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I've gotta thank Manji from these forums here once again. He provided me his un-used photo-etched extras from his Yamato kit - and actually gave me the boost I needed to start this project. Thanks so much, I really owe you one! So now I finally get to the little 1/3000 scale valkyries. They look so good on the PE part, but are such a B^&$h to work with. I think I'm just getting old and my eyesight isn't what it used to be, but damn they're small! Unfortunately after I cut out the launch arms, I promptly lost 2 of them - I've searched for 3hrs on my hands and knees and only found 2 of the four that were there. I guess 2 will have to do (unless some other kind soul would like to send me theirs ;-). Note to all DO NOT CUT THEM OUT until you are ready to work with them, they are small and WILL BE LOST! Another note, Tamiya acrylics suck adhering to metal photo-etched parts! They scrap off even just looking at them wrong. I've painted and re-painted these tiny Valks white about 4 times due to various bits scraping off, or the airbrush spray was just too heavy to obscure the tiny etched line details on them. In the end, I suggest doing a black oil wash on them first to fill into the etched lines (very shallow), then a very light coat of white over it but still allowing the black lines to show through, afterwards, handling it with kid glooves till you clear coat protect it. The launch arms are really tough to bend correctly, especially the tiny folds on either side of the long part of the arm, there just isn't much material to grab onto. The trickiest thing is to bend it into a U-shape - the first bend into an L-shape is easy, but when you go to the other side to do the U, you tend to flatten out the first bend. It took a lot of practice and trail and error - plus headaches because my eyes don't seem to focus down to something this small anymore. I've got to find one of those large magnifying glass on a gooseneck stand that will ship to Canada (checked out some cool ones at Amazon.com, but they don't ship to Canada - argh). Note to self: paint after you bend them! These are the fast packs - note they even have ones for the port side and different ones for the starboard side (strike cannons!) So while I'm letting the painted and re-painted photo-etched parts to dry, I've decided to decal and lightly weather/panel line my recent HLJ sale acquires; the VF-11 & VF-1D (the old VT-1 in the back was just for decal placement) Here's to how the PE valkyries look after you oil wash them - quite a lot of detail for something so small! I just wished they were already in white photo-etched as a lot of this detail gets obscured when you paint them white - argh! Maybe that's why I haven't seen anyone who has used these PE Valkyries on their kit yet - hmm.... That's it for now until they dry and I try to assemble the valks with their fast packs. (I do love the macro capabilities of my 11yr old Nikon Collpix 990! - nothing else I have can get so close and clear to these tiny parts)

Thanks for the kudos everyone. I had a few hours and thought I'd try to finish this thing after a long hiatus. I decided to just paint with Tamiya Clear Red over some of the engine thrusters on the bottom, it already had a metallic under coat and created a darker red rimmed effect that I wanted for my more muted version of the SDF-1

I'm liking the really light grey! Easier to make the FB2012 version...

OMG! That Yamato build is EPIC - I can't believe that's 1/1000 scale - the handrails... I am so humbled. I love that metallic scheme. Truely amazing, thanks so much for the link. Now my 1/350 Bandai seems so plain ;-( Yep, I liked the other earth federation capital ships too.

Slightly off topic here (but I couldn't seem to find a thread dedicated to this) - did anyone see the live action Yamato film 2yrs ago? I loved it, I take it the reaction from Japan or here on these boards was not so favourable - I don't see any discussion of it. Anyways, does anyone know if any models were ever made of the interpretations of that film?

Wow! Fantastic work Derex - beautiful paint job and the weathering is just perfect! What was the base white/grey did you use on that? I have the same photoetched grills and resin fans - it looks great in your photos because you can just make out the fan underneath and it gives great depth. What did you mean by it wasn't worth it? What was the hardest part about fitting those in? Did you paint the interior fan black first, then the grills the light grey and weather over the entire thing with the burnt streaks? I think this is my retirement project ;-) or at least I won't come around to it for another 4yrs (unless I get laid off!)

Same here! Thanks to these forums here (although if it weren't for these forums here, I probably wouldn't know about this release and my baby would have diamond shoes! ;-)

I just checked my pre-order summary and it still says the old price even though their site says "Customers who ordered with the old price will have automatically the new price when sending invoices." I've e-mailed them now about it and await their response. Thanks for the heads up!

What about those SRB boosters? I guess it will be another release to milk the molds eh...

I wish! I haven't had time for models since my daughter was born. I've only had a little time here and there to paint up a toy now and then, but I look forward to the day I can start one of these beauties. For now I'm just a box collector... living vicariously through some of the other master modellers here on these forums. ...some day soon I hope...

NICE!

+1

Great review Veef (I want one even more now - I didn't know that was possible)! How I'd love to do an oil wash, light weathering and matte clear-coat on that baby and zoom it around the room!! I just wished I had gotten my hands on one, now at over $600 is just too expensive to justify. I hope they do a re-issue with the armor at a reasonable price like $400

I think when you pre-order, I saw an option to pre-pay now or pay just before the item is ready.

I would like a 1/60 VF-2SS please.

My bet would be Bandai... part of their EX collection. I would love it to be Hasegawa though, but I think Bandai has got the rights tied up tight.

+2! ;-)

Wow! That's amazing for a 4 yr old - maybe I should get a snap tight for my 6yr old daughter.

Anyone with english instructions on the controller layout?

I love that design! I wished there was a good FineMolds kit of it. I had the old AMT/Ertl - what a disaster that was.

+1 Same manufacturers! LegacyFX.

eh... looks like a guy in a Crysis suit... not very mechanical at all (from a design standpoint).

+1 Come on Hasegawa... but I'm not holding my breath on that.

YES!

Well, what's up with giving us an adapter to a stand we can't even purchase or is out of production?!