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sketchley

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  1. sketchley
    That was my initial impression of the vessel as well. However, after moving to Japan, and seeing a certain volume of domestic travel shows (and etc.), it now looks closer to the larger ferries that they use here (on what amounts to overnight ferry trips) than to a cruise ship. On those ferries you get 3 types of seating: airline-style chairs (what is depicted in M+) futon-sized areas to lie down on, sit cross-legged, etc. (relatively soft floors - akin to carpeted ones with underlay) individual cabins (akin to the private rooms on overnight trains) This is consistent with both the depiction in Macross Plus and the Macross Chronicle description. In that context, it is plausible that on the shorter runs, the lower decks of the vessel are for 'vehicle' storage—up to 1/4 to 1/3 of the internal volume. That's a not insignificant number of 'cargo' trucks, in other words! Would just like to point out that 豪華客船 can be translated 2 ways: luxury cruise ship luxury liner/passenger boat Digging a bit deeper on Japanese websites, it seems to be an equal 50/50 split, with some people referring to (E.g. Princess Cruise's) cruise ships as both クルーズ客船 and 豪華客船, and other types of ships, such as ocean liners (E.g. the Titanic), as 豪華客船. The meaning also includes "state ships" (E.g HMY Britannia)! 😵 In general, the meaning appears to be mostly "a luxury vessel people use for transportation", and has much less of the "a luxury vessel people vacation on" nuance.
  2. sketchley
    That's quite nice. Didn't realize you intended to go that hardcore on rust! 😅 Nevertheless, the rust effects came out quite nice—I especially like the bits that look like there are rust bubbles just below the top coat of paint! Perhaps the next step you can try is the "salt technique" (if memory serves: you paint a base metallic or silver coat, blob salt crystals strategically on top of that. Do the top coat, and then remove the salt. The end result looks like scratch marks and deep gouges, or something like that.)
  3. sketchley
    I understand where you are coming from. There are many creative decisions that Kawamori-san has taken for reasons other than story.* However, as the music labels are more or less directly sponsoring the anime (in return for music sales), it's hard for any new Macross series to move beyond the popular musical genres. I guess one could always look to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" for a taste of what a non-singing musical encounter with aliens would be like... * Such as: VF-171 as the main fighter in Macross F (reason: the VF-19 was judged to look too similar to the hero VF-25) dancing VFs in Macross Delta (reason: to justify the existence of piloted transforming jets in the era of unmanned drones) not using Zentradi ships in allied forces in later series (reason: to not confuse the casual viewer) At the same time, Kawamori-san includes quite esoteric details, such as is making sure that the missile exhaust colours are different so that one knows that it was a heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder (orange exhaust) and then a radar-guided AIM-120 AMRAAM (blue exhaust) that were launched in that scene in Macross Zero when Shin's F-14 shoots down the MiG-29 with a pair of missiles! 🤷‍♂️
  4. sketchley
    Thanks for the close up picts! This is what I was able to glean from it: Red: raised ink ("hills and valleys"). Looks similar to the results I get when I used oil-based manga ink. Appears to be added last. Purple: dust artifacts. Some (black bits?) were added after the fact (paint transfers?), but there is some mixed in with the white/light grey (note the specular highlights in the lower right part of the triangle). Also appears to be some paper distortion when thin paints (like watercolour) soak into it (it's especially visible in the black area to the right of the yellow circle). Green: what appears to be a bubble artifact most likely in the darker grey layer under the top whitish colour. Yellow: parallel scratch marks. Indicating that the material used in the black layer didn't bond with the paint under it. I've heard that Japanese artists use "sumi" (the black ink used in calligraphy) to fill in large black areas. If the underlying layer is an acrylic or otherwise water repellent layer, it makes sense that the sumi wouldn't bond and be easily scratched off.
  5. sketchley
    Whoops! Wrong thread! 😅 ※ Edit: probably should have said: "posted here by accident. Ignore this post."
