Bandai 1/72 Scale Macross Frontier Model Kit Thread Ver.3

[Kyp Durron]

Looks really good to me.

What'd you do to get the legs to stay up that high? The legs on my VF-25G stay up solidly thanks to the tabs I added (funnily enough in roughly the same place Bandai added tabs to the VF-27 ), but the little vents on the back of the thighs don't pop up quite that high, and there's a noticeable gap ahead of them. Did you file down the pieces to allow the legs to move higher?

Thanks.

No, I glued the legs into fighter mode since I knew that I was never gonna transform it anyways. Besides, transforming models are inherently fragile and I knew if I messed with it too much, that something would probably break sooner than later.

I still need to paint the pilot, but I don't think I have a fine enough brush to do a decent job, so that will have to wait for now.

If the VF-27 is as solid as Jarrod says it is, then I won't bother gluing anything into place so I'll have the option of transforming it if I ever feel like.

Now that I have a really nice VF-25S fighter mode, I may actually build another for Battroid and/or Gerwalk mode.

Some more pics :

Like I said, I'm really happy with it, I finally have a "toyrific" VF-25 and maybe later on I'll buy the super pack version and build it up as well. I'd also like to eventually get the VF-25 CF if/when it ever comes out, but it looks like I'll be getting the VF-27 CF first.

-Kyp

Edited December 6, 2009 by Kyp Durron

[electric indigo]

From the screenshots I have, all 3 VF-27 in the show are the "Kai" versions (with the "Ears"). It's a bit difficult to tell if the green ones actually have different cockpit viewports. Maybe Bandai just used green plastic for the test shots since it is closer to the final appeareance.

[Chronocidal]

Thanks.

No, I glued the legs into fighter mode since I knew that I was never gonna transform it anyways. Besides, transforming models are inherently fragile and I knew if I messed with it too much, that something would probably break sooner than later.

I kinda wondered if you might've glued it. Looks really good that way. I think the shading hides the gap ahead of the legs, I can't get rid of that on mine either. It's much better than default with the new tabs, but I'd like to make another someday, and see how far I can really get the legs to mesh with the backplate.

For now, mine's just in "just out of the box" mode, no painting or gluing anything. In the end, I might skip the decals altogether (except for logos and such) and try to handpaint the stripes and such.

I'm worried what effect the overall paint will have on the fit though.. right now, the fit of everything is nearly perfect, it just takes a good squeeze around the hip gun area, and everything fits beautifully.

I just wish Bandai had put a bit of thought into the colors of some pieces.. the big blue hinges in the white underside look stupid.

[David Hingtgen]

VF-27β

http://www.toysdaily.com/discuz/thread-116224-1-1.html

Is HLJ's description updated from before? http://hlj.com/product/BAN961937

Darn it, I'm can't preorder it because I may go with the DX instead.

PS---they really should have used a pic of her in her flightsuit, not her "Sheryl's manager" outfit.

[David Hingtgen]

The prototype pic is just plain wrong in some areas---the chest isn't grey, it's green like everywhere else. Still, very hard to tell shadows from paint variations in this shot. I gotta go check Ep 25 again, and the first appearance of the green ones as soon as I figure out which ep that was (maybe 13?). This pic is as lightened and brightened as I can without royally screwing up the colors etc.

[shinagami]

wud love to buy the grace version....by the way received my brera sterne's lucifer yesterday....

[electric indigo]

The prototype pic is just plain wrong in some areas---the chest isn't grey, it's green like everywhere else. Still, very hard to tell shadows from paint variations in this shot. I gotta go check Ep 25 again, and the first appearance of the green ones as soon as I figure out which ep that was (maybe 13?). This pic is as lightened and brightened as I can without royally screwing up the colors etc.

IMO the grey parts accentuate the new IP parts for this kit.

And on your enhanced screenshot we can see that the cockpit is the same as Brera's.

Here's the shot from Ep 16

[Rhapsodyred99]

Just another quick shout-out that if anyone has a spare head-striping decal for Alto's, I could use it.

If you truely mean decals and not stickers I probably have a whole alto decal sheet I can send you.

I use stickers, mainly because the stickers take long enough to apply, I shudder at decals. I'm pretty annoyed there are only decals for the ghosts with Luca, and have not quite got up the gumption to attempt them yet.

I know the fighters would look better painted and decaled, but I am pretty impressed how they look right out of the box with stickers, and a few judicious uses of a gundam marker or two.

Anyway drop me a pm and I will see I f I can hook you up. I am at work and cannot be 100% certain I can find the decal set at home until I get there this afternoon

[Kyp Durron]

I kinda wondered if you might've glued it. Looks really good that way. I think the shading hides the gap ahead of the legs, I can't get rid of that on mine either. It's much better than default with the new tabs, but I'd like to make another someday, and see how far I can really get the legs to mesh with the backplate.

For now, mine's just in "just out of the box" mode, no painting or gluing anything. In the end, I might skip the decals altogether (except for logos and such) and try to handpaint the stripes and such.

I'm worried what effect the overall paint will have on the fit though.. right now, the fit of everything is nearly perfect, it just takes a good squeeze around the hip gun area, and everything fits beautifully.

