danbickell

Mine showed up overnight via FedEx from LP today, in perfect condition. Still waiting on my YF-21 from LP, however. Both were PO from LP, back in January. I was told my 21 will ship next week...

Well, the UAE funded development of the block 60 F-16 in lieu of F-35. The US isn't interested in updated F-16s when we are deeply invested in F-35 to replace them. UAE seems to be quite happy investing in a proven platform, and will get paid royalties if the block 60s are sold to any other countries. There are plenty of other examples of similar scenarios. F-15SA is also better than US F-15s in many ways, in lieu of F-22, also utilizing the newer GE F110-132 engines that the Block 60 F-16s use. Singapore and Israel also have block 50/52 + F-16s that are more advanced than the F-16s in US inventory. Boeing and LockMart are busy marketing updated versions of the aircraft that that have been superseded in the US to foreign allies as cheaper alternatives to the newer designs that they either aren't allowed to buy or can't afford. F-15 Silent Eagle is the epitome of that, but nobody has sprung for it yet, so they have been dumbing it down (no conformal weapons bays and such) to make it more affordable.

Sikorsky is rolling out the S-97 RAIDER tomorrow, and has now launched their new site: http://raider.sikorsky.com/index.asp

Looks fantastic!

Here are the drawings I was talking about: The perspective in these drawings show that the keypad is mounted on top of the panel. If it was flush, you should be able to see the empty space on the panel to the right of the keypad.

This is looking really cool already! One little nitpick, since we're already discussing the keypad... it should be a separate piece standing off of the panel surface, rather than flush with the panel it is on. The Kawamori detail sketches from DYRL clearly show this. I will consult my reference materials when I get home and see if I can post a scan of the sketch for you. They got this detail wrong on the Macross Museum 1:1 mockup as well.

Looking good, but it appears you might not have compensated for the angle of the panels. Since the panels are angled forward 12 degrees, your parts will be compressed in the vertical axis if you took them straight from my orthographic image.

Happy to help out. And... this got me to actually load up the model again, twice in one week! It really gets me in the mood, but alas, I just don't have the free time. Anyway, here is the original image I threw together for dodiano, and a new one showing the side panel dimensions as well. Again, these measurements are on-plane with the panels, which will need to be at the proper angles. That F-35 cockpit looks great! It reminds me a lot of the 1:1 scale F-16 cockpit I built back in the 90s. It housed my gaming rig, speaker system (with sub-woofer under the seat), all the best Thrustmaster controls available at the time (including the rudder pedals, modified to be at the proper angle for the F-16), the complete ACES II ejection seat, and was accurately detailed to match the period-appropriate block 50 aircraft of the day. Modern flat-panel monitors and a modern glass-cockpit design sure makes it work a lot better than old-school big CRT monitors. I modeled the complete console structure, which the main CRT sat inside of (where the HUD would be), but it still only covered up about the bottom third of the monitor. It worked well with the flight sims of the day, which could all be configured to put the virtual HUD right where it belonged. The cockpit spent most of the last 10 years dismantled in my garage, and I finally trashed it last summer to free up some space. One of my bucket-list items is to build another cockpit, and this time do the VF-1. It should make for an interesting challenge, as the VF-1 cockpit is pretty small compared to other modern fighters. Looking forward to seeing your progress, dodiano!

Mine finally showed up from HLJ today. In my case, the packing was great. It came in a much bigger box (possibly because a book shipped with it), wrapped in a ton of big bubble packs. No damage at all, and everything seems to be perfectly solid. Only had about 15 minutes to check it out, but hopefully I'll have some time to play with it over the weekend.

Take... these broken wings.... and learn to fly again... learn to live so free...

I wish!!!! I was just thinking about it at the office yesterday, because we got a 3d printer at the office and were talking about our 3d printing experiences. Getting the Hasegawa 1/48 Strike was motivational as well, but I haven't even gotten around to scanning the instruction sheet plans yet. Alas, work is leaving me with zero time, but I can dream... I did some work prepping and updating a version of the A head for 3d printing at some point, when I had some free time, but didn't get all that far. I'm up to my ears in modeling super-detailed aircraft and military equipment for work. Some of it is pretty exciting stuff for people who geek out on this stuff, but I don't get to share. Budget and time constraints don't let me go as crazy as I'd like to on the work stuff, but I'm still getting a lot of practice and gaining practical knowledge that the VF-1 should certainly benefit from. I've been spending a lot of time with engineering CAD models for my subjects, which provide a lot of inspiration for mechanical details. Makes me daydream about the existence of such models within the Macross universe, and what those would be like... mmm... Valkyrie CAD models, complete with all structural airframe components and systems... If I win the lottery, I'm totally going to make a reasonable facsimile of that happen while enjoying my retirement. Promise.

