Valkyrie

That's looking really good, LTSO. The scratchbuilt head looks great. Though technically, you should have also made a DYRL style 'antenna' to replace the TV type one that the kit comes with. It probably wouldn't be too tough to make one from a piece of sheet styrene. So if you want to go for that last bit of accuracy, you could probably bust off the old one and replace it fairly easily.

It wouldn't be that easy. You'd have to... -build two backpack assemblies, and devise a system of interchanging them -build two sets of legs, and likewise make them interchangable (between the differently positioned legs and the intake shutters, there will be no other way) -hinge the fuselage hatch (it has to be lowered when the FAST Packs are on) -Make the arm packs removable So a project like that would require two kits for all those parts. Not to mention a whole lot more effort than I think it'd be worth.

Nah, they're pretty similar, actually. Just new wings, tailfins, canards, head, and a few other additions / replacements. Seems to me that the VF-0B is sort of a stepping stone kit to the VF-0D kit. It's got the nose, cockpits, and head of the D. So Hasegawa will just have to make one more rack of parts and the VF-0D kit will be complete.

okay.... as much as I love both Macross Zero and Yukikaze.... we really don't need another lame 'my mech can beat up your mech' versus thread. They've been done to death in the past, and I think we've all moved beyond them. I'd like to think so, anyway...

I don't think I've seen a joint like that... but if all else fails, just get two B-Joints (Wave's ever-versatile ball joints) and glue them to gether, perhaps with a spacer in between them. B-Joints are great, but they tend to be a little on the weak side. They can't support a lot of weight. If you need something stronger, I'd go with these Yellow Submarine ball joints instead. They're made of a hard plastic, and are quite stiff. http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?YLS40101

. . . wow.

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. errr... super glue doesn't melt plastics. Styrene cement does. This includes Testors' and Tamiya's cements. Super glues form a very strong bond, but they leave the part underneath it, plastic or otherwise, completely unscathed. But, of course, the stuff's rather dificult to remove. Styrene cement, on the other hands works scrictly by melting plastics. The theory is that you apply it to two pieces of plastic, stick 'em together, and when the glue dries (un-melting the plastic), the plastic of the two parts fuse together. But now, even if you were talking about using styrene cements to glue magnets to a 1/48's plastic parts (which wouldn't work), it still wouldn't melt the plastic enough to have a noticeable effect on a reassembled valk. You'd have to use a LOT of the stuff and leave it sit for a good long time for it to melt through enough plastic to distort the outside of the part. I suppose all that is a long way of saying 'your concerns are entirely unwarranted'

Simple. If a game's bad but it still sells well, then they can afford to pay the jacked up royalties But if it's a bad game and it sells miserably... best believe that company's gonna be losing their ass.

I never liked that pseudo-katakana font... But otherwise they look pretty cool.

I hit up two stores hoping to get a copy of AC3, but neither had it. And at both stores, the only game tagged at $4.99 was Everquest (which isn't even on the list). But at the second store, I managed to pick up Parappa 2 for $5, even though it was still tagged at $30.

Ouch again... Is there any way you can recover your molds from your caster? Hell, you paid for em. And I'm sure he's not the only one who can cast from them.

Ouch... very sorry to hear that, Rob As for the molding and casting.... I offered once to take the job when you were having problems with your last caster. That offer still stands

The only fighter mode kit was the 1/144 Yellow Sub kit. You're probably thinking of the 1/72 VA-3 Invader (which I'm still desperately trying to find).

Wow, that's pretty damn cool! Thanks for posting an image that isn't so dark

Indeed. Sadly, the 1/100 SHE kit is the biggest VF-5000 kit that's been made to date.

