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?? It’s been a couple years since I ordered from Nin Nin, but they’ve never made me jump through any of those hoops. Assuming everything’s legit, maybe fraud has been a problem for them recently?

The one overriding problem with a PMC vs. a Zentraedi force is that even the smaller Branch Fleets consist of thousands of ships. The larger Main Fleets are composed of millions of vessels, and all of these fleets have some pretty heavy weaponry that comes with them, both ship-mounted as well as launched mecha/ fighters (As @Seto Kaiba has pointed out in previous posts). Given that UN Spacy/ NUNS has had one hell of a time even defeating a smaller fleet in times of crisis and that most PMC's are not all that large or well-equipped as NUNS, I seriously doubt that they would do much to "hold the line" against much except a small rouge force of malcontent Zentraedi or pirates.

Good! BTW: We've been trying to reach you about your Valkyrie's extended warranty.

Yeah, the Glaug is really coming along nicely there, Papa Rat! What matters here the most is enjoying what you're doing; that translates into how the model comes out in my opinion. With all the grief many of mine suffer, I think they could use a drink or two! O.o

That’s the great thing about the hobby, keep it fun.

I'd also recommend Vice Principals on HBO, there's only two seasons, but they're pretty damn funny. McBride and Goggins again, they work well together.

@Big s @Gabe Q @Thom Thanks. I was planning on hand painting the whole thing but fell back into the airbrush routine. I still have sooooo much to learn about airbrushing and hope to develop my own style esthetic eventually. Time will tell. I still have lots of details and masking to do on the Glaug along with panel lines, decals, washes etc… it’s a fun one so far.

Greetings @everyone Now that most of the 1/48 PHAT LYNX orders have been shipped, I'd be curious to know if there would be sufficient interest to offer the (blue) PHAT LYNX variant with the alternate head seen in the anime? I would offer just a few examples of this kit (5-8 maximum) just enough to complete the mold cycle. It would consist of the same body parts/weapons load-out as the existing PHAT LYNX, but with the old head searchlight replaced with the alternate camera head. Please note that the new head is not being offered separately on its own, but as a complete kit only. Can I get 5-8 people out there to commit to this project? Please DM me to ket me know, thanks

I paid for my Tread order on the first days of the month so far no new mails from them. I'd try contacting them directly first to know it is legit. Had some few oders from them in the past and weird issues so far.

Uh.... what? That's uh.. really wild. I've ordered from them several times in the past, but nothing like that has ever happened. The only time I've ever seen that rigorous of an ID process used was for getting my driver's license renewed.

I ordered mine from Amazon, I may not get it until October, but from these initial reports it’s going to be cancelled. I hope these are just the few bad ones that escaped QC.

Hi! Nin-Nin wants me to verify my identity by submitting pics of me holding my passport, and then close-up pics of my passport, along with a utility bill. Is this really a standard procedure? I’ve never had to do this with any other importer.

That is looking so good! And I just noticed the graffiti on the bomb!

Great on paint and weathering!

@Papa Rat Agreed, the colors are looking goof.

Big Chap. The Joker.

Did not know this video existed but its pure 1980s, lol.

