spellbinder99

Well, my two kits have shipped from HLJ so they should be with me in about 5 days (they only EMS to here). I am thinking about ordering some of the weapons sprues seperately through HLJ to add some weapons to the other four VF-0 kits I have. It does look a bit stacked on, but then again I haven't seen any Macross Zero, so I don't know in what context the aircraft is armed like that. What does the Ghost do? I like the Ghost design a lot though. Cheers Tony

I am glad I pre-ordered two of these. Also glad they actually come with some underwung and shoulder mounted stores as well by the look of the picture. Cheers Tony

The YF-23 may not be as dead as it seems. I saw both the prototypes at Edwards in mid-1994 and they since went to the USAFM and another museum in California. Word on the aviation street is that Boeing, who now own Macdonnel-Douglas, have taken at least one of them back with a view to restoring it to flight status as a fighter-bomber prototype, thus becoming the FB-23! Proving yet again it isn't dead till they melt it down. Cheers Tony

Seeing as I have the Booster and the launch Rail, then at this time put me down provisionally for the vehicle, subject to a $300 or under price tag. Cheers Tony

I am with you Myersjesse, using words like shamefull and blasphemy about a model kit is more than a little over the top. If these "errors" annoy someone so much, then change them when you actually build the kit. Otherwise just retreat into the safe little world where Valkyries are real and some Japanese wage-slave artist is revered as a deity It's modelling, it's a hobby, it should be fun for frells sake..... Cheers Tony

Yes, decal option 2 in the VF-0D kit is a Medium Sea Gray BSBS381C/637 over Gray FS36622 example with nose markings for ship #308. The other markings are the same High-Viz red and white roundels. Is that what you were after. Cheers Tony

I have bought a bunch of the Hasegawa kits to put aside to build at my leisure. The ones I have started are a pleasure to build and look like a Valkyrie to me, but then again, I don't fill up sleepless nights comparing panel lines on drawings to engraved lines on kit parts and then BITCHING when they find a mocromillimeter discrepancy. I will leave that to what the guys on the "What If" board call JMN's. Joyless Modelling Nazis.... I allways ask this question.....How much of this detail can YOU pick out when your favourite Valkyrie has its 20 seconds of blurry TV screen time? Agree with you completely WM, you are one of the best modellers I have had the pleasure to see the work of. Tony

Well, that just looks dandy! I assume that what we see there is the next part including the plinth you were referring too? Definitely looks like a "must have" to display the booster and Valkyrie if nothing else. When will the order thread be going up? Cheers Tony

Excuse my newness, but what is the orange one? Cheers Tony

That certainly looks like great work and will make a logical way to display the booster once complete. I must ask, I understand that what is pictured is the launch rail, but you mentioned a turret/ swivel base? Will that be part of this for the $105 price? Cheers Tony

Or just plate over the hole where the head goes with a piece of plastic card, scribe a line down the center and say it is a fully retractable head! The airbrake can be replaced with a similar piece cut to shape and curved over a suitable diameter piece of pipe while hitting it with a hair dryer on hot. Drill holes to taste. The hole pattern does not matter, copy it as closely as possible from the decal guide. The actuating jacks on the airbrake can be bashed from a few bits of undercarriage off an old broken model. All the need to be is approximately the same length and step down in size about halfway along. Sources of thick plastic card include expired credit cards and phone cards. Old model parts will supply the actuators for the airbrakes. Any old tank kits or car kits? Find something vaguely head shaped like a differential and start from there. Looking at my VF-0S kit a drop tank with a couple of bulges glued on, two discs of plastic sheet and two thin tubes would go a long way towards replicating a head. Once primed and painted, who will know? Plastic disposable spoons like you use on picnics are styrene and curved, make a paper pattern of the airbrake hole and cut a section from a spoon, drill and paint to suit. Modelling supplies are all around you. Your mother or sister paint their nails? A lot of nail polish removers used to be MEK, which is a damm fine plastic glue. Fake jewels and beads can make a light or in this case an optical port for a head. Plastic cutlery can be melted in ligued plastic cement to make a plastic filler. Nail buffing pads will polish a joint in a model untill you can not see it. Or take scratches out of canopies. Gold pins out of busted computer cable ends make damm fine pitot probes for aircraft. Or short gun barrels. Toy packaging blisters are usefull for cutting sections for clear windows. The list goes on.... Cheers Tony

Well, it is a well written and informative review Gundamhead, so that part is all you.... Well done. Cheers Tony

Pictures are up of both on HLJ. Though the VF-0D one at least is one I found the other day on a net site. cheers Tony

