Zinjo

More facetious than mocking . I know the term and to be honest it is nice of someone at HG to use their brain cell to work out an acronym after all these years... Macek coined the phrase to explain what the "VF" stood for in the fighter designation, he never really figured much past that. Though SchizophrenicMC is right when he says your artwork is very nice!! Well most here tend to prefer the original Japanese series' terms and names. Had RT been an anthology series with multiple intact shows under one brand name, it probably would have much more respect now and probably be one of the longest running anime series on Western TV...

Take a look at his Total 3D thread: http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=84907

Outstanding!!

Nice

Has anyone ever tired to do an artistic speculation of what a VF-11F or VF-11S head would look like? I don't recall...

Well you may have a point, considering how well the VF-19Kai and VF-19Blazer Hi-Metals have sold... Then there appears to be plenty of 1/60 scale VF-19Kai's around as well... They too appear to have a "vocal minority", so I see what you are saying... Although, if one were to take the available stock at HLJ as an indicator, it would appear nearly all the VF-11 stock is sold out and waiting for back order refills. The sponsors would do well to consider limited runs on non-hero valks. Money is money and if a niche of a niche market is willing to pay for a limited run kit or toy then give it to them. This is particularly resonant for Hasegawa where they can milk a mold for years. They've made quite a profit off the VF-1 and VF-19 molds over the years and will probably continue to do so with the 1/48 scale molds now..

This is something you want adopted for the 30th anniversary festivities. It would be prudent to make up instructions on how to build these in case Lego Japan comes knocking on your door. If not then hell it can be the Macross World contribution to the festivities and we can publish them on the official Macross fansite in Japan...

So with all the kits being released with Itashi decal sets, why "ISN'T" Hasegawa not releasing a Jamming Birds VF-11D or at the very least a conversion kit for the Thunderfocus? Perhaps some of our Japanese speaking members could ask?

Yeah like the vocal minority who like the VF-4 and the VF-17, etc... Dismissing the preferences of other fans really doesn't re-enforce any points you make. On the contrary. Talking smack about Mac II is really not the way to go to debate it's weaknesses. Many here can argue equally as vehemently against Mac 7 or Mac Zero for that matter. You know, rainbow rays capable of stopping Macross Cannon blasts, the GI Joe manner in which human fighter pilots were mercifully spared a flaming death in battle, a civilian flying a fighter "BETTER" than trained fleet pilot aces, etc... The reality is that it doesn't take away from many members' enjoyment of those productions. Keith and I have had many a lively debate with respect to Mac 7 and Mac II and their weaknesses in terms of story and plausibility, but ultimately we've agreed to disagree because after all they are TV shows and appreciation of them are always purely subjective to the viewers. As a matter of fact if you were interested in learning the "in universe" history that Mac II was based on I'm sure Seto would be happy to educate you. It was the official history before Kawamori retconned it to make Mac Plus and Mac 7 work. It was about this same time that DYRL was relegated to a lame "in universe " movie as opposed to an alternate telling of the events of SW1 (which is more in keeping with his philosophy regarding Macross productions all being dramatic stories of actual historical events "in universe").

I've always wondered why mod builders and composite artists insist on putting the fast packs on the fighters in an atmosphere. Outside of the "Coolness" factor, they would make the fighters nearly impossible to fly in an atmosphere... Is it just me who sees this? Be that as it may, the video and mod work to put the Valkyrie in any game engine is always an effort that deserves the highest praise! Such things are never easy. Amazing work dude!!

I can't speak to BD, but there are several programs out there that can do a soft sub encode on a DVD. "DVDRemake" is one of them and it isn't too expensive either. Several others can do it, you just have to look around and do some specific searches.

You's on FIRE dude! A Megaroad story would be like finding out the enigmatic "Force" is really just a bunch of parasite bugs. The mistique of the Megaroad is akin to the enigma of the PC, neither can be directly visited without severely diminishing their power on the lore of Macross. Hinting at what happened to the Megaroad or revealing more about the PC is one thing, to actually see either in a production would kill their legends in a very bad way. It would be a "Jump the Shark" or "Nuke the Fridge" moment for the franchise.

