Chronocidal
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Everything posted by Chronocidal
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Heh.. pretty much.. heck, I think I even got two left shoulder pieces in one case.. there's a pair numbered "1" and "2", but the matching pieces I only have two "2s" Funny, they're still symmetrical though. I will say this.. I've never appreciated the diecast content in Bandai valks until now. I was able to take the thing far enough apart that I was only hammering/prying on unpainted metal pieces, so there's really no change in how it looks. It's just that now the arms actually fit where they're supposed to.
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Eh, see, but I hate returning things. It's just such a hassle. I spent this long waiting for it to arrive, only to send it back.. Anyway.. it's semi-fixed in any case. Whoever put together the shoulders had installed a few pieces upside-down, backwards, or both. I've never had to use a hammer so much on a valk in my life, but it worked. I just had to push out several of the pins, and flip the pieces around so they fit. Sadly though, it pains me to see that one of the biggest lessons Bandai should have learned from the first VF-25 still hasn't sunk in yet. You do not half-ass fast packs. And they did it again here sadly. Any design that relies on sloppy joints to mount something in its intended position just should not even be produced. The little arm packs are bad enough in how they don't stay on, but the leg packs just don't seem to have a solid mounting position. Still, on its own, I do appreciate the better hip joint and some of the new colors of this release. Maybe I'll just continue my hobby of doing Bandai's job for them, and come up with a way to make the packs work decently.
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So.. holy crap on a stick.. Bandai you freaking dipshits. I finally have my VF-27 shipped to me.. and it's a complete fustercluck of QC failure. Some dipwad in their assembly line put together the shoulder mechanisms entirely backwards. Because of all the stupid spring pins, and the lack of proper alignment, nothing works.. It physically can't transform, and it wasn't even fully in fighter mode in the box. Just.. seriously.. WTF. I could probably return it to HLJ, but the entire process of returning anything overseas just leaves a stupidly bad taste in my mouth. I'm going to see how much of it I can fix myself before I do anything else. Edit: Yeah, I'm chalking this up as stupidest freaking mechanism design on the face of the earth. Who the crap ever thought these mecanisms made any freaking sense to design this way? It's spring pins to high heaven, and everything has exactly one way to fit correctly (but all sorts of ways to fit incorrectly), or the entire thing fails miserably.
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I thought the YF-21 was at least one generation later than the YF-19, if only because the molding quality was so different. Grouped by molding quality, the YF-19, 1/48 VF-1, and VF-0 all felt very similar. I'm trying to remember the order things were announced/released, but the YF-21 and SV-51 were also similar, and came just before the V2 VF-1, so I tend to group those toegether. But anyway, yeah. That YF-19 can't come soon enough.
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Well, if they do wind up going for the VF-0D, it would be nice to maximize the mold usage and make the others again. Thing is.. the problems with the previous VF-0s weren't really design related at all, just purely engineering and materials. Even if they do make a new version of each, I can't really see myself buying them, because they really shouldn't look any different. Same goes for the YF-21 really.. I can see them improving a few things, but the engineering and technology generational gap between the existing YF-21 and now isn't anything like the one that exists between the old YF-19 and this one. I mean, I'm all for producing more Macross stuff, but I don't know how much more I will buy... (probably all of it.. eventually.. but still. )
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See, that's the size canopy you get when you put an actual 1/72 pilot in the plane, instead of whatever midget scale Bandai uses. The gear still looks a bit too long to me, but it looks like actual landing gear now in any case.
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Dunno about 1/144, but Bandai did release the fighter-only 1/100 kits. I picked up a bunch of those for custom paint schemes, they're pretty cheap and easy to build.
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I wouldn't bet on the cockpit hatch just yet.. it looks like it does have a flap there on the backplate like the VF-19s, but I don't think there will be room to get out that way since the forward canopy hinge has to take that space.
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Now that is what the yellow on Ozma's is supposed to look like.. Not that lame mustard crap Bandai shoved out of whatever bodily orifice printed their decals. Sad when the first party company can't even get basic details right on their own material too.. Hasegawa fixed the ankle stripes. I might have to get a couple of these.. just so I can build the Bandai's in battroid and leave them that way.
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I honestly don't think them being ball-jointed was the actual problem.. they were just terrible ball joints.
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That was from Yamato though, and we had a personal contact with them who was able to procure those parts for some people here. Bandai might as well be on another planet for how responsive they are to requests for broken/missing parts. Pretty much, unless you're willing to ship a faulty product back for a full replacement, don't expect any kind of help with anything. It's why everyone has turned to Shapeways parts as a replacement. I've got a few ideas of how to make entire replacements for those lower triangles, but Kurisama might beat me to it anyway. My current plan though is to get a 3D printer this winter, so I might take up the business myself for some things if it's practical.
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I'm still hoping for the SR-71-esque one seen in the clip from Macross 7, not the one from the game. Either would be nice, but I've always preferred the original design's clean lines over the diamond headed one.
