MacrossJunkie

Nice, I didn't know they were using diecast for the elbow joints now. What's the purpose of the extending arm in the second image? Is it just for the transformation to fighter mode?

I'm not disagreeing. I was just trying to say that both you and ATLMYK have a point. The bulbs produce a lot of UV from the mercury in them, but most of it gets turned into visible light. No doubt some UV still gets through as the conversion from UV to visible light is not 100% efficient. And even a minute of exposure to sunlight at a time done repeatedly over long period of time will still add up. That's why I will not use CFL's inside my display cases and keep them enclosed in glass cabinets. I'll only go with LEDs for lighting for inside the cabinet since they produce no significant UV or heat.

Technically, CFLs do produce a lot of UV light. But it gets converted to the visible light we see coming from them when they react with the phosphor layer. So I wouldn't expect to get a tan sitting next to one all day. That said, I'm still paranoid about using them too close to plastic toys. With all this talk about the Bandai stuff yellowing quickly, I do plan on putting a clear coat on my VF-25F so there's less actual surface area directly exposed to air and causing oxidation which I suspect may be related to yellowing as well. Future is supposed to be UV resistant also. On another note, if you have the toys in a glass display enclosure, the glass should prevent a lot of the UV light from getting to the toys. Thus far, I've not experienced any yellowing on any of the Macross stuff I have. Most of it is in the detolf cabinets and the room is lit by a couple 100w equivalent CFL's. My bright white 1/48 VF-1J is still as pristine as ever and even the white plastic parts on the VF-25G shows no signs of yellowing either.

I believe heat itself be a cause for yellowing as well, either through accelerating a chemical breakdown or something else. I've seen many instances where plastics that are otherwise away from light have yellowed because they were enclosing or near a source of heat. Anyway... getting way off topic at this point.

Thanks Dobber. I guess so many posts have come in this thread so quickly that I missed a bunch of them. I guess I missed out on HLJ's preorders as well =( Damn you, Bandai! If they would have made their plans clear from the start instead of waiting to announce after preorders were closed, I would have done the preorder instead of waiting for a bundle that will never happen.

I've gone back to using enamel paints mixed with thinner. It allows me to mix the colors I want since I prefer varying shades of gray on different valks depending on their color or sometimes on the same valk, again based its paint scheme. On this one, I started with gunship gray and lightened it a bit and thinned it out. Then rubbed in some gun metal and oil stain powder from the Tamiya weathering kits. Worked on the top half a tiny bit more tonight. Will get around to the bottom half and battroid mode this weekend.

Anyone else having issues when clicking on the image button on the editor? It just puts a grayish overlay over the page and gets stuck like that with no dialog box that pops up. The only way to get out of it is to hit the back button to go to the previous page.

Wow... super lame. And AmiAmi is not taking any more pre-orders on the 25S it seems. HLJ doesn't even seem to be selling the renewal versions at all. They don't have the Alto version listed either. Wonder why they decided to not sell them.

Got mine today after work. The design of this has really impressed me. The locking mechanism between the legs and wing root in fighter mode is so simple and easy. I like it better than how the VF-27 and YF-29 do it. Joints seem to be tighter than the YF-29. I hope it will stay that way, but past history will likely prove that is just wishful thinking. The only thing that really irks me is that it came with sloppy paint applications and chipped paint all over in tiny areas. Did some panel lining and some quick weathering on mine to see how it looks. The toy looks good enough to deserve more effort so I will do more with it over the weekend when I have time. Edit: fixd speeling erors

Or possibly kept in a sealed dark chamber filled with an inert gas?

I always thought the VF-27's tail just added more to the traditional "devil" look it had. With the horns on the head for the squad leader version, sort of a demonic looking face, taloned feet, the wings were sort of bat-like when folded up, and then the tail.

It's funny that they strayed from the anime's colors for Gamlin's 22S in order to have something a bit better looking, but decided to go as accurate as possible with Milia's. I too would have liked hers in a deeper red color like her 1J or DYRL Q-Rau. I did kinda get used to it after a while, but I don't have it displayed next to my max as it just looks too weird. I have it grouped/displayed with other reddish valks so it doesn't look as silly. As for those waiting for the VF-11B or C to go super cheap, I'm just not seeing it happen anytime soon, if ever. I think the best price I've seen it for was on clearance for around 11 or 12k yen, but I could be mistaken. Perhaps some remaining stock will be put on clearance again this holiday season.

