MacrossJunkie

I've used it prior to clear coating and after gloss clear coating. Works either way. It wipes clean off with some turpenoid on a paper towel or rag or q-tip (for smaller areas). I wouldn't do over a matte clear coat though. That would make panel lining more difficult. Any matte clear coats should be applied after the panel lining and any other weathering is finished. It doesn't react with the Future clear coats and, thus far, has had no noticeable reaction with the factory paints for Bandai and Yamato/Arcadia from my experience. I find it to be super easy to use, and like I said, I've sometimes been lazy and left it on for days before I got back to something and still wipes right off with turpenoid with no staining... something I can't say with using thinner and enamel paints. Using black or gray enamel mixed with thinner, once the thinner dries, it's harder getting the enamel paint off without some staining, particularly on whites. Never tried that Tamiya Panel Line Accent stuff before. I looked at the link and it seems to be essentially a thinned enamel wash. This one line in the description seems cause for slight concern "May cause plastic to become brittle". But I suppose that could true with the enamel panel lining I used to use as well.

Definitely not an East Coast thing. I've never seen them in PA, Ohio, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina or even Florida. Whoppers are definitely ubiquitous here in the US though.

Personally, after many years of trying this and that, from the Promodellers washes to thinned enamel paints, I've settled on using oil washes using oil paints mixed to whatever color I want the panel lines to be (usually a mix of black and white oil paints for various shades of gray) and turpenoid. The capillary effect on this mixture is really good so it reduces the amount of work needed by quite a bit. Just touch the tip of a small brush to a panel line and it fills the panel line and other ones connected to it. Alternatively, just slather it all over the surface if lazy. You can leave it on for days like that if you wanted. Just get a paper towel and dab some of the turpenoid on it, and it wipes right off the surfaces even after leaving it on for days and and all that's left is in the panel lines, assuming they aren't too shallow like Arcadia ones tend to be. For the Yamato/Arcadia ones like the VF-4G and YF-19, I had to resort to using a mechanical pencil. The thinned enamel paint method works similarly to the oil wash method, but you have less time to work with it and it can stain if you leave it on too long.

When my YF-29 came in today, it took me all of maybe 6 or 7 seconds from the moment the doorbell rang to get to my front door and open it. By that time, the postal worker was already down the steps and heading back down the driveway! I guess he figured no one would be home so just rang the bell and immediately turned around and headed back to his truck without even a moment's pause.

Got mine this morning! After the nice grease-less past few releases, I was surprised this one came out of the box slathered in grease. All the joints seem to be tight enough. The shoulder blocks don't sag. I like that they bothered to make a new pilot sculpt for the NUNS pilot. My head lasers are a little crooked, but not as bad as some previous pics have shown. I wonder if the head lasers can be hardened in some way. after straightening them out. Maybe spraying them with a lacquer clear coat or would that melt pvc or cause it to curl more? I've never tried so I don't know what the reaction would be. Not sure if it would be too hard to drill a small hole through the length of it and stick a piece of metal wire in.

Would weighing some pros and cons help? (Note: some of these points are subjective and based on my opinions.) VF-25S Pros: - Cheaper - Fast, easy and fun to transform. - Has many add-on options available. - Sleek looking fighter mode. - VF-25 is primary valk of Frontier. - Piloted by Ozma and Ozma's colors look pretty good. - Has a track record of being relatively QC problem free. - Can be converted to a 2 seater. - Very accurate looking to the CG model in all modes. - Is Skull leader and is the only one with the skull design painted on it. Cons: - Doesn't come with any armor parts. - No hardpoints on wings for missiles. - Add on parts are now fairly expensive, hard to find, and might not be re-released. - Intake fan looks embarassingly crummy. Best to leave the cover on. - Some people don't like the look of it naked. - Has a glossy finish. - Lower half of gunpod barrel housing can be a little fragile. VF-19Adv Pros: - Looks a lot like the YF-19's design. - Intake fan looks a lot better than VF-25's. - Comes with the super parts and additional accessories like some mini stands and pinpoint barrier cabbage. - Has hardpoints compatible with the missiles, torpedoes and pods that come with the VF-171 super parts. Can hold up to 3 items on each wing. - Has a lot of cosmetic gimmicks like the built in collapsible filler pieces for inner leg, neck cover built into shield, internal missile compartment in leg. - Has a more accurate color than the Arcadia YF-19. - Die cast swing arms for the wings have some detail and stay in place better than Arcadia version. - Comes out of the box with a non-glossy finish. Cons: - Terrible/goofy looking GERWALK mode due to location of the twist joint being in the upper thigh instead of the knee. - Can be frustrating for many to transform. Not as easy or fast to transform as the VF-25. - Chest piece in battroid mode doesn't lock down well and can lift up while trying to move the arms. - Fighter mode with super parts on has a large gap and visible tab between the wing glove and the legs. - Is not really a replacement for the YF-19. (Has different markings and canopy for example) - More expensive. - Can be frustrating to transform with the super parts on as the boosters and the back leg piece fall off easily in the process. - Ankles don't seem to have as much side to side range of motion as the 25 partly due to the housing being in the way.

