Valkyrie

Thanks guys It's about 12" wide, 14" long, and 13" tall (not including the straws). That makes it about 1/2.5 scale If I ever do this sort of thing again, I'll go for full scale And Carl, I would have put it in the front yard, but I'm sure it would have gotten trashed by all the kids walking past it on thier way to school this morning

A few hours ago, I was out shoveling the driveway. At midnight. I had put it off a bit too long. Somewhere during that process, I got to thinking "Hey, this is really good snow. I should do something with it." Not long after that, I got to thinking "Ya know, it's been far too long since I did something wacky." (anyone remember my ice Tread Armo-Fighter? ) So anyway, I decided to try sculpting something out of snow. Both for fun, and to finally put my sculpting skills (or lack thereof) to the test. As much as I want to scratch-build stuff, I've never really tried diving in and doing something like this. After a bit of contemplating, I settled on a VF-1S head. A bit of a lofty goal, since it is a rather difficult shape to get right. But I wasn't about to be a perfectionist in this project. So, arming myself with a few crude sculpting tools (a 12" steel ruler ended up doing most of the work), a hastily assembled Hasegawa VF-1S battroid head, and a Hase fighter mode S head, still on the sprues, I went out into the back yard to see what I could accomplish. I've got a few progress pics, but I won't bore you with them (unless you actually want to see them). Here's what I ended up with, two hours later. Conclusions: - It seems I might have some degree of sculpting talent after all! - The VF-1S head is just about the hardest thing on earth to sculpt accurately. - Snow is an excelent sculpting medium. - Drinking straws make rather unconvincing head lasers. But they'll work in a pinch, provided you cover any red stripes on them with white spraypaint.

Heh, the first fansubs should be out on my birthday, May 30th That shall be a most excelent birthday present.

ooh, good thread.... hard to choose a top three though.... 1) 1/72 VF-17 2) 1/72 VF-5000 3) 1/72 Stampede Valkyrie (a Hase conversion kit, perhaps?) I'd also like to see kits of more Macross ships (besides the Macross itself). Like an ARMD or Battle 7, maybe.

Awesome movie. I had a fansub of it back in the day, and years later, I got the japanese LD (fortunately, I've never been subjected to the dub). It never fails to impress me. The Chun-Li fight is absolutely incredible. And yes, the music rocks. I've still got an SM bootleg of the soundtrack around here somewhere

I had hoped to have it done by now, but I'm behind schedule... real life stuff's been getting in the way <_< But most of that is behind me now. So I'm shooting to have it done sometime next week.

FYI, the VF-0 is now in stock at Hobby Search (www.1999.co.jp) and Rainbow Ten (www.rainbowten.co.jp). I've dealt with both of them in the past, and they're both reliable companies. So have at em I just canceled my HLJ order and ordered one from Rainbow Ten. With EMS shipping, of couse. I'm sooo anxious to get that thing

Yep, I did too. I really hope the problem is just that they're taking thier time getting shipping notices out... cause I'm gonna be pretty pissed off if I don't get mine.

Well, HLJ finally got em in... and they're backordered already! And it looks like I'm not getting mine

A few of his other masterpieces.... http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS452 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS440 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS458 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS414 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS416 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS412 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS408 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS409 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS410 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS412 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS415 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS417 Who knew HLJ had such great porn!

Not all... but certainly all the ones by this OverDard guy http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?KRS459 And yes, he's the guy who sculpted the Sara kit...

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!! The gunpod was already mentioned, so, no I'm surprised no one else noticed it. Look at the air intakes. They're completely solid. Also, the wing roots on the fuselage are solid, such that the wings can't pivot. So it looks to me like it's some sort of mock-up, most likely CNC machined, with less detail than the final kit would have. Also notice that the antenna-lookin' thing sticking out of the nose is more detailed on the final kit.

Well, yes and no. The VF-0 has been seen with at least one 'real' missile, the AIM-120. Possibly a real drop tank also. But it's also been seen with at least 3 weapons that don't really exist. I'm still contemplating scratch-building them for a VF-0 weapon set

You've got all of them but one It's the one big difference between the production kit and the mock-up we've seen up until now. And yes, it does come with both a pilot and FAST packs (as seen in the first picture)

Holy crap, it IS the 28th! Says so on Hasegawa's page! http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/VF/65715/65715.html And BTW, those are the first pics of a finished production kit! Can you spot the differences between them and all the older pics (including the ones on HLJ)?

