Valkyrie

< sigh >... It always pains me to read these threads... Rosario was indeed a respectable member of MW. Very much so, in fact. And he continued to be right up until the end, when he hit upon some very hard times. And due to a case of very bad timing, this happened at a time when he had several outstanding orders. The Rosario I knew was one of the most honorable people I've ever met. I'm positive that he made every effort to fill those orders. And I'm also sure that he lost quite a bit of sleep himself when he was unable to. I don't know the details of his situation, but I do know that he was unemployed, living on his own, and supporting a wife and daughter. And that was before he was in a nasty car crash that put him and his wife in the hospital. That was probably about a year ago. I'd really like to know how he's doing today. We were the best of friends, and even I haven't heard from him since that last post of his. Where ever he is, I just hope he's alright... I offered once before to fill Rosario's oustanding orders myself, and that offer still stands. But at this point, I'm fairly certain everyone would rather have their money back... And I can't do much to help on that end

Using a slide card wouldn't damage the motor. It would damage the gearbox of the tray eject mechanism. Forcefully ejecting the try would put undue stress on that assembly of gears, which it was not designed to withstand.

I've got a 1/72 XB-70 Valkyrie I want to build one of these days, and it has raised panel lines too. My plan for them is to scribe in new panel lines alongside the existed raised lines. Then wen I'm done, I'll shave off the original lines with a modeling chisel. It should work... in theory, anyway...

I finally managed to get at the message board. It's pretty small, only 226 posts to date. And I haven't been able to find out anything about the missing Valkyries There's a few posts that mention the YF-19, but the other three aren't mentioned at all (it has a search engine, thank god). If anyone wants to investigate further (and hopefully knows more japanese than myself), PM me and I'll get you my login. It'll save you a whole lot of effort )

I can see why you'd think it would be cool to have it with english dialog... But good god are you ever wrong

If that's true, then there's going to be a long wait for volume 2... They haven't even announced a release date for the R2 DVD of episode 4 yet...

I was going to buy the R1 DVDs anyway, of course... But the limited edition thing sounds pretty cool! But I wonder how many episodes will be on the discs (only 3 eps of 5 are out now)

I just finished digging the old PS1 dual analog joystick out of the attic (this one) I had bought it years ago solely because VF-X1 supported it. But, much to my dissapointment, it isn't compatible with the PS2 game Which is a real shame... because I'm convinced that it would be the perfect controller for this game! We all know that battroid and gerwalk modes are nearly impossible to fully control because you'd have to use both analog sticks AND the buttons. It's physically impossible. But the dual analog joystick has the L and R buttons on the left stick, and everything else on the right stick. Just about everything you need would be at your fingertips! The trigger is square (gunpod), the right thumb button is O (missiles), and X and triangle are the left thumb and pinky buttons (thrust and brake). On the left stick, L1 and R1 (yaw) are the left and right thumb buttons, and L2 and R2 (transform) are the trigger and pinky buttons. Not an entirely perfect arrangement, but I think it'd be fairly ergonomic. I can see only two flaws with this scheme... The big one is that there's no L3 button (necessary to go down in battroid mode). Also, it would be better if the left and right sticks were swapped. It'd be a little akward using the left stick as the primary one (though you'd be able to use the right as the primary in battroid mode) If I had a spare PS2 pad lying around, I'd be tearing this thing apart right now, swapping the electronics to make it a PS2 controller.

Wow, three original Newtype Treads... And a few of mine too But what are those three in the brown boxes?

If I'm not mistaken, pretty much all of his kits except the Cat's Eye have been recasted by either Hobbyfan or E2046. And the Cat's Eye seems to be the one everyone wants most anyway... But it's a very big kit with some rather complex molds. The only thing more complex I've seen is the 1/72 Mave Yukikaze. If I were to recast it (a big 'if'), I'd need to get the whole three-part-mold technique down (I know the concept, but I've never done it), and I'd have to get a bigger pressure chamber to accomodate those big-ass molds. Otherwise, there'd be a lot of air bubbles in the casts. Plus I'd need to figure out how to cast in metal, and make a rather large investment in mold material and resin. It would be neither a cheap nor easy project to take on. So I really don't see it as a viable means of recouping the lost money.

