Budokhan
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Many thanks! Reposted it there, wouldve done in the first place but couldnt find that forum...User Error 404
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Hey Folks! I'm building a custom 1/72 Super Strike Stealth-Fold VF out of Bandai's Latest variable mode plastic kit ( I know, its not the greatest kit to work with but I still like the engineering of it ) & was wondering if anyone has a spare VF-1J head they could part with for cash? I realize the only new BANDAI kit so far that has the VF-1J head ( I think ) is the new MAX & MILLIA combo kit but maybe someone has one who like me, has other plans for one of those & can give up a noggin? I'd sure appreciate it ! Much thanks in advance!
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Thanks very much for the kind words, glad you like 'em! Thanks for the compliment on my Vipers, coming from an uber talented guy like you, thats high praise indeed! Those're some mighty fine inspirational ideas you wrote there, I do have a home Photoetching set I should really make good use of & I think these little guys would make a great first use for it! If you wouldn't mind granting a tad more advice, would you have an ideal thickness & material you prefer for such a project? Also guys, Im sure many of you have seen this already but I having not been keeping up to date so much over the last few years on all things Macross-related, just caught wind of this via a great friend of mine over in Japan! : http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/mc05/ I cant wait for this to come out as Its pretty much exactly what I had planned for my kit & lets face it...its Frakkin Hasegawa which pretty much means its gonna be gorgeous!!! Edit: I just found this guy for cheap here: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10308073
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haha! Thanks! Yeah, you pretty much need a pair to see 'em! But yeah, the plan is to eventually mold,cast & paint up a bunch of 'em in various schemes. I could probably get away with minimal paint work too..like only the wing,rudders & strongback stripes, the canopy & the feet/afterburner cans. I do! I do! I actually made this little guy via satellite imagery redirected back down to my workbench! Thank ya veruh much! Thank you! Thanks for the kind words! Photo-etched huh? Hmmmmm....Ya know, I bet I could get just a top-view silhouette to use for the outline for a PE buck & build very carefully onto it to get a better representation! That way, I'd actually have thin wings & not big blocks that went straight down the the ground. But to answer your question, yes, the ultimate goal is to make a gang mold of at least ten, cast those up to the max & paint 'em all up to be mounted either on the carriers (whichever ones I wind up using that is ) and/or having them mounted in flight patterns for C.A.P. around the SDF-1. I've done something similar a number of years back for some scratch-built Micro-Vipers that are in scale with the old school Revell/ Monogram BSG so I think The Valks would look cool done that way too ! & a very large thanks too for inspirational idea of PE! Hadnt given that a thought before!
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Hey Folks! Just wanted to share a tiny bit of scratch-built fun! A bunch of years back I got an old 1/5,000 IMAI SDF-1 Cruiser Fortress kit & thought it'd be neat to have a few Valks lined up for launch on the carriers. Bear in mind that the Tiny valk itself is no more than 1.74 mm in length (.0685") & really has no surface detail, just waay too small to even try ya know? It was made by Supergluing a super thin piece of sheet styrene down to a thicker sheet & then, using powerful opti-visors, little by little carving away til I had a semblance of a Valkyrie! Id love to cast it up & see if I couldn't add tiny Fast-pack boosters to the top of it. I had thought about getting a pair of ARMD carriers in scale to swap out for the Daedalus & Prometheus to go for more of the DYRL look but no dice. I Guess I could scratch-build one & cast it up twice but if someone had already made one up, it'd make my life a lot easier! Anywho, just thought id share, hope you guys enjoy the mini-madness!
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Thanks very much for the info about the HUD & the much appreciated links! & thanks again too for the wonderful compliment on the reworked pilot figure, I'm hoping that eventually I'll have the ability to mold & cast him up & offer him for sale! If you have that Bandai kit, have a go at that mod, its not really hard to do & will help make the kit look loads better!
