Gunship of the Valley of the Wind
Pink primer airbrushed.
Details of the faces with acrylics and a brush.
1/72 is just so tiny even with "anime-eyes".
Faces are ready.
liquid mask for protecting the faces.
I forgot Nausicaä had back hair. I must avoid it when painting clothes. Also I didn't put putty in the back because I though it won't show when sitting in the cockpit.
Mito's base color was airbrushed while Nausicaä was hand brushed entirely.
Rest of details hand brushed with acrylics.
Liquid mask removed from Mito's face. Needed to fix the boundaries.
Mito fixed. Shame all the flaws are shown in the picture but in real life they were difficult to notice.
Figures are ready after black wash and matt varnish.
The Gunship itself is under construction. Cut off most of snap-fit pins for easier dry-fitting.
The rocket fits very loosely so it is safe to paint. Its diameter is about 3,7 mm.
Almost only additions I built from scratch are the tiny levers of the control stick. There wasn't enough room to drill holes so I glued them on the surface.
Interior parts painted and first varnish layer applied.
Just checking. It is not possible to insert Nausicaä afterwards through the open cockpit.
Front seat assembled according to the instructions. The guns are not glued because snap-fit.
The guns needed to be removed because I couldn't add Nausicaä otherwise. Good I didn't glue them.
Now the front seat is ready.
Everything that comes inside the fuselage is in place. Not glued, because I trust snap-fitting here.
I didn't add any extra to the back like levers, tubes or other controlling devices, bacause they would not have shown and Mito takes most of free space.
Fuselage halves glued together.
Surfacer 500 added on the seams and started to make wings.
Not much new. The central seam of the fuselage is smoothed and primer was added before attaching the wings.
Painting flaps beforehand.
Attaching wings and flaps.
Back from vacation! Some preshading with white.
Main color coming up little by little. I usully avoid mixing paints, but the Vallejo Air 71.420 Earth Yellow was too brown for my taste so I had to mix it with some white and yellow.
Windscreens coming up. I felt lazy and masked them with liquid mask that may retaliate.
The front window was nasty surprise and needed gap filling.
After painting I noticed how bad one seam was so it needed to be sanded and repainted.
Hopefully the paint is now ok, so I airbrushed the first clear varnish layer.
Landing gears are in good shape so they got their clear varnish layer also. One landing gear panel was unlucky and its paintjob needs to be fixed.
Weathering ongoing. Chipping with sponge method.
Testing A.MIG shaders.
Fault of snapfitting. I pushed the cover too hard unevenly and so it cracked.
Too much snapfitting so I'm now scared of using glue, so the projectiles are installed with blue tack.
Masks are removed. I'm not happy with the deep little window, so it is filled with Micro Kristal Klear.
Last minute decision to fill the bottom hole. Nice 2mm wide and 8mm long hole filled with styrene strips and super glue.
Now it is fixed.
My camera skills doesn't make honor for this model. Color settings varies so much.
Over a year after completing this model, some marker marks (number 8 in the picture) has come visible. Strange phenomenon. I don't remember, was this marker mark under or over the primer...
Comments
33 6 December 2021, 21:38
Cortexamazing, I built this kit and it was very fun to build. Your looks awesome, please keep posting!
13 December 2021, 04:34
TorstenGreat progress, the figures I like very much and enhance the model again very much, excellent 👍
14 December 2021, 15:08
Simon NagorsnikGreat paint work so far!
Nice pre shading and your figures are fantastic!
Love this project😄
2 January 2022, 20:58
S MProject is advancing a bit slowly. I have been uncertain what kind of weathering I would like.
18 January 2022, 12:43
Alec KNice progress 👍. On the weathering, just go with your gut. There was no weathering in the movie, at least as far as I remember. Good luck with it.
18 January 2022, 14:22
S MThanks, Alec 🙂 I think now the weathering is done after some pore shading. Unfortunately one landing gear cover got damaged and I need to fix it. Otherwise this could be ready in this week.
18 January 2022, 19:58
Robin (WhiteGlint)Landing gear looks good. 👍 I hope you have no problems fixing it. The crack does not seem so bad in the picture.
I have a feeling you went for some subtle weathering.
19 January 2022, 20:38
S MThanks, WhiteGlint! I just put some cement into the cracks, sanded them smooth and painted again.
19 January 2022, 21:32
TorstenVery nice step-by-step. I really, really like the painting, i.e. preshading and the small details. This will be a top model 😎
22 January 2022, 09:23
S MThanks, Tom and TWN! 😄 I have to say that preshading worked, but postshading on few parts made this better. The model is now ready.
22 January 2022, 18:59
Robin (WhiteGlint)Beautiful gunship!
The details are great and the subtle weathering is a nice touch.
22 January 2022, 20:05
Greg BakerAdded this to my « chest and try to copy » list for my upcoming projects… so sweet.
24 January 2022, 07:05
Simon Nagorsnikreally good job mate!
looks so fantastic, i am very happy that you shared this with us!
24 January 2022, 16:53
S MAdded photo 66 to demonstrate how some marker marks (like the number 8 in the picture) have came visible a year after completing this model. I marked these parts because the four flaps were very similar and difficult to differentiate.
5 March 2023, 20:18
Album info
Two-seater fighter jet from the film "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" ("Kaze no Tani no Naushika", 1984). It has a jet engine, the pilot is located in the front cockpit and the co-pilot is in the aft cockpit managing engine. The thrust is generated with giant "blown flaps" similar to Hunting H.126 and Ball-Bartoe Jetwing.
