Lolicon

It's always about selling more merchandise. There are a trillion different Gundams for a reason. My favorite is the Chipotle Gundam. It's a delicious design with a kick!

Why would Kawamori copy a design from a bastard series made without his input and/or blessing? And being insulted that Macross Frontier is "stealing" the Macross II designs is hilarious, seeing as the Macross II designs are just poor ripoffs of the original SDF Macross designs.

Looks like something from the upcoming spinoff series "Mobile Suit Messiah."

DOH! So for some reason I decided to push my luck with the GSI clearcoat tonight and instead of my usual super thin coats, I applied a thicker coat on the hands... the result was a slight melting of the acrylic paint underneath. I pick very poor times for experimenting... Luckily it only affected the paint slightly (much less than I would've expected for lacquer on acrylic) and after doing a wash, it just ended up making the hands look worn out, which actually works for me, so I won't have to repaint... not that I wanted to paint the fingers again! The first pic shows (pretty closely) how the grey appears in person, rather than the duck egg blue color it looks like in the other lighted pics.

You know, I have no idea what Mr Retarder was designed for. I use it in Tamiya acrylic and it works fine. I assumed it was for use with Mr Color paints, but I didn't know those were lacquer! (I have no means of obtaining Mr Color atm.)

The Doctor was the only good character on Voyager.

Nothing special on the hands. Gloss coated the hands first so I'd have a smooth surface to work on (I don't think it really mattered though). Then I just used a Tamiya acrylic mix with a little bit of Mr Retarder Mild added to slow the drying process. I read that the recommended amount is about 10% of the mix, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, that stuff is great. It slows the drying process and causes brush strokes to vanish completely, so it was easy to take my time with a fine brush and just carefully paint away.

Thanks honkhet! I still have the big wing boosters to finish, but that's more time-consuming than it will be difficult. For yellow I just used Tamiya chrome yellow. It's kind of a glossy finish, but I then covered it in semi-gloss clear, so it dulled the finish down to what you see in the pics.

Damn that's a nice haul! I wish I had more stuff I actually wanted to take advantage of the free HLJ shipping. I ended up just buying some more clearcoat. And it's a good thing I did, hearing about the aerosol ban. WTF? I have a small supply stockpiled, but where the hell am I going to get more GSI clear? That stuff gives a smooth finish and is the best clearcoat I've ever used; no orange peel at all! They were 700 yen at HLJ... gonna be hard pressed to find that kind of price elsewhere... Mr Mark Setter is awesome stuff. Be sure to shake the bottle of Mr Mark Setter periodically, as the white adhesive will eventually settle to the bottom of the bottle.

Finally peeled myself away from Aion long enough to actually make some progress. Well, really, aside from the hands, I can't do anything until additional supplies arrive. Painted the hands and whew! That was both challenging and kinda fun. I was dreading it since I'm really bad at hand painting (no pun intended). Still need to clean them up and do a wash, but they turned out far and away better than I expected, given my previous hand paintings. I wonder why the models in the manuals never have painted hands?

What wm cheng (William?) said is accurate as far as I know. The paint pecking order is lacquer > enamel > acrylic. By some freak accident caused by the alignment of the planets and an ancient leprechaun curse, in defiance of all logic the GSI clearcoat does not react with Tamiya acrylic, at least not from what I've observed. Most of my painting is lacquer, but some of it is painted with Tamiya acrylic, and so far I've had no problems whatsoever when applying GSI lacquer clearcoat over it. GSI does eat micron pen ink though, as I found out when the clearcoat dissolved my panel lines. Luckily I was just able to draw them back in, and I now only apply micron ink lines prior to the final acrylic topcoat. Most of my panel lines are done with mechanical pencil or acrylic wash, and so far there have been no problems with the GSI clearcoat eating it. It also does not eat Gundam marker, though I think Gundam marker is lacquer-based too (not 100% sure on that). I used Model Master lacquer clearcoat back in the day and was never happy with the results.

That doesn't change the earlier statements that Shadow Chronicles was pooped out with a miniscule budget. And it shows.

Oh right, you have the sniper rifle. What the hell am I thinking? I don't have any Alclad, but I did try the purple Future mix I had for the canopy... it didn't work out so well for me. Ah well back to the drawing board with that...

They are? Dammit I shouldn't have reenacted Roy's DYRL death scene with my Matchbox Roy "Fokker".

I like the masking and painting you did for the missile covers. That's both insane and awesome. Hey, have you decided what color you're going to paint the gunpod? I'm at an impasse at how what color to paint because the default color is so seemingly... festive. The armor pack fins are the same color, which is why I haven't finished those either.

Does anyone know what the proper mixture for the gunpod color is supposed to be? The manual says: 85% purple 10% bubble 5% dark blue What the hell is bubble??

