Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0

Yes boys, a SWIMSUIT GIRL!! I was bored not wanting to do research and papers(what art major DOES?LOL) and so I tested out inking with a small micron pen and brush. Girl rendered with pen and prismacolor marker. As brought up by BoB, Exo, and I in Exo's thread we were trying to figure out how to retain the griminess of the pencils yet solidified with pen. So the girl on the beach thing is with a sakura pigment like pen with thin fine point. seeminfgly NOT pen traced over pencil which I used to do and ends up being boring. The other sketches like the face and lower section bathing suit of a woman surrounding the girl are just sketches i did with ink using brush. Inking is BEST with brush I find, depending on what u want. For real fine line skethciness, use fine tip pin but for lots of shadows and lines, use brush!! Helps if you know how to paint as well. Enjoy!

lets put it this way. GGraham was close to yamato. NOONE HERE WAS EVER CLOSE TO BANDAI! like Is aid before none of us even knew bandai was going to reissue the hikaru 1J until release was only a handful of months away. With that in mind I am sure even now none of us know what the hell bandai is doing with the licenses. I imagine the molds took some expensive restoration work and all. After all they had not been used since the mid 80s(not counting 90s reissue because parts changed and head mold was new). I am thinking bandai will reissue the bandai valks once yamato bores the market and decides to go on a temporary macross hiatus. Either that or yamato will do other things with NON VF-1 valsk which at that point bandai will reissue the good schtuff we all want. Old toys reissued DO sell well.....after all look at alll that popy and the chogokin stuff bandai gives out. That isnt the issue though, its all about timing. THe time ahead when we say "man those 1/48s ruled!!...but man bandai still....." yea i think thats when they wil reissue. I mean we all know they wouldnt be that stupid to wrek the molds now.

VERY true!!!!!! Thgey should know the whole world hates teh 1/.100 VF-0 so I forsee a financial disaster brewing. Rectified by the sale of 2 seat 1/48s!!

indeed it can, I say DITCH ATELAER SAI, CANCEL POS NPVC 1/100 VF-0 LINE ALTOGETHER, MAKE PERFECT TRANSFDORMABLE 1.48 MACROSS 0 LINE FOR X MAS, DIFVERT FUNDS FROM POS 1/100 VF-0 TO 2 SEATER 148 VF-1!! yea!!!!!!!!!!

DONE!! ENJOY!!! Added final touches and layins tonight...expect at least one more before thursday!! Thinking Roy watercolor. Mght experiment with funky effects you all might like!!

of course do not let what ecveryone says influence you al the way. after all noone knew bandai would reissue the valks back in 01, in fact noone knew till toyboxdx broke the news!!! None of us is a bandai insider sadly so this info will subside till they do another release...IF they do another one. bandai visual has nothing to do with yamato toys, bandai visual and bandai toys are totally differnet parts of the same giant.

it looks great but I agree with BoB, I lke the pencils better. I duno. Whenever I ink over mystuff it loses the intensity and life of my pencils....experimenting with scratchy loose inking tonight, will post later!! BTW my watercolor should be updated once again later too!

guys are the mastergrade strike and freedom made with ABS frames? ANd how well do they put up to play? Is it like a durable action model? If it is an ABS frame i might bite!

well my main diecast scratch comparison stems from jetfire and my reissue hikaru 1a from bandai compared to anything befgore the 1/48 tht yamato has released. HEck my 1/48 swing bar has more scatches than my bandai 1a hikaru. !!! Not sure what it is but yamato never does diecast right. 1-rqatchets are ALWAYS tightened ineffieciently. even joints...some joints are rendered useless or removable when not needed(1/60 VF-1 hips dropping, VF19A/YF19 wing roots always rotating down in ccontact with legs in effect scratching,) paint used is crap etc etc. I dont think yamato does their homework with diecxast. SOmerthing like the qrau given the price shjould have had diecast IMHO. Yamato reputedly DOES diecast good with NONtransformable things as evidenced by past members handling of the giant robo figures. When yamato was getting massive flack for the macrpss plus toys the giant robo toys were well respected and praised. So in esseense. I feel the main reason we love yamato is because they even bothered to do macross. Bandai we know, could potentially outdo yamato just like that, but hasnt boithered to. The reissues were a somewhat failed attempt to capitalize on yamato's success with the VF-1 design in the market, but it wasnt the right move, right for us bad for market as many gather dust in japan. What bandai should have done was made a chunky monkey with universal hipkjoints, missles, and internal heatshiedl and mod for gun attachement in fighter mode. Or an all new chunkey monkeyu VF-1 with modern aesthetics and articulation, diecast, durablity of 1.55, AND perfect transformation as well as cheaper price than 1/48. Then we'd REALLY haver competition. Now we have PVC POS atelaer sai VF-0. Bandai you listening? This is a GOLDEN oppurtunity for bandai to get a toy license for macross 0 and own yamato.

