Valkyrie

Nope, no one's released one yet. But the R2 DVD came out a day or two ago, so I'm hoping one isn't too far off. Assuming some group was holding out for a DVD source before releasing their sub...

Thanks a lot, Guys! Once again, my concerns are put to rest

Goddamn!! Looking at those new parts, I'd swear they're from Hasegawa! The level of detail matches the rest of the kit perfectly!

I can't help you much on the paint end of things (not yet, anyway, I have some experimenting to do there). But I've got some advice for the screwed joints. For the joints that involve both a screw and a nut (preferably with the nut recessed in one part), apply some medium strength Loc-Tite to the nut's threads, then install the screw, and tighten to the point where the joint has the amount of tension you want it to have. If you don't use the Loc-Tite, the screw will work itself loose as you flex the joint, and you'll be re-tightening it forever. The joints that rely on having a screw secured directly in a resin part (with no nut) are harder. The most important parts are getting the hole drilled in the right spot, and at the right diameter. To get the location right, I like to use my drill press whenever possible. It makes it pretty easy to get the location right, and if you do it right, you'll get a perfect, perpendicular hole every time. To get the diameter right, you've gotta have the right drill bit. A precise diameter is important, because if the hole is too small, you won't be able to thread the screw in, and if it's too big, the threads will be too thin and weak, and the screw hole will strip out easily. A very bad thing. To remedy this on the Monster kit, I ordered several drill bits from McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) in various sizes slightly smaller than the screws I'm using. I've found that 0.15mm to 0.20mm (0.006" to 0.008") smaller than the screw size is usually just about the right size for the job. And fortunately, they're pretty cheap at about $1 each, so order a few different sizes to be sure. Also, order bits that are the exact size of your screws, or a hair larger. Here's why; Say you've got two parts that get screwed together to form a joint. The screw passes through part A and is secured into part B. Now, the screw has to be able to pass freely through part A, so it can't have any threads of its own. So in cases like that, you use the slightly oversized drill bit on part A, while using your undersized bit on part B. Hope that made sense

Yea, I know I said it was 'coming soon' months ago... but this time I mean it! In between Monster cleanup work, I finished up the last few molds of the Full Armor VF-11. It's 95% done right now. I just need to finish fixing up the gunpod, then make a mold of it. I should have it done by the end of the weekend easily. There's about 43 parts total, and it'll come in a box simar to the VF-4's. Nanashi has offered to design the box art for this one too, but it's not yet finished. Keep in mind, this is not a complete model. It's an upgrade kit for the Bandai 1/144 VF-11C. The cost of the kit will be $30 each. Shipping will be a flat $4 (within the U.S. and Canada) for any number of kits ordered. Here's a quick pic of the kit I've been slapping together with the first cast from each mold. Some have flaws (like the big air bubble in the leg), but they've been corrected so future casts won't have those problems. Oh, and the head cannon and two of the shoulder cannons broke off

Man, 1/100... the one scale I was hoping it wouldn't be Those pics are pretty interesting (though I find it odd that they only published shuttle/bomber mode pics). It looks very similar to IHP's kit in almost every respect. The only noticeable differences I see are the 4 mini-feet, which are more recessed on the bottom than they are on the kit. And the kit has some exposed screws that I don't see on that prototype. I'm guessing that they're re-working IHP's kit to make it into a toy they can make with injection molding (as opposed to starting over from scratch). A great surprise to no one, I'm sure. But still, I'm guessing that the Yamato VB-6 isn't anywhere near as close to production as those pics seem to indicate. And while I'm posting, I might as well beat the topic into the ground a bit more. Yes, the VB-6 Koenig Monster is canon

Metal casting is the next big casting hurdle I need to overcome. I have some mold material that can handle the heat, but I have yet to do any experimenting. I've also heard that a certerfuge is the best way to do it, so I'll probably end up building my own spin-casting machine. I've got a few design ideas in my head...

