mickyg

Cool!

The only issue I can see is that the arm that comes with the DX stand is fairly short.  You may be limited to squatting poses in Battroid and Gerwalk.  I don't know for certain because I don't have the toy with me to try it.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?  The other way would be a "taller" adapter but that may not be cost effective in terms of materials cost and print time.

Actually, it sounds like he's after brackets that accommodate Gerwalk and Battroid for the promo stand we see pictured.  The DX itself only comes with a clip for fighter mode.

Is that right Arkham?

If so, it'd need that notched hole under it to fit onto the post that comes with the Bandai promo stand.

Yeah, I think I actually went way too small on the magnets. But I'm thinking that may work out if I can find plastic tube that will fit the holes in the wings and then stuff the magnets inside those. May work with plastic rod too and then I'd just drill them out. 1.5mm diameter magnets at 2mm long are just itty bitty. 

I'd rather not modify the toy so much that I can't put it back to stock easily, if possible. 

5 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

There's really nothing to "try" there, you'll have to heavily modify the pylons to work.  They're shaped like actual ordnance mounts, with large flat plates that would bolt under the wings, and they're meant to be glued in place.

On the other hand, if you made some custom pylons, it shouldn't be hard to mount the Hasegawa missiles on them.  Shapeways is nice for making fully formed shapes, but you could almost just cut pylons out of some thick styrene sheet, and stick the missiles on them.

What I do love about the Hasegawa set is that they treat the weapons mounts like actual pylons, which is something that Bandai generally doesn't even attempt.  The pylons are modular, and you can tell the dual RMS mounts are built out of the same pylon used for a single mount, but with a dual adapter bolted underneath.

Technically speaking though... the RMS mounts don't make sense, and wouldn't have mounting lugs in more than one location.  For the markings to remain oriented sideways, they'd need a dual mount that attaches on top, which is what most VF-1 weapons sets seem to use.  They would probably mount on something either with a flat side-by-side mount like these.

Strictly speaking, anything used in space would probably be primarily rail-launched, but I think the RMS missiles in more recent material are shown ejecting a short distance, and then thrusting forward.  I forget if that was ever shown in DYRL, but I'm pretty sure that's how Frontier treated them.  For clearance purposes, the top-mounted RMS pylons make more sense for them to eject downward, rather than sideways.

I'll be interested to see how the sizes and positions of the Bandai missiles compare with the Yamato ones.  The concept art/renders seemed to use slightly wider spacing, which should help avoid the triple clusters looking quite so crowded with the wings partially swept.

I bought a set of the missiles to experiment with, along with some tiny 1.5mm diameter magnets. I concur though, the pylon mounts are totally wrong and will need a lot of modification to work. May be awhile till I make any progress but I'll be sure to post when I do. 

8 hours ago, spanner said:

Has anyone considered making better gun straps to replace those nasty rubbery plastic ones? 

Soconded. And the hole at the back part of the gun seems to be lacking something to hold the peg tightly. Doesn't matter witch peg I put in it, it doesn't want to stay in there. 

Otherwise, I'm loving this thing! No issues with any part of it, so far. Wings are level, flaps are not loose, fins are fidly but ok. Very impressively put together toy. 

On 1/19/2019 at 2:53 AM, Vagabond Elf said:

It is of course your display, and you should prioritise what makes you the most satisfied. My approach, though, is usually less "this exactly matches the official art" and more "this is vaguely justifiable and looks good." It sounds to me like you want to go with "looks good" and are hung up on "but it's not 'correct'." If so, you simply need to decide which parameter is more important to you.

I do think the mix would look cool, FWIW.

Thanks for your comments Vagabond.  It's actually a bit of both.  I like sticking with what was "officially" seen so it's not quite so jarring (in my opinion) but I'm also not so rigid as to not want to have a bit of fun with it.  With some limits...

On 1/19/2019 at 3:35 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Quite frankly, I'm on the side of "looks good" over 100% accuracy.

For the classic TV VF-1J, the red accents on the missiles will really pop against the white airframe.

Thanks both of you for the info on real world weapons, too.  I study these things a fair bit too and appreciate some of the background info.

I think the red accents will work well also.  However, the TV HMR Valks come with the red backed missiles and they do look a bit "much" in my opinion.  I'm hoping to come up with a way to make it look a little more realistic.  I'm not sure there are any real world examples of missiles with huge red sections to draw from, but I'll see what I can find.

A mixed load out could be fun.  I also like how the Hasegawa set positions the weapons on the triple ejector rack, rather than the toy's (all of which I'm aware of from Bandai as well as Yamato/Arcadia) straight alignment.  The model kit has the bottom missile sitting a bit in front of the two closest to the wing.

Thanks all!