I like it! A fresh take on what is becoming a "methodology", although it may work in the West I am not sure how the Japanese would receive it? I can say I like all the Macross incarnations for various reasons. They all have their short comings with the exception of perhaps DYRL (the stars were aligning something special with that film), some were too short for the story they set up and others were too long due to the requirements of sponsors needing to flog their wares. "Plus" was a Western hit but was not as much in its domestic Japanese market. However the VF designs of that series have proven timeless... As for the Wars, well I enjoyed the original trilogy, with their warts and all, not so much the "Lucased" updates. The Prequels were OK. Of all of them the 1st had the most epic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan and Maul which was never remotely reached in Ep 3 (big disapointment ). Ep 2 was the most consistent eventhough Lucas should have stayed well away of the politics of Anakin (a subject he demonstrated little knowledge of) and Ep 3 was an all around disapointing film. Full of copeous amounts of eye candy and devoid of any real drama or believable peril. When your Oscar nominated star can only defend the film with "Well it's not Shakespear", you have a problem. As much as M7 irritated me, it was consistent and when you sift through all the gratuituous concert bits and ignore the non hero character of Basara, you could find a story to follow and characters to care about.

You might consider using paint to vary the doors as well. Different schemes for different doors can denote specialized uses. Just a thought... coming along great. I was wondering what you used to control your laser cutting? If it is a program, is it possible to simply invert the process and then turn the piece over to be cut from the other side? I'm just guessing having never used such a tool myself...

I forgot how fun this thread was, particularly with the "new" squadrons and air groups folks come up with... What is this "VERI-Tech" I've seen...? I've heard of OTEC, VF = Variable Fighter and Valkyrie... hmmmmmm Can't wait to see those!

Perhaps, but it begs the question can a non-valkyrie story set in the Macross universe be considered a Macross title? Is the universe capable of expanding to include other types of dramatic stories? Bubblegum Crisis had "ADP Police Files" and "Paradise Dolls", in Live Action we have the new "Prometheus" set to take place in the Alien universe but not include the "alien" (as far as we have been told). This isn't an unheard of concept, just an under exploited one, IMHO...

Wow you were so THIN then! Middle age spread huh?

Well dude, no one is suggesting that the '82 SDFM get "Lucased" and disappear off the face of the Earth (or so we have been told )! Hell it is getting the Bluray treatment and there is little more that can be done to it after that... I agree with Keith on this one. We westerners have become jaded by the Hellywood accountants and their pretentious minions fixing what was never broken in cinema. We can at least have some faith that any sort of Macross reboot would respect the source material much more than anything coming out of California...

Epic Man!! I am truly a fan of your work. I've seen several of your projects on a couple of CG Art sites. I am particularly fond of your cockpit view render, that is truly amazing! I am glad you found your way here, where your art will find great appreciaton...

Very cool. I really hoped he would have finished his SDF-1. It was pretty amazing!!

True enough and keep in mind that in Japan the military is a civil service "job" not a contracted term of service like most countries. In Japan you can be fired from the military, so there is a unique perspective to how they see the service. Essentially a need exists to respect realistic convention to enhance believablity, but no production should feel obligated to observe the minutia of the material at the expense of drama. As for the series re-make, I would prefer OVA productions over a fill blown series as they tend to be much more daring and provocative compared to the more sanitized TV show. Unfortunately finding sponsors and investors for such a large undertaking would be challenging to say the least!

I read that on your blog, it must be true because it was on the internet...

Is this book mainly cell art and character art, like nearly all the Satellite books? I fully expect and anouncement by Kawamori that he's releasing yet another Macross art book. His valkyrie designs have been conspicuously absent from most of the MF artbooks. The CG art is there, but virtually no line art from Kawamori...

Danbickel is killing us with his talent and it's a sweet way to die...

Ironically I would have preferred to see SDFM with the 49 episode count than M7! There was more relevant story to be told in SDFM than at least half of 7 comparatively speaking. I have to agree with the growing consensus that the show was too short for the amount of story they wanted to tell. It would have been nice to see Kakizaki grow into a character we cared about when he died, for a better build up to Max and Millia's final declaration of love, more about the burden of leadership Global carried, a smoother resolution to the love triangle and a better incorporation of the stories of post war Earth leading up to the final reveal about the Megaroad project. IMHO, the opportunity to re-make SDFM with modern anime techniques and a enhance the already compelling dramatic story is now. A hybrid between the original and the First manga would keep it fresh. However, to do the show justice, the need to get enough funding for a 49 - 50 episode series would be needed and that kind of cash is not something that could be found currently in the domestic Japanese market. They'd need a foreign investor like WB to help fund it and that would require a whole different set of circumstances...