Chronocidal

Well that was unexpected... I place my M&M order monday, and just got an update today with Overdrive apologizing for a delay .. it hit customs this morning, and left at 1pm.. might be here by tomorrow

Are you mixing your paints before using them? I usually spend a good minute stirring my paints with an unbent paper clip before I brush them on, and that's with enamels. Acrylics might take even more to mix well, and even then, some will be thinner than others.

I dont think that's the kit, the two look almost identical in size. Besides, there'd be no reason to make a kit in all different colored plastic, it's all the same material. Meh, whoever took those pics transformed that thing horribly. It does look good but I'm worried about the potential flop factor on this one. Soooo many potentially sloppy joints, and even these shots can't seem to align ANY of the wing surfaces. The whole thing looks out of alignment, I hope it's just from the mistransformation. The limp nozzles on the back of the wing boosters don't bode well either.

Doing everything by hand can be tricky, but there are ways. Lots of people like to spraypaint everything, but I've never cared for the messy setup when I can just brush some small details. For landing gear, assuming you can assemble them before putting them on the model, you probably should paint them, and attach them after everything else is done. For hand painting tires, I usually assemble them (if needed) and stick them on the end of a toothpick to paint. Finish one side, let it dry, then flip it over. Struts are probably best painted while still attached to the parts sprue, at least partially. If it's too late for that, you could possible attach the tires (once they're dry) and use them as a gripping point, but you risk painting the tires. It's much easier if you paint the struts while on the tree, and then touch up the attach points later. Clear coats have two main effects I think.. one, they protect the decals and seal them once they're on, and two, they give the aircraft the right amount of shine if you do it right. Someone with more experience could give you more details, but decals also stick better to gloss paint, so people who paint using flat colors (many military paint colors only come in flat) will sometimes spray a clear gloss coat to make the decals stick better, then spray another coat over them to seal them in, THEN spray an overall dull coat to make the plane look right. For your first kit, especially something like a Corsair, I'd think you could ignore panel lining, and save that for later. It's not something you see much on regular military aircraft models, and when you do, it's mostly just a hint of shading, not a solid panel line. Weathering can take a lot of practice, and I wouldn't recommend it for a first model. You can always come back later if you want to do it though.

I'd love to get a ton of these and repaint them all fancy... I guess maybe if I get one a month... after all the M&M stuff has blown over, and I have all the other valks I want. I'd love if they offered this with a full set of heads. I seriously want some of these in standard squadron markings. Barring a huge collection of these tho... I'd love to get a hold of several of the decal sets. They'd make good backups in case any tail markings get worn off by fast packs.

I'm guessing you got the Motion Picture version (or -A model).. that's probably the worst offering in that series really. Lousy construction, stupid use of die-cast, and the perpetually out of line nacelles. Others from that series were much better. I'd recommend the Reliant, it's one of the better ones (nearly all metal too). I've also heard good things about the BoP.

Personally, I'm counting on the VF-22, since it's got a specially made M7 Milia. Just got the "processing" message for my set, they should be on the way soon.

Ok, so I basically need a new pair of shoulders for two DYRL 1/60s (really doesn't matter which specific valk I get them for, they all match), and a new head for my Hikaru 1J.. Anyone have the part numbers on these? Btw, do I need to put all these parts on separate requests? I'm guessing I cant send them all at once, but can I even send multiple requests back to back?

Well, new month, time for another order. Time for M&M part one.

I still want my VF-1 VF-1. I'd be happy with any markings based on late 70's F-14 squadrons tho. I saw a VF-142 Ghostriders scheme once, and it looked absolutely perfect on a valk. Has anyone tried using 1/72 F-14 markings on a 1/60 VF-1? They might not be too far off in size.

