denversaur

Hello Everyone! Come out to Little Tokyo on Thursday, October 28th! We'll be celebrating our 2nd anniversary with Mari Iijima, Dig Jelly, Stephanie Yanez, and other great artists! Jrock, Jpop, + global dance music spun by the Tune in Tokyo DJs. We want to invite all our friends in the MacrossWorld community to this special night at 2nd Street Jazz. For more information, visit our MySpace page, www.myspace.com/tuneintokyoclub or check out our Facebook group! Greg Hignight DJ and Founder, Tune in Tokyo

Hello! I was able to get down there (had to hurry!). She started her performance at 8 PM sharp, and did the first few songs on the grand piano that's in the bar. It's a small, intimate environment (2nd Street Jazz is sort of a jazz/punk bar hybrid...they host traditional jazz nights, but now are more known for hosting rock and hip hops shows, Judo Chop and other Asian rock showcases, and our own J-Pop night, Tune in Tokyo). She talked to the audience a bit, played an instrumental piece, and (of note to Macross fans) performed a piano version of Ai Oboete Imasuka. The set was about 30 minutes. I wish her performance could have been scheduled later, and could have been longer. I knew a lot of people who would have liked to see her. For me, it was a real treat. I had the privilege of attending the Macross Frontier concert at Anime Expo last week, which was amazing, and capped it off with seeing Maru Iijima in neighborhood bar in Little Tokyo. It was awesome! My friend, who works in Jrock media, took some pics. I'll share them when she's ready to release them. -Greg

Hello Everyone! Mari Iijima is opening a band showcase tonight at Matsumoto's 2nd Street Jazz in Little Tokyo! I just found out about this a couple of hours ago, and it totally took me by surprise, as we do regular J-Pop club events there, we just had one on Sunday as a matter of fact!! Cover is $5, with drink ticket included. She'll be going on at 8 PM, so get there early!! Here's the event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128864967143506 2nd Street Jazz is located at 366 E 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. There are parking garages nearby, and street parking as well (though I'd recommend not parking south of 3rd street). Anybody who lives in the area and has been to Little Tokyo is probably aware of this. -Greg

I would also recommended the VF-1 as starting point for a VF-2SS conversion. The "airframe" for the VF-2 is essentially the same as the VF-1, with the legs and intakes split further apart. The cockpit shield is a static element, rather than retracting (as it does on the VF-1), so perhaps a VF-0 might work even better, as it has the same feature? The VF-25 has some radical differences in the nose, and especially the crazy complicated shoulder mechanisms. My vote is for a VF-0 or VF-1 for s starting point. I've contemplated converting one of the Hasegawa VF-1s into a VF-2 myself. I'm not a big fan of Macross II, but I do like the idea of it loosely fitting into the continuity as a lost colony fleet (maybe the SDF-3 or SDF-5?). Definitely love Mikimoto's character designs, the uniforms, etc. and the idea of another offshoot race of the Protoculture / Zentraedi. -Greg