Oh yea... a bit of trivia about the Retpuu VF-11; It comes with two (identical) racks of poly caps for the joints. Many aren't used, and others have to be modified for use with the 11. And on the racks, it says something like '1/72 VF-1 Battroid' And that's not a typo! Some years ago, Retpuu was going to make a 1/72 VF-1 battroid mode injection plastic kit. Aparently, it was pretty close to production, as they advertised it, and I think they even published pics of the parts. But alas, it was never released. There were rumors that it was halted becase of pressure from Bandai. When I got my VF-11C, I noticed the printing on the rack of poly parts, put 2 and 2 together and realised - those parts are from that unreleased VF-1 kit! I thought it was pretty cool to see that at least part of that kit got to see the light of day. And it actually goes to show how close they were to releasing the VF-1 kit... They were far enough along to make the (rather substantial) investment of having the steel molds made...

I've been wanting one of those VF-2's forever... Musasiya's VF-4 also, for that matter. I actually have one of those VF-11C's though. Awesome kit! Easily the best Retpuu kit I've ever seen. Retpuu also made a VF-11B (Macross Plus type) variant, and I was impressed to see that they got all the differences between the B and C types right. The only problem with the two kits is the decals. They only include the chest stripes and UN Spacy logos for the VF-11B (which are useless for the C type). They're laserjet printed, and not even in color. They also made a VF-11 fighter mode kit, but from what I've seen, it's not nearly as good as the Club-M kit

Gunparade pissed me off quite a bit. I wanted to like it. The premise was solid, and the mecha designs were pretty cool too. The basis for a good sci-fi show, right? Wrong. It's all just the backdrop for a sappy highschool love story. And not even a good one. It's about as cliche as they come. Like Wolfx said, there's absolutely no resolution as far as the war part of the story goes. They might as well have cut out most of the battle scenes, because no progress was ever made. I suppose they could make a second season which focuses primarily on the war (hmm, that'd be the exact opposite of Full Metal Panic!). But I doubt I'd watch it. The series turned me off that much.

Fulcy corrected me on that matter recently, actually Countersunk holes are like this \_/ CounterBORED holes are like this |_|

Another quick update... Last night, I put one of my biggest fears to rest when I sucessfully replicated one of the counterbored screw holes that were lost due to IHP's damaged molds. And the counterbores are important, because they allow the head of the screw to sit below the surface of the parts. In most cases, that just makes for a better looking finished model. But in some cases, it solves clearance problems. And, of course, my goal is to make this kit as good as it was always meant to be. So I'm making every effort to do the job right. IHP most likely used CNC to create them all. But since I don't have his resources, I had to find the next best thing. Or rather, the next best thing that I could afford And so I threw this together; a poor man's milling machine. I mounted a cross-slide vice to the base of my drill press, raised a bit and offset by a wood base I made. Simple, yet effective It's nowhere near as accurate as a real milling machine (there are no measuement readings on the dials), but I'm finding that it can still do the job well enough. I just have to 'eyeball' it very carefully. Here's one of the missing holes I had to replace And here's the result a couple drilled holes later. Damn near perfect, I tells ya That's it for now. More later.

I'm confused.... There is no VF-0B... or at least, we haven't seen one yet. That looks like an A head though... And a VF-1S re-issue? But the Strike Valkyrie fighter never went out of production... And I dunno what's going on with HLJ at the moment. All of Hasegawa's product listings are gone at the moment. Weird.

And the pile of parts. I only cast once from most of the molds, so it's about 50 duplicate parts short of a complete kit. The mostly built leg skeleton... ...And this is where I am now. A few of the exterior parts are on, but there's a long way to go... it's pretty slow going In other news, I ordered and picked up a bundle of boxes for the kits, and I think they'll work pretty nicely. The dimensions have been posted in the box art thread. I picked up a second McMaster order, with better screws, and a few drill bits. I'm really happy with the screws this time around, but all the drill bits I got are a bit to big. I'll be ordering another assortment tonight and trying again. Good thing they're cheap!

