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Some shots of the next Hi-Spec Orgroid from @toynerd:

Good lord, it's incredible. Are you actually planning on building it irl? What will it cost?

What sort of licensing arrangement would be involved for Arcadia to produce this design? Could it ever be feasible?

It's because engineering a complex product is a series of compromises. It's clear to me now why we don't see more tampo on Arcadia's offerings -- it would increase the assembly line error rate. A misapplied tampo marking is probably unrecoverable. No doubt Arcadia could design a perfect assembly line and have complete control over quality. But the resulting cost of the product would be make it inaccessible to all collectors. So what we're seeing is a trade-off between quality and price. If we are to take the tone of the blog post as evidence for Arcadia's finances, even though the cost of their products are high (due in part to the expensive fabrication process), their profit margins are probably incredibly thin.

The blog post at http://ameblo.jp/digitamin/entry-12066449444.html indicates that the skull insignia on the heat shield will be tampoed. Machine-translated text: If there is a stomach of skull mark Again Showa Macross fan manner tension goes up (laughs) It is a body of up. Skull mark will be pad printing in the retail version. Conformal tank (drop tank) action poses in the equipment state!

You can count me in for one as well!

Some new shots from B_A_T_'s Flickr: DSC_2361 by @bat1911 DSC_2359 by @bat1911 DSC_2358 by @bat1911

For my build I used steel (metallic black), magnesium (gunmetal), burnt iron (sort of a dull reddish brown metallic), and copper (copper).

IIRC, the kit came with only a single DYRL cockpit interior. Hasegawa produces only one photo-etched parts set, and the cockpit details included therein correspond to the SDFM version. A few of these parts can't be used at all with this kit, as it won't accomodate them. However, the kit included one each of the tv and movie canopies. It's kinda nice because you can use the canopy you don't want as a mask for the cockpit during the build.

Here's another shot of the VF-0S from Mr. K's twitter: Who can translate the text? The auto-translation mentions something about markings.

The way the shoulders are conspicuously left unattached to the torso suggests they may be highlighting a feature of the figure -- maybe some sort of locking mechanism? Notice the silver latch-looking things hanging off the halves of the wheel.

Looks like the 0S was also shown at Wonderfest:

Blue legs confirmed?

New pictures of the prototype at wf2015s:

The weathering looks really nice. What techniques were used to produce the chipping effect?

Yes, use a gloss coat before applying decals.

The display screen looks great! Did you freehand the text?

Very impressive. I would love to know how you achieved these curved surfaces. It almost looks vacuum-formed!

Thanks folks. It's a Flightpose display stand. You can find them here: http://www.flightpose.com

Hope you enjoyed the build! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I really appreciated all the encouragement as the build progressed. If you've been considering building a valkyrie, hopefully this guide will help!

There are very small connection points between the backpack and the top of the hull. I could have used glue here to hold the boosters in place, but since the connection points are so tiny I knew a break would be inevitable. Since I didn't want to have to endlessly repair the connection, I just let the boosters balance freely on top. It's complete! Enjoy the photos.

Time for final assembly! The leg super parts attach via these two slots. For good measure, I filled the slots with CA glue and fitted in the tabs. The tab on the pack fits into the depression on the lower leg, and the post on the other side rests in a depression on the side of the leg. Neither connection creates enough friction to hold the pack in place. I used CA glue again to attach the part to the leg. I won't be able to remove the super parts, but the engineering of the legs don't really allow for this display option anyway. The super parts for the arms attach very snugly without glue. It might be possible to remove them, but it would probably scratch the paint up because the fit is very tight. The gunpod rests between the arms and is aligned with a tab on the handle which slots into holes in the blue super parts. I glued the arms together along with the gunpod with CA glue. I did not glue the arms to the hull because there is enough friction between the tabs on the arms and slots in the hull to hold them in place. The upper legs fit into the lower legs via long poles which tab into a slot hidden in the interior of the lower legs. No glue required for this join. I slotted the legs into the hull -- no glue necessary. The whole assembly creates a very tight fit. The legs hug the arms very snugly and will keep them in place. The boosters peg into the backpack via a beam which runs through its center. I didn't use glue on these connections to allow for disassembly.

I used this Tamiya Polishing Compound for the final polish. This stuff is essentially toothpaste -- I believe it consists of microabrasive particles suspended in this white goop. I applied a small bit to some toilet papers and rubbed the entire surface of the canopy. Here's the result after applying the fine compound and the result after the finish compound. I repeated the entire process from start to finish a few times to achieve this result. To achieve a high-gloss shine, I dipped the entire canopy in Future. After wicking away the excess fluid at the extremities of the canopy, I left it to cure overnight in a dust-free environment. Finally, I'll finish the black canopy frame. I created a mask using a single length of Tamiya masking tape which follows the frame at the base of the canopy. I filled in the middle with more tape. The canopy frame after airbrushing Mr Color GX 2 black. To this gloss surface, I applied the decal naming the pilot. A coat of Mr Color GX 100 protects the decal and the Mr Color 181 semi-gloss provides the final finish. There's still the bit of frame which crosses the middle of the canopy. I tried masking this, but it was too difficult because it does not create right angles where the two parts of the frames meet. Instead, I just used the decal intended for this part. The canopy is finished, it's time to seal Hikaru in! I attached the canopy using this Testors Clear Parts Cement. Next time it'll be time for final assembly!