Modelling is all well and good if you have the skill, time and patience to master it, which I don't unfortunately . For me, model kits could never replace my love of toys for the simple reason that they are just too damn fragile. Yes a well built model will almost always look better than any toy, but unfortunately they just don't stand up to anything but the most gentle of handling. I occasionally pay to have models built (beacuse I can't paint worth a damn), but only if it's of a design I really like of which there is no toy yet. I love my three painted Hasegawa Macross models (SV-51, VF-0S & VF-22S), but I'd much prefer toys of them, as I can't enjoying handling or playing with the models as I'm in constant fear of breaking them. Actually, I don't think anybody here is saying that those who love diecast are irrational. All I'm doing is stating my reasons why I personally don't like diecast in a transforming toy. I'd definitely agree with you that the 1/48 is more durable than most people give it credit for, but I'd have to disagree that describing it as a model is more relevant than calling it a toy. In my opinion, the 1/48 is most definitely a toy as it can be played with, handled and transformed fairly roughly with little fear of breakage. The main reason my 1/55s are in storage is that I simply have no space to display them. Houses in HK are small and I only have space for 1 display cabinet. If I had a bigger house, my 1/55s would probably still be on display. As it is I prefer to display the nicer looking (IMO) Yamato Macross Plus toys, Yamato 1/60 VF-1 toys and the Yamato 1/48 VF-1 toys, which completely fill up my display cabinet. As for saving the 1/55s for my son, why is that destoying them? I don't plan to give them to him until he is old enough to appreciate them. Plus I have my own collection of 1/55 toys as well, he's not getting all of them you know I hope, I will never grow out of toy collecting. And just because a piece does not have any diecast doesn't mean it is not a toy. Personally I prefer toys that are durable and can be handled without fear of breakage. However, I do want my toys to look as accurate as possible to the source material, given the limitations of the sculptors and toolmakers skills. And with the current state of toymaking technology, it is possible for toy companies to make toys which are durable, playable and yet asthetically pleasing either with and without diecast as Yamato and other toymakers have shown us. It's just my personal experience that diecast does not always equal durability or playabilty. I hope nobody will defend me, there's certainly no need to, as I don't feel I'm being attacked. I don't know why you get the impression I don't love toys? I'm still an avid toy collector, and love toys, but for both financial reasons and space limitations, my toy collecting these days is limited to Macross. Graham Clay, I definitely agree with you with the metal and such in toys. I would LOVE to have metal in toys, but with yamato I feel the only good job they had with diecastr is with the VF11B toy, I mean mine barely has anyt scratche...compared to teh VF19A and hikaru 1/60 I got. When I hear "bandai or aoshima or max factory DIECAST!!!", I DROOL. When I hear yamato, and TRANSFORMABLE WITH DIECAST! I cringe. Yamato is too inexperienced to handle diecast well and paint it well enough to not be scratched so much and at the smae time NOT sag all the parts to oblivioun. This is where bandai shows its dominance and the root of why me, blaine, perhaps you, and many others crave a bandai chunky monkley VF-0. Especially now since yamato did the dumb thing and hired atelaer sai to sculpt the VF-0. Graham I think your plan is awesome. I felt stpid for messing up my jetfire as a child trying to mimic obotech. And for some reason, 1/60, MPC, and ultimately 1/48, I still cannot escape the lure of the bandai 1/55. Make sure your kid doesnt try to mimic robotech episodes like me....man was i dumb when i was 4. To be honest guys, (not to derail this actually has to do with what clay said), even with the 1/48, when I first opened it on x mas, I told myself, NO MORE VALKS!! THIS IS THEE ULTIMATE! And while I still believe what i said, the 1/48 hjas a lot of things that the bandai doesnt, both good and bad, More articulation, better aesthetics, BUT, ....it just lacks the solidness and durability of the 1/55. I have always been vocal about the durability of the valkyrie, the 1/48 in particular, and how paranoid I viewed many owners for being scared to play with it. But nonetheless, durable as it may be(very in my case) its just not the bandai. And even when the 1/60 and MPC, and hell ultimately the 1/48, have everything we wanted on the bandai that the bandai didnt have and more, I still find myself lured to the bandai. its crisp, fast transformation, how SOLID it is, the gloss feel...all makings of a great toy. Yamato has made strides in great efforst and its really better off pretending the atelaer sai sculpted VF-0 never happened. DIecast is awesome but if your asking whether Id want a perfect variable from yamato or bandai with diecast? make mine bandai.(those lazy shmucks!!! oh how can digimon possibly gain more appeal than a heavy ass chunkey metal VF-0 with gloss feel...DROOLS) EXO you bring up a GREAT point. God man bout time someone pointed out the flaws of masterpiece prime's alt mode in comparison to the 1/48!!

