honneamise

Personally I don´t care much about which grade is for modelers and which for toy people, just sometimes the HGUC kits seem to have a sleeker, less bulky design than their MG counterparts - still, the basic Bandai kit philosophy seems to apply to all their kits: sturdy, thick (toylike)plastic, very good engineering, very good detailing in terms of vents, actuators, verniers etc. (and yes they are getting better with these things with every new kit) but no or few "high resolution" details like panel lines, small hatches and other stuff you generally find in plane kits. I cannot say all Mecha kits MUST have these small details -no line art features too many of them even in Macross - but I like it when manufacturers give them a "real life" feel like Hasegawa did with their Valks. Hell, even some of the old IMAI kits have more panel details than the average MG Gundam, look at the 1/72 Spartan or their old transforming VF-1 kits! Way back in 1983 Bandai WAS capable of doing both fine panel lines AND internal mechanics at the same time, take a look at some of the old 1/100 Xabungle kits - while they do look bulky (but they are designed that way) they feature panel lines and other small details en masse - only Bandai seems to have fired all their kit engineers after the 80s and hired toy designers for their kits. As a result, they still haven´t re-invented the finely engraved panel line after some 20 years! Don´t get me wrong - there are some great Gundam Designs and I will certainly buy some more of Bandais Models- but I will build my MG EX-S static plus spend days engraving panel lines and adding small stuff. And I don´t want to have a HGMGPG Bandai Valk long as I can get a Hasegawa kit.

Great work Anthony, this VF-4 is so beautiful! I can´t wait to begin with mine. After examining the kit a bit further, I found the main "pitfall" seems to be the nose/ main fuselage-connection, at least in my copy there is a 1mm step in height between the parts. I assume this comes from the pressure applied to the molds during the casting process. The nose mold is split vertically while the body mold is split horizontally - if you press them together the nose tends to get slightly higher than the master part and the body part will be slightly flattened. I know these issues quite well but I also haven´t found out how to prevent it. After all, this is nothing that cannot be cured with sandpaper and putty! The other thing I have to "critize" (don´t get me wrong I LOVE the kit!) is the inconsistent panel line work on the main fuselage - the lines are not very symmetrical and the right/left "exhaust" engravings at the rear do not line up properly. Well I guess the sculptor of the Musasiya original is to blame for this... on the other hand, I don´t mind this slightly "handmade" look ( I know very well how hard if not impossible it is to get everything perfectly symmetrical!) - this is not a mass produced item but an incredible piece of work done by hand, and the overall proportions couldn´t have been captured in a better way.

A few nights ago I could not sleep, so I tried to recollect how many mecha kits I own.... I still wasn´t asleep at 245 ( about 75 Macross not counting 1/170 & 1/200 small stuff, Hase count is 27 so far) but I surely have missed some.... OMG when do I build them? I also collect ships, planes and other stuff What went wrong?

From time to time this "it would be cool to have a MG Valk/something else" thing keeps popping up but honestly, I cannot really understand why. I mean, what do people expect from the "MG-treatment"? More detail or better poseability/transformation I guess. Well judging from the MG kits I have bought I have made some observations - the non-transformable mecha have this neat internal detail and all the removable panels while the transformable ones have lots of moving parts but not that many internal "guts". IMO it´s the question whether you want a perfect transformable toy to play around with or a maximum detailed display piece. OK I can´t help it I´m a model kit guy - I think you can´t get both at the same time. If you had a MG transformable Valk you´d still had to sand, glue and paint it to make it look perfect - transform it a few times and the paint will chip, even parts will fall off. Then, even if you just want it for display, the MG kits are impressive but they still fall short in detail - look at the incredibly done panel lines of the Hasegawa kits - no MG kit I know even comes close in terms of surface detail - even the latest and biggest Bandai Models are still a bit toylike in my eyes. I´d say if you want your Valk transformable get the Yamato 1/48 toys, they are sturdier than a MG kit. If you want ultimate detail, call it a display piece and get the Hase kits - they are perfect as they are and no Bandai MG will be better. The only issue is the size - I´m happy with 1/72 (quite the same size as a 1/100 Gundam) but I guess a 1/48 VF-1 would sell quite well - but I would still rather like it from Hasegawa than from Bandai. Just my thoughts...

