JLYC

Oh I can't wait.  Looks like I will have 3 or 4 of this baby.  I wonder what else is coming out.  Hopefully a VF-1A CF. 

Godzilla, with the massive number of expensive valks you buy, I gotta ask, whatcha do for a livng

Um hello... I thought you knew...

=

Um no. But I use to work for his company as a contractor. I am *trying* to cut my expensive habit... it aint happening this month thanks to those fools Amped and rnurmin selling their stuff.

I am a test engineer at this engineering software firm, making decent money but not enough to buy a house here in Seattle. Now I know California housing is really bad but Seattle is getting close to it.

wow...i'm just wondering though how you store all the valks you have. you must be renting a pretty big apartment!!

thx for the info!!

Where can one pick up the pilot figure in your picture? Any idea about size/material, etc?? It looks like a trading figure but I guess it's a kit?? Thanks!!

not exactly toys but the truth is i play with my 'models' more than yamato toys so i think of them as toys that require assembly. It's the Hasegawa 1/72 Battroid fighting for his life against Bandai 1/100 Officer Pod Glaug. It's too bad I couldn't find the Pod kit in scale. It's not finished (and not my best work either since I put it together in 2 days) but I just can't wait to take some pics of the two of them together. I think it'd be cool if the showdown really happend in Macross- wacha think??

actually...if you count macross plus then i think guld died pretty bad, especially in the movie version.

agreed it's focker. but you don't see that many deaths in macross in general.

so far the anime characters that died the most miserably are the ones from evangelion imo.

thx for the scan.

Here are some pics in gerwalk mode. the chipping paint is driving me insane!! There are many areas I have to touch up everytime after a transformation. Any other solutions other than sanding friction areas and clearcoating??

thx graham. it'd be cool if you can post a scan if you hv time.

thx for the feedback guys..keep'em coming!

A quick shot before chow time...worked a bit more on the backpack and legs. i hope this solves a bit of the 'continuity' between front and rear, but on the other hand I really want to keep the color scheme simple on this one with a military feel. sometimes i get too carried away with the colors and end up with something too busy, which i'm gonna try to avoid this time.

ps yes i'm going to paint the head

hello...the front of the legs nor the arms have been painted. I'll post it when it's ready. I'm planning to display it mainly in fighter and gerwalk mods so how these two look would be the most important for me

Here's my very first custom color scheme for a 1/60. I just sort of made up the colors and patterns as I go so some feedback would be appreciated. The colors are only about 20% done right now.

The only other improvement I made was to fill and sand the seam lines. This improves the appearance of the legs in battroid mode alot imo.

For those of you who mod your toys- how do you prevent the paint from chipping when you transform? Somehow I don't think a clear coat would be that much help against all the friction between metal and plastic....

thx for looking

Before:

After:

Maybe they will, but one can only go through so many VF-1 variants before wondering whether or not having six of the same plane is worth it.

Lol...I agree with you on this one. Most valks from the original Macross only differ in color and head. Valks are like Ferraris....they're a beautiful thing to behold, but I don't think I'd have 20 same Ferraris with just different color schemes. That's why I"m steering my macross model collection beyond valks to include destroids and some of the bad guys like the glaug pod.

the best thing to do imo would be to get VF-19A and change the color yourself. The VF-19A has improved design as described in the review. However VF-19 is in much higher demand I reckon because it's the original color.

Yeah, more of my extremely limited shelf space taken up, which is not good 

It just means you have to become a bit more critical about the models, and a bit more picky about which you buy.

It certainly can't hurt the wallet, at least. And it makes the models you currently have stand out more. Maybe it's just me, but I take more interest in a well-done set of three models than I do in a well-done set of twelve. Maybe it's the overkill factor.

I agree....mainly because I have limited budget and time so I have to very selective about my purchases. the 'completists' here though will probably think differently.

nice models graham. is it expensive to hire someone to make your models?

I really dig the SV-51. I wish it's possible to build it as the black Ivanov type though- it looks much more menanacing. Ivanov and Nora types differ only in color in decals right?

a few quick pics for comparison with 1/60:

I do wish that they'd be more sturdy though (so it'd be more playable like gundams).

If you want something more sturdy, but which still looks great, I'd recommend buying a toy like the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 instead.

