captain america

Hi Six. Just a silly question: where'd you get that background? It looks fantastic!

Nice, refreshing custom job. You should have no problem unloading it on E-Bay with that scheme. Have you considered adding the proper markings to it? Technically, they're quite simple and wouldn't even require making decals for; you could quite simply cut the designs out of masking tape to make stencils and litterally paint the markings on.

...And another "serious" enquiry bites the dust

ROFLMAO!!!!!!! They're always "serious" until you provide them witrh a real-world quote. Then they disappear.

While I don't share your opinion about "HP" products... I have my own peaves about products made by Xerox, and a few other companies. I do find this idea of a "prototyping" printer interesting.... theoretically you cold make your parts on this printer, and if they are "stable" enough make a mold of the parts... Resin Model making would go extreme! If you can draw it/design it... you could make a model of it. There is one place here in montreal that offers stereolithography services on a contract basis. The service costs $100/hour( the cheapest I've found, by the way), and this doesn't include the cost of designing the part on the computer. The thing is, whether you have a very simple, or a very complex part, the machine works at the same pace, and the average "print" time for a given component is 20-40 hours. I know that Bandai employs this technology on the MG and PG line of models... The only way they can achieve such precise, complex parts. Mind you, Gundam is hugely popular and the enormous capital investment can be offset over the sales of hundreds of thousands ( perhaps even millions) of models. However, even with this technology, I doubt Bandai ( or anyone else ) would like average joes downloading and printing their own parts at home; it just makes counterfitting & theft potential too great.

Hi Jesse. The fact that you heard all this from an HP salesman makes me all the more skeptical: I've owned NUMEROUS HP products in the past, and as a result, they are effectively on my " never buy anything from them EVER again" list; these guys couldn't clean fresh puke off a teflon-coated linoleum floor Hewlett Packard produces garbage, plain and simple. Though I've no doubt that they will succeed in making the 3-d printing technology package cheap, it will also be garbage... Company policy obliges continuity. Besides that, how's your back holding-up these days?

I've seen these 3D printers firsthand, as well as handled "print" samples. The powder that the machine "lays up" needs to be coated with a sealant to protect it, or it'll deteriorate very easily... And even then it deteriorates with age and even the finest powder/resolution is very granular at best. Basically, it's a cheap-crap twist on stereolithography, but without the precision... All for the low-low price of roughly $26 000 plus materials, training & maintenance; courtesy of Z Corporation. Good advice of the day: you can put every fancy twist you want on rapid-prototyping, and though there are indeed purposes for producing prototypes this way ( aerospace and F1 spring to mind) you can still get better prototypes and models done by hand which are as precise as they need to be, and for faster, cheaper and better than anything that comes out of those push-button "part-O-matic" printers. Remember, technology is just a tool, no different than an airbrush, or modelling board. I would caution those who believe that they will get instant Garage Kits galore simply by purchasing/getting access to one of these machines... Technology isn't a replacement for talent. Want custom models that kit manufacturers won't produce? Learn to sculpt, it's that simple.

According to the Mospeada style sheets, the Gurab inbit is roughly half the height of the Legioss in Soldier Mode; maybe just a tad less. The Eager Inbit, in turn, is about half as tall as the Gurab. I'd end to think that the Wonderfest kits are a little too large for the scale, but it certainly makes for a nicer piece to display as a result.

Hi Jesse The re-castings look excellent! No pin holes or other defects that I can see either; probably even better than the originals, now that they've been cleaned-up prior to the new molding. Just for fun, did you end up casting the parts with the Smooth Cast 321?

400 bucks? HA! I'll do it for $500

Agreed. I don't see any tremendous similarities in the two designs. Toynami worked-over a 1/48 Imai model. About the only thing that may have been derived from my model was the prominent "elbow" shaped LEX, but then, this feature is in the original japanese animation model sheets, so as far as I'm concerned, it's fair game.

The background for the Glaug is an aluminium briefcase... Ain't it purdy?

Hi Pfunk. Nah, that's the 1/100 kit alright. Original imai release, whereas the 1/72 was made by Arii. Neither one is all that great, and I had to do a bit of a hatchet-job on this one to get it to look right... Namely increasing the size of the main pod/cockpit, and modify all the arm/leg joints.

One more.

Hi Gian. Here you go.

Hi Graham. Thanks for showing us the latest on the VF-0. A shame you may not be getting one to sample. I truly hope Yamato reconsiders; it's great free advertising for them. Considering that the toy is 1/100, the detail is actually quite good. I think that they can very easily minimize the hip/groin peg housings. Since I doubt that the intake covers come off, they can house a ball-joint inside the intake/hip itself, and delete the extended housing alltogether. If they're having teething troubles, tell them to give me a call, and I'll fix it I think this is just about the only real alteration the toy needs: the joint that allows the thigh to pivot foreward can't help but be that size; any smaller, and it would all-too-easily snap upon manipulation. Overall, I think it'll be a very welcomed product, and should sales figures permit, let us hope that a larger scale toy will find its way through the pipeline

I may have a solution to the problem of yellowing plastic: Castrol Super Clean is designed to, among other things, clean yellowed patio furniture and plastic microwave trim parts. Technically, this will probably work for the Valks as well, but the only thing I can't say for certain is whether this will also affect (damage) the painted surfaces. For those of you who have broken/spare valks, you can probably give this a try on the underside of one of the parts to see if it reacts. The best way to go about this is to dilute the Castrol Super Clean ( 16 parts water, 1 part Super Clean) and proceed to gently scrub the part with an old toothbrush. Rinse immediately, being sure to NOT let the solution dry on the plastic. Hopefully this would be a successful solution.

