PLAMAX 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie

[Big s]

Just now, KOG Water Dragon said:

Separate releases? Or all the Vermilion Squadron markings in one box?

I’m not sure, can’t read the tags, but the 1-A kits do have a separate tag, so maybe the 1-J is separate from the 1-A, and possibly the 1-A kits share decals like the movie 1-A kits.

[sh9000]

[SteveTheFish]

On 9/30/2023 at 5:11 AM, KOG Water Dragon said:

Separate releases? Or all the Vermilion Squadron markings in one box?

Whoever printed the signs made a big mistake, calling all three of these a "Fire Valkyrie." They weren't paying attention. The VF-1J Ichijou Valkyrie will be one kit, while the VF-1A will be a Max/Kakizaki kit, apparently. I'm looking at the photo I took at the show and have zoomed in t\o read the signs.

[KOG Water Dragon]

Admittedly my japanese is poor and I know very few kanji, but don't the signs say "Fighter Valkyrie", not "Fire Valkyrie"?

I think the signs say:

1/72 VF-1A

Fighter Valkyrie

Vermilion Squadron (Maximilian Jenius/Hayao Kakizaki)

&

1/72 VF-1J

Fighter Valkyrie

Vermilion Squadron (Ichijo Hikaru)

[kajnrig]

Indeed, ファイター = fa i ta a = fighter

 

What's the difference between the SDFM/DYRL schemes again?

IIRC the DYRL schemes all follow Roy's Skull Squadron theme, just swapping out the color striping?

And the SDFM schemes are either white with color accents or inverted on Max/Miriya's -1Js?

Or am I misremembering all that?

 

Also, this is especially off-topic now, but I wonder what's with the figures on the side of the first pic. IIRC those were Bandai prize figures released way back at the beginning of the show. Are Max Factory perhaps intending to re-release them as model kits? They've been doing the same with other figures lately, too, notably of Asuka and Mari from Evangelion (and Power and Makima from Chainsaw Man).

 

[Big s]

30 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

What's the difference between the SDFM/DYRL schemes again?

IIRC the DYRL schemes all follow Roy's Skull Squadron theme, just swapping out the color striping?

And the SDFM schemes are either white with color accents or inverted on Max/Miriya's -1Js?

Or am I misremembering all that?

Pretty much. The real difference is just that in the movie they were all skull squadron members and in the show they mostly were Vermillion other than Roy. 

[TMBounty_Hunter]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Also, this is especially off-topic now, but I wonder what's with the figures on the side of the first pic. IIRC those were Bandai prize figures released way back at the beginning of the show. Are Max Factory perhaps intending to re-release them as model kits? They've been doing the same with other figures lately, too, notably of Asuka and Mari from Evangelion (and Power and Makima from Chainsaw Man).

 

Those are the minimum factory Walkure.

https://twitter.com/MXF_official/status/1707562115312275587

 

[VF-1A Grunt]

55 minutes ago, Big s said:

Pretty much. The real difference is just that in the movie they were all skull squadron members and in the show they mostly were Vermillion other than Roy. 

I could be wrong, or thrown off by Hasegawa’s marketing, but my understanding is that Vermillion was a “platoon” in Skull Squadron (Hasegawa calls it Vermillion Platoon on their 1/48 VF-1J/A kit). A fighter squadron is about 18 aircraft, as I understand it, so it would make sense that Skull would consist of several smaller units, called “flights” in the real world, I believe. U.N. Spacy in SDFM seemed to have mixed up ranks, where Hikaru was a Sergeant (normally not a pilot rank) and then a Lieutenant. I seem to recall that he was a Sergeant when he first started flying after his basic training. Then he was promoted to Lieutenant and had Max and Kakizaki assigned to him. It was always a little odd that (I think) he had his special white VF-1J from the beginning, but it makes sense from the show’s perspective, that you need the main character to stand out visually.

