Skypoet

Wonky, yet not a chunky monkey! I like the thick spine in fighter mode, reminiscent of the late versions of the Mig 21 :-)

The VF-27 was the best of the 3 kits (not taking into account all variants) Bandai made for the Macross franchise. Looking good in all modes, and with locking tabs for fighter modes. The VF-1 does have a sufficient amount of locking "tabs" to make the fighter mode hold securely. The Battroid mode is not functional ;-) ... and the hands provided can't hold the gun :-) Some engineering work required. But hey, it's still better than making the VF-1 from scratch on one's own!

All you need is 8 hours of spare time, and nail scissors if you are not a perfectionist and just want to make a good-looking VF-25! So in this case just keep the VF-25 for yourself! It will be an immensely pleasurable time in your life! If you are a perfectionist, you will need 2 or 3 times more time than if you were building a "normal" 1/72 jet aircraft! And your experience may be frustrating. And then, sell it! :-) AMEN to that! One more reason to keep this kit! I have a pile of boxes of unbuilt RC planes at home, maybe I'll be a dad when I'll start actually making them!

These kits may have poseability issues. For example, you'll have a hard time getting an aggressive stance in gerwalk. At best you'll get a B+ stance (while stressing the joints, which is not really good), unless you do some tweaking of their mechanisms AKA joint improvement... I yet have to try doing that! The 1/72 VF1 can barely stand in Battroid mode, I hope I'll work something out - someone tried replacing the hip bar with a wooden skewer and achieved reasonable results. I am very happy with the VF1 kit in spite of all the negative reviews. The original joints will tend to break after a while and a few transformations, but you can order replacements of some sprues from Bandai with a form which is included in the kit (this will require using a character recognition + translation software unless you know some Japanese or know someone who can help you out (one of my colleagues could actually). I also find out that the VF-1 looks a lot less toy-ish than the Yamato and Arcadia kits. And bear in mind that they are 2, 3 or 5 times cheaper than the toys! Here's a picture of my yet unpainted, un-decaled VF-1 (if I can join them - OK it worked out). This VF-1 has been in that pose for a few days and did not fall, however it took me a few minutes to make it stand steadily!

The Tomitech SV-262 seems to look better... oh my... Wait it does not seem to look better, it actually does look better...

The VF-25 and VF-27 were easy and the VF-1 was somewhat harder. The skill requirement is lower than for standard modelbuilding even if the Bandai Macross-Gunpla are more complex. They are designed so that the parts come together easily. If you really want a challenging gunpla experience, try a bootleg!...

Great use of magnets!

Mazinger, I think that the kit should be quite easy to assemble. From the pictures I've seen, some features are very simplified, such as the landing gear. The transformation sems quite simple compared with th VF-1 and even VF-25. The Bandai 1/72 VF-1 was somewhat challenging to build, with lots of small, very small parts, that had to be cut out very carefully from the sprues, or else they would not fit well. Highly detailed and highly fragile, beautiful in fighter mode, but very flimsy and unposable in battroid mode - unless you do some customizations, which I intend to do, with the help of a dremel, magnets, superglue, maybe some epoxy (we'll see how well it turns out, I'll post some pictures here if the result is satisfactory). This kit, as I was writing, reminds me more of the VF-25 which was not very expensive (35$ for a big, transformable kit, really not expensive by the way), with simple landing gear and very few very small parts, and somewhat robust when compared to the VF-1. And also good looking and quite sturdy if just built "straight out of the box". Not a kit for "advanced" gunpla builder, but expect the build to take between 5-8 hours of total time. And expect the build to be a LOT of fun. I used to be a builder of plastic model kits of airplanes, and no longer enjoy this other type of build ever since I switched to gunpla's. Beautiful from this angle! totally love it! BEAU-TI-FUL! Hmm yes, looks like some unfilled connector, though nothing that modellers' putty can't fix!

I definitely am one of those. And attempting to improve the articulations of the bandai kits, is also a great challenge for model builders, provided they have some interest for such tasks! Well maybe this has more to do with engineering than model building actually!

1/72 sv-262 Bandai Plamo! http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-41.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-42.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-43.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-44.jpeg Woohoohoo! Plus some cool shots of VF-31 1/72 Plamo! Poseability seems good... http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-48.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-45.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-40.jpeg http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-37.jpeg Plus... :-) @540 yens, it must be small, but detail is impressive http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-49.jpeg

Did anyone notice the 1/72 SV-262?

Great idea!!!

And a F/A-18's landing gear should be the right size... what about those ones? http://hlj.com/product/SAC72066/Air

Could we add the unpainted version? I'd like to make my own custom paintscheme.

I totally and wholeheartedly agree.

Ah, life is hard That's why I'll go for a non-custom paintjob!

More info from the automated google translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fhobby.dengeki.com%2Fnews%2F178299%2F

I'm sure that some 1/100 kn0ck0ff fully articulated Gundam hands would do the trick as well, while costing... 10$? Hmmm can't find them anymore on the interwebs :-(

I think I'll do a completely custom paintjob, if the original paintjob is too hard to do with an airbrush and masking tape! :-) Sounds like a lot of fun to do! :-) And in case some out-of-the-box articulations are bad, I'll Kotobukiyafy them! In terms of looks in all 3 modes, this looks like the best Valkyrie ever, yet! The Macross Delta anime seems rather lame for the time being, but who cares! It's all about spreading love and peace through pop culture so I'll still like it no matter how lame it turns out :-D

I know how much some people whine about Bandai "Gunpla" valks, but this VF-31 looks totally amazing! Now only the future will tell if it requires a lot of tweaking or not, when it comes to its articulations - the VF1 had some bad issues in that area, mostly at the hip joint, for example! I am currently tweaking an Aoshima Gernsback from Full Metal Panic. Substituting the Aoshima polycaps with Kotobukiya Polycaps gives promising results for the time being :-)... Pictures will follow!

Wohooohooo! Me wants! :-D Go Bandai GO!