Valkyrie

I suppose now is as good a time as any to answer that question. For the most part, payment won't be due until the project is done, and you all place your orders. In fairness, only those on the list will be able to order during the initial run. However, because I don't have the stacks of cash necessary to get a project like this off the ground, I'm going to need to take a few pre-orders (with partial pre-payment) to raise the money to get the project going. Not a lot, mind you. Probably 5 or less, at ~$100 pre-payment each. And of course, I'll have to think of some sort of incentive to pre-order. I can't promise it'll be anything huge, but I'll try to come up with something to make it worth your while. That having been said, I must issue a preemptive 'sshh' to all you who are reply or PM me saying "put me down for a pre-order". I don't want to start taking them just yet. First I want to get the kit and see exactly what I'm in for. And another preemptive 'sshh' to those who are about to PM me asking for me to put them down for a pre-order in advance. I don't want to take any pre-pre-orders either Thanks a lot, guys. It's great to see that this project has enough support to succeed!

Like I said, no one has comitted to it yet. We have no caster for the project yet, and therefore, the project is dead in the water for the time being. So assigning other tasks like box art, decals, etc. at this point would be rather fruitless, if you ask me. Come on guys, have a little patience

No one has comitted to recasting the IHP VF-4 yet. So you're KINDA getting ahead of yourselves

This thread is for the IHP 1/72 full variable VF-4G, as was discussed in the VB-6 Monster thread. Pics are here: http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/ihp/VF-4_BOX.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_1.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_2.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_3.JPG

I've just gotta add that the price of $120 is extremely tentative. I said that it's the aproximite price the kit would have if I was the one recasting it. And I probably won't be.

Great to have you on board, Anasazi! As soon as I'm able, I'll get you a kit cast from my clean-up molds (as I've taken to calling them), so you can get going on the decals while I clean up casts and make final molds. I was going over my VF-X2 art book the other day, and I didn't see a lot of decals which obviously need to be added. But there are at least a few. And also, the red 'eye' decals included with the kit are incorrect. The inside part of the eyes should be white. And by the way, there looks to be at least two different VB-6 paint schemes in VF-X2! One in the game, the other in the opening movie.

Actually, I have answers. Me, and soon I got an email tonight from the owner, and it looks like he will be mailing the kit out on monday. A 'Count me in' thread, as you put it, sounds good to me. Just don't add the D'Stance to it. He doesn't have one

I've been meaning to PM Devin about creating some decals for the project, actually. The kit came with some decals (I'm told this is the only IHP kit that came with decals, by the way), but it doesn't look like they're too extensive. If there are more that need to be added, I could probably send Devin some casts from the first set of molds to help create (and properly size) the new decals. I should have the box situation covered, actually. I called the guy who got me my VF-4 boxes today, and he's going to see what he's got in larger sizes.

That is indeed a very good idea. I'd rather not have the box art be a modified version of the original (i.e., adding the word Recast to it). One thing I like to do with my recasts is change the box art so that is cannot be mistaken as an original kit. Partly so no one can sell one on EBay and pass it off as an original. Last time, I took Nanashi up on his very kind offer to design all new grayscale graphics for 5 of the 6 sides of my VF-4 box. It's not very flashy at all, but I really like the design he came up with. I think it's pretty classy looking, actually But anyway, I'd like to be one of the judges also. Especially if I get the project

I agree that he definetly deserves a free re-cast of his kit. I'd actually like him to have the first one (although that isn't really up to me). I just wish there was more of a way to say thanks. I wonder if we could have some sort of thanks on the main page...although I don't want to cause Shawn, Graham, or MW any problems because of the re-cast so these are just random thoughts. Something to think about at least... For me, a freebie recast for the kit provider pretty much goes without saying

The $250 was just for the Monster. The VF-4 kit actually doesn't look too bad, from a casting perspective. Only 89 parts, plus screws. Lots of the parts are pretty small (which, for me, is a good thing). The only part that looks at all challenging is the fuselage. I'm guessing that if I did it, it'd have about a $120 price tag on it. Like I told someone else in PM earlier today, I still have the Tread molds, but I'm really in no hurry to make more of them. Both because they're a pain in the ass to cast from, and because they wouldn't be any better quality than the ones I made 2 years ago.

one more

I do. I have both pressure casting and vacuum casting setups. Here are a couple quick pics of some of my more recent casts

I agree. This isn't a case of two wrongs making a right.

Actually, the pics Carl posted were of his original Tread kit, not my recast Mine were cleaned up quite a bit, and have no nasty seam lines like you see in that one foot. But the parts have some surface bumps, resulting from my having pressure casted the parts without vacuum degassing the molds. Looking back, it's kinda embarassing, actually. My equipment and technique has gotten a lot better since then (it was about 2 years ago).

