danbickell

Mine showed up overnight via FedEx from LP today, in perfect condition. Still waiting on my YF-21 from LP, however. Both were PO from LP, back in January. I was told my 21 will ship next week...

Well, the UAE funded development of the block 60 F-16 in lieu of F-35. The US isn't interested in updated F-16s when we are deeply invested in F-35 to replace them. UAE seems to be quite happy investing in a proven platform, and will get paid royalties if the block 60s are sold to any other countries. There are plenty of other examples of similar scenarios. F-15SA is also better than US F-15s in many ways, in lieu of F-22, also utilizing the newer GE F110-132 engines that the Block 60 F-16s use. Singapore and Israel also have block 50/52 + F-16s that are more advanced than the F-16s in US inventory. Boeing and LockMart are busy marketing updated versions of the aircraft that that have been superseded in the US to foreign allies as cheaper alternatives to the newer designs that they either aren't allowed to buy or can't afford. F-15 Silent Eagle is the epitome of that, but nobody has sprung for it yet, so they have been dumbing it down (no conformal weapons bays and such) to make it more affordable.

Sikorsky is rolling out the S-97 RAIDER tomorrow, and has now launched their new site: http://raider.sikorsky.com/index.asp

Looks fantastic!

Here are the drawings I was talking about: The perspective in these drawings show that the keypad is mounted on top of the panel. If it was flush, you should be able to see the empty space on the panel to the right of the keypad.

This is looking really cool already! One little nitpick, since we're already discussing the keypad... it should be a separate piece standing off of the panel surface, rather than flush with the panel it is on. The Kawamori detail sketches from DYRL clearly show this. I will consult my reference materials when I get home and see if I can post a scan of the sketch for you. They got this detail wrong on the Macross Museum 1:1 mockup as well.

Looking good, but it appears you might not have compensated for the angle of the panels. Since the panels are angled forward 12 degrees, your parts will be compressed in the vertical axis if you took them straight from my orthographic image.

Happy to help out. And... this got me to actually load up the model again, twice in one week! It really gets me in the mood, but alas, I just don't have the free time. Anyway, here is the original image I threw together for dodiano, and a new one showing the side panel dimensions as well. Again, these measurements are on-plane with the panels, which will need to be at the proper angles. That F-35 cockpit looks great! It reminds me a lot of the 1:1 scale F-16 cockpit I built back in the 90s. It housed my gaming rig, speaker system (with sub-woofer under the seat), all the best Thrustmaster controls available at the time (including the rudder pedals, modified to be at the proper angle for the F-16), the complete ACES II ejection seat, and was accurately detailed to match the period-appropriate block 50 aircraft of the day. Modern flat-panel monitors and a modern glass-cockpit design sure makes it work a lot better than old-school big CRT monitors. I modeled the complete console structure, which the main CRT sat inside of (where the HUD would be), but it still only covered up about the bottom third of the monitor. It worked well with the flight sims of the day, which could all be configured to put the virtual HUD right where it belonged. The cockpit spent most of the last 10 years dismantled in my garage, and I finally trashed it last summer to free up some space. One of my bucket-list items is to build another cockpit, and this time do the VF-1. It should make for an interesting challenge, as the VF-1 cockpit is pretty small compared to other modern fighters. Looking forward to seeing your progress, dodiano!

Mine finally showed up from HLJ today. In my case, the packing was great. It came in a much bigger box (possibly because a book shipped with it), wrapped in a ton of big bubble packs. No damage at all, and everything seems to be perfectly solid. Only had about 15 minutes to check it out, but hopefully I'll have some time to play with it over the weekend.

Take... these broken wings.... and learn to fly again... learn to live so free...

I wish!!!! I was just thinking about it at the office yesterday, because we got a 3d printer at the office and were talking about our 3d printing experiences. Getting the Hasegawa 1/48 Strike was motivational as well, but I haven't even gotten around to scanning the instruction sheet plans yet. Alas, work is leaving me with zero time, but I can dream... I did some work prepping and updating a version of the A head for 3d printing at some point, when I had some free time, but didn't get all that far. I'm up to my ears in modeling super-detailed aircraft and military equipment for work. Some of it is pretty exciting stuff for people who geek out on this stuff, but I don't get to share. Budget and time constraints don't let me go as crazy as I'd like to on the work stuff, but I'm still getting a lot of practice and gaining practical knowledge that the VF-1 should certainly benefit from. I've been spending a lot of time with engineering CAD models for my subjects, which provide a lot of inspiration for mechanical details. Makes me daydream about the existence of such models within the Macross universe, and what those would be like... mmm... Valkyrie CAD models, complete with all structural airframe components and systems... If I win the lottery, I'm totally going to make a reasonable facsimile of that happen while enjoying my retirement. Promise.

The box is actually quite a bit bigger than the earlier Hasegawa 1/48 releases. About half again as long, a couple inches wider, but the same depth. As for the contents, it has parts for either VF-1S Strike or VF-1A Super, and nothing else. It isn't just the previous releases with additional parts. The thigh parts are only for the FAST pack configuration, and backpack is folded version only. Those parts are all on a new sprue, and the standard fighter versions are absent. The FAST pack sprues are molded in dark gray plastic, and there are is a separate clear orange sprue for the Strike pack and arm clear parts. The missiles for the Super and arm FAST packs are molded in white, along with the other new parts. Cockpit and pilot parts are the DYRL version from the VF-1S/A release. Both canopy versions are still included. Decal sheet is quite a bit bigger than the previous releases, as expected. Very happy with the details on the FAST packs. I really like how they handled the missile launchers on the Super packs. They are done as deeply recessed angled ramps with no doors to close them off, and the missiles visible to the rear. There are nice little separate details, like the plumbing for the verniers at the rear of the Super/Strike packs, visible in the rear cavity where the big thrusters are. The only thing missing is missiles. Missiles and mslz22's 1/48 launch arm kit would complete this.

Here's the Black Aces: (original size): http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo68/danbickell/Valkyries-SecondSortie-025_zpsb430efd5.jpg~original

Texture work is off to a great start! If you don't mind a little critique, the only thing that is bugging me is the bare metal showing through where the paint has worn. It isn't that it looks bad, but rather that it looks "wrong" for a futuristic aircraft, which I would not expect to be skinned in sheet metal. Even if it was metal, I would expect layers of anti-corrosion paint under the color before you ever got down to bare metal. However, I wouldn't expect much metal at all in the skin of the aircraft, but rather composite materials. This is already the case for current aircraft designs in production. For this, I would expect that most of the exterior is some type of overtechnology carbon composite that is super strong and lightweight, and does not look like bright polished aluminum. The look you have going is more appropriate for a weathered WW2 aircraft.

Thanks for that! We've been working on a project at the office involving the P-8, and Boeing couldn't provide reference this good. They look even cooler carrying Harpoons under the wings!