armentage

Personally I thought the LOTR movies were very poorly acted and directed. The FX shots are amazing, but over all the make-up (orcs in particular) were crap, far less interesting than movies like Star Wars Ep4 were back in the day. You get some pretty flying camera shots of New Zealand, and lots of pictures of trees, but that's about it... I liked the LOTR books, but I'm also sensible - long, slow paced books directly translated to the screen do not an exciting movie make. I've read the books - hell I read them just before watching the movies, but I had no idea what was going on half the time, because the use of direct novel dialog was just catastrophically bad. I really would have prefered movies "based" on the novels, were events, dialog, etc. were modified to to make a good 2-hour movie, rather than trying to be a transliteration of the books.

There's that old D&D game that uses the same engine as X-Men. It's up-to 4 players at once. You can save your character's progress, and you level as you gain experience. The game play is just like the old Gauntlet, but in 3-D, and you have a lot more abilities. You can gain new abilities too, as you level up.

I thought that was Nora from M-zero

Heh the guy at the hobby shop said that too The guy's half crazy, claims he doesn't model at all, but he sure knows his stuff. I don't think he's ever even used an airbrush. I'm begining to get comfortable with it... I have a more intuitive feel for the screw nozel - how much to open it for various types of paint, for different amounts of paint, etc. Future took a while to learn but I think I"m finally spraying it *just* right.

I just dipped a mis-painted Akazukin Cha-cha figuring in windex and the paint streamed off like water. I was shocked! As for the "mis-painted", I haven't watched the show in 10 years and forgot what her dress looked like Lucky for me, I was at my mom's place and found my 10 year old copies of Hobby Japan that as a chapter of Figure Ai-land about Cha-cha herself!

Actually, watching DYRL made me reflect back on the original series. Truly, it was a stupendously great TV show. There was just SO MUCH there! It's been a good 10 years since I last watched it (as ROBOTECH!) but wow... I remember why I fell so in love with it. Do I remember my macross Love?!!

Household amonia = Windex? Will it damage the putty, glue, or plastic?

I just watched DYRL last night.... first time ever, and I've been an anime fan for almost 20 years! Great animation, char designs, costumes, music and especially mecha! But the story.... oh god, it was so butchered... and it wasn't Clash of the Bionoids!

Well, the future dried a little more, and things aren't as bad as I thought. There's a few spots where it collected a little too thick, but the color's okay underneath. I did another piece, the non-blue part of the fast-pack, and it came out awful. Luckily it's not a very complicated piece, and I can sand it down and paint again. I guess I need to limit the flow a bit when spraying the future.

Right, I've done to base color layers and am putting down Future so I can do a wash (to bring out the panel lines) fill in the black details (like the surface of the landing gear doors) and apply decals. Also, acrlyics tend to flake off unless there's something on top protecting them. The old Tamiya Medium Blue I am using also picks up finger prints something terrible, so the Future's helps prevent stains from handling.

So I'm still getting the hang of using Future between layers of detail.... I'm practicing on my Macross II VF2SS, which I've been painting Dark Ghost Gray using PollyS acrylics. All has been going well until just now when I sprayed Future on the legs! Horror, tradegy! The future went on a little thick in some places, slight bulges that I can sand down. Trouble is, the PollyS Ghost Gray seems to have run under these buldges. The color's gone a little cloudy and just doesn't seem right. The Ghost Gray has been dry for days now... Any ideas whats going on? I really hope I won't have to strip the paint and try again, it was a lot of work to mask and paint the leg & the fast pack

But building the variable parts is what makes it fun! I mean... you put in the same time and effort and get THREE results! Can't beat it!

Just what is SHE?

Would you all say that buying an external mix Paasche H series was a bad move? The guy at the hobby store really pushed it hard over the internal mix V series. They cost about the same (but the external mix was cheaper), he was pushing it because he felt it was easier to maintain.

Thanks for the link! Those comparisons are exactly what I was looking for. You're all insane fanboys, I love it!

Thanks for all the pics Chowser- So the big red one in the background on the right is a 1/48th, and the 2 standing to his left are 1/55ths? (The VF-1S and VF1-J Hikaru)

I realize the 1/48th transforming Yamato's are toys... I meant to say that as a modeler, I wish I could afford some of those 1/48th resin Valkyrie kits. AFAIK there aren't any easily obtainable 1/48 (transforming or otherwise) plastic models,... is this correct? If there were, I wouldn't limit my self to 1/72nd scale real-world planes

The 1/48th is huge~! I've always felt the Valkyrie was pretty small for a jet, in fighter mode. I've recently built an F-14 and F-117 that I'm going to display with a VF-1, VF-19, and a VF-21. (All 1/72nd in fighter mode) Alas, I do not have the skill nor budget for those gigantic 1/48th resin kits. Looking at those numbers from Macross Compendium, I can see that Im right about the Valkyrie being little! 11m is very, very small for a jet fighter. Even the Harrier is 13m (45ish ft) long. The F-14, F-117, F-18, and F-15 are closer to 18m (50ish ft)

Is anyone willing to make a chart showing the relative size differences between the various Valkyrie toy scales? I'm interested in seeing how tall the 1/72nd toy vs the 1/60th, 1/55th, and finally the monster 1/48ths are. I've been working on a 1/72th Hasegawa fighter kit, and the thing is huge! I've never seen a 1/48th valk, and would really like to know how big they are. P.S. -- what scale was the Transformers Jetfire toy? 1/60th?

So the process is... Paint the Kit Future Wash ? Future again?

I'm a big fan of the VF-2. It's one of the few valkyries that looks like it was truly meant for space combat. It's only flaw are those pesky wings! Right now I'm spraying it (with a single-action airbrush) Dark Ghost Gray, as I put together the limbs and body (I feel like there are lots of parts on the 1/100 bandai kit that would be harder to paint when it's fully assembled) I'm trying to decide between bold light blue (brighter than Max blue) or Ostrich orange high lights on the VF-2 itself. The Super Pack parts will be a nice tan color (like the tan parts on an Ostrich) I can't shake the feel that since it is a Space combat craft, low visilibity would be a little silly, but all black would be boring So I figure, if you're already not camoflaged, you might as be as exciting as possible.

How much are you paying for your aersol cans? Around here (NYC) they are ripping me off at $12 a can! I'm getting a compressor this weekend.... they run around $100. Most cans last about 1 model... so within 7 kits you've spent the same money, and you have the advantage of being able to clean your brush for as long as you like to boot!

*drool* ... that's a 1/72nd VF2 isn't it.... oh do I want one...

Isn't Hobby Japan published by Bandai, or at the least hardcore sponsored by them?

Does anyone have any shots of the VF-2SS with colors added?