Valkyrie Driver

So, what's the timeline on the VF-X-1 project that we see in SDFM Ep33? Was it before or after the Mayan Island incident? 

2 hours ago, NZEOD said:

They suck to assemble but are easy to paint

That's true. But I'm kinda done with minis at the moment. Burnt out, I've got a stack of Warhammer 40k models to build and paint, and I just don't have the drive...

Does anyone make a decent F-106? And is there any way I could find a MI ANG version?

3 hours ago, snakerbot said:

The Have Blue was a different plane than the F-117. The Have Blue was a technology demonstrator that the F-117 was based on. In some ways the Have Blue is to the F-117 what the VF-0 is to the VF-1, but I don't think it's a perfect comparison.

Your overall point still stands though, as the F-117 had the project name "Senior Trend", which is very much not the same as "Night Hawk".

Hmm. I guess I incorrectly recalled that info. I mean I knew that Have Blue was a predecessor to the F-117, I guess I didn't know that there was an intermediate step.

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

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But wouldn't that be really heavy and drive like crap?

With enough torque, any car can move like all get-out... and I have the tools to create maximum torque at 0rpm. 

I was kinda hoping you'd pick up on the obscure futurama reference. You know, when Fry and Lela make a deal for Bender's "soul" with the Robot Devil...? A fiddle made of gold is mentioned...

Also, Max torque at 0rpm, how you do dat? I feel like you're jerking my chain, but still...

I'm going to tell the God's Honest Truth here, I'm not a fan of the spine art either. To be honest, that sort of graffiti is more an Air Force tradition than a Naval tradition. Naval squadrons typically relegate that sort of thing to squadron markings (Like the Tomcatters of VF-31, or the Sundowners of VF-111). 

59 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'm fairly confident that my translation is accurate, but I can revisit it later tonight.

It was four launchers on the outside of each [leg/engine nacelle].  The art in Designers Note definitely leaves that in no doubt.  The launchers form a semi-permanent conformal pack that is split up into two independently movable halves, each with two launcher assemblies built into it (each port is one launcher).  Any other interpretation doesn't work out in terms of both consistent usage and numbers.

Ok, when you state it that way your interpretation makes more sense. That's just as it is on the toy. 

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's uncommon for prototypes and experimental Valkyries to have names at all, the vast majority of which are 5th Generation units.

Offhand, I'm pretty sure the only one outside of the 5th Generation that had a stated name was the VF-X-7 Ghost Valkyrie.  The YF-19 and YF-21 sometimes get appended with their radio callsigns of "Alpha One" and "Omega One" respectively, but beyond that... nothing.

I'd assume it's probably just the game conflating them, since they shared 3D models with the VF-19A and VF-22 respectively.

That's more or less the same as the real world. Prototypes have working names, project names and such, a notable example is the F-117 which had the project name "Have Blue". Often prototypes have names that rarely correspond to the name that their production model is assigned. More often than not, such names are internal project names used by the company designer.

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Really?  That kind of spelling error, and often much worse, crops up all the time in anime, manga, other media, apparel, and so on.  The YF-27-5's name is also misspelled, the word they're trying for is "Shahar" (a Hebrew word) but they misspell it "Shaher".  They also misspell "Female" as "Femail".

Yep, Engrish...

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

(If I had a dollar for every time I saw "LOCK ON" written as "ROCK ON" by mistake, I'd treat myself to a very nice solid gold Mercedes-Benz.)

But wouldn't that be really heavy and drive like crap?

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The bottom third of the Variable Fighter Designers Note cover has a fair amount of spectacularly awful Engrish, complete with spelling errors and atrocious grammar... and that came out just a few days ago.  

It's almost like English isn't the primary language of Japan...

Eventually I'll get around to painting those Robotech RPG tactics models I got... I'm so not looking forward to that...

26 minutes ago, Mommar said:

What does a Blue and Black Valk with a cool logo have to do with a character in a show?  I don't have to attribute any sort of character trait to the design to enjoy it.

