Gerwalker

I really like the monster in 1/100... the only one I have is that from the pencil sharpners. I wonder how they would avoid HG doing the same thing than Lucas. Macross is a really good choice for them but I was about to send them an email asking for Invader Zim spaceship models (some of the Irken ships could be put into a Macross series almost seamlessly... )

007-vf1, Yor fleet looks good! I wonder how do you managed to reshape the Britaii ship's stern. Cut and reshape it with epoxy clay? The Maltran ship is an scratch built?

Seems like I did not pay attention... If this thing comes with missiles I will be very happy, wait, today is 28!!! waiting for the HLJ message!!!

Excellent work. You put life on that squarish model!! That's the best Mospeada model I've seen.

what's that about? any details? It's from the classical Hsegawa accesories series. Here is a link to the one I bought recently (it is not specifically Macross related but it is great for dioramas): HLJ: ground equipment set Now is on backorder but they still have the loading set (ideal for dioramas showing an aircraft -Valkyrie!!! - being loaded with bombs and missiles. They also have accesories in 1/48 ideal for a 1/48 Yammie.

Ohhh! newca found it... the gun pod!!!! About ordenance: The hase kits are really good. I have all of them in 1/72 except the pilots and van. Good thing is that as the Macross weapons set the missiles and bombs sets come in pairs. I've recently bought a set of ground equipment from hlj. It is a beauty. It comes with wires and cables to reproduce the hoses and cables of the real thing, some groudn crew figures, decals for the instruments and even a tool drawer that can be made opened with the tiny tools inside!! An for only 500yens!!

Oh no! The whole 27 lost!!! I've lost an important meeting (or two...) My boss just came from vacation, the sky is falling on my head !! Did Hase released one of their special calendars (without certain days)? I will need one asap. Seriuosly: Valkyrie, you mean FAST PACKS??? I see no other difference (aside from the obvious clear canopy) EDIT: I forget the pilot!!

They are small as pfunk said. Don't remember the proper names and I'm to lazy to check in the main MW site but here is a brief description and opinion: The Britaii's ship is awfully out of proportion. I have that kit for years and never figured out how to make it look better. If you are not an scratch builder: DON'T BUY IT!!! Kamjin ship is OK. It has to parts: the orbiter and atmospheric part. Landing craft: is fine, just the capsule shape parts protrude a lot. Cruiser: fine, it has some shape issues but nothing compared with Britaii's ship... All these kits come with a small SDF-1 (less than an inch long) and a base. I tried to make a diorama with the SDF-1 punching the cruiser (Deadalus attack) but got tired trying to transform the tiny SDF-1 into storm attack mode (Robot) They are very easy to paint (in almost all the case: green+color details) Most of these zentran ships could be build using two parts epoxy clay and patience since they look very organic.

We don't support bootlegs here!! but... if somebody knows about a bootleg Gold Book please tell us asap!!!!! I'd love to have one!! There are excellent PM and Macross Design bootlegs, WHY NOT A GOLD BOOK!!!! HeyThat is just a marketing question, not that I support bootlegging at all!!

but I wanna watch the angry monkey channel Gir: -It's broken!! I think the marzoids destroyed it... The angry monkey channel rules!!

I'm sure this is the reason:

Very nice!! Well done! I think that this scheme is more interesting than the M+ one.

Valkyrie, Not at all. Let me correct you: Tinplate (not Tin) is the thing most of the tin cans are made of. It is a ferromagnetic material since it is made from a thin steel plate covered by tin (chemical symbol Sn) The steel is a carbon steel -Fe+ ~0.1% C- and thus ferromagnetic (some stainless steels are not ferromagnetic)

Thanks a lot Shaloom! (are you the famous mexican Macross guru?)

Hey RTHK, Thanks a lot for those great scans!! I have those pics but in low res (I would like to have the Gold book!!) As William said the magnets can go inside the model considering how powerful they are. Valkyrie:As for having ferromagnetic plates you can cut tinplate very easily both with scisors or a cutter. Tinplate can also be sanded. Tin can lids ussually have a flat part that could be useful. I ussually cut a lot of this material at work even tinplate without tin!!

Oh I love those magnets. My source: old hard disks and cd players. The hard disk have big ones, flat but curved in the part that moves the reading/writing arm. The Cd players often have small square ones in the lenses control (inside the box that contains the laser and lens) Btw: those cd player lenses are great for model details, from sensors to missiles lens. Check here: Rare earth magnets If you don't have old hard disk and cd players (I get a lot of them from a PC repair store, they have a lot of them since they through them away when burnt) you can buy them here: Amazingmagnets

Good thing is that you tried it!! Maybe the problem is air entraped preventing the epoxy to reach the head part. Try open the mold by making a cut so you can paint all the internal surface with epoxy. If you are using a clear silicone it is easier to spot if the epoxy covers everything. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. I've been using this technique for years now and it needs some practice but it works!!

That's great Devin!! keep posting!!

Except if they are the non-fog cyanoacrilate (CA) glue type (a.ka. super glue). Yes, David, there are non-fog CA suitable for clear parts. Check here: look for Poly Zap glue or here: Super-Gold and Super-Gold+

Oooops!! The magic of the admin editing posts (my previous thread now is part of a more complete and full of info new thread !! ) Good work! Any idea about the size (i.e. scale ) of the mechas? I've seen the mission 1 set and they seem to be in 1/144 scale.

