Xigfrid

It finally arrived! The color is much more saturated (more like a fluo) than it appears in this picture. The good points are that the paint is UV reactive and it also glows in the dark, bad points are that it glows orange instead of pink and that it lasts less than 30sec! Anyway, I still believe it is a great inside color.

What sorts of moving panels are coming up?

I think everybody would vote for rubber wheels but whatever makes life easier for you (unless you're a perfectionist) is probably the smartest idea. You've done more than any of us here anyway.

What do you mean by make mini-HMMs? Where would you put them? Aren't they all internal payload anyway?

I have a small panel that appeared to be easier to be made, assembled and painted if seperated from where it was attached.

Once detached, I realised that this panel could act as an opening trap where the Super parts would attach, so I tried to make it movable.

But since this part is so small (1cm x 3cm) and located in a tough to access position, it is very hard to make it articulated. Well without a drawing/picture, it would be hard to explain it better until I finalize the design.

Should be rubber then, I need to search on ebay/amazon, last time I searched for this kind of rubber I ended with O-rings BUT the easier to find/traditional ones are too thin to act like a 1:60 plane wheels. Any idea is welcome on the rubber!

NB: Also the wheels would be an optional accessory, mainly because of the price of printing it in Steel from shapeways is quiet prohibitive (like 20 USD)

Mini HMMs would be amazing.

And, hopefully , not too difficult yes?

About the HMMs, I plan to make a sort of cage of rods where the HMMs will attach by friction, this cage being clipsable into the launch bay. By doing this design I should make different cages to adapt more weapons such as the classical HMM from the YF-19 or nukes from the VF-1s as the ghost is supposedly able to bring different types of weapons depending of the mission.

Really nice idea about the intakes, I would make the same if it can still transform, can't it?

That's big!

Thank you all for the great comments. The more I am working on it the more it is becoming complex with moving panels and such.

I am still having design dilemmas such as should the landing gears have rubber or plain plastic/resin is good enough or do I need to make the mini HMMs ?

Here are the shots after the second primer layer. I think that I will be done once I sand it tomorrow and prime it in white before painting.

Given that you can type in 3D Printing Molds and come up with that website as the very first link I'm going to assume Xigfrid is ignorant of any of the manufacturing process but is trying to argue his point anyway, did a cursory Google search and that was the first link that came up.

In fact I have no idea of their mold costs, but it seems after K comments that they are heavy on the final price. I use to work with mold companies for large steel injection molds (a single part would be at least 30cm in the smaller length) and I know the costs for these: 15k-20k each mold where a single part would cost 25 On a run of 200 pieces per year. As you can see the molds alone represent a large portion of the cost. I am ignorant of how these numbers would scale with Arcadia's model. How many valk do they sold in each run?

To cut the expenses, I have been suggested to work on resin molds, instead of using steel. My company is also working with thermo-formed plastic, and for smaller runs (order of 20) we work with materialise who make something really similar to SLA 3D printing.

Anyway, I feel bad for being judged as an ignorant simply because I am registered to 3Dprint.com newsletter and that I suddenly wanted to share this latest news to illustrate the fact that there are alternative to steel molding. You know that Google will give you the most recent news in its first page.

Sorry, my bad. They're 1/64 scale. They're only 4 hundredths off, so it's almost irrelevant with something that size. Nevertheless, if you put those up for sale, I'd like to get one for certain (in FUD if you make that available).

Here is the Ozma car model. I have modified it to include most of the adjustments I made on the first version. There should be some plastic that would have to be cut out around the front gears to perfectly acoomodate the rotating wheels.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/47C9VPQF7/can-car-custom-ozma-lee-v2

In fact we have 14 in 1:72 scale, this is why I am pretty much confident this is feasible and the copy would be as nice as the first recast

I'd be interested in a 1/72 version. Where do I throw money?

That's something feasible. Probably Jasonc can make additional 1:72 recasts but just to avoid confusion with the paid orders and if it is ok with you, I can put you on the waiting list.

We just made a new print of wings so things have slowed down a bit. But I am sure everything is going fine, and that the 1:72 molds should be almost done by now.

Anyway I will let Jasonc confirm it

Arcadia has and is already selling 3D printed Macross products.

