SteveTheFish

I finally finished that small, 3D-printed Minmay figure my friend gave me a few years ago. The UN Spacy logo is from a set of Macross decals I bought on eBay years back, some of which I'd used on my 1:100 Imai Armored Valk I finished earlier this year. The pattern on her dress is from leftover decals from a Haku Rinpha resin kit from Hasegawa Eggplane Girls series. She is VERY small, so zooming in with my camera like this is exposing the flaws I cannot see with my naked eyes. Her eyes turned out better than I thought they would. The new Minmay resin kit that Hasegawa will release this month is almost the same as this figure.

I must not be properly communicating somehow. We're talking about translating a cartoon into something physical. Roadrunner can paint a tunnel on the side of a mountain and run through the painted tunnel, only for Wiley Coyote to faceplant into the rocks a moment later. That's how animation works, because it's not tangible. The real world doesn't work like that. Look at those hamfists and look at what your model Hasegawa gunpod looks like. You can't shove a basketball into a can of Pringles, but a cartoon character can. So if Hasegawa was to make their model with those big hamfists, they would not be able to reuse the same pre-existing tooling for the gunpod. They'd have to retool it to include a jibungous hole for it to put its big fat finger through. Like picking your nose with a baseball bat. You can't do that unless you're a cartoon. Notice that even Max Factory did not make the hands as big as the drawing's. I'm just saying that Hasegawa is going for more practical rather than stylized. Even then, compromises are still made. The wings on their Battroid are smaller than those on the Fighter. It's why transforming models/toys of these mecha will never be totally accurate in any one given configuration. The Valkyrie's jet engine nacelles suddenly get beefier and more rounded when in Battroid mode in the animation because they are drawn that way. Hasegawa chose not to go that route and instead made the legs more or less compatible with the corresponding parts of the Fighter mode. Look at how Shoji Kawamori designed Optimus Prime in the Transformers cartoon. Heck, any of the Transformers. The Autobots' tires get really small (or disappear entirely). Not because it's practical, but because they just kind of look cooler that way when animated.

Yes, the Hasegawa one cannot be posed very dynamically at all.

Keep in mind that since Hasegawa's reputation is the strongest for scale aircraft, apparently their focus is to keep the technology of Macross mecha consistent with real-world mechanics rather than copying the anime aesthetic in which the Valkyrie's nacelles swell up once they form the Battroid's legs to look more stylized for the animation. The thing about the hands is that Hasegawa has to make some compromises in order to maintain uniformity. The Armored Valk, as drawn, has bigger feet and hands, yet it's still supposed to be the same mecha, just with external armor. Those big, fat hamfists won't be able to hold the gunpod. My friend got all upset over Hasegawa's Armored Valk's hands but I pointed this out to him. Big fat fingers can't wrap around the rifle's trigger! So when I built my Armored Valk, I used the DYRL hands just because I think they look better aesthetically.

I did not notice that. In any case, the pendant is oversized and frankly looks dumb. If I really wanted her to have one, I'd mold one from another kit in Oyumaru and cast it in clear UV resin because the one in the picture looks a bit awkward. I can't remember, but I think the Blue Water ceased to exist once she used it to cast a resurrect spell in the final episode.

I'm working on painting this 1:6 Nadia figure that our friend Tekering 3D-printed for me! This is like an older Nadia with a more mature body. Sexy! So far I've done her fleshtone, which is a mix of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, XF-2 Flat White, and X-6 Orange. Tamiya's paints have a rather limited palette and do not include fluorescent orange, so I used regular orange. I only recently learned that there is a Mr. Hobby fluorescent orange color I could have added to the mix, but this looks fine enough as it is. Orange is pretty fluorescent regardless. (FYI: for doing fleshtones, fluorescent orange or pink is pretty essential when mixing your own colors.) I guess this print also had a Blue Water gem for her necklace, but that got overlooked when printing. No matter though; since I've decided this is an older Nadia, there is no Blue Water as it's been spent. In the back is the July issue of Model Graphix magazine. I somehow missed this issue this past summer with its big Macross article and cover, so I bought it online. It came today in the mail.

