tetsujin

Nonsense. Thanks for the scans, this looks like an issue to buy. Are there any pictures of the alterations done to the parts? It seems like they changed the legs on the VF-0 a bit, and I'm guessing they changed the chest, too. (Apart from the obvious changes, splitting the parts, adding new parts, etc.)

I've made some rather small hinges in the past, as I wanted to make better-detailed replacements for my PG Zaku hands: http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/models/Proje...nstruction.html The hinges I made for the fingers had four basic components: the center hinge pin wire (made of soft 1mm flower wire), the hinge wires (eyelets which fit tightly around the hinge pin, made by hand out of steel sewing pins), the cosmetic resin covers for the hinge pins, which gave the hinge its desired spherical shape, and the finger segments in which they were installed, which helped to keep the hinge halves together. Offhand I'd say these hinges would still be too large: they're based on an axis of 1mm flower wire, with steel sewing pins bent around it to form the hinge parts. For the Zaku hands the entire hinge was encased in a 3mm sphere. But I don't think you want something like that sticking out of the fighter canopy. But here is a basic approach I would take if I were to attempt a canopy hinge for this kind of kit: 1: Anchoring the hinge to the canopy Epoxy, super glue, whatever, are no good. They'll pop right off if there's any stress. The only option IMO is to drill into the canopy and have a piece of wire from the hinge extend into the canopy. If the drilled holes go into the part of the canopy (frame) which is painted-over, then none will be the wiser. 2: Basic hinge design When the canopy is closed, you want the canopy to sit in just the right place - and yet, you also want it to be able to open. This is a bit difficult to do directly with a single-axis hinge, generally the hinge would wind up in the wrong place because of the scale you're working at. So it's best to do something like this with an extending hinge-joint of some kind: either a double-hinge that "folds" when the canopy is closed, and "extends" when it's open to give the canopy more clearance, or some kind of linear extension. Also, you have to consider whether you can actually make a load-bearing hinge at this scale, and if so, how much difficulty that adds to the project, and how much risk of future breakage. Load-bearing hinges at this scale are not impossible, but I can tell you from experience that they're pretty hard. A simple alternative might be to attach a strut to the canopy: when the canopy is opened, you could place the strut onto a strategically positioned support inside the cockpit, and maybe pass this strut off as some kind of hydraulic or something. Suggested designs 1: Hinge the canopy with sewing pin-over-flower wire. Mount it to the canopy by drilling into the canopy and plugging in the sewing pins which extend from the end of the hinge. This design is probably closest to your original aim: to have a self-supporting, unobtrusive hinge. The hinge design and installation you use may determine whether the hinge would need to be embedded in resin, or if having just the wire-on-wire would be adequate. Note, however, that the holes for the sewing pins into the canopy will be difficult: in order for them not to be seen, they must angle off in the direction of the canopy frame, but to connect to the hinge properly, they must go straight backward once clear of the canopy. This bend must be performed before installation or you will break the canopy. The flower wire which serves as the hinge pin could also extend backward, to be the mounting of the hinge into the plane. If the flower wire is embedded into a drilled-out polycap or bondo, then it could slide inward and outward, providing the extension you need to cleanly open the canopy. 2: As above, make holes into the canopy to accomodate steel pins: however, instead of having the steel pins also be part of a wire-on-wire hinge, have them extend into a hinge system hidden behind the cockpit. This hinge system could be larger, and more conventional, but because a larger hinge like that wouldn't be on-axis with where the canopy should really be hinged, it would have to be a little bit more tricky, too. One design that may work: when the canopy is closed, the wires extend straight back from the inner top edge of the canopy, and tuck in between the back wall of the cockpit and the nose area which surrounds the back of the cockpit. To open the canopy, the back wall itself would slide or tilt forward, exposing a hinge to which the canopy wires would be mounted. In practice, the action of opening the canopy would be a bit fiddly and both motions would need to be more-or-less simultaneous. However, there are quasi-small hinge parts you could use to make the rest of the hinging work easier: something like a Wave T-Shaft would be small enough to sit behind the rear wall, probably have enough resistance to hold the canopy in place, but not so much resistance that moving the canopy would wreck your installation. If you decide to go the wire-on-wire route, well, there are some advantages and some disadvantages to this. An advantage of the flower wire is that it's kind of soft, so as you work the joint it becomes a better custom-fit. The Steel pins have a bit of springish yield when they're in the eyelet shape around the flower wire, too. This makes it possible for the hinge to have some "sweet spots" where it will prefer to sit - the tradeoff being better load-bearing in exchange for less choice of what position the hinge sits at. Probably the best way to manage that would be to create the hinge, identify its sweet spots, and adjust your installation so the sweet spots are in favorable orientations. It really is possible that such a design could work with no resin involved, since the hinge doesn't have the same constraints as my finger joints. A disadvantage is that it's tough to build those little eyelets. The eyelets need to be planar or they'll form little screw-threads on your hinge pin (which isn't as serious a problem for this application as it was for the fingers.) And most importantly, they need to be tight around that flower wire, or the hinge won't be properly load-bearing. Anyway, if you're interested in trying this and need better descriptions of how it works, let me know. It's hard to explain this stuff.