So at the very least, I could try to put some sort of seeker cover into the nose of the missile, as I seem to recall reading about it being hybrid as well.  If it was active radar, the flat and usually white nose certainly makes sense.  But if it's infrared or optical of any sort, it's got to have a transparent (for that wavelength at least) cover on the nose. 

Looking at the Mr March's Macross2 site (HERE) we see it shown like this:

Which is what I was going to attempt.  But perhaps that'd be adopting the less commonly shown version.

Maybe I'll do a mix of all white and this one shown here and call it good...

I'll admit to not having searched this one at all, so apologies in advance...

Just picked up the new 1/48(ish) DX VF-1J and instead of waiting for the DX missile set, I'm going to modify the 1/48 Hasegawa set to fit.  I'll attempt magnets and some custom mounts on the model kit parts, with an effort to keep the DX toy as close to un-modified as possible.

In my research on what an AMM-1 is supposed to look like, it appears SDFM has a white missile body, with black stripes and a red fin section.  In DYRL, the missile is all white, with only one black stripe near the warhead.

I thought this was a open/close case but then see there have been some recent posts by others in various threads, where screen shots in SDFM show the AMM-1 missile occasionally appear to be plain white.  Especially in the case of the VF-1J that Hikaru is piloting.

Any ideas which is actually correct for SDFM and Hikaru's personal machine?

Thirded!

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

I'm loving this toy, thought I'd chime in after seeing all these amazing photos and really glad to see people taking them out of the boxes and playing and panel lining them!  ....Snip

Hey WM!  Thanks for posting your great work and review.  I don't have mine yet but your thoughts echo what I've been thinking, based on all the feedback from folks who have it already and all the pictures.

My only addition would be the non-painted landing gear (but that's always a pet peeve with anything Bandai and I'm pretty much used to it by now) and that slime lights are actually opaque and wouldn't look right if they were clear.  I'm with you on the wingtip lights though - they really should be clear parts instead of the metallic painted red and blue.

Can't wait to see how you do with post-shading it.  I think you totally should.

Got my payment request in from HLJ a few minutes ago so it's in my PW now. I was about to flip out about shipping costs - cheapest is EMS for 63 Aussie dollars! But then I saw it next to the VF-31... It really is a huge thing, isn't it?

Just to buy more of this line, right?

For the record, I've got no issues at all seeing how some folks buy the crap out of these toys! Keep those pics coming, everyone. Not everyone can justify multiples (for whatever reason) but I love seeing the photos here. 

Went with HLJ as well. Had a credit I forgot about so that helped, even though their price was already pretty good. 

Thanks @Shizuka the Cat - these are super helpful. 

1 hour to go...

Wow @MechTech that's some amazing work!  I know what you mean about life and work (and commute) taking up a lot of time.  I keep thinking I'm going to have an hour here and there to work on various projects that have been stalled for well over a year.  Sometimes time is scarce, and sometimes you flat out forget what "time" is altogether!

I love popping over here to see what everyone's up to though.  Keeps things my creative mind alert and gives me lots of ideas for when I do rediscover some free time.

Maybe a silly question because it's not here, but you don't still have said supers kicking around for Luca, do you?  Actually I just need the ghosts.

The HMRs I own are fairly matte already. It might offer some protection but there's no shiny plastic look to cover up in my experience. 

17 hours ago, apptt4 said:

oh man i hadn't considered AUD sliding putting the price up... i always try and pay at time of pre-order but CD Japan only pre-authorize. hope we're not slugged too much!

My thoughts exactly.  I got mine in at HLJ but it's the same story with pay later at time of release.

A great place to get started is Sketchup.  It's not perfect but it should get you a feel for how to do modelling.  I think you're gaming world editor experience will serve you well too. Though as I recall, Unreal used a "carve it out of a hunk of clay" sort of method.  Is that still the case with newer versions?

Back on topic, Xigfrid used Sketchup a lot so would be a great place to look for what's possible. 

Mine came from CDJ, had a fairly beaten up shipping box, and was still intact.  If that's any indication of how they pack them, you should be OK.

Not a bit!

When we've been treated to what HM-R has been giving us for all the releases they've done, I'm right there with ya!  I don't mind the mold-milking one bit. 

I do want to see a VF-1D though...

EDIT:
Hah!  Tober beat me to it.

Great transaction just now with @apptt4.  Great to meet a fellow Macross fan in person.  Glad the VF-19Advance is going to a good home and all the best for your expanding collection. 

Ditto.  Saburo, that new "light tent" is just all kinds of awesome.  Love it!

2 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I just use acrylic but I try to be careful not to scratch any paint.

Given you've customised more of these than anyone else I know of, I'm inclined to take your experience as the final word on the matter.  Do you airbrush the paint on and what's your preference in paint brand?

Do you mean DYRL hands?  The Micky Mouse (or "Clown") hands are the TV style hands.  The square profile fingers, or the more robot looking ones are the DYRL hands.