Valkyrie

I finally got confirmation that I'll be getting the necessary days off work. So I'm there

The VF-11 is done. I've just got a bunch of casting left to do at this point (which is mind-numbingly boring). I think I've got 5 kits ready to go right now, on top of the ones I shipped to the kit donor on wednesday. They'll go on sale when I'm closer to having the whole run finished.And yea, modeler's ADD is a good way to describe my condition...

I posted about this project in the 'what's on your workbench?' thread earlier today with a couple progress pics (a mere 24 hours into the project). I've been working on it a bit more tonight, and I took some more pics to document the project a bit more. And I thought I'd post them here. So if you're at all interested in the project or how it's being done... then by all means, read on. Keep in mind, I'm by no means an expert at this kind of thing. This is just me applying a few tricks I read on the 'net, and a few more build ideas that I came up with, that sounded good at the time. This isn't exactly my first attempt at a scratchbuild, but it does hold the potential of being the first one that I actually finish. And in less than 6 months, no less! First, here's the earliest pics I took of it. I wish I thought to start taking em sooner. At this point, the latest application of putty (Avees Apoxy Sculpt) was still curing, so I started on the wings. I got the shape of the wings onto styrene by drawing them in AutoCAD, then printed them at 1:1 scale. Then I cut them out, used spray adhesive to glue them on to sheet styrene, then cut them out. I based their thickness on the 1/144 drone kit that I have. They're about 0.04" thick at 1/144, so I'm making them 0.08" at 1/72. But, of course, they're thinner than that at the leading and trailing edges. I could have just cut them out of .08 styrene and sanded down the edges, but I thought it might be easier to make them consistant if I did each wing in 3 layers. Here's what I did: 1) cut out wings on .04 styrene 2) cut out 4 more on .02 styrene, with the edges trimmed back, then glued one on each side of each wing 3) same thing for the canted wingtips 4) fill in the gaps with putty, tapering down the edges And that's about where I left off. I hit the dome with a bit more putty while I was at it, to flesh it out a bit more. Same with the nose, which looks very close to being right to my eye. I'll leave you now with a couple mock-up pics I took along the way. I may be biased, but I think it's looking pretty good so far 'Til next time, whenever I have time to work on it more... I'll probably start on the engine pod then.

I took a break from casting VF-11s yesterday to start on a quick (I hope) scratchbuild. It's a 1/72 Target Drone from Macross Plus. I have a small 1/144 resin kit of it, but I though it'd be cool to build my own at a scale that's more to my liking. And at the same time, make it more accurate to the design art. The design sheets list it as being 10~12m in length, but I went with the larger end of that aproximation, cause I want it to be a decent sized kit. It'll be 6.5" long when completed. I think it's come along pretty well, considering that I started on the CAD drawings about 24 hours ago

Shrug. They're the Platz kits, and they've been around for a few years. HLJ had them in stock until a few month ago, even. If anything, this kinda pisses me off. They're just going to be taking away from Platz's profits, which they very much deserve. And while it's been a while since they've put out any new Yukikaze kits, they're still our last, best hope. Unless G-System reworked the kits to give them better cockpits and canopies... this is nothing special to me. Or if they recasted the FR-31MR Normal Sylph that was at the last Wonderfest... Now THAT'S something I'd be excited about.

I dunno... Looking at the Hasegawa VF-1 Battroid kit, it really looks to me like they were trying to please both the Gundam modelers, as well as the serious aircraft modeler. It has a Gundam's snap-fit ease of construction, while retaining all the detail we've come to expect from a Hasegawa Valkyrie. No doubt they were trying to strike a balance between the two... especially considering it was their first snap-fit kit. But I think they pulled it off pretty well. And it'll be interesting to see how they've attempted to improve with their VF-0 battroid kit.

I can't argue with that. LD was great for its time. It gave us chapters (no more rewinding!), a second audio track (one analog and one digital) which could be used for commentary tracks or english/japanese tracks, and optional subtitles were possible with closed captions. Not to mention video quality that blew away VHS and Betamax. DVD just came in and took all LD's features to a new level. Now you've got unlimited audio and subtitle tracks, interactive menus, and all kinds of other useful features. The only limit is the capacity of the disc. Oh, and an interesting bit of trivia: Did you know that LD video is actually analog? It's true!

I used to be a big anime LD collector. I haven't bought any in quite a while, but I haven't sold any of them either. At last count, I had over 200 of them. Back in the 80s and 90s, there were countless reasons to love LDs. Primarily, they just about the only way to watch LDs with really good video quality. The only alternative was hunting down and trading for Nth+ generation copies of fansubs on VHS. Or if what you were looking for happened to be liscensed, you could buy it on VHS. But with VHS, even original tapes kinda suck But what really drew me in was the production quality of japanese LDs. You coud tell the companies actually cared about what they were putting on the shelves. You know when you buy a DVD today, and all that's in that case is a plain looking disc and (maybe) a small sheet with a chapter list on it? Or a DVD boxed set, and they box is practically falling apart when you take off the shrink wrap? Pretty disapointing, right? That's because american companies are cheap, and care nothing about production quality and presentation. And I hate to say it, but american LDs weren't much different in that respect. But Japanese LDs... that's a whole 'nother story. You may have been paying $50 per disc, but they made sure you wouldn't be disapointed when you opened it up. I'm talking good quality jackets, liner notes with production info and design art, and sometimes even pin-up posters. And the best one I've ever seen was on the two Maze OVA LDs -- On the second (unused) side of the disc, they used pink media, and laser-etched it with art from characters from the series. Sort of like the LightScribe disc labeling systems some DVD burners use today. Only this was back in 1996! Oh, and it still has a small video track in the middle of the disc (just saying 'program is recorded on the other side of the disc'), so it'll still play on that side. And LD boxed sets were the best... a lot of them came with art books you couldn't get anywhere else. For example the second Macross 7 boxed set comes with one that's far and away the most complete Mac7 book. Plus, they had promotional programs, where if you'd, say, bought a whole TV series on LD, they usually had promotions where you could send in for some freebies. What the present was varied, but it could be a box for the LDs, or limited edition CDs or even LDs (there's a very rare Evangelion LD like this that comes to mind...) I could go on and on.... but I'm tired of typing

