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YES!!!  I'd totally go for a 1/60 DX version of this VF-2SS too 😍

OMG!!! @MechTech That is phenomenal.  I love small things and this is the ultimate - congrats!!!

@Urashiman the 3D work is amazing!  Congrats.  That is the next big frontier for us to create our own 3D things.  I would love to get into it as soon as I have a bit more time from my job, maybe when I retire 😛  I love designing 3D models digitally, but I hate sanding, so it looks like its gotta be a resin printer for me when I take the dive.  Watching you do your stuff is certainly inspirational.

@MechTech I've never seen a Navy plane in that poor shape, I'd be ashamed to fly it 😛  Yeah, I'm always timid on how far to weather my models, I always error on the less is more side of thing.  I just have a hard time trying to scale the dirt down to look appropriate for 1/72.

Not much to show for my Nerf gun yet, made the mistake of using Rustoleum lacquer spray paints - I was thinking they'd be more durable than my model stuff.  Well the primer takes ages to dry (says 5-7days on plastic) and you'd think their primer would work well with their topcoat, but not so!  After I let the primer dry for 5-6 days, I sprayed on the top coat of black and there's some areas that started to crackle - WTF?!  This only happened if I were mixing the wrong type of paint on not allowing the undercoat dry in enough time but never with the same type of paint.  Oh well, I guess its back to a lot of sanding it down again to re-spray.  The Tamiya TS-90 brown when on buttery smooth (should have used a semi-gloss black from Tamiya instead) - it was the closest match to Brown Bess I could get in North America - who knew this was a UK specific colour and not available outside?

Hey @arbit, that would be amazing, but at least let me cover the mailing expenses?  Sorry to be old but what is Patreon, is it a donation thing?  How do I get onto that to provide moral support?

It's looking great @arbit!  I'd love it either hair out or hair tucked in - don't really know, but its amazing!  Could you get her to lean forward a little in the seat like she's yelling at Hikaru.  How would you paint the eyes and facial features at this scale?  May I put in an paid order for one printed by you please :)!!!

Not much to show on the Nerf gun yet, A LOT OF SANDING!  The Lacquer black paint is so thick that I'm worried it will telegraph through underneath the paint finish, so I stripped it with lacquer thinner but that attacked the plastic, so I had to sand it all back to make sure there's no wipe marks, should have just sanded the markings off in the first place!  There's so much kiddie warnings to sand off too, so I sanded it the best I could and then covered it in a sheet styrene.  Using spray cans is a who new skill level, I wanted the Krylon spray cans because they are very durable, but it certainly lacks the precision of an airbrush so I made a makeshift spray booth to contain the overspray as its too cold to do it outside now.

Now for something completely different... wish me luck!  Fantastic Nerf toy BTW, highly recommend it if you don't have one.

2 hours ago, arbit said:

Thanks.  I have variants of her on my Patreon. 

I would definitely recommend an inexpensive Elegoo Mars.  The learning curve is pretty easy. Feel free to ask me any questions before getting into it. 

Great stuff @arbit but I was hoping for the specific DYRL hair and her orange spacesuit...

Thanks @M'Kyuun, too bad it wasn't 2x2 or even 2x4/6, I might get some just to see if it will make it work, too many pieces tend to make the long boom flimsy though.

Yeah, I love the Bubbleship and this was the best design (so many variations) but I loved how they dealt with the tail rotor on this one and Vonado seemed to be the only place that had this design.  But the design (not the bricks) was ultimately too heavy for the ball joints underneath to support its weight and I had to use crazy glue to lock them in place (its fake lego anyways, so I thought once I went in I might as well go all the way and use kragle). 

Thanks everyone!  It wasn't the easiest experience, but I'm glad its done (might be gettin' too old for 1/72 scale, but I just don't have the room or time to go bigger).  I think I'm going to do something simpler next maybe the Enterprise/Reliant where its all pearlescent white or Galactica where its all grey or nu-Galactica where its all gunmetal with a crap load of decals 😛

@arbit these figures are fantastic, wished I had a resin printer (might look into that someday).  I'd love a 1/72 Minmay with her helmet off sitting in the backseat of the VT-1 (DYRL) - I would definitely pay someone for a very nice 4K/8K resin print of that!!!  I've been waiting on that for the Hasegawa 1/72 VT-1 in my stash.