  6. sketchley
    I'd also recommend starting on a part that is less visible or covered by other parts to try it out—even those erasable methods can be difficult to remove from certain places (narrow gaps, etc.) In general, liquids are easier to apply, and it's usually much easier to add more later than it is to remove excess amounts. Incidentally, do you have another model (E.g. one that is cheap as chips, or that you can 'afford' to lose if things go to pot) to try weathering techniques on first?
  7. sketchley
    I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet or not, but has the option of creating the parts (i.e. casting them yourself) and the purchaser assembling the set been explored? This appears to be the business model of Experten (their blog includes images of parts, assembly, and transformation): http://experten.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ From my standpoint, it seems to be the best way to a) deliver a product exactly like the one you've worked so hard to produce*, b) keep production costs and the selling price low, and c) only have to deal with a small amount of stock (something on the order of 10–30, with the potential of easily producing more).** * Others in MW have posted that there are a lot of changes when turning a prototype into a manufactured product. Things like material strength dictate how small (or thin) certain parts can be, and the less number of parts the less it will cost to produce (meaning such things as the wing flaps, separate fingers, and all the movable panels and parts in the legs [and maybe elsewhere] would be consolidated into one or two pieces each). Which begs the question: would people still be interested in purchasing it without all those fine details and gimmicks? ** somewhere just over 10 seems to be what the market can bear. You'll have to do more research, as this presumption is based on casually looking at the stuff produced by fellow MWers (such as the Armoured GERWALK and Moscato's kits).
  8. sketchley
    Speaking of Macross the Ride: Over the past year, I've been going back and revising and completing my translations of the magazine articles (everything but the novelization snippets). I've completed issues #1–3 so far (no ETA for #4~). http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/OTdengekihobby.php
  9. sketchley
    It looks like it is so bleeding new, that the product hasn't been released yet. I'm going to go with my initial response: Kawamori-san is involved in Osaka Expo '25, and this is most likely a tie-in to that. He has his own "Signature Pavilion" at the expo: Live Earth Journey - https://shojikawamori.jp/en/expo2025/ ). And speaking of Macross in the weirdest places, check out the description of one of the exhibits: Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Incidentally, searching for "Macross" and "toilet" results in a bunch of "Macros" brand toilet cleaning products. No relation to the anime, but it uses the same name in Katakana. 🙄　　https://macros.ne.jp/product/easy_silicone_toilet_brush/
  10. sketchley
    Some ground armaments also appear in Macross Digital Mission VF-X: Hover Tank A (tri-barrelled beam gun) Large Hover Tank B (beam gun, micro-missiles) Floating (Gun) Battery (twin-barreled beam gun) Ground (Gun) Battery A (beam gun) Ground (Gun) Battery B (beam gun—visually looks like a pair of 3-tube missile launchers) Ground (Gun) Battery C (beam gun) Space (Gun) Battery A (beam gun, missiles) Space (Gun) Battery B (beam gun, micro-missiles, missiles) ※ despite the shared name, the Gun Battery A/B are different in VF-X and VF-X2. At one point, I drew some 'detail up' versions of the Gun Batteries that appear in Macross VF-X2, however, they're not much to look at, as what appears in the game are basic polygon elements that don't appear to have had much thought put into them beyond making them visually distinct from each other (one is a "cube" and the other a "sphere"): http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/GunBattery/GunBattery.php More effort was put into the ground armaments in Macross Digital Mission VF-X, but they are still rather basic... they're visually similar, but not as detailed as the Jināru Fighter Pod Kai and Rigādo Kai that appear in that game*. * images—line art + in-game: http://www.robotechresearch.com/rpg/mecha/zentraedi/stealth_fighter/stealth_fighter_pod.html , http://www.robotechresearch.com/rpg/mecha/zentraedi/stealth_regult/stealth_regult.html
  11. sketchley
    I understand. 🫠 It's just like the Zentrādi Heavy Fighter Pod and Automated Refueling Tanker—hidden in plain sight all along. However, unlike the shoulder missile launcher on the Nūjaderu-Gā, they at least appeared in passing in print!
