Chronocidal

Actually, I kind of don't blame them doing it this way, even if it does suck for us. Financially speaking, those kits might be more profitable in several ways than a full fledged toy. After the Q-Rau didn't sell very well, I don't blame them at all for wanting to test the waters. What's interesting about this is it sounds like they're pulling their SDF-1 kit shenanigans again, but now we know how that story is ending (or, at least we know the $2000 model wasn't the end of it). Let's say they do release it as a $400 kit, and the Japanese collectors eat them up. Would it be too farfetched to say the kit is designed to cover the production costs of a toy version? If it sells well, they know the interest is there, and could go ahead with the toy. If not, they still filled a niche for collectors, and made a decent profit from the kit. For Yamato, it's all about what's profitable. And to be honest, I'm all for them making a profit, since it increases chances that they will keep making the more obscure Macross vehicles. I do think this websclusive crap needs to disappear forever, though. Honestly though.. I probably wouldn't buy a Regult myself, so I'm not too worried about this. I'm more of an aircraft fan, and while they're good for dioramas/battle scenes, I keep my valks mostly displayed in flight anyway.

True, I admit I was looking at the Hi-Metal when I said that, and that version has the hip joint fairly far back, pushing the LEX further behind the canard. (btw, LEX= leading edge extension, the upper portion of the hips above the main intake) Maybe I should rephrase what I mean... the nose just looks too short. The space between the canards and the head looks really compressed, and it pushes the top of the hips clear up to the canopy. Even that line art shows the front edge of the hip plate falling under the canards, not ahead of them (on the top view anyway.. yay for line-art ) Eh, I'm just paranoid. I just hate these "wait and see" bits. Hopefully we'll see a bit more CAD work soon like we did with the YF-19.

I don't mind a bit about the exposed head really.. I leave the cover off the Hi-Metal anyway because I don't care to swap all those tiny parts. That CAD though... bothers me. Severely. The views of the nose don't look too bad on their own, but that top view is very, very wrong. Not quite Bandai 1/65 wrong, but close. They may have dropped the nose, which I like.. but the LEX should NOT extend ahead of the canards!

Thanks At least it wasn't too far off color wise, I just need a darker center screen, and more of a gray border. It probably would look better to print it and stick it on, but part of my personal challenge with this is to see just how far I can get with just painting things. I'm probably going to be punishing myself a lot (already have with the tails actually, but that's another story), but I want to see how it goes. Btw, somewhere along the way, I discovered a really useful tool for cleaning up paint that went out of the lines: a filed down toothpick. I just filed a round toothpick to a chiseled point, wet it a bit, and used it to smooth out rough paint edges. Worked wonders for cleaning up the tails, and it's a great tool in general for scraping paint off when it's still semi-wet, since the wood usually won't hurt the plastic at all.

Before I forget, just a quick note... I'm trying to avoid buying any specific colors for this build up. Most of the more complex colors I've been mixing on the fly (the lavender for the sensors, Alto's suit colors, etc.) because I don't need to paint anything very large. In many cases though, I'm going to be using rough approximations using colors I already have handy, which include a lot of military standard colors. Now, next up, the canopy frame. Most aircraft I know have canopy frames that match the cockpit interior on the inside, so I figured I'd just make a dual layer paint job on the canopy. For the first coat, I used dark gull grey, the same color I used on the cockpit interior. That made it so the canopy frame appears gray on the inside. Second, I painted the black over that (after it was VERY dry). So, although it's tough to see, the end result is that the canopy frame is gray on the inside, black on the outside. For the cockpit interior, I didn't really do anything special, except drive myself nuts painting the details with a tiny brush. While I've seen many people use printouts of the instrument panel in the cockpit, I got a bit lazy.. and decided to make a bunch of extra work for myself. (As a side note, there's going to be a LOT of that during this build... my lazyness toward doing certain things usually winds up making me do a lot more work. Whether the results are worth it, I have no idea.. I just like doing things differently to see what happens. ) For the instrument panel, I basically went from my memory of the show... which wasn't great, but didn't give terrible results. I essentially painted the background of the screen a bright green, and outlined a couple of divisions in yellow while the green was still wet. It's nothing fancy, and I might go back later to revise it, but I'm okay with it for now. That's about it for tonight, I need to get back to actually doing some work on the kit now that a good bit of painting is done. Next up will probably be the head, and I have plan for how to get those white pinstripes painted on with a minimum of pain.

