Graham

If I use a Gundam marker to panel line an unpainted VF-25 kit, what should I use to wipe off the excess ink? Water? Mr. Thinner? If the latter, should it be diluted? If yes, what ratio? And do I use tissue, a soft cloth, q-tips, cotton balls? help! Graham

Which is what I've been saying, but people are still expecting miracles. Graham

Season 1 just started showing here in Hong Kong last night. Pretty good first episode IMO. Mind you, even if it was crap, I'd watch it just for Summer Glau, as she is a real hottie! Graham

For Luca, you would also need the folding ventral ELINT fin that is sometimes (but not always) shown. Graham

Exactly, it is a test shot. And when you are at the test shot stage, that is already 98% representative of your final product. Test shots are just for the factory to refine the fit and finishing, tighten or loosen tollerences where necessary to ensure good parts fitting, minimise gaps, tighten up joints etc. Once you are at the test shot stage, it's unusual for any major design changes to be implemented, unless a serious problem is encountered, requiring redesign and retooling of a part or parts (expensive). As I said before, once you see a test shot, it is usually a case of 'what you see is what you get', although the final product will always fit together better, have fewer gaps and a better finish than a test shot. Graham

Heh, I don't want to say "I told you so" just yet, but thinking back to when it was first announced that Bandai had the toy licence and the Bandai fans were all like "Bandai's gonna kick Yamato's ass with their superior design. Bandai is so great....blah...SOC....blah....Gundam.......Blah........Blah...etc! And look what we get. Mwahahahaha! But seriously, I really wanted them to make a nice looking VF-25 and they did it with the 1/72 model kit, but failed miserably so far with the 1/60 toy IMO. Well, they have 3 months to redeem themselves. Lets hope they use the time wisely. Graham

Even with CAD CAM, the first test shots always have tollerance issues resulting in loose or poor parts fitting. It usully takes about 4 generations of refiniments from the first test shot to get things to a standard acceptable for production. Graham

LOL......can I use that in my signature? GRaham

So are the stickers on this foil stickers or what? Graham

The Ozma looks awesome. Serious props to the Bandai VF-25 model design team. They have absolutely kicked the asses of the Bandai 1/60 design team. Graham

That sounds worrying. Fighter mode is my favorite. Maybe I should buy two, one for battroid mode and one to glue permanently together in fighter mode. Graham

I've added the other 2 pics that were missing to the first post (1 more battroid and 1 more Gerwalk pic). Graham

Its a test shot. That means the molds are already cut. If Bandai works the same as Yamato, the from now on only minor changes such as tweaking the tolerances to close up gaps and get parts fitting together better will be done. Retooling an all new steel mold is very expensive, so it's unlikely that we will see any major changes now. Graham

Somebody has posted some of them already. Graham

Damn, looks like for the first time ever, you guys in the US might get a Japanese Macross kit before we get it here in Hong Kong. Did another recce at lunch today, but still no sign. Graham

Follow the link in the first post in page 11 of this thread. Graham

I'm still curious about the VF-25's arm transformation, especially the shoulder area. Still can't completely wrap my head around it, despite hours spent studying the anime, kit instructions available lineart etc. Graham

Hmm......I'm a bit concerned about the crotch being able to 'spray outwards'..........Golden shower anybody? Graham

Agreed, it does look like about where Yamato was 9 years ago in terms of design aesthetic. Oh well, at least it will probably be durable if nothing else. What we really need is Yamato and Bandai to team up. Yamato to actually design the toys and Bandai to produce them and be responsible for the QC. That way, we'd get a beautiful and durable toy. Graham

Looks like a test shot, which means the tooling is done and only minor tweaks are likely to be made from here on. This should now be a case of WYSIWYG. Graham

Looks like the hips, ankles and maybe upper arm are die-cast metal. Not too happy if the hips are die-cast. Lots of potential for paint chipping there. Yeah, overall apperance is not that great. Front landing gear looks really short. I'm still disappointed that it looks like the sensor windows on the nose are going to be painted on not going to be separate pieces of translucent plastic. If Yamato can do this on their toys and even Bandai can do it with the 1/72 kit, why not make the extra effort to do it with this toy. Overall not too impressed yet, but I know being a VF-25 fan, I'll still end up buying both Alto and Ozma versions. Note the official December release date. Out in time for Christmas I hope. Graham

Not planning on painting the model, but do want it panel lined. So would this wash method still work? Graham

So how does one do "a wash" then? Heard the term used many times but not sure exactly how it's done. I definitely want to panel line the 1/72 VF-25F when I get it. I've tried Gundam markers in the past for panel lining, but the results were pretty disappointing. I know some people hear recommend pencils, but I really don't like how it looks either. Graham

Yep, definitely the model. Graham

Fantastic show so far. Graham