hello and welcome to my channel
seven scales this channel will be dedicated to 3d printing sci-fi models and
many world war ii ship models please enjoy in this video i want to share how i
made my favorite sci-fi space shuttle from james cameron's avatar in 1/400 scale
the model is 3d printed and if you want to have a go at building this model yourself
you can purchase the STL files, link below the movie avatar is set in the 2150s a
powerful organization called the RDA has developed the means of interstellar
travel to alpha centauri system two of these valkyrie shuttles is carried on the
interstellar vehicle the isv venture star and they are used primarily for transporting cargo and
personnel between the ship and bases on pandora ever since i watched the movie in 2009 the
valkyrie has always been my favorite sci-fi ship and now i'm really happy to be able to recreate
the scale model of this ship i made all of the 3d models in blender and i use lychee slicer to
add support and create the print file because this video is already super long i will be
making a separate video for the 3d modeling the cleanup process is quite messy but with the help of anycubic's wash and
cure machine is not as bad after washing the model with ipa
i use airbrush to quickly dry it i also begin to cut down some of the
supports to help the model cure better after the model is cured i use a scalpel to
clean up the little leftovers from the supports unlike plastic sprues cured resin is more
brittle so it needs to be done more carefully i test fitted the wings to make
sure the cleanup is done properly and i must say without those huge
engines it kind of looked like a moth for the next part i'm going to
build the cockpit and the cargo bay but before that i need to prime the parts black the primer revealed more imperfections i use scalpel again to do more cleanup i really like this black putty from ustar it is a liquid so you can use the surface tension
to apply small amounts of it very precisely i like to use acupuncture needles as applicators when the curing solution is applied
the putty is cured almost instantly it doesn't really sag and
it feels just like plastic after a bit of sanding i primed the fuselage again the cockpit is actually very difficult to install and it's barely visible after the
model is completed but i made it anyway here i use a random piece
of plastic for the screen i think the result looked pretty decent i thought the color difference between
the panel and the roof was too large so i held them together and applied some ign gray the surface detail on the floor
is probably impossible to paint and dry brushing probably won't do it either
so i put some silver paint on a thin cardboard and just slowly rub the paint
on the model and it worked great now it's time to assemble the cargo bay i think i
did a terrible job designing this part there are no guidelines to help me position the components
which is probably why i'm not working at tamiya i made several attempts at gluing the
floor in the final attempt i added some guides using styrene sheet and i was
finally able to correctly position the part if you are building this model you should
just build the ramp in a closed position i decide to attach the wings before
attaching the final part of the cargo bay this is because i want to use the
styrene rod to help me level the wings i used some thin super glue to help me
strengthen the bond i found thin super glue is extremely useful in modeling but they
are also pretty messy if you are not careful in the end i spent around five hours working
on the cargo bay and it's mostly hidden sometimes 3d printing isn't so consistent there
will always be seam lines with 3d printed models i used some black putties again and as you
can see it works great on large sim lines they can be send it down pretty easily too
unfortunately i have damaged some of those horizontal panel lines i had
to re-scribe them one by one and finally i used an airbrush
needle to widen the gap a bit i remember i spent the whole night doing this i think it was not worth it masking
is usually a long and tedious process that i don't want to show it in the video but when
i speed up the footage it actually looks quite fun after the initial layer of white
paint the fuselage still looks grey i cut some really fine masking tapes to
create the grey lines on top of the aircraft so after peeling off the masking tapes i
found out i didn't do a very good job i had to use a fine brush
to fix some of the mistakes i have not seen many people use
3d printer to create stencils it's kind of difficult but here i can
show you it's definitely possible to do it i'll be making a tutorial on how to
make these stencils in my blender video for weathering i chose to use
the brown panel line color because i wanted the white color to look more warm i didn't have any enamel thinner
on hand so i just used the gray panel liner to wipe off most of the brown color in the movie the white color
on the ship is really uneven i tried to recreate this look
by painting some highlights here i have some unused gundam decals
they're really terrible decals but i didn't want them to go to waste so whenever
i have a project like this i would use them rear jet engines doesn't have many attachment
points so they're a bit tricky to handle i mostly use thin super glue
to secure the engines in place luckily the glue marks are mostly
gone after a coat of matte varnish the final assembly is actually quite simple i think the cleanup and masking is
the biggest challenge of this model i only discovered this product recently it has the
same consistency as white glue and it dries clear i think it's a must-have for modelers i
will definitely be using it on my ship models for the base i found some circular plywood
and is just the right size for this project i glued two piece of styrene sheets together
white glue is used to attach the styrene i applied extra thin super glue around the
edges to make sure the styrene doesn't peel off i don't think the grid i made was
really precise but it looked alright first i applied some pre-shading then a layer
of light gray and finally a layer of ign gray i don't have a brush large enough for
this so i just use my fingers again the semi-gloss coat is sprayed unevenly i've done
this to simulate the wet environment on pandora with the base completed i put
some cargos in the cargo bay i'm not too sure what the rectangular cargo is but i think it could be the
tank that holds the avatars now that the model is finished
time to put it into a diorama a diorama wouldn't be complete without figures
believe it or not at this scale figure painting is actually really forgiving the paint doesn't
have to be precise to make the figures look good in conclusion i learned designing
a model kit is pretty difficult i have a lot more respect towards those perfectly
fitted kits from tamiya or finemolds but overall as the first self-designed 3d printed
model i'm really satisfied with this result i hope this video has been informative and
fun thanks for watching see you next time
