Shawn

One extra thing about the Gunze Sangyo paints and that reference chart at the top-those same H-##s are used for the Macross Paint Your Own Cel kits!

Just recently, after many many many years, I was finally able to complete my Macross Aqueous Paint collection. My missing element, the elusive #12 VF-1S, just never shows up. With pure luck I found a #12, and also discovered that is has a variation! (All Macross fans are deeply aware of the dreaded 'variation') Lets go back into time-1982, Imai and Arii are releasing all their Macross kits. Gunze Sangyo is the recommended paint resource for Macross model makers, with their safer water based Acrylic Aqueous paint line. Since these are sci-fi kits, we are going to need some non-standard custom colors, as the the standard Navy Blue or Gunmetal Gray aren't going to cut it. So working with Imai and Arii, they all come up with the Macross color palette. To make these custom Macross colors, it involved Mixing the paints yourself, using standard Aqueous colors as your bases. In the Plastic Models Manual Part #1 book, we can see the basic stock/base Aqueous color line up pictured here. Look for the H with a white box and a number, such as H1 for white, and H2 for black. Anytime we have an H with a white square and a number, it means a standard Aqueous color. (In this chart the smaller numbers on the bottom in black are cross referencing their Mr Color line up, but just completely ignore that for now) Lets build a Queadluun Rau! Ok-I see a bunch of H-# colors, that are standard colors. On the left is H8..silver. Ok this is easy. What about those numbers on the top though-they are circular and in black, what are those? Those are the Macross custom colors! Lets look at the #32 in the upper far corner for the upper legs on the Quead, it is Middle Purple. What is Middle Purple?? Lets go to Macross custom color Mixing chart! The left hand black column is the Macross Color name. Lets jump to #32 towards the bottom. It says Middle Purple. That is our Queadluun Rau color for the upper legs. To make this custom color your ratio would be to use 88% of H39 (remember H and a white square with a number are stock colors), then mix 10% of H2 Black, and lastly 2% of H40 Flat Base. You could make this concoction using your Mr Mix color kit, with little ladles/spoons for the proper amounts(pictured in the upper right hand corner) For the Q-Rau kit they also show you in the instructions the proper ratios to use. They do cheat a little bit and say 'you could probably just use the standard #39 purple', but if you wanted to be anime perfect you'd want to use the mixture in the previous chart for the true Middle Purple. It seems for Macross models we need to mix mix mix, I sure wish there was an easier method!! There is!! For just a small 250 yen purchase price (and advertised in the instructions above), you could get some pre-mixed paints for those special colors packaged in a neat box, and then just grab your standard H colors for the rest of the build! Go grab color set #15! Here is the Q-Rau paint box. It, along with all the other paint kits, contain 3 custom colors. And here is our #32 Middle Purple-ready to use! If you used the standard H-39 purple then SHAME on you. Inside each paint box are 3 small containers of custom colors (its 2025 now, and these have all dried out decades ago) They even include a little sticker you can attach to the paint, so you can use it for other kits (the custom colors are shared frequently across kits) Here, in all their magnificent glory, is the full complete set of 17 Macross Paints! (technically 18 unique-since we have 2x #12s) The standard 'other sides of the boxes' which are shared across the entire lineup. Here is the infamous "Could Never Find it" #12 and the variant. I suspect the top one with all 3 modes show is the variant, as all the earlier numbered series just feature a single art piece. Looking back through the Model Manuals we can see the paints were mocked up for advertisements, with what looks like the darker gray VF-1J head color as also seen on the Ohasato Kite. This mocked up #1 art and coloring is different than what was actually released. Compare this version to the one above. We also lost the colored caps and the white lettering on the tops of the bottles. Another shot of the mocked up set. Originally it looks like we were starting off with 10 unique color sets. Check out the dark head on the vf-1j! Which later grew to 14, then ending at 17(I've not found a pic of the listing for all 17 yet if it was published) And that about wraps it up for the Macross Aqueous paint collection. Happy to finally have the completed set, with the bonus #12 variation! As a extra bonus I'm including the shipping box for the #2 set (Tomahawk), from old MW member Samurai Monkey, who found it in his closet 20+years ago and gifted it to me Who would ever want an old box for dried up paints!?? ME!

For the 3 people that would actually care about the differences, I broke out my original scripts to compare against the 4k Re-issue. Very minor differences, the most surprisingly one being with the font for punctuation. 4k version on the left, orig on the right

For some reason this reminds me of the ending of Aliens, with the Queen spearing Bishop Can we add a virtual tail to the tread? (Did I make this comment before, cause I'm getting deja vu lol)

Ran across a series of talks with the editor or HJ and Matoko 'Max' Watanabe-who has been doing wild builds since the 80s, featured in HJ Use auto translate for a nice way to waste a few hours going way way way back to the early 80s I had no idea some of those early Macross builds were him-before he changed to 'Max' nickname There are many others, but I live in the early 80s so these were my jam.

Whilst rummaging through some boxes, I came across my Mospeada LS 1/100 kits. The artwork was done by Toshimitsu Suzuki from Artmic, same artist who did the Imai 1/48 kits and the recent $7k poster that sold last week. Just wanted to share in one spot so you could appreciate these mini boxes for the amazing art, my favorite is the 01H fighter (blue).

Found a pre-production Elintseeker pic...with pointy nose! If I posted before, sorry, going through some old drives with various pics

Sorry-what? Can you explain what is a Viz Macross II Floppy is, and what is TPB. These are some new terms for me, thanks!

