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Arii 1:100 scale VF-1S Super Valkyrie plamo kit


SteveTheFish

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Arii-SValkbox-768x528.jpg.06d83681665c1befa089286638ba82e8.jpg

Last night I started working on this old kit. The decals have aged poorly and they maybe unusable. My plan is to use my sheet of Autobot decals and build it as Jetfire from Transformers. I don't forsee spending a ton of time on this, hoping that it might be a quick build. I'll post pics later as I go along.

I never noticed this until last night, but while the box art looks nice, the artist made a big mistake. Look at the central thruster pod. It's facing the wrong direction! That's supposed to be an intake, but the thruster nozzles are pointed forwards instead of being in back. Oops!

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On 9/5/2023 at 9:45 PM, SteveTheFish said:

Arii-SValkbox-768x528.jpg.06d83681665c1befa089286638ba82e8.jpg

Last night I started working on this old kit. The decals have aged poorly and they maybe unusable. My plan is to use my sheet of Autobot decals and build it as Jetfire from Transformers. I don't forsee spending a ton of time on this, hoping that it might be a quick build. I'll post pics later as I go along.

I never noticed this until last night, but while the box art looks nice, the artist made a big mistake. Look at the central thruster pod. It's facing the wrong direction! That's supposed to be an intake, but the thruster nozzles are pointed forwards instead of being in back. Oops!

are you talking about the ones on the "backpack" between the boosters?

Edited by pengbuzz
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On 9/5/2023 at 6:45 PM, SteveTheFish said:

Arii-SValkbox-768x528.jpg.06d83681665c1befa089286638ba82e8.jpg

Last night I started working on this old kit. The decals have aged poorly and they maybe unusable. My plan is to use my sheet of Autobot decals and build it as Jetfire from Transformers. I don't forsee spending a ton of time on this, hoping that it might be a quick build. I'll post pics later as I go along.

I never noticed this until last night, but while the box art looks nice, the artist made a big mistake. Look at the central thruster pod. It's facing the wrong direction! That's supposed to be an intake, but the thruster nozzles are pointed forwards instead of being in back. Oops!

Looks like the whole backpack is backwards 

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On 9/5/2023 at 8:45 PM, SteveTheFish said:

Arii-SValkbox-768x528.jpg.06d83681665c1befa089286638ba82e8.jpg

I never noticed this until last night, but while the box art looks nice, the artist made a big mistake. Look at the central thruster pod. It's facing the wrong direction! That's supposed to be an intake, but the thruster nozzles are pointed forwards instead of being in back. Oops!

Nice observation...

The illustration was commissioned by Arii to Artmic who then had one of their staff illustrators, T. Suzuki, handle several of the Macross boxart...unlike the boxart created by Takani...most of the boxart done by Suzuki was based off of the lineart...Suzuki would take the lineart then add his colors and "details"....based on the info provided by the recent Macross Boxart book...the finished art was often created several months prior to the product release or even the series premier....

I am guessing that the original lineart just has an empty black space and Suzuki decided to add some "detail"...lol

vf-1s-fastpack-fighter.png

 

The same "error" is duplicated on other boxart illustrations...

ar321-42-box.jpg

ar-336-72box.jpg

Even Imai has some...

im1233-33-box.jpg

im1234-41-box.jpg

 

Even Takani joined the party!

im1308-93b.jpg

im1252-59-box.jpg

 

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Funny thought, but are there any detail drawings of what that panel of the backpack is supposed to look like?  The toys usually have it as some kind of intake vent, but I don't know what the source on that detail is.

I don't even know if I've seen art that doesn't just show that area as a black void.

vf-1a-fullyarmed-lineart.png

 

Edited by Chronocidal
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I'm pretty sure the Takatoku 1/55s introduced the 3 nozzles, but could be wrong.

In the original imai gerwalk mode that area is literally nothing...just solid flat plastic, so I was happy to see the artists add some details to that area, even if not cannon.
So I blame Takatoku :)

If I recall (almost positively incorrectly) until DYRL official art appeared it was always just a black hole.
In some DYRL pics is where I think is where I first saw the vertical slats or the narrow horizontal slot. I think.

 

 

 



 

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4 hours ago, Shawn said:

I'm pretty sure the Takatoku 1/55s introduced the 3 nozzles, but could be wrong.

In the original imai gerwalk mode that area is literally nothing...just solid flat plastic, so I was happy to see the artists add some details to that area, even if not cannon.
So I blame Takatoku :)

If I recall (almost positively incorrectly) until DYRL official art appeared it was always just a black hole.
In some DYRL pics is where I think is where I first saw the vertical slats or the narrow horizontal slot. I think.

 

 

 



 

I pulled out the BIG GUNS of the available Macross art and reference books....

large.20230907_192637.jpg.f26a30e5f428c8

...in terms of lineart from the SDFM/DYRL era...I could not find any "lineart" that details that specific area/part of the VF-1....

However, there were a number of "illustrations" that do have some interpretation of what that part looks like....

large.20230907_194025.jpg.176167afd6a065

large.20230907_194521.jpg.7e7408053c3018

large.20230907_195652.jpg.025e4877b48231

 

...I do not think the illustrators working on the boxart would have been privy to these art pieces, they probably only had access to the lineart that is printed in several of the books above...

