David Hingtgen

You know, they could sell a zillion "girls of Frontier" pin-up calenders... Heck, I'd buy anything that had "Grace in flightsuit"... Did she actually build it herself? Kinda looks that way.

I was hoping this'd get "all A's" from A7. It just rocks in so many ways.

Mr Mark softer will only make the decals conform to the surface better, and *slightly* increase their adhesion to the surface. It will not seal/protect them. As for coloring the canopy and visor----Tamiya clear paint (various colors) works, but it is sticky, and behaves strangely due to being transparent. Put it on THICK. Flood the thing. Do not "brush" it on in my experience--that will lead to "varying opacity". And only use it on the visor. Using any ready-made colored clear paint will be WAY too deep for the canopy. I'd go with 'dip it in tinted future' for that. Food coloring is popular for the tinting. Or probably a bit of Tamiya clear paint mixed in would work---try it out on something else first though. PS---paint clear parts from "behind".

3 Fei-Yens? I always assumed I was the biggest Fei-Yen fan here---and anywhere. (though I haven't even built my Marz one)

The new neck joint has so many hinges etc, I can transform it without opening the "head hatch".

I thought in the "burning" scenes set on Gallia 4 etc that Grace looked like a cyborg (mainly how her left eye was drawn more than the injuries) so I think she was an "early adopter" of the technology. So her plans (and Galaxy's) could go WAY back.

As I said, http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZGM02 is almost black----it'd show up against anything short of Panzer grey. (and Ozma is nowhere near that dark)

I own http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZGM02 and it's "almost black". It's kind of a dark purple-grey and somewhat translucent. I only use it on white. I've wondered about that #21 Sumire grey, I think it may be more 'grey' as opposed to te almost black of #2. Miriya---thanks much for the report. I've got a Gundam Wing HG kit I'm going to build to try some things out on, including the "dark dirt" wash. I'm going to try hand-brushing flattened Future on it too. Will try putting the wash over a flat clear coat vs over bare plastic too. I plan to "perfect" my technique before I build my VF-25. Current theory/plan after your comments: Build, decal, slightly flattened future, wash, flattened future. Because I want the wash over the decals, and a double clearcoat will help really seal in the decals (as we know they can't take many transformations it seems). TCracker---how much did you paint on yours? Fingers, head lasers, canopy frame, and....?

If the dogfight wasn't important and only radar power and long-range missiles mattered, the F-14 and MiG-31 would be the best fighters in the world at the moment, and the F-22 wouldn't have been designed to be the most agile US plane ever and thrust vectoring would have been omitted.

Thought I just had: Why is Grace in her standard outfit at the end?!?! Did she change back from her flightsuit between the end of ep 22 and actually getting in the VF-27? I mean, for both plot and fanservice reasons, she really should have been in her flightsuit for the entire last 3 eps, and only been wearing her standard outfit for her "mental self-image". Unless she keeps a spare set of clothes in the VF-27 and changed for some reason before arriving to save Brera... That also changes the interpretation of the "floating down the hole to the queen" scene----I think everyone initially thought that was symbolic of her mental self "hacking down" to the queen (since she'd just left her VF-27 hovering nearby yet wasn't in her flightsuit)----but now I think that was a literal image of her flying down.

What most people call Gundam markers for panel lining are just very fine-tipped markers. In fact, most actual brand-name Gundam markers have large tips---only a few are small and made for panel lines. I've used both, and the difference is almost nil. Wash---different usage of the word. Refers to "flooding" an area as opposed to "washing up". Instead of individually inking each panel line, you use a thinned ink/paint and just kind of haphazardly apply it all over, and it'll go into the lines by itself. You will then have to remove the excess by, ironically, washing it off. Why use this method? More subtle panel lines. My planned method for when I get mine. I assume we're getting a lot of first-time builders here. Anyone know of a good "how to build models" FAQ? ARC doesn't seem to help much, nor does the rec.models.scale FAQ---a zillion Q's, but short A's.

Watch Galaxy's shoulders right before it fires at Frontier/Quarter---very different position than the screen cap before. Presumably they can move/track quite independently of the arms etc. BTW---why is "shoulder gun use" almost never seen, despite being the most prominent guns on every Macross ship after the main gun?

Hands and shield.

UK seems *very* close to pulling out of the JSF program completely. Budget reasons, mostly. Of course, having ALEADY GOTTEN RID OF the Sea Harriers, there is going to be a slight problem with their naval aviation force in the future...

I always thought the Star Trek kits (like most Trek models IMHO) have the contrast WAY overdone. Happens on diecast model military planes too. The different shades of grey should be SUBTLY different on most of them. I mean, you can literally be standing next to a 1:1 Super Hornet and not be able to see the demarcation line clearly. But on most models---you could see it in dim lighting from 10 paces away.

Could you describe your last paragraph more?

My point was the first half the article seems to be kind of a "guide for a simple build" for NOT painting the kit---just assembling it and adding on stickers, and gundam markering the lines. Not many HJ articles talk about basic parts removal, etc (unlike FSM). Using paint on an "unpainted" assembly in an unpainted build is kinda self-contradictory. The whole point was to show how to make it look as good as possible without painting. It's kind of like saying "if you don't want to paint the model with flat white paint to make it look like a real warmachine--you could just use flat clear paint over the white plastic". That's not really avoiding the whole "don't want to paint it" thing.

Thanks much for the translation----though I think painting the sprue scars is kinda cheating. IMHO, the best method of dealing with them is to rub them down hard with your thumbnail. Try it, you'll be surprised how much of a difference it can make. Works on toys, too, including 1/60 Yamato plastic... If it's an injection-molded toy or model kit, you can probably rub down the sprue scars with your nail. Won't eliminate them, but can make a BIG difference--all depends on the color and composition of the plastic, how smoothly it was removed, etc. And you don't need to rub for a minute or anything, just a few secs will do it.

Frankly, everyone posting in this thread about how it looks, needs to go see the new scans of the 1/72: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?s=&a...st&p=665228

Ok, I have a few translation requests: 1. http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=...st&id=58627 2nd row, the 2 right-most blocks. Seems to be something about dealing with foil stickers on the pelvis---that would be VERY helpful, as those will be required regardless of whether you choose water or clear stickers for the rest of the valk. 2. http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=...st&id=58625 The entire botom row. Something about reducing the appearance of sprue scars. But I have no idea what the 2nd pic is showing.

You can make out the "Antares" marking on the VF-27's leg really well there, even better than any shot I ever found in the anime. (tilt your head left and it'll make sense) I just found an old Gundam Wing kit in the closet I never built, will practice some new techniques on it while waiting for my SAL-shipped VF-25 to arrive.

The wheels are on the outside of the strut when lowered, and on the upper side when raised. Turn 90 degrees.

Having watched the final ep, I guess I'll have to hope/wait on fan-art to get more "Grace in flight-suit" stuff.

I'll third that. Also, the gunpods take a lot of force at the front the first time to get them on the belly plates, and it WILL make stress marks on the guns themselves.

I've been wondering if they're purposely trying to make it as un-Yamato as possible.