What with the other VF-25 kit builds going on, I hesitated to make this a separate topic, but I'd rather post my stuff here than constantly derail MickyG's long build up. So, while most other build-ups usually include people trying to make relative masterpieces.. I'm taking a slightly different route. In short, this is my second VF-25, but the first I've put any effort into. My first, a VF-25G, was a test build of sorts, and I'm using it to test out ideas on, like the wing/leg tabs I added. I also plan on using it as a testbed for when I try and make a fully swappable set of super parts, but that's a ways off. Now, the key here is I'm putting effort into this build, not money. I'll be honest, I have an airbrush and compressor ready to go (gift from a short while ago), but at the present time, I don't have the space to run it, or the motivation to learn everything I need to know about using it. On the other hand, I already have a bunch of paints, brushes, files, etc. for building a kit... so, I want to see what I can do with a minimum of money spent. Basically, all I bought specifically for this kit are a couple paint colors, and a brush or two, and only because the ones I had already were bad. Also, just because I want to try it, I'm taking my dislike of Bandai's dot-matrix decals to the rather silly extreme, and painting everything by hand (short of text, which I might just use stickers for). And since I don't have any masking tape, this should be very interesting. Since masking tends to fail on me when I hand-paint things anyway, I'm going to see how long I last before breaking down and buying a roll of the Tamiya stuff. This isn't really going to be any kind of part-by-part build-up, since I'm sure you've seen that already, and the instructions make that part a breeze. What I'm going to focus on is how to maximize the effect you can get with very simple building tools and materials. First up, the nose sensors. I've seen many people give these a colored wash to turn them purple, but I've always been a fan of painting the back side of clear parts to color them (old habit from Star Trek kits). I may still coat them very lightly later on with the purple coloring I found, but for now I like the effect I've gotten First trick for nice looking sensor windows: cut the pegs off. They're not needed at all, since the piece is held in tightly by the upper nose panel. Those pegs bugged me for a while, because even with the entire sensor area painted solid lavender, those pegs will show up as big dark spots in the window. So, I cut them off and sanded the underside of that piece smooth. To make sure to get the brighest internal reflection on the sensors, I painted the entire area around them. May seem a bit overkill, but that way you aren't getting any light absorbed by the underside of that nose piece. Once I had everything dry, I put it together and just wiped away the paint from the windows themselves (I'm starting to love acrylic paints).

