honneamise

There are 4 pages of C.J. : big lineart of Cordoba, a space shuttle with launch tower, 2 views of the Minerva, views and details of Galleon tank, Laocoon helicopter, Pirate Battleship, a smaller "charging battleship", 2 views of Fighter-1, Harpy, Siren, Gadfly, Ostall, PowerSuit, a laser Gun, the 8-wheeled hunter tank, a wheeled Bison Tank, a Hover-truck and 6 cars - that´s it, all are perspective views, no plan.views. Still not bad I think.

TSP thanks for bringing this thread back. The model section of MW just isn´t complete without it. As for your TB kit, afaik it is part of a figure series - the figures (at least all of the Tracys and Brains were made but I guess there was a Lady Peneloe too) are actually the main subject and they are just "complemented" by a tiny model of their respective craft. Maybe the eBay seller didn´t get this... Still, your TB2 looks great. It seems there are lots of TB2 kits from all ages and in all sizes. Especially the older ones seem to have many workable features but are quite toylike. I remember having had a VERY big one (about 40cm) that turned out to be all wrong in shape, and I know of a smaller, more accurate version that unfortunately had all the engine and other detail parts in red, bendable rubbery plastic. I guess there is a 1/350 version that was made by IMAI in the 80s and this one should be the most accurate - probably the one that comes with the hangar and/or the spare pods. Still, whenever I see a kit with a TB2 in it, I´m never sure what´s in it so I stayed away from them so far.

Or I could have a look at the models section I´m sure I had seen them before but seem to have lost my memory... too bad when you´re getting old. BTW they don´t look bad.

Haha that´s funny. I´m collecting macross kits since 1983 now and I still didn´t know that there were 1/170 Strike versions at all - that´s why I thought BushyFromoz referred to the 1/100s. Has anyone ever built such a thing?

Are you referring to the variable 1/100 ARII/Bandai models? The first release of those was without Fast packs (what they called HEWAT), then they added additional parts for the Super Valk (two launchers, no gun - as seen in the TV series), then added an additional sprue with the DYRL one launcher/one gun version plus more underwing stores. They made the DYRL launchers bigger so you actually get three launch/booster units, two smaller ones ad a bigger one. If the Strike version is on the box you can be sure to get the Super version as well. Some of the later Bandai reissues show the Super Version on the box but still have the Strike parts added. The only thing you CANNOT build is a standard Valk because the outer legs and also the arms have the FAST pack attachments molded on. As I said, that applies to the 1/100 variable types. Don´t know about the HEWAT Battroid/Gerwalk/Fighter kits.

I love that colour scheme, not too much toned down yet not toylike at all. To be honest, I love the whole ship (OK I´m biased of course )- that design is far too cool to be wasted as a "3 seconds in the background then blow-up-CF-ship"!

What a nice piece of junk! The weathering seems to actually make the details stand out. Can´t wait to see the finishd boneard

Or, if you´re looking for a wider variety of types such as FAST pack equipped Valks, Destroids and Zentradi mecha, you could try to get the Nichimo 1/200 kits. While even smaller, they are all reasonably accurate and you get two per pack. They are usually quite expensive when on eBay etc., but they are re-issued every few years so you should check companies like hlj.com for announcements. Once they are regularly available, they are quite cheap. The only issue I have with them is that they come with stickers and no decals. Or, as cowie165 pointed out, there are lots of 1/100 on the market and they are not as expensive as the 1/72 kits. Some of them suck, but there are many good ones. You can get every kit with IMAI (or Bandai) on it, ARII has decent transformable Valks, Fighters and Gerwalks(except for their too big hands) - just avoid their Battroids, they are far too bulky. ARIIs Destroids are so-so, the IMAI Tomahawk is far better. Actually, I think that , unless you want every type in Fighter mode, 1/100 is still a good scale to collect Macross stuff even if there is a 1/72 hype now.

Hi BushyFromoz and welcome to the boards! Did you know that in the 80s ARII and IMAI both had 1/170 kits? IMAI did the VF1-A Cannon Fodder and Focker S Fighter and Gerwalk versions plus the VF-1J and VF-1D Battroids and GPB(Armored) Versions - ARII made it the other way round: VF-1J and -D Fighters and -A and -S Battroids and GPBs so none of them were doubles. I´m not sure if ARII has reissued ALL of them, but since IMAI went out of business, ARII should own all the molds now. Unfortunately, they did not joint-develop the molds (should have been easy with basically just some changing of head parts) so the ARII ones ended up toy-like and disproportioned while the IMAIs were not bad at all. The IMAI Fighters and Gerwalks are very well made and even have most of the appropriate panel lines, the only drawback being a solid cockpit. The GPBs and Battroids feature slightly stiff looking hands, but otherwise they can be considered real scale models. If you try to stick to the IMAI-made kits you should actually come up with a pretty decent line-up of Valks. Revell had two-packs of these little kits. You can tell from the box photo if it there are ARIIs or IMAIs inside - maybe they pop up at eBay from time to time. And there are even those little factory kits but afaik they only came with the ARII Valks. BTW, the ARII GPBs and Battroids aren´t THAT bad, it´s more that their fighters and Gerwalks suck big time.

