Urashiman

Putty and sanding on the VF-1J.

While doing this, I noticed I am on my last bottle of Alclad 2 primer and microfiller. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be distributed anymore (through the UK, due to some regulations on lacquer colors).

Now I am in search for a proper replacement as I don’t want to pay the ridiculous shipping prices from the US to Germany.

Any suggestions?
Mr. Surfacer doesn’t work for me as I am using Revell enamel colors. Same for Tamiya surfacer. They tend to develop cracks on these two surfacers.

The revell primer is okayish, but I want something that is primer and microfiller.

On 12/28/2024 at 5:32 AM, Graham said:

A couple more quick pics.

I wonder why I cannot like grahams post… not giving me the heart…

Sigh… preorder time…

@electric indigo 30 years old? What kit maker is that? The panel lines look so crisp ...

@nightmareB4macross so much evergreen. looks like it is coming along well.

@SteveTheFish looks nice

@pengbuzz aah ... good old cannon fodder. Haha

1/48 VF-1 build updates.

Hand painting Hikaru and his seat here.

Clear coated these parts with Tamiya XF-22 for washing.

CLAMPS!

Cockpit details + built nose with cockpit and Hikaru.

I am going for the bubbly canopy, but it has that ugly seam line. I find that weird, because they managed to do the flat canopy without a seam line in the middle.

scratching off the seam line. (Ugly ugly…)

Then sanding and buffing and putting it on the nose. As good as new.

Little snap together just to show off the VF-1

Need to add some putty here and there as well as sanding. After that, masking and priming

Did a bit priming and coloring this evening as well as further building.

This is a big one…

(probably not as big as the plamax 1/20 one, but 1/48 big)

3 hours ago, Adriano said:

Sim

The hasegawa YF-19 isn't too accurate and not true to the kawamori line art. 

The underside is quite different.

On 12/11/2024 at 2:13 PM, Adriano said:

That fighter mode YF-19 is based on the Hasegawa YF-19, right?

Workbench stuff. After the VB-6, I am Building something more „traditional“.

I haven’t build anything 1/48 in ages. Totally forgot how big 1/48 stuff is haha.

Anyway, this seems like hasegawa took everything they did wrong with the 1/72 and fixed it. Like a revision B, just in 1/48. would be cool if they could update their 1/72 mold with the improvements the 1/48 has. Just dreaming.

As the 1/72, it can be broken down into build groups. So I am doing this group by group.

@Graham cool! Have fun! I definitely had fun with my VB-6.

@Chronocidal Yeah, I figured. There are still the pieces for the head unit on the runners. There are also a bunch of duplicate parts, as they just "copy/pasta" a few runners. A lot of pieces are just the same and were reused.

In general, I think this kit is more aimed towards the "toy" audience, and not a scale model builder like me. While I had a ton of fun building this, I probably won't have fun painting this. If I ever want to paint this, I probably would glue the VB-6 into permanent shuttle mode and then do the paint job. I saw a bunch of Bandai builds with primed parts and then painted and so on. They rarely transform their kits, for the same reasons. The paint would just wear off too quickly. So - maybe only panel lining with a gunpla marker for me on the VB-6. As of now, I will store it in a box and move on to the next kit.

@derex3592 haha, yeah. It is funny. In the German version he says „wide“. Might be some dubbing thing. Anyway.

build log (2024/12/11):

Time to finish up. The literal „last leg“.

Still needs a cockpit.

And done.

The V.F.G. claims her ship. By scale, she must be bigger than a Zentradi.

Gerwalk mode:

I was to lazy to change to Battroid, as the whole transformation on this one is kinda hard. The joints are a really tight fit, and I didn’t want to break a thing.

The VB-6 is heavy. I think it must be around 700g.

I am not sure I want to ground and paint this. As i played around with the transformation, I figured that the paint will be scratched. So no coloring. I might want to panel line it. For now, I declare this one to be finished.

It is interesting how many pieces are leftover on the runners.

@Bolt here, check the saddle. It can be pulled off rather easily.

Build Log of today (2024/12/10)

I managed to put together the rest of the main fuselage and a right leg. Nothing too nerv wrecking. I got tired and forgot to add some parts and had to take apart the fuselage again. But hey, fun is fun

Temba his arms wide!

And closed…

I like that they added some hinges, so you can clip the stuff together and there are no giant gaps.

Here, a few repetitive parts for the legs:

Pieces for the right leg:

inbetween

and done… (with the right leg).

This is the progress so far.

I was able to discard two sprues today. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

@AtarashiGohan Well - if you mean it is hard to press them on properly, then this is the same I am experiencing. I have to press those larger parts into the holes with much force, but once they stick, they are fine. It's just a hassle to get them in properly. Had that with the nose halves, the gunbarrels and shell of the gunbarrels.