Hey, that was me! I got that Bronco II kit for you. Now I remember... We lucked out finding it for a great price because it was on the now-defunct Rakuten Auctions site. I'd forgotten whom I procured that kit for.

@derex3592 That Blackbird looks fantastic!

Yeah, that mermaid turned out great!

Oh wow. I didn't know that there was an HG Sirbine. A couple of years ago I built the Max Factory Sirbine kit, which was a plastic recreation of their bestselling Sirbine sofubi kit from the garage kit days. It's a non-poseable figure kit and has a sculpture of a nude woman on the shield that's rather exquisite. It's quite an incredible kit.

NICE! Looks like you used Tamiya's NATO Black. So it seems that it has recessed panel lines, am I correct? I've built two Blackbirds in 72nd scale so far: the Italeri and Hasegawa ones. For both kits, I had to cut those red stripe decals into segments. It's the only way to do it. @pengbuzz You have my prayer. My dear cousin was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last week. She's younger than me, in her mid-40s. You need to cut out ALL sugars from her diet. No carbs, so that means no potatoes, no bread, nothing sweet, no booze, nothing. Cancer feeds off of sugar. Starve the cancer.

Something like a FAG/Mospeda kitbash? https://jp.pinterest.com/pin/336221928450528161/

I think probably at 1:72nd scale, painting the eyes would make it look weird and bug-eyed. Probably the best thing would just to use a wash on the face, like Tamiya's brown/pink accent color. Even at 1:35th scale, armor modelers doing figures don't really paint the eyes, do they? I'd have to look up some examples.

I found info on this sofubi kit on the Macross World legacy site here. It's at the top of the list: https://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/hobbybase/hobby_base.htm I have another Valkyrie sofubi kit that's not on that list. It's a VF-1S in Battroid mode. I noticed that the legacy site does not list any figure models, such as the Arii sofubi kits or that clunky ABS(?) kit of Misa DYRL by Tsukuda. Sofubi kits aren't as popular as resin kits because they're a bit different to build. Many people don't have patience for them, but I'm rather fascinated by them.

Well, when I worked for Aoshima, the Macross license was open, meaning if you pay for it then it gives you the ability to do anything Macross-related, including Macross II, Flashback, and other minor stuff. That was in 2015 when that open license was revealed, and I was at the All-Japan show working for Aoshima's booth when that was announced. In recent years, I've just wondered if the villains at Harmony Gold may try to do something about that and perhaps companies might be selective regarding their projects.

For what it's worth, I saw Kaneda-san at the All-Japan Model Hobby Show and once again implored him to produce either a Misa or Minmay riding on a VF-1 VFG kit. He said he's not keen on that since there's so much TOS Macross stuff being made already by other companies, but personally I think the real reason is that he'd rather do that weird furry stuff instead. I don't get it. I'd think a TOS VFG kit would be a top-seller, but he does what he wants to do.

Apparently the previous artist (whom I like a lot better) has been replaced by Mercy Rabbit, who has an unbridled passion for the color purple, inexplicably. I do not know what's up with that, nor have I ever heard of Mercy Rabbit before seeing this artwork at the trade show. "Hey, this Valkyrie is orange and beige, but somehow I'm gonna make it look purple and if you don't like it then you're a kaka-poopoo head so shut up." Yeah, I like the other artist better. YW. Bandai allowed photos, but not videos. A Kotobukiya rep requested that I not video either, at least not where their FAG stuff was. I guess their girl kits are such a hot item that they don't want people lingering around in their booth making videos. However, Kino Kousaka was allowed to do so. Then again, they make models based on 3D scans of her and she's a celebrity in the Japanese modeling community. I didn't see her at the show and she was probably finished recording before I even arrived. Her channel has plenty of good coverage of the event, if you don't mind her using the word "kawaii" to describe pretty much EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong; I like her and her videos, but it gets annoying how Japanese women over-use the word "cute" to describe everything. I'm glad my wife is not like that, but my daughter falls into that trap a little. It seems like everyone is getting into the FAG phenomenon these days. (Hey, that's Kotobukiya's acronym, not mine!) Of course it started with their Frame Arms Girls, then their Megami Device series, Bandai has their 30 Minutes Sisters (their Gun Gal didn't seem to be successful), Aoshima has the VFG series or whatever it's called, Doyusha is importing some Chinese competition for such kits, and now even Hasegawa is joining that scene. There are modeling magazines dedicated to such kits now. On the days open to the general public, Bandai's booth gets swamped with people and that must be why they had such a huge, relatively empty tradeshow booth. They just want people to take pictures and move on, instead of recording themselves talking about the kits. To bring this back on topic though, I'm just glad that Hasegawa are not strict about media.