The damage is worst where the front of the canopy meets the nose. To repair the paint, I very lightly sanded the damaged area with 3000 grit sandpaper to attempt to smooth out the surface. Next, I masked the area in preparation for paint. To avoid a step where the two different layers of black paint meet, I created a sort of hood with the masking tape. This will allow the two different layers of black paint to blend together. The idea is to only partially occlude the undamaged surface. The hooded mask worked quite well. It's difficult to tell there was any damage. Since I will not be applying a clear coat to these final metallic surfaces, I'm painting them last. Here I've airbrushed Alclad's gloss black primer onto the leg joints. To make these lenses really shiny I airbrushed Alclad chrome onto their interior surfaces. I painted the leg joints with Alclad steel and magnesium. The lenses received coats of Mr Color blue and red transparent paints followed by super clear III. The lights at the tips of the wings in place. The lights in the nacelles on the nose in place. The lights on the legs in place. The tips of the vertical stabilizers aren't actually transparent pieces, but I painted them using the same technique. The lenses in place on the strike cannon and gunpod. I realized I forgot a couple of metallic surfaces -- the doors hiding the hands and these thrusters. They received a coat of Alclad gloss black primer, and Alclad steel and chrome, respectively. The finished hand doors. Hasegawa includes two different canopies in this kit -- I assume the difference is that one is the tv show design and the other is the movie design. I think the canopy pictured here is the movie design. Anyway, the seam running down the center of the canopy needs to be removed and the plastic needs to be shined up. I began by sanding the seam line with 1200 grit Tamiya finishing abrasive. That leaves behind a foggy surface. I progressed up to 1500 grit abrasive and followed it with 2000 grit.

Almost done -- this time, final detailing! I hand brushed the depressions in the nacelles on either side of the intakes with yellow Testors enamel. The Hasegawa photoetched detail parts include thin antennae to apply below the cockpit which replaces the thicker parts included in the base kit. In addition to the antennae, there are also tiny parts which cover the valkyrie's characteristic thrust vectoring nozzles. I'm applying them at this part of the build because I was afraid they might get bent or lost during assembly. Since they are metal, I'm applying Mr Metal Primer before painting. To paint the parts, I taped them to a piece of styrene sheet to ensure they did not get lost. An antenna after priming. At this point, it was time to apply all the decals. There were so many and it took about a week. Here's a shot of my workspace during the process. This is probably the trickiest decal in the kit. It's long and thin and needs to hug the slot towards the rear of the cockpit where the hull connects. It's important to get this one right because of the prominent UN Spacy emblem. In the process, this decal broke apart several times and I had to repair it using a combination of paint and transplants from similar decals. I hand brushed black enamel into the centers of the nozzles which dot the craft and cleaned up the edges of the nozzles with Zippo fluid. Almost finished! Here are a few shots of the valkyrie. The metal antennae parts fit into these slots underneath the cockpit. They are quite sturdy and not prone to accidental bending. In hindsight, I should have connected the parts to the kit while surfacing so I could fill the holes. I won't attempt it at this point -- I can see the finish line :-) To seal in the decals and panel line washes, I airbrushed Mr Color GX 100 Super Clear III. I don't really like airbrushing Future for this purpose, because it always seems to collect in droplets across the surface instead of forming a smooth connected layer. The Super Clear III creates a perfectly smooth coat. For the final finish, I decided on a semi-gloss coat. Here I've airbrushed Mr Color 181 semi-gloss clear. The final task before final assembly is to paint the various transparent lenses. Here I've hand brushed Citadel mithril silver into the interiors of some clear pieces. This will provide a shiny surface to catch the light and make the lights "pop". I attached these lenses to the wings using regular old Elmer's white glue. The sensor on the strike pack cannon has molded detail on the interior surface, so I detailed it with Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color using the same technique I used on the head sensors. I did the same with the photo etched parts which sit beneath the landing lights on the legs of the plane. They are quite detailed. After cleaning them up with Zippo fluid, they look very sharp. Fitting the landing lights onto the legs. At this point, I cracked open the canopy which has been sealed since the beginning of the build. Quite a few layers of paint had collected over the seal between canopy and fuselage and I was worried there would be paint damage. It was a bit of a struggle getting the canopy off, and as expected, there is a little bit of chipped paint at the joint.