pengbuzz

A low-cost alternative I have found when building hangar/ factory dioramas is using mat board (for matting artwork); it's denser than cardboard and can be cut and glued into differing shapes and whatnot. A huge sheet of it goes for about 7-8 bucks (If you're in the USA: at Hobby Lobby, they have 40 percent off coupons online). I found that by using Aileen's craft glue, masking tape and acrylic paints, you can get a pretty convincing scene going. Then just populate it with 1/72 scale figures and you should be good to go! An example of what I mean:

Shame he's not in business anymore...

Better than the boxart, IMO!

Yeah: Den of Geek was saying in 2018 that it wasn't "completely dead", and Tommy Yune was still trying to keep hope alive for it. Frankly: anything associated with RT and HG at this point is the anime equivallent of being able to kill an artifical houseplant. These folks could find a way to screw up a Chia-Pet. (Not to mention it absolutely reeks of "Space Academy" and "Jason of Star Command" from the 1970's)

I'll have to try the pencil elad trick sometime; i have some very soft drawing pencils. I also do the "oil dot filter" effect with oil pastels, and I even use colored pencils for some effects on my models (just did some mods on the Prometheus on my 1/5000 SDF-1 model kit (fixing some inaccurate details and putting in the hull doors for the carrier's flight deck to load the valks onto the elevators!)

I can imagine that shortly after the heat death of the universe, Robotech finally kicks the bucket. In fact, its' prolonged survival probably will suck the heat right out of the universe in a bid to prolong it's tortuous suffering. In that light, perhaps the Zentraedi Armada being sent to earth was not so much to find the lost gunship/ fortress, but to find Harmony Gold and blow them to smithereens before the universe perishes. I think that in itself would be an epic tale, worthy of at least a half-brained anime series (told from the Zentraedi point-of-view), that didn't take itself very seriously. Episode 1: "It's Cold in Space and Getting Colder". Episode 2: "Dammit Global, Stop FIRING at Us!!" Episode 3: "They Did WHAT??!! Now We Gotta Chase Them To PLUTO?!! SON-OF-A--" Episode 4: "If That @#$%^ Miclone Hikaru Ichijo Tries To Launch Me Out Into Space Again..." Episode 5: "EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! THEY'RE KISSING!!! EYEBLEACH!! EYEBLEACH!!! ARRRGGHHH!" Episode 6: "Exsedol, Where Did I Leave My Keys?" Episode 7:" At LAST, We Found (Harmony) Gold!" Episode 8: "What's A 'License'?" Episode 9: "I've Had ENOUGH of 'Robotech Fans', GLASS THE WHOLE BLASTED PLANET!!"

RIP, good sir. And thank you. *salute*

I received a Millia VF-1J from a friend and to get Hikaru's, I ended up priming it grey and coating the parts a couple of times with white primer, then assembling as I went. Hand-painted the red markings; otherwise just used decals.

Tell you what: next time you want to yell at Seito Kaiba, please quote him and not me. I do agree with him, but if you're upset with him specifically, then make sure that your "line of fire" isn't misdirected here. On that note: Podtastic, I've noted a tendency with you to vehemently disagree with folks that is utterly breathtaking, even for someone as high-strng as myself. I'm done in this thread. *My blood pressure will thank me later.* -Pengbuzz out.

Thanks! It was a good build (if a bit involved). The last part was a bit hairy: drilling out the barell tips. The plastic is a softer flexible type, so drilling it meant going slow, or risking drilling out the sides of it (or gouging the ends altogether).

I'm just going to go ahead and agree with you on all counts here. I think it's what Macross brought to the table that made RT any success; otherwise, we would have seen continuations of Southern Cross and Mospeada (sans any link to Macross) that would have been successful. I mean, how many people really care WHAT happens to Dana Sterling (so long as she doesn't appear in Macross)? Weld her in her hover-tank thingie and drop them in a black hole with an s-neutron whatchamacallit missile for all we care...

