mickyg

^^ this exactly. I have my Isamu '29 and had thought the others completely unnecessary and need I say it, not even "real" since I consider the Movie almost alternate universe. If there weren't many other things I'd like instead, I'd probably consider it, given it is the "original" and I don't actually mind the red. But with all the other stuff coming up, I have to pass.

That is very, very cool!

Wish the Super Messiah would hurry up and release! I got plans for this one!

I wasn't satisfied with the seam on the head unit so I spent a bit of time filling that in with Mr Surfacer 500. My bottle is starting to dry up it seems so heavily thinning it with Mr Levelling thinner again, seemed to help a lot. No pics, unfortunately. Spent too much time doing little things and simply forgot to take them. Also back painted the lens assembly with silver. Didn't like the massive seam visible and there was no way I was going to be able to fill that in satisfactorily. It came up pretty nicely and I've got no problems recommending that approach to anyone else making this kit. I also silver painted the instrument faces, so they'll be reflective for the decals when I put them on. In hindsight, this was probably completely unnecessary, as the decals themselves are likely white backed. Lastly, I marked out some spots on the heat shield to dress it up a bit, and make it blend with the camo pattern around the fuselage. I'm still tossing up doing the NSAWC lightning bolt across the shield. It might be too much so I haven't decided yet.

It is identical, as far as I can tell. It's simply the toy, before it's assembled.

This is coming along very, very nicely! Thanks for sharing your work!

If I recall correctly, they were around $70. I have a spreadsheet somewhere, showing all the original prices I paid for my kits. They were definitely cheaper than the assembled versions. They're tricky kits though. Lots of little pins and parts to trim up. You really end up appreciating the assembly by the factory when it's finished.

1/72 Frontier Bandai kits? Really? I thought they were long gone!

End of an era, cap'n. At some point, will you be telling us what you're moving on to? I'm imagining great things are ahead but would love to know what that ends up being. Start a new thread when you're ready to take the lid off?

That is an obscene fit with the plastic half of the ball in there, David. I just can't see how that ever got past QA. Maybe because once assembled, you can't see it? I've followed along with all the other comments, photos and videos, and this one is also very helpful. Thanks for posting it up!

Seems to be an issue isolated to iPhone. Unless of course you're not uploading via iPhone, in which case, I'm stumped.

That is very cool! Not sure how I missed that in Frontier. It looks a lot like the VF-25G with Super Parts, what with the blue and gray accents.

My goodness, so much reused, repeated footage. Someone must've been watching Macross 7 before compiling this!

"Cut his..." Thanks man.

I'm not sure why glue is even necessary for this cap piece. It has to be just to keep it in place while the parts are assembled. It is in no way required for the ball and socket connection to work. If the socket is closed all the way, it completely encloses even the metal half of the ball.

Only a year? You're far too kind, Mommar. I've long since grown impatient with my own progress on this thing. I had to remind myself that rushing it wasn't really an option. Glad people are still along for the ride. I really hope to get this done before the year ends.

It's an acrylic paint as far as I know. You can remove it with alcohol. And they don't always adhere so well to smooth plastic. The clear canopy on the yamato is also quite thick, and potentially just a touch soft. Not that it would flex, but I think the translucent paint just doesn't always stick well. The end result is peeling. That said, my VF-1J Hikaru is still in great shape after many years.

I decided after the last update, that I'd do my best to start spending a minimum of a half hour per day so I could get this thing finished. Unfortunately that didn't happen quite the way I'd planned. Life's been pretty complicated lately and the last week has been no exception. However, Sunday I managed to get a few hours in and I think that might have made up for it in the end. One of the items on any VF-1 that irks me to no end, is how close those silly fan faces are to the front of the intake. There's no good way to sort this out, because the hip joint is so very close to the fan plate on the Yamato toy. It is, what it is in the end. So my thought has always been that if I could "fade" the paint a bit, it might make it look a bit more like a shadow and have the illusion of depth. So, with that in mind, I set to do some things I haven't tried before. Namely with paint. I purchased some Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 in both black and gray last week and thought I'd try that as a base. In theory, this is lacquer paint that should be a bit more durable than the typical acrylics. Case in point, the gray I'd brush painted on one intake, as an experiment, scraped right off with a toothpick. Here's a shot after I very carefully masked the intake: And yes, those things were a pain to do. And constantly wanted to pull off when I was cutting around the perimeter of the fan. But that's another story. Next up, using the black "primer" as a preshade base. I hate preshading with Tamiya black. It splatters, it seems to clump, and it just never wants to go down properly. So I thought I'd try something different. The Gunze Mr Finishing Surfacer, is as far as I can tell, Tamiya fine surface primer, in a jar. It's pretty thick in consistency and thins with lacquer thinner, or my new personal favourite, "Mr Levelling Thinner" which is a much more mild lacquer based thinner, with a paint retarder in it. The end result, even when heavily thinned (2 parts thinner to 1 part paint) is paint that is easily controllable and it goes down silky smooth. Finally, a black paint I can actually work with! And another item I'd really wanted to spend time on, the intake covers. These have always been something I thought had great potential. They're detailed and there are actual louvres that should be possible to shade. So I started with black preshading, but given how dark these parts are to begin with (sort of a dark bluish gray green colour) the black didn't really stand out. So I tried another new technique - mixing acrylics with lacquers! What is this magic I speak of? Well, all Tamiya and Gunze "water based" paints are compatible with their own thinners, in both alcohol and lacquer based types. So you can thin the Mr Hobby Aquous range with Mr Color thinner, and the same can be done with Tamiya acrylics. So I mixed up a batch of gray Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 with some Gunship Gray and set to work on preshading, with various levels of primer gray thrown in to lighten it as I went. It's a subtle shade variation but I think it'll do nicely. Same thing done with the fan face, only with heavily thinned gray primer alone (and the effect is almost non-existent on these, which is a little disappointing): Once I'd finished, I mixed up some artist oils (black, brown and a touch of white) and filled in all the crevasses of the intake fan, and louvre lines in the intake covers. I also couldn't resist adding a bit to the back of the valk, as I've been dying to see what a bit of darker fill will add to the panel lines on the top, with all the camo: And after it had dried for a few hours, wiped the excess off with a completely dry tissue: And that's where we're at for the moment. Thanks for reading along!

So, so nice to look at Saburo!

The shelves are very close to 4mm (3.88) and sides are 4.75mm. For my example, at least.

Man, that is just all kinds of cool! I can't imagine how much fun it would have been to get back in character (and costume) for this role. I've got goosebumps just looking at that image.

HK $810 didn't come out too favourable in terms of Aussie dollars. In USD, that's nearly $105 and in YEN, 12,840. Seems a bit exorbitant.

It's quick because we've got some really clever people who have purchased the toy and the VF-0D, which was released quite a while ago, had the same issue. So developing a fix actually started with that toy first. The issue is the same and I have no doubt the 0S will be the same story.

You lucky, lucky bas... guy!

Awesome! I managed to snag one that way as well. I'm shocked and amazed. Not only was it listed there but they shipped it to Australia.