That's an extremely impressive sculpting job so far! But I don't think I have to tell you that those castings are pretty bad... Resin casting isn't exactly something you can just jump into and expect good results right away. It takes a good deal of experience to get good at it. Looking back, my casts were pretty rough for the first two years I was doing it. (Though I progressed a lot faster once I had access to better information and better equipment) But here are a few tips to help you get a better start; - Follow Fulcy's guide. It's a good start, using tried and true methods. Even what I do is just variations upon those ideas. And I've been refining my technique for quite a while now. - Use a thin, fairly slow curing resin. The stuff I use has a 7 minute pot life (time until it starts thickening) and 1 hour demold time. I find it to be adequate time for just about anything. And forget the clear stuff. That stuff's such a pain, I only use it on parts that absolutely have to be clear. - With conventional casting techniques, air bubbles are inevitable. Even if you get the molds completely filled. But you can help eliminate them with pressure casting. A pressure casting setup is the first equipment investment most beginning casters make. It's relatively inexpensive (under $200, including an air compressor), and can eliminate air bubbles completely, if your mold is designed well. It works by pressurizing the mold and the resin inside it. Under pressure, the small air bubbles compress to the point where they almost don't exist. The resin cures, trapping the air in its compressed state, and the result is no more air bubbles. But pressure casting isn't exactly a 'magic bullet' that will fix all of your casting problems. If there are large air bubbles, they won't go away. And if your mold material itself has a lot of air bubbles in it, it can create a whole new set of problems also. Keep up the good work, but just don't rush into casting it. That looks like a great sculpt, and it deserves to be made into a great resin kit. Perhaps you could find someone here who could do the casting work for you, even. (Though I'd have to bow out, myself. The Monster project is keeping me plenty busy )

I just thought of something that might help you... (short of airbrushing on some milk ) It's a pastel trick I saw done a few months ago, commonly used to simulate 'whitewashing' of WW2 era planes. Get yourself some white artists' pastels (or plain white chalk might do the job too), and use a hobby knife to shave a bit off, giving you a fine powder. Then mix it well with some water, giving you almost like a very thin paint. Then get a wide brush, and brush it over the surface of the model. Give it plenty of time to dry before you do anything else to it. Once it's dry, you can mess around with it a bit to try to get the opacity you want. If it's too thin, give it another coat. If it's too thick, try rubbing some off with a rag, and/or go over it with a wet brush. Also, if the chalk isn't sticking well (and it should), try giving the parts a flat clear coat on the bare plastic before you begin. One of the nice things about working with pastels on models, is that if you mess up or just don't like the results, you can just wash it all off with water and try again So give it a shot and see if it'll work for you.

The Y-Wings are the SMT kits, which Tony was lucky enough to get before SMT got slapped with the C&D. The Ties are some resin kit Tony got at some convention. We never did find out who made them, but he said they were pretty bad. They used that super hard and brittle-as-hell resin I want to say the Tie Advanced is the AMT kit, but I'm not certain.

No lightsheet, actually. There's some blue neon rope light in the middle of the 'neck', white LEDs embedded in clear resin for the spine lights, and florescent tube lights for general ilumination in the top sections and the bottom shuttle bay. And there's a ton of fiber in there too. And yes, the whole thing was motorized, in order to make it viewable on all sides. It rotates at about 1 RPM. You can't see it in the last pic I posted, but on the other side, there's a cylinder which houses the motor and gearbox. It was a bit loud, so I molded resin foam (smooth-on's Flex Foam-It 5) around it to dampen the sound a bit. I also molded and casted all 3 types of the smaller ships (the system monitor, tug, and repair craft), in addition to all kinda of assembly, painting (priming, mostly), and clean-up work. So suffice it to say, it took a lot of time away from other projects. But now, it's full speed ahead on the monster

I've heard little about WF so far (I couldn't go because I had already comitted to staffing Anime Central), but I did hear that the Starbase project I had helped with won a gold! I was quite glad to hear that

It sure didn't go cheap... Y35,500

You can see the VF-19 whiping part of the blood from the visor with it finger leaving two parts "eyes" clear Actually, he's removing the clear protective visor which covers the eyes. It being covered in whale blood and all. Wiping wouldn't work. VF-19 fingers aren't equipped with a squeegee function

Is it just me, or was this guy determined to get as many keywords as possible into the item description? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=3192793296

For a good starter kit, I'd probably go with an Arii 1/100 VF-1 fighter mode kit. It's a small, simple, but halfway decent kit. It's one of those kits that'll look kinda crappy if you just glue it together, but if you paint the whole thing and putty up the seams, it's actually a pretty good looking kit. Or if you want to go up a level, go for the Bandai 1/72 Super Valkyrie kit. It's a bit more complicated (mainly because of the Super parts), but still a lot simpler than the Hasegawas. The first kit I ever did a halfway decent buildup on was a 1/100 Arii fighter. An old Focker VF-1S. It was molded in this light green plastic, so I had no choice but to paint the whole thing. But I'm glad they did, otherwise I would have done another half-assed build on it.

Yep, that's the one. I somehow got sucked into the whole thing It's looking really good, but there's still a lot to be done and not a lot of time to do it in. If you want to come along and help out this weekend, I'm sure you'll be quite welcome