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I find it incredible that Arcadia would proactively alert their Twitter followers to the availability of these knockoffs. That blog post was essentially an advertisement. Perhaps the existence of these KOs is well-known among the Japanese fanbase.

I can't imagine that there will be two 1/12 perfect transformation mospeadas on the market at once. Ex:ride seems to be Max Factory's 1/12 scale motorcycle brand. My guess is that we'll get a fixed-form cycle, figure, and separate ride armor parts.

Nice Neo Mospeada fanart

Neat looking 1/400 Horizont kit at Wonderfest:

Here's a preview of Evolution's showing at Wonderfest this weekend:

Seems like this tweet from Mr. K may clarify that the premium tampo printing includes *all* of the markings that are indicated by the VF-1S manual, with the exception of one marking indicated in the picture. Here's the Google translation of the tweet: I assume "potatoes" is a mistranslation of "tampo" :-)

I was able to order through fromjapan.co.jp, which is a proxy those in the US can use to order from Japanese web stores. I've used From Japan before and it's pretty convenient.

Very nice. What's the best way for those of us in North America to order them?

Right - the mask I used shrinks and becomes transparent as it dries.

Applying decals in this update. Before applying the decals, I will apply a gloss coat to all surfaces. Because I don't want to alter the metallic luster of these vernier thrusters, I masked them with Mr. Masking Sol Neo. The parts after applying a gloss coat of Mr. Color GX 100 Super Clear III. Some before and after photos follow.

In this update, we finally get to some paint! All parts received a coat of Tamiya grey primer. Next, I preshaded black along panel lines. Not a very neat job, but it will be blended in with the next layer of paint. After applying the grey base coat, I masked some areas which will receive the accent colors. The nose of the aircraft and the tip of the camera pod received a base coat of white paint before the upcoming color. The canard received a red stripe in homage to the chest of the original Elintseeker. The stripe looks pretty sharp after removing the mask. The nose, and tips of the camera pod and fast packs all received an accent color of Mr. Color C58 orange yellow. Next I masked off some areas of the FAST packs to receive a coat of black. The radome received a coat of Mr Color C337, which is a grayish blue. The black details were done with another mask. I airbrushed the housings of the verniers with Alclad steel and the interiors of the verniers with Alclad copper. The rim was outlined with Citadel mithril silver.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not planning on building the gunpod right now, but it would be simple to integrate it in the future. In this post I've concentrated on the attachment to a display stand. Before sealing the fuselage, I painted the visible portion of the interior surface. I also painted the head turret that emerges through the opening on the top of the aircraft. The landing gear bay doors were sealed by filling the bays with putty and then glueing the doors over them. To ensure a smooth fit, I sanded down the doors and rescribed the panel lines. Everything fits together well and looks good on the stand. I glued some magnets inside each intake. I also glued a third magnet toward the back of the part that would form the thigh in battroid mode. The right leg sans FAST pack. And with the FAST pack attached. Everything fits together well and looks good on the stand. The booster pack is also removable.

To modularize the GCU-M3 camera pod, I trimmed the tab coming out of the body of pod and built a pylon out of styrene. At the end, I attached a couple of small magnets with CA glue. This pylon will tab into a slot leading to a larger magnet glued into the arms of the aircraft. A closeup of the pylon created for the camera pod. The pylon will tab into the slot molded into the arms. The connection is quite sturdy and holds the camera pod level without drooping. Next time I'll wrap up with the magnets and show how I attached the aircraft to its display stand.

Just a small update on some minor details. Here are the third party JasmineModel photo-etched parts for the 1/72 VF-11. It turns out most of these are cockpit details. Since the canopy will be sealed with the pilots inside, I'll only use a couple of these parts in the build. Here's a closeup of a panel to be applied to the underside of the feet thrusters. You can see that it adds a little bit of detail and hides a seam. It'll be hard to notice in the finished build since this detail will be buried inside the thrusters. I also took this opportunity to drill some holes into the vernier thrusters housed in the nose of the craft. Next time I'll detail how I magnetized the GCU-M3 camera pod.

You might consider Mr. Gundam Color Titans Blue 1 or 2 (UG16 or UG17).

