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Thanks so much Keith!! Not the best price, but after the anguish of the last few days, I bit the bullet - came out to $210cdn - so that $232cdn price wasn't so far off after all. Damn! All these posts on this thread got me antsy...

Tamiya clear blue and clear yellow lightly airbrushed over top of Alclad metalizers.

Oops sorry, so long ago... I guess I just lump all my resins to the great Captn'

How could I have missed this thread! Thanks so much Captn! The first set is his amazing launch rail... (I don't think I ever posted the Booster ones as I'm really un-happy with the way the photos turned out - I just couldn't seem to get the right colours, colour balance & exposure). And the launch arm!

WTF?! 13,800y=$168.23cdn So this "free shipping" for a Blu-Ray package is $64?!

I feel the pain... not a happy camper right now...

I thought Amazon.jp & HMV.jp won't ship to North America because it has "computer software" (the PS3 game) as part of the Hybrid Pack?

What the F$#@! Sold out already... what does that mean? Argh!

Where would the best place be to pre-order this Hybrid pack if you live in NA (Canada)? I was told that Amazon.jp won't ship this to NA because the hybrid pack will have a PS3 game which it will not ship outside of Japan (is this true?).

I guess now that "The Thing" (2012) has been released on video, here are some photos of my sets (which were hardly seen at all - argh!). It's such a shame, we all worked so hard on them and this really is a tribute to all the amazing carpentry and scenic artist in Toronto that were able to bring our vision to physical reality. The top hatch, we tried to match the original JC matte painting (it was waay off in the distance) and added our own details to bring it so we can see it close up, but I don't remember this making it into the film... Sections of the interior alienship corridor and corridor intersections... This was the interior alienship command bridge (which was re-written) - it's a shame since I thought it was very good work. So much great effort sometimes gets cut, its just the nature of the business. I think the Toronto crews can be proud. BTW, is there any special features on the DVD/BR that has anything on the set design?

Unfortunately I'm only doing the interiors of the robots - the physical sets where the actors are in. So there are Macross influences here and there - but mostly a Japanimation sensibility (dare I say Gundam or Armored Core;-p), rather than literal references. So don't expect too much from the robot exteriors, maybe boner is too much, maybe just some arousal (if Transformers is your cup of tea - same concept designers, same ILM, same LegacyFX...) Too bad the original ending to "The Thing" was re-written and re-shot - there were so many Zentradi influences in the alienship interiors. Oh well, at least I got paid so I can buy more Macross stuff!

Thanks so much! It isn't always cool stuff, there's a lot of New York Lofts, runned down tennaments and police stations. If I have to do another hotel room... I'll scream! Luckily I'm now known for sci-fi stuff which is what I love (and best at).

Yes, definitely Serenity (one of the most underrated sci-fi films of all time!) That's what I hated about Transformers too - "its the more is better mentality - when we can't really be bothered to actually think it through, lets just throw everything at it and see what sticks, maybe the confusion will make people believe it works..." I always find it interesting to see how people design related to where they are geographically, I think its most representative in automobile design. Japanimation just looks like most Hondas, Lexus and other japanese automobiles, where as German design is so distinctive (now the Korean car companies resemble Audis since they stole the TT designer) and Transformers looks like GM designs. The only thing better than a model is getting to walk into one of your designs and sit in the cockpit! ;-) I would kill to get on a Macross feature, but would probably get fired because I'd be so resistant to change that will envaribly happen.

Anything that pays the bills to buy more toys is a good movie to me! Unfortunately the PR robot exteriors were mostly conceptualized before I got to the scene. They're done by the same team that brought you Transformers and ILM is rendering them up, so they're an American's take on robots (it's like bashing my head against a wall trying to explain what Japanimation is to these guys!). Needless to say I'm not overly thrilled about their exterior designs. However, I am most proud of the interiors (which I designed) and they constitute the best work I've done to date!

Thanks! Yep, my dream would be to design something that is made into a toy or model. Actually that image is a CGI model based on my designs. I only design, I don't build miniatures. I would love it if they paid me to model build, but they don't!

