Jasonc

I'm posting it up for 2 main reasons...1)Because at the decal master's request, he wanted someone who was interested to post so that if he responds, everyone can benefit, and 2)There may be others who already make decals/stickers or others who may be able to help in this endeavor to get more made for our customs. As I am gonna be working on a custom very shortly, it would be very bad to not have decals anymore. And without Devin selling the masters to anyone, we all need to make a combined effort in making new ones that are at least in the ballpark of quality. Customizing and modding for Valks seems to be on the rise. It'd be a shame if all of us can't come up with a solutions to this predicament.

OK, so the deal is that Anasazi, our good friend on this site is bowing out of the game of decals and stickers. We will surely miss his work, and we may never get that quality again, but in the meantime, I have been thinking about possibly picking up some of the requests that are still out there. Unfortunately, I am not too familiar with how to make decals. I bought some decal paper a long time ago, but I know it's more than just printing some pics up. so, for those that make decals, is there anyone still making them? As for Anasazi, if you read this, in using illustrator, what file format do you create your decals in? is it .eps or something like that? It's gonna be painful redoing some of the decals only to fall way short of the quality we had before, but those are the brakes I guess. So, if someone has anytime, or can provide info for decals about where we can get them, how we can make them, and everything in between, please help out. I will be making decals for 1/48s, 1/55s, and that's probably it. So, if anyone has sticker sheets they can send in, or anything else that can help me out, I will do what I can to start producing decals for those that need them. Prices and all that will come later, if I do need to start supplying my fellow MWers here, but until then, let's all unite and try to fix our little predicament.

Devin, a big congrats to your marriage, and education. I'm glad to hear you have moved on because of very solid and wonderful reasons. I've been buying decals from you for a few years now, and everytime I got them, they were much more than I expected. On the flipside, and as my valks are telling me... "noooooooooo!!!!!!" It can't be. and I had two customs in the works. well, I must say, who is gonna pick up the torch for decals??? I will if no one else can, but creating all those decals again... well, I could always use the advice of a pro for this. thanks Anasazi/Devin for all your hard work. Can't tell you how many people are gonna be hurtin' without your decals.

yeah, I got me a set as well...The soda tastes good, as does most of DR Jones soda. I'm just missing the blue one. It wasn't done as something to market, just something for the HG screening at their theater. And I'm one of those guys that posted up in the thread about the boobs, and the plot. It's a lot going on, and from seeing the movie myself, it's because they have people working on these things that shouldn't be directing, or writing story. the plot works, but it's presented in a very poor manner. A kid could've done it. That being said, I've seen and met people that could probably do that show some justice, but what seems to be one person's vision of the show is really what could end up destroying it.

Congrats on the beautiful baby. Glad to hear all is well. I guess the valk part factory is on hold for awhile. But definitely for great reasons. How are those late nighters?

I use the pencil method myself. After I paint the final coat of color on the piece, I take a mechanical pencil, and lightly draw into the panel lines. Then with the dull coat, that makes the pencil lead darken up and when spraid in the right direction, can actually run off a bit for a more weathered look. for toys I just want to weather, I'd go with the pencil again, as it can be cleaned easily, isn't too dark, and does it's job just fine.

Not too sure. I don't recall ever really paying attention to in. I would assume, engineering-wise, that the ability to angle the foot to give it a perfect 90 degree angle to the ground would be done by the lower portion of the foot, and not the upper. I guess just chalk it up to anime magic.

I don't think there's any real way to get the lateral movement to move too much. Even on the Yamato toys, the new 0A and S, the lateral foot movement is quite limited. I have been working on solutions, but I think it would involve a ball joint. That might give the stability of it standing problems.

To be honest, I thought about doing the thigh mod, but I'm not sold on the ball joints. Don't they get loose after a period of time? In regards to the foot mod, I've worked that, and with the knee mod, and making it swivel, it makes for a great gerwalk pose. Battroid is great too, although, you don't get the hip angle. Not too much of a problem though.

Tested methods for both of these together have already been done by yours truly. I did the pen top mod awhile back, and yes, it is a great way to mod the legs. simple, yet sturdy. The diagram that Razor has posted is another mod I am currently doing, and it has worked. I made some slight modifications to it, like working some styrene around the back of the foot. The gap of the back leg to give the valk that angle is pretty spacious, and so, with that, I'm filling in the gap so that it doesn't look so "modified". So far, it seems to be working ok, and will have pics up once i find my camera charger.

