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WOW!!!! You guys are good. By the way... I really like that phrase "By the fans... for the fans" Carl

Happy Birthday Melissa... you are still young to me. I'm 35. Anyways... I just wanted to let everyone know I'm now in Mississippi but I'll be slower to respond to email and PM's then normal. At the moment I'm set up in the University Inn waiting on an apartment I can rent by the month to open up so my only internet access is at work at the moment and I'm trying to limit the time I spend to deal with personal emails and PM's to the weekends. On top of that I'm also dealing with everything else associated with starting a new job and moving between States so I've got a pretty full plate right now. Carl

And another...

The parts...

Noel... it just got here today. Here are the pics I said I'd post... Carl

I think I found the Liquid Stone page on the Monster after much digging. Check this out: A Wonder Fest page on the Liquid Stone site as of Apr 05, 2003 Its missing the pics: mon-1.jpg mon-2.jpg mon-3.jpg Here was his home page on the same date: Liquid Stone's home page as of Apr 05, 2003 Its missing the pic 001.jpg Does anyone here think they might still have these pictures? Carl

Ok... maybe its selfish of myself to think of this idea but I just had a thought of a unique way to thank the original kit owner. How about we pitch in and see if we can get his recast finished up by wm cheng? Would wm cheng be interested? Being a kit collector myself I know I'd greatly value one of his finished works and all of us will get the step-by-step guide on how to do this kit justice out of the deal as well. What do you guys think? The guide itself would also find a permanent home here on Macross World which could be credited to wm cheng and the original kit owner as well. Carl

I agree... still I like the original box art too. However if the feeling is that someone may use it to misrepresent this kit on eBay maybe its best not to include it. I just felt that it should be possible to include a copy of the original clearly labeled that this is a recast alongside some new art. I believe that should make it clear enough to any future owner that this wasn't an original. But if someones intentionally wants to misrepresent this kit on eBay he'd still ba able to as pictures of the original are now posted here. I prefer to believe everyone will play nice but its true there are a few bad apples out there and we don't need to make it too easy for them. I'll leave it to the judges to decide what they think is best. I've had my Gakken Tread pictures used in eBay auctions before. Still I'm not going to take them down just to keep it from happening again. I got it so I could prove to the world the thing existed and I'm not going to let the bad apples dictate my actions. Oh well... that's just my 2 cents on the subject. Carl

Here is the first half of my next test... still playing with some of the effects. This time the camera is in a chase car looking back at the trail. What do you think of some of the changes I made? The blinking light... the rotating spokes... the fixed white line starting out as red then turning to white. That last one is just the oposite effect of the rest of the trail that starts off as white and turns to red. I wanted to see what these effects would look like but now I'm not sure if they are much of an improvement over what I started with. Comments...

Well I tried the way back machine on the Liquid Stone page and it didn't seem to be anywhere in the archive. I did also try it on I.H.P's web page and found some nice pics. Some of which I haven't seen before. More pics of this kit can be seen here: 1/100VF-11C Thunderbolt There are more pics of this kit here: 1/72VF-1 Complete Transform Here is a nice one for our current project: Here are some more nice links: 1/100VF-1 Armored Valkyrie VF-19A Excalibur Here is the pic I mentioned before. I like to call this one "Nice Legs"... That's all I could find. Anyone remember the very nice VT-1 that I.H.P did? I don't believe he ever sold that kit but it'd be nice to find those pictures again. Carl

I love these: Just a few more and we've have a nice example of time stop photography. Carl

Thanks... still I'd like some way to preserve the original box art. I was hoping for a high quality color scan of the actual box art with the word "recast" added to one of the white areas. Then add some custom art as box side art. Since everyone that purchases this kit has helped make this possible it might be nice to put all of there MW avitars on the box as well. If we want a complete redo of all of the box art may I suggest that a good color scan of the original (again with the word "recast") be used as an insert. English won't get you a reply. Trust me I've tried many many times myself while he was I.H.P. I have gotten replies to Japanese emails before but even that has been awhile. I feel he's moved on to other things now and it will be hard to get much from him on this topic. But please contine to try... I'd LOVE to be proven wrong. That will probably require contact be made with D'Stance themselves and its proven even harder to get info from them then I.H.P. Thanks... its really nice to see everyone coming together like this. Carl

Here is something I could offer in the long term. I would be happy to offer him some web space where he could showcase his collection and remain anonymous if he'd like. It will take me a while between starting a new job, moving, and getting my own collection up. Also at the moment I'm up myself on space Shawn has given me but I hope to fix that before I put all of my own stuff up. Its just a thought. By the way... its also come to my attention that Liquid Stone *DID* have a whole page dedicated to this kit with pictures and descriptions etc. It was taken down shortly after the event where the kit was sold. And all this time I had been checking I.H.P's page for updates. So what are the odds someone here saw that page and saved those pictures and info. I'd REALLY love to see them. Carl

I just noticed that Liquid Stone is stated on the actual box art twice. So... did I.H.P become Liquid Stone? Anyone have any idea why the name change. Has anyone been able to find any info on this kit on the Liquid Stone link given several pages back. I looked a little bit but wasn't expection to see anything as I knew the kit was an I.H.P kit. Now I think I need to go back and check again. Carl

1/100 scale...