I´m wondering about the same thing. I built a TV version VF-1S and put on the "SDF-1" just because: -Roy´s plane was obviously assigned to accompany the SDF-1 on her first flight -Prometheus was patroling around the island but was not intended to be taken into space -ARMD1 or 2 were intended to join the SDF in space but never did -The SDF-1 can launch fighters even without any "carrier-arms" so it surely had its own airgroup right from the start So I thought that the "SDF-1" decal was the most logical choice. When the carriers were attached later, the whole group seems to have been transferred to the Prometheus so the assignment might then have changed (if anybody had the time th think about minor repaint jobs in the middle of all the Zentradi assaults) - I´d say SDF-1 is OK at least for a standard Valk at the beginning of the story, but that´s just my 2cents....

Thank you for te info Fort Max! Looks like gettin these three will be a little complicated, but I´ll try anyway!

Oh what am I doing here? I´m usually a model builder, but those SOC Xabungles are just too cool to miss and they actually come with a "bonus" model that has never been available before (although Bandai has made dozens of Xabungle kits back in the 80s). As I understand it, the Xabungle comes with a bonus Brockary/Brackery whatever it is called. The upcoming Galliar contains a Doran/Dotan flying mecha - that is WAY better than the "hero" Galliar machine IMO. But there was a magazine page posted on p.1 of this thread showing a Xabungle with pics of three tiny walkers to the left of it - actually models of utility/scout walkers Bran, Leg and Hog if I´m not mistaken. Does anybody know if that means the Xabungle will be re-issued, this time with the three little mecha instead of the Brockary? I need to have them...

I´d recommend ORGUSS, made by basically the same team that created SDF. Great, evolving storyline, no kids to pilot the mecha (but quite some childish behavior by the main character ), lots of transforming mecha in pretty weird shapes. It is kinda dated (iti s from 1983 after all) but I have only watched it recently and after 5-6 episodes I was completely drawn into it. The "feel" of Orguss comes pretty close to that of SDF IMO, even if takes place on earth.

Man that is a big Falcon, what is there looks like a very detailed model, what is not there looks like a lot of work. Very unusual parts breakdown! Is /was that thing available as a garage kit? BTW the Revell Falcon actually looks decent in your pics, but AFAIK it has the same side panel proportion issues as the old Ertl kit. Did you change that or is it just the photo angle?

Guess what I´ve been working on over the last weeks.... these are some of the smaller parts

In the Perfect Memory book, p. 181, there is a sketch of a 2000m Zentraedi cruiser. At the given scale of about 1/24000 the smaller turrets are about 48m in diameter - that´s quite massive in 1/72 or 1/100.....

Great build and good photos, that is one beautiful Gerwalk! When (or IF) I ever get to build one of these again, I will use the feet-weights you suggested Cowie, I can still remember my Focker Vf-1S toppling over in Gerwalk mode, it even fell off the shelf one time!

Boneyard project??? sounds suspicious, but whatever that means, seems that you have already spent some time superdetailing my little kit. Can´t wait to see this one progressing!

I thought those were VF-11´s with a QF-3000 head added and painted orange.... I have still got to see original QF-300´s in M+... BTW, I´m still here, I´ve just got an awful lot to do at the moment.. work for architects and a new master in the making! But it is not Macross (I strayed away, it is a BSG commission this time) and I have to finish it before I can go on with the vehicles (the 6-wheeler is about 75% done, need to get some pics soon). I wish I had like 4 hands or a machine that extends 1 working hour to a week -without getting a week older of course..)

I know what you mean. All my more recent Bandai kits are very well engineered, but panel lines or other surface details are so sparse they seem to be the most painful work for the people at Bandai so they avoid them where they can. The funny thing is, look at their 1982/3 Xabungle kits - loaded with detail, panel lines all around, rivets, cockpit interiors, even jerrycans and cables for the outsides! OK Xabungle had a more "down-to earth"-design philosophy but the reason why they look so great is another: Bandai used to have lots of very detailed tank kits in the 70s and 80s, and I bet the Xabungle masters were made by the same guys who were just used to detail all their parts to the extreme. The Gundam kits were all so bland in comparison, and even after they started the MG/PG series, the engineers still seem to look at those kits from the "toy" side, perfect fit, many articulated points etc. but they seem to have yet to discover the long lost secret of well detailed surfaces. Hasegawa seems to be like the opposite: Those guys are used to incorporate many details because they usually make excellent plane kits so their Valk kits (which were in a way just plane kits in the beginning) had all the rivets and access hatches that you could ever expect. On the other hand, they did not have a lucky hand when it came to some of the moving parts of their Battroid kits (hip joints etc.) . But I have the feeling that the Hasegawa engineers caught up with this very quickly while the Bandai people will still need ages to get their surfaces more detailed. It has to be noted, though, that the usual lineart drawings of the Gundams do not contain that many panel lines so you could argue that they just stick to what is shown there. On the other hand, the lineart is a guide for animation which is limited in detail ... but a model of a massive machine should really show a lot more small detail than shown on the screen. The way they are, a person with NO knowledge of Gundam probably cannot tell if that MG kit is supposed to represent a machine that is 20m, 7m or 3m tall unless you open the cockpit or place a csale figure next to it.