Well, lego's had (I think) 3 versions of that ship.. the first wasn't great, but the later UCS one was nice. Can't remember much of the most recent one, but it was better than the first. The original Episode I toy though.. that was a rarity. Not in terms of hard to find, but rare that they produced something so accurate, and even in a good scale with the figures. Most of the time, ships get mangled to fit the figures (looking at you, original X-wing ). The old N-1 fits in that tiny category of vehicles where it actually makes sense to produce it in the correct scale for the figures (others being things like the A-wing and Snowspeeder). It's a BIG ship.. but it gets surprisingly compact when you remove the engines and tail section. Btw, if you're hoping to get the giant Lego Falcon, better step on it. Apparently it's now out of production, and they're emptying their remaining stock.

Actually, I think that makes some sense, in terms of real life aircraft markings. Those stripes aren't decoration. That stripe on the legs (or any plane around this region ahead of the exhausts) usually is an indicator for where the front of the engine is (not sure if it means very front, or maybe the location of part of the compressor). Up to the point in the 80's where all the planes lost their nice shiny high-vis markings, these stripes were red. On camoflaged planes, they generally are painted grey. Granted, a bright red fighter is nothing like camoflage. But I've never seen those stripes blue before on any aircraft. The grey color looks like it matches with the grey used on the intake warnings, since red wouldn't show up.

I know I've got that book stashed somewhere, I'll see if I can find it tomorrow, and post up the ones you're missing (provided they're all listed to begin with). Now a big question... Who here has enough legos to rebuild the collector series star destroyer in all red bricks to make a UCS Errant Venture?

I was drunk for halloween. Meh, not really, but once you get past trick or treating age, halloween basically turns into "excuse to have a drunken costume party" day, or "this is my chance to get away with dressing like a total slurm" day. In the case where you happen to have a large anime-watching group of friends, it generally turns into "slightly less awkward and nationally sanctioned cosplay" day.

Yeah, the hands are straight out of bionicle sets (on of the most useful part they've made yet I think, they're ball jointed, and perfect for gripping things). Really, the big thing that made this possible was a particular bionicle set- a giant tank/walker transforming thing that came with 16 of the biggest click joint Lego makes (same type that support the giant AT-AT legs), and a good set of newer ball/socket joints that are more stiff than the standard bionicle figures. That set is a treasure trove of mech-building parts (since, well, that set IS a giant transforming mech). Lego's even introduced some type of sliding hydraulic joint part that just provides tension on an axle. I may rebuild this some more to strengthen the main body joints, and give the legs a bit more tension. Might adjust the proportions some too, though I dunno how much longer I can make the nose without making it slide like the v2 1/60. If I do make instructions for it, it'll be a while, since I want to refine the design a lot more. And I might just offer them free honestly. Last time I did freelance work online, it screwed with my taxes and almost wasn't worth the hassle.

Actually, it might be possible to get a regular minifig in this one..I started that way, and changed it at some point to make the canopy shape better. I'd just have to hollow out the nose, and replace the canopy. The type of bubble canopy in the A-wing kits should work fine. Might even reduce the weight a bit, which would be good.

Ok, a bit worried about what I'm seeing... Do those both have limp head lasers? My Hikaru 1J lasers went completely limp in fighter after one transformation, and these look like they're drooping already.

Good thing this is a three paycheck month... I'm gonna need it

lol.. once I figure out that antigravity device, sure. This thing is extremely unstable as is. They might work in fighter, but I think anything past that would be tempting fate.

going to gerwalk... done And moving to battroid.. Yeah.. this sucker is a bit huge. Posing in battroid is a balancing act, and although the legs can be positioned pretty well, the joints still aren't stiff enough to do any fancy poses. It really needs the mid-thigh pivot before any real poses would be possible, and even then, the weight will make problems. It's fairly sturdy in fighter and gerwalk, but moving to battroid makes it very clear why Yamato used a metal plate for the chest piece on the v2 1/60.. While that joint was incredibly sturdy on my 1/18 version, shrinking to this size reduced that joint to a giant failure point that'll break easily. Still, I'd say it's an overwhelming success compared to my aborted giant one. It's by no means perfect transformation, since you have to remove the head, and reattach the legs for battroid by adding the main hip joints, but I was really happy at some of the details I was able to cram in.

