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Finally had some time to attach the Super Packs onto my VF-25G. Boy do I have a love/hate relationship to Bandai. The renewal valks look great! My first Super Packs with any renewals and while it looks fantastic, it doesn't seem to lock together as tightly as I thought it would (at least not as tightly as the valk without the packs). Am I missing some trick? I've always thought the Bandai stands are clunky at best, but this threading the giant sniper rifle through the stand attachments was a real chore, especially threading the rear two uprights through around the gun and between the legs. It seems like the entire assembly is resting on the rear uprights, the forward prongs that usually attach themselves into the white piece with the slots in it seems to just be resting on it, the prongs don't seem to actually engage the slots. Did I mis-transform it into aircraft mode or do any of you find the same thing when its on its stand in aircraft mode? I love the way it looks, it just doesn't lend itself easily to taking it off the stand to "swoosh" around, I tend to "swoosh" it around the room with the stand ;-(

Better not be... its already waaay too thick!

It could look good glossy (like a show plane) IF that gloss were to be done properly (like a mirror show car finish or baked enamel) and NOT like the cheap Bandai renewals where it shows off every swirl, scrape and scuff with matte tampo printed over the shiny greasy plastic.

Thanks for all the kudos (sorry to derail the topic) - but I'm always making mistakes (totally screwed up my Cosmo Zero beyond repair), its a learning process each and every time I build a new model. Safe to say, I can't make a living off of it. But thanks for the encouragement.

And are put on this earth to torture modelers who like to paint their models!

I see where you're coming from now, there's nothing like nostalgia. I guess I come from a modeling background, so I'm still partial to the matte finish as it conveys a sense of scale better. (maybe its because I don't have time for models anymore, so it does fill that niche as you had said) Also, its so much more difficult to "touch" (weather) up the renewals due to their glossy finish (which isn't done well, it highlights all the swirls, scratches and imperfections). You really should see how much better it looks in person with a semi-gloss clear coat over the renewals - it smoothes everything out. I did build a pretty good looking YF-19 a while ago - 11yrs (before kids). http://www.macrossworld.com/cgi-bin/mwfarchive/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=9483

Hmm, I kind of take offense to that. There's only one shot where we see his reflection in the YF-19 - I don't know if that accounts for the glossy bird overall. I am no expert, but I don't consider myself lacking in the modeling skills department - but I do lack the time to build models nowadays. Now if the glossiness were to be done properly like a show bird, I wouldn't mind it so much, but that doesn't mean all the tampo stuff being matte (it should be sealed under a glossy coat to blend in) and all these tiny scratches and swirls from the manufacturing process should be buffed out.

That's GREAT news!!! Thanks for clearing that up.

Yes! Me too.

Oh NO!!! Say it isn't so... is this confirmed that it will be crappy shiny cheap toy plastic?

Cool, looks a bit like the nose to Yukikaze.

Well after a few more items appeared, and trying to click and re-combine different options, it does seem like if you add small items to a big shipment, the cost doesn't go up, it seems to go up in increments based on box size. I feel better about that. However, in the midst of all that clicking and re-combining, I accidentally shipped only 1 of my 2 Hasegawa VF-25F/S models - damn!!! Any savings I would have achieved was instantly negated... I guess I'll have to wait for something else small to come along to ship that last model out. I e-mailed HLJ about the mistake the moment I made it, but they say very specifically that once a Private Warehouse order is sent in, it cannot be altered. Oh, well, it seems so rigid, but it was my mistake, I just wished there was better service everywhere.

They're just ashamed...

Oh, I don't know about that. Still trying to find time to weather and clear coat my Renewal toys (and you know how far about they are released)!

Woohoo! Just got notice from HLJ that my pre-order is in my Private Warehouse.

Wow!!! Hasegawa comes through again. From the instructions, looks like the wings can be put on afterwards (facilitates painting!), separate parts for open and closed wheel well as well as separate canopies too. Even underwing ordinance that can swing with the sweep of the wings! I wonder if the extra set of decals for each kit will fit those poor Bandai cousins..

Hoping for another book soon, especially if Hasegawa starts putting out more stuff!!!

The new VF-25s have a completely different situation, they're not even comparable. If you're talking about the thickness of the separation between the upper secondary intakes and the main leg intakes, it's not sleek by any means, but its still waaay thinner than what we've got here. I'm just so disappointed since they've seemed to get so many things right except this glaring (at least to me) error - it's amazing how smooth and sleek the VF-4G turned out, that I can't see why they couldn't step up and attain that level of finish on this 3rd try.

So cool! Can't wait to see it. What kind of paints or clear coats are you going to use to stop it from scraping/scratching during transformation?

Wow! Thanks so much - that's exactly what I need. How did you get the two screws in the middle out? It looks like the white swing down piece wouldn't swing down far enough to allow a screwdriver in there. What scheme are you going to paint your bird in the end?

Thanks Lancalot, So just to take apart the forward fuselage from the LERX - are there any glued parts there or is it all just screws? I want to get to the painting the stripes and sand down the inside surface of the LERX to reduce the chance of scraping the painted stripes. So the two LERX are tied together by that steel axle and do not apart separately? Could you take any photos of just the forward fuselage apart?

Finally got my VF-25A. It arrived with 3 layers of tape on the flap in the box as though its been re-sealed. Greasy as usual, especially the gunpod. It was partially transformed in the box, the nose and back were mis-aligned in the box. However, I transformed it and after re-adjusting all the joints, I got it back together and properly aligned. It's ok, not the tightest one so far - at least my copy, my VF-25F and RVF-25 was much tighter and fit better, actually even the VF-25F seemed to fit better, there is still a slight seam/gap behind the canopy where this seam is usually very tight on all my other Messiahs. The forward part of the canopy seemed just ever so slightly askew - I am very anal though ;-) Lastly, I couldn't get the nose cone to fold all the way back, I could get the first joint of the double joint to swing down, but the second joint to swing the nose cone back seem to be seized, I don't know how much force I should attempt. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any solution other than just forcing it? I like the colours, but it is a little bland, I think I will try to do the stripes that MacrossJunkie did - anyone know how to remove or disassemble the LERXs?

Hmm, maybe I just have all large sizes or my combinations aren't really any savings, but so far it seems to cost exactly the same. I'll give it a little more time, just getting wary with all these supposed "deals" everywhere but it's just a marketing way to screw the customer (maybe I'm just getting jaded or hit a rough patch of bad customer service all around me - not with HLJ in particular, just about everywhere else and its colouring my views towards everything around me). Thanks, I appreciate the feedback though.

Hmm, I usually use SAL if that's an option, but whenever I put stuff in the warehouse, that option often disappears, I think its a limit thing, if its over a certain limit, they must go FedEx or EMS (at least that's what I guess).

Hi all, Now that I have a few items in the private warehouse, and played with adding and subtracting items I have stored in there for shipping - has anyone noticed that there really isn't any real savings in lumping your shipments together? As I add and subtract items, the shipping option changes (of course as the cost goes up, you lose the cheaper SAL options and are left with Express FedEx or EMS) and basically it just works out to each item being shipped separately added to the total costs of the shipping option. At least for me, it seemed that it would have cost the same if I shipped each item as it became available than lumping it all in one large shipment now. (I tried to keep track of what the shipping costs would have been before). I don't seem to see any advantage for us... its cheaper for them to lump it together, but I don't see the savings yet. Has anyone else noticed this?