wm cheng

Exactly my sentiments! All the work I spent trying to protect the paint-job and magnets to hold it together... I've only transformed my model twice since I built it!! It will always be in the fighter mode. Its unfortunate that there are no other alternatives, so I caved/brokedown and got the whole set, but after building the first one, I'm not too keen on the others - Bandai seems to make it more like a chore to build for me. They are great at making snap-fits and there aren't many seams to fill. BUT, to do anymore to their models (ie; like paint...) really makes the build un-enjoyable. Bandai just doesn't care about a modeller's steps and process... but they never cater to that crowd (except maybe their EX line) and they are really, really good at the Gunplay level of building. So... if you like snapping it together and zooming it around (transformation is fragile) and don't mind stickers, then this is the kit for you. If you are anal, count revits and keep thinking of ways to make water slide decals look painted on, then think twice. ;-)

Yes! welcome to the New World. May I inject some sober thought though, please... please use a real mask and have adequate ventilation. I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH - especially with lacquer metalizer paints. An airbrush "atomizes" the paint into such small particles that its easily inhaled and breathed more deeply into the lungs than just fumes from drying paint (which is also bad). This is especially bad when lacquers and metal particles are ingested. Any exposed soft tissues including eyes should be protected (as eyes also "breathes"). I use a 3M full mask with organic solvent filters (these mask have filter packs that must be changed every so often depending on your use). I want to get a full ventilation outside someday (fume hood) - but thats expensive. If at all possible, do it outside and don't expose other family members to it. When I was young (high school), my best friend and I airbrushed into the wee hours - there was often a visible cloud hanging over our workbenches which would linger for hours. My parents kept complaining that it stunk up the whole house. Well, we were teenagers so nothing could harm us! He's dead now, died at the age of 35 of lung cancer and he never smoked a day in his life. It has completely changed my outlook on life. It may not have been the hobby, but I can't believe that it didn't make the situation worst. So please enjoy the new delight, but PLEASE, PLEASE, everyone please practice safe airbrushing. (OK, I'm off my soapbox now...)

Try PS3 Media Server... its great, you can even turn on/off the subtitles from the PS3 XMB

Unfortunately not... the decals are "screened" too... argh! Hate Bandai!!

Yay! this will satisfy my ichy fingers for a while. Keep it up, it's looking good so far. A little note, it looks like the rear hydraulic arm thing to the front nose gear is in backwards in one of your photos - you might want to do a dry fit into the front wheel well to make sure.

How about a blue Kevin Spacy - haha!! Sorry to come to this party late, but are we talking about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONkh786EbSg ?

WoW! Absolutely fantastic again... I loved your VF-25 PE parts. Will you be giving the 1/48 VF-1 the same treatment? Love the canopy latches and cockpit sill details! How about flowler flaps and spoilers for the VF-1 as well as various access panel hatches like the the 1/48 scale resin? Retractable pilot's ladder too please. Feel to PM for ideas! ;-) Keep up the great work!

It's nice... but I kinda expected a bit more (considering its 1/48! - they did a pretty amazing job on the 1/72 already) - considering other than size and the exposed leg/engine, its just a scaled up 1/72. At this size, its begging for a resin landing gear well, PE parts including electrical and hydraulic plumbing, canopy latch sills, rails, intake trunks, other opened access panels, airbrake with opened slats, gun pod cart & ammo, retracting crew ladder and of course a full set of fowler flaps, spoilers and edge slats (are you listening Captn!) - everything needed to bring it up to the resin kit.

Thanks! just more ammo for painting & masking... argh!!

Yeah! thought the same thing... ;-(

I think the one on the top is like the old 80's models (2 part mold) where the canopy cross-section doesn't come back on itself like a bubble. Where the lower one comes back on itself so its more bubble-like with an undercut (3 part mold - hence the requirement of the seam, which curiously isn't shown) - this was a Hasegawa invention to make the canopy more realistic like actual fighter jets AFAIK.

WoW! The surface details are pretty amazing... although the cockpit side consoles are movie version, the TV version doesn't have any controls whatsoever, its just an armrest (although this is much more convincing though!).

Is it this one Graham? http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language...;language=en_JP Sorry I couldn't make out the japanese and it didn't have a picture of the book - just wanted to make sure before I pre-ordered.

Damn! That does look sweet - why another scale... 1/48 - I don't want to break my 1/72 scale collection!!!

Please post if anyone sees a more english friendly link (ie: HLJ or Amazon.jp) that is carrying the pre-order for the new VF-19 book?

