DatterBoy

It does look like a kit bashed 1/48, doesn't it... Too bad the airbrake doesn't have the holes drilled in, gonna have to mod that sucker up.

Make it a 1S enigma, with white visor and strike armor in a box set. The grey/white thing is awesome. White gunpid of course. The hexagon pattern would kick ass too. Or make it the white 1S from the Thunder Hammer pics.

This what you're looking for?

How is the paint holding up through transformations? Beautiful job.

Thanks EXO Solscud, what kind of paints did you use for your custom? I dunno why, but the Max 1A cast took the paint extremely well. I prepped this one really good and it repelled paint like crazy. Can't believe it came out at all after all the spotting like it was covered in oil. The one you posted looks like it colored solid. A closeup: I think this pic shows the color more true to life. Used the same can of paint as I did on my 1D 1/48 conversion but the color came out like this instead. I may have to do another with a bright orange and the brown/tan like Solscud's to get it really right. Maybe a 1D head too.

Not a bad try... sounds to me like you feel I ddin't succeed... damn you... you got all the JM custom parts... Let's get a cast of that thing too! And if not... how did you get it or where did it come from? I could only work with what I had. Considering getting some sculpy or whatever it's called and making one myself, but not sure if I got the skills for that.

Silverdragon may be able to help us out. He casts as well, but I don't know what his prices are like, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Give me the go and I'll try and coordinate how many people may be interested in a conversion kit for this if you can provide the parts. I assume the more people are interested, the more feasible it would be for him to take on the job. Let me know.

Sorry about the resurrection. Wanted to know if it was at all possible to get your custom pieces casted? I'd love to give this a shot. I recently had the same problem as you with my 1D JM. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=17663 I could not get the paint to coat properly and I did sand and everything. What I ended up having to do was literally soak the pieces in FUSION and pray that when it dried the paint would not bunch and the details would still come through. Everything looked like water and ran off with awful holes... Anyhow. I'd love to get those pieces casted so I may one day have an O JM. I've been checking around to see if I can't find a caster who would do small pieces on request for a decent price.

I'd have to agree about the time and money thing. Customs are quite labor intensive and the man power/hours you stick into rarely come back in the sale. Any custom I have I think I can generally make about 50-100 bucks over what I paid for the original toy, but if you consider my labor vs. what I make in my real job... the dollar per dollar profit is a joke.

Thx, all. Could we remove the pics from the quotes? I'm gettin a JM overload...

Custom decal sheet: Applied to a 1D JM (not complete yet, need a few more decals) Laser is the way to go for black prints since it does not require any coating. I have had great succes with this. I have yet to try the inkjet but I got my paper. I'll be printing the kite and the leg arrows on that and will post pics of that once I am done. My only real concern is how it will look after the acrylic Krylon and application. Hope it protects the print from the water and stays thin overall.

No stripes anywhere, head should be ALL blue. But I like adding the color variations as it seems more realistic than lack of detail. I thin kas long as you retain the white body, blue legs arms and shoulders, anything else is artist's perrogative. I've seen many variations and they all look pretty cool to me.

That's a good idea... does Kinko do white?

so when you say cheaper, how much we talkin here?

My experience with Krylon has been really good so far. Note that this is FUSION and not Krylon's regular suff. Was it FUSION you used? At any rate, engine paint sounds pretty damn awesome, but sounds thick too. Would it work on small scale customs as well? And how's the color palette for it? Always looking for other options. The VF-1D I made with Fusion does not chip at all, but I'm not big on transforming back and forth.

Damn, so I guess there's less anime magic than I thought... I'd be pretty pissed off if I was an arm... my bots smaller than yours... How did they choose which one everyone got anyhow? By the color of their clothes?

Talho is hot... so is Urara in Sakura Diaries, and Chidori from FMP... but I go on...

From what I had read about the Fusion, it was initially indicated on the forums here that it was a dye, but the Krylon site indicates it's more of a molecular bond and not a dye. Not to mention, depending on what you're painting, the condition of the surface you're painitng on matters a lot. Have had a bit of issues painting resin that had too much release agent on it.

One more thing about custom paint jobs... they are less likely to yellow over the years!

The personal touch with custom decals really is what makes the thing special. Truth be told, I like this one more than my Original 1985 JM's in looks. They're pretty plain. If the JM's were released in this detail.. I'm sure they'd sell like hotcakes. Especially if they could slap a -30$ tag on em. :Dat

Nice job Haterist! Now you're ready to hit that D... I think your cam has some color balance issues cuz the shots I've taken with Krylon come out more vivid. I think your shots aren't doing the paint justice. At any rate, paint wear will still happen if you don't sand down really tight spots like the arm nubs. That fit was very specific to be tight to hold in fighter mode, so I'd recommend touching it up with paint on a toothpick and drilling a slightly looser hole to avoid the wear. Also, several layers of the Krylon helps too since it makes for a thicker shell. It is very possible to scratch off Fusion when you have light coats. Now, what are you gonna do about Ben's shoulders? I'm going the hard way.. painting EVERYTHING....

It is severely limited by the belt buckle, but still better than no swivel at all.

I definitely like the VF-0 and all it's variations, but I have to say, looks wise. it does not look better than a VF-1 and it's even more apparent when you see the models standing still. When they are, you can really pick out some of the funky proportions and geometries, like the arms. Take a good look at the forearms... weird shape. They look much better in motion to be sure. One thing I think they should do is drill out the airbrake holes. Always loved how the airbrake holes looked when you could see right through them. That was a sweet detail.

I ordered a few inkjet sheets last night. I had some laser sheets but they were terrible. They kept getting eaten by the color printer. If you have a laser printer that has more of a straight path for a feed, hit it, otherwise, go inkjet. Once I do my inkjet decals for my JM, I'll post em here so you can see how they turn out. I will be using Krylon for it to kee th eink from smearing in the water and then using Future over it. Here's the laser decals from the laser set. Used it for: - "screws" on shoulder, forearms, and side of chestplate - yellow arrow over the front intake on the chestplate - VF and red and blue "lights" on the leg/landing gear - Macross kite on wing and fast packs