Urashiman

No worries about your stash… mine is 2m in height and 80cm wide. Many kits that wait to be build and I basically LIFO‘ed the Plamax VF-1. XD

Hey, so- if anyone ever wondered what will happen if extra thin tamiya cement spills on your cutting mat, let me tell you, something bad. Please try to avoid it. I have been building more on the F-14D and the Plamax VF-1. the leg definitely are bulkier on this one compared to the Hasegawa VF-1. the whole appearance looking bulkier as well, being a bit more true to the original Kawamori sketches than the sleek and thin Hasegawa VF-1. The canopy is more bubbly than Hasegawas. I really like this kit now

looks like someone is going extra already and is scratch building super packs for the VF-171.

Little progress on the VF-1. Airbrushed the cockpit stuff. Also fixed the burping on my VF-22, and sprayed the gears of the F-14D partly As you can see in the above picture I had some fun with my 3D prints. Checking how color sticks to the prints. Let‘s see how that works out for me.

some tweet on people building the VF-171

@MechTech & @wm cheng Basically, there is less detail on the Plamax VF-1 compared to the Hasegawa one, but the Plamax one stays true to the master file line art. The Hasegawa VF-1 has a bit more added detail (not in the official line art) like the small little holes on the panel lines to emulate screw/bolt holes. I like that Plamax made sure to give the RCS on the VF-1 more depth. I wonder: when bandai had the 1/72 VF-1 already, would people complain why there would have to be a Hasegawa 1/72 VF-1? The Hasegawa mold is over 20 years old by now and Plamax is introducing new technique to their mold. @wm cheng I dunno about your experience with real life guns, but let me explain a bit. A mint gun or rifle looks really fresh. No scratches, no chipped off color, no rubbed off plastic. Over time, the gun black would start to rub and chip off on edges and corners, as well as the spaces where a soldier would put down their hands often. The plastic parts are usually molded in the color they have on the battlefield and are not painted. Plastic starts to "polish" the more it is used. I remember my army rifle which was in service since 1964, and was really worn out. The handhold was really glossy as well as the grip. The trigger was basically rubbed blank, no more gun black on it. The hinge to reload was rubbed blank as well. The nozzle was matte, and edges were chipped off. The mag eject button was super rubbed off and polished. In ALIENS I think they used the fresh out of the box look, as the rifles where supposed to be super new. What kinda annoys me about all the customs and recreations online is, that the color on the handle and the mag holder of the M41a are always super chipped and worn out, showing metal beneath, where obiously the piece is supposed to be made out of plastic. It looks fancy but is not accurate to the movie. Yours has a mostly clean look, which I like, and kinda warhammer 40k like highlights @derex3592 & @pengbuzz I feel you ... how often did I spill lacquer color or solvents, or managed to break an almost ready wing for an RC plane and would just leave the room, to not throw a temper tantrum and smash it all to smithereens... @MechTech I wonder - will that ship eventually float and be RC controlled? Edit: ah man ... it sounds like I am super mean again. Sorry - that is not intended

Okay, here is some stuff for the hase vs plamax thing. Unfortunately I only had the spare parts from the ve-1 left over and a mint vt-1. so here, grey parts are hase, black and white are plamax. The VE-1 was a first issue kit, meaning it wasn’t produced with the now worn out vf-1 molds. The hase vf-1 is a bit thinner on the walls and details are really fine. The plamax vf-1 has really thick walls and the details are feeling deeper and broader. Sizes of the nose and mainbody are matching. The cockpit interior varies. The Hasegawa cockpit is smaller. The plamax pilot won’t fit into it. A giant! I started priming on the cockpit parts today. and - behold! I continued my F-14D. Love it, airbrushing with my „new“ airbrush goes so much easier now.

