P.W.Royce

Well, I got one today. I ordered from HLJ's first batch. It was listed as back ordered, but when I clicked on it, the main page showed it as "low stock". this was Sept. 21st by the way. I went ahead and ordered and I guess I got lucky. It shipped SAL, and showed up on Saturday, but I had to wait until today to pick it up (Damn you Columbus!). Haven't taken it out of the shrink wrap yet, but I am definitely a happy camper at this point. Mine will be fully painted with testors enamel and lacquer, acrylic clear coat, and an oil paint wash. Of course, talk is cheap when it comes to model building plans!

I don't think that discussing the designer's possible real-world inlfuences is going off topic. This is a giant robot cartoon we are talking about here, and the machines in these shows are always built the way they are built for one reason or another.

Art imitates life, and as such we know have a Macross series staring a "Blackwateresqe" valkyrie squadron.

Generally rubbing alcohol is safe on toys, although it can craze vacuum metalized parts (like on Transformer trans-metals, or old Voltron type toys). You can always cut it with water just to be safe. I always dilute it first and then test in a hidden area. If it isn't strong enough, then step up to full strength. Incidentally, HP recommends a 50/50 isopropyl and water mix to clean their lap-top screens, safer than the ammonia and/or phosphates in most window cleaners. Just don't use denatured alcohol by mistake, that stuff is a serious solvent! Great for fueling those little backpacking stoves you can make out of a Pepsi can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_can_stove

www.craigslist.org Its an online classified site for the bay area. Actually I think its all over the US, but it was started here by a hairy computer nerd type in SF named Craig. Its free, you just log on, write up a for sale ad, job posting, escort service, whatever. Tons of fun to read, especially the "alternative lifestyles" section. There usually isn't much in the way of toys or models listed, but sometimes you get lucky. One time a couple of years ago a friend of mine found an add for some "Robotech toys" for $25. We went to the guy's house and he had a super VF-1A JM, a large die-cast Godiaken (I think) in box, and a large Gakken blue Alpha, also in box complete with instructions, stickers, the little pilot figure, everything. We couldn't believe it. My friend asked the guy several times if he really wanted to sell the stuff (he said his dad had brought it back from Japan while away on buisness trips when he was a kid), and he said yes. His wife was having another child and she said they needed the room. Like a couple of awesome die-cast Japanese toys take up that much room! We gave him the $25 and took off! Anyway, my buddy gave him his number, just in case the guy came to his senses and decided to hang on to the last vestiges of his childhood, but we never heard back from him. I got to keep the VF-1A, which now occupies a prized place in my DYRL -1A collection, and the Gakken is the centerpiece of my friend's Mospeada collection. Good times.

Doh!

I just picked up this one and it seems quite nice. Yellow Submarine did several 1/144 scale VF-1 IIRC. [attachmentid=42590] Of course I just realized you were talking about toys, not models so this is totally irrelevant. Banpresto's are nice but I don't think they are 1/144 exactly. Maybe CM will make some Battroids to go with those cool new fighters they make!

Looking through the Macross design works book reveals a sketch of a VF-11 with underwing stores. I'm not exactly sure what they are, they just look like big diamond plan-form pods. They are sort of similar to the pods mounted under the wings of the VF-0 with ghost booster. They could be missles, sensors, ECM gear, who knows. Actually an ELINT version of the VF-11 sounds kinda cool. . .

Cleared my workbench (kitchen table) of Russian fighter jets and Star Wars models if favor of this, my latest addition to my ever growing pile of Macross models. Its a 1/144 scale recast of a Yellow Sub Super VF-1A Battroid. I haven't built anything resin in a while, so when I saw it on Craig's list for $10, I had to get it. I picked it up and started it right away. The sculpt is quite nice for this small scale with good detail. [attachmentid=42581] I have been working on it all evening with some soft brass wire and a #60 drill bit, trying to get the pose right. The picture on the box looks pretty static so I'm trying to fix it up with a little customization. Nothing fancy, just a better pose, a cluster of small brass tube gun barrels for the gun pod, and maybe a rifle sling. Bellow are some progress shots. The arms are tricky. Yellow Submarine was good enough to sculpt a set of wings complete with ordinance. Of course they don't fit because the arms and wings need to share the same space at the same time, but I have a plan to fix that. [attachmentid=42580] I can't wait to finish this thing, and add it to my 1/144 Macross collection. Of course now I will have to get some of those CM's fighter toys to go with it!

I have been a member here for quite a few years (although you wouldn't know it by the amount of posts), and I am always impressed by your knowledge of all things Navy/coloring/ordnance/controll surface/powerplant/avionics/ prety much every aspect of modern fighters, so I just gota ask: what is your back ground regarding this stuff, and how did you get to be such an epic Macross super-fan?

Interesting someone brought this up, as I have been really into my toy and model missles lately (researching, ordering weapons sets, etc). While working on my custom Mac0 Mig-29 I took a closer look at the SV-51's underwing stores, and some of them come in two colors. Acording to Hasegawa Nora's fighter has light grey missle pods, while DD has dark grey, like his fighter. Anti-ship missles seem to be the same color grey, not sure about the drop tanks.

I bought mine just for the box art. [attachmentid=39323]

Why would they? Hasegawa would be happy to sell you 2 expensive model kits and let you do all the engineering yourself.

