sketchley

In one of the Japanese hobby magazines I remember reading a tip about how to glue pieces together in a way that gets rid of the seam line, without having to resort to putty and other fillers. If memory serves: 1) Put the solvent glue on the parts of both pieces that are being fused together. 2) wait until the plastic is suitable melted. 3) squish the pieces together until there isn't any gap, and some of the melted plastic is being pushed out. 4) when dry, sand off the excess plastic that was pushed out of the seam. However, I'm not sure how viable that is on a clear plastic piece - as the off gassing will probably cause fogging...

Is there any way you can try out the preferred method on something first? The first thing that comes to mind are pieces of the sprues for the bubble canopy. However, they may be too small to replicate the end goal...

That seam line sucks! But you did an awesome job eliminating it. Mad skills!

Been a while since I updated my models-in-progress. A few months ago, my Rigādo factory was really getting into the swing of things, when I got a bad case of gotta-get-it-done-itis, and ended up nicking my thumb with the Xacto knife. While I was letting it heal, I reverted to the other major project on the workbench: dusting! At one point, I tackled the Death Star II. The big hole in the back is great for letting dust in, but terrible for getting it out. As I didn't glue it together, I was able to tease all the pieces apart: Then I remembered that someone on MW had painted the interior of their Death Star, and realized it was my chance to do the same. The red and silver paint is really obvious. Can you see any of the Burnt Iron paint? Alas, it's basically indistinguishable from the black water colour wash 😭: Regrettably, once assembled, I realized that the outer surface was too plain, and something needed to be added to it: In researching the details, I came across a buildup that essentially said that the 'city sections' on the Death Star's surface are darker than the surrounding areas. The modeller had painted all of the raised panels in a rainbow of darker colours, and then dry brushed a light grey over top to get the desired effect—essentially the opposite of what I had achieved with my wash. That's when I recalled another MW member having used pencil to add Aztec details to their Enterprise kits. As the test panels came out quite nice (bottom right Death Star in the image above), I went gangbusters on the rest of the surface. The results were nothing like I expected, and much too dark for my tastes: I decided to wipe off the pencils and resolved to find another way to achieve the desired finish. And that's when the happy accident happened: the wet-wipes I used didn't take all the graphite off, and I ended up with something extremely close to what I was aiming for: Thankfully, when I was laying on the pencils I had the presence of mind to resist scribbling, and pencilled in the areas with uniform top to bottom strokes. My overall goals were to ① break up the the monotony of the even-thickness layers in the back by drybrushing horizontally to suggest different layer thicknesses, and ② suggest that there is more detail than there really is with strategically placed vertical bits of colour to break up the monotony even further. I think it works—as long as you don't look at it too closely! What do you guys think? Does it look better now compared to when I started? ⇩ The unmodified Death Star

Oh! That's quite different from what I had imagined! Nevertheless, as I said before, it's really effective! Thanks for the confirmation. It's a testament to your research and detailing work that I immediately thought exactly what you're intending to depict. 👍

@pengbuzz That's a very dynamic looking ship! I especially like how visually different it looks from the 3/4 views (front top, rear top, rear bottom, etc.) You've also added an impressive amount of detail—phaser banks, escape pods, station keeping thrusters, etc. The crème de la crème are that the windows aren't just drawn on, but are indented into the hull material. The specular highlights really sells it! Question about the bridge area: is it the smallest dome on top of the top ventral dome? To my eyes, it looks like those forward facing windows on that top ventral dome could be the ship's 'Ten Forward'!

Darn it! It also looks like it would be a lot of 'surgery' to kit-bash replacement parts—even more so if one wants to retain the transformation gimmick of the kit.

Thanks for doing this build up! After seeing the marketing pictures of this, I'm really curious if the Destroid (AKA Gerwalk) and Battroid modes can be built (or transformed) without the VF girl-scale bicycle handlebars exposed.

If memory serves with regards to Macross 2, he was forced to do a style reminiscent of the TV series, etc. So, his character designs in Macross 2 should be considered an outlier. A better progression would be to look at how it changed from SDFM → DYRL → Macross 7 → Macross the First. Nevertheless, I wouldn't describe it as a 'changed' drawing style per se. More like an evolution. Some aspects of his art are a lot more simplified (as in easier and faster to draw), but other parts have hardly changed at all (e.g. the way he draws noses).

That design raises a lot of questions. E.g.: the thrust vectoring plates: why are the top plates jagged (= stealthy), and the bottom plates square (= not stealthy)? And then there is this: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIC_Baidi_Type-B Makes one wonder if the whole thing is a mistranslation of what the aircraft really is—like, as renegadeleader1 said, a movie prop—or we are seeing a masterclass in misdirection.

While it is essentially an impossible question to answer, one way to look at it is the big purchases made by the Earth government. In short: in addition to fully funding the ongoing costs to repair the environmental damages to the Earth, the Earth is able to fund the creation of dozens upon dozens of fleets at the same scale as the 7 and Frontier fleets, at the rate of 1 to 2 per year.