I just wish Bandai had put a bit of thought into the colors of some pieces.. the big blue hinges in the white underside look stupid.

You can't get rid of that gap ahead of the legs, it's just the nature of the design. The legs on mine are as far up as they'll ever go, but I still like what you did with yours, maybe I'll have to send you a kit so you can so that for mine, lol.

You should at least paint the canopy frame, with the right brush and patience, it can be done. I suck and I still managed to do a decent job, I think.

-Kyp

[Chronocidal]

Actually, with what I know now, I'd like to redo that tab system better. It's a good secure attachment point, but I did a half-assed job of cutting the holes, and should have measured to make the tabs/slots more precise. And I'm sure with enough tweaking, there'd be a way to push those legs higher... or maybe the solution would be to just extend the backplate a bit so it matches up with the legs.

If I could find a good sale, I'd probably buy at least 3 more of these, probably 2 alto and 1 ozma (RVF never did it for me really). I would buy them now, but I've bought 8 Yammies in the past 3 months (), and I need to stop for a while to recover (and build up anticipation for the M&M VF-22s )

The shipping from HLJ just kills me.. I wish I'd gotten more than one kit in that HLJ VF-25G sale, because when everything got screwed up from stock problems, they shipped the dumb thing alone, and I wound up paying more for shipping than the kit cost me.

I do plan on painting mine eventually (possibly by hand, I've done it before) though I probably won't do a canon Michael scheme.. I might tweak it a little into a 2059 Max version. Shoot, if Chuck Yeager can keep flying 50 years after he started, I'm sure Max can. A VF-1J variation scheme would be a lot easier to mask and spray too, so I could do all the main markings with paint, and use spare Hasegawa decals for the kite logos (screw continuity ).

I don't mind leaving one version half-assed as long as I have a spare or two to really finish nicely. My first one was kind of an experiment that I wasn't worried about screwing up.. now that I know what I'm doing, I'd love to do more.

[Lolicon]

I started doing a test assembly last night on my VF-27. Not sure if it's been noted before, but the kit comes with two canopies. One molded in clear green, the other in the solid red-maroon plastic of the main fuselage. Why? Not sure since I'm not done assembling it.

[regult]

can we see close ups of those custom tabs for the VF-25s? I'd like to make my future builds better and tighter than out-of-the-box. Also would like to compare the new tabs that come by default on the VF-27, there seemed to be a pic before (*pages and pages ago), but I don't find it.

[westfall]

I started doing a test assembly last night on my VF-27. Not sure if it's been noted before, but the kit comes with two canopies. One molded in clear green, the other in the solid red-maroon plastic of the main fuselage. Why? Not sure since I'm not done assembling it.

As far as i remember, the cockpit of Brera's VF-27 wasn't clear like the VF-25's. So the most correct one to use is probably the solid red-maroon one. I can't actually recall any scene where it had a clear canopy. I'll have to rewatch the series... what a sacrifice that will be.

[Remko]

I just received my VF-25 "Luca" & VF-25 Michael "Klan-Klang" kits today. Just beautiful!! Still haven't had time to build them though, probably not for a long time too.

Anyway, what's the overall opinion here? Should you paint them or are the molded colors good enough? I actually got these because they were pretty inexpensive, and the series just got the right Valk's I wanted (VF-27, VF-25S armored, VF-25 Luca + Ghosts and VF-25 Michael Klan-Klang custom), and because no paint or glue is necessarry.

[westfall]

I've only built the VF-25F. I didn't do any extensive painting, i only painted small details in certain parts that were supposed to be a different color, weathering, pannel linning and i tinted the canopy, sensors and visor. Must find the time to build the rest of the Skull squadron.

[Lolicon]

Almost done assembling my VF-27, but for the love of all that is holy I can't get everything to fit together properly in fighter mode; all I've done is scratch the model up. So I can't comment on the locking tabs.

Going straight to battroid mode for this build.

[regult]

thanks lolicon for the feedback, let's hope someone who has the -27 can take some pics. The promotional pics hardly show these hidden model mechanics.

[electric indigo]

Metallic Lucifer from the January issue of Dengeki Hobby

[Kyp Durron]

I just received my VF-25 "Luca" & VF-25 Michael "Klan-Klang" kits today. Just beautiful!! Still haven't had time to build them though, probably not for a long time too.

Anyway, what's the overall opinion here? Should you paint them or are the molded colors good enough? I actually got these because they were pretty inexpensive, and the series just got the right Valk's I wanted (VF-27, VF-25S armored, VF-25 Luca + Ghosts and VF-25 Michael Klan-Klang custom), and because no paint or glue is necessarry.

I didn't really do anything other than paint the canopy frame and panel line it with a Gundam marker, and I think it looks fine.

-Kyp

Edited December 16, 2009 by Kyp Durron

[captain america]

Metallic Lucifer from the January issue of Dengeki Hobby

Any clue what they're saying about the VF-25F in the corner of the 3rd pic? It looks like new parts or something... God I hope they make a 1/48 PG!