The box is actually quite a bit bigger than the earlier Hasegawa 1/48 releases. About half again as long, a couple inches wider, but the same depth. As for the contents, it has parts for either VF-1S Strike or VF-1A Super, and nothing else. It isn't just the previous releases with additional parts. The thigh parts are only for the FAST pack configuration, and backpack is folded version only. Those parts are all on a new sprue, and the standard fighter versions are absent. The FAST pack sprues are molded in dark gray plastic, and there are is a separate clear orange sprue for the Strike pack and arm clear parts. The missiles for the Super and arm FAST packs are molded in white, along with the other new parts. Cockpit and pilot parts are the DYRL version from the VF-1S/A release. Both canopy versions are still included. Decal sheet is quite a bit bigger than the previous releases, as expected. Very happy with the details on the FAST packs. I really like how they handled the missile launchers on the Super packs. They are done as deeply recessed angled ramps with no doors to close them off, and the missiles visible to the rear. There are nice little separate details, like the plumbing for the verniers at the rear of the Super/Strike packs, visible in the rear cavity where the big thrusters are. The only thing missing is missiles. Missiles and mslz22's 1/48 launch arm kit would complete this.

Here's the Black Aces: (original size): http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo68/danbickell/Valkyries-SecondSortie-025_zpsb430efd5.jpg~original

Texture work is off to a great start! If you don't mind a little critique, the only thing that is bugging me is the bare metal showing through where the paint has worn. It isn't that it looks bad, but rather that it looks "wrong" for a futuristic aircraft, which I would not expect to be skinned in sheet metal. Even if it was metal, I would expect layers of anti-corrosion paint under the color before you ever got down to bare metal. However, I wouldn't expect much metal at all in the skin of the aircraft, but rather composite materials. This is already the case for current aircraft designs in production. For this, I would expect that most of the exterior is some type of overtechnology carbon composite that is super strong and lightweight, and does not look like bright polished aluminum. The look you have going is more appropriate for a weathered WW2 aircraft.

Thanks for that! We've been working on a project at the office involving the P-8, and Boeing couldn't provide reference this good. They look even cooler carrying Harpoons under the wings!

Thanks Greg! I just saw the notice from Shapeways, and was wondering if it was somebody from the forums. That will be the latest version, with some minor fixes and extra little eye clamshell pieces. I haven't even got a print of it yet, so I'm excited to see how it turn out! -Dan

The official length of a VF-1, as designed by it's creator, is 14.23 m. Trying to redefine this based on any interpretation, including the actual animation in the show, or any toy or model kit, is pointless endeavor in my opinion. This is the whole reason why interpretations such as toys and model kits have a scale such as 1/55, 1/48, 1/60, and so on. That there are all sorts of problematic scale issues inherent to the design that require a little "anime magic" here and there seems to be widely accepted truth. It has also provided us with decades worth of toys and model kits attempting to flesh out the design, all with their various quirks in their interpretations of the design. Most of the time, it seems the limitations of the materials, physical size, manufacturing methods, and price point are the most influential in these interpretations. On a personal level, I embrace the original design, flaws and all. I would hate to scale it up for any reason, and the ergonomics of the pilot doesn't rank that high on my list. One of my attractions to the DYRL incarnation of the design is that they addressed some of this with the redesign of the cockpit, the bubble in the canopy, and defined details like the shape of the cockpit tub and how that relates to the space for the nose landing gear. The icing on that cake is that they paid closer attention to these scale issues with how they depicted the differently sized pilots in their cockpits. A good example would be when Focker is drunk flying to save Hikaru. The side profile shot of his cockpit shows him completely stuffed in there, too tall to fit properly, with his back hunched over. Kakizaki is shown with rather cramped fitting as well, while little Hikaru fits much better. DYRL remained faithful to the scale of the VF-1 design, and played around with the Zentraedi range of heights instead. My $0.02, for what it's worth.

Thanks! Yeah, I often daydreamed about getting the cockpit printed in at least 1/12 scale. 1/6 would be crazy expensive though... I've been employed for the past 7 months now, trying something a little different from game development. I'm modeling for a marketing firm, mostly military/aerospace products. I'm getting to work on some really exciting stuff, but can't talk much about it, of course. So, I'm making great money again, but have very little free time these days. It's always one or the other, it seems... Been in the mood big-time to revisit the VF-1 model, but haven't had anything resembling a chance. Best I can do is visit the site here (in the office, held up on my work waiting for a programmer to do his thing). I still have only had 1 sale of the VF-1S head to date, though it just got a nice review posted recently on Shapeways. Don't know if it was the same guy who purchased last year and just got around to it now, but there was never a 2nd sale that would correspond to the review. I do have a 4-day weekend coming up. Maybe I will get a chance to dust off the model and move forward some. Thanks for the continued interest, guys! I'm not dead (yet)...

