wm cheng

The next stage is the head - very beautiful how this all goes together. Painting it properly will be difficult due to the size. I don't see why they didn't just give the visor to us in clear green - however, due to the sprue attachment points (they could of positioned these at a place were we won't see them) though its probably better to tint it ourselves since the tint will hide the sanded sprue points. Its too bad they chose the ends on the outside to attach this visor piece. Overall, the sprue attachment points are quite good and for the most part hidden, however there are a few places where its awkward or poorly placed and not like the recent Star Wars stuff by Fine Molds where you don't have to worry about these sprue nubs at all!

Ok, a few hours into it and I realize what a delight Japanese plastic is! Its perfect, not too soft, but not too brittle. After working on a Korean Academy kit (a little on the hard brittle side) to get me back into the groove again, its so nice to be with Japanese plastic again. This Bandai kit has the same kind of styrene as the Hasegawa kits, although the Hasegawa kits have finer engraved details than this model. In fact, the Hasegawa has more "made-up" aircraft logical details than this - its obvious that their expertise is aircraft construction, and Bandai is robot construction, a lot of the details that are "made-up" are very sci-fi like and not realistic at all, but that's okay for this subject matter. This is the first stages of the kit, we build/snap together the forward fuselage part. The only piece of advice here is to not start with the nose cone as indicated on the instructions, start with the internal hinge mechanism first to get yourself acquainted with cutting the part off the plastic sprue runners and trimming the excess sprue off first. Even a seasoned modeller like me had some problems cutting the sprue nibs off properly and will need some filling and sanding to do when I come to gluing the nosecone halves together. But after a few steps in you'd get the hang of the hardness of the plastic and what to do. Its funny how some of the most basic skills in model making such as cutting the part out and sanding is still some of the toughest skills to master even with lots of experience behind you. Here we run into the first of the "compromises" already, when all the parts collapse together, there are huge un-sightly gaps in the separations between the parts because the pieces need clearance to allow movement - this will be problematic when we paint too so do note of the places where they rub. Unfortunately, the areas which rub are usually at the outside edges or corners which won't hold paint nor clear-coat well. The front landing gear well is a joke - there is no-where near the required room to make it believable that a nose gear can retract into this space. In fact the entire gears are horribly sculpted. They are just like the Yukikaze landing gear sculpts, fat, ill-proportioned and un-believable - as done by a robot company. They are so bad that I think I will skip them all together - not only will I have to rebuild them from other kits, but the modifications to the gear wells (front and rear) will be so extensive that they will interfere with the hinging system and the leg's ability for the ankle to retract. I think I will glue the gear doors closed and forgo the gears themselves, as I will be displaying this with the gears up in the aircraft mode 90% of the time.

