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Hope to get some more work in over the holiday break, also picked up the Jasmine Model's PE and decal set for the bandai VF-25F kits. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to use on the hase kit but, I hope to detail up the intakes ,cockpit and feet a bit with them. Already doing a quick look it doesn't look like I'll need a lot of it as the hase kit isn't as lacking in details as it's bandai counterpart. I'm sure whatever I don't use can be used on some other kit though A bit hard to see but I used some Aves epoxy to fill in the area where the feet go so it isn't an ugly hollow hole. I'm hoping the aves properlly cure as I've had the tubs of the stuff for almost 10years now!!! Best bang for buck, but I never liked the final surface as much as other epoxy putties such as Tamiya quick type. If it cures, I can sand smother and then detail with some plaptate and scribing so it isn't a blank surface. Also have had a hell of a time on the intakes. I've resulted to just glueing them solid as I cannot for the life of me to get them to fit correctly without ugly gaps. It seems the outside halves are underpressure. A lot of trimming and a coat of plastic cement was used to get them to fit this well and putty will still be required.

Decided to make a wip since I'm updating more often than I had expected to do so. Deciding to do the project... Starting the project I got the base of the hase kit assembled in sections. It has been a long time since I'm had to glue a seam line or deal with super shallow panel lines. Resin and gunpla have me much spoiled. It didn't take any time to throw out the landing gears and begin glueing the bay doors shut. I used some Aves epoxy, stuffed the holes and glued the hatches shut. The epoxy behind it strengthens the doors and supports them to pevent them from falling into the opening during positioning. Following Jefuemon I decided to grab the Super VF-25F parts to make the conversion easier. Sadly, I've found some things that bother me and as a result I probably could have gotten away with the regular VF-25F from Hase. No stranger to kitbashing (gunpla addition anyone) I already had a good Idea on what to think and where to remove material to get parts to fit nicely. I had no intention of sanding this the slow way so, I busted out the dremel and sanding barrels and destroyed my new kits While studing the parts I realized Jefuemon's finished build uitilized more of the Super part than I wanted. He had them painted to match the Tornado scheme and it looked fantastic as is but, the designs were different and this bothered me... so more work it is. This meant I needed to start fitting the Bandai leg armor onto the Hase Superpack legs... to the grinder again! No ammount of grinding along would bridge the gaps so some Tamiya quick type poxy was used and basic shaping began. Fitting the Tornado pack mean the upper portion of th leg (the fighter's intake) also needed to utilize the base VF-25... where the super pack leg has additional armor. Luckly the super pack leg includes both version so you can hack them up and splice them together to make the correct design. Sadly again, the fitment is way off to the Super pack's legs being in a different position than the fully flat position thebase VF-25's legs had. I filled the gap with a bit of pla-plate and once again Tamiya epoxy to the rescue to take the rest of the shape. I also used a Micron pen to prematurely plan a bit of panel lining for fun. Before apply the epoxy I rubbed the back part of the leg in some cherry lip balm/chapstick, this prevent the epoxy from sticking to it. The result being I can remove the lower part of the leg. I plan to leave it like this until mid-painitng, which I will paint those areas, attach and remove the seamline in the epoxy and then paint the front portion of the leg. This way I shouldn't have too much of a masking nightmare. I originally planned on having the entire legs removable until after painting but, the gaps around the intake were driving me crazy so... plan B! After trimming the wing I needed to expend the backside so that in the swept position it would fill up the hole gap in the bandai tornado parts due to the difference in shape and sizing between the two kits. I glued on some plastic plate which I'll shape later. Result is the swept wings filling the entire gap. Now it's starting to look like something!

I dun did things!

Slowly fitting leg armor, time has stopped as I've had to rip apart the place for new carpet which I hope is finished next week. Lot's of grinding and using epoxy for the gaps.

It just occured to me, Acard launched and we have yet to see him really do much in the last dogfight... it was pretty much all Messer until now. I'm going to have to rewatch the episode but, I'm pretty sure everyone took a hit and Messer did all the fighting. Squad Leader should be better than Messer no?

Started gutting my Hase VF-25S and fitting Bandi's Tornado parts. It's been a reallllllyyyyyyy long time since I built a Hase kit (1/72 YF-19/SV-51 whenever they originally released.) I was a bit suprised to see how shallow their pannel lines are on this kit. Lots of grinding and fitting, I've forgone parts seperation and glued everything in favor of better fitment. Shouldn't be too much masking hell! Am quite pleased with how well I got the center portion of the tornado pack's binder to hug the body!