Panasonic Plasmas are great, I can't believe how cheap they are now, the prices are really coming down. I'd worry about placement though. I don't get why everyone wants to put them above the fireplace - not an ideal location, the heat and soot particles coming from the opening isn't friendly to any electronics. I don't recommend ever putting any flatscreen above any fireplace, unless its a sealed gas unit that doesn't generate any heat. You should be concerned about where the windows are though, you mention a good amount of natural sun light, make sure the windows are not behind you, you might want to stick a mirror or piece of glass where you intend to have the screen and sit in your intended seating position to check for reflections and glare. They can be quite distracting. The Plasma in your link doesn't indicate any sort of anti-glare coating, so I would assume its just a straight piece of glass, just like the newer Mac screens - either you love them or hate them! If you only watch at night, then great, if you intend to watch in the daytime, then be wary of the windows relative to your seating position and screen location - especially with Plasma. At 15-20ft away, you could get by with a larger screen ;-) - from you Valk collection, I don't think $$$ is a problem for ya ;-) You won't regret it! Look though Monoprice.com - get your mount and cables there, don't let Best Buy talk you into their rip off prices, get a mount that can swing out so that you can make all your connections with the TV still mounted to the wall - don't cheap out for the non-adjustable mounts, its so much hassle to take the TV down everytime you want to access the back panel for connections (also the adjustments can also mitigate any off-axis glare - within reason).

How big were you thinking of going? Where will the TV be (in terms of ambient light and windows)? How far away will you sit from the TV? What is your primary source of viewing material? These are all factors that will affect the which platform, size, location and placement. If size is a factor (and don't tell me it ain't - hehe) nothing beats front projection. It's by far the bestvalue price per inch and most closely approximates a "real" home theatre experience. I have a 100" electric screen (retractable into the ceiling - essential if you have kids! to keep fingerprints off of it) with a Panasonic PT-AE2000 1080p projector - with the lights out (and properly calibrated) its an amazing theatre experience sitting 12ft away, it fills your peripheral vision. In fact, its sharper than going to the theatre! My primary source is feature films and I have a dedicated basement home theatre that I can control the ambient light to total darkness - so this solution fits me. However the other drawback is projectors need their bulbs replaced every 5-10years (depending on your usage), and it could be as much as $500 to replace the bulb - but its a DIY job with most projectors now. There are mainly 3 technologies with projectors nowadays; LCD, LCOS and DLP. Each has its pros and cons - but I won't go into that on this quick summary. Next down the line is Plasma - IMHO, still the better picture due to darker black levels, thereby giving you more "real-world" contrast. This dark level and contrast will only really be appreciated with feature films, if sports is your thing, then it doesn't matter as much because the fields are always brightly lit, so motion is more your concern. Pioneer Kuros used to be the king of all displays, but they've stopped making them (I think its too expensive to manufacture and they were making enough of a profit on them since they couldn't charge that much more than LCDs) - you can still find them new in boxes at the better stores. Panasonic is now the default king of Plasmas. Don't compare the contrast ratio numbers, each manufacturer measures them differently, and LCDs measures them differently than Plasmas - so forget the numbers and go and look at the screen yourself. Plasmas give a better picture quality, but usually have a glass front that isn't great with reflections, so you need to located them away from bright windows. But you don't need a darkened room to view them like projectors. Lastly are LCDs - greatly improved over the last few years, so much so that some of the more expensive ones rival the Plasmas (plasmas are a much older technology and there hasn't been as much innovations since). Definitely look for local dimming LED backlights (for better black levels), they are the new standard to come in the next few years. Anything over 50" should definitely be 1080p while anything under won't really see a difference between 720p and 1080p. If sports is your thing, look into higher refresh rates to eliminate tearing and studder. LCDs are sharper per pixel than plasmas and have a square shape (not necessarily a good thing), as a result, older standard definition sources tend to have noticeable artifacting and pixelization (more detail requires better source material) - so look for sets that have good post processing to smooth these images out. The best thing about LCDs are the screens are usually fairly matte and attenuate reflections well, so they have more flexibility on placement relative to windows - although this matte screen is bad for kiddie fingerprints and its quite fragile and prone to scratching if you're not careful. Just my own personal 2 cents, but definitely go to a decent home theatre store to look at them yourself. Even if you don't buy from them, look at the displays when they are properly calibrated, not at a Big Box Retailer where they are pumped to full brightness and contrast, but accurate colours be damned! Look at the displays with your intended source material and see how each set handles the various sources. There's still a lot of SD material out there, so how it handles standard definition is important, most sets handle 1080p material well since its the native resolution of the set and there's no/little processing involved. A good set should last you 10-20years, so I think its worth the investment. GOOD LUCK! p.s. - Oh, don't get scammed into buying expensive HDMI cables, its the biggest crock out there ($100 Monster cables are rediculous) - it used to be the case with analogue cables that you need high quality ones (I've spend $300 on a uni-directional oxygen-free heavy gauge triple shielded RCA cable once!) but with digital HDMI, a decent one shouldn't cost you more than $10 from Monoprice. Digital means you either get the signal or not? If you get it, there's not quality difference - just a lot of marketing hype! Just make sure to get the HDMI version that your TV supports - it indicates the bandwidth capacity of the cable much like ethernet CAT 6 or 5e for gigabit.