I "like" how they went to all the effort to remove the copyright and replace the ARII logo—even going to far as to put the safety instructions in Chinese (in the bright yellow box)—but they can't be bothered with the domestic Japanese number for paint inquires. 🙄 Begs the question: did the bootlegger have some kind of connection with Hobby Color? 🤔

That kind of has already happened—with the VF-X2 game. The player has to choose whether to join the rebels or stay with NUNS at the end of level 9. The rebel storyline is much longer and generally what the rest of the overall Macross timeline is based on. However, because the conflict ends quite differently and months apart depending on the player's choice, it's truly left in a which way did it really happen state in the official timeline. 🤷‍♂️

Macross Digital Mission VF-X is a bit of an odd ball. Its apparent location spawns a list of incongruities (the travel times TG Remix mentions, how could the Unified Forces dispatch a ship there so quickly, etc., etc.) It appears that the people who wrote the official Macross timeline (in Macross Chronicle and elsewhere) treat it with a grain of salt. In essence: the Milky Dolls kidnapping happened, but the circumstances are left vague and the 'real event' was probably very different from what's depicted in the game. Just to keep my head from blowing up, I've interpreted Elysium's location as being in the part of the Carina-Sagittarius Arm closest to Earth, and either at the 'top' or 'bottom' side of that arm (= the edge of the galaxy). I can't recall the specific Japanese term used to describe its location, but it definitely is NOT akin to 'in the outer rim'. I think the writers of Macross are doing a bit of fudging on top of being unaware of (or downright ignoring) the distances and apparent travel times. In a way the fast territories that Chaos and SMS operate in align with Kawamori-san's evocative description of Macross F's setting as "the great age of exploration, with e-mail". In that context, Chaos and SMS being akin to the East India Company and operating trade ships (fleets?) on decade-long cargo runs makes a bit more sense. Especially if its something like the Spanish Galleons traversing the oceans with cargo holds full of silver and gold. Things get more reasonable after the introduction of the Super Fold Booster technology. That above mentioned 10 year journey shrinks to a 1 year journey, bringing intergalactic trade closer to the modern container ship trade. However, none of that really addresses how the Macross Frontier Fleet was described as being a popular place for tourists, especially as the fleet was travelling so far away from colonized planets, and the apparent rarity of passing close enough to another Emigrant Fleet (E.g. Macross Galaxy) to enable tourism! 😵 I can't recall the specific reasons why we added that, but I think it has its origins in the differences between the Frontier and Galaxy fleets, and how different their respective environments are. It makes sense for the people in Galaxy to be envious and jealous of Frontier, and the people in Frontier to look down at or disdain Galaxy. So, from a story-writing perspective, the 'how perceived by others' adds a lot of colour. One wonders if the writers of the Macross shows have something similar in their production story bibles...

It would be nice, but it all depends on what type of story Kawamori-san wants to tell, and what kind of setting is needed for it. As the direction is trending towards the next generation of Valkyries, the best we can hope for is something akin to the situation inVF-X2: advancing the timeline forward with the latest Valkyries, but set in the near Earth area. Over the years, myself and others have dabbled a bit in trying to figure out where the planets named in such things as Isamu Dyson's service record are, and the logical conclusion is that the majority of named planets that we know of must be within 100 to 200 ly of Earth. Otherwise the transit times involved make it ludicrous (either physics are broken, or Isamu has experienced some serious time dilation). From the opposite perspective: the official materials have stated that it took 20 years for the M25 Fleet to get to where it is in 2059, and the fastest route back to Earth will take half that time (= 10 years). I'm not sure how usable it is, but this is a 'map' that we came up with: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Locations/Locations.php#Local The planets in green text are official (at the very least, providing a glimpse of the untapped story potential), and we placed most of them within 100 ly of Earth ('sector 1'), and a handful in the 100-200 ly radius beyond that. The next significant list of planets are the ones from the Emigrant Fleets that headed toward the center of the galaxy. But as they're so spread out in such a huge area, it's more like the Mariana Islands in the vast Pacific Ocean. So, yeah, I fully agree that they should set the next story near Earth and explore and develop that area far more than they have so far! On a certain level they're more like "plot devices" and "plot speed bumps", which defy explanation... 😅

Alas, "Now Printing" is the pic. The temporary placeholder pic, that is.

Correct! It's one of those mecha that I would have liked to have seen more (completed) images of in such publications as Macross Chronicle. Alas, the only image source is Kazutaka Miyatake Design Works, and the majority of those are developmental images. Alas, Kawamori-san decided that skipping ahead to the M+/M7 timeframe would make for a more interesting story. And subsequent anime releases have all based themselves from there. As Seto indicated, beyond that initial 100 ly, human colonization in the galaxy is messy and random. It probably looks closer to something like a >55-legged box jellyfish, with legs stretching thousands of light years in all directions.