Over the past year, I went from owning a single 1/48 Super VF-1J (which I still love), to having around 20 Valks of various types. I sometimes think to my self "Oh God, WHY?" but then I start playing with them, and it mostly goes away. It started last year with the first HLJ free shipping sale, where I got my first two V2 VF-1s (and my first 4 broken shoulders ), as well as a CF SV-51. If fixed up the shoulders, and still enjoy them. But it was only the start. Over the months of October to February, I picked up a total of 8 V2 VF-1s, 2 SV-51s, the 1/60 Mac+ trio, VF-0A with ghost, 2 VF-22s, two DX VF-25s, a DX VF-27, and a Hi-Metal Fire Valk. While I could have spent that money for far more useful things, I did manage to somewhat limit myself to the ones I really liked. I only have two regrets really. 1. Again with the YF-19. I really only got it since I found it very cheaply in good condition (never transformed, but it had bum shoulders out of the box), and I wanted the complete Mac+ set. It's still my favorite design from that, but it got the worst treatment by far. I still hope Yamato will see the light and rebuild it again, because that plane deserves so much better. Even then though, I might hang onto this one as a reminder of what being a completist entails. 2. My Max TV VF-1A. This one definitely needs an explanation. I have no problems with the valk itself, it's beautiful. What I regret is my timing, and willing to settle for something I hadn't planned on getting. I had been planning on buying a CF-1A, and HLJ ran out of stock before I got to it. I was already ordering a stack of Frontier kits, and wanted to get a TV 1A, so I settled for Max. Up to that point, I'd been pretty good about not buying pilot duplicates (except for the crazy number of unique valks Hikaru went through in DYRL and the series). If I decide to get a TV Focker, I might pony up and still get the CF-1A with it. But then I'll have 10 V2 VF-1s.. oy. Actually.. maybe my biggest regret.. I still have not gotten a second DYRL strike pack. I already have a Focker, and don't feel like buying a Hikaru Strike 1S when I can just "make one" by sticking Roy's head on his 1A (really don't mind the wrong numbers). But I really want to be able to make a dual strike setup.

I'm almost thinking of documenting my current build.. it's not that I've done anything horribly fancy, but I'm finding a bunch of little tweaks to apply that are having some interesting effects on the way it looks. Sometimes, small things that make a big difference are easy to overlook, which is what these longer build-ups are great for. For instance, the nose sensor windows look much better if you cut off the pegs and sand it smooth, or, I think it's actually easier to paint Alto's head stripes on than use the decals, as long as you do a little sanding on the head pieces... stuff like that. I just hope on my later builds I have the guts to do as much work as you've done here. I'm just scared to experiment too much.. although, I might buy myself another Alto in case this one dies a horrible hand-painted death.

Basically, they gave the swing bar a double axis hinge on the backplate, and the entire swingbar could swing left and right at its base. There wasn't much range of motion though. The nosecone was limited to three notched positions, with one centered, and the others being maybe 10-15 degrees off center to either side. Really, the function is pretty easy to miss, I didn't even realize the nose could rotate at all until I noticed the nosecone off center one day.

Now there's something fun... anyone want to try an SV-51 to VF-25 custom conversion?

I really don't see Bandai caring one bit about how big their "installed base" is with the current DX. I'd assume the only thing keeping them from making something better is that they still have stock to empty out, and the factories are probably under a contract for a certain amount of production. They've seen no reason not to release umpteen gajillion versions of whatever gundam property happens to be popular at the moment, and I don't think this will be any different. It just might take a while. As for people investing in them, and considering them the "new chunky"... well.. frankly, I doubt the DX has the durability to ever reach that status. Well maintained chunkies are still sturdy and pretty looking decades later. They have their faults, but they are VERY durable. And for the time they were made, they were a darned accurate representation of a VF-1, considering they were made from a hand-animated show. In comparison, the DX's owned by the members here (by people who are mostly collectors remember) have seen a lot of wear and tear from the slightest of handling (or in several cases, just displaying in a fixed pose). I'd hate to even try to imagine how these hold up for children. And while the chunkies managed to look good back then, Bandai has absolutely no excuse for the mistakes they made in the overall shape of the VF-25. The flappy bent wings, lousy shaped nose, idiotic landing gear.. and that's not even touching the super and armor pack issues.. those were not concessions for durability, they were just flat out lazy. I might hold onto my couple of DXs for nostalgia's sake, but if Bandai comes up with something that looks.. well, you know, like they tried, I won't hesitate to get it. They can do so much better when they try, and it's obvious from the VF-27. It may be a little while, but I'm hoping the current DX dies a quick untimely death, and Bandai tramples on its grave with something that looks as good as the model kit does. On the other hand.. given the general wear and tear DXs seem to take quickly.. I only half jokingly wonder if Bandai didn't manufacture them to self-destruct on purpose, just so they can make something to replace them quickly, and sell twice as much stuff to replace the broken ones.