@sketchley well, you can just clip off the handlebars. They are just for the looks and do nothing. The little round piece in the middle is needed. You maybe can recast the piece in resin and then clip off the bars on the resin piece.

@Bolt Damn those contraceptions! Yeah no, the saddle can easily be taken off. But you would have to put it back once you switch back to bomber mode. See those two pins in the promotional shots in the middle of that bar? Those are the pins holding the saddle. I will take pictures later.

@Goodman Models I think they are still available on HLJ (2 left in stock for ~81$) or 1999 (also only a few left for ~81$).

Build log of today:

@sketchley so, apparently the handlebars are actually part of the contraception that is holding the nose in place. The saddle is also used to position the barrels properly in bomber mode. So unfortunately you won’t be able to remove them.

There are so many pieces. I stick together the stuff one by one. It feels like building a Gundam. Some of the pieces are super tight fit. I probably would never be able to take apart the parts anymore.

Nose + „motorcycle“ piece:

Gunbarrels:

Joined everything I got so far after a good 2 hours of clipping, cutting and sanding.

Still a ton of sprues left. I was only able to discard three sprues that were empty after today’s build session. I am still having fun, everything is coming together nicely. Good to superb quality so far.

@Thom It was discounted. Around 76€ I think.

@Bolt Yeah!

@sketchley Oh, I wonder too. Not just that, but it has a large bright orange saddle as well! I saw different pictures inside the manual with the saddle and without. Will check later.

Got this on my workbench now:

Here I will put my build log of the Aoshima V.F.G. VB-6 König Monster.

The box print is of awesome quality. It has been a while since I build an Aoshima kit (bttf Delorean), so, hard to compare to the general quality of Aoshima for me.

I will dry build this first, that means: no glue, no paint. My focus will be more on the VB-6 than the VF girl. I mean, everyone likes [insert euphemism for large female attributes here] anime girls with fox ears and a tail, but for me, this is just a little gimmick here. I will go step by step through the manual, and guess what? Said fox girl is the first piece to build.

The box provides several face plates for lazy dry builders (me this time) and for anyone willing to paint everything.

Everything is pretty modular, so in case I want to paint the VF girl, I can chop her up into pieces like a Hasegawa VF-1 and paint everything individually.

After around 2.5 hours, I was finally done putting together the little figurine. A lot of tiny pieces and joints. They have a general good tense fit and it makes the figurine fully possible. The plastic looks good and I didn’t see smearing or waving. Everything that needs to stick together sticks together without glue. I am satisfied with it so far.

One noteworthy feature: adjustable „balistics“.

Work on the VB-6 will commence tomorrow. Here two pictures of the figurine.

This is what is left of sprues for me to go through.

As per the manual, I can throw away the rest of the girl‘s sprues as the redundant pieces are not needed. I will keep them as replacement parts.

5 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

The VB-6 is a great kit, probably the best one they've done.  Tons of good posability, and a nearly perfect transformation, even if you completely ignore the figure (I don't think I even built it )

There should be a few pics of my build earlier in the thread.  I was really impressed that they even managed to give it partially retracting landing gear in shuttle mode.

Didn’t have to scroll too far

3 hours ago, Big s said:

Let us know how it goes. Nobody seems to really do reviews on these

Of course! Once I start building, I will post in the Workbench thread, as usual.

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

I'm assuming that you could build this as a non-armored Nightmare Plus, with ordnance? I'm just wondering why the very first release didn't have the ordnance option.

And does anyone remember if they announced a blue version of the Armored? Or would I have to combine a standard blue version and Alto's Armored to get a blue Armored?

The only difference from the VF-171EX and  the cannon fodder VF-171 is the cockpit  interior (including pilot) and the canopy, as well as the decals. So, just take that from the normal one, and push that into the armored version. Bam - you have a non-EX armored version.

Edit: nope. You need to switch out the whole nose.

I wasn’t too invested with the VFG stuff… but one was living rent free in my brain and I purchased it. Man… it is so awesome. So excited and also a bit scared. Oh boy (or Oh girl?) The box is so F****** huge!

Hasegawa Queadluun Rau fits into this. It is probably the volume of 4 Hasegawa VF-1 boxes.

It almost broke the VF-1 strike Valk 1/48 record.

I went through the manual already and it goes on for eternity.

My fingers tingle from excitement.

Okay, little unboxing on the new vf-171 kit.

The box is only slightly higher than the VF-171 nightmare release with ordnance. That was kinda expected.

This is what you see when you open the box.

They seemed to have cut up some sprues, at least that is my impression.

Bags with new stuff:

And the already known stuff. This time we have white wings with injected on pylons, but still same-same.

Decals and manual.

aaaaaand… done.

Got my box today together with a few other kits.

this one here is huge…

On 11/29/2024 at 2:32 AM, Big s said:

Unless it’s a Zentraedi lobster

Good point, so bets are up for lobsters again.