mslz22

Thanks, with all the other available vf-1's I really wanted these to be an homage to both the original toys and those early customs. It really was in the early days of the 1/60 Yamatos coming out where people were starting to really get creative with the ball joints and stuff. I still do have a deep appreciation for those, however the 1/60's and 1/48's made those modifications obsolete IMO . Not because they are not neat, but because they require an amount of work that seems excessive with those other options available. Over the years, even recent years, i have toyed with those now and again, but have found that if i make a custom too complicated, I tend to not finish it. These are really relatively simple compared to much of the stuff I have done, which makes them easy to finish. I have 1/4 diameter neodymium magnets holding on the leg armor. You need to fill the back leg armor with some apoxy sculpt but it's pretty simple. The arm armor is not Rob or even Chris B, there was another guy here who had the idea years and years ago. I took his idea and expanded on it a little bit adding photoetch parts and some other details. I have a single mold for it so i can cast my own armor. I will not be selling any because it's still based off of standard arm armor, even though it has been modified, and the guidelines for those things here have changed significantly since the early days of customs. I am pretty sure that those rules still apply and I am guessing (hoping) I am OK since these are for my personal builds. I asked EXO years ago and think i am ok on stuff for my personal builds, for example i have a few sets of Super O cast armor, since i had them before the new guidelines i think it's ok to show the custom off as long as i am not selling the armor or the custom itself.

Thanks, half the skull squadron from the beginning of DYRL is done.

Working on #2 and #3 at the same time.

Almost done, may add thruster veneers, not sure yet

Thanks, i find this pretty exciting right now. Almost done.

I sculpted the pilot from apoxie sculpt and made a mold of it. I had some pilots chair sitting around and i sculpted him right into it. I made a mold of it so i could run off copies for myself, that white one is a full casting that was intended for the non transformable nose.

So a long, long time ago i resculpted a Jetfire nose into a non transformable Gerwalk or Fighter only nose. The headlights were lowered, the body was panel lined and a "fullish" interior was made. All this with the hope of doing a few customs in each mode, which still has not happened. However i am going to make use of the little pilot guy that i sculpted. For the non transformable he is cast into his chair but a little exacto work and i can cut out just the part i can fit into this VF1A. Since this is a real Bandai VF1 I am going to keep the original canopy but plan to cast up some crystal clear ones at some point for future customs (if i get to them)

Did some more decals before bed last night.

Wow is Rob still casting 1/55 parts or just left overs? I have a bunch of his 1J heads, but i am going to replace the head lasers with ones from the 1/48 hasegawa kit, i have a few extra 1J heads from that and the laser cannons are sturdier in styrene. The armor is a custom mix of Tamiya Sea Blue and some white, airbrush acrylics. The Blue on max is all decals so far. I just drew them up in a paint program (not MS Paint) and sized them until they fit. Cool thing is once i had these drawn up, hit a button and change the stripes to Red, Green, Yellow for the other DRYL guys. For the white i am using Krylon Fusion White Satin. I almost never use a rattle can but since this is a toy and transformable I wanted the Fusion paint since i have found it to be very scratch resistant. I heat the can before i spray so the particles become finer (smaller). A few light coats does it. I do not prime the plastic, just lightly scuff and clean with 91% ISO. It's supposed to really bond with the plastic that way. Oh, for the UN SPACY on the leg strip, it's the paint under that is so white. The UN SPACY is actually not printed but transparent on the decal film, so it's the white paint under your seeing.

So as i found myself a couple of week ago with the kids on summer vacation something strange happened. My 6 year old is well behaved enough now that I have some tinkering time in what was otherwise non productive. Now i can't do anything to intense like molding casting or heavy scratch building, but what could I tinker with.......1/55's! After a crazy year of crazy big projects i have found myself nostalgic for what i call the "in-between" years of the 1/55. Jung was turning out what I still consider amazing 1/55 customs, but they were pretty straight forward. No crazy mods, just a few tasty ones and nice paint ups to give us the paint schemes that were never produced or hard to get. There were some of the hip and foot mods, but not for that early stuff he did. What i want to do in my down time now is to do some of those types, where i don't get hung up on a crazy ball joint mod and never finish. Simple, straightforward, clean customs that still maintain the "toy" quality that i love in the 1/55, but custom enough to be special. So i have a boatload of Jetfires or other 1/55's, and a boatload of custom resin stuff, some stuff i did, some that was offered. When the 1/55 started to go out of style i kind of horded some. First up is the VF1A DYRL Max. One of the custom heads i sculpted was a modified Bandai re issue head. I made it slimmer and extended the beak a bit. Although i am using it for a DYRL build here it really is much more like the TV head. One of the mods i did to the armor, i re etched the panel line on the booster to increase the diameter of the circle thingy. I just always thought it looked to small. I had some of Devin's old decals, which were great, but time has not been super kind to them. I have been drawing and printing my own decals as i move along. Again i am going for simple and clean like Jung's great customs. None of the complex stuff that Devin did with the rivet decals or more Hasegawa type markings. I am hopeful that i can get a couple done this summer during kid watching time. Best laid plans right? We will see if the excitement continues thru the summer. mike