The same thing could be said about its predecessor, Macross Digital Mission VF-X, the Sega Dreamcast's Macross M3, and the Sega Saturn's/PS1's The Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love. The first two are mentioned in multiple timelines produced after their release. Macross M3 is also the only production that gives us any information on Macross's roughly 30 year blank space between Flashback 2012 and Macross Plus. Elements of the SDF:DYRL game need to be added to an animated version of Macross The First—especially because a good chunk of them are predecessors (or stepping stones) to designs that show up in later releases* (at the very least, they embellish and further round out the SDFM era). * E.g.: Zentrādi APC → Gjagravan-Va → Large Vajra

As I can access the site right now*, it makes me think that there is some kind of security protocol that is blocking your access to it. This could be your ISP (less likely) or your browser. With Firefox under Privacy & Security (in settings), I have Enhanced Tracking Protection set to standard, HTTPS-Only mode set to don't enable HTTPS-only mode, and Enable DNS over HTTPS using set to default protection. There may be something else (i.e. antivirus software, Windows defender) that could also be blocking the site. * http://www.gearsonline.net/series/gallforce/eternal/ships/starleaf.html

Is your browser set to https only? Try disabling that.

Great Mechanics G 2024 Autumn is out: https://www.futabasha.co.jp/book/97845754655630000000?type=1 Macross Content: The third instalment of their "Macross Festival 2024"—Macross Plus. Macross Plus 30th anniversary articles (17 pages): Macross Plus Keywords Macross Plus Mechanic File Macross Plus Famous Scenes Characters The Dogfights Shoji Kawamori Interview Kazutaka Miyatake's Designs As they're doing a "Macross Festival 2024", one wonders what (if any) series will be featured in the December issue.

The one with it pitching backwards feels the most appropriate—defeated in a way that keeps the Jedi safe. For comparison: the one with it pitching forward doesn't feel "Jedi" enough—it looks like it might fall on top of the Jedi!

Hobby Color Paint Restoration - the water-based paints strike back They are truly striking back. Of the 5 (the Mr Hobby Color still had life in it), only the red and yellow returned to factory fresh after adding the X-20. They were also the only two that had a significant amount of 'liquid' paint in them. The white is reacting slowly, so I'm leaving it for now. The blue and silver were both bone dry, and the X-20 had virtually no effect. There was only a little blue left, so I was hoping for some kind of reaction, but after 2 days, the solvent still looked like water. There was quite a bit more dry paint in the silver jar, and the X-20 reacted a little with it, but no where near enough. As an experiment, I've put a bit of Mr Color Replenishing Agent into both. Within a few hours the blue was liquefying and starting to look like paint. I'm not sure if it's worth salvaging or not as a pseudo Mr Color paint. The silver... it doesn't look like there's much of a reaction going on. Just like the X-20, only the top layer of paint appears to be dissolving. Looks like I won't be able to avoid having to chip it out with a used spoon or something... 😫 Edit: It's starting to attain a consistency like wet sand. Not sure if it can ever return to something resembling paint. But at last I don't have to chip it out! 😅 Anyhow, the restored red paint went down as well as can be: If you're wondering what's up with all the black on the other parts: I'm attempting to kill two birds with one stone. Some of the parts (E.g. the interior of the cone around the sensor eye) are supposed to be painted black. I've used the water-color wash to get both a matte-black colour, as well as aiming for a seamlessly blend with the final wash when the kit is completed. All the black on the parts that become the front and back of the missile pods are to pre-wash the parts that will be nigh-impossible to properly do when assembled. I'm also aiming at representing the scorching and soot from repeated missile launches—akin to what a Space X Falcon 9 looks like after a dozen landings. I'm waffling over whether or not to wipe off most of it, some of it, or none at all. Scorched black louvres looks neat, but as there's a dark grey part going in behind them, they won't be as visible as they are in the pictures above and below. What do you guys think? Is the soot covered Falcon 9 the right or wrong direction to head in?

I'm still waffling over what to do with it. When I looked through the instructions again yesterday, I thought I saw another small part that needs to be painted black. I'll have to double check, but if so, I think I'll hand draw both parts with manga ink. Battle damaged models are something that I simultaneous say "why would you want to mess up such a pretty model?!" and "cool!!" (mixed in with a bit of envy). 🤣 How did you get the rolled up effect on the foot damage? It's a neat effect that suggests there are more layers under the surface.

Tried the Blue Tack/Eraser Putty trick. The plan was to use the wash (black watercolour paint + water + a bit of X-20A to give it a bit of bite) over the painted parts. Due to things like the Gun Chrome Paint I used not being able to be fully restored to factory fresh, things didn't go to plan... Upper picture: Blue Tack in situ. The wash didn't pool as much as I would have liked in between the raised bits. Nevertheless, the tack did it's job. Lower picture: Blue Tack didn't come off all in one go. Generally massaging excess Blue Tack into the stubborn bits removes it all. Which back fired, as the Blue Tack immediately picked up the excess wash on the raised bits, and started smudging it into the places that I didn't want it!!! I stopped as soon as I noticed what was going on... After using moistened Q-tips to remove the excess wash from the raised bits. While the part now has a nice and grimy 'well-used' look, it's not exactly what I was aiming for, and looks more like a flashlight reflector and less like a collection of sensors... So, I have 3 options: 1. wash off the wash, and try again (most likely getting similar results) 2. leave it as is 3. dust off my oil based manga ink, and draw in the lines. I've done it before and it's painstaking and slow. As the ink is next to impossible to get off, it means even more caution and care...