Alrighty, time for a long overdue update. First, some very good news. The first batch of molds is finally finished! I'm working on building up a kit as best I can to get a feel for how it all has to go together. Along the way, I'm taking notes to help with the final clean-up job, and for tips to include in the instructions. When the build-up is done, I'll ship it and a couple art books off to Devin to help him work his decal magic And now, a few pics I took over the past week or so... I had problems with one of the molds just because of how big it was. When I cast from my molds, I back the mold halves with plexiglass panels, and hold them together with rubber bands. But this mold was so large, the center always flexed out, resulting in massive amounts of flash. But I soon overcame that with a new binding technique I came up with I didn't bother trying a second time, but I'm sure I can get rid of that last little bit of flash too. The mold of the cannon cover thing. This mold was a huge pain in my ass Even with my new mold binding tricks, it took no less than 7 tries to finally get a good cast from it. Similar problems with this one, but it was much easier to get under control. This has to be the most unique, and one of the more difficult molds I've ever had to make. The clay job took a good deal of planning. And there are some things I wish I had done differently... ...but it doesn't matter, cause it worked well. Another angle. So far, this is the only mold I've ever had to bind on all 3 axis... A couple molds later (including a massive 3.5 pound arm mold), and the first set of molds was finially finished. 18 molds total, I think, consuming far more mold material than I had anticipated. I threw my Zippo into the picture for scale.

Alas, my Legioss/Tread recast is long out of production. Sorry guys. Hobbyfan used to stock recasts of the Newtype kit, and Monkey-N was selling recasts of the Monocraft Legioss and Tread kits (but they don't link up in that kit). For what it's worth, I don't think the resin Legioss is a recast of the Imai kit. Or if it was, it was modified and detailed down a lot. The Imai is a much better kit, but it can't easily replace the resin one, for linking with the Tread. If nothing else, the Imai kit's arms are spaced further apart than they are on the resin kits, so they don't fit into the slots for them in the front of the Tread.

Those and several others. Including the FFR-31MR Normal Sylph, which I'm looking forward to most of all. But the problem is, they've all been 'due out' every month since december They're even more late than the Platz 1/72 Mave was at this point...

Well, there are a few inherent flaws in that theory. Let's say I were to use that method to make an aluminum mold... 1) I'd have to make a silicone mold with my usual methods, then cast those mold halves in aluminum (more work already) 2) I'd need access to a foundry workshop (which I haven't had since high school) 3) The aluminum mold halves would come out of the sand very rough, and would have to be cleaned up in order to give the resin casts a smooth finish (and not be caught up on the rough mold surface, for that matter) 4) the mating surfaces of the mold hanles would have to be cleaned up also. And since it would be imposible to get them to mate perfectly after all that work, there'd be tons of flash in the resin casts. 5) And most importantly, as Grayson mentioned, by making the molds metal, I'd be losing the most important property of my silicone molds. Their ability to flex. Their flexability is what allows me to make molds of complex shapes, and parts with undercuts. A metal mold can't be used to create parts with even slight undercuts. I'll stick with my silicone, thank you

Ya know, anyone who'll build something like that and then actually keep it in their apartment, must have resolved themselves to the fact that they'll never have a girlfriend....

Looks like it's got a new tracker now. I'm getting it now at 120k/sec You'll have to cancel the old download and restart it from the new link. It's on the page Bob posted.

Back when I was still fansubbing, I found scripts for episodes 1-4, but no more were ever done. They're out there, but I don't know where. But suffice it to say, if you buy/rent the Animeigo DVDs and give the original Macross a shot, you won't be disapointed

Nope, it's not a kit nor a preview. It's a one of a kind scratchbuild. Hobby Japan seems to like to taunt us with stuff like that... I really wish they'd make resin conversion kits of some of the stuff they feature... As far as I know, no one else is working on an Armored Valkyrie conversion kit, so I really hope you can finish it some day! I'm sure a lot of us (myself included) will be wanting to buy copies from you

Interesting... I've never seen that kit before... but the kit doesn't look like the same one that's in the finished pic. If nothing else, the position of the arms is different, and the legs are very different.

Unheard of? Here's one example for you: Kotobukiya had some Gundam GKs made in the late 1980s / early 1990s whose molds were acquired by B-Club and reissued years later. I did say "almost unheard of", didn't I?

I've got some great and simple ideas to get ya started when you're ready Nah, quite alright. I've already got several scratchbuild projects planned Most are Macross related, and several have been started, in one form or another.