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Ok... maybe its selfish of myself to think of this idea but I just had a thought of a unique way to thank the original kit owner. How about we pitch in and see if we can get his recast finished up by wm cheng? Would wm cheng be interested? Being a kit collector myself I know I'd greatly value one of his finished works and all of us will get the step-by-step guide on how to do this kit justice out of the deal as well. What do you guys think? The guide itself would also find a permanent home here on Macross World which could be credited to wm cheng and the original kit owner as well. Carl

I agree... still I like the original box art too. However if the feeling is that someone may use it to misrepresent this kit on eBay maybe its best not to include it. I just felt that it should be possible to include a copy of the original clearly labeled that this is a recast alongside some new art. I believe that should make it clear enough to any future owner that this wasn't an original. But if someones intentionally wants to misrepresent this kit on eBay he'd still ba able to as pictures of the original are now posted here. I prefer to believe everyone will play nice but its true there are a few bad apples out there and we don't need to make it too easy for them. I'll leave it to the judges to decide what they think is best. I've had my Gakken Tread pictures used in eBay auctions before. Still I'm not going to take them down just to keep it from happening again. I got it so I could prove to the world the thing existed and I'm not going to let the bad apples dictate my actions. Oh well... that's just my 2 cents on the subject. Carl

Here is the first half of my next test... still playing with some of the effects. This time the camera is in a chase car looking back at the trail. What do you think of some of the changes I made? The blinking light... the rotating spokes... the fixed white line starting out as red then turning to white. That last one is just the oposite effect of the rest of the trail that starts off as white and turns to red. I wanted to see what these effects would look like but now I'm not sure if they are much of an improvement over what I started with. Comments...

Well I tried the way back machine on the Liquid Stone page and it didn't seem to be anywhere in the archive. I did also try it on I.H.P's web page and found some nice pics. Some of which I haven't seen before. More pics of this kit can be seen here: 1/100VF-11C Thunderbolt There are more pics of this kit here: 1/72VF-1 Complete Transform Here is a nice one for our current project: Here are some more nice links: 1/100VF-1 Armored Valkyrie VF-19A Excalibur Here is the pic I mentioned before. I like to call this one "Nice Legs"... That's all I could find. Anyone remember the very nice VT-1 that I.H.P did? I don't believe he ever sold that kit but it'd be nice to find those pictures again. Carl

I love these: Just a few more and we've have a nice example of time stop photography. Carl

Thanks... still I'd like some way to preserve the original box art. I was hoping for a high quality color scan of the actual box art with the word "recast" added to one of the white areas. Then add some custom art as box side art. Since everyone that purchases this kit has helped make this possible it might be nice to put all of there MW avitars on the box as well. If we want a complete redo of all of the box art may I suggest that a good color scan of the original (again with the word "recast") be used as an insert. English won't get you a reply. Trust me I've tried many many times myself while he was I.H.P. I have gotten replies to Japanese emails before but even that has been awhile. I feel he's moved on to other things now and it will be hard to get much from him on this topic. But please contine to try... I'd LOVE to be proven wrong. That will probably require contact be made with D'Stance themselves and its proven even harder to get info from them then I.H.P. Thanks... its really nice to see everyone coming together like this. Carl

Here is something I could offer in the long term. I would be happy to offer him some web space where he could showcase his collection and remain anonymous if he'd like. It will take me a while between starting a new job, moving, and getting my own collection up. Also at the moment I'm up myself on space Shawn has given me but I hope to fix that before I put all of my own stuff up. Its just a thought. By the way... its also come to my attention that Liquid Stone *DID* have a whole page dedicated to this kit with pictures and descriptions etc. It was taken down shortly after the event where the kit was sold. And all this time I had been checking I.H.P's page for updates. So what are the odds someone here saw that page and saved those pictures and info. I'd REALLY love to see them. Carl

I just noticed that Liquid Stone is stated on the actual box art twice. So... did I.H.P become Liquid Stone? Anyone have any idea why the name change. Has anyone been able to find any info on this kit on the Liquid Stone link given several pages back. I looked a little bit but wasn't expection to see anything as I knew the kit was an I.H.P kit. Now I think I need to go back and check again. Carl

1/100 scale...

Its a variable kit. In fact I *think* the one picture I posted that I pulled from I.H.P's homepage is a picture of the same kit in fighter mode.

Ok... that is a kit he sold at a wonderfest back in 2002. Shawn and I and I think a few others were able to get a few of those through Seiichi (I think it was him) while we were still in direct contact with I.H.P. Carl

Oh no... I don't want that either. Still I think something nice can be put together and the cost of the ink and paper to print it should be pennies.