Got mine yesterday, right in time for Christmas. Thanks Valk009 for such a great kit! And BTW Merry Christmas to everyone here!

As long as I can help it I´ll keep this model from becoming see-through! Bought the last remaining christmas presents this morning and I got two more hours to work on the Gost. Looks less ghostly yet more substantial now with some fins added. If you compare it with the earlier pics you will see that the "cockpit" bulge is now radically reduced in height. Your observation was right Chad, that thing was too bulky - the first sanding down didn´t help enough so I reduced it one more time. I had to redo the whole "eye" opening, it now has a smaller diameter and is placed more forward, allowing me to sand down the top of the bulge even further. IMO the shape of the whole craft is much more pleasant and elegant now, hope you also like it better that way. I´m sorry that I won´t be able to work on the model for 3 weeks now but at least I have the feeling it is on the right way now.

Maybe I´m the wrong one to answer here since I´ve still never purchased a kit from them, but I wanted to know the same and looked around on several threads here to get info about them. From what I heard people seem to like both their quality and service, their kits seem to be much better than MiM´s stuff. I have never heard anyone complain about their 1/4000 Macross and I´m considering to buy one or both kits. Howewer, regarding the VF-4, Valk009 has just made a very good looking resin kit of it, and while I haven´t received my copy yet, it seems to be the best you can get - if he has still some left! Check out the other thread!

Thanks guys!! I´d really love to get it finished soon but it seems it will have to take another break... those museum guys I´ve been working for want another model - identical just twice the size- and while I´m happy that I can now really afford all the christmas presents I´ll still have to buy, it means that the Ghost needs to wait until Jan, 20th. It´s a pity, I was just so into it....

I´ve been working on the big intake on the back all week, seems I´m almost there now. And I need to sand off all the grey primer! I used Citadel Space Wolves Grey in the past, worked well but they discontinued it. I wanted a grey cause uneven surfaces and scratches show up best in this colour so I bought this one. It looks good but peels off with the slightest amount of tape!! Unusable crap, guess I´ll use Citadel white from now on.

Been to his website, all he says is Mac + Photoshop. A lot of people work with these but few know how to create real masterpieces. And I forgot the F-14 and MIG-29 illustrations he did for Hasegawa of course! But have you seen what he states as his "occupation"? "illustrator, designer, etc.,.., actor, narrator, writer" -He is either the new renaissance man or completely crazy. Almost Buckaroo Banzai

The model looks awesome LTSO, great building skills, good-looking pose and the stand is well suited and adds colour without detracticting from the model. As for the decals, HLJ now carry several lines of decals, I think Wave is among them but the best seem to be from CROSSDELTA. They are mostly designed for 1/100 Gundams but from what I´ve seen there are lots of generic looking stencils, triangles, arrows etc. apart from the recognizable Gundam logos. They even come in black, white, red and different shades of grey so you can even use them with a low visibility paint scheme.

