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Valkyrie

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Everything posted by Valkyrie

  1. Well, crap... Let the manhunt begin!!
  2. Next, the real fun begins... I'm going to close up all the openings in the side pods, and add some detail to them. Door shutters and the like. I'd rather do all of that later, but I think it'd be way easier to do it now than after the whole pod is assembled. I've got some V-groove styrene sheets from Evergreen that should do nicely as bay door shutters. But I'm not sure I want to detail them all the same way, and I'm not sure how else to do it. And really, I'm not sure how many of them are Valkyrie launch bays, or what the rest of them would even be. Missile launchers? Shuttle bays? Any ideas?
  3. The next order of business is the side pods. I needed to make them out of several flat panels, so I drew them up in CAD (based on the 5-view drawings in the DYRL Gold Book), printed them out non-scale, and built one papercraft style as a test. It worked well, but building it out of acrylic is much more complicated. I started out by cutting 3 of the main panels. And then started dremeling the edges to a 45 degree angle. I shot the edges with some black paint so it would be easier to see how far was too far A couple of the walls were too thin, and the dremel tore them out. No biggie, I'll just repair them with sheet styrene later. Next, I cut the rest of the parts for the port side pod. Once again, some of them had to be split in half. The thin one on top got severely warped during the cutting process. I'll just be replacing that one with Evergreen styrene strips. Once again, I'm gluing the sections together with scrap acrylic backing the joints to add support.
  4. This is a project I've been wanting to do for many years now... And I've finally gotten it off the ground! I'd wanted to wait until I had something more significant to show before going public with it, but I figure the sooner I put it out there, the sooner I'll be able to get some feedback on what I'm doing right and wrong. And this way, you all can keep me in check when I start slacking off! This project is only possible because of the laser engraving machine that my cousin gave to me last year. As far as lasers go, it's a chinese made piece of crap, that'll only run on one (rather flaky) program. But it'll import .DXF files from AUTOCAD, and it's certainly better than nothing! So I'll be using it as much as possible during this build. To start with, I cut and engraved the deck from .118" thick white acrylic. I had to do it in halves, since my laser's work surface is too small to small to do it all at once. The deck detail is pretty faint in the photos, but it's definitely there. The holes are where recessed panels will be. I'm going to cut those shapes out of a slightly thinner material, and glue them in the holes. I could cut the recess with the laser, but the result would be pretty rough, and I'd just have to spend more time cleaning it up. I cemented the two sections together, with a couple more panels on the back to help keep it all flat and rigid. And I need to build up its thickness, anyway. I'm gluing it with Weld-On 4 acrylic adhesive. It works similar to regular model cement, in that it sort of melts the plastic, then bonds them as it re-solidifies. But it's water thin, so you just clamp the parts together, and flow a little of the cement through the joint.
  5. I'll be there this year also. And I've got a suite with a few friends, so I might even be able to host a room party. And if all goes well, I should even have a work in progress of my current scratchbuild with me
  6. The text is pretty small, so I can't read a lot of it. But from what I can tell, that's definitely a custom build. The kit info box on the first page is for the Thunder Focus kit, not a Jamming Birds kit. But if they're going to keep milking the VF-11 (which I'm totally in favor of!), why not just put out a FAST Pack version already?
  7. Yep, Unbroken Arrow. Came out in 2009. Still hoping it'll get translated...
  8. I suck at HTML, but I've got tons of pics saved from yahoo japan auctions, and a closet full of resin kits that I'm totally willing to contribute!
  9. This is pretty huge news! I did a bit of digging, and found MEF's blog http://teamstrike.blog90.fc2.com/ The top post is an announcement that they've been liscensed to product Macross goods in honor of the its 30th aniversary. Ghost and Lancer garage kits are officialy announced, along with a promise of more to come. No scales, dates, or prices are mentioned. Even though I have resin kits of both of them in 1/72, I'm pretty excited!
  10. Musasiya, actually. The Retppu was the crappy vinyl one.But yea, looking real good!
  11. Very cool! Glad to see the masks worked so well for you!
  12. They're reddish-orange on the decals. But definitely more orange than the big circle markings for the deck. ARMD-01 is docked on the port arm of the Macross. It's the one with the bridge on the starboard side (so I put it on the correct ship in my pic ) PM me your address and I'll get a set shipped out to you in the next couple days
  13. Wow, very cool! That city looks amazing! If you're still looking for a solution to doing the 01 and 02 lettering on the ARMDs, I think I've got one. I've been working on making painting masks with my laser engraver, and just tonight I did a test of my first prototype. Let me know if you want to be my guinea pig on this one
  14. SO glad I got in on this thing! But now I'm not sure what mode I'm going to build mine in! I was thinking fighter all this time, but now I'm not so sure! As for the next project, I'd love to see some of the lesser-known VFs get some love in 1/72 scale. A VF-5000 would be especially awesome.
  15. Wow... very cool. It looks like that's the same build that's in the Jan. '98 issue of Model Graphix! I've been wanting that kit for years... And even back when I searched Yahoo Japan Auctions on a daily basis, I never did find one for sale
  16. Volume two of the novel is finally out! Just got my copy from Amazon
  17. I was looking over the 'destructions' a couple days ago, and saw the clear lenses that it calls for to be cut out. And I got to thinking, that'd be a good application for my snazzy new laser engraving machine! And 30 minutes later, I had a lens cut for the hip that fit like a glove. Then I got to thinking, it be too much trouble to just make them for everyone, and make that my little contribution to the project! Since then, I think I might have gotten a little carried away with it... but I just finished the first prototype, and I'm pretty proud of the results Above, there's my test 'print' on a piece of cardstock, and below is it cut out of .015" PETG plastic. The edges look slightly scorched in the pic, probably because I had the power set too high. But I still have some time to refine it
  18. I got one of the first run on ebay a few years back. Great kit! But I thought it was based on the Musasiya kit, not the Retppu
  19. Very cool, thanks! Looks like I'll need to wait for part 3, though. I'm stuck at step 31. I can't figure out how the little springs are supposed to be aligned. This thing is kind of a beast to build. It's way more complicated than I thought it'd be!
  20. Got mine today! It's pretty sweet! Makes me wish I could have afforded the 1/2000 kit!
  21. HLJ has FedEx shipping at 20% off right now, so it came out a little cheaper than EMS, at Y4431.
  22. Sweet! Ordered! Kinda excited about the ARMD parts. One more reference for the 1/1000 scratchbuild
  23. Holy crap, that's awesome! But yea, way too expensive...
  24. I'd be in for a set of missiles
  25. Alright, we seem to have a clear winner, so I'm going to call this thing. 1/1000 it is! And I have to say, I'm pretty happy with that result After some research and experimenting, it's looking like most of the laser cut pieces will be acrylic. I've gotten some very good results etching lines in the stuff. They're a tiny bit wider than I can scribe by hand, but a hell of a lot cleaner! I'm going to be working on the CAD drawings for the next few days, but I can't wait to start cutting out parts and building up the basic shape of the ship! The goal is to have this thing ready for sale in 6 months. Wish me luck!
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