MacrossJunkie

At 20 cm, does that make it even bigger than the QF-2200D? My impression was that the QF-2200D was big for a ghost drone, but not as big as that. I don't feel like digging mine out to measure.

Yeah, after they ADD'd and forgot about finishing the rest of the Delta stuff and went to the VF-1's before the shiny new Delta movies brought their attention back and made them forget about finishing the VF-1's 😁

It's unfortunate that things haven't really seemed to improve in the two subsequent releases and that the QC issues that a range of people experience seem to vary quite a bit. Other than the wing pegs that go into the legs, which I fixed myself, everything else on my Hayate pegs in pretty well and I don't have the low hanging arm guns. My Mirage was a bit more of a mess. A part of the right wing was separated out of the box and won't stay together. The arm block that the guns are attached to won't stay pegged-in in fighter mode, The wing pegs still won't stay pegged into the legs. Probably more issues that I'm not thinking of at the moment. They need to tighten the arms more also. They can't hold up the weight of the gunpod... not that I would try to have it held in hand since the shape of the gunpod and the handle doesn't work with the design of the hands and arms and even the fixed pose hand barely works. Even then, it can't physically hold the gun straight because the gunpod and the arm would have to physically occupy the same space. Such a bad gunpod design, but not truly Bandai's fault for that.

Personally, I have been really tempted to get a PF and possibly just sell the standard one I have now due to the current conversion rate of US dollar to yen. I say go for it!

Bandai: 31, eh? Oh look! A shiny new 1/48 VF-1! That was my impression of where things went.

I was assuming at the time that "Mr. Banana Split’s 29" was referring to the anniversary 29 in Roy colors as it was yellow, black, and white like a banana. So I wasn't making the connection there.

Just asking out of curiosity, but why that specific combo?

I think that would be a pretty safe bet. Luca's ghosts and the Lil Drakens all came with stands.

Bandai seems to be very inconsistent with their commitment to symmetry. They double down on it with Kakizaki, but then lose faith in their symmetry god by not making the left leg of the Angel Birds VF-1 spell out "sdriB legnA".

Love those customs @nightmareB4macross. Man, the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 days were like the golden age of customs. There were many good ones back then. I especially liked Kurt's custom VF-1s, which you seem to have managed to get a hold of. Wish people were still doing them, but it seems quite rare to see a new custom in general these days... or I just haven't paid enough attention.

They look cool on their own, but the concept just seem silly to me. Using the ghosts as boosters, but then putting boosters on your boosters. Seriously? Next we'll have gunpods that shoot out smaller gunpods that shoot. 😁

Right now, they're scattered around in various detolfs around the house until I can find a new display cabinet and everything's a mess. This was the last one I had with the cabinet intact from years ago. I had some stuff to the side also, like my SDF-1 and I forget what else. Not only do I need to find a new case, I need to also figure out how to dispose of the old one. With the cost of shipping and gas these days, it will probably cost as much to ship a new display case...

Okay, I lied. Decided to YOLO and transform it anyway.

Happy to know you like it! No, I haven't considered creating a museum space for my collection. Haha. Though I think I need a bigger display cabinet. Well, I need an intact display case, period... Some years ago, one of the front sliding doors shattered into a million pieces from a bit of vibration, sending glass shards all over the room. That was fun...

Finally got around to start doing Delta era valks. Weathered my Hayate VF-31AX. Took a few pics in fighter mode. Will do the other modes later when the clear coat has dried more.

Pics of Alto YF-29 re-issue in all three modes.

I don't know if it's because of bright convention lights or because the new prototype is actually darker and slightly less saturated in color, but those new shots look a whole lot better and much closer to what I was expecting, while the earlier shots looked really pastel and more like a kid's toy.

Thanks! That's the plan. Alto's 29 was practice.

Got the supers done for Alto's 29. I think I'm pretty satisfied with the texturing work. I'll take pics in other modes another time.

Note that the link I provided is just to show what sort of colors they have. While you can order straight from them, it will probably take around 1.5 to 2 weeks and the overseas shipping is pricey too, especially these days. There are stores in the US that carry these, have comparable prices, and will reach your door faster. You probably already knew to look at domestic stores, but just making sure. Good luck on your weathering! On a side note, warning to all. Do not use Vallejo Mecha Varnishes. It has caused me nothing but headache. Contrary to its claims that it's made to be durable for mecha models where things can rub together, it is the flimsiest, most scratch prone clearcoat I've ever used. It peels right off with Tamiya's masking tape which is fairly low tack. The clearcoat has no adhesion to the surface or at least it has less than masking tape, which is ridiculous. Comes off like peeling dead skin. It can't withstand ANY rubbing or it will come right off. The areas that I redid using Future as the base coat first are like a million times more durable. Maybe it's okay on surfaces that have primer and their brand of paints, but it's complete and utter trash on toys. Small rant over.

Thanks! For the weathering on the 25A, I simply used an airbrush to apply the weathering and used I think Tamiya's X19 Smoke acrylic paint. Nothing fancy, it was pretty simple and straightforward using standard post-shading techniques. It was actually more work trying to color match the stripes I added to it to make it look like how the 25A appeared in the show. However, instead of Tamiya smoke, these days I highly recommend Ammo by Mig Shaders. I find them to be fantastic and easy to dispense and get great results. For general weathering, I like Ash Black, Starship Filth, and Grime. Since you mentioned Isamu's 29, here are a couple pics of mine. I did change the fold crystal color from blue to purple because the fold crystals have always been shown to be purple. I also redid the canopy tinting because it was too dark and saturated, making it look more toy-like, imo.

Another pic, using my DSLR. Picked up the weathering better and doesn't look like someone went and overused smoothing and sharpening routines. Wish I could turn that off on my phone, but there's just no settings allowing me to do that.

Well, this was more of a pain in the butt than I thought. I basically had to do twice the work because the first time I was finished, I was putting it back together and the Vallejo Mecha clearcoat appears to have little adhesion to the plastic and was scraping off or peeling off like dead skin and taking all my work along with it. Had to redo and sprayed with Future instead and then with a satin finish after. Seems to be a better, but I'm not transforming it for a week at least. Still need to do the super parts. The phone camera seems to be not very good at picking up the subtle weathering. I feel like it's doing some automatic pre-processing and filtering it out or something.

Supposedly the Dassault Mirage 2000, but I really see very little resemblance aside from both having Mirage in the name. To me, the VF-5000 still has far more in common with an F-14 than this.

Looking pretty good overall. The booster still seems too low though. Also a little worried about how fragile looking the area is where the legs seem to attach at the thinnest point of the intake. It's similar to Yamato's VF-19 toys and one had disintegrated on me at that attachment point while having been displayed in battroid mode only a few months after getting it. I never paid attention before, but it seems like its transformation has a lot of similarities to the YF/VF-19 with regards to the arms and legs.