2 hours ago, Angesdad said:

One armored set preordered from Hobby Genki months ago but I have not heard any updates from them yet. First time buying from them, are they solid? Anyone with positive experience?.🤔

I got my VF-1D from them and they were great!  Good packing and fast (shipping pricey but its all been that since the Pandemic)

@derex3592 the rigging does at a lot for realism!  Looking great!  How do you keep it taught if you put tape in front of the crazy glue dot, when you take that tape away after its cured, isn't there slack in the thread/line?

Yay!!! Finally finished my FineMolds F-4J in 1/72 scale - love these hi-viz 70s schemes.  Missiles are all on and even re-did my last years Tomcat missiles too.  I would like to take some proper pictures of them someday when I have time to get out a proper background and lighting (I'm a few models behind on that). 

Hey @Dobber Vonado has been pretty good as far as those China stores go, but you have to watch out if they replace pieces from the original designs (which was what they did for the Bubbleship).  I've had pretty good experience from them in the past - I've gotten a Launch Utility Tower & Crawler (to go with my Saturn V), the older UCS Millenium Falcon, Imperial Shuttle Tydrium, and Space Shuttle 1:110 scale (but they do seem to be slipping now with more and more replacement pieces in the wrong colours) - basically only things I couldn't get in real Lego set.

10 hours ago, arbit said:

Question from an old fart: If Delta were the first and only Macross. And there was no SDF or DYRL, would Macross have a fan following spanning the entire globe for the next 40 years?

Great question, being a fellow old fart - I'd say DEFINITELY NOT.

@M'Kyuun OMG, I never knew that plate existed!  That would solve so many problems - is it available in white (what's it called?)!!!  I just got this MOC of the Oblivion Bubbleship (sorry guys from fake Lego Vonado - but they were the only design I've seen of the tail rotor that was round like I liked) but ended up spending double the price to get the replacement parts from real lego in the right colours to complete it.  However if I had a plate that would have studs on both sides, the tail roof hip pieces would fit snuggly instead of a section being lifted off because of pegs holding two plates back to back.

Oh great!  I was pretty satisfied (not overjoyed) till you pointed out where the rudder/stabilizers were - argh!  Yes, its a bit fat through the middle, but that's anime magic that can't exist in the real world, but that rear rudder placement is pretty bad I have to agree.

@Chunky001 I'm definitely in the minority here, but I do prefer the Bandai over the Arcadia.  The Arcadia definitely has captured that old 80's anime more bulbous rounder style and has better landing gears I'd give it that.  Its really naked and needs a lot of decals to bring it up to an acceptable level.  I find its not as fun to transform, I feel its more plasticky and it makes me more careful of the joints and swivels.  The joints are also bigger, clunkier and not as hidden as the Bandai.  I'm not a fan of how the forward canopy opens and has to lift up quite a bit to tilt forward, sometimes bending the nose down which exaggerates the overall swan neck curves even more.  I find the Bandai has slimmed down the design a bit and made it more sleek and thinner which I like.  The articulation is much better and more fun to transform and therefore more poseable.  I've played/picked up both my Bandai VF-19/YF-19s more often and I leave my Arcadia not touched all the time.

Not having held or seen the original Arcadia YF-21 - its hard for me to make the comparison, but I do tend to generally like my more modern Bandai toys over the older Yamato/Arcadia toys.  I do prefer the optimization of fighter mode over battroid as I tend to leave my toys in fighter/plane mode most of the time in the display cases.  I really hope Kawamori can convince Bandai to improve on their YF-21 and get it into reality soon!

Thanks @electric indigo - I'll have to try that sometime when I get around to a dirty Tomcat.  I'm so gun shy when mixing my own paints after several fiascos when I thought I had the right grey and the decal low-viz grey just blended into the paint scheme - then I find out that the decal greys weren't right when I go with the FS colours and then I find out that certain batches of FS standard colour paints were different from each other and my FS colour deck is newer which apparently has a different gull grey than pre-1990s FS colour decks - argh!  I hate matching colour and then making it lighter for scale - it seems like such a "black art"!  I miss the old Macross models where the Valkyrie was just white or shades of off-white 😛

Well, I got a little more time and I'm into the missiles, since I was making Sparrows for my Phantom, I thought I'd get around to redoing my Sparrows for my F-14 that's been bugging me and an eye sore for the last year!

Can you spot what's wrong with my old ones and the corrected new ones?  In my defence, I was blindly following instructions (BTW G.W.H. has tones of mistakes in the instructions, but great kit).  Nope its not that each Sparrow has the same serial number which does bug me also, but not enough to re-make them.

