Upgrading with metal parts Jake's ZF-1 kit

thank you guys :)

well, the new marking fluid is a big no go, crazy that they made a rattle can with that nice accurate dark blue details all over and when you spray it, it's actually baby blue... no luck!
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I assembled the whole rocket support today and snapped a few pics. this is all very work in progress of course and just a teaser :)
the rocket itself has just a quick first coat of paint, I'll work to make it look better soon. I'm happy with the color though, I went with Tamiya TS-16 if you guys like the result :)
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cheers
 
Hey there,
just updated the project run thread with some cool things
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But I will continue here with the blue tests as this is where we started discussing it.
I have mixed the Dykem with Edding permanent ink and although the color is absolutely perfect, they are not mising well and the result is blotchy.
The good part is that the edding ink itself works much much better than the markers themselves and I feel that this is a pretty good close result for the color and darkness we are looking for.
as usual, this is extremely hard to photograph and for me, this is not exactly showing what I'm seing in reality as the Dykem with my own eyes is really dark and the purple hue is totally random and how it shows in photos or even to the naked eye, and the edding ink here is a bit "basic blue" and doesn't look as good as it does for real I feel.

so, left: Dykem, center, Edding ink on top, marker under it, right, the mix 50/50 dykem edding that doesn't miw well but has the most perfect color in reality
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same here, dykem on the bottom:
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another view trying to show the colors better... dykem top right, mix 50/50 top left, edding ink on the bottom right on top of the marker in the bottom left:
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here in the same position with flash to see what it does:
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and on a different spot of the workshop to see the difference, dykem on the bottom, edding on top
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I'm disapointed the two are not mixing well because the color result is just spot on but I feel the edding ink on his own is pretty good! it would work well airbrushed I guess.
now, I want to try one last thing but I'm not sure it will be any good, diluting the dykem a bit with alcohol or acetone.
cheers
 
Hey guys,
wanted to try to paint the parts directly with the edding markers today to see how that turned out, I still don't think the color is perfect but that is the best I could find so far, and it pretty hard to apply uniformly with the markers, and no way to get into the holes, so not great!
will try to airbrush the edding ink, but painting is not my strong suit, so I'm a bit worried!
anyways, here are the tests even if they are not great, all part of the process!
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ok, now for better news, I did the same for the yellow parts directly with the yellow edding permanent marker, and i'm really happy with the result here :) it's not easy to apply uniformly as if you go over the ink twice, it starts becoming orange, but with a bit of care, it is not that hard :) what I really love though is how close the feeling is to the real ones, we can really see that it is tinted aluminium and it keeps the shine of the aluminium like on the real ones :)
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on the back pistons too:
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I love it! there is still so much work and improvement to do, but It's really starting to look real! such a great prop!
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cheers
 
Wow eethan , I did NOT think you would be able to get that close with the yellow! It looks spot on!!!!! I also think you're pretty much there with the blue; it's hard to nail down the blue with so much of it sanded off on the prop. Seems like the more you sand it off, the lighter it gets, right?
 
Ya know it's funny. I know for a fact Eethan could make more money on this easily, but he is all about decency, and quality, and making sure everyone gets amazing stuff even if it means making less and charging less. A rare show of integrity in this day in age.

In the words of a great man, "Now I really hate him."

:lol:
 
Ya know it's funny. I know for a fact Eethan could make more money on this easily, but he is all about decency, and quality, and making sure everyone gets amazing stuff even if it means making less and charging less. A rare show of integrity in this day in age.

In the words of a great man, "Now I really hate him."

:lol:
thank you so much Jamesfett! that means the world to me :)
I'm basically just starting and reputation and quality of my work is the most important to me so far :) but trust me, I get kicked by my wife often for selling too cheap :lol:
establishing a price to me is the hardest part of the job! I have a whole excell file with a lot of proper math there, but at the end of the day, i'm always like, is this a good price? is this too much? what would it be really worth to people?
This project in particular is super complex and arranging the group buys of found parts is obviously not about making money, so for sure, there is a lot of money going out of my pocket up front and not a lot of real "profit" overall, but that prop is just so cool, so, it's all good :) I mean, I'm just grinning like crazy each time I add a little part to my own ZF-1, this is a real passion project :)

to be fair, I didn't do anything crazy here ahah, just painted a few parts with a yellow marker, it's just lucky that this seems to be a pretty good match to what they did :)

Jordicus, yes I think the blue color on the prop is actually lighter than the actual color of the product they used when it was new. especially the two parts above the ice cube system, the color is really washed out there. Since the start I have been pretty sure they used the Dykem, but like someone said earlier, they apparently changed the color a bit with time and now it is a bit too purple. i think there are a lot of R2 builders out there who are fighting to source vintage dykem for that same issue, so we are not the only ones with the issue!
 
ok, now for better news, I did the same for the yellow parts directly with the yellow edding permanent marker, and i'm really happy with the result here :) it's not easy to apply uniformly as if you go over the ink twice, it starts becoming orange, but with a bit of care, it is not that hard :) what I really love though is how close the feeling is to the real ones, we can really see that it is tinted aluminium and it keeps the shine of the aluminium like on the real ones :)
I wonder if a orange or red Edding marker, or perhaps both, would work on the flamethrower. :unsure:
 
I wonder if a orange or red Edding marker, or perhaps both, would work on the flamethrower. :unsure:
hey, yes I have been wondering the same but haven't found a arange marker of the same quality, the orange they make is paint, so I haven't tried it. However, I think that in this case an aerograph would work better as there seem to be a gradient from red at the base to more orange yellow at the tip, then some extreme weathering on top. I'll try it eventually when I'm done with the run.
cheers
 
Not all of the 800 series are the same type of "ink"?

edding 800 permanent marker
yes, the 800 should be the same ink, they just have a larger tip. I just checked as well, the orange exists even in the 500 series, it's just not sold by amazon in France so I couldn't order it.
and there is not that much of a gradient, it's pretty much a bit darker just next to the base, maybe just insisting a bit more in that area would make it darker enough. If you don't want something as weathered as the original, i would recommend the aribrush tough as it will be pretty hard to get something nicelly uniform with the markers, especially if you want to try to have a bit of a darker base.
cheers
 
Random question eethan ; You said multiple passes of the yellow end up looking orange, could that be the orange you're looking for? Or not enough application control?
 

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