[KOG Water Dragon]

23 minutes ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I could be wrong, or thrown off by Hasegawa’s marketing, but my understanding is that Vermillion was a “platoon” in Skull Squadron (Hasegawa calls it Vermillion Platoon on their 1/48 VF-1J/A kit). A fighter squadron is about 18 aircraft, as I understand it, so it would make sense that Skull would consist of several smaller units, called “flights” in the real world, I believe. U.N. Spacy in SDFM seemed to have mixed up ranks, where Hikaru was a Sergeant (normally not a pilot rank) and then a Lieutenant. I seem to recall that he was a Sergeant when he first started flying after his basic training. Then he was promoted to Lieutenant and had Max and Kakizaki assigned to him. It was always a little odd that (I think) he had his special white VF-1J from the beginning, but it makes sense from the show’s perspective, that you need the main character to stand out visually.

The Hasegawa 1/48 kit says Vermilion Squadron on the box. But when I ran the display cards through google translate, it did actually come out as 'vermilion platoon'. So I really don't know which is 'correct'. It would make a lot of sense for Vermilion to be a subgroup of Skull Squadron. But I've been seeing it written as Vermilion Squadron for years.

[VF-1A Grunt]

1 hour ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

The Hasegawa 1/48 kit says Vermilion Squadron on the box. But when I ran the display cards through google translate, it did actually come out as 'vermilion platoon'.

I completely forgot about that discrepancy on the box. I recall looking at it years ago and discovering the same thing. A number of Japanese vendors, like Hobby Search, label the product listing as Vermilion Platoon, maybe because they translated their English listing off something in the instructions? I’ll have to look at my kit later today. I’m guessing there was something in the original show or a book that referred to it as a platoon.

It would make sense to me that Hikaru would have been promoted upward to command the squadron after Roy was killed, and the other two stayed with him, because it was all the same squadron. But I think all of this is kind of like anime magic in the artwork. There’s no real, correct explanation because the creators didn’t think it through in that much detail.

Edited October 2, 2023 by VF-1A Grunt

[Big s]

2 minutes ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I completely forgot about that discrepancy on the box. I recall looking at it years ago and discovering the same thing. A number of Japanese vendors, like Hobby Search, label the product listing as Vermilion Platoon, maybe because they translated their English listing off something in the instructions? I’ll have to look at my kit later today. I’m guessing there was something in the original show or a book that referred to it as a platoon.

I’ve seen it as squadron for a long time, I’m not sure if they didn’t understand that or that many of those cannon fodder guys were attached as well, but Max and Kakizaki were like stand outs in the squadron.

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:

Those are the minimum factory Walkure.

https://twitter.com/MXF_official/status/1707562115312275587

Ah, gotcha. They looked bigger than 1/20 in the picture, or maybe the Bandai figures are smaller than I remember...

[SteveTheFish]

17 hours ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Admittedly my japanese is poor and I know very few kanji, but don't the signs say "Fighter Valkyrie", not "Fire Valkyrie"?

Oops, you're right. I should have looked at the up-close photo above that sh9000 posted rather than looking at my own photo at a decreased size on my computer. Plus it's just odd to call it "Fighter Valkyrie" rather than "Valkyrie Fighter". After all, "VF" stands for "variable fighter," not "fighter variable."

[Big s]

1 hour ago, SteveTheFish said:

Oops, you're right. I should have looked at the up-close photo above that sh9000 posted rather than looking at my own photo at a decreased size on my computer. Plus it's just odd to call it "Fighter Valkyrie" rather than "Valkyrie Fighter". After all, "VF" stands for "variable fighter," not "fighter variable."

It probably went that way around to say that this was the fighter mode. Like Battroid Valkyrie or Gerwalk Valkyrie sound a bit better than Valkyrie Battroid or Valkyrie Gerwalk

[sh9000]

The newest in the HMR line also calls them Vermilion Platoon. 

