aaajin

Im sorry! I really am! But it was an emergency, and I had to make a run to the ER!! Child is safe now :-P By the way, apart from the normal cracked hinges, one of the shoulder covers wouldn't move. Seems to be a rare case...anyone experienced this? Probably some residual glue seeped in somewhere & locked it in place. Going to patiently figure this out. EDITED : Pried the sides of the shoulder cover, heard faint crackling sound (i.e harden glue breaks) and now shoulder is free! Inspected the areas and saw dried smugdes of white paint on the biceps (Picture 2). Someone accidentally sprayed paint during assembly 10+ years ago and it dried, locking the shoulders to the biceps. Glad it was an easy fix. Also, the diameter of the shoulder pins feels a teeny-weeny bit large for the shoulder hinge holes, presumbaly for minimal interference fit. Should I find replacement pins that are slightly smaller or just grind the original pins? The pin ends are pretty clean (no burrs), which explains why the outer hinges are intact & only the inner hinges crack (Picture 3).

Picked up a 1/60 Roy locally. Great way to start the weekend

Mine does come loose, but Im displaying it with the landing gears on. Maybe double sided tape, or a layer of elmer glue on the edges would do? I did use a layer of elmer's glue for some of the missles points that were loose. I just dab some on the attachment points & let them partially dry for 2-3 minutes before attaching.

I felt the overall parts fitting could be improved. My front landing gear is extremely tight. I had to use brute force to push it in and heard a snap. Thing is, the gear struts are made of plastic. How in the hell am I supposed to take it off in the future? Others (missiles, rear landing gears, etc) fits pretty OK, though the paint thickness makes mounting the missiles pylon a little harder.

As Im new too on these things, I may not be able to recommend stuff, but I did light readings before jumping into the Calibre bandwagon. There are a few quirks at the beginning of the release, mainly (1) jagged edges near the glove vanes and (2) incorrect gun blister panel, as stated here : http://modelhangar3.com/thread/2334?page=3 Calibre did ackowledge those issue and seems like theyve fixed them. On my copy, everything seems good at first glance, maybe I need to pay closer attention to the details this coming weekend & report back. Anyways, here are some other links with reviews that might help with your decision : Forces of Valor VS Century Wings F-14B : http://www.warbird-photos.com/gpxd/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33902 Review of F-14B Calibre Wings : http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/military-model-aircraft/261154-calibre-wings-f-14b-tomcat-vf-103-jolly-rogers-ca721401.html#/topics/261154?page=1 Overal I'm impressed with the model, but my opinion dont carry much weight given that I'm new on these & made my judgement based on online reviews.

It seems like the details on diecast pre assembled jet fighter models are pretty standard across many companies. Wish Arcadia could afford the same amount of details, with panel lines & more tampo prints, as standard. Will do when I have time this weekend. EDIT: Pictures from online diecast aircraft forum : http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/military-model-aircraft/261154-calibre-wings-f-14b-tomcat-vf-103-jolly-rogers-ca721401.html#/topics/261154?page=1 Notice in the thread people mentioned there were some glitches on the earlier releases (uneven edges near glove vanes & incorrect machine gun panel) which fortunately did not occur on mine. I read some reviews before jumping in when flyingmule had it on sale on top of another sale (they've "corrected" it to a single sale now, sadly). It's indeed a beautiful model. Interesting facts : BlackAces/Noel who's a prominent member on MW forum in the earlier days is part of the company (Calibre Wings). Theyve also acquired "Robo-you-know-what" license to produce VF-1 variants of the F-14's (Roy 1S & Hikaru 1J), which you can also search on MW forum.

This came today. F-14B Jolly Rogers by Calibre Wings. The amount of details on this (and other rival companies) is astounding. I wish Arcadia could do the same amount of tampo prints on their VF-1. Here's some sneak peeks :

so theyre building "mustang" VF-1's now? I'll get one eventually, when theyre in the bins.

+1. As with any consumables, take them with moderation. Anything excessive is detrimental. For me its more of a roller coaster ride. It started when Yamato entered the fray, that ends the Macross draught. First it was 1/60 v1, then 1/72 M+, then peaked when it was 1/48's VF-1 & 1/60 M+. Man did I buy almost anything 1/48's & 1/60 M+. Then graduated from college, sold my entire collection to pay deposit for mortgage & started career. Quit completely for 2.5 years. Got married, then started to wonder : "hmm...I wonder what's going on in MW forum these days?" and BAM, started collecting 1/60 v2 VF-1, Destroids , M Zero, M+ etc (Yamato folded & Arcadia emerged from the ashes). A year ago, I hit my low again. Sold some, kept some, started to think more "rationally"...and now I'm left with only a Yamato's 1/60 v2 Hikaru 30th Anniversary + fast packs & an Arcadia's 1/60 YF-19. And in between, HMR came out, bought some as "sample", liked it initially, but my love was still with v2 VF-1, so HMR's were sold. For now I'm going for a max of 3 x VF-1 v2, one for each mode, which I plan to buy in a really slow pace in the next few years (just so my collection "sinusodial-wave" time-period is longer, lol), and maybe a revision of the YF-21/VF-22, if Arcadia ever revisit it to pair with the 19. I'd love a renewal SV-51 if they released it a few years back. The old version plastic was craptastic, the thighs on mine cracked in so many places, but at this point in time I think Arcadia has missed that window for me as any. And oh, ordered a Calibre Wings 1/72 F-14B Jolly Rogers diecast model because the price & online pictures were irresistable. We'll see how well this one goes. So, anyways, that pretty much summed up my ups & downs in Macross collecting. Never had a passion for other collection as I'm more of a sports guy, though I spent less time since getting married. Overall, tried to quit, but realized I have never really quit anything. So now I'm just taking it slow.

Just wanted to share, flyingmule has an extra 20% for On Sale items, which brings the Calibre Wings F-14B Jolly rogers to $86 before shipping. http://www.flyingmule.com/products/CL-CA721401 Was searching for reviews and saw Calibre Wings video on youtube featuring Noel, which reminds me of an old MW member aka BlackAces, who used to build beautiful plastic models here. Searched the forum and found this thread! :

Thanks! Sorry, first time @ NY. Feel stupid for not noticing, lol. Not bad for $176 shipped (including 2.5% paypal conversion fee) I dont know if I need a red valk tho...would be nice if they have this price for Roy/Hikaru 1S

Anyone knows how much NY charges shipping (cheapest option) to the US for the Milia? Thanks in advance!

amazing..amazing job

First transformation to fighter. Quite straightforward.

These came before the holiday starts, yay!

The air intake is totally mislabelled on gerwalk...

Knockoffs of the same stand are also available on ebay for $2-3 shipped.

Cant wait to flip the pages :

Just sold my 2nd copy of the Arcadia for $240 (without missiles)...I dont see anyone could sell it for $500, let alone $1000. $300-400 on average on ebay, and sold ones were less than $300. Well maybe in 10 years, and if Arcadia went down under, we'll see it soar to $1000+, probably will be a hard sell too since no new anime people can relate it to.

Kit version on sale? ($98) https://hlj.com/product/ACA82130

well of course for the VF-1 case, but for the 2ss it could be perfect transformation, no?

impressive, as usual! I forgot did you had a chance to work on a cheyenne destroid? or was it just the worker-bot cheyenne?...

just a heads up. ebay 20% off code is working again.

Is the newly rewokred garland by Arcadia any good? Sorry if this is discussed on another (updated) thread! EDITED : OK, found the new thread! :

Is the newly rewokred garland by Arcadia any good? Sorry if this is discussed on another (updated) thread!