[azrael]

Any clue what they're saying about the VF-25F in the corner of the 3rd pic? It looks like new parts or something... God I hope they make a 1/48 PG!

The 1/72 VF-25F is also getting a metallic coating version

[Kyp Durron]

The 1/72 VF-25F is also getting a metallic coating version

Damn it, I'll have to get Ozma again if they come out with a metallic coating version.

-Kyp

[Zeropioneer]

Almost done assembling my VF-27, but for the love of all that is holy I can't get everything to fit together properly in fighter mode; all I've done is scratch the model up. So I can't comment on the locking tabs.

Going straight to battroid mode for this build.

Interesting, I had no trouble getting mine to fit perfectly nice in fighter mode. Really solid too, you can go *woooosh*whooosh* with it and need not worry about something moving out of place. On the other hand, I found battroid mode to be too fiddly, and gerwalk was almost as nice and tight as fighter mode...

[mickyg]

Interesting, I had no trouble getting mine to fit perfectly nice in fighter mode. Really solid too, you can go *woooosh*whooosh* with it and need not worry about something moving out of place. On the other hand, I found battroid mode to be too fiddly, and gerwalk was almost as nice and tight as fighter mode...

Aurgh... Can't... Resist... Any... Longer!

That does it, buying from Rainbow 10! I don't suppose we've got any translations for colours yet?

[Lolicon]

Interesting, I had no trouble getting mine to fit perfectly nice in fighter mode. Really solid too, you can go *woooosh*whooosh* with it and need not worry about something moving out of place. On the other hand, I found battroid mode to be too fiddly, and gerwalk was almost as nice and tight as fighter mode...

Yeah it's not a design flaw, it's just me being too damn clumsy to handle the much tighter engineering of the 27.

I was planning on keeping it in battroid anyway, so I can have him posed in the "about to blow Alto away" stance.

I'll probably pick up the DX for whoosh whoosh purposes.

[westfall]

Metallic Lucifer from the January issue of Dengeki Hobby

I got distracted by the pictures of Yamato's 1/20000 SDF-1.

[anime52k8]

I got distracted by the pictures of Yamato's 1/20000 SDF-1.

wouldn't 1/20,000 be really small?

[mickyg]

Aurgh... Can't... Resist... Any... Longer!

That does it, buying from Rainbow 10! I don't suppose we've got any translations for colours yet?

Sorry Lolicon, I forgot you gave us a translation of the first column a few pages back. I'll have to have a look at the rest of the colours to see how different they are from the other models.

[regult]

I don't really understand what's the purpose of having a drawing of Supa Dimention Cinderella helplessly falling off the skies with broken limbs and a weird happy expression on her face at the bottom of the boxes.

Edited December 18, 2009 by regult

[anime52k8]

I don't really understand what's the purpose of having a drawing of Supa Dimention Cinderella helplessly falling off the skies with broken limbs and a weird happy expression on her face at the bottom of the boxes.

[westfall]

wouldn't 1/20,000 be really small?

Sorry my bad. But since that is no longer coming out, there is no point for accuracy.

[thegunny]

Aurgh... Can't... Resist... Any... Longer!

That does it, buying from Rainbow 10! I don't suppose we've got any translations for colours yet?

Why when HW Japan has it for 550Y cheaper.

The first 3 are: main dark purplish colour is H43 85%, H93 10%, H90 5% & H1 (not sure of the amount, possibly a drop?), the brownish colour is H43 80%, H49 10% & H94 10% with the light purple colour: H49 65%, H43 20%, H1 10% & H90 5%

Edited December 18, 2009 by thegunny

[David Hingtgen]

I don't think Bandai ever goes below 5% when listing color mixes---anything less is just kind of "indeterminate tiny amount".

[thegunny]

Here's a list of the VF-27 Sterne colours done in the same 3 colur blocks as the paint guide. They were taken from the GSI Creos catalogue. Pretty sure they are all okay except for H69 & H70 which both have virtually the same name although one is RLM75 & the other is RLM02.

VF-27 Sterne Hobby Color codes

1^st 3

H43 85%, H93 10%, H90 5% & H1 (drop?)

H43 80%, H49 10% & H93 10%

H49 65%, H43 20%, H1 10% & H90 5%

2^nd 3

H32 80% & H55 20%

H77 70%, H54 30% & H1 (drop?)

H68 100%

3^rd 3

H26 80% & H16 20%

H16 75%, H69 or H70 25% (hard to make out which one)

H15 35%, H1 25%, H56 20% & H35 20%

4^th 3

H53 100%

H77 85% & H70 15%

H15 100%

5^th 3

H35 55%, H19 30%, H93 10% & H90 5%

H19 75%, H90 15% & H93 10%

H55 80% & H49 20%

6^th 3

H39 65% & H15 35%

H43 60% & H49 40%

H30 45%, H93 35% & H90 20%

7^th 3

H30 55%, H93 25% & H90 20%

H51 60% & H1 40%

H1 90% & H69 or H70 10%

Edited December 21, 2009 by thegunny

[David Hingtgen]

RLM 2 and RLM 75 are fairly different colors, but both are "medium-dark" grey. RLM 75 has a hint of purple in it.