1/48 jetfire custom...sans paint (so far)

[quest]

posted this over on Macrossworld, but figured I'd put er up her e as well. I picked up a 1/48 Hikaru vf-1s the other day wit hthe intention of painting it up like jetfire...ended up getting bored this weekend and started fiddling around with some stickers....a day (and 44 or so stickers) later, and here's the result:

















^and yea, I know the heat shield's on wrong, I just put er there to see how it looked (and get some feedback on it). i think I prefer it without the shield a la the original jetfire.

unless I'm missing something, the sticker list is:

-wing lines
-arm lines
-tail fins
-complete canopy surround plus nosecone
-upper chest w/ separate airbrake
-chest vent things
-eye
-shoulder lights
-hips/thighs
-feet
-strips on the gun
-autobot logo for heat shield

also have the stickers for the armor done (autobot logos, strips around super packs, and lines down the leg armor), and those'll go on after I get around to slapping some paint on them.

Also tried to minimize the "sticker" look by matching the panel lines on anything I coverd up, so they blend in seamlessly.

It ended up turning out better than I ever hoped (and is easily reproduceable if I ever decide to get another one)

[Kidchuckle]

wow beautiful conversion.
I couldn't help to notice you had a wacom.. are you a designer/illustrator?

[quest]

Thanks:) I was surprised how well it turned out for just being stickers...makes me feel a lot better for being completely retarded with an airbrush

I'll actually be posting a downloadable version of the sticker set as well, in case anyone else wants to make one and doesn't want to massacre a $100 toy with a crappy paint job

And yea, I'm a Flash animator by trade. If you haven't seen it, you can check out my site at: mobiusdesigns.com it's been about 4 or 5 years since the last update, so nothing on it is current (including my address ), but it'll give you an idea what I do.

[REX-203]

Dang Mike, that looks awesome. I've seen people paint custom 1/48 Jetfires, but this looks waaay better. Are those paper or plastic decals?

[quest]

Thanks Robby! I wanted to go for a matte finish, so I grabbed paper stickers, printed em out, then recolored over em with sharpies. Ended up being the exact look I wanted (and matches the finish of the existing painted parts on the toy).

i think the problem with a lot of the painted ones is that people don't hit all the details. They just blast the nosecone and the packs and call it a day...I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well make it 100% jetfire.

Should have the packs painted up in a week or so, and will post updated pics then

[Chen]

Very nice and probably looks amazing next to MP Prime or even Starscream his former friend. IMHO I would also add Autobot symbols on the wings and/or tailfins and boosters but that's just me, it's a awesome piece of work anyways!

[quest]

Definitely adding the autobot symbol to the boosters once i get them painted, as well as the black bands around the front of the boosters. Already got em colored up and cut out

Original Jetfire didn't have em on the wings or tailfins though, and I'm trying to get it as close to the original as possible. I guess, technically, it's an MP matsushiro (sp? ) Jetfire, since it has the Macross kite on the wing

and yea, it actually matches up perfectly with MP prime size-wise.

[admin1 aka Ed]

Love the work! Now are you tempted to add in panel lines with an ink pen or graphite pencils?

Ed

[quest]

thanks

and no, I've never been a fan of panel lined toys (except for a couple of those foot tall gundams that came out a few years ago...they needed panel lines). Just wanted to add em to the stickers where needed so they looked like part pf the toy. Now, airbrushed panel lines look ridiculously good...but I can't airbrush

[jrcrunch]

wow this is so nicE! Just make the fastpacks red. makes me want to pick up a vf-1s. This would look good beside MP starscream (is MP starscream also 1/48 or smaller?)

Did you just use ordinary printer? What type of paper did you use? Would like to replace some damaged stickers on one of my gokins



Cant wait for the sticker set. Big thanks in advance. I have really crappy painting skills!

[quest]

yea, just used an ordinary printer. The paper i used ended up lifting at the corners, so i decided to add a few dabs of super glue here and there to keep it nice and tight. There's got to be a better sticker/decal paper out there though...mine gave me the look I wanted, just took a bit more work than it should

sticker set is technically done already, but I want to get the packs painted first to make sure the stickers for them are perfect.

[crespo]

Your work is spot on! I like it.

[mechaboy1]

Good job! the paint has a factory finish look to it. Are you going to add a sticker on the nose? You could buy a parts Jetfire on ebay for cheap and use the autobot sticker. Carefully unpeel it with a razor.

[Kidchuckle]

Jun 23, 2008 23:16:54 GMT -5 quest said:

Thanks:) I was surprised how well it turned out for just being stickers...makes me feel a lot better for being completely retarded with an airbrush

I'll actually be posting a downloadable version of the sticker set as well, in case anyone else wants to make one and doesn't want to massacre a $100 toy with a crappy paint job

And yea, I'm a Flash animator by trade. If you haven't seen it, you can check out my site at: mobiusdesigns.com it's been about 4 or 5 years since the last update, so nothing on it is current (including my address ), but it'll give you an idea what I do.

just had a chance to check out your site.. pretty sweet!