That's not a bad price at all. The HLJ price when they first had it up for pre-order was ¥17,000 in comparison. After the additional discount I got from HLJ, mine turned out to be ¥12,730.

The VF-19 master file has "VFC KEEP CLEAN" for the diamonds on the nose. Whereas for the vernier thrusters, those have "WARNING HOT AIR" instead. On the Hasegawas, the thrusters have "DANGER" next to them. I haven't got a clue what the Hasegawa decals say for the nose markings, but they are pretty clearly made to be lenses. The Master File has them showing like cameras as well. It seems like it's only the VF-19 Advance that they have been changed into maneuvering jets with the words "CAUTION HIGH PRESSURE GAS".

Same here.

I've had no trouble mounting the various missiles (including the reaction and MDE torpedoes) from the VF-171s to the VF-19Adv. They just snapped right in for me. The only difference I can see is that the VF-19 peg hole is larger (which isn't a problem since the peg isn't what holds the missiles in place) than on the 171s or the YF-30, but otherwise the dimensions for the hardpoints appear to be identical to me. Thus far, I've found all the hard point accessories from all the 171 releases fit perfectly well on the YF-30 and VF-19Adv.

Of course it is (one way or another)! You need only disassemble 30% of the toy to get at the screw underneath the bridge. Alternatively, you can just break it off the peg it's screwed into, take the pic and stick it back on. No one would be the wiser and we won't tell For the assembly kit version, I left the screw out since it squeezed into the hole pretty tight already so it wasn't going anywhere even without the screw.

Just as a side note, I think the Advance was meant to be a two seater too, but Bandai just didn't make the toy that way. The reason I say this is because they have a 2nd "Danger Ejection Seat" triangle under the area where a second seat would go if the cover were removed.

I'd say as long as you keep an eye out for the next few days after the release, you should be able to score one. The VF-19 Adv is way more popular but it was available from a bunch of stores multiple times after release. Worst case scenario if you miss all those and really want one, you could buy from N-Y after release and pay their severely marked up prices.

They once showed a prototype for the 1/100 hi-metal line.

These please!

I have it here as a pdf, including the manual errata inserts. If you already got the pics from Chavakaiser, then just ignore this. SDF-1 Assembly Manual

100% agree. The closet I've dedicated to storage just doesn't have enough space. I flattened all my Yamato/Arcadia boxes like that too and stacked the plastic trays. That's why I hate the styrofoam that Bandai uses. People love it for the "nostalgia" or whatever, but for me, it just takes up a ton of space and I can't do anything about it if I want to hold onto the boxes. I'm going to have to take some time to toss out some stuff eventually. Think I'll start with the v1 DX 25 boxes and go from there.

If you're having problems with the edge poking out and the tab not going all the way in, the hip joint is probably not squeezed in all the way. If you look on the under side, you can probably see a difference in distance. I resolved that by putting my thumb and index finger on the outer sides of the primary intakes and squeezing them together.

It's just the lighting. The color of the parts are identical to the previous releases.

I should have gotten that refund! Oh well, got a second 19 from CDJ. Had $20 in discounts with them so that helped soothe the pain a bit

I'd be down for one at 1/60 scale.

Looks pretty good! What camera did you get? The surface is an interesting pattern, although I think I'm more partial to the black surface myself. I still plan on getting a black acrylic sheet to replace that godawful black velvet dropcloth (a.k.a. lint magnet) I've been using in past photos once I get back into working through my backlog of stuff to weather.

It is probably one of the most QC riddled Macross toys to exist. The problems aren't constrained to just the exploding shoulders. Various parts are known to have broken or are missing right out of the box. Needless to say, it is a risky purchase. The EX variants seem to be much safer to get.

That's interesting. The leg armor piece goes up higher and covers more of the leg in the pre-production pic. I wonder why they changed that. It would have filled in the atrocious gap a lot better and it doesn't look like it would have been in the way of anything.

NY shipped mine too. Will probably arrive by Mon or Tues next week.