I couldn't hold myself back. I started building the new Plamax 1/72 VF-1A/S... First impression: The kit goes together nicely. What I like is that it is not trying to fight hasegawa, but doing it's own thing. I've build many hasegawa VF-1s since 2002 and the Plamax defo feels way different during build up. It is a nice refresh, and I like the details to it. Even being a bit more expensive than the Hasegawa one, this one really is worth it. I'd recommend it. If you expect something that is snap-fit here, it is not. The piece go together properly, but are not tight fit. First thing here: Black runner and colored instructions. One plus over the Hasegawa VF-1? The little dude here that comes with the kit. No need to purchase a weapons upgrade kit Second: from here on, no glue was incorporated. Everything is just "snapped together" (really losely). Just a small comparision to my failed VF-1P nose print. I am glad the dimension of my VF-1 nose fit, which makes me happy a bit, knowing I am on a good way with the VF-1P. Notice the bend outwards walls of the 3D printed nose, around the cockpit area. This is how far I got. I repeat: no glue used except for the pilot, the seat and the control panel in the cockpit. Edit: I'll go to my basement later and grab a Hasegawa VF-1 kit to compare some of the parts.

Yeah - gonna start today. Uhm - do you still have the kit out? Because the chinese re-print I have has bad jpeg artifacts on the minmay ... Just have a look :S

even with the 25% off, it was EUR 26.something for shipping. The fun part: EMS was 26.something and the cheaper surface mail without tracking was 25.something. So I went with EMS.

Oh man! That is so awesome! Thanks a lot! How can I ever repay you for that?

same for me... but I don't care.

Hey! I have the decals already, so only need a scan of instructions for the decals. Thanks a lot man!

Pictures of box content and instructions as usual on 1999.co.jp. https://www.1999.co.jp/10916567 The instructions are straight forward. The pilot made from 5 pieces is a bit crazy though hahaha

First VF-171s are charged by HLJ today! Happy building!

@wm cheng thanks a lot! Yeah… it need a lot of sanding and resin printer are awesome! I think I call it a day. Let‘s call this one „Prototype 01“.

Yeah, they are paper thin and bend around. Light coming through easily. Have to make them thicker to prevent the warping.

Okay, I could resist. I printed every piece I think was fine, just to check wall thinkness and if it would print good, or not. Behold! Around 18cm long, it is shorter than a 1/72 VF-1. everything seems fine except for the vertical stabilizers. They are way too thin. It bends like paper. So I have to redo them too. The engine bays and so on work great. They have a nice fit and I am mostly satisfied.

Hey everyone! For my next project I need a way better scan of hasegawas 2009 VF-1A Minmay special. I got this off 1999.co.jp, but it is rather rough. Can anyone help me out please?

that is a large box. The VF-4 box was big as well.

@pengbuzz Falcon Punch to the face! hahahahaah *smash* @arbit Thanks a lot! Yeah, the support on the head was too thin. Let me tell you one thing - I won't use the magic support creator in Lychee anymore. Every time is use it, the print fails horribly. Yesterday evening I decided to place the support myself and make sure that everything is supported properly. I decided to print out the VF-9 nose canopy and so on ... the version one I have been working years on, because I just wanted to see how it looks printed out. The walls are super thin. around 0.5mm, but it still managed to print properly. Only when detaching the supports the back broke and the back of the canopy pieces shattered. I glued everything together, just to get a sense of the size the VF-9 has and how much thicker the walls need to be. I have to go back to the mesh and change wall thickness on everything. I am redoing the nose anyway, so I make sure the wallthickness is increased for that. It feels so weird and amazing, actually touching the thing that I have been working on for so long, seeing it in the real world. It's just ... wow. hahaha But no further printing for me until I fix the wall thickness, so you won't see much prints from me in the next days.

Nah ... I am good. Got a set of 2009 Minmay Macross the First water slide decals to use with that VF-1

@arbit somehow your 1/72 vf-4 pilot didn’t survive the print. Looks like he smashed against a wall with too many Gs maybe I should build a vf-9 crash diorama with thise failed prints. Hehehe „3D printing is fun“ they said, „buy a 3D printer“ they said. but yeah, printing is getting better, print by print.

Yay, mine came today. Finally!

Ahahaha! Oh man - I do that quick strip with masking tape as well, just to check how far I can break the kit down into building groups for better airbrushing and decal applying And yes - putting lights into your kits is a churning task.... so many kits ended up in the trash.