*UPDATE* Right now I don't know if I am closed to being finished, maybe I am, but I layed in a LOT of the local light colors. It looks more impressive now and it's coming together. ENjoy!!! Spent maybe close to an hour on and off on this tonight./

David what makes teh F-15K stand out? I know its for the South Koreans, and it is the newest version, how does it fair against the Su-37 and against the latest block E model USA version eagles?

Holy crap, I just sa a pic from comicon and there was an EXLCUSIVE BLACK BBI F/A-18!! Called the black skull!! Black, with marauders blue trim, BUT skull and crossbones on the tail fins AND fueselage in place of the USA stars!! too bad it was 200$ but it looked BEAUTIFUL!

how wll does it hold? W/fast packs? Will it break under pressure of the BAck packs? Have you tried FAST packs on with valk in fighter mode upside down? perhaps that is THEE ultimat test., I say try it 10 times, if it does not show any sign of breakage, we got the best BP8 till someone makes a diecast one~!!

TINY in comparison! This thing made the conquest look like an A-4!!

well with the pencil, to keep from smearing I used a mechanical pencil and emphasized my lines, I also used my kneaded eraser a LOT!(GOD that thing works wonders the likes of which are very hard to believe~!) Basically while experimenting with acrylic wash, and watercolor,and watered down acrylics, when painting over graphite, if your pencil marks are basically solidifie and such, heck even gradiation, the watercolor or watered down paint over it will SEAL the graphite in to the point where when rubbed, it does NOT smear. On line work this is good but on graditaion, it darkens your shadows....and makes them solid areas. So thats not always cool. EXO, the shadow on the top is actually from my scanner, it always does it to the side edges for some odd reason. To be honest with you guys I have not used watercolor a lot., In fact I HATED IT. However when I started college, I took some painting classes last year and experimentd a LOT with watered down acryllics. What I learned form ther ehelped me understand watercolor more, and this is my first watercolor in perhaps 5 months! Polidread, hey pare, with the bright reds, well with any color adctually, the best thing to do is NEVER paint straight from the tube, always mix your colors!! For that red I mixed in a red with a little dark green. First I painted with a mix of red and white, and then Red/green. Green is the comppliment and darkens the red a little to blood red. NEVER paint with paint straight form the tube! always mix the paint with another color!! If you paint steraight out the tube it looks crappy, and in the case of my red, if i did not mix it would look extremely watery and cheap and pink. BUT since I mixed, I got a bright beautiful red!! Been painting on and off...took class last year, high school was a wreck with anything paint. So I basically learned to paint a lot better in college, smae with pastel and such. Been drawing all my life too. Also helps that I am now a Illustration major!!

its not dude! TRu was kind of skeptical on selling this, so badcataviation stepped in to procure the release!(fromw hat I remember him saying). SO yes we are fortunate to even be seeing this thing. If you notice when has this thing made it to TRU? I hve NEVER seen it in stores and even some employees are unsure if it willl ever set foot in the store. For 87$ consider yourself LUCKY!!

