SteveTheFish

Sure! Just be mindful of the time difference. You wouldn't want to appear in a store like that after midnight and the alarms go off!

Not really an "on the bench" picture, but today I went to Yodobashi Camera in Utsunomiya with my friend who is visiting Japan. Here is me in the Macross section of the model department. This is the first time seeing the new Q-Rau model in-person. Wow, what a big box! I have enough Yodobashi points that I could have walked out of the store with this kit without paying for it, but unfortunately I have to buy my daughter a crappy Chromebook for her schoolwork and I will need to use those points on that instead.

Stuff I have on my workbench. The two 1:100 scale Arii Regults are finished. The 1:144 Bandai/Imai Q-Rau is mostly finished. I want to rework the pilot. I articulated the hips with ball joints. The 1:72 Hasegawa Armored Valk is mostly done. I still need to assemble the hands. The 1:100 Imai Armored Valk is mostly finished. I want to do a bit of weathering on it. After finishing the decal work on Hasegawa's Armored Valk, it has several unused decals and conveniently they are smaller-sized version decals which work just fine for this 1:100 scale kit! I was amazed. Since I went with Millia's color scheme, hers is unit 303 rather than Hikaru's 101. The kit's worn, aged decals were mostly discarded, but I did salvage that hammer/torch emblem for the waist area. That's all I ended up using from those decals that have seen better days. The rest of the decals are aftermarket from HQ Parts as well as aftermarket Macross decals I got on eBay from some seller in China. I used ball joints for all the main parts of articulation and unfortunately the shoulder joints protrude a bit too much. It was hard to guess the size. It doesn't look too bad, I guess. I replaced the hamfists with Hobby Base mecha hands. Finally, the Hasegawa 1:48 Lightning. I ended up redoing gloss black on those panels after extensive masking and then reshot them with Mr. Color Super Metallic 2 201 Super Fine Silver 2. It looks a bit better. I'll do a clear coat with Aqua Gloss before decaling. Oh yeah, and I'm also working on all four Zentraedi ships by Arii. I'll show those another time.

It's 1:100 scale. There are no cannons on the scout pod. That one thing you see is some sort of antenna or something. I still have a few more places to paint, I now realize. I'll post better pictures when I'm done.

I finished the old Arii Regult Scout Pod from Macross yesterday. I placed it next to the Heavy Missile Regult I finished last year. I used Wave's H-Eyes lenses on both of these kits for the little red sensors. For the Scout, I filed down the piece offset from the center and replaced it with a big blue lens. (I painted the red and blue with Mr. Color Clear Red and Clear Blue colors.) I used Kotobukiya's M.S.G. vernier thruster pieces for the side thruster pods as well as the thrusters on the backs of the knees. Scattered about are parts for Haegawa's Armored Valk and Bandai/Imai's Q-Rau kits.

Yeah, what I meant was the VF-1 Valkyries. Wave has done Destroid, VF-4, and Vampire kits in 1:72 scale for sure.

Oh wow. So Fujimi has inserted a coin and pressed start. Here comes a new challenger! I think I may have mentioned on this forum before, but Fujimi is a sort of "black sheep" among the Japanese modeling community. Shizuoka City is the plastic model capital of the world, home to Tamiya, Bandai, Aoshima, Fujimi, Platz, Sweet, Asuka, Ebbro, Rocket Models, RC Berg (although they only do resin garage kits), and Hasegawa (in nearby Yaizu). Fujimi is blacklisted from showcasing at the Shizuoka Hobby Show and the All-Japan Model Hobby Show because they stepped on Tamiya's toes many decades ago. Fujimi only has a booth at the Wonder Festival events. Up until now, you'll see how the various kit makers refrain from directly competing with identical products. While Hasegawa makes 1:72 scale Valkyries, Max Factory's 1:72 Valkyries have rounded, cartoonly-proportions, Wave sticks to 1:100 scale, etc. Hasegawa refrained from releasing a VF-4 because Wave was planning to make one. So there is a sense of camaraderie and cooperation among the Japanese model companies, but Fujimi does their own thing and are not concerned about harmony. Their business model is more akin to an American company's. So with Fujimi entering the fray, I believe the phrase is "no holds barred"? Or unless the Macross Modelers association sets forth rules for others to abide by. Fujimi did not follow the established rules with the 700 Waterline Series of battleship models in association with Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Aoshima, and were thus blacklisted. Tamiya made a Yamato kit and Fujimi did too, and were subsequently shunned.

I actually thought about maybe doing that. Or Gaia Notes Clear Black would do it too. I did a Hasegawa Eggplane Girl wearing a bunny girl costume, and I used the Clear Black on her pantyhose to give it a sheer look. The effect was pretty nice.