Oh god... I had no idea the Tanmen situation was THIS bad! If I'm not mistaken, the models that were not shipped in the first wave were all kits he wasn't completely done building the masters of. He said they'd be finished shortly, but this obviously has not been the case. If you've been to his web page at all recently, you'll see that he's been working on tons of other projects, most of which are unrelated to Macross. Which would be fine... if he hadn't taken $1000+ worth of orders for models he hasn't finished and isn't even working on. This is why I've never taken pre-orders (especially pre-paid ones) for any of my projects. If there were delays, and I wasn't able to finish them in a reasonable amount of time... I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

'Fraid not... I'm still anxiously waiting to see some of them built up

It's the enemy's jet fighter, not the turboprop one. But GP made 1/72 kits of both. After about a year of searching on Yahoo Japan, the two kits finally turned up on Yahoo Japan a couple months ago. I managed to get the Lonkeer for a decent price (a bit under $100, i think), but I got outbid on the the Suchilado (the turboprop one). It went for around $200 Also, the GP 1/72 soft vinyl Honneamise rocket kit, in an equally rare Yahoo Japan appearance, sold for $300 last week! And yea, I love the design also. It's like a japanese world war II plane, with a sci-fi twist. The casts are indeed a bit rough, but it's definitely workable. I just don't like the vacuum formed bay doors much... Cockpit detail is pretty minimal. But it doesn't matter much, because most of the canopy gets painted.

That would be the 1/72 Lonkeer from Wings of Honneamise, by General Products. Another kit that took me forever to find http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/P1010058.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~valkyrie2036/mw/P1010059.JPG

And, everything else:

And my Gunbuster kits... I spent a loooong time searching for some of these kits

My turn this is JUST about all the resin kits I've got, not including recasts. No injection kits either. For starters, here's the Macross kits:

Your confidence is appreciated, Batou I'm thinking if I did it, I'd break it up into three sets. The base VF-11 fighter as one kit, then the FAST Pack and booster rockets as add-on kits. That way you only're not paying for lotsa parts you don't want/need. Kinda like the VF-4's gerwalk parts set (even though that was a dismal failure ) But like I said before, no pressure, Jessee. I've got a few Tect kits to keep me busy for a while anyway

Thanks, but no thanks, Sully. The one I want to do is the Club-M. I think it's a better looking kit. Plus I want those rockets

No need to press the issue, LTSO. There's still hope

What makes you think that the VF-11MAXL Kai is based primarily on the VF-16? We haven't seen the Non-Kai (custom) VF-11MAXL either

I'd definitely be up for a VF-11 recast project! All I need is for someone to loan me an original

The Club-M has never been recast. And originals are rare as hell. I've been looking for one for months, and still nothing Hobbyfan had one for sale a couple years ago, but it was the Retpuu 1/72 fighter. Like the Club-M, it comes with optional fast packs, but it doesn't come with the solid fuel rockets like the club-m does. Plus, I think the club-m is a much better looking kit all around. I seems doubtful that Hasegawa will turn its attention to the VF-11 anytime soon, unfortunately... They'll be busy with Macross Zero for a while. No, wait.... That's not a bad thing And yes, I was also surprised that Hasegawa made a YF-19 kit. It seemed very unlike them to make a kit which had so few variants (The VF-19F/S is a very different beast)

Woo!! Gotta love the valk girls! Let's see one of a MAXL!

Geez... 120+ posts and noone's mentioned the XB-70 Valkyrie?? I've loved that thing ever since I first saw it at the Dayton Air Force Museum. Very cool looking, and absolutely enormous. And the fact that it's the namesake of the VF-1 makes it pretty cool too To give you an idea how big it is, I have a 1/72 model of it, and it's 3 feet long! One of these days, I want to build it in a UN Spacy color scheme and make it a VF-1 carrier craft Some other favorites of mine are the SR-71, P-38, and, if we're not limiting this to real-life planes, then just about anything from Yukikaze