Hi all, As promised, I finally have something to start a thread on my Bandai VF-25F which Graham was so kind to track down for me in Hong Kong at a decent price. The kit price itself was pretty good especially considering what you get - I personally thought that with shipping though, it doubled the price of the kit and the resulting total price was somewhat expensive. I was pretty much against this model from the beginning and wasn't even going to purchase one - mainly due to the fact that its a transforming model. I'm pretty much an aircraft guy - and its obvious that Bandai is pretty much a robot company. However, following the long thread as to its development, it started looking better and better - and it seems like it might be the only decent representation of this aircraft in the near future. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of transforming models - I think models should be models and toys should be toys - I "look" at models but "play" with toys. When I first found out about the "transforming" nature of this kit, I was expecting a lot of compromises that toys make for the sake of movement and durability (which would ruin the accurate representation I would come to expect from a well crafted Japanese kit). I feared the kit would turn out to be like Bandai's previous efforts with Macross Plus with their 1/100 scale VF-2SS (which was also a transformable kit - and unfortunately, the only one Bandai made of this very well designed Mech). Luckily for us all, I am glad to say that this latest effort by Bandai far exceeds those 1980s models and it is an exceptionally engineered kit in terms of movement and joints creating a fairly accurate line-art representation of this Messiah Valkyrie. However, I am still disappointed that although well engineered, it was not engineered from a model builder's point of view, the parts breakdown and assemblies are not geared towards proper painting and finishing easily. The finished product does not lock together well and there are huge un-sightly gaps that I can't seem to close up no matter how I try to align the pieces. It is exceptionally delicate and there are very few locking pegs or devices that hold the various modes together, instead it just relies on the stiffness of its joints. Jarrod also has a great review of this kit up at: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=27823 Ok, upon initial impressions, the box is big, bigger than I'd expected from a 1/72 scale kit. However once I opened it, it was crammed full of parts, it wasn't a matter of just a big box with a few pieces rattling inside, it was crammed full! There are so many parts - mostly for the complicated internal hinging systems and pivot joints as well as the cleverly designed way it all literally "snaps" together. My usual methodology to starting any new model is that I would study the instructions and parts and mentally build the entire kit in my head as I followed through the steps. This is a way for me to imagine the process and visualize where the pitfalls and trouble spots may be (and flag them mentally). It allows me to concentrate on details that will be seen when finished and areas that might need fixing up that are also exposed in the final model – instead of wasting effort on detailing everything including areas that will be closed up and hidden upon final assembly. It allows me to break out of the normal suggested flow from the instructions to make up my own plan of attack that will allow me to airbrush and mask more easily. However, this was a really complicated kit and was too hard for me to visualize all the components and what they did – so many joints and sub-asssemblies! So I decided to depart from my normal way of building a model and follow each and every step in the instructions verbatim. Now don’t get me wrong, there are lots of steps, but its not a complicated model and anyone could follow all the individual steps quite easily, don’t let me sway you into thinking this is too complicated as a kit. It’s quite straightforward as long as you pay attention and follow each and every step. All my extra work is just so that I end up with a model that is more like the Hasegawa Valkyries that I love. Since it was a “snap-together” - my plan would be once I had the entire thing together, I would carefully take apart just the sub-assemblies that are needed be glued, sanded and painted. I'd guess that 75% of all the pieces weren't really necessary if the model was just a single mode dedicated aircraft - however I wasn't able to understand the assembly process enough to just pick out the 25% required pieces to build a single mode aircraft only model - it was my initial intention to build a dedicated aircraft-only mode and correct the transformation compromises. As I started into the building (more like snapping together) I started to appreciate more and more the engineering of the moveable joints and marvelled at its complexity. So I’m not going to go into the snap together of the kit, I just followed the instructions. What I want to concentrate on is what comes after the initial assembly. I want to document taking it apart and fixing it up and painting it properly into a real model. Maybe identify areas that could be modified, improved or magnets applied to help the model hold together. I don’t know about adding pegs, as I can’t imagine any type of glue that will be strong enough to hold a peg in place. I’ve included a few shots of the runners/trees of parts that I find particularly interesting since they obviously use a multi-mode process (more than just a top and bottom to the die). There’s an example of the multiple types of plastics used where we get a clear tree of parts mixed in with the white styrene and red styrene parts. Although it’s a nifty feature to have moulded in colour parts – I personally find it un-necessarily complicates the engineering of the kit and ultimately I have to mask and repaint all the parts anyways. There’s another part that shows the undercut details at the rear of the forward fuselage which could only be done if there was another part mold process that came in to stamp out the rear details, just as the head laser antennas show a deep undercut recessed details that could only be achieved when a third mold press comes in at the sides as evidenced by the plastic trees that have been routed below to allow the die to travel to the laser antennas. Bandai is amazing, showing off their advancement of technology in plastic model making. On with the show!

Hey everybody, I managed to start it on Friday and got a few hours on Saturday too so I plan to start the thread tomorrow on Monday. Its very different though, its not like any normal model so my approach will be very different too. I just plan on totally "snapping" it all together completely first to see where everything goes and where it all has to move and rub against each other - THEN I plan of taking it all apart to paint properly and glue and fill the seams and turn it into a proper model. Its this part that I will document, I know I usually take a bunch of photos of the process, but there really isn't much to photograph when I'm just "snapping" the pieces together. I am pretty much following the instructions to the letter... its a pretty complicated model with tons of moving parts. So I'll consider modifications such as magnets and such only after I get a good handle of how it transforms and goes together. I'll document the process where I take it all apart again - this is my "work horse" experiment for my other subsequent VF-25s. David, I tried to look for purple food dyes but had no luck on the weekend. I'll still search on Monday, but I also plan on cutting all the tabs away from inside the canopy - it really detracts away from the model, so it may take a while to carefully cut them out, and re-polish it back to translucency. Plus I'll try to re-build the front of the cockpit hood, it just looks weird that it just ends like that before the front windshield. I am curious as to how everybody tints their canopies.

I'm going to start mine today and hopefully post something or start the thread later tonight when I have something to show for it. Yes, the part has too many areas especially on the underside to allow a dip, it may have to be airbrushed only on the outside in many light layers, or I am going to try to dip only the outside portion and leave the interior alone (as this is where all the pegs are that will catch the pooling of the clear tint. I'm sure Bandai will issue a version 1.5 of this kit with all the proper improvements such as pegs and tinted canopies and maybe even a decent landing gear as they have with the Yukikaze kits and screw all us early adopters! Wish me luck!