So, a few people might remember the ginormous 1/18th-ish lego VF-1S I made back a couple years ago (still have the pics up at http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/34788 ). Well, I took that apart when I moved out. Just took too much space. But I figured someday I'd return to it... That someday started about two weeks ago, when I moved my lego collection out of my parents house. I restarted from scratch, shrinking the overall size, with the intention of hitting about 1/32 scale this time, and just about nailed it (from the pictures, it's about the length of two 1/60 valks). I finally found a decent set of huge hinges to use, and used them to great extent. Overall result is about the same posability of a chunky monkey, with the rough proportions of a V.2 1/60. The arms are a bit weak, and probably need a rebuild. Anyway, to the pics! Early pic, when I still had ball/socket joints in the hips... weight made me change those out fast when the arms got added. But the poses possible here were awesome. Second progress shot, before a few leg changes and the tail section test shot for the gunpod Fighter mode comparison This shot amazed me that the feet didn't break clean off.. this thing is heavy. underside tails fold up nicely continued....

Hmm.. It may have been in that huge collection somewhere and I missed it, but I wonder if anyone has actually tried doing the costume that Nanase designed for Ranka? I'm pretty sure it was Alice in Wonderland themed, and I coulda sworn it had bunny ears. There was one outfit in that collection that looked kinda similar, but no bunny ears (or giant spoon for that matter ).

Ok, THAT is an interesting thing.. instead of making the entire fins and tails as decals, they only made the smaller portion a decal.. that could be bad, since now, you have to match your red paint to the red decal, or nothing will match. Oh well, for markings that big, I'd rather just paint them all on anyway.

Assuming the VE-1 has the same friction-type head mount as the other v2 1/60s, I'd check and see if another Valk's head fits it, or if the VE-1 head fits another neck. The hole in the head might be a bit big, or the neck might be too small. Either way though, I think you could fix that just by applying something to the head peg to make it a bit bigger (preferably something you can sand down if it gets too big). I coated a couple pegs on my SV-51s' wings in super glue to enlarge them, and that seemed to work well for that. Depending on how loose the head is though, it may take a few coats of glue before you get it big enough. BTW, I use an extra thick superglue for this, so I can build up a bit of a bulge fairly quickly. I wish I could get into my VF-1J's head to fix the floppy lasers, but the gaps are too small to get to the hinges easily, and I think they're riveted on. Still no ideas on how to get the head apart? Edit: K, I know what's wrong with the head lasers.. the hinge pins that keep them on are press fit, and the surface of the head is not quite perpendicular to the pivot axis.. When I first got it, the head lasers were fine in fighter... after rotating up to battroid the first time (quite a bit of friction here the first time), they're completely limp, except in battroid. If I reach into the head with a pin, and press outward on the hinge pins while pressing the laser mounts down tight, they'll go tight enough to stay level in fighter... but rotate them up for battroid again, and the pins pull loose, making the lasers limp again. I'm wondering now if I just have a head that got molded badly. Has anyone else had this happen? Should I maybe think about ordering a replacement?

Assuming you're talking about the folding/rotating tail assembly, my new Nora wasn't bad, but the left tail was a bit limp. I already risked breaking my Alpha fixing its limp tail, so I chose the quick and easy path (and somehow managed to avoid the dark side.. this time). Basically the tail was flopping back a bit easily, so to tighten the joint up, I applied some super glue to a pushpin, and used that to apply a VERY TINY AMOUNT to the shaft the tail rotates on. I rotated the tail around a bit to get the glue spread out, kept rotating it till it dried, and it firmed up that joint nicely. You might be able to do the same for the hinge for the lower fin attached to the tail, if that's what you're trying to fix. Note, the super glue did leave a trace of white residue on the plastic, but it's fairly well hidden.