Chronocidal
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Shape-wise, the old YF-19 really wasn't bad from that view.. or in general, really... It just had quite a few other problems that just piled onto the so-so shape, and helped to drag the design down. Also, the reason that one works from the top view mostly? The legs may have been nice from the top, but just like the entire neck, they were inflated vertically. The entire plane looked like it was stretched in the vertical axis, and nothing lined up the way it should have. The new legs are definitely wider than the original, but that'll actually bring them much closer to being in proportion, since they look about the same height.
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I... just noticed. The 80s space guy's helmet chin.. is cracked. Oh the memories. I think this has a ton of potential to be hilarious, but I do wonder if the humor is going to hit Family Guy-ish levels of self-reference that many people might not get.
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Exactly this. They aren't going to paint the metal sections of the joint tan, and that's mostly what you're seeing. The sliding cover only covers up the gap inside the knee, and if it were tan, it'd clash horribly. While I think they may have gone overboard in the way they shorten the legs so much for battroid, it does make the legs look much closer to the animation. The result is just that, like the VF-17, the legs have to be made quite a bit longer for fighter mode to work correctly, and the knee joint is the best place to let that extension happen.
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So pretty. I think the intake lip on that one is quite a bit smaller than the original pics, it looks like the edges have been more blended. Honestly, that doesn't bother me quite as much as the gaps for the knee extensions, but even those blend in decently with the correct colors, so I'm not too concerned. Now, the trick is going to be designing a stand clip to go around that big boxy back plate for fighter mode.
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I don't think the color is greenish so much as they're picking up the green from the guy's pants, but who knows.
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Definitely a gloss on the prototype, but it's a lot more muted on the tampoed copies. Looking great so far.
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Picked up my pair at the post office this afternoon, only opened one so far, and it's looking good. Shoulder panels and arms were a little misaligned out of the box, but surprisingly the legs were both tabbed into the wings. Still going to run through at least one gerwalk cycle to get things lined up. Also, really pleased to see how much of this one looks molded in color. The simpler paint scheme helps a ton, but it looks like they just bypassed the painting, and molded more pieces in the color they should be. Where the 30th version had the entire rear backplate molded in silver, and then had white and black painted over it, this one is all in the base tan color, with the silver painted underneath (maybe someone finally realized that no one will care if the underside of the backplate gets the paint scratched off). Canopy does look a bit dark, so I might strip it at some point, but I'm fine leaving this one minty for now. Ohh, and yeah.. they finally matched the colors between the different parts of the inner knee.
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Bandai 1/72 fully transform able VF-1 plastic kit for Macross 30th Ann
Chronocidal replied to Vi-RS's topic in Model kits
Or, if you really feel the need to assemble something and glue it in fighter mode, you could always just get a Hasegawa kit. Or even get a Yamato 1/60 kit, and just glue it together. I dunno why people feel the need to punish themselves by trying to build something with a bunch of problems that way.. maybe a challenge to see if you can overcome the shortcomings? I guess that makes sense. I'd be really interested to see anyone fix the wacky angles the legs always wind up with though. -
Well, from my experience with metal, I do know that simply throwing metal molecules around without the proper processes might produce steel girders with the strength of a damp rag. Ok, maybe not that bad. But there's a lot involved in things like forging and extruding raw metals that imparts a good deal of strength to the finished product. If they can figure out how to lay down the material at the molecular level, they could do it manually, but we're not that advanced yet. As far as plastic goes, the UV/laser method sounds like it would be incredible for accuracy, but the problem there is the materials involved. I know the resin used in those types of machines will be good for some projects, but for me, the ability to print in a workable, industry-standard plastic is key. It's not as useful as styrene in some ways, but ABS will absolutely work for what I want to build.
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Well, it's certainly changing the process of making a resin garage kit. I can't honestly say it will be easier, or less labor intensive than making traditional masters to cast, but it will definitely have an effect on the overall cost to make them. My main question is how long it will be before 3D printing becomes a viable replacement for resin casting as a whole. I don't know how the overall production costs will compare over time, since I've never worked with resin kits. So far, to get the same quality from a 3D print as a cast is just incredibly expensive, but the quality on small personal printers is ramping up at an impressive pace.
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Well, order placed through Dynamism.com, a local US supplier that had it on sale. Not sure if it'll go through without specific approval from my bank, but I'll find out tomorrow. Thanks for the input! This is going to be a really creative year.
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Oh, I'm perfectly ok with an extruder, since I don't plan on printing "finished" pieces anyway. I mostly want to print out my own model parts to supplement my existing kits (extra stores and such possibly two-seat conversions, etc), and some kits from scratch. Plus, I guess I like working in ABS in general, since it's generally good for model/toy parts. I can probably print my own Yamato replacements. Any benefit to buying the printer from a distributor, rather than the main product site?
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So, it's that time of year where I have some funds from family gifts, and I'm preparing to buy a printer for myself. Still thinking of getting an UP! Plus 2, but I'm open to suggestions on what's the latest and greatest bang for the buck. Mostly, I'm just looking for something with between a 6" and 8" cubic printing area (bigger is better, doesn't need to be cubic either, a shoebox shape would be fine), and with easy leveling and calibration. I know the UP! Plus 2 has auto-calibration, so that's what was drawing me to it from the start. What types of suppliers/retailers do you go to for ordering these types of printers and plastic spools? And, after a quick Google search, it appears the UP! Plus 2 is on sale for $150 off at the moment.. hmmm...