Thanks for the feedback everyone! This time I began installing magnets into optional parts to make them removable. I'll use rare earth magnets to attach optional parts like the super packs and camera pod. These cylindrical magnets are 1mm in diameter. I'll use them to attach missile pods. There are hardpoints molded into the underside of the wings. I'll drill two 1mm diameter holes for each hardpoint. The pylons attaching to the missile pods will also receive two of these magnets. The magnets fit perfectly. Even though they are small, they are strong enough to hold the missile pods in place. I'll use 3mm diameter disk magnets to fasten the super parts. I'll drill a hole through the slot on the dark grey piece on the body of the aircraft. One magnet will go into this hole while a corresponding magnet will replace the tab on the super part. I used two sets of magnets per part. The yellow putty on the super part is a polyester putty I used to raise the magnet off the wall of the part into place to meet its mate on the aircraft. I made a similar modification to the panel which closes the gap in the leg when the super part is not attached. I only needed one magnet for these. Everything fits perfectly!

The seat cushions were given a coat of Citadel Mechrite Red. Cockpit parts ready for assembly. The cockpit parts were given a wash of Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color Black. The nose's seam was welded with plastic cement. The cockpit was attached with Testors Clear Parts Cement. The join between the canopy and fuselage was masked with masking tape and Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves. Finally the canopy was covered with bits of regular masking tape. Sealed and ready for finishing.

Beginning work on the cockpit. The parts were stuck together with CA glue and Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The cockpit parts were primed with Tamiya Surface Primer Grey and White. The interior of the cockpit was airbrushed with Mr Color 13 while the pilots got a coat of Mr Color 311. The pilots were hand brushed with Citadel paints and a small yellow dot of Testors yellow. The Gundam marker was used to draw a thin line of dark blue between the faceplate and helmet. The yellow details were achieved by applying Testors Yellow enamel and then cleaning up mistakes with a cotton swap dampened with Zippo lighter fluid. Because the white base coat is a lacquer, it does not interact with the fluid, unlike the enamel. Sometimes this is called a "reverse wash".

I got this release too. I was really surprised by the size of the piece; it is much larger than I expected. Has a good heft, too. It will look great displayed next to a 1/60 Valkyrie. I second technoblue's advice to be careful about the antennae. Mine popped off as soon as I took it out of the box. There was no trouble replacing it, but it took some hunting around on the floor to find it. I did find that some of the joints are not as tight as I would like -- the ankles, in particular.

Hi folks, in this thread I'll detail the process of my next Macross build. I'll be building what I'm calling a VE-11D -- a simple kitbash of two of Hasegawa's 1/72 Macross kits, the 1/72 VF-11D Thunder Focus and VE-11 Thunderseeker. My plan is to finish it in the original VE-1 Elintseeker color scheme. Test-fitting the pieces. The VF-11D kit comes with parts for the GCU-M3 payload. I think this is meant to be some sort of camera. I thought it was reminiscent of the original VE-1's equipment, so it should look good on the underside of the airframe. I was surprised to find that these parts are molded in resin; the detail is nice. This aircraft will be a two-seater, just like the original VE-1. I really like the shape of the VF-11D's cockpit.

Thinking that the Sv-262's battroid mode could turn out to be reminiscent of the nousjadeul-ger similarly to how the YF-21 (another antagonist valkyrie) was reminiscent of the queadluun-rau. The shape of the Sv-262's legs and feet as well as the mounted cannon point in this direction. Hope we find out soon.

Thanks Mike. That craft in the 11th pic is a replica of dasnewten's Prometheus MOC. It's a Lego model of a Studio Nue-inspired craft: Picket Frigate Prometheus by dasnewten, on Flickr It's featured on dasnewten's incredible flickr.

There are some very high resolution photos revealing a lot of detail taken in the showroom on B_A_T_'s flickr: DSC_6647 by @bat1911, on Flickr DSC_6641 by @bat1911, on Flickr

I ordered through FromJapan, which is a proxy service. It worked out fine but was pricey. I purchased the 29cm deep version, but in retrospect should have gone with the deeper 39cm version to accommodate larger valkyries in fighter mode.

I prefer this Jajan display case to those available domestically: It seems specially designed for displaying figures. I like it because of its integrated LED lighting and because the glass doors have no frame, maximizing visibility. It's also possible to mount mirrors on the back wall, which gives the impression of a larger space and also reflects light from the rear. The case linked is the largest of the available options, but there is a variety of cases available with different sizes and features. The cases are shipped flat pack and are assembled like IKEA furniture, with similar quality. Shipping to North America is expensive. Do not attempt to ship the fragile mirrors; instead, have mirrors custom cut locally. With shipping, these cases are more expensive than local options, but I felt it was worth it because as far as I can tell, there is nothing similar available in North America. All told with shipping, the cost was similar to one or two Arcadia releases.