SteveTheFish

I had collected all of those 12th scale figure kits by Imai but I sold them all at Book Off a year or so ago because I realized that I would never get around to ever building them. Proportions aren't very good, the hair looks a bit flat, etc. Hikaru's supposed to have messy cowlick hair but the figure's hair looks pretty tame. I did keep my Bandai Macross Girl. The actual kit doesn't look as nice as the box art, but it's alright, I guess. It's made from that heavy, solid ABS plastic that those early '80s Tsukuda figure kits came in. It's not styrene. Plus it came with stickers. I scanned the sticker sheet and printed them onto clear laser printer decal paper. The engine bells on the fast pack are solid, so instead of trying to hollow them out with my router and make a mess of them, I think I'll just cut them off and use some replacements from Kotobukiya's Modeling Support Goods line. You can see an unboxing of this kit on my Tumblr feed here: https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/post/166390759684/bandai-112-macross-valkyrie-lady-plamo-unboxing

Oops. They forgot to capitalize Miria.

Thanks! That's good enough. I can print this out, cut it, and send it in. I live in Japan. Hobby Search will provide scans of the instructions, but they intentionally crop out the parts order forms. The crappy part is that it's 1500 yen plus 300 yen, whereas Hasegawa's is just a straight 1,000 yen. Something to consider. I didn't know that the Plamax decals are so expensive. Incidentally, I recently ordered replacement decals from Hasegawa. I'm currently building Macross model #1, which is the VF-1A from DYRL. It has decals for Hikaru, Kakizaki, and Max. Since I am building mine as Kakizaki and my decals are kaput (I left them in the window too long because they kept yellowing on me and I ended up baking them), I ordered replacements. But they no longer make that kit, and instead gave me the decals for the VF-1S/J/A. This has decals for Roy and Hikaru (both DYRL and TV), but no stripes for Kakizaki or Max. It does, however, have the plane numbers and names as decals. I tried scanning the decals and printing them. I used Fine Molds clear decal sheet with the laser printer at work and they did not turn out so well. This is why I'm thinking I may go for replacements from Max Factory. While I could possibly use Hasegawa decals on the Plamax kit, there is an issue with proportions. Are the stripes on the wings too long or too short? I'll first have to cut the damaged decals out closely, lay them on the Plamax parts, and see if they fit or will require modification. In any case, thank you for you help!

I suggested a while back to my Mac friend to give Linux a shot because he was tired of being pushed around too. Recently he migrated to Ubuntu Gnome and he likes it. I had suggested Ubuntu Mate, but I guess he's fine with Gnome. I personally hate Gnome, but he seems comfortable with it.

Since I bought the Max Factory Valkyrie Fighter VF-1A that only comes with stupid stickers by mistake (I actually didn't expect them to do something so stupid), if anyone here has purchased the new version with decals, could I ask a big favor? All I need is just a scan of the order form that shows the prices of replacement parts, decals, etc. Of course it'll be in moon runes, but it should be pretty apparent what it is. I just need a scan of that order form and I'll be able to print it out, send it to Max Factory and pay for the decals that they should have included with this kit initially. Let me know! Thanks.

I still have leftover paint mix for the Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie I'm building, so I got inspired to start something new. Last night I started on a very old Imai 1:100 Armored Valkyrie. I used my Hobby Base ball sockets to create dynamic hip joints and the hamfists will be replaced with Kotobukiya's M.S.G. hands. With the leftover paint for the armored parts I mixed, I may as well build this older, smaller version and use it up. The decals are kaput and I have no confidence that they will work, but I have some aftermarket UN Spacy decals at least that are in-scale with this kit. I saw someone on here had posted an armored Millia Valk they'd found online, so that's what I wanna do.

Yeah, that is magazine quality for sure. Submit it to FSM or something!

That is so cool. I'm a Linux enthusiast myself. I migrated to Mint Mate in February 2000, after MS stopped supporting Win7. I'd been meaning to migrate for a long time, and I was glad I did. A very liberating experience, and I haven't looked back since. I'd wished I'd done it sooner.