I've just oredered a box from HLJ, the QR looks interesting. Any idea of the scale?? Link to HLJ Bandai Macross 3rd mission

THANK YOU for the McGuyver's method of re-casting! Very cool! What was the biggest piece you item you had re-casted using this method? Any other methods for cheapo casting? Maybe a new thread is needed! Thank you again. Not at all!! As for the biggest part I re-casted: I like small model kits so I've never try a real big thing. The biggest part though was a tip holder from an atomic force microscope (believe me!!) It was just 7x4cm and 1 cm thick at most (not big at all!!). I needed a non conductive replica of the one we used at the labopratory for an experiment I wanted to do. Buying one from our supplier in the states was very expensive and time consuming (and I did not know if it would even work...) So I just copy the original using the method I told before but in that case I poured liquid epoxy resin from Araldite. Maybe the problem with bigger molds would be that you need more silicon in order to make the mold hold it's shape. But there is a way...I've seen a craftsman making really big molds (he reproduces old wall ornaments, go figure!!) He covered the ancient ornaments with a 3-4 mm thick silicon layer (of course he used a mold release agent) and then he cover it with gauze (you know that fabric for the wounds) to make it toughter and repeated the process until he has a ~1cm thick silicone mold. After the silicone cured he placed the mold with the ornamente in into a box and poured plaster (another chep stuff). When solid the plaster holds the mold!! The guy used concrete as the filler... Maybe we can start a new topic about this in the how to model section.

Grayson, Nope. The epoxi glue doesn't adhere onto the silicon rubber once cured but if you want to play safe put some mold release agent into the mold. In fact it is very difficult to adhere the silicon rubber with glues in general. Super Glue can glue silicon rubber, in fact I used super glue to repair a broken mold. Here is another tip: For some parts the cocoon system doesn't work and you need to make a to parts mold. Here is how (again using El Cheapo system): Make a small slab of plasticine or the like (you know that stuff kids like to play with) Fix your part on the plasticine in a way that roughly half of it is immersed into the plasticine. You can make some alignment guides by just poking the plasticine around the part with a small rod or somthing like that. Cover the part and the plasticine with your mold release agent (dish washing liquid) Cover the part and the plasticine with the silicon sealer (make a 3 or 4 mm thick layer) Wait for a day or so and remove the first half of your mold. Carefully remove your part from the plasticine and put it into the first half of the mold. Cover the inside of the first part of the mold and the exposed part with the release agent. Here you may want to leave part of the edges of the mold without release agent (I will explain it later) Cover the inside of the first part of the mold and the exposed part with the silicon sealer, wait another day... Remove your part from the mold and fill it with the epoxi glue of your choice!! Leaving part of the edges of the mold without release agent will allow you to make a clamshell-type mold (the first part of the mold adheres with the second part in the spots without release agent making a hinge) As I said this is very easy to do and for small parts is really good. You may need some practise mainly to avoid bubbles with the epoxi glue but you can figure it out. Nowadays I'm using dental silicon rubber (expensive!!) that cures in a few seconds but is not very tough -tends to breake easily- but it is great for making just one or two copies. Ranger565: The original question was about the YF-21 pilot which is very simple to copy with this method. For the TV pilots there is no a good source at all. The old Imai pilots are very small and not detailed for the scale (1/72) I did copy the Hase DYRL pilots and put one of them into a Yamato VF-1, looks very well (even if the scale is not correct) I'm considering to make the Hase pilots stand up to put them outside the models.

Hey guys, recasting those little pilots it's a piece of cake. You can do it by yourself. You need just very simple and cheap stuff: 1. Silicone rubber sealer (that paste with a vineager smell- clear one is better). 2. Dish washing liquid. 3. Ten minutes hardening two-parts epoxi glue (grey is better) 4. Toothpicks. 5. Patience. This is the idea (I use this technique very often while modelling): Remove the pilot from the sprue and attach his back to a plastic rod or a toothpick (you can use just a tad of super glue, you can remove it later) Cover the pilot with the dish washing liquid (you can diluted a little bit if need it) You don't need to soak it, just a very thin layer of detergent is enough (this is your mold release agent!! ). Now, this is the trickiest part: cover your pilot with the silicone ruber sealant, just three or four milimiters thick layer is enough. Try to avoid the formation of bubbles on the surface of the part you are cloning (the clear silicone allows you to see any bubble touching the pilot surface). You have to make a cocoon around the part. If you soak one of your finger in the dish washing liquid you can level the silicone rubber and even modified the shape of the cocoon if needed. Let it harden for a day or so. When the mold is hard depending on the part shape you can either remove the part from the mold or cut the mold (just make a cut with an X-acto knife or something simmilar enough to remove the part) Mix enough of the two parts epoxi glue to fill the mold and fill it with it!! (just be carefull to cover the mold surface with it and avoid bubbles: the toothpicks are useful here) Wait more than the recommended 10 minutes and extract your new pilot from the mold!! These molds are good enough for making several copies of the part. Just try it and have fun!!

The strap could be used as the real life straps in sub-machine guns are used: as a third arm to hold the gun in a more stable way (very useful when running) . But the VF-1 is a robot so I imagine it can handle the gun better than humans.