This is true. But why buy something associated with Hayate? When you can have Mirage? I kid, the VF-31Kai does look sick, but I'm content with the VF-31C, since I can't afford to do as much. 

2 hours ago, Mommar said:

Yes it was.  It was an immediate disappointment upon opening.

Aside from the fact that it had no integrated landing gear, and the fact that it couldn't equip the gun pod in fighter mode, what was so bad about it. I mean the transformation was very similar to the Yamato VF-19's and was at least playable. But then maybe we're not comparing it to the same things, I'm saying it was a great attempt. But then I'm comparing to the only other small scale toys I've owned, one was a Bandai VF100's VF-25F, one was Banpresto VF-1 and the other 2 were Toynami VF-1's. 

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

I owned the Hi-Metal 19 Blazer, for two days. Very crappy, not a fan, which is a shame because I absolutely LOVE the VF-1s, it's 1/60 stuff now that makes me go to sleep. I too am quite interested in how Bandai handles a non VF-1 valk in the Hi-Metal R line, this will be a good indication for what to expect for non VF-1 moving forward.

Since Bandai is really the only high grade toy company making small scale toys, I really long to see some Y/VF-19/A vs Y/VF-21/2 action... I'd love to have that. Especially given Bandai's experience with the DX VF-19 Adv, they could definitely shrink most of the mechanisms. The landing gear thing doesn't bother me so much at small scale so...

1 hour ago, Lolicon said:

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

It's not like there's a better option for a 2SS.

That's what was said before the ET version came out too. That does not excuse a shoddy product.

I think that ET should have gone more of a Yamato VF-1 v1 route to transformation, and focused more on line art accuracy than perfect transformation. Not to say that the v1 Yamatos were perfect, but a bit more die cast, a bit less try hard. I mean, with the success of the Yamato/Arcadia VF-4G out there, one has to wonder... But the HMR VF-2SS could be good. 

I really only do DX Chogokins, because I can't really afford to collect multiple lines. It also feels really strange, because I have the perfect VF-1 toy, why do I want some imperfect ones. Though the VF-1J armored is really the only one I want, Unless I can get TV Max and Kakizaki and get the whole TV Vermillion team. But then I'll want the M&M team, and then destroids, It's just a pit I don't want to fall into...

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

I don't think you can compare LOTR to GoT. One has orcs and elves, the other has wieners and boobies

I'm sure that they'll find a way to put wieners and boobies into this too...

11 hours ago, Mommar said:

That old 19 needs to redone.  It was TERRIBLE.

Oh, come now, it wasn't that bad for the time. That is however, not the 19 I want done. I want the Y/VF-19/A... With all the trimmings. 

I have some pics of my progress on my HG GM Sniper II:

39 minutes ago, hardreturn said:

I really want the 31J Kai. and Mirage is AWESOME!

(also, i loved the show)

 

Fixed that for ya! Mirage was the only Siegfried I wanted. Because I love Mirage. Also, they're all practically the same, and I've never been able to afford to buy whole platoons, As much as I would love to, so I picked the one for my favorite character. The Only reason I got the Sv-262Hs was because they didn't release the non commander type, and probably won't. 

Also, that is a sick photo. Mirage looking good, but how can she not?

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

One thing I did note is that my earlier statement about the YF-29's shoulder missile launchers being a toy feature is incorrect, they're represented in the line art but not mentioned in the official specs.  This would mean the YF-29 has about 130 missiles instead of 100.

Is it possible that you misinterpreted something? Are you sure that there are 3 launchers on each leg? Because the way it looks to me is that there are 2 launchers, one just has 2 ports. 

1 hour ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Looking good so far!!!!

Thanks.

I got bored so I decided to do some more work:

These assemblies just got another pass with primer and are now drying. Tomorrow I should be able to start painting. I have some ideas, you'll just have to stay tuned and see. 