  12. sketchley
    Yeah, there's like next to no information on it—even in Japanese! I pulled out my DVD copy, and found them in that one scene. However, due to overall image darkness and the screen cropping, they're barely visible. It's no wonder that nobody really noticed them until the BR release about a decade ago!
  13. sketchley
    Artificial gravity is one of those things that Macross simply describes as "gravity control". The specifics of how it works aren't clear. DYRL, however, gives one concrete example that helps explain what's happening: the gravity emitters can fail, and when they fail, it isn't throughout the entire ship. I'm referring to the scene where Hikaru has to transform to GERWALK and capture Minmei in mid-air as everything is falling "sideways" (due to the moon Titan's gravity), yet the bridge crew are still firmly rooted to the floor. Therefore, in the scene you are looking at, we can infer that artificial gravity failed in the area where Minmei and Hikaru were found. However, the people looking on are standing in an area where the gravity emitters are still working. What we don't see is how strongly those emitters are pulling on the people. Perhaps the people in the foreground are being pulled by 1 G, but the people further from the camera (and closer to Hikaru and Minmei) are only being pulled by 0.5 G. While it's a different franchise, I think Star Trek sums up how artificial gravity works on a star ship: each deck has artificial gravity emitters, and they are all fairly localized. There are certain points between decks (usually near the ceiling) where one can not only find an area with no gravity (0 G), but also a point where gravity reverses as one is pulled "up" by the emitters in the next deck. It makes sense that a similar system is employed in the SDF-1 (least the bridge operators constantly float out of their chairs and the poor crew on the lowest decks are constantly being crushed under punishing gravity). And thus, you get the striking image of Hikaru and Minmei floating as the localized emitter in their section has failed, but not in the neighbouring section.
  14. sketchley
    Working... furiously... Apparently Japanese fans were aware of it as of October 2011. Source: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ゼントラーディ軍の兵器#ヌージャデル・ガー Edit date: 2011年10月16日. (I'm only posting translations of the 2 weapons that weren't mentioned elsewhere - E.g. in Macross Chronicle.) Armaments Other: hand grenades (appears in SDFM TV series, not movie) Theatrical version The Battlesuit is not equipped with any portable weapons other than a laser machine pistol. However, in one shot—when it enters the urban area inside the Macross—the Battlesuit is shown equipped with a missile pod instead of a plasma cannon. Fixed! The Macross Mecha Manual is someone else's baby. However, the aforementioned grenades aren't there, either: http://macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/nousjadeul-ger.htm
  15. sketchley
    O.M.G.! Why hasn't anyone noticed this up until now??
  16. sketchley
    The VF-11 is a bit "fuzzy" when it comes to internal armaments. The VF-11C purportedly has them (à la Macross 7). However, the VF-11B (which ostensibly doesn't have them) is the Thunderbolt that appears in VF-X2. Seto's answer sounds like it is on the money, as the play-through guide books for VF-X2 state that the game's VF-11B are loaded with "micro-missiles" and "high-manoeuvre" missiles—the latter of which are only ever depicted mounted on the wings. ... and even though the number of missiles in VF-X2 are finite, the game developers opted for fun and gave us unrealistic, massively large quantities. I hardly ever recall running out of missiles in VF-X2. However, in the PS2's The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (2003), as I recall often frustratingly running out of certain missiles, the strategic use of them seems to be something that the developers built into game play. TL,DR: they have externally mounted wing missiles that were beyond the rendering capabilities of the time, and have unrealistically large payloads to make the game more fun.