Thanks. the panel variations are more pronounced in the example model photo on the box. I'm afraid of losing some detail if I was to do yet another gloss black coat and redo the silver. There might also be bleed-under. I was lucky to have clean masking lines the first time. The way it is now, it is subtle. I guess I'll be satisfied with that.

Sorry for the double post, but I figured that I would include a pic of my Imai 1:100 Armored VF-1J Valk. Instead of Hikaru's, I'm building it as Millia's. I know there is an old 1:200 scale Millia Armored Valk by Nichimo, but their proposed color scheme is just a bit weird. I've decided to make mine uniform with Hikaru's, particularly because I have leftover paint mix from my simultaneous Hasegawa 1:72 Armored Valk build. I just realize that I need to paint the head cannons and mono eye too. Other than that, I'll be ready to do a clear coat and apply some aftermarket decals. The decals this kit comes with are most likely toast. As you can see, I have articulated the crap out of this, using Wave's ball joints, Hobby Base's mecha hands (I don't like the silly ham fists the kit comes with), and some polycaps leftover from Gunpla builds. I'm too chicken to put them together just yet, and will wait until I'm ready to do so at the end after the decals are down and sealed. Hopefully it won't look awkward, but at least it won't be in such a stiff pose as it would be built straight out of the box without augmentation.

The gloss white/gloss black scheme is interesting, but unfortunately I think I applied too many layers of silver paint, making the black panels a bit too subtle. The wing flaps are Mr. Color 8 Silver, while the rest of the plane is Mr. Color SM201 Super Fine Silver 2. You can barely see that the nose, engine cowlings, rear parts of the nacelles, and vertical stabilizers are a bit deeper color. I should not have applied too many layers of paint and let them show the darker color more. It was my first time attempting this, and I thought that after the paint dried, they would be more visible. So... I dunno... Do you think it's worth re-masking and giving these panels another shot? Or just fall forward? BTW, in the background you can see the old Imai 1:100 Armored Valk that I am building up as Millia's red VF-1J.

I was hoping for a Glaug or a Gnerl, but perhaps those will be slated for November/December if they do come out.

Macross Plus Battroid and a blue Max Q-Rau!

Less than 24 hours from now, at 12 noon local Japan time, Hasegawa will announce their summer release schedule for June & July, ahead of the Shizuoka Hobby Show next month. https://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/202406_7new/

I've finished airbrushing my P-38 with gloss white with gloss black panels. When I spray the kit with a silver overcoat, these alternate panels will show through differently.

An update on the modification I'm making to my old 1:100 scale Imai Armored Valkyrie. I'm adding ball joints to enhance articulation. https://odysee.com/@stevethefishdotnet:2/Imai-Macross-1100-Armored-VF-1J-Valkyrie-plamo-build-2-マクロス　アーマードバルキリー:2

Big S is right; I was talking about using lacquer thinner to clean up metal parts.

Yes, it looks like that to me. So the order of the pewter (?) landing gears for the P-38 Lightning. Am I supposed to prep this somehow, or just apply some metal primer and just paint it? Do I need to soak these in lacquer thinner or something first?

That looks good to me! I'd say using German Gray for those dark parts would be good. Thanks! The Imai/Bandai instruction booklet color choices suck. It suggests using purple for what looks like very light gray to me. I think I might try switching to Mr. Color 66 Bright Green for the main body color after all.

Hey guys, I'm colorblind, so a little help would be appreciated. I have my Imai/Banda Q-Rau primed and ready for painting. I was thinking of using Tamiya XF-27 Black Green for the upper arms, thighs, feet, etc and Mr. Color 135 Russian Green 1 for the body, forearms, legs, etc. Would this be appropriate? Any suggestions? I already painted the feet and such with Mr. Color 136 Russian Green 2 (which is darker), but it's just not dark enough. That's why I was thinking of going with the Black Green color. (And FYI since there is always somebody who doesn't know what being colorblind entails, I can see colors, but sometimes my perception of color can be a bit... slippery, if that makes sense. I have to see some colors next to other colors in order for me to realize what they are. Especially red/green/brown can be confusing to me.)

So awesome!

Thanks! Yes, I hadn't thought about it sagging under the weight. Incidentally, I happen to have an HLJ coupon for my recent birthday I can use on it. Thanks for the tip!

For the Hasegawa P-38, you attach the nacelles to the underside of the wingspan/cockpit and then the underside of the wings. The connection between the engine nacelles and the top part isn't very good. It will require a lot of filing. The nose requires a lot of weight to keep it from becoming a tail sitter. 35g!

Yeah, the proportions on Breetai's flagship are off. I'd think the model would need to be longer or something. It's too brick-ish and needs to be tapered.

Oh yes, and I've been recently working on a batch project of all four of ARII's Zentraedi capital ships: Breetai's flagship, Kamjin's flagship, the LST, and the standard battleship. I've put two videos on YT of this build so far.