Bah! Amateurs... First off, yes, there are definite advatages to super glue+powder mixes over different kinds of putty and other fillers in certain circumstances. I usually mix with talcum powder (making Super Glue + Talcum: SGT). SGT is more resilient than super glue alone, harder than most putties, and bonds pretty much as well as super glue. It's carvable, sandable, and very versatile. Of course, the first thing you need to know about SGT and similar mixtures is that the resulting mix varies greatly depending on what super glue you use. There's a lot of variety in the glues, there are thin, runny varieties, thick gel-ish stuff, fast curing, slow curing, etc. I usually use a thick gap-filling type, it gives me several minutes of work time before it cures. I used to use a thin, fast-curing variety and that, too, gave me several minutes of work time. Some super-glues have worked out very badly for me in these kinds of mixtures: either they cured too quickly (resulting in something like half-dried elmer's glue within about 15 seconds), or the mixture didn't stay suspended, resulting in a weak surface and a somewhat stronger core. It takes experimentation, but it's great stuff if you can get the hang of it. Beware the super glue fumes, though. They can hurt your eyes. Different powders can yield different effects, too. Baking soda, corn starch, microballoons... I've not tried them, really. Comparatively, Bondo has similar advantages in terms of fast curing time and carvability, but it doesn't bond as well to plastics. (It bonds better to metal or fiberglass) Modeling putties are easier to work with, but take longer to cure, and are softer when cured. Their main advantage is that they are solvent-based, so if the plastic is compatible with the solvent they'll bond rather well. SGT is especially great for holding detail. It takes an edge very well, for instance.

Yeah, I forgot to add this to my first post.... HAHAHAHA What is that? A dog?

The metallic parts look great, especially the gunpod!

Yeah, I just received mine from HLJ a week ago... and I used SAL.

Yellow Sub is still around - but if those are resin kits and they were released 5 years ago or more, you're most likely not going to find them too easily. Best bet would be an auction site like Yahoo! Japan.

Can I nitpick? "Tomahawk"

I always thought of the destroids' role in space battles as being the close-in defenses and supplementary (mobile) gun emplacements. Valks act as interceptors, small destroids act as defensive units, and large destroids (Monsters) act as small anti-ship guns. While the Macross has guns of its own covering the hull, the addition of hull-walking destroids allows for the possibility of increasing the defenses in a particular area of the ship or "replacing" destroyed hull-mounted cannons. It could be said that these facilities are less important in the Macross 7 era, as the Earth fleets had grown considerably larger, and a major battle carrier like the '7 would have numerous independent escort ships which could support Battle 7 rather well if it was in trouble. City 7 also had more interior space, so the use of variably aircraft (as opposed to just walking armored units) for internal defense is more useful. But I think the real reason the destroids didn't play a big role in most of the newer Macross material is just what's already been stated: they weren't popular enough. I think it stinks. I love transformation and all, but I also love a good non-transforming design, and the Destroids are cool, likewise all the non-transforming Zentradi stuff from the original series.

I disagree. I think they did a rather poor job with the sculpt on the fine looking VF-0. :P

Since you're working with plastic, you don't need a power drill. You can put the bits into a pin vise and turn them yourself. (In other words, a screwdriver-style hand-drill) As for the bullet-hole effect... I'm not really sure, frankly. What you want is a hole with a small indentation around it and corresponding "paint loss" effect. Thinning the plastic sounds like the best idea I've heard for this, though probably difficult unless you have a dremel.

Yah, I imagine if I did that I'd be staggering around, mumbling "ore no uta o kike... ore no uta o kike..." like some kind of spiritia drain victim.

Aircans are like that. When I used them I went through them too quickly, so I got a compressor as soon as I could.

The "Gundam Scratchbuild Manual" is excellent. http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?MDW22248

I hear that... The model looks nice.

No, it's Captain Warlock!

I think it's like others have said: it was released at an awkward point for Gundam. The whole Zeta arc had just been wrapped and with it everything directly tied to the original Gundam. Also, I think robot shows in general were hitting a low-point because they'd been done to death in the 80's. And going back to it now... well, if it didn't make a big impact when it originally came out, it essentially ranks as just yet another old anime show. G Gundam may be goofy, but at least it was fairly recent. I think all the little rules about robot shows are kind of funny. Like how the hero's robot has to be in every episode. I'm sure that's why V Gundam starts with that weird flashback deal. Personally, I can't stand Katoki's designs in general, so the V Gundam is hard to look at. It has the uptight awkwardness of the GP03-S but with none of the charm. As for how it would do in America... Personally I don't think audiences here generally have much patience for "weird". Like robots flying through space with weird wheel things, or people complaining about some weird bell ringing in their head. So I don't think V would do especially well here. And don't knock X. That show was pretty good.