Hey, since I live in Japan, contact me if you need replacement parts on model kits. This goes for anyone on here. Thom and Chas may remember that I helped plenty of people on the Starship Modeler forum to get replacement parts. Bandai parts are the easiest because my LHS is a Bandai Pro Shop affiliate. I just give the shop owner the parts request order and he can request them. For Bandai models, you order on a part-by-part basis, whereas with other companies you'll need to order the entire sprue, plus pay for the postal money order fees and all that crap. If you or anyone needs replacement parts or decals, I'd just need a scan of the parts request form from the instruction booklet (unless it's a kit I own myself). EDIT: So this is a kit that will soon be in my possession: a 1:72 scale VF-4 sofubi kit! Wow! I know that there's been resin kits of this, but I'd never seen a sofubi kit. I found this on Mercari and since I had a 500 yen coupon, I snagged this kit for only 2800 yen! It shall soon be in my hands. All shall love me and despair!

Here's my video of the event. Attending the hobby show is increasingly becoming a social event for me, and as such I spent more time standing around talking and less time documenting the event. Plus I was having many problems with my lousy video camera. https://odysee.com/@stevethefishdotnet:2/2025-All-Japan-Model-Hobby-Show-全日本模型ホビーショー:e

I'm compiling a video of the footage I took at the event. Bandai only allows photos but NO videos, and now Kotobukiya has that same policy. Volks didn't want videos either, even though their booth was just a table. I really don't get it. Plus the event has become such a social event for me that I'm constantly running into people I know and talking for quite a while. There's a lot of photos and video I wanted to take, but didn't have a chance.

My pics of the Max Factory booth. I attended the All-Japan show yesterday. Look at the bottom of the pic above. Tiny 72nd scale Minmay by the Valk's foot! There were also Moderoid Mospeada kits on display.

So I went to the All-Japan show yesterday and had a great time with Adrian from Big West and Egan from Anime News Network. We went out for Mexican food afterwards and talked for a couple of hours until I had to get back to Shinjuku and take the long, 3 hour journey back home (I was too cheap to take the shinkansen). Rest assured, the new Q-Rau has a TOS Millia figure! So I asked the Hasegawa rep why we didn't get a Kamjin with the Glaug kit. He basically said that the scale is off, and it would not have looked right. I think they are given the dimensions and they make their model accordingly. This kinda reminds me of the dilemma with the Snowspeeders from Empire Strikes Back. I wonder if the actors were sitting Indian-style in the life-size props because there is just NO leg room afforded. This 1:12 resin figure of Minmay looks like the version of her from the Macross The First manga. That's the dress she has in the first volume, with her China dress opened in front to show cleavage. I'm sure I'll get this kit when it comes out. Valkyries look so cool with just the legs extended. I love that look. The figures of Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa are gonna be plastic. I was expecting resin.

Thanks. I also have a Bluestreak model made from an old Arii Nissan Fairlady Z model kit. It's painted and ready to go. All I have to do is solder the wires together and create a switch and I'll be done with it. Here's an older WIP pic of it, before I put more pieces together.

Speaking of Transformers, since I have a set of Autobot emblem decals, I made this Bumblebee from a 1:24 scale VW Beetle from Aoshima.

Do you plan to list this for sale on Cults3D? This is pretty fantastic.