Tenjin does ships, planes etc. for Hasegawa? I´ve never realized that, I always thought Tenjin was just hired for the Macross stuff and other SciFi-related kits like the Ultraman VTOL. The planes are mostly done by Shigeo Koike I think with some work done by others like Satake (at least he has done almost all of ARII, Aoshima and Dragon´s plane kits) or Maio. By the way, Takani is still around and I think it is safe to say that his style is getting some kind of renaissance in Japan. While he regularly done some ship/tank illustrations for PitRoad etc. in the past, Aoshima is now reissuing their ship kits in a a new "Art by Takani" box- same kits just new art! Look at Dragon´s new Bismarck - Takani style at its best! As for the Tenjin/Takani comparison I cannot see much Takani influence in Tenjins work apart from some obviously "homage" perspectives such as the Visa credit card image of the Hikaru VF-1J. If you really desperately want to find similarities I´d say he can be compared with Shigeo Koike as far as perspective, lighting and detailing is concerned. Maybe Tenjin used the overall effect of the wonderful Koike planes as a starting point for his Hasegawa works, his earlier Macross works as seen in the Valkyries book have a much more obvious "digital rendering" style.... Takani´s style is actually much rougher, he is a real brush painter and his renderings of metal, bolts and dirt, together with smoke, clouds etc. combine to a dramatic and "edgy" feel - sometimes he seems so busy with metal textures he doesn´t even care of little perspective inconsistencies. IMO his paintings are still the most impressive! But that doesn´t mean I don´t love Tenjins Valkyries, it´s just a different style. For digital pictures, his works go far beyond the usual smoothed out, semi-photorealistic images one is so used to see these days. He definitely knows his trade and he is just using his computer screen instead of traditional canvas. There is NO way I´d call him less of an artist just because he doesn´t use a brush! The Valkyries book is great, and anyone interested in impressive, artistic captions of their favorite transforming fighter should go and get it!!!

Those look great neptunesurvey! It was just a few weeks ago that I first saw a pic of a Legioss in soldier mode attached to a tread, I have never watched Mospeada and I did not know they can combine in that way. Both models are very impressive, especially when seen side by side. I woudn´t mind some detail shots I love the Legioss design and have all 3(X3) versions in 1/72 , just no time to build them never bothered to get a tread but now I know I´ll have to get at least one in the future...

I actually don't use an airbrush. I use to brush paint only( If you all remember my SV-51 with the splinter camo, she was completely brush painted!) but now I use those Testors spray cans that you can attach paint bottles to for the majority of the painting Slowly making my way up to airbrushes Chris 351429[/snapback] If I get that right this VF-0S was mainly can-painted? That´s amazing considering how hard it is to get a real even, thin finish with cans. I have tried a long time to only get my primer even, I´d be really scared to mess things up with a whole multi-tone scheme like you achieved here! Looks so great man! Guess you won´t have the slightest problems if you decide to use an airbrush!

Gundamhead I think it will be somewhere around 80 Euros. It´s a smaller model than I had originally thought (16,6cm) but on the other hand I want to incorporate many details and features like speed brakes in/out, landing gear/arrestor hook up/down, side missile bays open/closed so this is why the price will be slightly higher than the one of the Oberth (65EU). But it will still take some time to finish it, definitely not earlier than february. And it seems the exchange rate of the EURO is dropping....

Chad despite the strange photo angle you were still right about the "cockpit", it WAS too big and bulbuous! I sanded it down quite a bit and now it looks more pleasing, it still needs to be blended in with the upper side. Now the whole thing looks like this: Here is a closeup of the speed brake:

Serendipity! I would never have thought of combining those two colours, but they really work together. Are you using acrylics for the wash, too? Sorry about all the questions - I'm gearing up to restart my modelling days next year, hence the burning need for information. 350636[/snapback] You´re welcome Bromgrev! - It´s all acrylics but no real wash, it is a(very)diluted brown/black airbrushed on, then I take a Q-tip with some soap and brush over it again - this creates streaks and irregularities and makes it look less airbrushed. I had problems creating washes with acrylics. While the area is wet (with water, no alcohol or tamiya thinner here, it will dilute the base colour) the wash flows around rivets and into recessed panels etc etc. as it should - but as it dries, the paint tends to come out again and then it settles on the surface where it shouldn´t, leaving the recesses with just some dirty looking residue. Maybe I just haven´t found the right technique so far... still, the airbrushing method works fine and is quite controllable... Another great method for applying dirt/rust etc. is using pastels - just grind them and brush the powder you´ve created over the desired area, then wipe away the excess - but be sure to fix it all with a clear coat when you´re finished or you will have fingerprints all over your model, your fingers, your glass of beer, everywhere!!