Things to consider. I'm working on making a 1/55 scale mini-missle launcher with the styrene I bought. As well as the foot swivel mod. What would be cool, is, I used to have a 1/55 nose with detailed cockpit, clear canopy, and all that. But I'd like to get another one. It had the antannae on the nose, lowered hip connectors, and a openable canopy. Does anyone know who makes that? Right now, Razor X has it, would anyone be interested in recasting it??? NMB4M? MSLZ??? I may be interested in 1/48 heads for my 1/55s, as they are about the same size. The strike pieces are cool, new nose cone for transforming valks, and the feet that are more accurate to the line art. Is all of this possible? And I'm working hard to turn my friends into Valk 1/55 enthusiast, one person at a time

BigF has the idea. Satin finish is fine to use. I, personally, use a dullcoat. It makes it look more realistic to me, and always seems to be better off, as with anything with a sheen to it. Any scuff mark will stick out like a sore thumb. Matte finishes tend to hide any scratches much better. But the Satin finish is good. Should give you the same effect.

I bought some of that stuff, but the super glue I have doesn't require it. It bonds hard, fast, and is thick. A good quality glue will negate the need for the accelorator. It gets messy anyways.

Yeah, a very good start. Send in more pics as you progress. This looks good.

If you putting decals over bottled acrylic paint, use the Tamiya flat Base after you put the decals on. If you are putting the decals on spray paint, buy Model Master Lusterless Flat coat, or the Testors Dull Coat. Those, in my opinion, work very strong, and make the decals look like they were painted on. Good stuff.

This game is off the hook!!! I am close to getting the VF's in the game. It's a hella cool game. You start off on the original Gundam ship, and from that, you end up travelling with the Nadesco. Seeing all the various anime mecha and characters is great to see. I plan to get to the Valkyrie mecha and let you know how it goes. As far as transforming the mecha, use controller 2 setup and that way, it's L1+R2 to transform.

OK, here are more pics, not the greatest, but they work. There's one in the A-stance. Enjoy, and all comments are welcome

The gundam hands were recasted by NightmareB4Macross. From what I understand on these, they are from the Zabe kit (probably didn't spell that right). They are posable and are on a ball joint. You just have to find a joint to put it in after you cut off the hands on the valk, and you have a perfectly new hand. I will also create the retracted hand shield when it's done, but gotta keep the slides because of the armor pieces.

That's part of the plan. Many of us here still do the chunky customs, but it's been silent for awhile now. Start on those customs and show them off. I love them. I will do one of these once I get the feet rotating. However, I will take a pic without the armor on in GERWALK, as the weight of the armor is a bit heavy for it. I'll get it here by tonight.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm glad you like it. so far, it's in a temporary "done" state. I have a few other mods I plan to do with it, and from there, I'll post more pics of the mods as they come along. Right now, I'm modding the hands with the Gundam posable hands. Next, I will be doing the posable feet. So, this will be a stretch from what I'm used to doing, but it will be a better piece than now, Hopefully.

Last one with the A-stance. As far as sanding the armor. It does come out very clean. However, this isn't the standard resin that most recasers use. From what I understand, once it cures, it cures very hard and solid, but expands. therefor, sanding is necessary to get things to fit into slots and the sort, but not too much sanding because of excess junk. These are probably the nicest recast I've ever worked with.

More:

More pics: I will have to post these in increments here. My computer sucks

Here's the details: The armor parts were done by NighmareB4Macross. And they are a real solid and high quality recast. the decals are by Anasazi here as well, as I always use his sheets. The paint for the Valkyrie is simply the Tamiya Grey fine primer. that's all. The nose orange is Tamiya orange. the leg armor is a testor's hull blue or something like that. the fastpacks were dark ivory, also testors, and the radome is from a model master grey primer, slightly darker than the Tamiya primer. I used a Bandai reissue VF-1J Hikaru for the custom. I didn't want to use the round nose. Even as a kid, I could never stand the stubby nose. the pilots are two pilots from the 1/72 Hasegawa weapons set. they aren't detailed too much, but they make a decent addition to the custom. More pics will be coming today, when I can get back to my computer and add the pics.

Hope you like it. I'll post up more shortly, but here are just a couple. the upper leg was modded for the A-stance look. Let me know what you all think.