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Ugh... I wish they'd spend 15 minutes and come up with a better way to mount that thing on a stand in fighter mode. The VF-19 series stand mounts are completely useless.
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Have to agree the khaki color probably could be a darker gray, but I don't think it looks bad. I think that's close to the color that Yamato used on their 1/200 scale miniature version of the YF-19 (speaking of which, the set it comes with has been on clearance at HLJ for what seems like forever.. $11 for 10 of these little guys. http://www.hlj.com/product/YMT00077/Gsh ) Honestly, I rarely display my VF-19s with the gunpods anyway, since the angle they mount at just looks weird in fighter mode. Another artifact of the gullet in general.. whatever the size, it's lower than the arms, so the gunpod gets pushed down. Only way you could really fix that is by making the gunpod handle extend so the rear drops down too, but then it would just look too low altogether.
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Well, knowing how Macross 30 played around with the timeline, you can't really consider anything there as making sense anyway.
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This is actually part of why I went for HLJ from the get-go; no problem ordering multiples, and I can always throw some other smaller items into the box before shipping. Also, as far as shipping costs go, NY has always had ridiculous prices listed for FedEx compared to HLJ, at least for the items I have ordered. Their listed Fedex prices are probably based on some kind of upper limit, but I think HLJ works with FedEx directly to get good bulk rates. Just for a quick comparison, NY wants 5640 yen for a single VF-27 renewal for FedEx, and that total goes up to 8065 yen for two. When I go to HLJ to have them ship my warehoused VF-27 via FedEx? They ask for 2780 yen. A minute ago I was estimating NY charges almost twice as much, but didn't want to exaggerate.. guess I wasn't. They charge over twice as much for FedEx.
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Whoo! Preordered two at HLJ. My VF-19 Line will be complete!
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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
Legs still look fugly as all hell from the combination of their misplaced locator pins and the junky knee joint. -
Well, my thinking is this... The piece I'm thinking of rotating would equate to the black triangle, plus the rear half of the skinny tab. The tab doesn't move to begin with, so as long as the rotating piece was designed not to hang over past where that tab should be horizontally, the shoulder should have enough room to rotate without interfering. The trick is just getting it to lay flush with the shoulder once rotated back into position for fighter mode. The tabs would just hang vertically below where that long skinny piece is in gerwalk and battroid. I might try and do a rough model of the design later to see if I can illustrate it, unless Kurisama beats me to it.
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Quick question about the VF-171 lower triangle piece.. I'm not near mine right now, or I'd check. What exactly is the swiveling piece attached to? Is it linked to the flimsy looking little tab that lies alongside the thigh? If so, I'd just make a replacement for that entire piece. I think it attaches by a screw near the thigh, so it might be simple to swap a new removable piece in there. Edit: Just had a thought about how to replace it with a working movable piece.. just do what Yamato did on the VF-17, and have the entire flap fold downwards instead of the whole origami folding thing. Quick concept art done with paint: Just replace that piece that screws on with a block half the length of the piece, with a hinge pin on the rear half, and replace the actual triangle flap with a solid piece that can rotate downward on the pin. Since the entire area is hollow to begin with so the flap can fold up in the space, you should have plenty of room for a hinge similar in size to the ones on your VF-0D kit., which should be more than enough to hold a piece that size. You'll probably have to reduce the size of the triangle a bit so it doesn't overlap the shoulder so much though, or you won't have room to rotate the piece. Though, you might be able to get away with just removing a chunk of the back corner to give it room. I can't quite picture how that'd work once transformed to battroid, or if it would interfere with transformation at all, but I think it would just wind up hanging under the sides of the chest once transformed. Not sure if it would collide with the wings or back though.
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I'm having a really hard time imagining the engineering that's holding some of her Black Bunny outfit together.. It's ridiculously ... well.. accurate.
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I was able to cancel my VF-4 order from them once I found out HLJ was selling it, so it can definitely be done. They just aren't very responsive in general to normal communication.
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Oh, I know they're supposed to have more hardpoints.. but in the case of having just the six reaction missiles, I don't know why so many people put the dual on the outer point. It just rubs my sense of wing strength the wrong way (not that it matters with the material strengths in the Macross universe anyway )
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I'm pretty sure I've touted the wonders of gmax before, but the short version is that it is essentially a free version of 3DS Max, minus all the features you don't need for game design (rendering, fancy effects and lighting, etc). It can export in m3d format for quake 3, which is a very short conversion away from STL. Look up any gmax modeling tutorial, and you'll see what it's capable of. It's probably the best free modeling program you can get, provided you find a way around the export limitations.
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So, looking at my CF-171, I noticed a bunch of what looks like stress fractures spreading across one of the little triangle flaps on the underside. I haven't even transformed it, and it's been sitting on its gear pretty much since I got it. Really can't believe how shoddy some of Bandai's parts seem to be.. it's like the VF-0 shoulders all over again. I wonder how hard it would be to remove those pieces entirely, and replace them with the same style flap as the Yamato VF-17 uses?