THANK YOU for all the great translations!!!! I too love finding these old imaginative designs, especially when they are thought through a bit more than normal. The Buster Valkyrie as a flyable bullet punching through hulls is a crazy crazy idea-can you imagine a few squadrons of these on an attack run? You could just equip ghosts like this and it would be extra fun. I would imagine a fighter version of this lol

I swear some of those pre-production drawings have been up before, and for LOTS of $$$$$$, and least I think. Incredible collection for sale!!

I found some pics of a Doujinishi I got a few years ago, and while it's not Macross "Canon" (Seto will cry Blasphemy! ) it certainly can be classified as Super Macross Mecha Fun with the fan-made designs of what might have been. Point that Google Translate phone app to the text to read some fun tidbits. It you think the VF-1A Cannon Fodder was bad, imagine being strapped into the Regult-H "Iron Can" with reduced armor and firepower! The commanders get the Zark Regult with additional firepower and thrusters that make it comparable with the Q-Rau. I dig the GFP-1S, we finally ditch the 'wings' for a true space-based fighter.

Oh man watching that battroid to fighter mode transformation made me remember all the pain again It never looks quite the same after you transform it from the factory fighter mode with all the extra gaps. I wonder if they have a big press at the end of the factory line that squashes it all together at the end lol

Wow-the english instructions do actually look like they help, nice Maybe I might try for one of these https://tamashiiweb.com/images/item/item_0000015103_fddXLe85_300.pdf

Wow-it sold, 48 bids! Current yen conversion puts it around $8000 USD, very nice!! Hopefully this auction's results will bring out more artwork! Thanks everyone for playing this week's Mospeada themed of Antiques Roadshow. Let some fresh 1/28 Legioss news be next!

I personally believe its the original. I dug out my original VF-1J Takani Milia Gerwalk board, and I don't see brush marks. And I think that is the dilemma-I don't think these were created in the normal sense of brush and paint-they look very flat, almost like it was done with markers (I know nothing about this btw). The paint is very thin and flat, there is not a thick build up of layers of paint from what my mind thinks of with an old painting with hills and valleys to the naked eye.

I found some old bits of correspondence between you, me, and Yamato, when you used to visit them for the reports! It was funny, I saw that auction, and was also searching an old hard drive for something completely different, and the VF-1D email was right there, like Kismet LOL It sort of freaked me out a little actually. What are the odds that this conversion kit comes up, AND I have a 20 year hard drive in the usb caddy referring to it, with pics. Spooky stuff! Also-that VF-1D assembly kit pic above was from a later release from Yamato. To this day I sort of feel somewhat partially responsible for that line of assembly kits. Iseki from Yamato was visiting the US, and we went out for lunch. He was asking what sort of things I'd want to see as a fan, and I said "I'm a model kit guy, I'd love to actually build those things myself form the factory, could you get the parts and send me an unassembled one?" He just sort of laughed it off. Then I said "Also, could you do anything with Megazone's Garland? That would also be a really fun item to have and no one has done it before" Those were the days!!

The seller added a few more closer up pics. In a world of gigabit ethernet and terabyte personal drives we still live in a world with jpeg compression. Ugh. Also-someone above mentioned it might not have been painted by Suzuki-I would strongly disagree as that is his regular signature logo on the bottom to the left of the Artmic label.

If we are speaking of a transforming toy, then yes, the Yamato v1 was the first officially released VF-1D toy. There were many fan built Takatoku customs before this of course. Even Takatoku encouraged you to customize your toys like from this pic, but they were not 'official'. If we are talking toys in general, then it could be ARII in 1997, who converted their 1/100 model kit line into a PVC painted toy ready to go out of the blister. Then there were also the Gummy type VF-1Ds from Bandai in 1985, about 2 inches tall. Here is a custom painted one-they originally came from the mold in just one color.

Well remember at wonderfest you buy the limited license for that event, so it was all legit and official. No boldness needed

I completely agree with you on the complexity. I bought the original one (used cheap) and went in blind to the process...never seen Delta, no Anymoon videos. Just had the box to look at. It was a personal challenge that took hours to complete!

Looks like there is a bidder, so it will be sold. B2 size as well...that would be a very nice addition to any collection. Can I crowd-fund $2k for a painting real quick? looking through my poster collection, they took elements from it to create another variant too

I hope the seller posts some higher quality pics, especially for a high dollar item like that.

We won't be turning this into a 'check out this auction' thread, I swear, but check out this auction...I think it warrants a break from the unwritten rule https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c1174559450 Could this be the original painting by Suzuki? Its incredibly hard to see from the pictures. The sharp border seems odd, but guess there is something called 'tape' to get a sharp line like that, The only other orig full canvas drawings I know about were from Takani, but they went to the edge https://www.macrossworld.com/the-ultimate-yoshiyuki-takani-macross-collection/ Wondering what you guys think. The exchange rate brings it 'down' (LOL) to just $2000 USD Always loved this picture, it was also used for the Robotech promo posters from 1985 I believe it was created for this mini-mag

This is gotta be BIG box-like Quead size right?

I found an old pic of one of the prototype Yamato 1/48s (from 2002), and I think to this day it looks incredible. This one is hand painted and detailed, but I'd put this against the new Bandai 1/48 any day for sheer awesomeness. I like the flat white a lot!