The Meowmeow's target lock aquired: "I CAN HAS VF-171!" So last night I finished laying down decals on my Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie. I still have leftover paint from the mixture I made for its blue/gray armor color, so I think I'll build up the old 1:100 scale Imai Armored Valkyrie and use the paint up. (Too bad the decals are kaput...) The decals are silk screen, and went down very nicely. The only trouble I had were the black stripe decals. They lay down along those gaps and I had a hard time lining them up and wrapping them around. I ended up not using them. Instead I used my Real Touch Gundam Marker Gray 3 (which looks black to me) and it worked like a charm. Very beautiful. I think a bit of acrylic thinner can be used to clean up any mistakes, as I painted the kit with Mr. Color lacquer paints. I am also working on a resin garage kit of Asuka from Evangelion I bought on E2046. I do not care for that anime, but I love Sadamoto's character designs. I tried to do justice when painting her eyes, but alas I am not as good at eyes as Sadamoto is.

Hmm... Or tape the decal sheet to the bottom of a clear sheet of plastic, then lay down thin masking and trace the outline? The problem is that it's not one large decal, but it comes in segments. I remembered that there is a how-to on the Cody's Coop website, but apparently he used decals. https://codyscoop.com/models/features/ht-valkyrie I have put my decals in the window a few times to try to bleach the yellow out from them, and now they are very stubborn to lift off the backing. Maybe if I used very warm water they may come off. I dunno.

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

Oh, thanks. Yes, in that video i realized that I should have painted the intakes and engines first, then assembled, then primed and painted the outside. I ended up making more work for myself the way I did it. Thanks for the link. It looks like I am on the right track. Last night I started decaling the wings. I seem to have lost a tiny "no step" decal, unfortunately. I'm building mine as Kakizaki, but when I purchased replacement decals, they sent me ones only with the red and yellow stripes. They have the other decals for Kakizaki and Max; just not the colored stripes. So I am looking at possibly trying to come up with masking off and painting the green/black stripes myself.

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit. I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake? I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that. I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

Thanks for the info, Big S. I was wondering what improvements/differences there are with the original Battroid kit. I've never built one, but am currently working on the Armored Battroid.

My friends attended a Silent Mobius event in Tokyo last weekend. I can ask them what news may have come from that. If you are talking about an English-language bluray release, then that would depend on the likes of Discotek to release.

I asked Kaneda-san about that. It's been 5 years or so already. What gives? He said that he still wants to do it, but it's on the backburner. He's preoccupied with other stuff. Unless things have changed, he is also responsible for the company's pre-painted anime figures.