Umm, no, you are pretty wrong there. The distance between here and Tokyo is somewhere between 5, 500 and 6000. The distance between Tokyo and LA is 5,500 and New York is 6,700, so it is pretty much the same either way. Plus the mail system here is way harder on a package than the US Postal ever can be, yet I seldom have damage. That and the fact that the only way your package would have taken 2 and a half months would have been if it was sent surface mail says to me that your info is at best out of date as I don't think HLJ even offer surface shipping now. One broken part? Pretty good odds especially if you want to build the kit anyway. I am have been shipping stuff from all over the world to here in the Middle East for six years now and I have seldom had as much confidence in a company as I do in HLJ. Still, personal choice, sorry you had a bad experience.. Cheers Tony

Well, the VF-0D may have been inevitable in a modellers eye, but I guess it still had to be worth it in Hasegawas eyes. That it is numbered as a regular release seems to indicate that they think it will be a seller and looking at the design I can imagine getting more than the one I initially order. It would be nice to see a Macross zero weapons accessory set to fill up those bare wings though. In almost 25 years working on aircraft, I have rarely seen any fighter with bare wings for any length of time. As for the SV-51, it isn't my favourite of the Hasegawa Macross kits, but it certainly is an impressive kit, so any variations are good to me. As I have said before, I would love some Hasegawa Gerwalk kits, but would they be able to reuse any parts from previous releases? That may be the driving force. Cheers Tony

Maybe because what he says sounds nothing like HLJ. I get stuff from them to here in the Middle East and it takes 4-5 days flat from Tokyo to here. Yes, that is EMS, which costs more, but it is worth it. Plus their packaging ensures I hardly ever have any damage due to how well they pack the items and how sturdy their boxes are. Believe me, the postal system here will find any chinks in a parcels armour, evidenced graphically by my crushed FLAT VF-1 Low Viz kit from a seller in Hong Kong. So to me at least, that doesn't sound at all like HLJ. Cheers Tony

I think I actually like that better than then VF-0A/B/S versions... Interesting that the VF-0D and VF-0S are both standard range numbering where the VF-0A and B are special editions. Would love to see some Gerwalk versions of their kits as well. Don't care about transforming but I like the Gerwalk posing. Cheers Tony

Well, I guess all the people who said that Hasegawa HAD to make a VF-0D must be feeling pretty smug right now.... Cheers Tony

I got my VF-0A kit yesterday. To confirm what has been said, the kit is identical parts wise to the VF-0S apart from the addition of a seperate "B" style head sprue. The decal sheet as usual is very comprehensive and gives many extras to make your own ship number or make a UN AirForce, UN Marine or UN Navy version. Yes the Bunny looks lame, but they give you some skull and crossbones if you really can't stand it... The kit is molded in a standard Hasegawa medium gray and will make a good display with the S and B in their varying paint schemes. I definitely hope they do a VF-0D to really ring the changes.... Cheers Tony

Well, I just got the Hasegawa VF-1A low-viz kit in the mail from Hong Kong. Unfortunately, a combination of poor packaging and a rough mail system here in Oman meant the outside box was thinner through than the thckness of the Hasegawa box inside. The box inside was REALLY flat!! It is a really good thing I: A/ Did not pay too much for the kit and B/ Bought it to build not collect. Suprisingly, most of the contents were OK, but a few parts were showing stress marks in the plastic and had been a wee bit flattened. The upper half of the center fuselage in particular no longer fit well to the lower half. Luckily, pretty much every two seat Valkyrie kit has that part as surplus due to sprue duplication, so an allready started VF-1D kit provided a replacement part straight away..... I am glad that Hasegawa does provide these extra parts as they provide usefull practise pieces and as in this case, can save an otherwise trashed kit.... Cheers Tony

I guess it becomes less of an issue to some if the originals offer decals, metal part (both etched and cast) and better packaging that re-casts do not. When the re-casts offer all this plus availability and cheaper price, then I can see where the temptation comes in. Like I said, personal choice. I would not, but I don't condemm those who do, it is up to them. Depends how much you "have" to have a certain subject. Cheers Tony

Fair enough Valkrie, and thank you for taking the time to add to my education, I really mean that. Re-casting of kits or other items is a subject that is fraught with pitfalls, even when just discussing it and it is nice to have a civil discussion about it. In the end, it must remain a personal decision to purchase a recast kit. The motivation, be it availability, cost or otherwise still ends up being one up to individual. For now, I will stick to buying the Hasegawa VF kits as I can get years of cheap modelling out of them. Cheers Tony

So, you can't see a link between easily available recasts and a company no longer being viable and no longer holding a licence? I certainly can. Well, Duh! Surely any company trying to make money from a licence would not like to see recasts cutting into their market and thus would have pause to consider whether it was even worth developing new models. But that is just a personal point of view. And I am new, so what the heck do I know? Cheers Tony

So don't put it on? You also get some low-viz skull and crossbone markings, so that would work as well. Seems simple to me.... Cheers Tony

The VF-22S and the VF-19A Ravens reissues are now in stock as well. I have all three on order, so hopefully I will get them next week. As an aside, it looks from the VF-0A decal sheet that it is the equivalent in the VF-0 of the VF-1 Low Viz release. Cheers Tony