honneamise

About 2 years have tpassed since I bought The Compete Collection, and, admittetly, after quie some time of getting used to it, I dare say this is one of the greatest works in soundtrack history. There is the (now) reto-funky-sounding main theme, the sometimes corny or even cheesy j-pop-tunes, some all-too-sweet elevator music, some dynamic battle themes complete with Santana-style guitars, some eerie solo-violin-pieces, great epic (but often brief) orchestral pieces - some moody melancholy tunes in between and, finally, that great Hawaii-guitar ending theme. The sheer variety is stunning plus it is played with Big Band-orchestration rather than the "usual" symphonic orchestra that we are so used to since Star Wars. My experience was that, while I initially disliked quite some of the pieces -especially the violins and -sorry- some of Minmay´s songs, after some time all this patchwork seemed to fit together and started to form an epic score that in its entirety is much more than its individual pieces. It is at least 50% of the series`"magic" IMO. Macross is a show that equally focuses on the fate of humanity and on cheesy teenage love stories. A John Williams style-score may be great for space Battles, but Haneda manages to illustrate all facettes of what is going on, with the melancholy undertone as a bridge between the personal and the epic. Frankly, I don´t usually listen to music of similar style in everyday life, and hadn´t it been related to Macross, I wouldn´t have listened to it with the same enthusiasm - but it is what it is, and it is quite perfect. I regard the DYRL part as some kind of "refined" version with more focus on the epic part, but to me both soundtracks form one big entity.

"You must come full circle to find the truth" * Phalanx needs a dozen circles and STILL doesn´t find anything.......... *song title by Sketch Show, japanese electronic band, possibly taken from Haruki Murakami

After some more cleaning up, I have sprayed on another white base coat to reveal uneven surfaces etc., and, while there are still certain areas to smooth out , the white coat also reveals what a fierce looking beast this thing has become... All those small pieces like landing gear covers etc. are done now (parts count is at 49 now), so tomorrow will be reserved for the "final polish". Here is the back with the big engine bell glued on (couldn´t resist ) some more, now with aft fins attached

I´d love to build a model of the VF-9, all the lineart in The Kawamori Design book plus all the great pics contain almost enough info to do it, just: where the heck is the location of the nosewheel? The VF-X-10 has a bulge under the cockpit and there is enoughspace for the gear, but the VF-9 has the "shoulder" gunpod in its place. Does the gear really retract INTO the gunpod? There is a sketch of the FV-9 that shows the tire right under the pod but no gear struts are shown. Are there any views in the game where you can see a VF-9 with the gear down?

Looks like this one is just about to change from "quite nice" to "must have".... Last time I visited the Scale Solutions website there weren´t any infos about this kit. Has anybody here heard about price/availability?

I wish I could tell you, but I´m just ordering the resin today - I still have to make the molds and cast the parts. And an architect wants to meet me today for a model this seems to be a small one that will be done in a few days, but still...

I´m really tempted to glue it all together and paint it.... it´s just too frustrating - I can dry-fit half of the parts then I turn the thing around for the other half and everything falls apart even though the fit is quite tight on most parts. Guess I have to wait for the casted parts like everyone else! Here is the underside with 2/3 of gear closed: Now with front gear down (well actually it is "up" ): detail:

My girlfriend fas found back to her usual cheerful mood now that my long-term-project is in the finishing stages.... Most of the parts are here on my workbench now - I still need to make all the landing gear doors both open and closed plus multiplies of the little speed brake actuators. All the parts look quite messy now but that´s due to the different coloured putties and primers, the actual surface is already very smooth. Still, I´ll add a final coat to the parts to reveal any scratche and blemishes I might have overlooked.

Sorry for all my lengthy explanations without clarifying what parts I actually mean... but here come the pics, they are from a VF-1D but the parts are the same anyway. Hope this is clear now. As for the leg angle I´d say you don´t really need those leg attachment parts (A5, A6) any more if you build the model static. You COULD just glue the leg flat on in an angle you like.... the problem seems to be that the air intakes should be parallel in GERWALK mode and the moveable joints only allow upward/downward movement of the legs. What you need is a slightly spreaded look. Perhaps it will be sufficient to leave out some polycaps at the "knee" joints (I´m speaking of the polycaps that go into B33/34/35/36) so that you can still adjust the lower legs to the right/left sides - the joints will not be very tight after this so maybe you will have to glue all the parts together but I guess you were going for a static display model anyway. At least it won´t take forever.... OK a modeler can change EVERY kit from a weekend project into a lifetime challenge. ... don´t get discouraged, just do what you feel cou can (and want to) do, the model will STILL look good without all this work put into it.

