DeltaE27

Very cool! Are the files designed for FDM or SLA printers? And roughly how large is a 1/72 print in terms of actual size, do you know?

I’d say calling the animation consistent is a slight stretch. We see Vrlitwhai wrestling with that same model of Valkyrie, and he’s supposedly bigger than your average boy, er, Zentradi. But he looks to be about the same size as the Valkyrie. Heck, unless Vrlitwhai is the same size as that Zentradi guard, how is he supposed to get through that door? And yeah, we see valkyries depicted around the same size as the machines they’re fighting all the time too (ie, Max vs Milia for a few split seconds when they’re on screen together, and the seating room inside a Q-Rau is well documented). So yeah, I fully agree that scale chart isn’t used when animations were being made. But the result isn’t something that’s *more* consistent, it’s something that’s *less* consistent. Whoever a Valkyrie is fighting always seems to be about the same size as it (see, silly glaug melee attack animation for a low-quality example. I also found a screenshot of Valkyrie vs Regult where they’re about the same size). Vrlitwhai is equivalent to a Valkyrie is equivalent to a standard zentradi is equivalent, on a bad animation day, to a Glaug. frankly I think the more likely explanation is it’s just easier to animate scenes where everything is roughly the same size… So if I’m a model company, and I have a license for production of a design, my two options are 1. to comb through the original anime and the reference material I have been given and decide based on contradictory information which size I’d like to go with. Perhaps this is based on being able to fit a zentradi in the cockpit, but even the zentradi aren’t consistently sized. It also means using a lot more plastic to scale everything up. 2. Using official figures that I’ve already used in the past (and for all we know may have been provided by the license holders?) to size the design, and as long as I never make a model of the pilot I’m fine. Personally, I find the discussion of scale fascinating but I think accusing the company of not doing their homework by sticking to official sources for their licensed product is a bit… unfair? But I also imagine this might be too much of a tangent for a thread about hasegawa kits, so…my apologies!

Hey, if that’s what official sources list, it makes sense to me that licensed products would stick to it. I’m very curious where that figure came from though, and if it *is* official. I’d definitely love to learn more. There’s this Studio Nue lineart where it seems to be closer to 19 meters. (see the right side, rough sizes there). the ARII box lists it at 18.1 meters, which is closer to 19. So I’m very curious where that 16 meter figure comes from. Or that 18 meter figure Setting aside pure numbers, though, the glaug and regult at least seem fairly accurate *proportionally* to each other. Screen taken from a video posted earlier in the thread. with perhaps a bit of wiggle room for how bent any legs are, the position of weaponry, etc. chalk it up as another mystery about Macross scale, I guess?

Please! I’d love a Nousjadeaul-Ger at 1/72. Not like that 1/144 sitting in my backlog. It was definitely false advertising that made me buy that, and not me forgetting what scale my other kits were…

Eh, maybe this is controversial but as long as the Glaug is about 9 inches tall I’m fine with that. The 16.5 meter height I see consistently listed would land it about there if the scale is right. That’ll keep it looking decent next to the other models and let it menacingly pinwheel its arms at them If it’s hard to fit a Zentradi pilot in there, that seems more a conflict with existing world building than it is a fault of the modeler. Besides, maybe the Zentradi aren’t big on comfortable seating 😅 If the model isn’t about 9 inches all bets are off though. I’ll have one in hand soon enough to be able to tell!

Very nice! The detailing looks so good, especially the sections of slightly different shades of green. I fell in love with these kits when I learned about them. I have one of each assembled with base colors but awaiting details. Funnily enough I also used some Vallejo Mecha color on mine. I might take some inspiration with how you handled the detailing if you don’t mind! The nupetiet has a really flat nose in this rendition, but it is what it is. Old kits are gonna be old… I’m just glad these kits exist in the first place.

@Papa Ratthank you! I will say that the Tomahawk was on the lower end of the three for pricing when I was looking (with the defender being the highest for some reason). Relatively cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean cheap though, so fingers crossed you can find a good price!

High praise coming from someone who designs their own Destroid kits! Thank you! I would 100% say the Wave design is a better kit overall than the ARII. I’ve now built four in total between the different destroid designs (phalanx, defender, two tomahawks). A lot of the modeling I’ve done outside of macross is in gunpla and similar, so I’ve been spoiled by ease of assembly. But with that said, I don’t think they were that difficult to assemble as long as you take your time and have a bit of sandpaper ready, especially if you’ve painted it beforehand. The ARII/IMAI kits I’ve built (1/72 tomahawk and defender) are finicky in places. For example, the tomahawk shoulder joints that popped off internally so many times on me that I moved them to the outside of the kit, some loose panels here and there, and other things. Nothing you can’t fix with time and skill, but by comparison the Wave kits just kind of work. You can feasibly assemble them as pure push fit models which, with the poly caps, honestly feel a bit closer to a Bandai gundam-style design. It’s not exactly the same, but it is a decent level of flexibility and poseability that doesn’t feel like it’ll fall apart on you. Now, some of the parts in particular suffer when you’re adding paint to the mix, the scope and shoulder missiles on the tomahawk did require sanding and even then they’re still tight. The clear lenses on places like the rear of the legs and torso also required some work to get to fit. So they’re not perfect, but in terms of fit they’re a lot less finicky IMO. The only thing I’d call a problem regardless of technique is the phalanx head antennae, they’re so fragile they’ll snap as you cut them off the sprue. Someone did correct me, I guess 2010 isn’t that new anymore. But it definitely is newer than the ARII design and it feels as much in fitment, mold quality, and the build techniques used. And personally I appreciate that since they all are from the same company, they all use the same leg assembly minus some detail parts. Consistency!

