MechTech

It just keeps looking more awesome! - MT

Double trouble! What a great looking pair of VF-4's! Your client is blessed for sure! I built the vinyl kit of this from the 80's and the warping drove me nuts! Even with warm water is didn't want to sit right when I re-shaped it. As you've illustreated, when you put the work into it, this is a beautiful plane! - MT

Poor Electric Indigo's model gets no love (even with "three legs") you can take that however you want. I still think it looks cool all the same! Thanks guys! The figure is 28mm / 1.10" tall - same as the old school 1/60 Gundam pilot figures. That makes him a giant at 10 meters for a 1/350 scale model. I can't say what will be released yet since I'm not on my own doing these. I hope to though in January 2014. I'm also working on getting my funds together to cast what I've done. - MT

Thank you guys! Just a short update with what photos I've taken so far. Here's the bow section hanger bay with the upper level lighting wired in and some decal work. The ceiling crane is also finally installed. Some of the assemblies here have been laying around in a box waiting to be installed for years! I hope to have a REAL update in the next week or so. - MT

WOW! No posts for December yet? Everyone must be out Macross shopping While the Daedalus paint and decals are drying... Thanks to EXO for taking on the commission of digitally sculpting this 1/350th Zentraedi (1/60th scale human sized figure). EXO's sculpt was awesome, but Shapeways orientated him laying on his face! You can see the difference. To make it worse, the frontal detail is in a lower DPI than the back so the steps were more noticable. You can see from the side photo the clear and white differences. The white is the jacked up printing they did. I was able to clean it up, but the detail is not as good as EXO's original. Then final shots with a flat primer coat on them... This is part of what I'm hoping to release in 2014 with some 1/350th kits awaiting casting. Mad props to EXO for sculpting this (I SUCK and sculpting people). - MT

It's cool to see this getting going again! - MT

What the others said for thinning/stripping is spot on! Tamiya paint is great! You either have to put it on by brush with a fairly thick coat and fairly quickly if you want to feather out the paint (most model paints are like this). The next and BEST method (for any paint) is to airbrush it - which I'm guessing you're not. If that is way out of your budget, spray paint cans should be considered. Hope that helps! - MT

That came out really looking really cool! - MT

I don't normally look there or say this, "but hey, nice looking feet! Those are gorgeous!" The decal work is awesome too! - MT

Oh the gimmicks companies use to get you to buy their stuff! Even Lego does it with their figures and sets. You know how many times I've had to explain that to my children!? - MT

I PM'ed Valkyrie again; hopefully he is available to check his mail. - MT

My Kolean sucks so I'm not sayin' anything! That does look great! That is some serious lighting! It looks real enough to me! - MT

Thanks! Looking great so far... - MT

Great job on the Scout! Whoever's putty you are using on the Monster will REALLY love you! Looks like you'll be using a lot of it. Great changes and good ideas for the Monster. - MT

Skipped Pizza Night with the boys; now that's a SERIOUS Macross fan! That sounds like something I'd do!!! That looks great and I'd say worth the lost sleep! By the way, are you using modeling board or MDF for the build? It's hard to tell. - MT

This build is looking AWESOME! - MT

Are you planning on molding aluminum tube into it? You could even make it "short" and telescoping tubing would allow it to be adjusted at various lengths. You'll get lots of hits for this kit! - MT

There's some really cool ideas here! Just go to the link and Tamiya's website says "discontinued" under TS-80. It's their American website, so maybe there's hope through other channels. I wish the Pactra hobby spray paints were still around, I LOVED their stuff! That's when I "graduated" from brush to spray cans - MT

Welcome Kinzoku VF! The toys are typically made with ABS plastic, and some components can be other types like POM. Typically they are ABS. The thing about ABS as others will testify, it has many different formulations. Glossy isn't always an indication of quality, just mold finish. Flat finishes can signal an inferior grade of resin or a lack of effort put into the over-all toy project (smoother finishes take more time to engineer/machine into a mold). I'm seconding Jenius's comment on the H-Metal VF's. They are well proportioned and hey, have more metal as you can guess. Being a model guy myself, I have to ask, have you tried some of the simpler model kits? Some don't need glue and they are a cheaper way to get some of the models of mecha you like. Bandai has some simpler kits that anyone can assemble easily. I hope that helps! - MT

Testors dullcoat DOES SUCK! I give an evil eye to the Testor's rack when I'm at Michael's or other "hobby" shops The bad news, TS-80 IS discoed:http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/paints-amp-finishes-60/tamiya-color-spray-ts-61500 The good news though, Wonderland Models is a good company Seriously though, I haven't lived near a REAL model hobby shop in a long time! So I've had to make due. Krylon's artist's clears are great and I've used them all to inlcude fixative for decals. Just experiment first. A little experiment will save you lots of money versus paying $8.50 (Tamiya) or $15 plus shipping for one tiny can. A lot of them have simular formulations too. If you're still stuck on getting something near you, try requesting surface mail. I DO know someone that stocks Tamiya spray paints and is cool about special orders. Try http://www.tinastrainsandhobbies.com/ Tina's is an hour and a half away from me and she does carry Tamiya Spray paints. She told me that whatever is on one of the linked sites you see (on her website) she will order for you. I think when California passed another one of their labeling laws, it made things tougher for Tamiya and slowed down their U.S. sales/stocking. Even my machine mill has a CA warning label saying the cuttings can cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm! I hope this helps! - MT

Great paint scheme and marking work! - MT

Looking great Mickyg! By the way, not to toot my own horn, but I've been spending seven years on the same dang model - just don't count that it's six feet long - MT

Ha ha, must be cool to have been mentioned three seperate times There's some awesome stuff on the boards guys! - MT

(In Dr. Evil voice) "HELLOOOoooooo Mini Me" Looks great! I can appreciate the small scale of work on that custom. Looks like you have a one of a kind too. - MT

Looking great Berttt, both the star destroyer and Monster! Age and experience changes things. There are a LOT of things I would change now on the 1/100th Monster I built. But at the time I worked hard on it. So don't feel bad about wanting to improve a model due to having the new experience to do it with. As far as the rear detail goes on the Monster, there isn't much on it. Those vent things are hard to figure out. Some lineart shows it sunken, some shows it as raised detail. I wish I knew what it is. But I made it raised on the 1/350th version I'm building. Anime magic! Keep up the great work! - MT