The advances in 3D Printing (which is still in it's infancy) pretty much makes everyone a vocal expert.

I don't know what you meant by "selling 3D printed Macross products". I can swear I never saw one that would have been directly painted after being printed.

If you mean that Mr K uses 3D printing to make prototype, it saves only on the prototypes , which to the scale of traditional molding method is almost nothing.

Mr K. has no excuse for making more and more expensive toys nowadays with all the new technologies going around 3D printing and such.

I couldn't imagine why Arcadia could continue to make "traditional" molds knowing their high costs and also knowing that they don't make very large production runs. I came across this small article describing how a European molding company uses 3D printing in hardened ABS to make smaller and swapable molds that would fit a unique injection module. This is just brillant, and that kind of injection method would greatly reduce small production cost such as Arcadia's.

If anyone want to suggest it to Mr. K on his twitter, here is the link to the article: http://3dprint.com/95743/stratasys-hasco-injection-mold/

Posting a few pictures of the new parts, they are perfect! Now the head is tight in close position and it's stays also tightly semi open.

You can go on shapeways and grab the 9 parts that compose it there: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/xigfrid3dshop?section=Bird-Human+Head&sort=

All the parts are articulated around an axis that goes between the head's ears, the assembly is really basic and you will need very little sanding because the exterior texture should be rough. I gave a special treat to the head, just use a cutter and chip off the supplement of plastic if you want a smooth skin as mine.

There is no stand adapter for it as it would best be in the VF-0D/SV-51 CF arms or simply lying semi open on the ground.

If you have any question about the assembly or transformation just leave me a PM, I would be happy to answer them. And if the head has a great "selling" success, I can also make a quick manual in PDF for it.

Not that much bigger, really. The RVF drones are over half the length of a VF-1 on their own. Almost 10 meters to a VF-1's 14.

Perhaps this is the problem: the rvf's ghosts included in the super parts are too small.

They should be 2/3 of a VF-1 and not a little more than its half as they are.

I will prepare the car model for you, but I doubt FUD is a viable option because you have to ploy a little the model to insert the front tab. Additionally when I drive mine, the car hurts hard the walls

If you don't get any reply for your need, you can try to send a PM to Chaosyeti, he makes really nice clear stands (known as yetistands) and I am sure he can make you the robot attachment also from scratch or a copy of the original one

I am receiving in a few days the last updated parts. Can't wait to review them and they will probably give the "good to go" for this project!

Just realized that the antenna was missing on gerwalk and battroid shots, is it alright Saburo?

Saburo, they are amazing shoots! New computer desktop background and phone lock screen!

Like it, and I have some of those can remote cars. I'll make my decals, paint mine up, and control it around the house. Glad to see you did that. I did find display cars of the same model that are in 1/60 scale, but need to be repainted. They look like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lancia-Delta-Integrale-16V-Rallye-Monte-Carlo-1992-IXO-Altaya-1-43-/321863173275?hash=item4af08a449b I have a couple of these as well. One in red, the other in this color linked. I'll get this head piece too, once I have the money for it. Thanks.

Have you really found the lancia in 1/60? I was looking for it for a long time before deciding to go the custom way. If you find a link where I can get one I would love it

Sure, Yamato compatible because this is what I will use and the bandai stand are so not convinient!

Thanks everyone. Wmkjr, it would be hard to do it without a prototype because of the perspective, but globally that is the size I am aiming. It also should be larger than my fighter drone to be consistent so this is a small window and I can't be awfully wrong!

I am playing with dimensions and I have almost narrowed to seomthing I like.
I took as references a Yamato VF-1J (V2) and a 1:72 figure which is the closest I got to the Yamato 21's and 19's pilots. I measured the VF-1J at 24 cm long, the X-9 is currently at 23.3 cm.

Do you agree with those figures?

front view:

In general when I work with big pieces in WSF plastic from Shapeways, I really don't like to work on them: WSF is such a tough material that the sand paper get used way before the plastic has aquired the desired shape.

BUT sometimes when I work with smaller pieces, WSF is so fun to work and scult ! Just a cutter and get the details to popup, get rid of a small chip there and there.

Having fun with RC cars and my latest project in WSF, still preparing for painting, these will be slow.