PetarB

What a Tiger! edit: Just saw Cowie's and Ron's work as well. Really, they should be seperate threads - fantastic work all round!

The alternative is Dupont Automotive sandable primer. The downside is that you will have to shoot it through an airbrush, and you will also have to thin it to the desired consistency. I prefer Mr Surfacer, as I'm kinda lazy!

Cowie I have a scriber that pulls out the resin like you describe, in little corkscrews - I love it. Both types of scribers have their uses. I glued the two halves together and they didn't quite mate up. So I made one side 'perfect' and the other side was out by a mm or so. Which mean lots of filler and sanding. I rescribed and redrilled rivets and seams. I've still got a bit to go in these pics, which also have a coat or two of primer on them. I also prepped the Valkyrie - its just been primered too, but I won't bother post pics until the next stage - colour scheme. Would you believe I'm dithering between a couple of different schemes! I would love to just copy WMCheng's, but I can't bring myself to do it...

Ah, hello to HKML! Thanks for posting, very nice!!!

After rescribing some detail on the hull, I attacked the interior. The photoetch mesh is fronted with some pliable but tough clear film that I found after a bit of experimentation. When I finish the paintwork (so long away it seems!) I will pull the film through one of the vents with tweezers, and the mesh should be nice and clean. Bit fiddly, but the results should be worth it. I also detailed the bare area in between the two nacelles.

I might be interested in making a 1/72 pilot set available if there was demand. Check my sig to see what was done with 1/72 scale for another series...

The right tools are very important, which I've detailed earlier. Also make sure you use Dymo tape or an equivalent to go against. Finally, and this is most important - go slowly and lightly - you can always do several passes to achieve the desired depth and width.

Well I usually wouldn't post detail stuff like the following sequence of pictures, but I thought some might like to see how I solve one of only few problems with these otherwise fantastic Hasegawa Valkyries. I started by filling in the landing well with two part epoxy-putty... by the time I throw on some primer, no one will know I 'cheated'! Its a long weekend, so I hope there's a good bit of time for some more resin fun! As for the colour scheme... I've got a few I'm currently reviewing, but it will be different from Bertt's or WMCheng's, although I really quite like the latter.

Great kit, I bought two, built up one on this thread.

There are a number of tools available. A great one is Hasegawa's tritool series - got mine from HLJ. Perhaps my favourite though is shown in this thread on my VF-4 build up. Check the my posts on the first page for pics and details.

This thread will document my build-up of the Moscato/Samurai Monkey 1/72 Atmospheric Booster + Hasegawa's VF-1A I started sanding this down about... 12 months ago? And promptly gave up. I had to do some re-training first! Now, for the past week, every evening, I have been diligently re-scribing and sanding. Then first lot of paintwork. Here's the result so far. I'd like to do a big shout out to WMCheng whose build up inspired me to put sandpaper to resin and get cracking. Also to Rob and John for getting this kit off the ground. This is my very favourite Macross kit, and it alone re-ignited my interest in modelling after a 10 year hiatus. I'll update this thread every weekend until the beast is finished. The following pics shows the transition from raw resin to plenty of sanding, polishing, primer, gloss black and Alclad II. Later on it will be weathered. Hopefully the pics get better as we go along!

Dammit I just got an email from them for shipping, amongst other things, PE Valk set... grrrrr! If I'd just waited!

I agree. My previous experience in Bandai has been very disappointing. And then a few days ago I put together their Swordfish 2 and was pleasantly surprised at what a great kit it was. So let's not be too hasty to judge... we can only hope the 1/72 scale chosen is an indication they have no wish to annoy the Hasegawa series model builders... which should have other implications for quality.

On and off the bench, all in a weekend's work. More pics here: Samurai Monkey Forum - Gallery

winterdyne that's a phenomenal build. I demand a thread with pics, lots of juicy pics!

I guess you usually build Gundam snap-kits? Most mecha kits I have bought in the past 10 years require glue. I don't think I've ever bought a mecha kit that didn't need glue... Anything that actually 'transforms' is suspect as a model kit in my book, it should just have been made as a toy. Model kits just don't usually deal well with repeated handling.

The F-15 is a pretty solid starting point, mainly because it was the fighter Kawamori based the design on! The nose is pretty much bang-on, you will just need to smooth over and rescribe. Cockpit's good, and not too much work on the intakes. Behind them it's going to get interesting. I was thinking of doing this myself, actually, but have too many kits in the pile first. I can't wait to see what you do with this project, Cokefiend!

Make sure you post pics. I built this kit 10 years ago now - very poorly. Lost it, and never thought I would be able to do it again, I'm really looking forwards to receiving mine.

I'm lucky enough to have met Mamoru Oshii at a film festival a few years back. Very charistmatic nice guy, and got a lot of laughs, even through a translator. But a lot of his film underwhelm me, really hit and miss, in my opinion. Moments of poetry... and moments of yawndom.

Halleluja!

Well, I'm pretty happy. In fact I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to get my hands on these. I know Hasegawa > Bandai, but to be honest, if the detail is lacking, it's just an excuse to spend a bit more time on them making them up. Technology has changed between now and 'then', and I'm hoping that the end result will be sharp. These sculpts look like they still have the steps in them from the CNC mill, so we are certainly not seeing final results yet. I can't wait to see them.

Wow! Does that cannon fire anything?

Man, who the hell is 'Valkyriemaker' on ebay? They've been winning all the auctions on rare macross resin I've been bidding on...!

Thanks for sharing the pics of your build-up. I really like the colour scheme too.

Cool8or, these posts are one of the reasons I come to this forum, to see the coolest models built up. Thank you so much for sharing these great pics with us. The only thing I would say is that stand does not do the Vf-4 justice, but I note that it's only temporary. Beautiful work. And I am very jealous of that Cat's Eye, I've always wanted one...