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Well, I'm quite impressed with this first showing. Especially given the fact that this is one of the earlier designs that has quite a bit of "anime magic" in its transformation and wasn't exactly thought out like the VF-1 since its not a central character - Yamato has done a remarkable job at comprimising all the various modes into a coherent whole - I'm pretty happy. The canards are just way too big in the MMM Lineart (what is MMM?) and the profile just doesn't flow as well as the Yamato profile - however, I do agree with the upward turn of the nose cone as above. My main problem with the VF-4 and all its resin iterations has been the plan view, the forward fuselage just seems too thin, too needle-like (while the profile - side elevation is great) - my main reason for not getting any of the resin kits thus far - Yamato still has that needle-like plan view - my personal taste would be to fatten it a little - same as the VF-1 would be nice. However, overall, I'm quite impressed and very much looking forward to adding this baby to my collection - please Graham, if we don't get tampo printed everything, then ask for water-slide decals as well?

Thanks everyone, not much new news but the same old - every few hours I get I continue on the decalling, there are so many surfaces and so many tiny little pieces (I didn't quite know how labour intensive this was going to be). I got maybe another 8-10hrs over the Christmas Break to work on this puppy and I've managed to cover the top and side surfaces. I still have the sides of the upper portion and the entire underside and some interior surfaces that are currently hidden in cruiser mode. I'd say I'm at least 2/3rds done with the aztec panelling, but only 1/3rd done with the overall decals as I still have tones of the tiny data stencilling decals (the tiny hits of red, white and yellow details) all throughout the ship. After the aztec panelling, I plan on doing another dark/black oil wash in select areas to pick out the darker vents first (while the gloss coat is still there for the decals) and then tone down the overall effect of the decals with a light thin coat of grey - which will lower their contrast against the grey plastic and hopefully lighten up the dark grey areas. This will tie everything together a bit more. At which point I will clear coat gloss again to apply the more colourful tiny 1/144 & 1/100 data stencilling decals that I shown before. This way the colours will stand out a bit more against a more muted background. I hope... at least that's the plan. Hopefully I'll post more when I've got something more interesting to show. It's just a stage right now of sloughing through the grunt-work of applying tonnes of tiny decal bits - hopefully it will pay off in the end.

Pre-ordered! sight unseen...

+1 or at least provide water slide decals as well (I never use the thick stickers).

I also agree that some of the garage kits vary pretty wildly from the lineart - its one of my favorite designs, yet I've held off on the resin kits as I feel none of them capture the VF-4 properly - most are too thin and pointy. I hope it takes the shape of the VF-1 nose a bit more like the Flashback 2012 lineart. For me, the aircraft mode is key! Hence I still prefer the 1/48 Yamatos over the 1/60 (I know, I'm in the minority!) - but I almost exclusively display all of them in the aircraft mode. I'm so excited about this release! Way to go Yamato!! Make sure you make enough for us foreigners!!!

My thoughts exactly!

Where can we poor Canadians buy "web exclusives"? Will they be offered through online retailers like HLJ or AmiAmi? If it does well, will Yamato make an improved version cheaper like the SDF-1?

Got another 2hrs last night! I'm hoping to get enough time this Christmas Break to finish this puppy (finally! - might be wishful thinking though...) My favourite part! DECALS!! I started by cutting the large sheet into smaller pieces so it doesn't overlap onto the major scribed details on the ship. I save the leftover bits and pieces to add into tight and hard to reach spots here and there. You can see how the underlayer of the lighter panelling adds to the overall depth of the decal panels. I hope to spray another layer of lighter panelling (masked airbrushing) over top of these decals so they are "sandwhiched" between two layers of aztec panelling - it should work them into the over paint finish a little bit more, I also want to do an overall grey coat (maybe a lighter grey) as the panelling is a bit dark - that should hopefully blend all the layers together a little bit more. Lastly, I intend to apply the little red, yellow, orange and white 1/144 scale warning stenciling decals after the overall panelling is blended in, so the red "dots" stand out from the weathering (all amongst various clear-coats to protect each step of the way). As you can see though, I still have 80% of the first stage of decalling ahead of me. Wish me luck to get some time this break to work on it more! Merry Christmas everybody and hope to post before the New Year!

I liked the post shading so much on the ARMDs that I decided to do a first pass on the rest of the SDF-1. I choose a dark grey so that I could tone down the light grey areas (too light in my opinion) and at the same time, lighten up the dark grey legs (too dark in my opinion) so they'd match a little bit more - less contrasty. Note: I also applied all the photo-etched panels to the toy itself. I think that once I apply the paneling decals and do an oil wash over the PE parts - they should integrate themselves nicely into the overall effect. It gives me a better idea of how to blend the colours together and the amount of weathering required in the end. Also by doing a little bit of the post shading now, it will lessen the amount I need to apply over the paneling decals. Now I'm ready for a gloss clear-coat to seal in the post shading (to prevent scratching) and to provide a smooth surface for the decals (my favourite part!). It's important to lay down a glossy clear-coat especially when applying decals over a dark colour as the decal film tends to "silver" when applied over a dark (rough) matte surface. Hopefully I'll get some time over the Christmas holidays to apply the enormous quantities of tiny decals!

Well, I got a few hours last weekend to work on this toy. Thanks to Valkyrie who excited me with his laser etched masks for the numbers 01 & 02 for the ARMDs - it gave me the kick in the butt to carve some time out for this baby. I feel Yamato really screwed us first generation adopters when they offered decals and PE parts for the second generation SDF-1 toy. But thanks to people like Valkyrie - that gap is rapidly closing. He has very kindly provided me a sample of his fine work so I can be the guinea pig for his efforts and they worked like a charm! Since the void in the middle of the zero is a free floating piece, Valkyrie suggested that I attach a piece of tape to the mask while it was still on the backing so I can properly transfer the entire zero correctly onto the ARMD flight deck. You'll notice that there are these little tabs he included to help you line them up with the first white line and central strip to allow you to position the numbers correctly on the flight deck. Once transferred, I removed the tape holding the piece and carefully remove the areas I want paint to be in. After some careful double checking with some knowledgeable folks here on this board and my book references, I determined which one was going to be ARMD 01 and ARMD 02 Then I used cheaper regular masking tape to extend the masked area to prevent overspray - I kind of over did it, but I'm a little rusty with my airbrush, after all it's been years now. I laid down a light grey undercoat first since the blue is quite dark and I didn't want it to turn the red paint purple in case there is any translucency to the red. I thought white underlay would make the red too vibrant over top - so I decided on a light grey.I Now I just sprayed on a coat of Tamiya red over the light grey once it was dried. ... and here you see the finished product once I took the masking off - thank you so much Valkyrie! Lastly I sprayed some thinned down dark grey as some post shading to take the bright curse off the flight deck - the ARMD 01 on the right has a light treatment of post-shading while the ARMD 02 on the left hasn't received it yet.