Hello Everyone, Last week, I completed a rebuild of my display base for Roy Focker's VF-1S Strike Valkyrie as seen in the opening of "Macross: Ai Oboete Imasuka". I had originally constructed a base based on this theme when I built my first Hasegawa kit back in late 2001. I had, however, wanted to update both the style and presentation. Here it is! The original base was a full-scale representation of the launch bays on ARMD-01, and was designed like a photo frame, more or less. I eventually built up the base, adding sides, and a greater depth to the bay. Ultimately, I decided that the base had become too big, and overwhelmed the model itself. My idea with this new base was to create something that was more subtle, and at the same time, more detailed. I removed the launch arm and Valkyrie, keeping that intact, and cannibalized the original base for scratch-building parts. The new version includes added detail to the launch arm, shows more hull detail, and in its low-profile, draws more attention to the VF-1S. Materials involved in the construction include sheet styrene, brass tubing, styrene tubing, and model railroad lighting lenses. The hull surface is Tamiya intermediate blue. The launch arm is painted with both Testors and Tamiya intermediate blue. The core of the launch arm utilizes a brass post for stability, so that the arm would not vibrate, for example, if someone was walking nearby the display shelf. Here's a close-up of the VF-1S in the launch "claw". I inserted pins through the "feet" of the launch claw to secure it to the Fast Packs. The original base from 2001 (above). Although I like the idea that I represented the full launch bay, the straight angle of display doesn't allow you to see as much of the kit. My new base is positioned at a diagonal, allowing you to see more of the Strike Valkyrie. A great reference in completing this project was this gem of a book, "This is Animation: Macross the Movie". This guidebook was published back in 1984 and has lots of good reference illustrations and stills from the movie. Difficult to find, but well worth picking up. Thank you for taking a look! Let me know if you have any questions! -Greg As a bonus, I've included a photo of the new base I constructed for my VF-1A Super Valkyrie. I've completed several using a similar design. The top tier of the base is an artboard, painted black, with the image spray mounted. The letters are die cut pieces from Woodland Manufacturing. They can do various sizes cut on demand, in many custom fonts. In case anyone has wondered, the pilot is modified from the Hasegawa 1/72 VF-1 weapon set (since the set includes a movie-type flight suit). I wanted an authentic "TV" style pilot uniform. There other cool thing about this (it's pretty small in the photo) is the pilot name. The 80s 1/72 VF-1A kits included a pilot name "K. Warmaker" which I always thought was funny. I managed to save a couple of those decals and used them on this kit.

I have included photos of the rear thrusters for both my YF-19 original version and the Demonstrator. I spray painted the inner thruster port and feet/vector panels flat black, then followed with a light coat of Tamiya gun metal spray to achieve the dark metallic look. The inside of the engine cowling was brush painted with flat black (most of it isn't visible, but this helps to give the thruster housing a more complete look). Finally, I painted the "top" of the foot with flat black. You could achieve a similar result by using flat black and gun metal Gundam markers. I would say that rattle cans are more than fine if you choose the right product line and finish. You can almost never go wrong with Tamiya sprays, and flats will usually look better than semigloss or gloss (although Tamiya's semigloss black is fantastic). -Greg

I use a combination of spray paints and airbrushing for finishing. Tamiya makes a spray color called Matt White that's perfect for Gundam and Macross kits. It's got a neutral tone that's more of a pure white--you could even say there's a bit of a greyness to it, as opposed to the yellow undertone that you see in many whites, especially as they age. Doesn't happen with the Tamiya spray color. The Tamiya sprays also go on really smoothly. For other colors, particularly the custom colors often required for anime kits, I use either Testors Acryl or Tamiya acrylic paints, mixed down with either acrylic airbrush thinner or rubbing alcohol (which works just fine and is cheaper, anyway). Gunze Sangyo offers a wide variety of vivid paint colors, but I've found it harder to shoot through the airbrush. You really can't beat an airbrush for fine paint coats, and when masking is involved, its almost paramount--as sprays tend to be too heavy and wet, and will bleed through masking tape edges. Acrylic paint thinned with alcohol will dry almost immediately after hitting the surface of the plastic, so bleeding is not really an issue if sparing coats are used. For detailing, I use a .5 mechanical pencil, or a Gundam marker for panel lines, and a combination of acrylic and enamel paints applied by brush. I'll shoot a flat clear coat afterward to seal decals and pencil work. With the Macross kits in particular, with the tiny little running lights, canopy, etc. I'll install these clear parts after the flat coat has been applied. Unless you're going to put your kits under glass or in a plastic case (as some people will do) dust is going to happen, I suppose. I live in the city of LA where there's an extraordinary amount of urban dust and pollution, and it builds up. All of my stuff is displayed openly on shelves...I like having it where people can really see it. So, every few weeks, I break out a fine, soft paint brush and dust everything. I only use this brush for dusting, so it remains free of debris and won't damage the paint and decals when I dust. Sometimes I use Q-tips as well, to get into the hard-to get places.