Bromgrev it´s all acrylics. The light brown is "sail colour" from Gunze, I intended it for my VF1-D´s and VT-1´s but decided to try it on this one first. The turquoise blue is a leftover colour I had mixed as "swimming pool colour" for a hotel model. Xabungle seems strange - noone seems to have ever watched this show yet the model kits pop up every few years. As far as I know Xabungle is by Tomino who also created Gundam. It seems to be a post-3rd WW earthbound story with privileged people living in domed cities while others struggle in the contaminated world outside... from the few screenshots I know of it looks like Mad Max with mecha. Strangely, I first saw some of the kits back in´85 and I didn´t like them at all, especially when compared to Macross. A few years ago when they were reissued I realized they are IMO the only designs that could actually rival Macross! The main machine, the Xabungle, looks rather lame-ass, but (most of) the other Walker Machines as they call them are excellent designs with a realistic feel to it. They don´t have these Gundamish superhero-like faces but have rather truck-like cabins (pilots seem to live in their machines) and many tank-like accessoires like winches, tools and jerrycans attached to their bodies. None too-overwhelming weaponry, most only have one heavy gun or a missile launcher and some machine guns as fighting seems to be just one of their purposes. I really like those guys, you can check HLJ, they still have some left from the latest reissue.

A few days ago I put some hours of work into this Xabungle Dugger type. I´ve begun with it in February if I remember correctly but haven´t had much time to go on with it. Still, this is one of my favourite non-Macross designs. It is a Bandai kit from 1983 and incredibly detailed, over 200 parts and it features polycaps. Apart from the fiddly construction this is on par with a MG Gundam kit except that it looks better (OK I´m not a big Gundam fan...)

Yeah get the Sentinels Book (it is a Model Graphix Special issue) if you can. It´s from the late 80s (but has been in reprint not too long ago) but there´s STILL no better book on Gundams IMO (actually I´m not a big fan of Gundam designs but this book rocks). All the models in that book are of course either based on the old crappy kits or even scratchbuilt - now that many of the mechas are available as state-of-the-art-kits the book is an even better reference because you can start with a better base kit and need less effort to turn it into a masterpiece like those shown there. It also contains a big tutorial section with lots of pictures and it starts with a great looking photo story (actually Sentinels IS that photo story - there is no movie). I also have the Zeta and ZZ-books. Both are almost as impressive, if you´re into those designs you can´t go wrong as well. Those were the days when you could actually distinguish one Gundam from another.......

That´s just my camera Chad. I used "macro" setting and was very close to the front - that way the nose appears MUCH bigger than it is, the section aft of the speed brake is in fact longer than the front part. I´ll take a shot from the side soon to show the real proportions. Nevertheless I consider to flatten the cockpit bulge a bit but I´m not sure about that, only a matter of 0,5 to 1 mm I think.

More progress, added panels to the upper side and sanded them to a rounded shape. The gun tubes came out fine, they only need some "fine tuning" now.

Well that looks suspiciously like a resin casting of the old IMAI kit with subassemblies cast as one. But if you look at the built example (in colour) it appears to be a totally different kit, maybe an ARII 1/100, I don´t have one for reference. It is not a simplified recast of Captain America´s Regult, that´s for sure. While the price tag is not too much for a resin kit, I cannot see any features that make it superior to the IMAI Original kit, and you can get that one for the same or less money I think....

Hi Ruben, I PMd you, guess Chad will put you on the list anyway! Now I´m back to work on the Ghost. I´m working on the middle gun tbes right now. Tricky stuff ´cause they must be perfectly in the middle between upper and lower gun, face exactly forward and must look the same right and left side. I could not imagine how to fit them while building the body so now I had to drill large holes into each side, glue the tubes in and cover it all up in loads of putty. Hope they look OK, I guess I can only be sure AFTER I sanded it all to shape. This is a GREAT opportunity to screw the whole thing up I also built an "interior" for the speed brake just aft of the cockpit, but I´ll fit that one after I´m through with the messy part....

Hello Cool8or and welcome to MW! At the moment I have none left and some of the molds need replacement. If some more people are interested (maybe about 8-10) I will make a new production run, PM me if you´re interested. May take some time ´though...