FYI, I think if you're looking for low vis VF-1 markings, you might want to take a look at the sticker sheet included in the VE-1/VT-1. I don't remember for sure, but I think the markings for the VE-1 were mostly low-vis variants. Course, they're stickers, but it's probably better than nothing.

Exactly... I'm really freaking sick of Bandai's marketing for these stupid exclusive add-ons. I mean come on... throwing in heavily requested accessories for completely unrelated valks in with a tornado add-on pack? This is like if Yamato said they were going to make the GBP-1 stand alone armor pack a web exclusive, and then decided to throw in a strike cannon and RMS missiles for the VF-1, and make it so the only way to ever have a full strike VF-1 was to buy the exclusive armor. The situation with Yamato for the fast packs and fold booster for the YF-19/YF-21 was bad enough, but still nowhere near as bass ackwards as this.

Ya know, there is one thing I have never understood about the transforming Monster... Why on earth does the nose have to fold under? For battroid, okay, it makes the torso a little less pointy. But seriously, in gerwalk, it just looks dumb. It's like, "sorry, the nose is just too heavy, I think we'll let it dangle for no reason." In the process, they introduce the potential for a floppy joint that just lets it dangle. The only reason for it I see is to make it look more like the original Monster... which makes absolutely no engineering sense. Anywho... Is the SP version a newer Ranka Guard from the movie? Because, that's definitely not the Monster Girl nose art I remember... and it looks hideous pasted over the shark mouth.

Well shoot.. I might have to get a dozen or so of these. I kinda hope that they paint up an Ozma version with a chibi SD skull marking. I'm thinking something like Yoko's skull hairpin. Btw.. is it wrong that I like this sculpt better than the DX? I mean.. sheesh.. even in SD form, I feel like this has better proportions.

Oy... thank you for that... now I have to try and sleep with a nosebleed. Agreed though.. out of character or not, it's a beauty of a figure. I just wish I could justify it (and I don't really mean the price ).

Just a thought... but why not see how well it goes together without any glue at all? I imagine some parts might be impossible to do without it.. but on the whole, when I build one of these, I plan on using the absolute minimum amount of glue possible. I like to take things apart and tinker with them, and glue will only frustrate that possibility (looking at you, 1/60 YF-19 ). For example.. I do know that the lower legs will stay together entirely with screws. I had to take apart a couple of mine to fix sloppy leg strakes (another bonus of the kit, you can just fix things like that from the start), and I wound up breaking a locator pin clean off one when I popped the glue.. but the screws in the leg were plenty to hold things together.

All hail Lord Helmet! And to think I was sure they were done with the "homages" to other famous franchises.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of the "improved" ankle joint.. if only because we never saw the feet work that way. It does make posing easier, but at the same time, it's not how the feet are supposed to pivot. Don't mean to sound like I'm complaining really, as it's a nice innovation. I suppose you've gotta account for magical bending metal somehow.

Actually, if you loosen up the screws holding those shoulder pivots a bit (something like a quarter turn or so) it gives a little more room to move the shoulders over those bumps. Go too far, and the shoulders will fall down past the stops in battroid, but if you do it just right you'll really reduce the stress on those parts when you move them.

Well.. one problem with the YF-19 in general is that they used a ton of glue to hold it together. Short of prying the entire shoulder assemblies apart, there's nothing you can really do to tighten them up. Mine are too floppy to hold their own weight up, let alone a gunpod. Frankly... I've kinda come to terms with the YF-19... or maybe just given up. I didn't pay nearly full price for it, so I don't mind too much. But I can't see myself spending any more money on that mold. Compared with Yamato's more recent work, it's just an incredibly flawed design.