Not yet. Been in customs in LA for a week now. I'm thinking somebody screwed up bad.

Heh, way to get me to dig out the model and have a look at it! That spot at the back of the canopy is a tricky area, and more geometry will certainly help smooth it out. However, the basic shape you start from wants to be smoother anyway, so you don't have so much of a kink in the shape there. I looks like you're trying to have the canopy frame nearly vertical there, rather than following the curve of the rest of the nose, and that's where the trouble is coming from. Here's your image with some of my own lines and arrows (in green): And here are a couple of screen grabs of that area on my model (with the subdivisions off so as not to smooth over the problem with geometry): You can see that there is a little kink in there, but it isn't nearly as severe. The cut-in panel lines can help it out as well, so I planned for the bend to line up with with those panel joints. The real key here is that the canopy frame is a continuation of the curves where it meets the fuselage. I like to model stuff like this starting as one surface (the canopy frame included), and then cut out the canopy frame from that smooth continuous surface once I'm happy with the shape. Due to the problems with it as a 2d design being fleshed out in 3d, there is bound to be trouble areas like this, but you can use the separations between different parts (or even different panels on the same part) to contain any surface oddities. The majority of the bending is happening on my canopy frame, where it is contained to small areas, which happen to be dark). The Hasegawa 1/48 kits actually come with 2 different canopies, and the way that they follow (or don't follow) the contours of the nose is the biggest difference. In both cases, they have simplified the design so that it is not quite like the detailed DYRL drawings, though. As for that part at the front of the canopy, I just think you need to get rid of that notch altogether (it isn't on any of the original design versions).

Wish I had something new to update with!!! My motivation took a dive when my unemployment ran out and I can no longer afford to move forward with printing any of this. I was hoping some Shapeways sales might be just enough to keep it going piece by piece, but that hasn't panned out. A few people have privately contacted me about helping out with some partial funding, but I don't feel particularly good about the idea. Hopefully I'll get some income sorted out in the near future, and get past that stress and get this moving again.

I purchased the original back when it came out, circa 1999. A bunch of the pictures on the old MW "legacy" site are of mine: http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/models/club_m/1_48_ultimate.htm I believe those photos were taken with my very first digital camera back then, so I apologize for the quality. Originally, I had built it utilizing all of the PE parts with the flaps and slats extended and the spoilers raised. I was keeping it up on a very high shelf while working on it, to keep it away from my cat, but the cat actually managed to climb up there and knock it off to the floor! The PE wing parts got destroyed beyond repair, so the wings had to be reassembled with everything retracted. Likewise for the PE ladder on the nose. The kit really was the "ultimate" back then. On the originals, the metal parts weren't limited to just the landing gear. All the wing control surfaces, the canopy frame, head guns, all the FAST pack thruster bells, landing gear bay doors, and many other small parts were all metal. I would imagine that the recast versions were a nightmare, with shrinkage problems and lacking the metal parts. Another tidbit: My kit came with 2 of the same main wing pieces, so one side (the right, IIRC) is a scratch build. I recall that I built a few before I had one that matched well enough and fit all the separate control surfaces pieces.

Right on! Back at you, bro

Congrats! See, you did get at least 1 sale. The fact that it was more than 2 weeks ago and you didn't hear about it gives me hope! They're supposed to send emails when the sales actually ship (in addition to the "yippie!" emails), so I was wondering if those weren't going out for the sales from 2+ weeks ago as well (as in sales from more than 2 weeks ago that maybe just shipped last week when the emails were supposedly working again). Hopefully on the 15th of next month, we'll be able to get the spreadsheets with any sales listed (and some funds in our PayPal accounts). I would totally want a set, Kurisama, if I had a Q Rau and/or could afford it. Don't take lack of sales for lack of desire. Your stuff is awesome!

I totally want to do a J head! I've been working on a sub-d version of the A head recently, since that is already modeled and another head is the only thing I'm likely to be able to afford to print in the near future. Of course, a DYRL J head would be kinda pointless without GBP armor (and DYRL GBP armor without the missile packs on the sides of the legs, and yellow-tipped missiles, of course!). Ugg... think about the thousands of $$$$ it would cost to print 1/24 GBP armor... I just got the email notification last night for my first Shapeways sale last night. If there have been any other sales, I don't know about them yet because the Shapeways site has been getting revamped and the sales info is busted. I need to sell at least 2 more S heads before I would have funds to try another head. I'd have to sell a whole lot more before I could afford to tackle any of the bigger parts. Somebody remind me to buy lottery tickets this week...