[Big s]

Maybe the squadron thing was more of a Robotech thing. Most of the translations available in the U.S. had harmony gold influences and maybe that’s why it stuck. Just odd that even Japanese products sometimes have squadron instead of platoon 

[Big s]

Hikaru has his 1-j up for preorderlike the recent kits, it has both stickers and decals. Just need them to do a gerwalk kit. 
As a bonus, in the second paragraph of the kit description it says “The model is also extremely erotic.” Not sure what they mean by that?

[Raikkonen]

What do they mean "each part is molded in 4 colours"?

Duel molded parts?

Or the spurs in different colours? 

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

44 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

What do they mean "each part is molded in 4 colours"?

Duel molded parts?

Or the spurs in different colours? 

 

Probably different colored sprues. If a part needs a couple tones of gray an off white and maybe a clear piece then they’d be on separate sprues, but would be used to make up one part to limit the amount of painting needed. More similar to how Bandai has a lot of color separated parts.

[SteveTheFish]

Since I bought the Max Factory Valkyrie Fighter VF-1A that only comes with stupid stickers by mistake (I actually didn't expect them to do something so stupid), if anyone here has purchased the new version with decals, could I ask a big favor? All I need is just a scan of the order form that shows the prices of replacement parts, decals, etc. Of course it'll be in moon runes, but it should be pretty apparent what it is. I just need a scan of that order form and I'll be able to print it out, send it to Max Factory and pay for the decals that they should have included with this kit initially. Let me know! Thanks.

[Big s]

18 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

Since I bought the Max Factory Valkyrie Fighter VF-1A that only comes with stupid stickers by mistake (I actually didn't expect them to do something so stupid), if anyone here has purchased the new version with decals, could I ask a big favor? All I need is just a scan of the order form that shows the prices of replacement parts, decals, etc. Of course it'll be in moon runes, but it should be pretty apparent what it is. I just need a scan of that order form and I'll be able to print it out, send it to Max Factory and pay for the decals that they should have included with this kit initially. Let me know! Thanks.

I have the kit back at the house and I’ll see if I can send pics, I don’t have a scanner though 

you could see if that page is on hobbysearch. They have scans of the instructions 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Big s

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

I have the kit back at the house and I’ll see if I can send pics, I don’t have a scanner though 

you could see if that page is on hobbysearch. They have scans of the instructions 

I searched all the kits for Plamax/ Max Factory on HobbySearch: No Bueno.

I also did some digging online and found this:

https://support.goodsmile.com/hc/en-us/articles/14947088269593-Products-eligible-for-customer-support

Wondering if the decals could be printed out on decal paper from a good scan?

Edited November 1, 2023 by pengbuzz

[Big s]

8 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Since I bought the Max Factory Valkyrie Fighter VF-1A that only comes with stupid stickers by mistake (I actually didn't expect them to do something so stupid), if anyone here has purchased the new version with decals, could I ask a big favor? All I need is just a scan of the order form that shows the prices of replacement parts, decals, etc. Of course it'll be in moon runes, but it should be pretty apparent what it is. I just need a scan of that order form and I'll be able to print it out, send it to Max Factory and pay for the decals that they should have included with this kit initially. Let me know! Thanks.

Here’s a picture of the page, not sure if it helpsthe print says only available in Japan 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Big s

[Thom]

13 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Since I bought the Max Factory Valkyrie Fighter VF-1A that only comes with stupid stickers by mistake (I actually didn't expect them to do something so stupid), if anyone here has purchased the new version with decals, could I ask a big favor? All I need is just a scan of the order form that shows the prices of replacement parts, decals, etc. Of course it'll be in moon runes, but it should be pretty apparent what it is. I just need a scan of that order form and I'll be able to print it out, send it to Max Factory and pay for the decals that they should have included with this kit initially. Let me know! Thanks.

Could you contact Max Factory and see about procuring a sheet direct? Or there are aftermarket decals available for the Hasegawa model.

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

Could you contact Max Factory and see about procuring a sheet direct? Or there are aftermarket decals available for the Hasegawa model.

Might be easier to just.... buy the kit with the updated decals. And use the original kit for a custom project.