I'd love to have a 1/72 seated pilot preforming a salute. Or if I'm dreaming I'd really like to have a pilot climbing out of their cockpit, possibly with a ladder or something. I never build my hase kits with the open canopy but, would be tempted if I could make a pre-battle/hangar scene.

On screen but, I spend too much time on lines. I draw at 600dpi and that picture above is at 63% zoom. So at full zoom my lines are around at quarter inch thick, in which I go back over them to make parts thicker and use the eraser to taper off the edges into neat little points, I feel it adds more character to the work that having all the lines the same thickeness... also makes it more interesting as I don't really like to color. Another thing I'll say is always draw past the point where your line will end, to make a hair 'spike' draw from the top to the tip and beyond, then cleanup with an eraser. This way your lines have a bit more form as you aren't stopping the smooth motion before the end. Around 40 layers of hair... :X

Started inking her, the costume is a bit hold, simply because I haven't found something I'm happy with.

Hello, decided to share my progress of an illustration I'm working on after discovering I haven't drawn any Macross (sans one Minmay pic I did 10 years ago... (Not even Basara/Mylene! ) For this work I was inspired by the final scene in Sayonara no Tsubasa when Sheryl take the stage for the final scene donning her Orleans/officer outfit bearing the flag as Alto flies into battle. I've got the idea in place and want to focus on Sheryl first, being center stage. Her likeness to me is a thin line. Looking at the figures of her it seems very easy for her character to get lost with her flowing golden locks.

That is perfect! Exactly what I was thinking. One of er... the only reasons I thought of going Bandai was I wanted to build the entire squad in different forms (base/super/armored/tornado.) Great choice on downplaying the anime colors on the tornado pack, came out fantastic! Still sucks I'll have to grab another costly bandai kit just for the armored pack but, such is life.

As the title states? Has anyone even attempted this? I've got the Bandai kit lying around and have alreadys snapped up my regular VF-25S and am already hating the transformation. With the Hase kits being so cheap I was wondering if anyone has attempted or preformed the surgery. I don't (yet) have the hase kit to hold them side-by-side but I imagine bandai is much thicker for starters.

Mikumo's character definatly is getting interesting. I can't help but cringe watching the W-girls hacking in progress. Not as bad as episode 1's dance/fight but, seriously was distractingly bad.

Mirage will get there eventually, especially if you want to go based off the power duo scene with her and Hayate in the into back-to-back fighting. I feel their comradery that they took up in episode 6 after Messer's lecture is the first step.

Some of your information I find odd. SMS is known for having amazing recasting qualities, particularly in the Gundam genre which is far from the picture you have painted. Also as far as I know they have been SMS for around 7 years I think, so I don't think the input about them closing down, and reopening under a different name is likely hood in this case. More like different casting companies all in the same house/ring. Don't get me wrong, I firmly dislike recasting nor am standing up for what they are doing. Some of the info just seems fishy, (nothing against the Mr. Fish.)

Nice work Kenny, my only comment would the the bright white pops a bit too much IMO for the other softer camo colors used.

I'm still wondering where the 1/72 Vajara are at that were shown in the initial release photos...

Price pending, they also have a macross booster! (link removed)

love this one of Ranka, the Fire Bomber ticket is amazing!

Replaced details on nose cone with pla plate as they seem to shallow after seam removal, will do the other set on the body likely accordingly.

Thanks peter, that helps quite a bit. Nice build up by the way, fantastic canopy. I see you had some work (putty and primer) in the first batch of pictures? did you have to fill any mounts for the armor pack or is it removable? I was thinking on using magnets if I could as is look fantastic IMO with and without it. It looks like the intake and exhaust inlets/outles are rather shallow and detail-less, kinda hard to tell in the finished shots due to the angle but, if looks like it is just smooth and then you painted it black correct? That kind of a let down though, I suppose it is correct looking. I'll look for WMCheng's build but, so far results have been very thin. Wasn't even able to find your thread when searching for VF-2SS... Thank again

Anyone seen any good build ups/pictures of the VF-2SS Super/Armored Pack resin kit? On the fence about buying an original off YJA. Searching for a couple hours all I could find was a horrible grainy and tiny pictures on Hobbyfanatics.com... :/ thanks in advance.