very cool

I don't know, i know there were a few works in progress. It's really not a hard kit to build. There are just a couple little tricky parts but not bad by resin kit standards. I did do a guide that covered the few little things. Let me find the link. Unfortunately MW modeling section seems pretty slow the last few years. I don't know if interest has diminished or there is too much available, hope it picks up. I remember when it seemed like there were 25 or 30 people on at almost any given time. In the meantime, Fastpacks pattern started. I will likely start a new thread for this after wonderfest, I am thinking that people may not be checking in on this old thread.

Thanks, I know i have said it before, but macross stuff,I as much as i love it, is at best a break even proposition. So at this point it's only when i can "sneak" in a bit of time. I think I can sneak some time in after Wonderfest, but if more big jobs come up that could change.

thanks mike

Well here is the size difference in 1/72, this is the Capt America pattern. I still have the patterns for the Capt's Glaug if anyone needs one. In fact i have like 3 cast up.

Just checked my pics i have saved of this, I saved the pics in 2009, so 6 years ago? That does not seem right but how else could it get a 2009 date stamp?

Sent a batch to decals today, should be everyone who paid to date thanks mike

Thanks, soon as the kids go back to school next week i will try to fit in the test build and see if anyone wants kits of this. thanks mike

Hey guys, yeah sorry looks like a couple more i need to send out. I should have all of these out Monday or Tuesday next week. Sorry, still playing catch up after the massive project, and i totally forgot how busy the holidays get with the kids home from school. Once these last couple go out i should be all caught up, again sorry I hate being so behind. I am still waiting to be released from my NDA on the big project so i can explain why my brain got so scrambled. thanks for everyone's patience. mike

Molds are done, casting clear parts today for my test build. Additional message for everyone on other stuff, copied from my other thread. Hey Guys, still can't share what huge project i was on as the NDA has not been released yet, but it's finished and I got back from a deliver run to Florida last week, and immediately came down with a huge cold over the holiday and i am just now back to work. I have to apologize to anyone i owe stuff too, months of very long days have scrambled my brain for sure. I do know i sent out the majority of monster decals and the 1/72 norbert Gepard (capt kit) decals over the months i was working on the big project, but i know a few slipped thru the cracks. However, i totally lost track of who i sent them to. So again with big apologies, if i owe you something, PM me with what it is and your address and i will ship it out ASAP. I know it's totally unprofessional, when i can share more as to why things got so crazy i will, the short story is this was a 2 phase project that i was supposed to do 1 thing for each phase, which quickly turned into 4 things for each phase, so instead of 2 projects, it became 8. Hope i can share soon. Anyway i am getting back to normal now, for a while, unless they need more stuff! thanks mike

Hey Guys, still can't share what huge project i was on as the NDA has not been released yet, but it's finished and I got back from a deliver run to Florida last week, and immediately came down with a huge cold over the holiday and i am just now back to work. I have to apologize to anyone i owe stuff too, months of very long days have scrambled my brain for sure. I do know i sent out the majority of monster decals and the 1/72 norbert Gepard (capt kit) decals over the months i was working on the big project, but i know a few slipped thru the cracks. However, i totally lost track of who i sent them to. So again with big apologies, if i owe you something, PM me with what it is and your address and i will ship it out ASAP. I know it's totally unprofessional, when i can share more as to why things got so crazy i will, the short story is this was a 2 phase project that i was supposed to do 1 thing for each phase, which quickly turned into 4 things for each phase, so instead of 2 projects, it became 8. Hope i can share soon. Anyway i am getting back to normal now, for a while, unless they need more stuff! thanks mike

I don't put much stock in the official heights, I just know this is a much closer approximation to the "quality" animation. Meaning the good episodes, where it was not outsourced animation. The Yamato 1/60 is what i used as a starting point for making the scale calculations for my 1/48 kit and this. It feels like the right size to me. I forgot i had a Moscato scout regult. here is a pic to compare the leg size, guess that i am like 10 to 15 percent bigger than his for those wondering the comparison on those. thanks mike

Few pics to show size comparison, just a few more molds to go. Next to a 1/72 bandai kit, both the 1J and the regult.