You needn't. Use a wash, the paint will guide itself into those panel lines. Gloss coat your kit (very important) Water down some acrylic paint to the point where it is more water than paint Load some onto a brush Touch the brush to a panel line, paint should flow into the panel line. If not, help it along a little. Wipe away excess paint.

Actually, the technique he described is a simple form of pre-shading, and not Max Technique. Max Tech takes pre-shading further, and a lot of it has to do with how colors are selected for the shading and layering. One thing that's fairly distinctive about Max Technique, I think, is the use of clear colors for hue and effect: to paint Max red, you start with something relatively neutral, like white over brown, and then paint clear red on top of it. Max White is actually white over gray, with a third, highlight layer composed of clear and fluorescent colors, making the white "glow". There are some fundamental problems with painting colors over black, whether using an airbrush or spray cans. First off, if the difference in the colors is too great, the gradient won't appear smooth enough, it'll be speckled. Second, black doesn't really blend well into some colors anyway, such as red. Black paint has a bit of a bluish or greenish hue, where what you generally want when shading red is just a darker red. I've seen pre-shaded reds where the red-over-black made the edges look bluish or purplish, I've always hated that effect. (EDIT): Actually, I think it's technically a "color rise", not a pre-shade, but I'm not sure. I think pre-shading is where you apply different patterns of light and dark colors to the part and then spray the final color on top - and the undercoat changes the final color a little.

I always thought it was sort of chunky and plain.

No way, man, Votoms is the best. I have no idea what you're talking about when you say that it's slow. I don't see that at all. Plus the thing about Votoms is that the designs are actually pretty practical: not outrageously huge or overpowered like Gundam stuff. It's not as relentlessly practicality-minded as Gasaraki but it's a nice medium between a full-on, fan-servicing action show and a realistic portrayal of combat robots. And Chirico is the man.

Ha ha, you n00b. I guess the Minmay Strike Battroid is a bit steep (3800 yen) but HLJ shows it as available, Feb restock. Personally, though, something about it just rubs me the wrong way. Too noisy, maybe, or maybe I'm just unwilling to appreciate anything that's different.

Yeah, WTF was with those anyhow? Am I supposed to file them away or something? Cetainly the Animeigo packaging wasn't so great. But the content was kick-ass.

Any period with lots of Meltran. I love tall women.

Hey, Toward the end of 2002, finishing my first Hasegawa Battroid seriously renewed my interest in Macross, and for a while I wasn't too enthusiastic about Gundam. Along the way I was happy to discover that Nichimo had re-released most of their old Macross kits, as it offered an inexpensive and convenient way to get a lot of the classic Macross designs in kit form. The Nichimos are generally pretty good, too, so I eventually collected all the re-releases and one of the original issues. The Regult is one of my favorites in the line. Although, like all the Nichimos, it's crude in some areas, I think it looks nice with a relatively small amount of work. As with all the re-releases, it includes some piss-poor stickers in place of the original decals. I would not recommend using the stickers. A good alternative is to have someone print decals for you. The main shortcomings of the kit are the screw holes, the deep panel lines, and the minor molding defects, such as indentations which appear at the top of the pod. All the Nichimo kits can be held together with screws: while this is an effective system for keeping things together, at the small scale of the Nichimo kits, the screw-holes are all-too prominent. In the case of the Regult it's fairly easy to fill them in if you're good with putty. I used Super Glue/talc mixture to fill the screw-holes on mine after screwing the kit together. The panel lines are a bit of a problem because they are oversized. That's particularly bad on a kit that's this small. The panel line that separates the gray and blue areas of the pod is inconsistent, as well: the line disappears as it wraps around to the side of the pod. The feet have a few irregularities, as well: each is molded from two halves, which should be the same. However, one half is molded with a screw-hole, and lacks the panel detail present on the other half of the foot: so if you build the kit as-is, the inner half of the foot will look too-plain compared to the outer half. This could be solved by mating two outer foot-halves and discarding the inner halves, but then you'd also need a new way to attach the foot to the leg. Assembly-wise, the kit is reasonably modular. I recommend against using the screws that go in the hips. If you do that, and cover all the screw holes, you'll still be able to remove the legs from the pod for painting purposes. The booster housings on the sides of the pod are attached with plastic-on-plastic joints, but you can make those, and the head-top lasers modular as well with some trimming. This greatly simplifies the painting process. When assembling the model, a little work to drill out the cannons and make the barrels more circular will also do a lot to improve the looks of the model. I'm not perfectly satisfied with the look of the model, I think the pod should be a little larger, and the points where the cannons are attached should have a more regular shape. Overall, though, it's a nice little kit and a lot of fun. I have an older review of this kit here: http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/models/Reviews/1_200_Regult/ Also, I have recently completed one, and photos and information are here: http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/models/Works/Workshop_Regult/ Presently, the only place I know of where I can buy Nichimo Regults is Akihabara Toys: http://www.akitoys.com/