Actually.. given how the fold system works, I think the barrier is one of the simpler things to explain, at least in the sense it was used in the tv series. For a long time, it looked like the PPB system (trackball interface and all) was actually more like a mobile wormhole than a shield. If you think about it that way, as if you're literally holding open a fold, and moving the entry point to intercept weapon impacts, it makes a decent amount of sense. They were just folding the incoming beams and missiles elsewhere in space. It even works on the larger scale attacks, if you imagine that they were forcibly folding portions of the ships they punched with the field (the PPB punch from Mac+ though treated it entirely like an energy barrier). In terms of where it came from... well, the fold system disappeared, leaving some sort of energy field behind. Considering it happened during a fold, that could essentially mean that the fold they entered might have never entirely closed. It still is a bit of handwavium at best, considering the fold system itself is so vaguely defined in terms of real physics. But after seeing Frontier, I'm starting to think the PPB is essentially a small scale fold fault, or something similar. That concept in itself isn't very well described to begin with, but if we make the comparison to the idea of a "hyperspace" dimension similar to the Star Wars universe, I think it's supposed to be approximately what a "mass shadow" is in the EU... basically, an obstruction in real space that has secondary effects in hyperspace. The Vajra queen's massive spherical barrier toward the end of the last episode seemed to be similar to the one the SDF-1 generated (although stable), and I think it was called a "fold barrier" or something. In order to get through it, the Vajra drones had to open a fold to the other side of the barrier, and it had already been established that they could fold through faults. Anywho, PPB theory is probably better reserved for another topic. What I kind of wonder about in terms of what plants and animals survived... I don't think the idea was even really mainstream at the time the tv series aired, but aren't there storehouses of various seed types stored in random remote locations? I don't know whether they contain samples of animal DNA as well, but you could argue that after learning about aliens existing, it'd be common sense to make a storehouse containing all sorts of backups in case the Earth was toasted. Of course, the SDF-1 naturally was carrying enough sample material to recreate pretty much anything that originally existed on the island (considering how much of the island and ocean it dragged with it into space). Assuming Zentraedi cloning techniques just need a sample of DNA, it'd probably be simple to start mass producing any lifeform that got sucked into space with the ship. Now, even assuming you could theoretically clone a majority of the important plants and animals from Earth.. what I really wonder is whether those species were transplanted to other planets directly. Both Eden and Lux were shown to have distinct lifeforms of their own, even though they were relatively similar to Earth in most ways. It'd take some interesting tricks to force Earth animals to adapt to new planets. Part of me thinks though that they may have tried to salvage what DNA samples they could, even from the burned out Earth. It's probably very far-fetched, but having to mix and match bits of what they found could explain things like the hippo-cows.

Considering how green the area was around the ship Khamjin was working on repairing, I don't think the devastation was total. I'd want to think they focused on killing population centers above all else, so any fairly well established civilization would probably be gone, at least as far as cities. On the other hand, some undeveloped portions of the world might have remained relatively intact. It's never addressed directly in the series, except for the shots you see of the surviving jungle. If areas like that survived, I could imagine some large sections of Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and Australia could have remained relatively habitable (at least as habitable as rainforests, deserts, and jungles are to start with). I don't remember exactly what the plan was when they attacked Earth.. was it officially "sterilized" or did they just target humans in particular? As far as DYRL goes though, there seemed to be really nothing left, with radiation to boot (I don't remember the beams used in the tv series being inherently radioactive).

The thing to remember about YF-19 paintschemes... it doesn't look very good with standard marking types used on round nosecones (at least to me). The sharp edge around the nose breaks up any smooth markings, and the only way I know that actually looks good is painting the entire nose a solid color, starting at the separation line ahead of the cockpit. Painting an anti-glare panel might work if done right, but because of the complex curve of the nose, it tends to look funny to me. I've seen people paint just the front half of the nose a different shade, and it looked completely out of place, since there's no existing dividing line there. Now... because that sharp edge on the nose makes a solid dividing line though, painting a variation of the 70's navy scheme might work. Just don't do the wavy white line, and use the existing fuselage edges as borders. Btw... don't go by that F-14 model photo for colors. That blue is ridiculously bright.