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Thanks very much! Go for it dude, if there's anything I can help with, don't hesitate to hit me up! Thanks very much my friend, glad you like the pilot rework! Ya know, I actually was thinking about putting an LED into the cockpit to lite the controls! I'd have to modify the main console to be almost a solid piece with an aperture in it to accept the LED & then clear-cast the whole shebang. The only place i can see however, to put the batteries & switch would be the tip of the nose but its so tight in there I'd have to get some smaller than usual button batteries & a real tiny slide switch. Something I was pondering on & maybe you guys would have some better insight into this, I was considering scratchbuilding an HUD for the top of the main console but I'm not sure if the DYRL version Valks had it too or was it mainly just TOS that had them? Also, I'd love to get my hands on one of those "Jasmine Model" photoetch sets as they seem to have a buttload of detail bits! http://www.jasmodel.com/PRODUCT/272003/272003_E.htm
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Thanks very much for your kind words about the pilot figure! The little guy was fun to work on! I hear ya on the whole hip issue, I was so happy to finally be able to transform it when it was finished into Battroid mode that when the whole hip thing just kept popping open, I nearly lost it! lol I was like..."Okay, maybe I can post pics of him when he's done & label him the world's first schwasted Valkyrie!" I already fixed the issue with the hinged section under the nose & the waist swivel joint that pulls down but I'm still noodling over the best way to fix the the hip/leg connector peg sexction. Maybe we can all bounce ideas off eachother & come up with a way that'll benefit everyone trying to fix this kit? Thanks again man! looks like ya found me over here at MW!
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Ok, so after a bit more carving & gouging & scraping & cutting than I thought I would need to do,I got the cockpit opened up enough to fit the Hasegawa pilot! The first four shots show the cockpit with the unmodified figure & the last two show the cockpit with the reworked figure. I think he fits in pretty good despite the fact that he's slightly more bulky than the kit supplied figure! The big hole in the floor will eventually be replaced by thin sheet styrene & detailed up to look like a cockpit floor. That's it for now guys! Cheers!
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Thanks man, so much! I'm hoping he's worth the wait too!
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Hey Brett! Thanks so much for the great compliment! Its truly not that bad of a kit. Like most kits, it just needs a bit of TLC is all to make it shine! Thank you very much for the kind words! The "flesh" colored material you see on the grey primed pilot figure is a form of sculptor's wax that I used to use when I was in the toy industry. Its great stuff! It takes a bit of heat to melt it, can be applied in built up layers to the rough dimensions needed, carves & holds detail really well! Thanks! Got more I'm gonna post shortly! Thank you Thank you! As far as his noodle goes, by the time I'm done with all the proportion corrections, it'll look just fine! Besides, its gettin "remodeled" slightly to look a bit menacing hehehe Hahaha! my E-ville plan has worked! Seriously tho, give it a shot, this kit aint half bad with a little TLC! Coming from someone as talented as yourself, thats one helluva great compliment! Thank you very much!
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Hey gang! So I was figuring out the proportions I'd need to make the arms look right & here's what I got so far: I temporarily beefed up the top & side of the shoulder & all the way round the upper forearm with pieces of 0.027" thickness styrene sheet. Also, the new hands he's getting, "Hobby Base 1/100 square fingered" help to make him look more proportionate too. It def looks better imho & now he doesn't look like he's got hydrocephalus so much !! Lemme know what you guys think! Cheers! ~BK
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Im hopin I can pull it off too, Thanks!! & that pic came from the "Macross Chronicle Vol.7" magazine. I DL'ed a copy of it from somewhere & then put that page with the pic thru photoshop to clean it up. If ya want, I can send ya the full size file thru PM? lemme know?