It the stupid placement of the yellow warhead stripe.  I blindly followed their instructions and its wrong!  I did find the perfect way to replicate the very light grey nose cone though, in reality its white also, but its a flat ceramic material that collected dust and dirt so it became a little greyish over time.  I brushed flat matte clearcoat over the nosecone and used my gubby fingers a few times over it and it collected all the dirt!

I realized the FineMolds weapons set for the sidewinders didn't have the little rollerons molded into the tailfins - argh!  I already had to re-scribe all the section lines and drill out the tail rocket motors - what I thought was a quick job turned out all night (GWH weapons are nicer).  However the FineMolds weapons set have individual serial numbers for each missile which is a nice touch!  But I did decide to try this new chrome silver foil decal sheet - knowing I'd never be able to create the sharp lines that demark the tailfin rollerons.  Very laborious and tiny, but the end result is decent at least for 1/72, just letting the MicroSOL dry before touching the exposed edges with silver.  I also used a Hasegawa Chromed sheet for the landing gear shocks and to my surprise it was self adhesive and did an amazing job even better the Molotov Chrome marker paints.

Hopefully I get to mount them on both F-14 and F-4s tomorrow.

11 hours ago, arbit said:

Thanks. I'm glad the "over-the-hill" old timers like my work.  The pilots will be up on my Patreon after corrections.

LOL!!! 🤣  I can't hear you sonny?!  I gotta turn up my hearing aide - that "old timers" thread would be just fine with me.

Gorgeous @electric indigo, such fine airbrushing work.  What 1/72 kit is that?  Nice details... How do you gauge/get to accurate FS standard colours when you build up from so many weathering colours?

@MechTech That looks so amazingly precise and clean in all that perfect white!!!  Can't believe you just made it up!

@arbit Those figures are amazing!  Can't wait to see you paint them up - great job!

Yes, shipping has really gotten out of hand, I can easily drop $40-50cdn FedEx/DHL shipping on a new Valk and another $40-$50cdn on Brokerage, Customs & Duties - it can be 50% the cost of the toy nowadays!  Just crazy, I think this Pandemic/Supplychain issues have just let the corporations the perfect excuse to pump up their profits horrendously in all facets of life.  Toys are going to be my number one area to cut back on when a bag of 10kg rice was $16.99cdn last year and now its 7kg (in the same 10kg bag!) for $29.99cdn!!!

Sorry I digress, but yes, the shipping is REALLY painful nowadays.

Yes I noticed the EMS being the same or slightly more expensive than FedEx or DHL - however I usually get EMS directly delivered to my door without customs, duties and brokerage charges and I ALWAYS get dinged with FedEx or DHL which can add another $40-60cdn on top of shipping alone!

Yes, I'd totally get the original Super Packs with the radar dish on top looks great!

I'm a sucker for orange - the new Super Ghosts might look good with it

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... what?  There's nothing like that in that YouTube video.  The closest to sexualized that video gets is Nishikawa singing in that ridiculous pleather getup.

Sorry, I meant Macross Delta that I just watched, just weird gratuitous nudity and needless emphasis on bouncing bosoms.  Then I watched that video and see very young girls singing and dancing (without the nudity) and made the connection - I didn't realize it was something else.  Sorry I will probably take my old man complaints elsewhere, just disappointing is all and the YouTube video brought it all back.  Thanks for the Macross7 synopsis though, I never got into that series, but your analysis is quite helpful for me to understand in broad strokes - I don't think I would care to get into the minutae.

Argh!  Just ordered it from NinNinGames for a tiny bit less - still available.  EMS shipping is more than FedEX/DHL at 3,900Y to Canada - 600Y more than FedEX/DHL but there's the good chance its gets through without Customs/duties/brokerage which easily adds another $30-40cdn

Now to get some sleep, Good Night all.

Sorry, old timer chiming in (I've been pretty much locked up with classic Macross for the last few decades and poking my head out to test the waters, but loving the mech designs without knowing the stories)

What's with that guy in the black bandage outfit in the center of the YouTube video?  What's with all these sexualized pre-pubescent girls singing and dancing all over?  Who are their audience, old creeps that remember Macross and are pedophiles or young pre-teen boys who are too young to know the OG Macross?  I just don't get it - I just watched the Macross Delta Passionate Walkure movie for the first time tonight and I'm at a loss at how this is Macross?  It's 90% idol singing and music video with 5% text to tie it together and 5% really really fast cut action to the point where you have no spatial awareness of how the fight is happening.  Perhaps this conversation is better in another thread - is there an old timers OG thread somewhere that I can get caught up on how Macross has evolved over the years?  Ouch my back!!!  I feel so old and out of touch!