Wow! David... excellent work on the micro-painting... that pilot is SMALL! Its looking good so far...

Yeah, I'm not sure if the model is too small, but the cockpit is definitely way too small!

I'd second that Windex! The original stuff with Ammonia, its taken off dried hard cake of paint within the old paint bottles to be reused - I think the active ingredient must be ammonia though, but its absolutely harmless to the plastic and should return it to a pristine condition. Good luck!

wolfx - I don't have the kit yet, but when I do, I'll look at it to determine what's the best way to paint it. dio & evil bones - flowchart... HAHA! I wish it were so linear, modelling is very "organic", each time its different depending on the situation, I would think it would be very therapeutic for an engineer! I have an idea for the brown metallic feet and the purple gun - how about spraying them with a nice Aclad metallic like steel first which has a nice very fine sheen, then clear-coat them with a mix of Tamiya clear brown for the feet and Tamiya clear purple (probably a mix of the red & blue) for the gun pod. That way the metallic sheen should show through the colour clear-coat above. Feel free to try first, but that's my plan unless someone can show me a better way or that this won't work. The problem I find is that the Tamiya metallics have too large of flecks of metal (or large grain) in them and really throws off the scale. As for the canopy, I'd try to dip them in food coloured future. I can't remember but was there a problem with mixing acrylics like Tamiya or Gunze paints into Future?

How about a group build everyone!! Graham was able to find for me a VF-25 kit and as soon as that arrives (7-10days), I intend to do a full build-up thread and go step-by-step with this baby! How about everyone joining in and building it together with me? I'm going to give it the full treatment however, full paint, weathering and decalling (the works! it deserves nothing less) - but you guys can just take whatever steps you find useful and apply it. Hope it will help! Wm

Argh?! - Regult, are you saying the decals are screened?!! They are not spot colour, but screened like newsprint with the colours made up of little dots? Please say it isn't so!! Come on Bandai, are you a fly-by-night garage operation?!! Ok... calm down for a minute here and wait for confirmation... (I thought I'd see the last of screened decals from the AMT/monogram of the 80's) Sorry to hear about your decal problems, can anyone here who have clear-coated the model attest to its durability after transformation?

Hmm, that sucks... thanks for the reply. Its too bad they at least didn't cut away the stripes where there will be overlaid graphics. Not only did Hasegawa provide cutouts on the stripes but they also provided white decals for underneath the graphics (kind of a belt AND suspenders approach!). I guess the only part where there's a problem is the tailfins eh? Maybe I'll have to mask it and spray it first. I plan on building it like a model too, I will initially build this first kit to be able to transform, but I doubt that I will do so often, I'll probably just leave it in the fighter mode most of the time. I will use this kit to inform me how to build a better fighter on subsequent VF-25s and find out which parts rub the most - I hope to do a complete dry-fit build to see where all the moving parts are, maybe sand away parts that are scraping and then disassemble for painting, filling and sanding.

Fantastic work Jarrod!! I was at first really against this kit, but all the images I've seen lately (including yours) really changed my mind into this "must-have" kit now! A question about the decals... In one of the pictures it shows the new SMS logo applied to the black tailfin, but it seems like the decals don't have enough opacity to read properly against the black background - is this the actual case, or is it just a bad photo? Also some shots show on the main wings that the grey stripe actually reads through the SMS logo, is the decals that thin that it has no opacity, or is there a white decal underlay (like on the Hasegawa kits) or isn't the stripes cut out at the areas where the SMS logo is supposed to be? Thanks again for posting... you did a amazing job on your kit. Do you think there would be any opportunity to place rare-earth magnets inside to help lock it up in the aircraft mode? Wm

A question to anyone who used the decals... In one of the pictures it shows the new SMS logo applied to the black tailfin, but it seems like the decals don't have enough opacity to read properly against the black background - is this the actual case, or is it just a bad photo? Also some shots show on the main wings that the grey stripe actually reads through the SMS logo, is the decals that thin that it has no opacity, or is there a white decal underlay (like on the Hasegawa kits) or isn't the stripes cut out at the areas where the SMS logo is supposed to be? Thanks, Wm