Yeah, the seats are rotated upright much like the YF-19 so that the pilot is facing forward relative to the battroid (facing the floor of the cockpit with the canopy behind). There's just no room in the toy itself to accomplish that. At least not without using similar tricks as Yamato's 1/60 VF-19 toys.

Could someone that has this already post up some larger high res pics?

Strangely enough, for a person that prefers an accurate rendition of the fighter mode over battroid, this rendition doesn't bother me at all. It almost feels like that's how it would look if it were to appear in Macross Frontier and rendered as a CG model. After all, they changed a bunch of things on the VB-6 going from hand drawn line art to an actual CG model, why shouldn't this be any different? What does bother me are the large gaps between nearly all the pieces. I'm hoping it's just because it's a resin prototype and that the production toy will have those gaps tightened up. Unfortunately it feels like it may be a repeat of the VF-11 where it is priced way above what people feel it should be worth and thus will not sell well. I hope the S variant sells enough to justify the D because at this price, I can really afford to get only one, and that is the one I want. Sigh, if only the exchange rate were the same as it was when I started collecting Macross stuff. It was something like 1 dollar = 122 yen then. Those were good times. The VF-17at the amiami price of 21,800 yen would have cost only $179 and then another probably $33 for shipping.

Wow, I come back from a week long vacation and pics of the VF-17 has cropped up. I don't think it looks that bad at all considering physical limitations on a design that required a lot of anime magic in the transformation. That price hurts and makes my wallet cry. I hope they wait a while before they come out with the 17D so I can fit it into a budget. Too many Macross items releasing too close to each other.

Some screw covers would be nice. I imagine they'd cost practically nothing to include with the toy. One nice thing among many that I liked about the 1/3000 SDF-1 is that it included screw covers for virtually every visible screw hole which, to me, adds a lot to its appearance.

Thanks. That means a lot coming from someone who I think produces some great photos. Both you and Vegas have put up spectacular looking pics. I'm looking to expand my selection of lenses eventually, but it's pretty expensive between the now ~$300 macross collectibles and camera lenses. I need to pick less expensive hobbies...

Hmmm, I dunno. Are we looking at the same thing? The Fz-109 has a whole separate piece that folds up and covers the entire faceplate and just leaves the forehead showing wihch shows no more than the SV-51 would. The VF-14, at most depending on how you'd interpret the thickness of the lines where the visor is in sketch, either has the visor showing or the forehead folds down a bit to cover the visor, but the mouthpiece or whatever you call it still remains visible. The head just simply slides up into place into the front of the fuselage to form the nose. Granted, it's not a human looking face to begin with so I suppose it could look like anything at that point. I did say it was a nitpick In any case, I think the VF-5000 in some form or another, while unlikely, is still more likely to be made than a VF-14 so it is probably a moot point anyway.

Based on the drawings in the Macross Design Works book, the face plate looks entirely visible and not covered up like the FZ-109. edit: View showing underside from M3

The VF-14 would be cool to have too. My nitpicks about the design of it though are the vent flaps that don't lay flat against the chest in battroid and just kinda stick out and the face plate is visible from the bottom of the fighter like an old school transformer toy. Fighter mode is not the prettiest of designs either, but I'd still buy one or two if it were ever made.

Yep, that's more or less how I do it. I use a white light tent with a black felt-like backdrop and two desk lamps using 5500k color fluorescent bulbs. The tent diffuses the lighting and bounces it around. The downside of the tent is the inside constantly produces tiny white dust particles which gets on the subject and on the backdrop which is especially a pain to clean up due to the felt like surface of it. I just shoot at low iso and compensate with longer exposure times as needed. I could benefit from a third lamp and brighter bulbs. I'm still a photography newbie though so I'm probably not an ideal person to get any advice from. Picked up a Nikon D7000 back in June this year and have been playing with it off and on since. I think I've learned a lot just through trial and error though.

If how quickly the pre-orders keep selling out is any indication, they seem to be selling quite well already despite a number of people holding off purchases until then.

Wow... sounds like it has some form of mecha osteoporosis.

Do you have any of the other VF-25s? What areas are breaking on your 25S? Mine only has a split in the wing hinge area thus far. The 25G and RVF still seem to be holding up alright for me.