Urashiman

Oh boy, this is so awesome!

It is super smooth. I bet there will be some blockyness, but at this scale, sanding the body once with 180 or 320 grid will get rid of it.

Pushing myself to get the VF-9 done. Only little parts left. I scrapped the back gear idea again. It didn't look good. Finally got the form of the engine exhaust/foot right. Let's hope I get this done this year, hahahahah.

okay, stickers are a bummer. but I got so many left over waterslide decals from other Valks, I'll just use them.

Been tinkering around on my VF-9 again. Getting the gunpod size right hard. I've been trying around and checking with reference material, but I think the size it good now. Also decided on the basic shape of the back landing gear of the VF-9. I tried the F-18 one, with the "bend knees" but it looked horrible. So this is mostly like the standard stuff one would find in a F-14, F-22 or F-35. Any better recommendations are welcome.

Some work on the VF-22. canopy masking is fun, especially with canopies this round. Good I got that humbrol liquid mask Prime Time! some shading (or better, lighting)

@pengbuzz@Thom & @MechTech Thanks for the nice words. I hope everything will come out nice in the end. Some more work on the F-14 today. Water slide decals are for babies and communists. Look at this cockpit. Went on the darker grey here, because in Macross Zero the cockpit is dark grey as well, compared to the light grey F-14s usually have.

Update on today's progress. Tinted the canopies of the VF-19A and the VF-22. Light smoke for the VF-19A and yellow for the VF-22. And some progress on the F-14D. Airbrushed the cockpit and the panels, as well as the engine exhausts.

Oh yes, the new Academy one. I wasn't able to find one for a decent price in Germany. I remember the old Academy F-14 to look super bulky with huge panel line, but the new one looks really good. Oh yeah. I went on an F-14 forum once and all they did was complaining "Nah, what the #?@! is that? Is that supposed to be an F-14? Blargh Blargh Blargh". It is fun hahaha Oh - advise from the master himself. The original F-14 from Hasewaga (the 1970s mold with the rised panel lines) is from a dimensions point of view really good. It just needs a lot of love and work to make it look awesome. And yeah ... saw a ton of extra pieces for the GWH one, but I think it'll do like this at the moment. So many little pieces on this I tell you. Panels as big as 2x2mm that need to be glued to the nose somewhere. The GWH will be closed panels with gears out and missiles added. I am not coming up with much. The creative work has been done by the Macross Zero team XD But yeah, can't wait to see how it comes out myself. Here is what I got together yesterday evening while watching Another Life on netflix. I didn't glue the nose yet, just sticket together so I can paint the cockpit and so on. Was easier to take care of those tiny panels with my saussage fingers.

Okay ... aside from the crazy things I do and have on my workbench, I am always on the hunt for "the perfect F-14 Tomcat". I know there are some F-14 purists on the board as well, and getting a proper F-14 is just crazy. One could get an original 1970s Hasegawa F-14, remove the rised panel lines and engrave new panel lines, or look around what else we got in our hobby stores. We got the new tool F-14 from hasegawa. Give or take, this might be a valid option, but needs much work as well. There are a lot of resin kit add ons ... you get the idea. Getting a new mold Revell F-14, it looks okay, is cheap but the panel lines are super wrong and look like someone encarved them with a chainsaw. So now let's look at the two best kits out there (from my perspective). The Fine Molds F-14, and the GWH F-14. I know, there is a Hobby Boss F-14 out in the wild, but I am unable to get a hold of one. Boxart: contents as you As you can see, the GWH F-14 has a bunch more runners. But this won't say much about the quality. Have a look at the fine molds nose: Versus GWH: On both kits the panel lines are super fine and detailed, but the interior of the Fine Molds F-14 is giving away way more features. The GWH has a lot more wing configurations. The panel lines on the GWH F-14 are detailed, but there are annoying inaccuracies. The panel lines on the Fine Molds F-14 are almost perfect. I want to use one of these for my new Macross Zero F-14, and I think I will go with the GWH one, as the F-14D version is fitting more the visuals of what we see in Macross Zero. On the down side, I have to use a limited Edition F-14D for that, because I wasn't able to get a normal F-14D from GHW here. I wish there was a Fine Molds F-14D available (apart from the limited and super rare Model Graphix Magazine edition). So far the Fine Molds kit has really impressed me. But, even though there are mine inaccuracies in the GWH kit, it is looks super fun to build. It will be on my workbench now. Updates to follow tomorrow

My stash is big enough. I only need one

New stuff in the mail finally!

you have no idea hahahahahaha

Update on the F-5B (CF-116). I removed all raised panel lines and all incorrect engraved panel lines. Time to make new ones. Step number one: painting the new ones on the plane. I think I got the wrong F-5B panel line chart, though and have to remove most of them again. Yay... fun! This 2.99€ kit is more work than it is worth, but I like the challenge

Yeah, but it still doesn’t look right. There is this weird edge, on the „black rope“ around the nose, and then tilting up, without going into the proper rounded triangle form. Makes it look super bulky.

The Canadian pilots are from a 1970s pilot mold. They are super bad. I tried to get the most from it. hahahaha But yeah, the hasegawa macross pilots are something else. So much detail in the mold.

I remember seeing a Meme years ago on an anime forum where someone photoshopped Max to have super big glasses. hahahaha XD But yeah, just messing around.

Glasses are way to small. They need to cover the whole face. @Rock thanks a lot! I can guess why. It is kinda hard to pull it off. Just a little bit off and the whole streamlined shape is gone. Looks super weird then.

Pre-ordered one already. https://www.hlj.com/1-72-scale-plamax-vf-1a-s-fighter-valkyrie-hikaru-ichijyo-s-fighter-macross-do-you-remember-love-max01291 now lets wait till November…

Ah nice…. At least they got the engines in the right angle.

Thanks! I took some extra time to Max and checked the single most awesome Macross 7 episode over and over again to check his flight suit and get the colors right.

A bit real world workbench today. 1/72 pilot figure time. First off, two angry Canadian pilots. How do we know they are Canadian? The have little barely visible flags on their arms! Look at them sitting in ther F-5. For my VF-19A and the VF-22 I finished the pilots as well. For the VF-19A, instead of using the M+ type flight suit, I cloned the VF-22 flight suit. It looks a bit more like the VF-X 2 Aegis Focker flight suit. I also made a little Max for the VF-22 with super little details. Good my hands are super shaky and I need to hold my breath when painting with the super thin brush. Here you go. Aegis Fockers right foot came off during "Cloning" but I decided to ignore it. It'll be covered anyway. Here they are in their planes.

Small update here on my stuff. Finally decided on the proper VF-9 wheels. Maybe someone can figure out where I took my inspiration? And some work on the VF-1P as well. I love those crazy panel lines.

Yay! This is an instant HLJ order

that is awesome man! with my limited japanese I was only barely able to figure out what was going on in Macross 30. Have to read this