As far as I know, the only mass produced FMP mecha kit ever made was one of the Arbalest, by a company called Romu. http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?RMURSR-01

I just started using Azureus recently, and I'm lovin' it. It's by far the best I've seen in terms of information, options, and download management.

Woohoo! The Bandai 1/144 VF-11C kits are back in stock at HLJ!! http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?BAN46230 For all you who are planning on getting one of my Full Armor recasts, you're gonna need one of these. So get em while you can

Ah, good point! I'd forgotten about those connection point decals. Actually, you're right in that it's intended to be built further forward. But the spacing is all wrong, and they're too spread out, so the claws end up falling on the outside of those connection points. And the rear one falls on the vernier nozzle, which makes no sense. I may just have to do some more scratch building to fix those proportions.... And thanks for those pics, RTHK! I didn't have a few of those. And thanks for the tin tip, Gerwalker. I didn't know tin was ferromagnetic (I think that's the term I'm looking for, anyway ) But I'm still thinking I won't use the whole magnetic claw idea. Its purpose seems overly redundant to me. But if you really want to use them in the kit you build, there wouldn't be much stopping you from incorperating it. That's one of the great things about resin kits. Kit-bashing them is easy

I'm not sure how realistic the idea of using magnets to grip the boosters is... First, the rear claws attatch to the very rear part of the upper booster, and there's no clearance between the booster wall and the nozzle assembly. And even if it wasn't, a magnet there would still be exposed on a finished kit. Unless maybe it was mounted in the booster housing... hmm... Second, the metal plates in the claws are a good idea. That'd work... but I have no means of cutting or machining pieces of steel (or some other magnetic metal) like that. And besides, the forces of the magnets on the claws would be so strong with rare earth magnets, that you'd likely snap off a claw or two in the process of removing the Valkyrie. Maybe if some weaker magnets were used instead though... But in any case, I'm thinking a single pair of rare earth magnets to connect the arm to the backpack would be sufficient. And here's a quick pic of (more or less) how the claws fall into place. Made from a few hastily assembled recast parts, and held together with clay.

Hey, that 'traffic light' is a really good idea Don't worry about the metal reinforcing of the arm. I've got a cheap and effective solution in place for that And yea, I'd like to avoid having to drill holes in the kit too. It may be necessary, it may not. We'll see. I was checking out the super valk that I built a while back, and the backpack joint is a bit stronger than I remembered. But not a lot. There's actually a third point you can glue to help secure them together. I'm kinda wondering if another pair of rare earth magnets between the backpack and fuselage would help make it more sturdy. There'd be a decent size gap between them, but like WM said, those things are crazy strong And I've gotta say, the more I think about the idea of using magnets to connect the arm to the backpack, the more I'm liking it. All of the concerns I've had have been laid to rest. The Valkyrie won't be rotate, using the magnet as a pivot point, because the claws will stabilize it. And the Valkyrie will still be able to be removed, because the claws don't actually grip the boosters anywhere, So you'll just be able to slide the valk off the arm to release it (that'd be much easier than pulling it directly off). But I don't know where to get rare earth magnets that small yet. It'd have to fit in a piece that's about 0.3" square. Anyone have any sources?

Situations like that make recasting a very useful set of skills to have

Sounds like Ultra Magnus to me.

I had to laugh when I saw this... Hope it wasn't anyone here who bought it! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=3169707338 It got me wondering too... were a lot of the small parts broken off the racks when you guys got yours? I could have made the gates wider and/or added more of them to keep the parts from breaking off in shipping. In fact, most pro companies do that. But I made relatively small, in order to minimise the necessary clean-up work.

Well, it's Jan. 20th now (4pm in japan, at the moment), and the Hasegawa VF-0S still isn't in stock at HLJ, Hobby Search, or Rainbow Ten... How much longer will I have to wait...? The suspense is killing me... But I should be gettin my resin kit of The Bebop in a few days, so hopefully that'll tide me over a bit And Graham, how 'bout those scans?