Hi cowie165 looks promising so far. In these days of Hasegawa kits you don´t see many people tackle these older kits. Still, IMO they are a good base for a decent looking replica, all the more if you decide to build them fixed-pose as you said. You already noticed the stiff looking arms - I´d have gone with a new rotating joint at one of the engravings on the upper arm segment but your method seems to work as well. Furthermode I´d suggest you better not let the arm "hang ´round" at the odd angle as seen in the instructions. Better fix the "arm mount" (those 2 hinged plates) at 90degree. Now the shoulders may interfere with the wings - maybe you have to move their mounting points further up so the whole arm will be moved downwards a bit. While at it you could sand down the ugly round "spacer part" at the inner shoulders - they have no purpose in any mode other than ruining the overall look! As you don´t need transformation, you should also consider to leave out all the hinges that add so much thickness between the chest plate and the air intakes. Ok you cannot skip the "intake lip" part (the one that can slide back and forth for the different modes) but you can sand it to a more decent thickness. The metal parts will not be needed - you can replace them with much thinner plastic strips. The whole Gerwalk will look more elegant if this area is thinner! These are just my two cents- I´ve always wanted to build this model in fixed mode but never had the time so this is just theory.....

Hey but wait? Isn´t there a finnish company that builds waslking forestry machines? IIRC its name is Plustech - Phalanx should send them a letter demanding the production of real destroids so you could kick anyones´asses!

Oh come on Phalanx the other thread you started was at least funny but this one is just plain childish from the start....

I´m not going to post any more here until this thread is streamlined and redesigned. Honestly, it is getting more and more repetitive now... I will spend my time building models of obsolete designs from 2009, that´s more fun!

Ha, AGAIN you´re proving that your aesthetics and expectations are stuck in the present! You don´t feel a need to redesign the VF-19 and -22 because they look futuristic enough in your book BUT in fact they only resemble modern Fighters of today, mainly the SU-37 and the YF-23! Those are NOT futuristic, they are just state-of-the-art, nothing more. If we have the same argument in 20 years, those modern planes will be museum pieces (the -23 already is) and contemporary fighters will again look different. In your logic the VF-19 and -22 will then inevitably look obsolete AGAIN, so only TODAY can you call them futuristic. It´s not that I don´t get your point, I just find it rather short-lived because even "futuristic" design is always based on what designers have in their heads right now! BTW don´t feel offended it´s just that long time fans don´t want their hero machine be changed!! Actually this thread is fun!

There are at least three manufacturers that make joints, detail-up-parts and the like, Wave, Kotobukiya and Yellow Submarine. You should check out them all three, HLJ carries them all. There is a ball/socket-system in clear plastic made by YS - that one is really tight and even paintable!

I liked the VF-1 design when it came out in the ´80s and I still like it. I cannot see a boxy shape (the angular chest plate maybe), a MIG25 is boxy but not the VF-1. It is as elegant as other 80s fighters and looks "menacing" enough for a combat plane. If you are the huge jetplane enthusiast you claim to be, you should see every design in its own context. Is the F-4 Phantom a beauty with sleek lines? well, no I guess!!!Does it look vicious (I guess that´s what you wanted it to be)? -does anybody doubt it? Does it need to be re-designed to be "serious" for your liking? No, get a F-22 Raptor and be happy with it! Sorry, but you seem to have grown up with F-22s, SU-37s and other real world stuff and you don´t seem to realize that older times had their own aesthetics and should be left the way they are. And, btw where is the beauty in a F-32 or -35 compared to a F-86 or F-104??? And what if a movie about ace pilots of WW2 is made, do you demand to change their Spitfires, Mustangs or Messerschmitts to F-15/16/18s to make it look more "serious"? VF-1s are timeless beauties in my eyes and I will display them on my shelf alongside other planes or spaceships I like (anyone wanting a smoothed down X-wing? ), and I won´t demand a re-design of Focker´s Fokker D-VII just because it is a biplane!!!!

Wow 45 !! I need to order more resin.... and silicone rubber. That amount of kits will require two or even three runs to make them all!! I´m in the finishing stages of the master, just an awful lot of small stuff like wheel cobers etc. left now - I hope I can begin with the molds next week.

If Kawamori was to redesign the VF-1 to fit into the time Macross was supposed to take place (instead of the time the series was made in) then Mikimoto needed to redesign all the hairdos and clothes as well! And the hotshot pilot guy should be played by a woman because that´s what they do these days! Rory Focker!

I bought it around the same time (Manga release, yeah?) and I thought the same thing about Manning/Focker!! I didn't like the show too much except for the last two episodes. I had been wanting to see the original ever since and recently I finally got the chance. I now dislike the sequel even more as a result, though. And as I've mentioned time and again, I have been looking for an OST of the TV show forever... Anyone have MP3s of the songs? Orguss rocks. 374671[/snapback] You are right Renato, of course it was the Manga release on 3 tapes! "War - I love it! Death, destruction and easy money!" Haha, this guy was even better than the "original" Focker I´ve been looking for the Orguss OST as well. I searched amazon and - they actually had it listed! I ordered and after some months of delays they told me they don´t get it anymore. Not that I hadn´t expected that in the first place. That´s about the closest I got so far.... No mp3´s or anything