I might be able to help. I've got a Tanmen original, and they come with resin vacuuform molds for the canopies. I've got some vacuforming I've gotta do sometime soon, so I'll see if I can make you one while I'm at it.

It's been a long time since I had mine... but I vaguely remember taking it apart once. There were two very long screws that held the plate on the back on. If I remember right, all that's in that end is an offset weight on a short shaft (the set screw that holds it in place fell out on mine). Try turning that shaft with the power off. If it spins more or less freely, that'll at least mean the motor isn't siezed. If there's a lot of friction, then it's probably in dire need of oiling. And if it's rock solid, you're probably screwed. If the motor isn't fried, you may be able to get it started by plugging it in and giving that shaft a spin to get it started. If that's the case, open the front cover (the one with the vents), clean it as best you can, and get some oil on the shaft. Hopefully that'll get things going.

holy crap, I'm not either! Put me down for one!

There was an LD copy on yahoo japan auctions not too long ago. It was relisted a few times with a Y50,000 starting bid. So it's definitely not worth what it once was... And last month there was an original VHS copy that sold for Y7,250. I kinda wish I'd bid on that one...

Yes, it'll be getting a new head, of course. The gunpod too (the battroid gunpod is in the progress pic, but it has a long way to go). I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the arms yet tho...

Man, lots of ideas being thrown around... I suppose at some point, we should turn this into a poll, and maybe see what the top 5 most wanted models are. Or something like that. Anyway, all this has got me curious. I posted progress on a scratchbuild I've been working on in the 'what's on your bench?' thread a week or so ago, and it seems to have recieved little attention. And no one's mentioned it here (yet). So I'm wondering... How many of you would be interested in a VF-1SR Attack Valkyrie (from Macross 2036) conversion kit for the Hasegawa fighter and battroid VF-1 kits? It's still a long way off... but I'm wondering if this project would be worthwhile, or if I should pick another project from the list

Actually, it's gonna just be the SR initially. I may do the AR and JR heads after it's done though. It's going to be a conversion kit for the Hasegawa valks, and will be compatible with both the fighter and battroid kits And the Stampede Valk... Believe me, I've thought about it. It's just too damn complicated. It's too far beyond my current skill level.

Can anyone guess what I've been working on? It's taken me almost a year to get this far... But it's a project I've been wanting to do for a long time now. It was originally planned for the 1/55, in fact

Heh! Yea, Neil will be all over this one

You should. Everyone should. It's the most awesomest book ever printed. If you don't already know, it's part of the Fairy Air Force at War DVD set. But the book is the only real reason to buy it I pre-ordered mine from Amazon.jp, for the sole reason that it came with a 100+ page book (of what, I didn't know). But my gamble paid off in a big way!

Gah, missed that PM somehow. Sent you a reply. I'll get it sent out tomorrow (or rather, later today)

Melissa's refund and Rkiyo's original both were shipped out on tuesday. Much to my surprise, Melissa was the only one who PMed me about a refund so far. Anyone else who needs one, please PM me. And for what it's worth, I take no offense to all this blacklist talk. Hell, I know I deserve it. But please believe that I'm not out to screw anyone over. And thanks, Brian, for sticking up for me

Freakin' sweet!

Anyone who has an outstanding pre-order, please PM me with your mailing address or Paypal address (whichever you prefer). Refunds will be given promptly. Sorry for the delays, everyone, but stuff's been keeping me pretty busy. Work's been keeping me from even finishing the VF-11 project, and my motherboard dying a couple days ago didn't help any either :/ I mentioned a while back that I was pretty burnt out on the Monster project. And I'm curious... How many people still want one? I'm guessing that the Yamato toy killed a lot of the demand for it. So I'm really wondering how many I'd have to make to finish the project.

The Wonderfest Normal Sylph kit, you mean? How are you going about it? Is there any means of getting one besides Yahoo Japan at this point? I'd love to get my hands on one without paying through the nose to a scalper on yahoo japan... but I don't see any alternative As for the the 1/38 Mave, there used to be a web page for it, but it's been taken down. I saved the pages, but I didn't get a lot of the full-sized images.

A few of my top picks Tritool line engraver - one of the best scribers I've used http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGTT-10 Tritool Scribing tool - Another great scribing tool, great with stencils http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGTT-1 Tritool chisel - Easily one of the most useful tools I own http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGTT-9 MoriMori putty - One of my favorites. It's like Bondo, except it doesn't suck. http://www.hlj.com/product/WRK00036 Tamiya epoxy putty - great clay-like putty for sculpting and gap filling http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM87051 Aves Apoxie Sculpt - Another epoxy putty. Not as high quality as Tamiya, but a LOT cheaper if you need a lot of it. It's a scratchbuilder's best friend. http://www.starshipmodeler.com/cfstore/ind...&Product_ID=162

I have that book. Don't bother with it. It's mostly text, and seems to focus mostly on the novels. There's nothing interesting from the anime to be had (for us english speakers, that is.)