In a way, they DO have an Enterprise, or even 4 of them. Not Trumpeter itself but their pirate branches C.C.Lee and MHM. They all belong to a mother Company called Wasan. Trumpeter has obviously been established as a separate branch to be recognizable as a company that does their own original molds (well, as stated, that is only partially true...) while MHM is nothing but a pirating company that makes low-quality copies of other kits and sells them for a far lower price. They have bootlegged most of Tamiya´s 1/350 line and their 1/72 patrol boats. They have even tried to backdate the Enterprise to the early configuration with the beehive bridge but did a lousy job on that. They also do things like pantographing Tauro´s 1/400 Italian cruisers to 1/350 (less quality in bigger scale of course). They rearrange the parts on the sprues to pretend they have made a new mold but the bootlegging is too obvious. The other bootleg branch, C.C.Lee , has made copies of the OTAKI/now ARII Enterprises in 1/400. These have always been 2 separate kits with the different bridgedesigns. The Originals are top-notch and rival the Tamiya version. Without knowing what I get I have bought a Lee Enterprise some years ago: the details are only slightly softer but the planes are way off! So that makes 4 bootlegged CVN-65 Enterprises that help getting money for Trumpeters efforts while taking money from the companies that spent a great deal of research/manpower/money to create those kits. Meanwhile, over here in Europe companies like Heller and Airfix are on the edge of bancrupcy... of course you can get still get a bootleg of Heller´s "Graf Spee" battleship for 6bucks from Lee! Globalization, chinese style...

The problem lies in the "camouflage" term - you use camo to hide something, so you cannot use the colours with the highest possible contrast. Either you do a "show"scheme like the Minmay Guard, Thinderbirds (maybe you should go with this and just replace the red?) etc. or hou have to downplay the colours to a big degree, using light grey for white, dark grey for black and a toned-down purple - just like the F-14 that TSP posted. I have used purple as part of a camouflage though but on a plane that never made it into service. I thought it blends pretty well with the RLM83 and 74 but only due to its limited contrast. I had mixed the purple for a Nakajima Rufe seaplane but it came out that the purple was most likely never applied so I wanted another use for it. As for those kit brands: I agree - Hobbycraft kits frequently have fit problems, uneven detailing, bad decals etc, but most of them were made in the 80s, some of the later kits were better than the canadian Arrow, Tutor and Canuck. What bugs me today is the status of Trumpeter as THE most favored new manufacturer: They ALWAYS get the best in-box-reviews, they look SOO good with their 1000s of parts, engraved panel lines etc. but if you really go down and check the parts against blueprints, many of their models appear to be just scaled-up kits from other manufacturers (plus panel lines but also including inaccuracies) or something in their shape is just plain wrong - ´m still not sure if they are avoiding research to save money or if they just cannot read plans . Some kits feature a parts fit that is far worse than 50s Airfix kits, sometimes the plastic quality is inconsistent. The whole Trumpeter thing is that they pretend to equal Tamiya (Chad the F-14 you have is bad luck: that´s the ONLY Tamiya 1/32 kit that still comes from the 70s, all the others are top-notch!)or Hasegawa in quality but in fact they are still far away from that except for the price. That does not mean that Trumpeter have no good kits, but if so , they were created, well... accidently.

Chad that´s about 1,20 metres in length/heighth, not much bigger than the average decorative sailing ship model model just cooler - should fit into a standard living room if tolerated by wife/GF - my 1/100 Godzilla has already found a home there.... Mechtech I want 2 models because 1. a transformable one will most likely fall apart after some time and 2. I want to look at both modes simultaneously -of course it´s all just theory... but maybe I´ll start with some smaller items some day like the bridge or some of the rocket launchers and the rest will follow over the years....

That would have been me.... if only I had the time or the money, I´d love to take a year off and build a Fortress and Attacker mode side by side! Strictly TV version for me, I prefer the cleaner lines over tons of greeblies... not that greeblies are a bad thing though...

Hi guys I´m still here - good to see that MW is finally back, that trouble looked pretty serious. I had a lot of work so I wasn´t able to check back often. I don´t know when I can go back to my vehicles right now.. still, I had made some progress since my last post, I need to get my camera charged. Valkyrie your gunpod looks great!!! Don´t know if you should change anything, looks thin enough for me, and already thin enough for the casting job to become a minor headache ! The car is excellent, very detailed and very accurate.