Its a variable kit. In fact I *think* the one picture I posted that I pulled from I.H.P's homepage is a picture of the same kit in fighter mode.

Ok... that is a kit he sold at a wonderfest back in 2002. Shawn and I and I think a few others were able to get a few of those through Seiichi (I think it was him) while we were still in direct contact with I.H.P. Carl

Oh no... I don't want that either. Still I think something nice can be put together and the cost of the ink and paper to print it should be pennies.

What link are you looking at? Is this the YF-19 that you see?

Here is an idea I wanted to throw on the table... has anyone given any thought to the box art for the VB-6 recast project? Noel has an original copy of the boxart and our kit owner I'm sure does too. At a minimum I'd want a color copy of that with the word RECAST added someplace. Better yet we do that AND add something original made just for this project. Maybe to be used as the box side art. This is the first big Macross Fan by the fan/for the fan recasting project that I'm aware of. I'd like a way to refect that on the box art. Something like take everyone's Macross World's avitar that gets on the official order list and stick them on the side of the box with the Macross World Logo. I'd also like something special acknowledging the original kit owner for allowing his kit to be recast and something for the recaster for the time and effort the he'll put into this kit. That might be hard to do if one or both don't what their name known. Maybe we could have them pick an alias. What do you guys think? Carl

Ok... the confusion was on my end. Just so long as we are on the same page. I took "original" clean-up method to mean the original kit would be cleaned up. I agree 100%. Which is why I was wanting to help so I could help assure this was done the right way. Since it is an added expense I just didn't want that keeping anyone away so I offered to do what I could. I'm not planning on going anywhere. Let me take that back... I'll be moving to Mississippi in just a matter of days and I'll be slower to respond during that time. But I'll be here. I've been here at Macross World for 5 years now. I don't plan on shooting myself in the foot now. If we go the two mold method which I think we probably will, if Gene wants to help I'm more then happy to let him pick up the cost of the first set of molds. Carl

That was the quote for the VB-6 Koenig. I don't believe we have a quote yet from either re-caster for the VF-4. I don't know if Valkyrie still has the molds from the Tread anymore, but it is a beautiful kit. I have one and I love it and have even used it to work on my own little project! As for the Garland...God I hope so! I'd love to have one of those! .... About D'Stance's YF-21: I know individual efforts to contact him have gone unnoticed. I wonder if we can get a list of all those interested and pay a small fee (which I would be glad to cover) to get the monkey, imode, or another person who can write Japanese with some fluency to write to him for us. Maybe if he is contacted and knows that enough people want a kit he might be realize it is worth his time to work out something with us. I'm certainly not promising results but it couldn't hurt to try as he doesn't respond to individual requests but might for a larger group of customers. Where was everyone when Noel was selling these a year or so ago? If we can get enough people together that want one I'd think we'd be able to get some more from the same place I got mine. If not and someone wanted to recast my recast we could try that too down the road. Just lets not get too many things going all at once. Great idea... lets try anything and everything. Is there a way we can get a moderator or someone with access to the old forums to dig out the contact info for the guy that won Noel's auction for the one he sold? I know he posted in one of my old D'Stance threads. That's the only lead I have on an actual kit at the moment. Still I'd prefer to get D'Stance talking to us. That's the only way to get the fast packs too.

Its the most recient thing I have of his. I believe its about a year old or so. I got it though Noel if anyone here can remember exactly when Noel was offering these for sale here. I tend to agree. The quality issue is about a draw in my mind. There is one other reason unrelated to quality/availability/accessibility where the "other guy" might have a leg up on Valkyrie. The owner of the VB-6 is aware of what that is... but I'm not sure how to tell the rest of you without telling you who he is. Noel... or anyone else here remember what the Garland recast sold for. I think it was in the $200 +/- $50 range. As Noel was the official outlet for these last time I'd suggest if there is interest we give him a list and he might be able to get it filled. I must admit I haven't ask him about this hit in a while. It may be possible that he has a few now but I sort of doubt it. Everyone that's asked me about this kit in the last year or so I've sent in his direction. I see valkyrie has ask ready answered the Tread part of the question. Valkyrie... if down the road you want to borrow the original again so you can make better molds I'll be happy to help. However lets put this somewhere on the list AFTER the VB-6, VF-4... and hopefully D'Stance YF-21. Carl

When we get to that point I'd suggest someone talk to Noel. He's recasted metal parts in metal before. I personally don't have one of his 1:48 VF-1S recasts but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I believe he also duplicated the photo etched parts as well... not that any of the kits we are currently talking about has photo etched parts. Just pointing out he's a resource that might be able to help.

There are some small air bubbles in both the kits I photographed. Also keep in mind the original KIP Megazone kit is a very rough old variable kit. It required ALOT more work then the relatively clean much newer non-variable Tread kit. I'm very happy with the quality of both kits. One other thing... I probably photographed the worst parts of each kit so I could be sure some defects would show up on film. But all in all... especially if Valkyrie now feels he can do even better... I'd have a very hard time taking a postion against anyone that says he may very well be the best man for the job. And believe me I don't want to put myself in that position. Both of these recasters do outstanding work. Carl