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Hah, actually that's amusiing.. I think the one classic visorless space figure I have is the blue one. Aha, there it is! Never could remember the name.
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I think Bandai has just been doing a terrible job of informing its employees how to correctly pack their products recently. Their QC teams don't know what they're looking at, and it's abundantly clear that they don't know what the things are supposed to look like, or how they transform. I've gotten at least four Bandai valks in various stages of mistransformation, for assorted reasons. Mostly, I think they just take a quick look at the things to make sure all the pieces are there, then put them back in the box without actually trying to repack them in any particular mode. Other times, they're mistransformed because parts are missing, and no one figured it out (my VF-25G with no crotch plate), or because someone had absolutely no idea what they were doing, and let a completely misassembled valk go through without even trying to put it any recognizable form. My super VF-27 had its shoulder linkages installed upside-down, backwards, or both, and couldn't actually transform into any mode, because the hinges were so out of whack.. I had to take the thing apart and reassemble it myself before it was even possible to fit correctly in the package.
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You should be fine on the wing, but make absolutely sure that the fuselage is molded in tan, and not painted over. The 30th anniversary version had the entire fuselage molded in dark gunmetal plastic, and painted over in white and black. The underside will most likely still be a gunmetal color, so, I'd find a hidden spot along the border between the tan and metal/gray, and scratch it very gently to see which color is painted, and which is molded.
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I'm loving the gunmetal leg packs on that, great color. Shame it's not used more.
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The tricky part is determining what the actual base coat is. If you're working on bare plastic with spots, you'll be fine, but on previous releases of the YF-29, good chunks of the plane were molded in one color, then painted over with another color entirely.
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I think certain shops offer insured SAL, but I'm not sure if that's the proper term. NY offers a lot of options, but I usually go for the cheapest insured/tracked one, and it's not failed me yet.
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Bandai 1/72 fully transform able VF-1 plastic kit for Macross 30th Ann
Chronocidal replied to Vi-RS's topic in Model kits
They aren't messed up, because he didn't snap them into place. I'll agree, this kit is good if you want just a gerwalk model, but honestly, I can't stand the way they (mis)designed the knee joint. It just looks terrible in general, and gerwalk is the worst offender because it exposes the entire goofy mechanism they used. I'd also love to know what their thought processes were when they decided to do the M&Ms... "So, Millia's is supposed to be the same as Max, but with red instead of blue... but we're going to ignore that, and make some of her parts different colors because we feel like it." I mean.. really.. there's being "creative," and then there's being outright obstinate about flaunting your refusal to actually make things as they were originally done. I don't get it. It's not like you can't paint it the right color anyway, but why be so specific as to just make several pieces entirely the wrong color? It's just a pain in the backside to fix. -
I know the outer fins can be detached pretty easily, but I don't have mine handy to check how I did it. I know it involved rocking them slightly to pry apart the two halves of the missile pods, but I don't remember which direction I rocked them.
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Arcadia: 1/60 VF-1S Hikaru Ichijo Special Movie Ver
Chronocidal replied to SaitouSad's topic in Toys
You know. There's nothing like a dose of reality to make the little things seem pretty insignificant. The maintenance crews probably had rough guidelines for where to paint them, but I doubt they'd always be perfect either. Plus, I don't think the original logo is actually level to begin with. -
Oh, sure, but it's going to look ugly clipping a giant mount around the intakes. Actually, I think what's driving the issue? They wanted a place to mount it where you could still mount the gunpod. Consiering the way they did the VF-0 way back when, I still don't see it as any kind of excuse though, since the VF-0 had a mount that not only wrapped around the gunpod, but it actually supported the plane right under it's center of mass. Why they stopped thinking about that kind of thing as time went on, I have no idea. I don't know why they don't just make three adapters for all three modes, I don't think it would be the first time they did.
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Actually, now that I look at it, I was mistaken about it staying in exactly the same place, but the location might still be sturdy enough to support it in gerwalk mode. I forgot that the metal backplate has to move around a little for gerwalk, because I usually just drop the legs, and forget about the arms. All I'm thinking of doing is designing an adapter that will clip around the big bulky section of the backplate with the thrusters on it, where the sound booster attaches. That'll work better in fighter mode, since that cluster of thrust nozzles is right about where the balance point is. For gerwalk, the balance point is shifted slightly forward, under where the crotch plate covers. I've got no concern at all about that metal piece supporting fighter, since the whole thing locks together so well. For gerwalk mode though, you'd actually be resting the weight of the valk on the wingroot tabs that hold the chest in place. On the v.1 YF-19, there wasn't anything holding the chest down in gerwalk, so there wouldn't have been any way to support the valk there. With the VF-19, we got tabs to lock the chest in place in gerwalk, and they're pretty short stocky tabs, but I'm not sure I'd want to support gerwalk that way for long periods of time.
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Actually, no, there's no reason you couldn't mount the stand directly to the metal backplate. It doesn't move in gerwalk at all, and on top of that, it's already where the sound booster goes, so you already have slots to mount things. Once I get myself a 3d printer, I'm going to go about making myself some mounts that clip around that backplate, right between the knee joints. I probably won't distribute them, but I'll put the design up on shapeways when it's workable.