I’m back! After mentioning I had a Tomahawk in the works in my phalanx post and then proceeding to do nothing with it for months, I can finally show it off. The Tomahawk has always been my favorite of the non-transforming stompy Macross designs ever since I was young. This may explain why I have wound up with multiple. In my defense, I started an ARII kit (we’ll get to that later!) long before I knew the Wave kits were even a thing. But that got set aside for a long while, and then I found the Wave kits. I really like the Wave kit, even if some of the gimmicks come out a bit too tight once paint is applied. I think in total it’s something I can be happy to have on my shelf. And I appreciate the face has a lot of detail. Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here But as mentioned, I did have an ARII tomahawk, and after finishing the Wave design I thought I’d finish up that gray-blue menace and compare the two. Presenting, my ARII tomahawk. Honestly it holds up great for an old kit. The two are very comparable. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re- Oh. Yes, I’ve deceived you (which you hopefully realized when you read the title of the post). As it turns out I have not two tomahawks but THREE. the ARII design is saddened by the deception. When all I had was the ARII kit I decided to paint it closer to the show I knew. It wasn’t 100% the same but I wanted something like that tan design I thought I remembered from the show, even if it was basically a color swap of the ARII manual. So I repainted it. I ALSO swapped the legs on the IMAI defender kit I was working on simultaneously with the ARII legs because I liked them better and, as previously mentioned, the Tomahawk has always been my favorite. I got it all together, ready for detailing…and then stopped. And then found the Wave designs. I built a wonderful new tomahawk. And then I got a bundle deal for a defender and another Wave tomahawk. It was the cheapest option I could find for a defender somehow. So, inspired by the ARII art and the decals I still hadn’t applied, I wound up with a blue Wave tomahawk. I styled it as an early variant since the art had a red visor and I found a Mecha manual tidbit stating that earlier variants were deployed with red visors. Then I decided to style it as a Marines unit like the VF-0C Hasegawa made, deployed to the Daedalus. All the UN MARINES logos were individually assembled from third party decal letters, while the numbers were individually assembled from numbers that Wave at least included as optional decals. Fun times. Meanwhile, the decals I stole from the ARII kit were old and very much disintegrating on me. Even more fun times as I tried to fix those with paint. Still, I like the result. You’d almost never know the “VAM” in the leg art is hand drawn from fragments of decal that were still available and paint marker. By the time I was decalling and panel-line-ing the ARII design I already had one wonderful completed Wave kit. So I didn’t use as much care as I could’ve to finish it. That, plus decals that I decided not to fix meant the end product is much more rough. But hey, better a kit I decided to quickly finish than one I never finished at all! Anyway, this post is way too long now, so from all three of my tomahawks, farewell and thanks for reading!

One final design for this adventure, and it printed successfully. Now I wait for it to cure, then I’ll start painting everything. I’ve also been working on the official zentradi ARII kits that inspired these, but that seems like a separate project given it’s nature. presenting the Zentradi picket:

Honestly the stand size is intentional and almost necessary. those stands are about an inch or two tall, I’d guesstimate. Not really that big, just in comparison with what they’re holding, they are. I wanted something I could easily grab without risking damage to the ship, something that would be easily visible, and most importantly something that wouldn’t risk snapping when I printed it, something I could anchor the support points to as well so I don’t have much scarring on the ship itself. are these models too small to really be practical, to the point I need to compensate with a large stand? Yes. But I’m having fun with them anyway

Well, after adding some stands to the design, I actually have real world results! Printed and primed: I printed some with and some without stands, but the ARMD are the only ones that really are large enough that I don’t worry I’ll lose them without stands. Also note the two ARMD in the rear with connectors for the 1/20000 Macross, and the part on the far left that’s the lower hull of the Zentradi flagship (whose name starts with N but I cannot ever spell without looking it up) at the same scale. Really shows the difference compared to an ARMD or even a poor Oberth class. close ups of the Oberth and Quel-Quallie. I’m happy so many details are even slightly visible at this size. Now how in the world do I even try to paint these…

Still finding it a lot easier to be motivated to design vs printing right now, so here’s an ARMD. I think before I try printing anything I need to include a stand or space for a stand. I’ll probably work on that next, then the Picket ship, and that should be everything I want to design at this scale. Oh! This reminds me I wanted to add a mounting point compatible with the 1/20000 SDF-1 to the ARMD. I’ll tackle that next.

You would think I would either try printing something, or designing something simpler and larger next. You would be wrong. 1/20000 Quel-Quallie: this will be very small, around 2/3rds of a cm, so the landing legs will be very thin. I’ve got that block in between them in one version of the design to add a bit of strength. We’ll see how that turns out

I spent the last two days working on an Oberth-Class destroyer design for 3D printing, shown below. now, I’m pretty happy with it. You may be thinking though, that it’s honestly pretty rough. Details are lacking, shapes seem to be slightly thicker than they really should be, that sort of thing. Why would I do that? Because a 200-meter long Oberth at 1/2000 scale is a centimeter long. So I’m trying to get what details I can in there without things breaking 😄 (And I basically gave up on the radar, as much as I like it. Too spindly) 1cm will put it in scale with the ARII zentradi capital ships and SDF-1 that I recently started acquiring. If it goes well I might try to design an ARMD (perhaps even a version I can swap in as docked to the Macross, after all I have a few…), a Zentradi picket ship, or if I’m crazy enough a simplified Quel-Quallie. I’ll document any of that here. But for now, time to start trying to print this Oberth.