!!! I never knew they made a Dal!! I neeeeed!! Does it "transform" (retract, whatever)?? 374670[/snapback] Yes there is a Dal, made by ARII. While the detailing is quite good and the kit is really BIG (1/48!), the transformation (to three-wheeled car type) is lousy. The front legs have some kind of 90 degree turning mechanism but it is so sloppy (not even polycaps here) you should better glue it in one position. There is an ARII release but it was also marketed by Revell, they had one as "Trigon" and one with the original boxart by Takani. Revell : The Trigon had a photo of an assembled model as boxart and orginal ARII:

I wouldn´t mind if Orguss had gone the way of a multi-series/OVA etc- franchise like Macross but I guess the story of this whole strange universe pretty much came full circle with the ending of the TV series... and all those really strange mecha designs were not as popular as the VF of Macross I assume - although I love all of them. Lieea and Maaie´s M-Lovers/Molervers/M.Rovers whateveryoucallit are among my favourite model kits. It´s a pity that IMAI went bancrupt - Aoshima seems to have their molds now but I don´t think the Orguss line will be reissued soon... same thing with ARII- they don´t seem to bother with reissue plans as well so you have to spend a mad 85$ for a Drifand Dal on eBay.

When I bought Orgusss 2 in ´95 i LOVED it for the setting, design, suspense, the whole retro-thing and this cool Roy Fock--- ah, Manning-guy - but I did not fully understand what was going on in the end because I had no idea what the original series was all about. Now that I know the "Classic" Orguss series I understand O-02 better but at the same time I find the whole idea of "there are still artifacts and contradictions from other dimensions" a bit far-fetched. Even if we don´t know in detail what was going on in the end of Orguss TV, I´m pretty sure things were not meant to be just partly resolved.... I still like O 02, but finally getting the original series was one of the best ideas I ever had

Are you sure there is really a QF-3000 Ghost in Ep.3 of M+ ? - I watched it again yesterday but all I could find were the three Drones being destroyed by the QF-9. They surely had VF-11 airframes like Grayson72 said but with a Ghost "cockpit" added complete with the little upward swept canard wings. Colour was orange and they had light grey or white Fast Packs attached - are you refering to those or have I been missing anyting else? After fast forwarding a bit I felt like I better watch the whole series again frame by frame.... in one scene just prior to the concert on earth I even spotted Minmay (but with the "pointy" M+ chara design) in the audience and there was another guy who looked a lot like her uncle but I could be wrong.... and all these cool ships in the sky over Macross City when Myung´s ship is landing - not to mention all the warships in orbit when Isamu is approaching earth- it seems they´ve been designing tons of cool stuff just for split-second-scenes!

I didn´t see a time travel in the last episode as well. The device Olson and Kei used was made to get through the dimensional barrier of the daitokuiten which consists of time and space. It´s traveling THROUGH but not necessarily back. They encounter their younger selves trapped in the moment just when the bomb detonated (I don´t think it is BEFORE the detonation, in my logic it is when the effect occured and of course it was all caused by the bomb) - no matter if they went 5 years back or 15 they would probably encounter the same scene. When they arrive, they obviously don´t know what to expect or what to do, so it is not about using their device anymore... they see their younger selves and instantly know what must be changed to restore the world. Strangely, all 4 of them even seem to have a kind of "silent agreement" about what has to be done - no 2 Keis or Olsons can exist simultaneously... I guess in our western logic the 4 might have worked out to kill only 2 to keep the other 2 alive, but in my book the drawing of the guns is a determined act of self-sacrification to save the rest of the world and discussion about who may have survived is pretty fruitless. Within the pace of the series the characters had become progressively more determined to fulfill their fates no matter what cost so this scene just shows that they don´t hesitate to do so. At the very moment of the shooting the dimensions are literally shown to get parallel again so there is little doubt about the effect. The dimensional mess will be resolved after this, but there is no hint that we get "back to start" to the events in ep.1. I guess even after all is restored, Mimsy will still be pregnant...?! I mean, why should the writers introduce such an event only to render it completely irrelevant afterwards? At least we are supposed to think about it.... I still don´t know what all the scenes with the main characters as possible couples are supposed to mean: "could-have-beens" or "may-be´s in other dimensions" ? Even within the distorted dimensions Kei has always been a human and had no tentacles, so why has he got them in one of those scenes? But... wasn´t there some dream sequence in the middle of the series with Mimsy (or another character) being a human? I really don´t remember, I have to watch it again.... All in all, I don´t think there is a simple, scientific, western-logic explanation to all the events, after all this is japanese animation and even the most straightforward animes tend to get very sybolistic and open to interpretation at the end. You might call me a dumbass for that "non-conclusion" but I don´t want to conjecture facts out of my limited mind just to make everything fit my expectations. IMO that would only ruin the magic, and after all, this is a piece of art, not a documentary

Actually I was halfway finished with a new nosecone for the old kit when Hasegawa came up with their Valkyries - my interest in correcting the IMAI kit somehow faded... still, if Hasegawa do not manage to get a Gerwalk out in the next few years I might go on with it, it´s just too expensive to buy a fighter AND a Battroid just to make one Gerwalk... By the way Chad this is a GREAT VF-0 B - those panel lines kick ass and I like the prototype-ish paint scheme very much even if the machine wasn´t featured in M0.