HORY CLAP THAT IS BEAUTIFUR!! David what exactly did happen? Did it just do a tail slide or more high alpha? I remembver being able to pull this off in the Jane's F-15 sim. From my time in the sim, the F-15 CAN pull high alpha in turns but bleeds airspeed like a mother. Always felt like my joystick wasn't calibrated right though........ Anyt other cool things occur at farnborough?

I'm with clay and blaine, but with metal, I hate to say but if you put yamato + diecast metal + perfect variable=Loose parts/floppy limbs, and NUMERROUS PAINT SCRATCHES!! Why? yamato doent paint the diecast on thier stuff good! Hell my VF19A has more paint scrathces than my 2nd hand yelklowed, jetfire!! FOR THE price sold to the japanese market, I would LOVE a lot more diecast but my faith in yamato doing diecast RIGHT is really lacking. I am afraid it would just be a crappy mess. Now see if they were bandai yea i wouldnt have any problem they do diecast RIGHT. But this is just my opinion. I think the 1/48 costs a lot in japan due to the mass amounts of small parts utilized in teh design. Making it perfect variable does not help either! The moplds for the damn thing must be HUGE and bulky i imagine. As for the VF-0m sucking I blame it all on atelier sai!! What the hell, billy wong and nishikawa san made a parts removal design (1/60) VF-1, and it turned out looking WAY BETTER than the POS VF-0. Also yea it had its horrendous qualities but even its transformation did not have as much part swapping!! Thats GOTTA say something. Yamato really sold out when they hired atelaier sai. Now it makes me wonder why they couild not hihger nioshikawa sensei, or hell billy wong. Ya i know he wont sculpt anymore macropss but for a guy who lacks knowledge in fighter planes, he at least made PROPORTIONAL FRONT LANDING GEAR on teh macross plus toys~!! Come on yamato shape up!

Thanks BoB!! I shall post more later on! Well try to, definitely the finished one tonight!(BTW kneaded eraser does WONDERS cleaning up graphite on watercolor paper!! WONDERFUL I TELL YA!)

The Bug would be most likely inferior in terms of payload, range, sensors and i prefer side by side seating for a striker rather than tandem. A-6F is a bombtruck. And probably make a better tanker than both Superbug and S-3 Viking The Bug would be better able to defend itself although it might need to dump its ordnance before taking on anything more than a cropduster. I agreee, with all those bombs, the super bug woul have too much drag to fight someone close in WVR. If there is a unsuccesful BVR shot I gues the best thing to do would spir the strike package in portions and dump some ordanance and dogfight. In a long range strike the super bug should have at least gun ammunition, 2 sidewinders, and 2 AMRAAMs at least for self defense.

Hey guys gotta get the scanner hooked up but I am going to post my first macross watercolor painting! I made this today, raining outside and extremely bored. So within a few hours you all should be able to see it! It is hikaru flying in ta valkyrie...cockpit view. Ok some PROGRESS FINALLY!! LOL here ya go everyone!! Not done but Yea if you notice I accidentally painted onesection red instead of white.....the whole collar down the middle torso is supposed to be red but I made the mistake too late!! Anyways enjoy!

most likely trying to outturn or do split S which could use instantaneous pitch along with gaining speed through a dive. F-15's strength lies in it's power and speed. Super bug's is high alpha. I never thought of the superbug being a truly marvelous dogfighter but I am very interested on how it compares to the A-6F in the strike role.

A7 were you able to tell what kind of articulation the zeroymer and priss figures have?

hey if nishikawa san can come up with a transformation NONE of us figured out until it was finally unveiled upon graham getting the first 1/48 sample, then I am pretty sure that modding his creation wouldn't be too hard for him to pull off. He did work on some of the 1/60 line as well so the dude has experience making 2 seaters.