Hasegawas are supposed to be traditional (fragile) model kits, not the half-toy half-models that the Bandai Gundam kits are.

Although I'm not a model builder, I recently comissioned a pro-painter to build me 3 Hasegawa kits (VF-22S, VF-0S and SV-51 Nora), all built wheels up as if flight and I'm absolutely blown alway by them. I can't believe how big the SV-51 is, it's a monster.

Graham

Graham I agree with you that the 1/48's, especially when customized, almost approach model quality. However, models are always more finely detailed (eg panel lines) and for one 1/48 I can get about 6 or 7 Hasegawa's and have hundreds of hours of fun time. With toys, I usually take them out of the box, admire them, put them on the shelf and transform them once in a while. With models I get much more interaction in the building process and when I look at them, I remember all the fun and challenge I went through to get them where they are. I got 3 yamatos and 1 hasegawa last month and by far the hasegawa gave me the most fun.

I believe there is no reason why they can't make the joints more sturdy like the bandai kits. I reckon this is hasegawa's first robot kit so flaws are expected (e.g. weak joints, non-aligning pins and holes). They're learning though, as seen in the improved hip joints of the strike battroids, so I have hope. In fact, I think that they DO want to make them playable so they're making it a mostly snap-together kit to make it easier for people who are otherwise averse to models. When the bugs are fixed, we'll have the best of both worlds!!

models are keeping me company for my long distance relationship with my gf too. I see you live in Calgary...I used to live there until I moved to vancouver about 5 yrs ago (currently in Montreal now). always good to see fellow macross fans in canada and I'm very impressed with Hasegawa kits as well, although I've only done the battroid. I do wish that they'd be more sturdy though (so it'd be more playable like gundams). I'm sure it's not a problem with fighters though as they're not meant to be movable anyway.

thanks guys

Is $18 USD a good price for the bandai 1/100 VF-2ss?? I've seen quite a range of prices for this model and am wondering what's a reasonable one. thx

Not yet finished the touch-ups of this battroid, nor the hands or gun. It's now holding the gun from a 1/60 that's why it's so out of proportion. I didn't do a very good job with this model, mostly due to the fact that I had to paint all white by hand and had to do many layers, thus ruining the panel lines. I'm getting a spray can for my next one!!

Sadly, about a minute after I took these pics, the battroid fell of the shelf and one of its arms broke. The joints on these Hasegawa kits is really quite weak (and the soft plastic doesn't help). I think it fell because the feet are very loose and it just lost balance. The kit is also very, very light and I had to use putty to glue in some washers in the leg to give it more gravity. It's too bad because since it's such a botched job I was thinking of using it as a toy, but I guess I have to handle it with kids' gloves from now on.

Any tricks for reinforcing joints? I managed to extract the pin from the rubber socket and I'm just gonna glue to back with super glue and maybe use some putty. I know that epoxy or something else might be better but I hv limited resources. At least it didn't shatter to pieces otherwise I'd probably be crying now...haha...

the arms are where the gunpod is attached to and is located in the middle between the legs. if you go to fan works section of the forums there are some transformation videos that may help you.

please do post more pics when you're finished. you use airbrush for your painting right? I'm doing a battroid by hand brush and it's such a pain, especially for the white. I really wish I had an air brush but once school starts in a few wks there is no way i can be making models.

i see seams on the arms.

I just finished the 1/100 Bandai Supersylph and I think it's a great model. I would suggest getting version 1.5 rather than original version though- it has improved details on the landing gears and exhaust.

I think the Mave is in higher demand. About a few months ago I still see a 1/100 pop up here and there but lately I haven't seen much.

hi. i tried the future on one section and yes it improves the results drastically. before I thought since I'm using white gloss paint and both the paint and future are acrylic it's not necessary to apply the future, but guess i was wrong.

i'm applying the oil to the rest of the battroid now- hopefully it will work out otherwise I have to repaint the whole thing, by hand!! i can hardly wait for the oil to dry......

thanks guys. that's exactly what i'm doing now- future floor finish followed by oil wash. i've been applying a few coats of future and have not applied wash yet. however, when i tried the oil wash without applying future first (applying oil on acrylic tamiya white), some of the oil does not wipe off cleanly even with oil solvent. i'll see if it improves with a coat of future. thx