What link are you looking at? Is this the YF-19 that you see?

Here is an idea I wanted to throw on the table... has anyone given any thought to the box art for the VB-6 recast project? Noel has an original copy of the boxart and our kit owner I'm sure does too. At a minimum I'd want a color copy of that with the word RECAST added someplace. Better yet we do that AND add something original made just for this project. Maybe to be used as the box side art. This is the first big Macross Fan by the fan/for the fan recasting project that I'm aware of. I'd like a way to refect that on the box art. Something like take everyone's Macross World's avitar that gets on the official order list and stick them on the side of the box with the Macross World Logo. I'd also like something special acknowledging the original kit owner for allowing his kit to be recast and something for the recaster for the time and effort the he'll put into this kit. That might be hard to do if one or both don't what their name known. Maybe we could have them pick an alias. What do you guys think? Carl

Ok... the confusion was on my end. Just so long as we are on the same page. I took "original" clean-up method to mean the original kit would be cleaned up. I agree 100%. Which is why I was wanting to help so I could help assure this was done the right way. Since it is an added expense I just didn't want that keeping anyone away so I offered to do what I could. I'm not planning on going anywhere. Let me take that back... I'll be moving to Mississippi in just a matter of days and I'll be slower to respond during that time. But I'll be here. I've been here at Macross World for 5 years now. I don't plan on shooting myself in the foot now. If we go the two mold method which I think we probably will, if Gene wants to help I'm more then happy to let him pick up the cost of the first set of molds. Carl

That was the quote for the VB-6 Koenig. I don't believe we have a quote yet from either re-caster for the VF-4. I don't know if Valkyrie still has the molds from the Tread anymore, but it is a beautiful kit. I have one and I love it and have even used it to work on my own little project! As for the Garland...God I hope so! I'd love to have one of those! .... About D'Stance's YF-21: I know individual efforts to contact him have gone unnoticed. I wonder if we can get a list of all those interested and pay a small fee (which I would be glad to cover) to get the monkey, imode, or another person who can write Japanese with some fluency to write to him for us. Maybe if he is contacted and knows that enough people want a kit he might be realize it is worth his time to work out something with us. I'm certainly not promising results but it couldn't hurt to try as he doesn't respond to individual requests but might for a larger group of customers. Where was everyone when Noel was selling these a year or so ago? If we can get enough people together that want one I'd think we'd be able to get some more from the same place I got mine. If not and someone wanted to recast my recast we could try that too down the road. Just lets not get too many things going all at once. Great idea... lets try anything and everything. Is there a way we can get a moderator or someone with access to the old forums to dig out the contact info for the guy that won Noel's auction for the one he sold? I know he posted in one of my old D'Stance threads. That's the only lead I have on an actual kit at the moment. Still I'd prefer to get D'Stance talking to us. That's the only way to get the fast packs too.

Its the most recient thing I have of his. I believe its about a year old or so. I got it though Noel if anyone here can remember exactly when Noel was offering these for sale here. I tend to agree. The quality issue is about a draw in my mind. There is one other reason unrelated to quality/availability/accessibility where the "other guy" might have a leg up on Valkyrie. The owner of the VB-6 is aware of what that is... but I'm not sure how to tell the rest of you without telling you who he is. Noel... or anyone else here remember what the Garland recast sold for. I think it was in the $200 +/- $50 range. As Noel was the official outlet for these last time I'd suggest if there is interest we give him a list and he might be able to get it filled. I must admit I haven't ask him about this hit in a while. It may be possible that he has a few now but I sort of doubt it. Everyone that's asked me about this kit in the last year or so I've sent in his direction. I see valkyrie has ask ready answered the Tread part of the question. Valkyrie... if down the road you want to borrow the original again so you can make better molds I'll be happy to help. However lets put this somewhere on the list AFTER the VB-6, VF-4... and hopefully D'Stance YF-21. Carl

When we get to that point I'd suggest someone talk to Noel. He's recasted metal parts in metal before. I personally don't have one of his 1:48 VF-1S recasts but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I believe he also duplicated the photo etched parts as well... not that any of the kits we are currently talking about has photo etched parts. Just pointing out he's a resource that might be able to help.