Hello Everyone! I completed my Hasegawa YF-19 Demonstrator last night. Here are the pics! This is the limited version of the Macross Plus YF-19 in demonstration colors. The build itself was relatively easy...the YF-19 is nicely engineered, Hasegawa's molding is precise as always, with minimal filler putty required. The real work on this kit was the finishing. Decals are not included for the blue deco, so I masked it and shot a custom mix of Tamiya acrylics. I got the color by mixing down sky blue with flat white. An extensive decal sheet for markings and insignia was included, as with all of Hasegawa's Macross kits. I was quite relieved that I was able to apply the gold leaf decals without damaging them. It's a little hard to see in the pics, but the gold trim looks sharp. The YF-19 looks great in this color scheme. It's my hope that we'll one day see some of the variants produced, like the VF-19 Emerald Squadron or VF-19P from Macross Seven. Hasegawa's treatment on the Macross fighters has been outstanding...I'd like to see them delve deeper, and do other planes like the VF-4 Lightning and VF-171. However, there's a lot of great stuff already out there, and the YF-19 Demonstrator is a nice addition to the lineup. I had a lot fun making it. -Greg

Thanks for the kind words. I thought about the Bandai 1/72 Super Fighter kits from 80s when building this one. The spray I used for the super parts--Tamiya Intermediate blue, is very close to what Bandai used for the box photos. As for the leg armor, although some interpretations go with red, supplemental material in Macross: Perfect Memory and the Macross Super Plastic Modeling Manual showed blue-grey--which I liked--and chose to go with.

Here's the newest addition to my squadron of Hasegawa 1/72 Macross buildups. A kit of Millia's Super Fighter was never actually released, but it was an easy conversion...essentially a mashup of two existing kits. I started with the original VF-1J release (Hikaru deco, molded in white) and added the super parts / fast packs from the VF-1A movie version. There was a somewhat rare (and really neat) two-pack sold featuring Max and Millia's fighters, but I didn't use it. The box art was stunning...the fighters were molded in blue and red, respectively. This however posed a problem in painting--with so much white involved, in was much easier to start with a kit molded in white than to cover up red or blue with white paint. That's why I used the Hikaru version, which does include the decals for all three schemes. I chose Testors Guards Red, a beautiful, classic crimson red--perfect for Millia's signature scheme. Added details included the 1/72 weapon set (for the Reactor Bombs), and a customized pilot figure--modified from the movie-style flight suit to be accurate to the original TV series (although very small, I can attest to having re-sculpted Millia's curvy figure in 1/72 scale). The finishing is a combination of Testors and Tamiya Acrylic. I've seen some different variations on Millia's armor scheme--for reference I looked at Macross: Perfect Memory and the Best Hit Series: Macross TV book from the 80s. The base is a wood plaque covered with stone fleck, the second tier is an art board, the image is from NASA archives, printed and applied with spray mount. The support post is brass. I really like the movie aesthetic, but also have an appreciation for the designs from the original TV series. It was fun to revisit it with Millia's VF-1J, as it appeared in the pivotal episode Aiwa Nagareru ("Force of Arms" in Robotech). Thanks for checking it out! -Greg

Fantastic, Man ! The hip swivels add so much value to the 1/55 toy, and the added cockpit detail and markings are awesome! These are still my favorite transforming VF toys, and you've demonstrated why. Beautiful.

I'll be attending! This is great.

When I started the VF-25, I wasn't sure if it was going to be transforming, or not--as this was a completely new kit, I wasn't sure if it would work. I proceeded to do a full paint and build up, and near the end, I realized that converting it would mess it up. I used glue in a few places in the final stages (like attaching the gunpod for stability for the base). I've attached additional photos of the underside, and a cockpit closeup (by the way, its not visible, but I used a HUD decal from the Macross Zero VF-0D for Ozma's display). -Greg

What's your favorite Hasegawa kit that you've built? Do you have a gallery? Thanks! -Greg

Thank you! Look forward to seeing the VF-25F ! -Greg