Skull Leader

On 3/23/2024 at 11:13 PM, TehPW said:

nice work...

Now to nitpick.

The first thing i see that might be/should be wrong is the size and placement of the Jet Intake warning. Unless it would be common for that inlet cover to be at a higher angle when on the ground, the markings should extend along the outside of the inlet covers in some manner along each edge, merging at the front of the plate (see PIC #2's angle).

The second thing is that there should be No Step markings on the UNDERSIDE of the wings as well (because the JA's wings are hydraulically hinged to flex in both directions when in Gerwalk mode)

Third? No 03 high on the tail (because when you are an AD working in Power Plants WC in a futuristic Fighter Squadron and Maintenance Control sends you out to do a 30-day inspection on those Inlet Covers, MC would have told you Modex # 03, so you're looking at the highest point on each aircraft, to make sure you are working on the CORRECT fighter)

were there any pics of either fighter, on the ground and idle, in Macross II: LA?

Jesus, I can just imagine what the 30 day inspections would be like on a variable fighter... i bet they had "daily" doors in really inconvenient places.

It's a swing-wing... I wonder if the brown  shirts feared the dreaded flap/slat lockout that the tomcat guys did when their pilot was too hot of a hand.

Chief: "Don't make any plans... Lt. Hotshot over-Ged and now the flaps won't retract."

Petty Officer Hardworker: "God @#$it..."

Chief: "Better shag it. ATO says this one sorties at 0800."

(Petty Officer hardworker cancels his date with the 2-10-2 down in egress and spends the evening working on the slats and flaps...Then the bird canxd the next morning anyway for a down radar... Petty Officer Hardworker wonders if its too late to take that transfer to ordnance)

One of the single most frustrating things about Macross II is the lack of really good, clear footage of all the designs either static OR in action... so no footage of any of the valkyries in a parked fashion on the ground.

It's cool, I think I found him (or someone else) on ebay offering recasts 

I've been Facebook retired for about 3 years now... don't suppose he's got an email address?

I've got three strike valkyries, 2 in the box, that I now want to pull out and inspect. I feel like at least one of them had a takatoku marking on the back that I initially put down to possibly just being frankensteined. 

One of mine also has fairly wicked overspray, I'm wondering if this was one of the repaints?

Got mine today and it looks fantastic!

A lot of love and attention went into this product and it shows. Nicely done!

If I had an STL file for this, I would 100% print it and light the cannons with LEDs.

from Jerry Tsai, not Kevin, my bad... (Kevin was Valkyrie Exchange, not VF1X.com)

On 1/6/2022 at 3:22 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

Is this an original TT sticker sheet? Or Takatoys?

Those were a reprint from Kevin at VF1X.com back in the day. Wish I'd picked some of those up.

Looking for one of the slide on/clip on-style heat shields for 1/55 Valkyries.... ideally two of them. I'm honestly shocked I can't find a STL file of this somewhere... does anyone have a few they'd sell?

I always wondered where our Max/Milia Marriage set wound up! (I was part of Alphateam 11 along with Alfonso)

I still kick myself for getting rid of my Chris Barretta VF-1S heads, I could do so much more with them now than I could way back then.

Not that it really matters, but the collector in me is curious if the sets will be numbered?

Where the hell were you guys back in 2014 when I was working on making an HD remaster for this game???

On 8/8/2022 at 9:15 PM, Shawn said:

Dug out this book out of an old box I had in the corner

 

I know its not necessarily 'official' but it has some great insights...like the step being the 'toe' on the nozzle

 

And those bar things inside the feet...they flip down to offer more surface contact are on soft ground
just thought they were pretty cool ideas

 

 

how did I never know this???

holy thread resurrection, batman!

A while back i was going to provide both a scan of original 1/55 decal sheets in addition to a custom drawn decal set for all four major DYRL valkyries, with more to follow on later, to the guys at reprolabels (responsible for transformers reproduction sticker sheets) but they weren't interested on two grounds: first, they didn't think there was enough interest (they print on demand... not sure how thats a concern), and second,  they were sure Harmony Gold would completely sue them out of existence if they offered them... wonder when they changed their minds.