[Big s]

45 minutes ago, KOG Water Dragon said:

Might be easier to just.... buy the kit with the updated decals. And use the original kit for a custom project.

Oddly, the decals are the most expensive part of the kit. But I kinda see where he’s coming from. If he can get the decals it would be cheaper than another kit altogether. But I also see your point in that a little more cash and there’s the whole kit with proper decals. The max factory ones unfortunately aren’t as inexpensive as the old hasegawa kits though. 
 

Personally I think a cool diorama of a Valkyrie being built before paint would be neat to see.

[Urashiman]

Just get the hasegawa decals. They work as well. I got a cheap sheet (~12€ including shipping) on eBay for the 2009 Minmay special VF-1.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Urashiman

[SteveTheFish]

9 hours ago, Big s said:

Here’s a picture of the page, not sure if it helpsthe print says only available in Japan 

Thanks! That's good enough. I can print this out, cut it, and send it in. I live in Japan. Hobby Search will provide scans of the instructions, but they intentionally crop out the parts order forms. The crappy part is that it's 1500 yen plus 300 yen, whereas Hasegawa's is just a straight 1,000 yen. Something to consider. I didn't know that the Plamax decals are so expensive. Incidentally, I recently ordered replacement decals from Hasegawa. I'm currently building Macross model #1, which is the VF-1A from DYRL. It has decals for Hikaru, Kakizaki, and Max. Since I am building mine as Kakizaki and my decals are kaput (I left them in the window too long because they kept yellowing on me and I ended up baking them), I ordered replacements. But they no longer make that kit, and instead gave me the decals for the VF-1S/J/A. This has decals for Roy and Hikaru (both DYRL and TV), but no stripes for Kakizaki or Max. It does, however, have the plane numbers and names as decals. 

I tried scanning the decals and printing them. I used Fine Molds clear decal sheet with the laser printer at work and they did not turn out so well. This is why I'm thinking I may go for replacements from Max Factory. While I could possibly use Hasegawa decals on the Plamax kit, there is an issue with proportions. Are the stripes on the wings too long or too short? I'll first have to cut the damaged decals out closely, lay them on the Plamax parts, and see if they fit or will require modification. In any case, thank you for you help!

[Big s]

47 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

Thanks! That's good enough. I can print this out, cut it, and send it in. I live in Japan. Hobby Search will provide scans of the instructions, but they intentionally crop out the parts order forms. The crappy part is that it's 1500 yen plus 300 yen, whereas Hasegawa's is just a straight 1,000 yen. Something to consider. I didn't know that the Plamax decals are so expensive. Incidentally, I recently ordered replacement decals from Hasegawa. I'm currently building Macross model #1, which is the VF-1A from DYRL. It has decals for Hikaru, Kakizaki, and Max. Since I am building mine as Kakizaki and my decals are kaput (I left them in the window too long because they kept yellowing on me and I ended up baking them), I ordered replacements. But they no longer make that kit, and instead gave me the decals for the VF-1S/J/A. This has decals for Roy and Hikaru (both DYRL and TV), but no stripes for Kakizaki or Max. It does, however, have the plane numbers and names as decals. 

I tried scanning the decals and printing them. I used Fine Molds clear decal sheet with the laser printer at work and they did not turn out so well. This is why I'm thinking I may go for replacements from Max Factory. While I could possibly use Hasegawa decals on the Plamax kit, there is an issue with proportions. Are the stripes on the wings too long or too short? I'll first have to cut the damaged decals out closely, lay them on the Plamax parts, and see if they fit or will require modification. In any case, thank you for you help!

No problem. I feel bad for the fact that they didn’t offer the decals after market to help those that bought the original release 

[TMBounty_Hunter]

 

[Big s]

The feet look nice, now we need to see the rest 

[Bolt]

I'm looking forward to playing with it. 

[sh9000]

https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/2186446

[Bolt]

Nice!

[Big s]

2 hours ago, sh9000 said:

https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/2186446

Just saw that it’s up for preorder at the usual places