So I figured I'd give a bit of an update on my progress, seeing as I'm doing a completely custom paint scheme. Using the sandable primer was a good call, since now that I'm fitting parts it lets me see how well things are blending and it's letting me take advantage of my bodyworking experience. Things will look a heck of a lot better when I re-prime. It'll also let me go over some spots that didn't get as good a layer of primer. and I'll get to cover some of the bits that I didn't prime. 

All in all it's looking good, and I'll keep posting updates as I make progress.

I've watched Overlord recently, as well as Getting Caught up on My Hero Academia. Currently I'm watching Parasyte. 

5 hours ago, azrael said:

Frankly, I wanted more of the Knights to die. Herman should have died early on. One of the twins should have bought the apple orchard. Bogue should have been humiliated by Mirage-“by-the-book”-Jenius. More redshirts should also have died on-screen. But that’s my thought. 

Frankly, I'm a bit miffed by the treatment Mirage got. She's a Jenius. So she starts out as a by the book pilot, very little improv, just enough to be slightly better than average, per her lineage. She should have gotten the loosen up lecture sooner and had more time to blossom, and show everyone that her name isn't just an accident of birth. But she got outshined by Hayate, and that's not cool. Also, I agree that Mirage should have been handing Bogue's ass to him on a platter for the whole show.

More CF's did need to bite it, and Herman should have been given some pineapple salad. 

4 hours ago, arbit said:

You need to take them off the sprue and sand them down, or those rough sprue edges will ruin all the painting and weathering you are planning to do.

Then prime and paint each piece on a stick. To save time, you can do an arm, a leg, etc, at one time if they're the same color.

I use a sandable primer so, that's fine. I do plan on going back for a second pass after I have things fitted. as for time, I'm not worried, I figured this project would be a good warm up for what I'm planning for my Dad's birthday present. For that I'm going to need to test all of my skills and this seemed the perfect way to do it.

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

There's something to be said for whether you want to get rid of seams too, or not. If you do, that further complicates the build/paint process.

You might be able to get away with priming/painting on the runner, if the gates are smartly placed in areas that will either get covered or are otherwise out of sight. (Like if the parts are undergated, for instance, though my impression is that the GM Sniper II is not undergated.) Otherwise, yeah, taking them off the runner and painting them shouldn't be too much trouble.

I think What my plan is going to be is to do a primary pass on priming on the sprue, then remove them, and start fitting pieces. Then I'll remove any seams, and re-prime the sub-assemblies to cover the body work. After that's done, I'll begin by basecoating the model. I'll need to assemble the whole thing to make a cohesive camo scheme. Then comes the panel lining wash, then some drybrushing to add weathering on edges, then some sponging to add some dirt effects. 

I just need to decide what the base color should be. I had been thinking grey, but now I'm considering brown or green. 

Excellent photograph. Makes the Draken look super cool.

This:

Currently trying to figure out how I want to paint it. Since I'm not a huge fan of the original colors. I also want to do some weathering effects. 

Having the main source of thrust in the legs is probably more unstable (reference, MCU Iron Man), but is the easier option from a design perspective. Considering that the engines themselves are mostly contained within the lower legs of most Valkyries that seems to put a fair amount of weight in that area of the Battroid. That makes the weight distribution a bit more even, where the YF-21 and VF-22 are somewhat top heavy. 

All in all, I think it's better to have the engines in the legs. Instability lends a lot to maneuverability, so I think that's better.

11 minutes ago, seti88 said:

Depends on how much that gunpla means to you? If its a model you really want to show off, then take the time to prime/paint the pieces individually. 

That's a fair point. I do want to do this up well. This is somewhat uncharted territory for me. I've never painted a gunpla kit. So I should do the pieces individually.

2 hours ago, Sildani said:

So. Do I sell my 31C to get a 31A, since I never anticipated they’d just go and announce it now, or be happy with what I have?

I'll be happy to just have the 31C if I can't get a 31A. Especially since It's Mirage and Mirage is best girl.