Just used a fine tip brush to dab a bit of silver and then clear red and clear green paint over it. Nothing special. Repaints coming up! I had intended the feet to be a dark midnight blue, but man they look way too bright blue in the photos; they're not even that blue in person. Gonna repaint those to something darker. I don't like the upper arms. Tamiya gunmetal is fine for mecha internals and other parts that can appear "scraped up" or otherwise worn, like joints, but damn I should have used a flat grey or other color for the upper arm section. I don't like all the little silver flakes on such a broad area. I'll be repainting those as well. The joint in the center of the chest that holds the plate with the skull insignia is more of a purplish color in the anime. Another repaint! Glad I have that spare VF-25S kit lying around for replacement parts.

The state of Robotech in one convenient trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RunningTheAsylum

I can't possibly fathom how anyone can say anything bad about Robotech or take any joy in it.

That's some insane masking! Your masking fortitude and precision amazes me! I went nuts just at the amount of masking to paint the tailfins. I want to see how the airbrushing turns out. Bandai decals are pretty thick and require a lot of coats to hide the edges...

Not to worry about coats filling in panel recesses. The Gunze Sangyo coats go on real thin (assuming you spray properly in passes and not like an overzealous graffiti artist heh) and it dries very quickly. It's dry to the touch within minutes so it doesn't take long to apply multiple coats. And they always some out smooth and even. Just be careful since the clearcoats are lacquer based. Although they didn't eat into the Tamiya acrylics, they can possibly eat into other non-lacquer substances. I only use Tamiya so I don't know how it will react to say Testors or other brands.

Thanks! I tried to get the light to catch it at different angles. I rarely trim the clear excess from around decals; only if I absolutely have to to get a decal to fit properly. For the back piece, the edges of the carrier film are almost completely in with the background. You can only just tell if the light is really bright and my camera is up super close. I wish I had done as well with the earlier decals; those you can see where the edges are if the light catches it just right. Tried to get some close ups with the light glaring off.

I've been asked what I use for finishing coats so I'll put it all down here. I dislike Future because it's kinda clunky to deal with, takes a long time to dry, and is prone to dust during its long drying time. And I had problems with it lifting up decals when I brushed it on. Awhile back I also used Model Master semi-gloss lacquer clearcoat, which worked fine most of the time, but occasionally it would inexplicably bubble up in a few spots; when it dried it left a pock mark. If I attempted to apply a second layer over the first layer after it dried, it would wrinkle up and ruin the smooth finish. WTF? So now I use all Gunze Sangyo clears. I have never had any of the above problems with them. The clearcoats are lacquer based but I've safely used them on Tamiya acrylics. I prefer a semi-gloss finish for mecha models. For gloss clearcoat: http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZB-513 Semi-gloss clearcoat: http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZB-516 Semi-gloss topcoat: http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZB-502 Sadly I only started this specific layering late in my model, but it basically goes like this: plastic part > paint > gloss clearcoat* > panel lines/wash > decals > gloss clearcoat* > semi-gloss clearcoat* > semi-gloss topcoat (as the final layer to ensure a uniform finish) *Add as many layers of clearcoat you feel is needed to protect your decals, paint, etc. The second gloss clearcoat step I only added recently, when I accidentally picked up the wrong spray. But it turned out even better and made the finish smoother and more even, so I'm keeping that step. Some pics of the backpack unit done using the above steps.

You're using a knife to apply decals? If you want to know, here's my clunky over-the-top amateur's guide to applying Bandai's Macross Frontier decals. First, you want to make sure you're applying onto a fairly smooth surface; applying a coat of Future or other gloss coat is good for this. I apply Mr Mark Setter to the area where I'm laying down the decal and then I use either a Q-tip or the tip of my tweezers to nudge them into position. Now if it starts to dry before I manage to get it perfectly positioned, I'll use my fingertip, dab it in some water, and touch one of the decal edges so the drop of water gets absorbed *under* the decal to moisten it and keep the decal from sticking to the part before I want it to. Once the decal is perfectly lined up, I'll use a Q-tip or a cloth to touch one of the edges of the decal where there's liquid showing (being careful not to touch the decal itself) to soak up excess liquid. Then I'll touch the edge of the decal again with a little Mark Setter and then repeat soaking up the excess. Afterwards I'll let it start to dry into place for a few minutes; with Mr Mark Setter, if you've soaked up most of the excess, it should start drying and holding the decal in place. At this point i will take a Q-tip and gently dab the decal *straight downward* to squeeze out any remaining liquid, which is soaked up by the Q-tip, until the decal is flat against the part and all the liquid is squeezed out from under it. If you happen to nudge the decal out of place doing this, as long as there's a little liquid left, you can gently nudge it back into place with the Q-tip. You may need to re-moisten it if it gets too dry and you've moved it out of place. The ankle spheres are especially annoying and prone to wrinkling. Be sure you notch the three black sections with a knife before attempting to apply them. I've attached a crude MS Paint diagram. After applying them, since they're in a recessed section, I applied a generous helping of Mr Mark Softer and let it pool, so it gets all soaked up and will flatten out most or all the wrinkles. Like all things, you'll get better with practice and develop your own techniques that will work for you.

Say what? The Japanese government forbade the use of the image of the central character in SDF Macross because Hase Arihiro died? In what universe does that make sense?