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So I kinda got the new afterburner parts figured out, just roughly for now tho. Parts are held there with double back tape & blue tack just so I can get a feel for where everything's gonna land. Plus,I figured where to store the batteries. The stabilizer fin on each side will be part of the slide switch for that side's LED liting. I hadda remove a fair amount of the inner directional vanes from the back ends & some meat from the walls to accommodate the new setup: Originally, I had wanted to come up with a mechanism that would allow the separate ducts to "push" apart slightly when the feet were opened but I think,in retrospect, that mighta been to ambitious. So instead, I'm just gonna hard mount the ducts together but slightly separated & on a slighlty convex surface which will eventually be backfilled to fit the existing piece & have the aperature for the mini LED: Just a shot to show that everything fits with the feet closed. The 2 smaller ducts are still there, just kinda obscured by the vanes. When its all lit tho, you should be able to see each duct! Cheers gang! ~BK
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Thanks very much! Currently workin on a replacement part for the afterburner nozzle in the foot that resembles the type seen in DYRL, the one that has like 4 or 5 rectangular nozzles mounted one to another horizontally: Gonna try & make it so that it can be clear cast & lit with super bright white LED!
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Ah-hahahahaha! I LOVE it!! So named!
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Hey gang! Many ,many years ago when I was a teenager & had built some of my ARII Zentraedi battleships, I got it into my head to convert one of the tiny SDF-1s they came with to Storm Attacker mode! I know, crazy right? who'd be nuts enuff to try that? Well, it worked but after some years I had to put much of my hobby stuff into storage. So, just recently, I found the tiny 1/20,000 SDF-1 that I converted to storm attacker mode...sadly, the years in storage weren't kind to the little guy. He got got crushed by a box that fell on the one he was stored in & broke into all his separate little parts. At the time, I had made some filler blocks out of balsa wood for some empty spots on him (hadn't discovered the joy of sheet styrene yet ) & those bits broke off too along with the Head/command center which vanished entirely. But, I did manage to kinda cobble him back together enuff for a couple of pics: I just came across the last remaining untouched SDF-1 I had that came with the old ARII kits so I might have a go at doing this little guy again.. maybe this time I'll make him transformable! Cheers guys & thanks for looking! ~BK
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Thanks for the great compliment! Always loved miniature stuff ever since I was real little & when it comes to sculpting or building , the tinier & more detailed the better! You're very welcome! I sincerely hope it works out for you as well as it has for me. If you want, I can throw together an ortho view of the mods & dimensions for them? Just a thought! Heh....it's not too hard to do as long as you have a steady hand & a good pair of opti-visors! I have some adjustments to make to the figure to get it to fit & also for the clear vac-formed visor ( there'll be a face behind it too!). There are plans on the table also for a standing version of this figure... one with helmet off held under arm & saluting and perhaps one in a pose like he's climbing the access ladder.
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Greetings everyone! First time poster here at MW. Been lookin at this site for a while & thought I'd jump in with all you fine folks! So, like many of you guys, I got the new 1/72 BANDAI Variable Valk kit & was, well, a bit dissapointed. But I have to say, coming from a long time modeler's point of view who does it mainly for the love of it, its not that bad of a kit. Sure it has its problems but we as modelers can just do what we do best...improvise, adapt & overcome right? So saying, I'm planning a little something "special" for my kit but first I need to address some of the problems it has...parts fit, looseness, lack of detail in some spots etc etc..all stuff I'm sure you guys have already come across! The First thing I tackled was the wonky fit of the legs in fighter mode & how they don't fit quite perpendicularly to the fuselage. The main problem is, like I'm sure most of you have figured by now, the grey retention tabs that lock the arms in place in fighter mode. The top edges of these are rubbing the sides of the legs & keeping them from sitting in where they should. Instead of cutting these off entirely tho, I thought if I could shave down one side sufficiently on a diagonal angle it might allow the leg to seat better & have a more perpendicular angle to the fuselage when viewed end-on. Here's what I shaved