Actually, while we're on the topic of yellowing, here's a question for those of you who have multiple 1/48s. I recieved a brand new VF-1J Hikaru about 2 weeks ago, and one of my first impressions was that the light grey plastic seemed just a touch "warm" in hue. Now the problem is that this is my first and only 1/48 Valk for the time being *dodges tomatoes* so I don't have any other 1/48s to compare it to. I promptly took an old T-shirt and some rubbing alcohol and proceeded to wipe-down the toy, just in case the yellow was a result of an assembly line worker's dirty hands, but to my surprise, the cloth stayed clean. Essentially, Is the Hik 1J the same color plastic as the previous releases?

I've seen the Max Wantabe pre-shading technique discussed earlier in the thread, and I just wanted to say that there are better ways of creating a weathered look that is infinitely more realistic. All you really need are acrylic paints, a good airbrish, some chalk pastels ( cheap ones are great) and a few Q-tips. You simply paint & decal your model as normal. No pre-shading or nonsense of that sort necessary. Once you're done, apply a flat clear overcoat and let dry. Now the fun begins... You take your airbrush ( a very fine spraying ability is necessary) and spray a slightly darker or lighter shade of the base coat, but in small, carefully-controlled patchwork shapes. You must absolutely be using flat paints for this. Once these small patches are dry, take a black or brown stick of chalk pastel & over a small shallow dish, gently scrape-off some of the chalk with a sharp hobby knife until you have a small pile of chalk powder. Now, take a Q-tip and swirl it into the chalk powder sparingly, being sure to wipe off the excess, and then rub the Q-tip gently in random areas to create a dirty look. A stippling motion works best, and don't worry: if you apply too much, just blow it off and start over. once you've covered all the desired areas with the chalk, proceed to re-airbrush some different colored patchwork over this to make your mecha look like it's been maintained/repaired. This technique mostly replicates the look of naval aircraft which have a worn & repaired look to them... Probably similar to what a Valkyrie would look like in service The pic below shows the technique applied tol a 1/48 Tomcat.

They're most likely just out of production for the time being. There just isn't enough demand for Yamato to be churning them out 24-7. When they get a large enough order, they'll set the molds back up again and pump them out accordingly.

That's an open-ended question that won't get you any real answers. The "better" proportionned toy is mostly in the eye of the beholder/nitpicker.

Actually, though I have no concrete confirmation of this, it IS theoretically possible that Yamato MAY proliferate the 1/48 scale in the future. I think the reason that we haven't seen this done YET, is that Yam are trying to exploit the 1/60 scale as much as possible, and very obviously, they're avoiding parallel marketing in 1/48 so as not to cannibalize their own market. Also, the 1/60 line serves as something of a market evaluation series. I guess that if an item sells well enough in 1/60, they would most probably consider scaling-up later if market research and sales justify it. Perfect example, just look at Bandai: with regards to almost any Gundam series, they almost always invariably start with releasing the cheaper skus of the MS first, and gradually work their way up the ladder if sales are good. They also dis this with Eva; releasing the LM, then HG, and finally a MG. Anyhoo, getting back to Macross, Zentradi Regults & Glaugs would be very feasible: the pods are infinitely less complex than Valkyries to engineer, and I dare say that certain components like the main head piece & the Glaug's massive arm cannons could be blow-molded in PVC to save on cost, while still being very well detailed. With regards to packaging, a Regult could very well fit in the same size box as the 1/48 Super Valk, all you have to do is collapse the legs. With regards to a 1/48 GBP-1 set, this could be sold as a stand-alone set without the Valkyrie, just like the FAST packs. Very feasible to get something in the 7800-9800Y price-point. As with anything, time will tell if Yamato take the plunge.

ROFLMAO!!!!! TAMPON!!! Seriously, say it out loud. It'll make ya feel better

... That's the exact look on my face when I heard about this whole mess. I still have a hard time believing that Tanmen would be such a screwball like that. Talk about lack of personal or professional integrity, REGARDLESS of his political opinions. Ironically, he makes money by sculpting/selling models of war machines... Talk about being a hypocrite

If Valkyrie/Macross toys were made "here" ( north America), they'd most likely be double the retail price they are now. Do you have any idea what the salary gap is between north-american workers and chinese workers? Whether it's branded Yamato or Toynami, both toys are manufactured in China and exported to their desired markets. MPC OPTIMUS Prime: part of the Transformers franchise, which, like it or not, has a much, much greater fan base than Macross, Mospeada and Robotech combined. Bigger market = more units produced = R & D costs amortized over larger production run = lower unit cost. This combined with the fact that Hasbro has key distribution in retail chains that market toys as lost leaders = even lower retail price.