MacrossJunkie

I use the B kit the most. The white is just so versatile in its uses. The smoke is not bad either. I haven't had any use for the rust color yet though. I need to get another set just for the white as I'm almost out.

I just measured one of the valks that came with the Quarter using a digital caliper and I got 17.61 mm. The stated length of a VF-25 is 18.72 m. So that comes out to be like 1/1063 scale on the valkyries which ought to make them underscaled compared to the Quarter. But they're already large enough to take up pretty much the entire elevator platforms and you can see in the first intro for MF where Alto's 25 is coming up the lift that there is much more space. If the little 25's that came with the Quarter were around 1/900 scale also, they wouldn't even fit. So I think Kawamori just underguesstimated what the size of the Quarter would need to be in order to fit a VF-25 in the carrier section... or my math could be wrong somewhere.

That is a great job with the weathering, Lolicon. I love seeing people do this stuff.

I'm thinking it is likely to vary from toy to toy. The 171 EX I got had tight pins that were frustrating to try to pull out and had never come close to falling out on me during transformation, while other people's copies had the pins falling out if they looked at it funny. It's probably likely that the people reporting that it is fixed just got lucky with theirs as I had with the EX. Has anyone actually noted any physical differences in the pins or the holes between the EX and normal version?

One thing among many that I'll miss about Yamato that many, I'm sure, find to be an upside is that the Bandai releases (aside from the VB-6) just don't come with any stickers to let you further customize or just add for the markings they didn't bother to tampo print on the toy.

It's all the more amazing seeing the transformation in action.

Oh god, I thought that was a figurine. No wonder it seemed like they were able to get the stockings to look so detailed. I'm afraid to see this guy's other mutant creations.

The cellphone pic lacks focus and sharpness and doesn't capture detail very well. And just to get the amount I had required putting it very close to the subject, hence the distortion. It's also lacking in color depth, most noticeably where the color gradients appear more greenish while trying to represent the intended color. Congrats on getting a 19P. It's a beauty. Speaking of which, I think I may redo the weathering on mine. I'm not satisfied with it as I had issues getting the paint to come out of the airbrush reliably because it was drying out too fast and clogging in the airbrush. I got more thinner and may try going for a round 2 with it. Okay, so I want to give a clear answer on why I haven't accepted requests to weather other people's valks. My confidence or slight lack thereof in my work aside, there's just other issues that I don't really know how to handle. My biggest fear is if there is a QC flaw in a toy sent to me and it breaks while on my watch. What would I do? It would be hard to prove it wasn't my fault and I don't think I could afford to replace them, particularly with the prices that Yamato valks are skyrocketing to now. My own 19S apparently was flawed and crumbled on its own, but initially seemed fine out of the box. Secondly I don't know how much or what kind of rates people have been charging for this kind of thing. Even if I were to just ask for payment for cost of materials used and for return shipping, working out a way to accept payments would be a hassle since I won't ever set up a paypal account that is linked to my bank account. I've had bad experiences with paypal and won't ever use them again other than to send payments to online stores for valks through credit card for those that accept it as the only method. Paypal alternatives seem to be geared for business use rather than personal. Lastly, time can be a factor as it may be days or it may be weeks before I find the time to work on it so I can't really give a clear time frame.

Seconded... Her boobs probably weigh more than the rest of her body.

I thought the VF-17 is one of the top 3 easiest and fastest valks to transform so far. The other two being the VF-1 and VF-11. The VF-19 comes in at a very close 4th for me on ease of transformation. Edit: Mine didn't have super stiff joints though so that helped, but as far as the transformation goes and the clearance you're given to work with, I consider it to be very easy.

Oh true. I can see how it would be easy to miss with it being so subtle on the chest and arms.

It comes with a gunpod that's lighter in color than the ones that come with the S and F. It's so you can play mp3 music from the shoulder speakers. (not really)

I guess I was wrong about the "No Step" being on the trailing edge of the wings. It actually says "171" which makes no sense to me being there. It's already on the arms and chest. What purpose does it serve to be in small print on each of the flaps instead of an actual warning label?

For me, it has to be from a franchise I like and it's always mecha of some sort. 2nd requirement is that it be as accurate to the source material as can be reasonably expected at the time. 3rd deciding factor, but not required, is if it's a transforming toy, but it still has to meet my required criteria. Ever since I was a kid, I loved the ingenuity it took to make something that can go from one recognizable form to another. It has to look good, be well designed/engineered, and usually need to have a somewhat realistic feel to it. I don't collect dolls/figures, though some of the hot toys stuff had me very tempted to buy like the Iron Man ones. I also try to keep to the same scale if possible because I like consistency and being able to see how things compare to one another in size. I bought some Transformers Binaltechs back when they were being made because they did a really good job making them look like the actual licensed cars while still retaining the nostalgia of the look of the G1 characters and they were being made to the same scale. Plus the die cast was a nice bonus and it gave them a feeling of being fairly substantial. I got the first couple Masterpiece releases as well. Prime because the vehicle mode also seemed to fit the scale of the binaltechs, and Starscream because he was the same scale as the Yamato valks so that I could compare a real world fighter to the Macross ones. The downside of the Transformers stuff for me was the vehicle modes don't look good from all sides due to the fact they took existing vehicles that were not meant to transform and had to make it so they could turn into robots, so the undersides or sometimes the profile would show the robot parts. Although for the cars, that didn't really matter so much. I pretty much just collect Macross now and only in the 1/60 scale aside from the items where it would not be practical like the cap ships or the VB-6. So none of the 1/72 models (I have some 1/72 Mac+ toys, but only got them at the time because I never thought something better would come along. Was never satisfied with how they looked and they're now in a plastic grocery bag and tossed somewhere in a closet.) or 1/100 VF's that Bandai had released and I've put away all but two of my 1/48's. I love the real world fighter inspired designs of the valkyries which in turn gives them a sort of credible look and feel to their fighter modes. Plus they're designed from the start to be transformable so for the most part you don't have all these conspicuous robot parts like the faces, arms, and hands visible. The limbs tend to be integrated as part of the design of the fighter.

Yeah, bad scan or the magazine itself was just off.

They probably will ship. I don't see any notices on their site saying they're taking the holidays off or anything.

Maybe they just have a lot of national holidays

You could buy adapters at hardware stores that slide on the glass and would bridge the gap better.You still can't beat a 70$ Detolf. What kind of adapters? I'd like to know too. I would love to dustproof my detolfs if possible.

Plus next week is golden week, I believe. So possibly no updates next week either, depending on if a given shop also decides to observe it for the whole week.

Oh yeah, a dedicated camera is highly recommended for decent pictures. It would be a pretty big step actually. I'm of the opinion that phone cameras just don't really cut it. Phones and tablets are getting higher and higher in megapixels, but the built in lenses and sensors in them are still way below par compared to your average point and shoot camera. I took a couple pics. One with my p&s and another with my phone for comparison's sake. I took multiple shots with the phone, and the one I have below is the best I could manage in terms of clarity and detail. The 7 yr old point and shoot camera does a much better job than my less than 1yr old phone. Phone: Camera:

That's pretty awesome. It looks like it has pretty good articulation too with the ball joints. Very nice work!

Check my sig Yep, I can take decent pics with my 7 yr old Canon point and shoot too. The outcome of a photo is definitely a sum of many different aspects.

The trailing edge does have "No Step" markings. It's just in gray. If you look closely, you'll see it's on both the top and underside of the wings as well.

Last couple pics with my 17(1)'s.

Finished up my 17D.