off: Secondly I thought, again, like most of you I'm sure, that the arms are too spindly & need fixed. I plan on beefing up the upper arms, shoulders & forearms. The first thing I started with was the degree of bend to the elbows. With a little tweaking of the lower part of the upper arm where it joins with the elbow joint, I was able to give it a lot more bend, so much so that now the Battroid mode will have the ability for the Gunpod to actually touch the shoulder armor: Next ( because I'm a hopeless scratchbuilder & can't leave anything alone straight out of the box ) I'm gonna lite this guy up with micro LEDs. The first thing I worked on was the optics section on the head. Since this particular build is gonna be a "one-off" style, i wanted something different. He's gonna be a predominantly really dark low-vis Valk & I thought he'd look kick-@ss with a blue Optic sensor: A veeeeeery long time ago, when the Hasegawa VF-1 kits came out, the only way you could get a pilot figure was to get the add-on weapons set. So, I got one & and while the figure wasn't bad, it could be remade better. Now, don't get me wrong, the pilot figure the new kit comes with aint bad but I'm anal when it comes to miniatures & detail & I looooooves me some detail work... at that point I remembered my old VF-1 Hase pilot. I dug the little guy outta storage & I think with a little tweaking I can make him fit in the new kit: So, thats where I'm at right now. Any ideas or comments are heartily welcomed & appreciated! Thanks for lookin guys n Cheers!! ~BK
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Would this perchance be what yer lookin for?? knew I had this little lady, took me a bit to find her as she was loitering in a completely unrelated folder! I still have the original scan so if you need me too, I can darken her up a bit via photoshop !
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Also guys, is it just me or does the pilot figure look more like 1/100 than 1/72? I know that the kit is supposed to be 1/72 but wouldnt he be a bit , well.. small.. for that scale??
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I just recently got this kit & thought the landing gear looked just a bit too "HUGE" also!! I didnt, however, think to tackle making the canopy be able to be hinged!!! Way to go dearhunter, Gonna keep an eye on this one
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Hey Gang! Got a small question here, has there ever been such a thing as a VF-1 Valkyrie or VF-1 Strike Valkyrie with a fold booster attached to it? I cant ever remember seeing anything like this for the original MACROSS series stuff & I know it did manifest in subsequent shows but were there ever any kind of hints that it was maybe something planned & yet never executed? Like in one of the art books that show concept models & ideas for the show? I'm just curious because I was thinking of building the old 1/72 IMAI Variable Valk kit into a sortof "Skunkworks" version of a Fold booster assisted Super Strike Valk, like as if it were maybe a one-off that had a catastrophic accident which caused the whole project to be scrapped until the technology could be perfected.. Any hints, answers or general exclamations of total disbelief as to my lack of knowledge all-things-Macross, would be just swell! Thanks all!
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Greetings All! Sorry I havent posted any updates in the last few days, just getting over a bad summer cold. Anywho, I got the 1/72 TOMAHAWK decals scanned & am about halfway done rebuilding them. I just wanted to share the main parts of the rebuilt stuff with you guys for the time being until the rest of the sheet is done. Firstly, heres the cleaned up & "tweaked" Vampirella noseart for the leg : She's not too much to look at, is she? Then, I very carefully disassembled the box top to fit it in the scanner so I could make a full, Hi-res scan of the boxart to be "cleaned up". After that, I cropped & cleaned up the noseart image in photoshop. This is what I'm gonna use for the template when I redraw it in photoshop: She's much better, eh? Also, If anyone wants it, I still have the full TOMAHAWK boxart image on file ( its large tho, 233 mb) so just PM me & I'll fire you off a zip file containing it! Have a great one guys & Enjoy!!
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Hey cool8or! Okay, the actual decal of the Vampirella on the sheet is pretty small & not very well detailed at all ( the artwork on the box cover is better!). Shes one of the reasons I'm "cleaning" up the whole set. I'm gonna tighten up the artwork with only minimal alterations so as not to detract from its overall originality. But....an this is a big but.... I'm gonna scan the boxart at super-hi res, use the vampi art there to "re-create" a whole new, photoshopped image in nice detail ( but thats gonna take a little longer) I'll still however, am gonna post the re-newed set for everyone as soon as its finished!
