1/100 Zerstore part 4

Next up is the assembly of the hip section.DSC00028 To get the sides to stay closed and together I had to glue and clamp. There’s a gimmick with a spring but I’m not sure what it does. I guess I’ll find out eventually….DSC00029 The arms have been completed and detailed. I used very tiny drops of Tamiya smoke on the indents.DSC00030Now that the hip is dry from the gluing and clamping, I added these photo-etched details. DSC00032 This red is so much better than the horrible orange plastic!DSC00033 And it goes very nicely with the yellow.DSC00034 Here’s the arms getting joined in. They attach very firmly with a small part that securely clips into place to hold them tight.DSC00035 From the top you can see the clip, and there’s a small piece I glued just in front of the clip that will ensure it doesn’t unclip.DSC00036 This part is looking rather fun as-is!DSC00037 I’m very happy with the armour details in red as it adds much needed variation to the arms and shoulders.DSC00038 Here in close up you can see where I added small drops of the Tamiya smoke. If you add just the right amount you get a slight darkening of the indent and a slightly darker edge that gives the detail real depth.DSC00040 I started panel lining and detailing up the “wings”. I also got the shield completed. Some of the shield parts were very tight and required a fair degree of force to get them together.DSC00041 The underside of the shield is quite nicely detailed.DSC00042I just completed the gun. It’s great that the gun assembles in separate pieces allowing you to properly paint the barrel, but some of the plastic assembly is very sloppy, especially for the white section at the top. The bottom didn’t want to stay firmly together so I glued and clamped it here, which also made for a nice stand while the painted details on the sides dry.

12 thoughts on “1/100 Zerstore part 4”

  1. The gloss top coat works really nicely on the blue pieces, almost making them look as if they’ve been properly painted. I’ll still be flat coating the white though!

    It’s a tricky build, not helped by the ghastly DVD manual, but I’m getting through it. I love some of the small details, and then hate them when the next piece you put on completely covers them from view!

  2. Nice build and WIP. Will definitely use ur WIP as my guide when I’m building my kit. Want to ask about the cement, is it ok to paint the parts then use the cement or best to cement then paint?

  3. It’s ok to paint then cement as long as you’re careful not to get glue on the paintwork in a visible area. For instance, I just glued the wing parts together where you have white plastic (unpainted because of the pad-printing) into grey plastic (painted Tamiya gunmetal and flat coated). There are nice pegs on the white plastic where you can add the cement before inserting the pegs into the grey plastic holes. Or you can add a drop of cement down the hole first.

    For some of the white armour I’ve had to carefully drip the thin cement in from the outside to get the part stuck properly. The wing sections needed this technique. In other places you can put the glue on pegs or drip it inside where any residue or disturbance will never be seen. When you have to glue on the outside, you’ve got to be really careful, but I did find that the Future Finish top coat really disguised and covered up any feint glue marks.

    You may need super-glue / crazy-glue / cyanoacrylate for some of the metal parts. There’s some tiny metal fins that I managed to get in place by carving out their indent hole in the plastic to give more depth for the metal to glue into (with just cement to melt the plastic a little to grip the metal) and then a drop of the super-glue which runs down the sides of the metal and dries solid to really hold it tight.

    I’m nearly there with the decals, with just the head and thrusters to complete the build.

    I’ve noted the major tricky areas in the WIP, the one needing the most work so far being the side blue chest pieces that needed the holes drilling out to accept the pegs.

    1. Thanks for the quick reply. I just read those updates. Really nice to know the tricky parts before starting. Can’t wait for you to start the decals and start with the leds for the thrusters. Wonder if the manual will be confusing to install those. After reading your WIP, I really want to get started on my kit. Keep up the good work.

  4. I have most of the decals done now. Only real disappointment there is that the “red” decals are really quite orange and I much prefer a nice primary red. The decals are good quality and are going on relatively easily.

    I’m still waiting on batteries arriving, so I may just build the thrusters and head in advance.

  5. Yes, issues that appear to be lack of build testing and iteration on the design. If you’re competent enough at modelling, they’re minor (if infuriating) issues, other than the daft design of the head LED which is just pure awful. The end result does look great, but it’s much harder to construct this kit than it really should be.

    1. about gluing some parts, what type of glue did u apply? a super glue or plastic cement? and about photo etched parts, are those parts have any issues?

      i wish u could give a step by step guide how to setup the LEDs, because i didn’t experienced with LED 🙂

  6. For the most part just ABS liquid cement/solvent. I did use a bit of superglue in places. The photo etch went ok, other than on the skirts where the fit isn’t the best and you need to use superglue to fix them firmly in place.

    I tried the LED for the head and it’s awful. The fit and instructions are atrocious, as is the whole design idea for them. I tried to use superglue to hold stuff in place, but that just mucked the whole thing up.

    I may try the LEDs on the thrusters, and if I do I’ll blog about them.

    1. oh, ok… looks like i need to buy some cement in order to complete this kit.

      oh i see, i’m not really sure if i can set up the LED for this kit. the one and only led unit i’ve been use is the one inside PG astray’s head, it was easy to assemble. but i think on this kit, it would be quite challenging.

      i’m not an expert modeler anyway 😀
      i’ll be waiting for yr next update dude 🙂

  7. The head LED is not easy at all. I’d ignore it and keep your sanity. New update coming soon with lots of pictures of recent builds, including this one!

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