SteveTheFish

That is so cool. I'm a Linux enthusiast myself. I migrated to Mint Mate in February 2000, after MS stopped supporting Win7. I'd been meaning to migrate for a long time, and I was glad I did. A very liberating experience, and I haven't looked back since. I'd wished I'd done it sooner.

The Meowmeow's target lock aquired: "I CAN HAS VF-171!" So last night I finished laying down decals on my Hasegawa Armored Valkyrie. I still have leftover paint from the mixture I made for its blue/gray armor color, so I think I'll build up the old 1:100 scale Imai Armored Valkyrie and use the paint up. (Too bad the decals are kaput...) The decals are silk screen, and went down very nicely. The only trouble I had were the black stripe decals. They lay down along those gaps and I had a hard time lining them up and wrapping them around. I ended up not using them. Instead I used my Real Touch Gundam Marker Gray 3 (which looks black to me) and it worked like a charm. Very beautiful. I think a bit of acrylic thinner can be used to clean up any mistakes, as I painted the kit with Mr. Color lacquer paints. I am also working on a resin garage kit of Asuka from Evangelion I bought on E2046. I do not care for that anime, but I love Sadamoto's character designs. I tried to do justice when painting her eyes, but alas I am not as good at eyes as Sadamoto is.

Hmm... Or tape the decal sheet to the bottom of a clear sheet of plastic, then lay down thin masking and trace the outline? The problem is that it's not one large decal, but it comes in segments. I remembered that there is a how-to on the Cody's Coop website, but apparently he used decals. https://codyscoop.com/models/features/ht-valkyrie I have put my decals in the window a few times to try to bleach the yellow out from them, and now they are very stubborn to lift off the backing. Maybe if I used very warm water they may come off. I dunno.

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

Oh, thanks. Yes, in that video i realized that I should have painted the intakes and engines first, then assembled, then primed and painted the outside. I ended up making more work for myself the way I did it. Thanks for the link. It looks like I am on the right track. Last night I started decaling the wings. I seem to have lost a tiny "no step" decal, unfortunately. I'm building mine as Kakizaki, but when I purchased replacement decals, they sent me ones only with the red and yellow stripes. They have the other decals for Kakizaki and Max; just not the colored stripes. So I am looking at possibly trying to come up with masking off and painting the green/black stripes myself.

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit. I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake? I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that. I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

Thanks for the info, Big S. I was wondering what improvements/differences there are with the original Battroid kit. I've never built one, but am currently working on the Armored Battroid.

My friends attended a Silent Mobius event in Tokyo last weekend. I can ask them what news may have come from that. If you are talking about an English-language bluray release, then that would depend on the likes of Discotek to release.

I asked Kaneda-san about that. It's been 5 years or so already. What gives? He said that he still wants to do it, but it's on the backburner. He's preoccupied with other stuff. Unless things have changed, he is also responsible for the company's pre-painted anime figures.

I don't think so. You're making an assumption from a Western bias, but understandably so. All of these company presidents get along with each other rather well and tell each other about their plans to do things. They really do not step on each others' toes. I worked at Aoshima in 2016. It was only for 8 months and I quit. I like the company, but the business manager was a total bosshole so I was one of many who quit. My team lead went on to form his own company, Rocket Models (does the Fist of War model series). My friend in the R&D department who was the one responsible for their 1:72 scale JGSDF series quit and went on to work for Hobby Japan, whom I do occasional translation work for. The jerk manager is long gone now, fortunately. Anyhow, he made it miserable for people for a while and being an American, I wasn't gonna put up with his crap when I could make better money teaching English. During the time I worked there though, I got to see firsthand how the companies interact with each other. When I worked there, people from Hasegawa would come to visit. When I first started at Aoshima, I suggested that they do Crusher Joe and Dirty Pair model kits. I was told that Hasegawa already had plans for those properties. Then a few years later, Hasegawa came out with Crusher Joe kits, and then last year Dirty Pair. They let each other know what their plans are. I am certain that Max Watanabe talks with Mr. Hasegawa a lot and knows what they have coming down the pipeline. For a good example of how the model companies complement each other, look at the relationship between Arii and Imai's Macross kits from the '80s. Imai did a 1:72 scale Defender, so Arii made a 1:100 scale Defender. The two companies directly cooperated per the license and did not each make the same subject in the same scale. Their products were also advertised together side-by-side in magazine ads, etc. So while they "competed" with each other, they also cooperated with each other. Years ago when I was bugging the Hasegawa Macross guy (can't remember if it's the guy in the last picture on the left or not) to make a VF-4 Lightning III, he said that they had discussed making one but had decided not to. I'm pretty certain that he already knew that Wave had plans to make one, but wouldn't tell me. This is a very different philosophy from Western companies. The cohesion among the Japanese modeling companies is what helps them prosper together. Max Factory has a 1:72 scale Battroid, but it is decisively different from Hasegawa's, far more anime stylized. Wave's Valkyrie kits are in 1:100 scale. Bandai's Valkyries focus on the transformation gimmick. The black sheep of the Japanese modeling companies is Fujimi. They have a rather American-style competitive philosophy. They deliberately step on others' toes. It's why you never see them at either the Shizuoka or Tokyo hobby shows. I've only seen them at Wonder Festival. Long ago, the 1:700 Waterline Series of ships was with Tamiya, Aoshima, Hasegawa, and Fujimi. Tamiya made a 1:700 scale Yamato battleship, and Fujimi wanted to make one too. This pissed Tamiya off and they were "voted off the island," so to speak. So although Fujimi is one of the several plastic model companies located in Shizuoka, they do their own thing. They directly compete against Aoshima's car models too. They do not honor the spirit of cooperation and instead focus on competition.

