perspective about FFS stuff. Will keep an eye on this monster. Keep us posted then....

[banzai]

I will indeed keep you posted Phoon. This WIP was for me more than anything else though. To help me come out of my shell so to speak. I'm usually not one to show my stuff online or to ANYONE for that matter. This has been good for me.

So on with the metallizer tests! I should have waited till the weekend but I couldn't resist so I woke up extra early and got some painting done. The results were not unexpected. Similar quantities of both products were sprayed on similarly (I hope) polished surfaces at around 12 psi with very light misting.



The Alclad blows the Mr.Colour Plate Silver NEXT out of the water in terms of reflectivity. However I don't think its a fair comparison, since Mr.Colour also has a Chrome Silver which I have yet to try. I will be trying that next!

Here's the Alclad on the left (black)-




And on the right (white) =




Plate Silver left (black) -



Plate Silver right (white) -




So, conclusions -

Alclad II is ridiculously shiny comparatively. However there is a marked difference between the Alclad on gloss white and the Alclad on gloss black. The Plate Silver still shows a difference but its not as obvious as the Alclad. Of course, as I mentioned above the plate silver I believe does what it sets out to do - It gives the surface a silverish sheen, not a mirror chrome. Both products can take a light buffing with a soft cloth after painting but the Mr. Colour was definitely tougher than the Alclad. You can see tiny bits of Alclad that started to fade after I did a little buffing. I will be testing Mr. Colour Super Metallic Chrome Silver next to see how it compares. The ONE complaint I'd have about Alclad is that if you look really close at the surface you'll see like a tiny sort of grain at certain angles.


On a final note to end this test, I thought I'd leave you with this -




The Alclad II is so shiny it makes freaking LENS FLARES.

Next up - I'll be testing how both products react to masking and topcoats. Future, Enamel Clear and lacquer clear.

[stormv]

Very details and informative WIP. Keep it up !!