Everybody's builds are starting looking great!! Kudos to you all. I wished I lived in those parts of the world. In preparation for my kit... does anyone have any good reference or links to good reference for this VF-25? I'd like to gather them all up in one place. Other than the HJ Nov issue and a few small screen captures, are there any good colour references to the cockpit or the internal mechanisms that are revealed during transformation? Thanks,

Hey Regult, what do you mean the Tamiya flat white doesn't stick properly? I plan of painting this sucker entirely when I receive this kit and I almost exclusively use Tamiya acrylics. Do I need to primer the entire model first? Flat white is tricky to get good coverage. Sometimes if the part is really molded in a dark plastic, I spray a grey primer first to bring up the shade and eliminate any color tint for the white to lay over - white never has good coverage, but also flat white is better than gloss white at coverage. So how does one glue the ABS parts? or is it designed so that the ABS parts don't need to be glued?

Hey Graham, that's a pretty good price, how about picking one of these kits up for me and mailing it over (I'll paypal you of course) and I'll do a build-up thread...

Can I ask how much people are paying for this kit? including delivery? The closer to Toronto, Canada would be of great help. There are several shops here that say they can get it in by Friday, but they want $74 CDN for it, I'm not sure if thats reasonable or did they jack it up. I assume with a full MSRP plus shipping and possible duties it could run up to around $70 CDN for it? Thanks, Wm

Hey Miriya, That Bandai Glaug you've started on for practice is probably going to be a disappointment and much harder to build than these new generation of Bandai kits. They really have improved a great deal over the last 20 years! I remember those old Bandai macross kits (re-packaged ARII or IMAI) from my childhood, huge seams, parts not lining up, seam lines running through major details, joints either too loose or too tight). Don't judge the new kit by your experiences with this 20yr old kit! I'm sure it will be much better! I'm personally going to wait till the dust settles a bit (too much hype and not enough funds at the moment) and see if Bandai release a version 1.5 (burned by their Yukikaze kits before!) or if there are going to be any aftermarket or photo-etched parts. Probably going to modify it to be permanently in aircraft flight mode (to avoid those nasty landing gears). Although I'm open to doing a step-by-step buildup thread if anyone wants to donate a VF-25 kit to me! hehe...

Adam, thanks so much for the offer (isn't the internet great!) - I've paypalled someone in Hong Kong that might be able to help, we'll see if I get anything in return. Fly4victory, yep, I was thinking of taking the middle carriage out to shorten it a bit, and take the entire grey body thingy out too so we basically have a flat surface to mount John's excellent Launch Rail right to the top of the vehicle, and yes the scoop would make an excellent blast-shield (it already articulates and everything!). I would of done it earlier if it wasn't a $110+ model - so expensive. Well, here's my F-16CJ - its the new Academy 1/72 scale kit, and the detail is excellent, especially the undercarriage. Its pretty much done except for the canopy (which I ruined and I am hoping to get a replacement). For those who are thinking about this kit; Pros: -excellent surface detail, a good amount of rivets (I love rivets - well not the iron steam era rivets, but the fastener details) -fantastic undercarriage details (best yet for 1/72 scale) -good ordinance and targeting pods selection -excellent cartograph decals Cons: -over-engineered for no real reason - some really complicated assemblies such as the 6 piece intake -un-necessary glue on parts like gun bay & misc bumps... (the bumps are a little to pronouced) -too many ejector pin marks all over the place (even on missles & gear tires?!) -lack of vent details after the bump on the gun bay -wings should of been molded to the top of the fuselage / in-correct flap panel lines However I don't have a point of comparison since I don't have either the Hasegawa nor Revell kits. However I held off building a F-16 in the past since I thought the Hasegawa kit was a bit old and the Revell kit had no rivet details - so seeing this kit convinced me to try it. This was originally supposed to be an OOB (out-of-box) straight build, to get me practiced back again at building models after a 3yr hiatus, but the kit was already so good that it just begged to have a few more details added to it. So I added the True Details resin seat and the Eduard Photo-Etched kit for Hasegawa (they don't have a Academy version yet) to this model and highly recommend these upgrades. I modified the flaps and dropped them a little bit as well as split the airbrakes (it such an easy mod that the kit really should of allowed one to open the airbrakes). I added sprue bits to the PE cockpit since the Eduard stuff is pre-coloured, but it looked a bit flat, so I added the sprue bits to about half the switches and toggles (although at 1/72, it was an exercise in frustration - the end result is pretty good if I say so myself) So here it stands for now... (without the canopy - which I hope to get in the next month or so...) Its a tiny plane. Thanks for all the help I've received over the internet with various requests, info and references.

