Skull Leader

Finally got around to photographing my Takatoku Strike Valkyrie. My overspray isn't terrible, but it's noticeable. There was overspray on the tabs where the chest plate slips into the wing cover that I cleaned off... I wish I hadn't done that now.

I don't have an Origin of Valkyrie mold to test this with, but I'm wondering if it wasn't a second-hand mold produced from an original? That would make the armor just a shade bigger than the original versions, which is why it would fit better on the Joons (which does not wear original issue backpack armor well, because it's bigger)

I need to get around to photographing mine. Mine has some obvious overspray, but not the underspray that THAT one has! I wonder how rare those Takatoku Strike valkyries are? Another identifying characteristic is the painted-on black UN Spacy symbol on the wing... the Bandais all had stickers/decals there as I recall. (My other two strikes have the open spot for a decal)

Retired "ammosexual" here.... Most of us do it for the money and for the benefits, which are absurdly better than anything the government provided. I cleared more money in one 3 month detachment training local police forces than I did in the entire two years prior in a government position, and I wasn't being constantly shot at to do it. Most of us were just happy to flex skills we learned on the government's payroll in an environment where they were actually appreciated. (in my case, law enforcement and search and rescue techniques) And we never had to fire a shot. If I weren't married with a kid, I'd probably still be doing it. PMC work definitely lends itself to the single lifestyle (unless you're in admin)

Switching gears back to Jetfires for a moment... Can anyone hip me to exactly when they switched from the white backpack hinge clip to the black one? Were we well into the Bandai releases by that point, or are there some Matsushiros floating around with the black hinge clip? And has anyone ever printed 3d replacements for worn out ones?

That 1/100 VF-1D looks legit! If I were sitting on disposable income, I'd totally put in a bid. I still have plans to build a 1/55 VF-1D of my own... I'd just like a VF-1D head that didn't look like it was designed by a third grader in TinkerCAD. I'm legitimately surprised there isn't a good STL file out there.

I'll have to go back and look who makes it, but here in the US there is a brand of red spraypaint that is more or less a 99.5% match to the factory color of red used on Jetfires. I've used it on a couple of resto commission jobs I've done, and with a good gloss coat on the top of it, you'd never know it wasn't factory fresh. Armed with that, a stripped and retrobrited Jetfire, and a set of reprolabels, you could build a "mint" jetfire that would be damn hard to notice in a few ebay photos. Edit: It's Rustoleum Gloss Apple Red.

Seeing this message made me go back and revisit some earlier posts... I just wanted to point out I/Alphateam11 was not responsible for the "Evil Jetfire" set. I have no idea who made those. I too would love a source of a complete decal set that allows me to replace bad factory decals, I've got a number of 1/55 valkyries that could do with some refreshing beyond what the Toyhax set offers. I don't even really like the Toyhax set... they feel really thick, and in some cases don't fit just right (at least, some of their jetfire ones don't, I haven't messed with their Strike Valkyrie set yet0

Jesus, I can just imagine what the 30 day inspections would be like on a variable fighter... i bet they had "daily" doors in really inconvenient places. It's a swing-wing... I wonder if the brown shirts feared the dreaded flap/slat lockout that the tomcat guys did when their pilot was too hot of a hand. Chief: "Don't make any plans... Lt. Hotshot over-Ged and now the flaps won't retract." Petty Officer Hardworker: "God @#$it..." Chief: "Better shag it. ATO says this one sorties at 0800." (Petty Officer hardworker cancels his date with the 2-10-2 down in egress and spends the evening working on the slats and flaps...Then the bird canxd the next morning anyway for a down radar... Petty Officer Hardworker wonders if its too late to take that transfer to ordnance) One of the single most frustrating things about Macross II is the lack of really good, clear footage of all the designs either static OR in action... so no footage of any of the valkyries in a parked fashion on the ground.

I've got three strike valkyries, 2 in the box, that I now want to pull out and inspect. I feel like at least one of them had a takatoku marking on the back that I initially put down to possibly just being frankensteined. One of mine also has fairly wicked overspray, I'm wondering if this was one of the repaints?

If I had an STL file for this, I would 100% print it and light the cannons with LEDs.

Where the hell were you guys back in 2014 when I was working on making an HD remaster for this game???

how did I never know this???

holy thread resurrection, batman!

A while back i was going to provide both a scan of original 1/55 decal sheets in addition to a custom drawn decal set for all four major DYRL valkyries, with more to follow on later, to the guys at reprolabels (responsible for transformers reproduction sticker sheets) but they weren't interested on two grounds: first, they didn't think there was enough interest (they print on demand... not sure how thats a concern), and second, they were sure Harmony Gold would completely sue them out of existence if they offered them... wonder when they changed their minds. With the advent of the 1/60 and 1/48 scale markets, the days of the 1/55 collectors/customs have largely gone down in the west. You'll find a very tiny niche market probably, but if you're wanting to make money, I wouldn't get your hopes up.