Oh, absolutely. General Galaxy managed to clout its way into having the New UN Government recognize one of its subsidiary companies as a government itself, turning an entire emigrant fleet into a flying company town where the Macross Galaxy corporation had total authority and could engage in all kinds of human rights and ethics violations in its R&D while hiding behind the autonomy granted to emigrant governments by the central government. There's more straightforward political corruption and all manner of corporate crime too from the megacorporations. SMS did send several Macross Quarter-class ships to assist the Macross Frontier fleet in the movie version of Macross Frontier, but they weren't a rogue operation. They arrive as part of the joint SMS-New UN Forces reinforcements that were dispatched from other nearby emigrant governments to reinforce the Frontier fleet. They were almost certainly activated under whatever defense contract they have with the emigrant fleets they were attached to, and dispatched alongside the New UN Forces reinforcements from the fleets in question. That SMS has such powerful ships is certainly grounds for concern, though Macross Chronicle suggests that even those ships may technically be considered to be "on loan" to SMS rather than "owned by" SMS and that they're also essentially the limit of what SMS is allowed to operate by law and government regulation. They're also quite expensive, so they're not just the limit of what the law permits, they're also likely the limit of what SMS can actually afford to operate despite Macross Chronicle explicitly marking them out as being The Biggest among PMCs. SMS is never shown with other ships besides the Macross Quarter-class ships, barring one case where the branch in question is meant to be low-key and covert. At least four at the start, yeah... Elysion, Gigasion, Megasion, and Grasion. That said, the Elysion-type Macross doesn't seem to actually be all that powerful as a warship. One of the several reasons I privately suspect - in the absence of any hard statements either way - that the Elysion-type is an older generation of Macross than the Macross Quarter-class is that its greater size doesn't seem to afford it any significant advantage. It has a few more beam turrets than the standard Macross Quarter-class, but is outclassed there by a variant Macross Quarter-class from the movies. Neither its turrets nor its Macross Cannon seem to be particularly powerful either... and it flat-out lacks an equivalent to the Macross Quarter's gatling buster. Perhaps most tellingly, despite being twice as large it seems to have only about 1/2 the mecha capacity of its smaller counterpart. The New UN Spacy's smallest standard carrier is home to around 40 aircraft in normal operating conditions. The Macross Quarter-class supposedly holds around 60 mecha in total, counting emplaced unmanned destroids for air defense, Ghosts, Valkyries, and Battle Suits. The Macross Elysion's only home to twenty Valkyries between its two support carriers Aether and Hemera, presumably having room for around 30 in total without Walkure's special equipment getting underfoot. That's pretty darn small for such a large ship. Doubly so considering that one ship is Xaos's only force covering multiple inhabited planets simultaneously whereas a single Macross Quarter-class is covering a single emigrant fleet. On that basis, I don't think they really have enough firepower to take over the Brisingr cluster solo... I think they'd probably get taken out through sheer weight of numbers in a similar way that Windermere IV did once Heinz was out of action. It probably wouldn't be a particularly large fight. Macross Chronicle and Master File both mention in passing that the New UN Government imposes regulations and restrictions on PMCs that limit things like the size of PMC forces and what weapons they're legally allowed to purchase for their forces. SMS's Macross Frontier branch and Xaos's Ragna branch are both either implicitly or explicitly quite substantial as PMC forces go. SMS's Macross Frontier branch was supposed to be a heavyweight force of elites intended to tackle the threat of contact with the Vajra, and Xaos's Ragna branch was basically sector headquarters covering multiple planets under contract with the company. Both forces amount to a single well-armed warship and a few dozen Valkyries... and even that is disproportionately heavy since they're equipped with state-of-the-art weapons on loan from the NUNS. Odds are the much less impressive forces like Xaos's Pipure branch in Macross E are closer to the norm, with a few platoons of previous-gen Valkyries and not much else. A good deal less power than even the smallest regular NUNS carrier can project. Macross Chronicle suggests a lot of PMC forces are still primarily engaged in their original business of protecting the cargo shipments of their parent companies from piracy, so if one PMC did attack another odds are it'd likely be a quick battle followed by the defender's parent company suing the aggressor's parent company for damages rather than a big fight that's outside what the NUNS can put down. Yep... though it seems like they're trying to declaw the concept a bit in the Macross Delta era by acknowledging that a hypercompetent PMC like SMS is quite unrealistic and most are... substantially less impressive. Macross Delta as a whole is essentially set up as a war between two bush league forces, a third-rate PMC and some disorganized local NUNS remnants vs. a planetary defense force that has high-end gear but almost no experience. It's pretty telling that when a renegade force from the central NUNS shows up, both sides get pounded into the ground like tent pegs in the first five minutes. That's true for any contract worker... you don't want to hire someone who's making a lot of noise and causing a lot of problems. Not so much? Each emigrant fleet has its own New UN Forces escort detail that protects it in transit and becomes the local New UN Forces once they find a planet to settle on. The only exception we know of is Macross 29, which deliberately disbanded its defense force after adopting an official policy of pacifist total nonaggression. As noted above, large PMC forces with state-of-the-art weapons are the exception rather than the rule. We've gotten two different takes on what exactly drives demand for PMC services in Macross: Macross Chronicle suggests that demand for PMCs like industry leader SMS started with companies establishing internal security forces for interstellar cargo transports and eventually spun those divisions off and diversified them into providing support and training to local New UN Forces who suffered from a decline in the quality of training as the result of the Second Unification War and overreliance on unmanned fighters. Macross Delta era materials and Master File take a rather less kind view that PMCs were a workaround for chronic manpower shortages in the era of space emigration. PMCs are a way for the New UN Forces to ring-fence and indirectly make use of people who don't meet the military's exacting standards but have useful skills, talents, training, and experience. Sort of a way to recycle people who've been kicked out of the military for various reasons and use folks who couldn't hack it there in the first place.

@Papa Rat Chicken! I can't unsee it! Looking good!

The colors are looking great they will be appreciated

Comparison of 22S this toy (Doyusha VF-22S) and this model (Bandai HG VF-22S). I'm contemplating repainting a fleet of 1/100 or 1/144 Macross fighters in boring real life colours. I think it'd be neat to have a fleet of low viz comprised of all the different fighters, but I'll for sure be limited with either scale. I know there are VF-1 options in both scales, but for 1/100 there are VF100 VF-25s, and for 1/144 there is a VF-11B and a VF-171 model.

Getting closer, and closer as this chicken starts taking shape. So far so good, but t’s larger than I had anticipated.