  17. sketchley
    I checked out of Discovery (and the "nu" Star Trek) at the end of Disco's 2nd season and haven't looked back since. Michelle Yeoh was the sole reason I started watching Disco. So, when she recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show (2025/01/17) to plug the Section 31 movie, it tweaked my interest. However, as the preview clip shown was a bad jumble of nonsensical action shots with no characterization, it left A LOT to be desired.* Reading the comments here has confirmed that it wasn't just me, the show runners don't understand their audience, and that the bad clip speaks volumes about the quality of the show. I fully agree with the person who said that the current show runners have to be replaced with someone who actually understands what the fans want... what compels us to keep watching and talking about a show 55+ years later! * It closely followed the preview for Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz's new movie, which smartly had a single action scene with snappy dialogue and strong characterization—that after viewing the Section 31 preview, left me feeling "THIS is how you promote a show." Not a jumble of quick cuts where you can't tell what's going on, and no substantive shots of the poor actress who has to go around promoting it! 🙄
  18. sketchley
    That's cool. Up until now, I've envisioned it as Kawamori-san incorporating religious elements into Macross, when it most likely is producer Tomita chose an adjective that summed up the character. That adjective may or may not having later influenced Kawamori-san when he was choosing the names for things in Macross Frontier. For example, the Vajra tool*—the more likely source of the alien Vajra name—symbolizes indestructibility and irresistible force (a fitting summary of the race), and is arguably only coincidentally linked to the Basara name. Their subsequent choice of Messiah and Lucifer as the VF names probably wasn't specifically to align with a naming theme (a la the famous pilot names in Delta), but ended up creating a de facto one. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra
  19. sketchley
    Huh. I always understood it as coming from Basara Taishō*, one of the "12 Heavenly Generals" in East Asian/Japanese Buddhism. As its significance would greatly deepen, perhaps it's both? Incidentally, Basara Taishō's name in Sanskrit is Vajra. * https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-generals.shtml https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Heavenly_Generals
  20. sketchley
    The problem—at least for us who translate Japanese into English—is that the Macross creators use the exact same term as the scientific (lower case) protoculture [プロトカルチャー] for the in-universe (upper case) Protoculture [プロトカルチャー]. If the show's creators had used kanji for the (upper case) Protoculture, then we would have some wiggle room to use a synonym of some kind—à la the kana and kanji versions of baseball [ベースボール (baseball) vs 野球 (lit. field ball)]. Alas, the confusing use of terminology is hard-baked into Macross at the source...
  21. sketchley
    Just wish to point out that the other Rigādo in the series (regular, light missile, heavy missile, and scout) were all "no adhesive needed". Of course, to get rid of the ugly seam lines on the upper torso, adhesive is definitely needed. Especially to make sprue goo to fill in the gaps!
  22. sketchley
    While poking around to try and figure out why the 2025 Blacktron Renegade looks off, I stumbled across the following pictures showing the Cruiser and Renegade clips, and clipped together: Source: Jay Ong's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayong28/p/DDw8DqWPivq/?img_index=1 As for why the Renegade looks off: the overall silhouette (in red) is octagonal, whereas the original was more diamond-shaped. In addition, the 'bulky bits' (in green) are arranged in an H shape on the new one, while the original was a rectangle. As the new Galaxy Explorer is fundamentally the exact same shape as the original—just bigger!—one wonders why the Blacktron Renegade's shape was so drastically changed... Perhaps the Lego group will have much better sales if they didn't market it as the Renegade, but as an entirely new Blacktron ship? 🙄
  23. sketchley
    Yikes! I fully agree! Some things are also meant to be blurry out of artistic choice. The Lucy clip is a good example—clearly depicting those background characters totally changes the focus of the shot from Ricardo onto them (nevermind how poorly it was done)! Fixing animation errors (E.g. adding missing missiles, colour correcting Focker's VF-1S) is one thing, but changing the artist's focus by de-blurring? That's a bridge too far!
  24. sketchley
    Looks like there's plenty of material to try the quicker/easier two techniques! (making sprue goo seems like a rather involved process) Seeing the box-like parts, I'm wondering what the best approach is for welding two chunks together. Thinking out loud: scoring and snapping a section apart to be glued back together will probably introduce stress marks... Perhaps gluing the undamaged bottom edges of two parts of that 'box' together will closest approximate the actual dome? It's a shame that the box isn't quite as clear as the dome. Maybe put a bit of something like masking tape on the clear plastic close to where you're gluing, and once everything is dry, remove it to see if there is any fogging (and how bad it gets) near the glued seam?
  25. sketchley
    That's good that you have some material on hand to try things out first. Hopefully there won't be too much fogging! 🤞
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