Hey all, Been asked a few times about my recent lack of modelling lately - I still do love models very much. However, now due to family (my daughter) and work - I haven't had much time for it. I'm mostly into just detail/paint-up of the toys for the time being. I've been able to satisfy my modelling bug lately on a few SciFi movies (Resident Evil, The Thing, Total Recall & Pacific Rim) by designing 1:1 scale sets! (then the carpentry and scenic crews build it for me!;-) - but that takes up all my time now. Look for Macross design cues in the sets of those films! In fact, they just interviewed me last fall on my latest set on Total Recall where they asked for my inspirations and I mentioned Shoji Kawamori and Macross. If you want to see me, I think its called "Hollywood Builders: constructing Total Recall" - 1 hr special probably sometime next year on DIY Network and Discovery Channel (my guess is close to when Total Recall comes out to theatre). It will probably be on the Total Recall DVD/BR special features. I can't show any Total Recall or Pacific Rim stuff due to non-disclosure agreements, but I can show a quick shot of the Resident Evil VTOL aircraft I designed (and built the interior set & cockpit) - which has been made public now. Notice the missile pod launchers ;-) The interior is full of Macross details too. I'm kinda proud of this one (not everyday I get to design an attack VTOL aircraft)...

Bit the bullet and pre-ordered the VF-1D So is anyone producing 1/60 waterslide decals for these puppies nowadays? Is at least the UN Space Kite tampo printed onto these renewals or is it still just a sticker?

THANKS EXO & Shawn! I love getting this photo attachment feature back! Soooo much easier to post for me - I really appreciate it. Close up of the front of the leg chins (which I'm rather pleased at how its turned out). It's a little dark at the moment, but I will do a light thinned grey overspray over top of this to tone down the contrast so it seems more blended in the end. The upper chest portion is now just begging to have the thrusters and details highlighted in a silver with a dark red clear coat over top (but that's a step after all the weather and decals are sealed in). The more I do, the more steps seems to still be ahead. I think what started out to be a simple detail/paint up of a toy has turned into something else... it's a testament to how much detail Yamato has put into this toy - I just can't put it down! The lighter grey PE panels on the dark grey areas took on the dark oil wash really well. I will add the aztec decals over top of them as my next steps. I plan on having some of the decals spill over the edges of the PE panels to work them into the dark grey areas even more to "blend" them in. Note, I used the self-adhesive PE panels from the sticker sheets directly, but when I added the dark oil wash, the varsol in the oil wash must of reacted with the adhesive and some of the panels came off and needed to be re-glued (crazy glue) to the ship - should of done that in the first place instead of relying on the sticker sheet. I was worried that some of the nice PE panels were buried underneath the cool aztec panelling decals before (especially here at the top of the leg) - but luckily, the oil wash "popped" them back out and gave a bit more depth to the decalling. Here's a parting shot for a few weeks (as next weekend is Family Day - we'll be away for the weekend with the family!)

Yay, I got almost 4hrs this weekend!! Well, this decal job was a lot more than I had anticipated (I can't imagine if I had to mask and paint all those details!!). This time I transformed it into the robot mode to see all the areas I had missed decaling and I found out areas I had missed doing the dark oil wash to pick out the details too. So I took this opportunity to oil wash any missing areas including the photo-etched plates that were added (they contained some really fine etched panel lines. Now here's a tip I had to find out the hard way - do the dark oil wash over the PE parts BEFORE you decal over them - the decal film was just thick enough to have filled into some of the fine etched lines so the dark oil wash didn't remain in those areas. The PE parts that didn't have the decals over them retained the oil wash nicely and showed off the details nicely. An overall shot - showing just how much farther I have to go!! Argh. I think I'll apply some more aztec decals over the lighter PE panels on the dark areas next (as I don't think the decals will show on the dark grey areas). Then next is the coloured data stencils in the 1/144 scale sheets I had ordered before - this will add the hits of red, yellow and white colours sprinkled throughout the SDF-1

How do I do that? When I hit "Image" it just allows me to add a URL and "My Media" just allows me access to the Gallery and my old attachments. How do I add new attachments (right now its a pain to upload them to the gallery first) to the posting inline? I don't think the aztec panelling decals will show up on the dark grey areas of the ship, I plan on decalling the lighter photo-etched panels on the darker areas to tone them down though and I'm thinking that I'll apply those tiny 1/144 scale decals that have red, yellow and white (shown earlier in the thread) printed onto them to show up on the darker areas as tiny hits of colour like the illustrations - but that's a ways off for now. Thanks for the kudos - I just wished I had time to work on this properly.

Thanks is there another way to post pictures other than uploading it to the gallery first? I remember in the old boards I could just upload them (attachment) in the body of the post - is that still possible?

A few hours on the weekend... just some more of the same old same old... Next up is to transform it to get at all the areas hidden when in cruiser mode...