Well nuts. So I did attend the trade show on Friday, but every time I was in the Hobby Japan booth, I was talking with my friend whom I do occasional translation work for and the guys who handle the publications always scattered out of our way and talked to other customers instead. I didn't have a chance to talk to them. I suck.

Oops, you're right. I should have looked at the up-close photo above that sh9000 posted rather than looking at my own photo at a decreased size on my computer. Plus it's just odd to call it "Fighter Valkyrie" rather than "Valkyrie Fighter". After all, "VF" stands for "variable fighter," not "fighter variable."

Whoever printed the signs made a big mistake, calling all three of these a "Fire Valkyrie." They weren't paying attention. The VF-1J Ichijou Valkyrie will be one kit, while the VF-1A will be a Max/Kakizaki kit, apparently. I'm looking at the photo I took at the show and have zoomed in t\o read the signs.

Ha, no, not banned. Maybe they should ban themselves. If there were no Macross models coming out other than these VFG, then they'd have a right to complain about the situation. As it is, they just need to ignore what they don't like and just move on with their lives. Then again, that's Reddit for you. A place where you get downvoted for asking questions, and you get downvoted just because somebody wants their content rated higher than others. It's why I called it a "cesspool." I don't go on there very often.

I posted my photos from the All-Japan hobby event on the internet cesspool known as Reddit and while the majority of responses were positive, a couple were somehow offended that these VFG exists, even saying that the guy I know who makes these kits should be fired. Apparently they think that every single model kit must be completely serious and we can't have fun. Unbelievable. They should stick to the IPMS stuff and stay away from anime if that's their attitude.

Here are the pictures I took at the event yesterday.

I attended the show yesterday and talked with Kaneda. I tried to persuade him to make a VF-1 VFG with Misa riding it. He seems to have his mind set on the newer stuff, unfortunately. I talked with my friend Takahashi (who now works for Hobby Japan) and he agrees with my idea. Neither of us are fond of the stickers these come with. I got the first VFG kit when it came out and I never finished it because I had a problem with some stickers lifting. I'll have to paint those areas by hand, I guess. Anyhow, here are the VFG pics I took.

Unfortunately, I have not received any response for my news submission from HJ. However, I am set to attend the All-Japan Model Hobby Show next week, so if I can, I'll talk to someone there directly about this story.

I took better photos of the completed kit at last and added them to my Tumblr feed. https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/post/728572872980873216/arii-1100-macross-regult-heavy-missile-type

Yeah, the yellow sign says it has both decals and stickers, and that it comes molded in metallic silver. I guess that's what they mean by "factory edition"?

Here are my model acquisitions since May. Yes, I'm a Hasegawa fanboy.

I think my first exposure to Dirty Pair was the stupid Streamline English dubbed videos. Then later I saw some fansubs. Some of the episodes are pretty weak, but the show overall is fun. So I bought the recon pod kit on YSJ from a shop called Dejitamin I sometimes buy from. It looks like I may have bought the last one. I'm sure Hasegawa will repop it, but for the time being it's not on their schedule.

A little-known aspect of the legacy Macross models from the '80s were the figure kits. Imai made several plastic kits of the figures, but they were not very well-detailed. Tsukuda made a few figure models from that heavy plastic they used (perhaps it was ABS?). Arii made a few sofubi (soft vinyl) kits. Misa in a swimsuit, Hikaru in his flight suit, and at least three Minmay figures; schoolgirl, concert dress (TV), and this DYRL concert dress from the end of the movie. She comes in her iconic pose. At first it seems like a cool kit, but actually it is lacking. First of all, her eyes are too wide and big, resembling the TV version Minmay rather than the older, more mature Minmay from the movie. She doesn't come with earrings, her skirt is too short, and they didn't sculpt any panties. Fortunately, my good friend in America used to work as a sculptor for McFarlane toys. He gave her better eyes, he made earrings to use with fiber optics to help give them their anti-gravity attached look, and he sculpted some panties on her. I painted Minmay with V-Color vinyl paints, which are specifically made for such sofubi kits. I also went over her outfit with glow-in-the-dark, fluorescent Blue Steel Arpeggio lacquer paints by Gaia Notes. Minmay's concert dresses glow in the movies, so I wanted to capture that with this figure. I painted her eyes with Tamiya and Mr. Hobby acrylics. For these photos, I've used blacklights to make her dress glow. You can see a photoset of this build here: https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/search/minmay arii And here is the final reveal on YouTube: I do not consider this done yet. I have trusses by Plum I have constructed. My plan is to wire it up with concert lighting and have UV LEDs shining on her dress to light her up.

Do you mean vacuform? I don't have the tools to do that.

The eye decals look better than those they provided for the little figures that came with the Lovely Angel kit. I finished that earlier this year. The eyes just seem a bit off somehow, but I cannot put a finger on why exactly. https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/post/716114622462246912/hasegawa-dirty-pair-kei-yuri-1300-lovely And since you like Dirty Pair, last year I finished my 1:4 scale Kei and Yuri sofubi figures. They are BIG! Painting them was difficult since I was getting used to using V-Color vinyl paints. Yuri was a bootleg kit from Korea to boot, so her surface had too many dimples. I had to use a surfacer to fill in the dimples, and that is the problem. V-Color paints are better going directly onto vinyl, so I had a lot of paint lift off with masking tape and it drove me crazy. Kei, OTOH, was an original Fukaya and did not have such flaws. Here is a photoset for that: https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/post/680782257296916481/14-dirty-pair-kei-and-yuri-sofubi-photoset-april These links are to my Tumblr feed where I have a bunch of modeling and other nerd stuff. My prize Dirty Pair possessions are my Kei and Yuri pre-painted cold cast figures by Epoch. These are limited edition figures I bought 16 years ago. https://stevethefish.net/life/life035.htm