Yea, I think that's a pretty safe asumption... I just got the pics from Melissa a bit ago, and... holy crap. I counted 189 parts in the not including the barrels (which look to just be plastic tubing) Instead of resizing the images, I decided to just upload them to my own webspace and link to them http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_1.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_2.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_3.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_4.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_5.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_6.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_7.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_8.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...B-6_PARTS_9.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...-6_PARTS_10.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...-6_PARTS_11.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/ihp/VF-4_BOX.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_1.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_2.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/i...F-4_PARTS_3.JPG Seeing pics of the whole kit like this, I'm guessing that the kits will cost around $250. Hopefully a bit less, but almost certainly not less than $200. It's looking like it'll take a lot of materials and a LOT of time and work. But fortunately for all you, I'm currently unemployed Honestly, I'm amazed IHP sold them for only Y30,000... But I can see why he only made 8 or so of them!!

What they all said. No one here is out to steal the potential profits of any kit maker. Rather, this would seem to be the only posible way the majority of us will be able to get thier hands on these kits. At any price. Just for the record, you will never see me selling recasts of a kit that is in production. I do have ethics about this kind of thing. Unlike companies like Hobbyfan and E2046. I've been pissed off many times seeing them selling recasts of brand new retail kits, and undercutting the kit's makers by quite a lot. And yes, settle down about the D'Stance, guys. We still don't have one.

Doing two recast projects like the Monster and VF-4 at once would be nearly suicidal If Carl's Garland recastin' guy wants to take on a project, maybe I could do the Monster and he the VF-4, or vice-versa. I'm very anxious to see those pics! Oh, and any word on wether he owns a D'Stance YF-21 or not?

Carl, Sounds like the guy you know is at LEAST as qualified as I am to take on the project. I'd bear no grudges if he got the project and I didn't. Hell, it'd mean a lot less work for me

Here's My Soul For You acoustic. http://www.halfassedprojects.com/~valkyrie/My_Soul.zip I was going to post Remember 16 also, but it's the same recording that's on the Heart and Soul single, and also the SM release of Second Fire. But if ya'll want it, let me know and I'll post it.

Ya see, this is one reason I like the models 10x more than the toys. Us model guys are all about the love

You're quite welcome. And yes, the acoustic My Soul For You and Remember 16 are on it too. My Soul is the same recording that Basara was singing while he was writing the song in episode 2 (which was very distinct in how he sung one part in particular). I've been meaning to get them up for a few days now (I've just gotta edit out the drama tracks attached to them), but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Hopefully later today.

Wow, that's awesome! I'm still up for the challenge. As anyone who has one of my VF-4 kits could probably tell you, small parts are no problem for me The part about the rough castings is a bit troubling though. I think it's safe to assume that the owner wouldn't want me doing a ton of clean-up work on his prized kit. And they only way to improve upon the kit's quality would be to make molds of each part, cast a copy, clean up that copy, then mold the cleaned up part. That'd double both my molding costs and the time it'd take to finish the project. But at least it wouldn't have an effect on how quickly the owner's kit is returned. As for the screws, I would definitely want to include them. I always thought it was kinda rude for IHP to not include them, thus leaving his customers on thier own to find them. Even if he lists a source. I'm hoping I'll be able to find them (or at least SAE screws that would be compatible) through domestic industrial supply companies like Grainger or McMaster. I wouldn't want to throw you all to the wolves like IHP did The IHP VF-4 would be cool to do in the future too. But I'm pretty sure Carl already has one.

Well, I was selling mine for $20, and no one wanted it...

It seems I'm only allowed to post 10 images per post max, so I'm spliting this post in half. Next, onto the HUD. Like I also said in WM's thread, I wanted to make one thinner than the stock HUD. First, I got out my machinist's calipers and measured the thickness of the original. Just a hair over 25 thousandths of an inch. At full scale, that'd be 1.8" thick. No wonder it looked too thick I opted to make mine out of 0.01" clear plastic stock. The thinnest stuff I've got (it's the same stuff I make VF-4 canopies out of). At full scale, it calculates out to 0.72" thick. Probably still a little too thick, but I can live with it. To copy the shape, I took a piece of the sheet stock and put a dab of canopy cement on it. Then I set the HUD on top of it, cleaned off the excess, and let it dry overnight. Then, it was a simple matter of using an xacto knife to cut off the excess. I just put the knife up to edges of the original and pressed down, chopping off a section of the sheet. Once that was done on all 8 sides, I had a perfect copy of the part, after I seperated the two. I have a bad track record for losing small, clear parts. I was determined to not let it happen to this part Speaking of small parts... time to move on to the seat modifications! I wanted to make my own ejection handles, only (hopefully) more accurate that WM's. I started by making the brackets that they atatch to, which mount horizontally on top of the seat. I made them out of 0.01" sheet styrene. They're not entirely accurate, but they're so goddamn small, I had to simplify them. Then I glued them on and started on the handles. I used 30 guage wire with the insulation removed (which is 0.01" in diameter, the same as the brackets' thickness). Shaping the first one was a HUGE pain in the ass. And then making another one identical to it was even more so! I just pray they're not too big... and they I'll be able to attatch them... Here they are stuck on a piece of masking tape, after getting a coat of white primer. They accept paint better than I anticipated And here's my progress on the seat. Not quite there, but it's close. Next I'll start on the pilot figure. I want to get him in there before I try and atatch the handles. That's it for now. More soon, I hope!