Oddly enough, the only illustration I could find that had a clear view of that part of the VF-1 was found in the recently published Macross Variable Fighter Designers Note...it is used on the cover

large.20230907_201316.jpg.32aa661c2db22a

...as it appears within the book...

large.20230907_201059.jpg.47daa8a19228b3

...this specific drawing does not seem to appear in any of the DYRL books released during the premier of the film in 1984....with that said, it is unlikely that even if the illustration existed at the time, it would not have existed during the time that Takani and Suzuki were working on their ARII and IMAI boxart illustrations...

So maybe that part of the VF-1 was not much of a concern for Kawamori at the time?

At this point, I will go with your theory about Takatoku's design influencing how that part of the VF-1 was illustrated by the artists at ARII and IMAI...perhaps there was a lineart for the 1/55 Takatoku VF-1 being passed around at the time....

I forgot to check the Macross Boxart Book...I thought it had some illustrations specific to Takatoku...perhaps the smoking gun is there?...

 

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Not to derail the OP's post further...but one final question....when did the conversation finally occur between Big West, Kawamori and their licensees that made the VF-1 finally fall in line and start being designed with a "backpack" with vertical slats?  

From memory, I believe the Hi-Complete Model from the 80's still was depicted as a detail-less hole....the 1/55 re-issues all continued with the "original Takatoku design"....I wonder if that move to "vertical slats" began with the release of the Yamato VF-1 Version 1?

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I think the Takatoku toys were very common about the office and handled by the artists to get certain angles and whatnot.
I think we've seen elements from the 1/55s used in a lot of art.

This relates back to my SDF-1  Canon Theory too with Takani :)

The Takatoku 1/55 was like the Engineer goo in Prometheus...it binds us all.

 

 

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Found the Kawamori Expo book. In one of the earliest renditions of the VF-1 it still looked  'undefined' on the grid paper.

By the time the movie came our we definitively had our vertical lines. Just wanted to post this pic...it is so awesome.  😛

 

20230909_202041.jpg

20230909_202302.jpg

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On 9/5/2023 at 9:45 PM, SteveTheFish said:

Arii-SValkbox-768x528.jpg.06d83681665c1befa089286638ba82e8.jpg

Last night I started working on this old kit. The decals have aged poorly and they maybe unusable. My plan is to use my sheet of Autobot decals and build it as Jetfire from Transformers. I don't forsee spending a ton of time on this, hoping that it might be a quick build. I'll post pics later as I go along.

I never noticed this until last night, but while the box art looks nice, the artist made a big mistake. Look at the central thruster pod. It's facing the wrong direction! That's supposed to be an intake, but the thruster nozzles are pointed forwards instead of being in back. Oops!

BTW: on this one, you may want to use the kit canopy to make a wooden buck and mold your own from soda bottle plastic; I've found at this scale, the kit canopies are waaaaaayyy too thick.

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I recall seeing this similar type of set up for that particular detail. I just can’t remember where. image.jpeg.6888730734b0fbe7e2e17b5ffab8a3d4.jpeg

Years ago I was going through as many details available to determine all the correct differences between TV and DYRL types. The vertical bar details seemed to be mostly on model kit art, but this one really stood out to me as it was from a line art drawing. Just can’ t place the location at moment.

But then again I could have my wires crossed. 

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19 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

BTW: on this one, you may want to use the kit canopy to make a wooden buck and mold your own from soda bottle plastic; I've found at this scale, the kit canopies are waaaaaayyy too thick.

Do you mean vacuform? I don't have the tools to do that.

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6 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Do you mean vacuform? I don't have the tools to do that.

No: you just heat the soda bottle plastic over an over burner until it's soft, then using oven mitts, pull it down over the wooden buck. Once cool, cut it to shape and glue using super glue or Aileen's tacky glue.

The only "vacuforming" I've ever done is when the nozzle on my wife's vacuum got stuck onto my tummy (don't ask!) and it left a mark on me!  O.o

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  • 2 months later...
On 9/10/2023 at 9:30 AM, nightmareB4macross said:

I recall seeing this similar type of set up for that particular detail. I just can’t remember where. image.jpeg.6888730734b0fbe7e2e17b5ffab8a3d4.jpeg

Years ago I was going through as many details available to determine all the correct differences between TV and DYRL types. The vertical bar details seemed to be mostly on model kit art, but this one really stood out to me as it was from a line art drawing. Just can’ t place the location at moment.

But then again I could have my wires crossed. 

I’ve been looking for this detail FOREVER. Not exactly what I drew (no pun intended) from memory.

image.jpeg.5e197653ac17f17c2411ea12f44dbb7b.jpeg

Hahaha. I had to quote myself just to be sure my mind wasn’t going and making stuff up.

😜 

 

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On 9/11/2023 at 7:48 AM, pengbuzz said:

No: you just heat the soda bottle plastic over an over burner until it's soft, then using oven mitts, pull it down over the wooden buck. Once cool, cut it to shape and glue using super glue or Aileen's tacky glue.

The only "vacuforming" I've ever done is when the nozzle on my wife's vacuum got stuck onto my tummy (don't ask!) and it left a mark on me!  O.o

I think I saw this in Scary Movie...:rolleyes:

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2 hours ago, Thom said:

I think I saw this in Scary Movie...:rolleyes:

My tummy, Thom!! I know the scene you're referencing, and it wasn't anywhere near there!!!

Good grief...I think I'm just going to go hide for a while behind the soda vending machine and have a cheeseburger or something...

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8 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

My tummy, Thom!! I know the scene you're referencing, and it wasn't anywhere near there!!!

Good grief...I think I'm just going to go hide for a while behind the soda vending machine and have a cheeseburger or something...

giphy.gif

Just funning with you, man!;)

 

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