So glad to have inspired someone (that's really the purpose of the step-by-step threads, and to vent sometimes;-) I'm afraid it really is a dying art, brick and mortar shops are closing up all over the place and I don't know a single young person into modeling, I guess video games are more immediate. Delayed gratification is a virtue of the old;-) hehe. So did you apply the Tamiya weathing powders to the gloss coat after the smoke post shading? I haven't really used much of the Tamiya weathering stuff, but have one set which I experimented on the Atmospheric Booster Launch Rail, and found out that it only applied well over a flat/matte base.

Jarrod! ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!! Thanks for sharing, the painted colours looks so well matched together, congratulations on a wonderful paint job. Its going to be tough doing this one, but inspiration like this encourages me to find time for modeling again.

WOW! THIS IS THE BEST LUCA I'VE EVER SEEN!!! Simply amazing... Thanks so much for sharing, it definitely gave me my model fix for the week ;-) Would love to see a step-by-step thread next time around detailing your paint/weather process.

Wow! How could I of missed this!! Amazing work!!! Fantastic weathering and paint scheme ;-) What a wonderful addition to our forums. I'll be waiting to see what you do next with anticipation. Congratulations on a beautiful build and thanks for sharing with us.

Wow! you accomplished so much. It look great, sorry to hear about the aggravations, buts its all part of the learning process;-) Wish I was around earlier, but its been a crazy month with the holiday season. Yeah, really glossy finishes takes a while to cure, and even then I find that I leave a lot of fingerprints and fabric textures and tape residue impressions on them (been there, done that! - you're not alone!), they are really finicky - luckily there aren't a lot of really glossy military hardware! That's why I usually use a semi-gloss undercoat, I find it usually strikes a balance to hide the decal film on most light surfaces and is more handling friendly. Although I do tent to go glossier if I am decalling over a dark surface such as the grey booster packs. But I could of told ya that it should all smooth out if you spray a flat matte finish over the whole thing in the end. With all that masking, why didn't you just mask and paint the blue panels instead of using those horrible screened decals? You'd get a better match and it would save a lot of heartache (IMHO). Its a no brainer for me, I'd just paint everything to match, however I would just handbrush those little recesses in the fast packs where the nozzles go, there's such a crisp edge between the surface going down and the outside surface that you can always get a straight line. If there's some overpaint, you can wipe it off and do a dry brush of the grey fast pack colour on the surrounding edge to clean up any wiggles. It is also interesting to vary and mask your final finishes so some parts are flat/matte, some semi-gloss and some glossier, it darkens the underlying colour to go glossier and varies the overall tones without having to paint all the different colours individually (see my Yukikaze Mave model - I really liked how it turned out with only one base green coat but the different flat and gloss finishes). Since you mask so much anyways, my recommendation would be to mask the major coloured areas (like those blue panels) - you may have to paint them white first to get a good undercoat, then the blue on top to match. But with the amount of masking you do, it's not a whole lot more! ;-) and the end results are worth it. Lastly, good to see you got your VF-27r! I just got mine last week too!! Can't wait to start on it. (although I can't see where I will find the time in the foreseeable future!) I think I might do a metallic magenta scheme, kind of like my purple gunpod, I would coat the entire plane in the Alclad Silver or Steel (or different shades of metal) then do a clear mageta/rose overcoat over the metal and finish in semi-gloss in the end. Good luck! Can't wait to see you put it all together.

Revised chest piece that includes working airbrake (like 1/48) and the front top intakes that actually are open and go in a certain depth with a little detail around the opening instead of it being just blocked off. Revised/replaceable leg pieces that the outside UN SPACY panel opens up to reveal the engine greebles behind the circular ankle disk (like the 1/48 Hasegawa model) and a spring loaded rectangular plug that hides the hole for the fast packs. Revised/replaceable nose section that has removeable avionics bay hatches (like 1/48 resin) and a revised seam that runs along a latitudinal panel line and not diagonally across the stripe. I'd like flowler flaps on the wings and leading edge slats please. Second the side covers and ladder Please Please water slide DECALS! Nope, I do not want to buy my toys all over again, just add-on kit with decals please! ... and a partridge in a pear tree...

Get the Tamiya rattle cans (spray cans) they go on pretty smooth, all you need is white - the decals do everything else! Try the Acylic or the white primer is actually pretty amazing too, it goes on so smooth and its sandable too. You could get a can of "steel" to do the gunpod and feet.

Wow! aircraft mode looks fantastic... (great design) - but gotta figure out a shade of matte dusty rose that looks military (any precedents anyone?)