I don't think so. You're making an assumption from a Western bias, but understandably so. All of these company presidents get along with each other rather well and tell each other about their plans to do things. They really do not step on each others' toes. I worked at Aoshima in 2016. It was only for 8 months and I quit. I like the company, but the business manager was a total bosshole so I was one of many who quit. My team lead went on to form his own company, Rocket Models (does the Fist of War model series). My friend in the R&D department who was the one responsible for their 1:72 scale JGSDF series quit and went on to work for Hobby Japan, whom I do occasional translation work for. The jerk manager is long gone now, fortunately. Anyhow, he made it miserable for people for a while and being an American, I wasn't gonna put up with his crap when I could make better money teaching English. During the time I worked there though, I got to see firsthand how the companies interact with each other. When I worked there, people from Hasegawa would come to visit. When I first started at Aoshima, I suggested that they do Crusher Joe and Dirty Pair model kits. I was told that Hasegawa already had plans for those properties. Then a few years later, Hasegawa came out with Crusher Joe kits, and then last year Dirty Pair. They let each other know what their plans are. I am certain that Max Watanabe talks with Mr. Hasegawa a lot and knows what they have coming down the pipeline. For a good example of how the model companies complement each other, look at the relationship between Arii and Imai's Macross kits from the '80s. Imai did a 1:72 scale Defender, so Arii made a 1:100 scale Defender. The two companies directly cooperated per the license and did not each make the same subject in the same scale. Their products were also advertised together side-by-side in magazine ads, etc. So while they "competed" with each other, they also cooperated with each other. Years ago when I was bugging the Hasegawa Macross guy (can't remember if it's the guy in the last picture on the left or not) to make a VF-4 Lightning III, he said that they had discussed making one but had decided not to. I'm pretty certain that he already knew that Wave had plans to make one, but wouldn't tell me. This is a very different philosophy from Western companies. The cohesion among the Japanese modeling companies is what helps them prosper together. Max Factory has a 1:72 scale Battroid, but it is decisively different from Hasegawa's, far more anime stylized. Wave's Valkyrie kits are in 1:100 scale. Bandai's Valkyries focus on the transformation gimmick. The black sheep of the Japanese modeling companies is Fujimi. They have a rather American-style competitive philosophy. They deliberately step on others' toes. It's why you never see them at either the Shizuoka or Tokyo hobby shows. I've only seen them at Wonder Festival. Long ago, the 1:700 Waterline Series of ships was with Tamiya, Aoshima, Hasegawa, and Fujimi. Tamiya made a 1:700 scale Yamato battleship, and Fujimi wanted to make one too. This pissed Tamiya off and they were "voted off the island," so to speak. So although Fujimi is one of the several plastic model companies located in Shizuoka, they do their own thing. They directly compete against Aoshima's car models too. They do not honor the spirit of cooperation and instead focus on competition.

Well nuts. So I did attend the trade show on Friday, but every time I was in the Hobby Japan booth, I was talking with my friend whom I do occasional translation work for and the guys who handle the publications always scattered out of our way and talked to other customers instead. I didn't have a chance to talk to them. I suck.

Oops, you're right. I should have looked at the up-close photo above that sh9000 posted rather than looking at my own photo at a decreased size on my computer. Plus it's just odd to call it "Fighter Valkyrie" rather than "Valkyrie Fighter". After all, "VF" stands for "variable fighter," not "fighter variable."

Whoever printed the signs made a big mistake, calling all three of these a "Fire Valkyrie." They weren't paying attention. The VF-1J Ichijou Valkyrie will be one kit, while the VF-1A will be a Max/Kakizaki kit, apparently. I'm looking at the photo I took at the show and have zoomed in t\o read the signs.

Ha, no, not banned. Maybe they should ban themselves. If there were no Macross models coming out other than these VFG, then they'd have a right to complain about the situation. As it is, they just need to ignore what they don't like and just move on with their lives. Then again, that's Reddit for you. A place where you get downvoted for asking questions, and you get downvoted just because somebody wants their content rated higher than others. It's why I called it a "cesspool." I don't go on there very often.

I posted my photos from the All-Japan hobby event on the internet cesspool known as Reddit and while the majority of responses were positive, a couple were somehow offended that these VFG exists, even saying that the guy I know who makes these kits should be fired. Apparently they think that every single model kit must be completely serious and we can't have fun. Unbelievable. They should stick to the IPMS stuff and stay away from anime if that's their attitude.

Here are the pictures I took at the event yesterday.

I attended the show yesterday and talked with Kaneda. I tried to persuade him to make a VF-1 VFG with Misa riding it. He seems to have his mind set on the newer stuff, unfortunately. I talked with my friend Takahashi (who now works for Hobby Japan) and he agrees with my idea. Neither of us are fond of the stickers these come with. I got the first VFG kit when it came out and I never finished it because I had a problem with some stickers lifting. I'll have to paint those areas by hand, I guess. Anyhow, here are the VFG pics I took.

Unfortunately, I have not received any response for my news submission from HJ. However, I am set to attend the All-Japan Model Hobby Show next week, so if I can, I'll talk to someone there directly about this story.