With the advent of the 1/60 and 1/48 scale markets, the days of the 1/55 collectors/customs have largely gone down in the west. You'll find a very tiny niche market probably, but if you're wanting to make money, I wouldn't get your hopes up.

I was mostly concerned about the valkyries and tomahawks... so that works for me!

Deploying my thread resurrection card...

Don't suppose anyone has any images of these mounted on standard battletech hex bases do they? Considering a few to use for "unseen" designs along side more modern sculpts.

Also, who's ugly sister do I have to sleep with for them to do a strike valkyrie variant?

I hope there is transparency and this all gets sorted out soon. Very few fandoms really get to be so close to such an iconic part of their franchise as Macross fans/Mari Ijima do. I'd hate to see that relationship ruined.

Nice to see this one finished at last! (and I didn't need a proxy to watch)

unless it was franken-valked (which is always a possibility), this is indeed a legit matsushiro. It's missing the ridged head lasers and the higher-up autobot symbol on the nose, but it's got the backpack, wing, canopy, and manufacturer's plate of a matsu....  interestingly enough, unless it was peeled off and cleaned up VERY well (the part has yellowed uniformly on top), this jetfire was also pre-rub symbol....

fun fact, evidently one of my jetfires is a "transition" variant... huh, I didn't know that was a thing (I just thought someone frankenvalked it)

I've seen  Matsushiros unboxed that had the fat head lasers, so there are legit ones out there. Pretty sure they just used up the remaining matsushiro stock and went to the other ones.

Thanks again, guys!

So... either my search-fu has failed me, or else I'm imagining things...

Wasn't there a definitive list of all the different micro-variations of Matsushiro Jetfires and their progression from the originals in 84 to when Bandai took them over? Am I smoking crack? Maybe it was on the old Valkyrie-Exchange website? I've got a loose one enroute to me, and I'd like to be able to date it in the progression if I can.

the original revell kit is not the same as the revell-monogram kit which ruled the mid-late 1980s (before Hasegawa put theirs out), but it was the basis for the kit.

I wouldve picked a better kit for the basis for Shin Kudo's jet (an F-14B or D kit for a start.... since the Macross F-14A+ Kai was a mix of the two), but you certainly turned out a nice result.

From looking closely at the real ones---I believe the A's and B's had them removed and sealed over. The D's simply never had them. How to tell? A's and B's have a bunch of putty/bondo covering where they were/should be---the D's have nice sheet metal with no evidence of a moving panel etc.

A models and refit B models had them locked shut and bonded over. New-build Bs (and for some reason, both refit and new-build Ds) had blanking panels put in place instead.

Having said all of this, a surprising number of A models made it through Desert storm with their glove vanes still functioning (I've seen photos of VF-1 and VF-154 jets deployed to the gulf with their vanes out), though upon return from desert storm, a *lot* of jets were cycled through NADEP and had them deactivated then.

I've been playing Battletech since the late 1980s. I still have every sourcebook I ever bought (including the old 3025 and 3050 tech readouts with the unseen designs), all of my old ral partha miniatures (I have a reinforced battalion). I did quit following when they jumped the shark and went with the whole jihad/Dark Ages thing though. My interest stopped at the downfall of Katherine Steiner.

I thought Mechwarrior Online was a gigantic flop (I was SUPER pissed because the game was originally going to be marketed with an awesome single player campaign during the 3rd succession war), although I still dabble with it from time to time. When I heard Jordan was working up a new computer game based on the board game, I contributed to the kickstarter right away. I was very glad to see he's taking the series back to it's roots (the succession wars), and I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

I'm over the forward-swept wing fad. It worked well enough for the YF/VF-19 I suppose, but I didn't really care for it in the VF-9 or the YF-29. Just my personal tastes though.

Am I alone in saying I'd rather see some kind of SW1 side story (much in the same vein as Gundam's 08th MS Team)? Or a story that took place during the reconstruction?