Wow! Thanks for the scans Graham... the ones done up properly has changed my mind a bit on this model, I might have to pick one up someday. I still wished that Hasegawa would make a dedicated aircraft version. Even in the hands of the experts, it still looks silly sitting atop those spindly (yet at the same time, too thick) landing gears!

Hey David, I installed XVID4PSP and during the previews at least, none of the subtitles show up - how did you convert MKV WITH subtitles to something the PS3 can play? Has anyone else gotten the Macross Frontier MKV (with embedded subtitles) to sucessfully convert to something the PS3 can plan in HD? Thanks, Wm

Yep, I'm pretty sore about it, it was such a stupid move on my part too! totally my fault... ARGH... This has been the model from hell... don't know why though - maybe I've lost it, or am just too distracted. So what do you guys think of the YMT-05 as the base launch vehicle for the Atmospheric Booster launch rail? The first time I saw that kit years ago it hit me as a substitute for the booster launch vehicle. I know it isn't canon... and thats been holding me back (plus the $100+ price tag, not a cheap kit).

Got a good chunk done last night and today... my favourite parts, final detailing, weather, washes and touch-ups! I re-masked the cockpit area to re-paint the surround/seal gunship grey instead of the black I previously had (as per some very helpful suggestions!) although I don't think I can repaint the seat cushions black un-less I remove the seat and probably re-paint the belts as well. I tried something new in weathering this time, I didn't go the post-shading route I usually do (mostly because its more appropriate to anime subjects). I instead used the Tamiya weathering chalks and a pencil rub stick (basically a pressed rolled up paper tube) and rubbed areas into the flat clear-coat finish and burnished them to a semi-gloss around heavily used panel lines and access hatches. The semi-gloss effect has a way of darkening the paint so it appears like a post-shading, but when different lights hit it at an angle, it quite realistically reproduces some of the sheen effects I see in the reference photos. I kind of gotten carried away once I started doing this weathering - its a little over done, since most of my photos show they seem to take good care of these planes (unlike navy birds!). But hey, I like it, and its such a small model, it needs some exaggeration to bring it in scale. I finally got to glue in the tail cone which I've been itching to do for weeks! Its too bad that the lighter grey tone seems to be too dark (not enough contrast between the darker grey and light grey as well as the dark grey decal stenciling on the lighter grey paint - oh well, nothing I can do about it now, I had just trusted the Tamiya conversion guide, but unfortunately its not FS colour accurate - but I do love using Tamiya paints, so much easier to clean up!). I spent most of today detailing up the landing gear bays and structs. I did a large portion of work earlier on, then had to seal them up for the overall spray. I get to install the structs and doors now and add the hydraulic plumbing and brake lines, which I feel adds a lot to something in this scale. Most of it was thoughtfully provided in the Eduard photo-etched kit already, then I added a bunch of scratch build stuff to busy up the gear wells. Lastly I repaired the PE HUD (again!) - I keep crushing it whenever I turn the plane over to work on it (without a canopy! ARGH!!) I think I've broken every protrusion antenna thingy on this model! So many things have gone wrong with it, its sometimes feeling like an albatross around my neck - close to being a lost cause sometimes. After the wheels and lights, then its the ordinance, and then it sits for the long wait to see if can get a canopy.

A few more updates... I made a little cardboard canopy (after I stupidly ruined my canopy and I am currently still looking for a replacement - I hope I won't have to buy another model just for the canopy part!) to help protect the delicate cockpit details while I handle the plane to paint. First was the grey coats, then I airbrushed some ModelMaster Semi-gloss to do an oil wash for the panel details and I did some initial weathering with the excess oil wash too. Once I liked it, I sealed it in with the Future (first time future user - after everything I keep hearing about it, didn't go on as smooth as I hoped, but it was ok, it was mainly used because I didn't want the decals to silver against a dark background especially when the final finish will be flat). I went to town on the decals - I love the Academy decals, the cartograph printed ones are fantastic (maybe a tad on the think side - but durable) and the carrier film was so close to the image that I didn't really need to trim - there wasn't really any excess to trim anyways - plus I love tons of data stenciling! Once that was done, I sealed it in again with future, and lastly I clear-coated it with ModelMaster flat now for the weathering stage. I plan on lightening the entire plane up with a lighter grey in leading edge areas to bring out some details with a tiny bit of post-shading and some streaking. I love all the decals for the missles too! (I found that the Tamiya equivalent paints seem to be a little on the dark side, the grey decals don't show up on the lighter grey paints as well as I thought they should - its "really" low-viz now) Thats it for now...