Good to see MW members helping one another out! We have an awesome fandom indeed! Speaking of destroids... UPDATE: I'm just goign to call this one "done": I weathered this one like I would a tank: with some subtle "oil dot filters" and varying shades on the hull. Also dd a couple of heavy oil sludge washes, and some heavy drybrushing. i wanted this to look like it had seen some hard service aboard the SDF-1. It now graces a spot in the maintenence hangar: And that's a wrap! Next project: figuring out what's for dinner....

With the surgery they wanted to do on my hand, they were going to split the ligament holding down the tendons in the wrist (Carpal Tunnel Release surgery). that would loosen then and stop the sticking so much, but they would also lose tension and be a bit slacker: https://www.jprasurg.com/article/S1748-6815(13)00218-0/pdf

Yeah; they offered me surgery, but after hearing about the "bowstringing" effect it can have, I declined. As far as sanding goes, I found hitting it with 0000 steel wool works. As for gluing, I use Devcon Plastic Welder, which sticks pretty well. Shaping it: I wait until i'm in a really rotten mood, then sand the living daylights out of it, white threatening it: "Listen, you heaven-forsaken piece of crap: you give me ANY trouble and so help me I have a microwave with YOUR NAME all over it!!!" (Usually works :D )

Yeah, it's "fun" all right; considering I'm using nothing more than an xacto knife and a sanding block with 80 grit in it to work this, it keeps "the joys of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" firmly in mind. But that said: at least the plastic is holding up well to the mods!

Thanks! and no; I am simply sanding them down and filling whatever voids that are left with plastic welder (epoxy). There's a lot of plastic there, which allows for most of what I need to do. Aside from the boxiness and being slightly out of scale, it's not too bad (although I did have to cut the sides off and remove about 1/8" of material): when I first got this a few days ago, it didn't even have the radar blade at top; that I scratched up from a couple of planks of thick styrene and simply glued to the post (after consulting the design drawings at Macross Mecha Manual: pic courtesy of Macross Mecha Manual. (http://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/destroid-defender/destroid-defender-schematics.gif) Here's wherre the project is as of today; The light makes it look a bit more yellow than it actually is; it's kind of an olive drab instead of the khaki the painting instructions I found for the old 1/72 scale model suggested. But I guess they come in all sorts of colors from what I've seen. i just need to build the sensor eye and the ammo boxes for the shoulders now and I should be good to go.

UPDATE: Some work on the Defender 1/72 (Matchbox/Playmates)... What I started with: Where I am now: Stay tuned...

Likewise.

Thanks sketchley! I couldn't remember what the mech was or what it did, but that sounds about right!! Edit: found it!

Hey, it worked for Hikaru when he went after Bodolza in his fortress!!!

Well, my Destroid Defender came in today: I only made a couple of mods so far; removing the strip of plastic between the arm guns, and backing the searchlights with foil tape: It scales nicely with my 1/72 VF-1J. I had been thinking of shortening the height, but I may just leave that alone: Once I'm done, it will go into the diorama with one of my VF-1's, while the other goes onto a different diorama: (not exactly the one included in the Robotech/ Macross Factory set, but I will hopefully get one of those at some point). Mods to be performed: washing, rebuild of radar antenna and ammo chute covers, drilling out of barrel ends, repainting and detailing, accurate decals. Possible mods: pivoting hip joints, articulated knee joints, opening pilot hatch, fuzzy dice. Stay tuned folks...

On another note entirely, I found a pic (or so I thought) some time ago amongst the online series productionl sketches of the bridge internals for the SDF-1 (google searches for sdf-1 bridge sketches, black and white). From what I recall, it showed a pic of the bridge from the inside, showing the layers of the bridge tower, but from the back facing forward. The thing I recall was that in the sketch, there was a battle pod (or some other Zentraedi mech, not sure) attacking the bridge bubble, and it had cracked it with laser fire. It showed the crew in panic and shock, and Captain Gloval high-tailing it, running as fast as he could for the exit! (needless to say, the sketch was apparently done as a joke I think!) Has anyone else run across this or ever seen/ heard of it? Or...is dementia setting in on my part?

Interesting mods! I have that kit, so i'll see if i can pull that off on it!

I'm waiting for them to do a 1/20 SDF-1...

You know, that would be interesting... a US version of the Yamato (Missouri or New Jersey). For the "Murican flavor", it shoots cans of Budweiser