There are some small air bubbles in both the kits I photographed. Also keep in mind the original KIP Megazone kit is a very rough old variable kit. It required ALOT more work then the relatively clean much newer non-variable Tread kit. I'm very happy with the quality of both kits. One other thing... I probably photographed the worst parts of each kit so I could be sure some defects would show up on film. But all in all... especially if Valkyrie now feels he can do even better... I'd have a very hard time taking a postion against anyone that says he may very well be the best man for the job. And believe me I don't want to put myself in that position. Both of these recasters do outstanding work. Carl

That's probably a question best answered by the recaster. If option 3 (above) is used I'd suggest the recaster hold on to the parts made from the first set of molds that he cleaned up. That way he should be able to make more molds in the future if need be. However its all up to him if he wants to deal with that. Its not very cost effective to make kits like this just one or two at a time. Carl

No... you are still confused. I'll try to spell it out again. There are 3 ways this can go forward. (1) The original can be recasted as is. And parts from those original molds can be sold. One set of molds... no clean up. (2) The original can be cleaned up. Molds made. And parts from the original molds can be sold. The parts that are cleaned up belong to the original kit. (3) The original can be recasted as is. Parts can be made from that first set of molds and those parts can be cleaned up. After those parts are at their best ANOTHER set of molds is made and its parts from the second set of molds that are sold. The parts that are cleaned up are NOT part of the original kit. I'm willing to cover some of the costs if either mentod 2 or 3 is used. Considering the state of this kit I doubt most would be happy if there wasn't any clean up performed at some point in this process. So option 1 is the only one I'm not wanting to pour money into. With option 2... if the kit owner is willing to let his original kit be altered, I'll cover the cost of the first (and only set of molds). I highly doubt this in the direction we will go as it will cause delays in him getting his kit back not to mention I think it would hurt the value of the original. With option 3... and this is what I originaly proposed... I'll cover the cost of making the SECOND set of molds. I offered to do this as that way the final kit cost (or atleast that part due to materials) won't be any higher then option 1, the cheapest way to go. It is still more work for the recaster as parts will need to be cleaned up so he may want to charge a little more for his time. I want just wanted to help keep the cost of materials down. All that said I'm about 99.9% sure the way this project will go forward is option 3. Was I clear that time... Carl

That's not quite what I said. I'm willing to do that too if the owner of the kit agrees his original can be cleaned up. However I think that is very unlikely. If I were him I'd perfer to keep it as close to its original condition as possible. What I had said was if the parts had to be cast... and the cast parts cleaned up... I'd cover the cost of the SECOND set of molds. Spelling not Homer's best subject... even when it comes to his own name. Doh!! A great question... I honestly don't know. I'm trying to get an answer but I doubt I'll get that answer today. Whatever that answer is I suspect its a safe bet he doesn't have as much free time as Valkyrie does at the moment. What I'd also like to see from him is a cost estimate like Valkyrie has been nice enough to give. I haven't got that yet either. However this goes I'm sure it will be hard to go wrong with either of them and I'd also like to consider both of these guys as my friends. So I'm doing my best not to step on either of their toes. I just want what's best for this project and I'm just wanting to put options on the table. Carl

Ok... I've now got pictures of the CORRECT kit up this time. Sorry about the screw up. As for my recomendation, its really hard for me to say. I'm sure both can do and fantastic job and I'm sure we'll all come out winners with either Valkyrie or "the other guy". Valkyrie being unemployed I suspect could give us faster turn around as "the other guy" is usually rather busy. Valkyrie is able to be a bit more open here in the forums about this project then "the other guy" so I'm sure that's worth something to everyone here. Ok and I have just today gotten confirmation that the VF-4 that "the other guy" has available to recast is the 1/100 kit. He had a 1/72 kit but sold it some time ago. He's also told me he's busy doing taxes right now and hasn't had a chance to check out this thread in detail yet. He said he will and will get back to me next week. The best of both worlds to me would seem to have Valkyrie do either the VB-6 or the 1/72 VF-4 and have "the other guy" do the other. That way we'll get more current comparisons of each of their works in the hands of other members here and even more informed decisions can be made in regards to any future kits. Its just a thought. Oh and Valkyrie... I've been asked this question "There was some concern with Valkyrie as to whether he had a pressure pot for casting." I'll let you answer that one. I believe the answer is yes but I'd much rather have the answer given first hand. Carl

Doh... Doing my best to sound like Homer Simpson. He's right. I've got two originals and I'm not sure what I was thinking. I passed the first and picked up the second thinking (this one must be the recast). Your box was squarer I think wasn't it Valkyrie? Back to do some digging and taking some more pictures. I'll just replace the earlier ones to save space when I've got them. Valkyrie if you're work is better now PLEASE feel free to post some more current pictures. I didn't know you were unemployed I don't think. I was just in that boat myself. Believe me I've got a full appreciation of your situation. If there is ANYTHING I can do to help please email me. Carl

Just for the record the other recaster IS a member here. I'd like to think he's a part of the family too.