Plum 1:60 Darius Burst Legend Silverhawk plamo build photoset October 30th, 2020
If you are into playing shmups (2D shooters), Wave, Kotobukiya, and Plum have all made model kits based off of these game subjects. Here is Plum’s Silverhawk Legend from the game Darius Burst from the game arcades as well as the PSP. (A sequel game, Darius Burst: Chronicle Saviours, made it to the PS Vita.)
Parts were painted separately, and thanks to undergated parts I could paint several pieces on the runners. The main body was painted Mr. Color 81 Russet and the white areas were painted Mr. Color 1 White with a top coat of Mr. Crystal Color XC01 Diamond Silver. This is a pearlescent top coat color, and I thought the name “Diamond Silver” was perfect for a starfighter called the Silverhawk. Won’t you agree? the result was beautiful. The steel parts were painted with Gia Notes 125 Star Bright Iron. Wow, it is a beautiful, shiny metallic color.
I made a custom decal by printing the Darius Burst logo I found via a DuckDuckGo image search (I don’t like using Google). I printed it onto Fine Molds clear decal paper and when applied to the pearlescent white stand (same paint as the ship’s body color), it looks beautiful!
I decided to light this kit, and it was a rather challenging task. At first I intended only to light the rear engine can with a 3mm flickering blue LED. Then I decided to light not only the cockpit, but the guns as well. The cockpit is lighted by an 0805 white SMD. The cockpit viewscreen is already a clear blue, so that is where the blue shine comes from. The guns were the tricky part. I used fiber optics and had to not only drill out the gun barrels, but also create channels through the interior of the wings for the fibers to fit through. Since this is a snap kit, surgery was necessary. Both fibers are fed into the main cavity of the ship, and then go to a flashing 3mm yellow LED which sits underneath the cockpit area. Unfortunately, the cannon on the right side does not light as brightly as the one on the left. The fiber must have been crimped or scraped somehow during the assembly.
Now that this model lighting project is over, I want to get back to the Plum R-Type Delta R-9A Arrowhead model I had begun a few years back. Leave a like if you’d like to see more such model lighting. I realize there is a lot bigger modeling community on Instagram and FaceBook, but Tumblr does not restrict its access and I prefer its photostream style.