Whoa. . . interesting technique. I always thought that the top of the Octo would be a good candidate for vacu-forming. Something you could carve out of rigid foam, thermo-form it, and let the styrene sheet compleat all the undulating surfaces, and then pull the foam mold out, or not . . . as there are probably a lot of under-cuts in there I can't see. It looks great, and the paint bottle lids are perfect. I wish I could geat my a$$ in gear and do some scratch building.

HLJ lists the size as 15cm, or almost 6" tall. I won't know for sure unless I build it, I have a few other unfinished kits to work on . . .

Octo tank from Venus Wars? It looks great. Is the green stuff Miliput or some other type of body filler?

I just got my Wave VF-0S in the mail and decided to snap a few pics to share. What follows are my first impressions of the kit after a (brief) initial inspection. BOX I have to admit, the box top was my main motivation in purchasing this model. It's beautiful and does an excellent job capturing the atmospheric feel of Macross Zero. The clouds, the warm colors from the setting sun, all the elements combine to form an excellent Macross model box illustration. Just look at it. . . For those that are inreseted, in the lower right hand corner, in very tiny letters, the box says: Ilustration by Naochika Morishita. My example came shrink-wraped to a piece of cardboard, a nice touch to keep the box from being crushed when stacked. Kit Contents Here is what you get- four poly-baged trees, a decal sheet, and the instructions booklet. The instructions are in Japanese, of course; however, unlike the Hasegawa kits, no English paint color names are given. This isn't much of a problem though as the kit will require very little painting to complete. The main color (white or light gray), a dark gray shade, and your favorite metallic paint scheme for the feet and /or gun pod are all that is really needed; the rest is taken care of by the decals. As you can see here, when completed the Battroid can twist at its waist, a nice feature that I am glad to see that Wave incorporated. The decals appear to be of high quality with good registration as well as color saturation and overall detail. And they don't apear to be too thick, either. Wave has given us a generous sheet of decals, and, like the rest of the kit, they are designed to speed up the construction. The major parts come in two colors, gray and white. The detail is crisp with fine engraved panel lines. Wave has gone to great lengths to make this kit easy to build. The parts engineering is quite good, especialy in the legs which consist of both right and left halfs, as well as front and back panels to capture the ventral strakes and intake detail unique to the VF-0. The model comes with FAST packs that can be atached to the legs by drilling 3mm holes through the leg halves. The location to drill through from is very lightly molded on the inside surface of the leg halves. This could probably be accomplished with rare earth magnets. However, because of the kit's small size (wave calls it a "Non Scale Construction Kit"), it may be dificult to fit the magnets inside the parts. Although some modelers will probably opt to skip this step, the fine molded detail and decals provided for the FAST packs cry out for you to install them. Wave has given you two options for the left hand, opened and closed, but the right hand will always be grasping the gun pod. I like the sculp of the hands in this kit; they are slighly oversized and add a bit of flare to the finished product. The detailing is also far better than past Macross models in this size and price range. A Few Parting Thoughts This model is the first Macross model kit not made by Bandai or Hasegawa to be released in quite a while. It would probably strike most modelers as strange that Wave decided to tackle a subject already covered by Hasegawa, but I have high hopes for this line. In the future hopefully Wave will provide us with a few of the more obscure subjects from Macross Zero, like the VF-0D Battroid, SV-51 Battroid, or destroids! I did notice one interesting detail while examining the kit pieces. On the back of the Battroid the fuel blisters have a very clear dimple molded into them. This could be an artifact from the molding process, or it could be a drilling point to mount something on a later kit release (VF-0 Battroid with Ghost perhaps?).

So . . . what is the corect number for a DYRL Max 1S?

I have to applaud toynami for making these things, they should have done something like this sooner. They give the casual fan something fun and afordable, while providing the hard core with something to customize. . . or display at work, whatever. I have been trying to predict the most likely retaill outlets for these new valks. Years ago I would have said Game Stop, but now all I can think of is Suncoast and maybe Tower. Any word on which retailers will cary these?

Another way you could go about making the fold booster is by using vacuformed parts. A thin sheet of PETG could be used to form the overall shape of the booster using a simple two piece mold. Once the inner details were built and painted the two halfs could be glued together around them, the clear portions masked, and the exterior panted. Easy Of course glueing and filling seams in polyethelene is very dificult, and aligning the interior componenets would be dificult, not to mention problems with fogging if you used CA glue anywhere in the assembly, but hey, it could work.

Does anyone know what the original release numbers were on the HCM? Probably lower than most Bandai toys given their "colectable" nature. A local toy shop has a Gundam HCM for sale, I can't remember what series it was from. What other properties were given the HCM treatment?

Damn nice custom. How durable is the testors flat lacker? I know it can be beat for ease of aplication on model kits, but I haven't tried it on anything with moving parts. Does anyone have an explanation why the tail fins don't fold up copleatly on the Super-O? I have always thought it was a cool variation but haven't been able to find a canon explanation. Of course I haven't looked very hard either. Overall a great job, keep up the good work!

yes it is. Nice find 100 is excellent.does it have the figure? is there a figure? what about the missles? 382925[/snapback] It comes with all the missles and missles rack. One 1/32 Misa Figure , and 2x pilot figure for cockpit. But don't know why 2 pilots ??? spare??? 382930[/snapback] Got any pics of the accesories? I would love to see what the missles look like.

Wouldn't it be great if. . . we could all go back to being 10 years old when just having one valkyrie toy to play with was totaly cool.

Or because he knows something we don't.