Lolicon

Sales figures will determine whether or not Bandai does any sort of mold milking.

Interesting technique. I might have to experiment with that. Nah I was just gonna slap a few decals and call it a day. It's @Angesdad's "premium finish" version that will be amazing!

I really like the lighting on your pics. I'm always adjusting my primitive setup to get the best light possible. I'll have to take your word for it on the gunpod as my 0D is still a pile of parts. 😁

Sweet!

She's a lovely bird indeed!

Wow that already looks great! Can't wait to see the finished product!

25G available again at HLJ. https://www.hlj.com/dx-chogokin-vf-25g-super-messiah-valkyrie-michael-blanc-s-fighter-revival-ver-bans65124

I like it a lot. It's a big weighty figure comparable to the Bandai 1/48 DX VF-1. I had no idea who this maker was but decided to roll the dice on it and was pleasantly surprised. It's solid with a fair amount of diecast. I didn't get the Sentinel version because I didn't like the way the sculpt looked. My only complaint is that getting the batteries in and out of the microscopic battery compartments is a $#@%&.

Nice work cleaning it up! Unfortunately I don't think the console decals are going to be useful. It appears Bandai decided to glue the pilots into the cockpit. Bandai just loves glopping glue everywhere, even when it's completely unnecessary Looks like typical sloppy Bandai paint app.

Over $100 more than HLJ price. PW shipping also reduces shipping costs by a lot. But only a tiny number of people had the fortune to catch the HLJ preorder.

25G PO open again. https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?scode=FIGURE-152950

VF-11 might do well as an Arcadia webshop item rather than a regular retail release. PF only of course.

I consider it the single best transforming valk toy ever made.

Still available at multiple shops. Wonder if this one will become a shelf warmer and derail any future 171 reissues.

Bandai would never release a shoddy product.

Managed to squeeze my HLJ order in right before the red order stop of death appeared.

Yeah you have to apply a layer of clear acrylic over the printed decals and let it set before they're ready to use. I'm not at home atm but I'll post it later. LOL!

Glossy finish is fine for commercial/civilian aircraft like Basara's. I prefer the flatter finish for military aircraft. In toy form, matte all the way. That glossy finish really makes valks look cheap. (Unless photographed just right like the above pic.)

Printed them myself. HMR is non-scale so I used the Arcadia VF-0D as a reference on how big the decals should be relative to the aircraft. Even then I still had to upscale them slightly to make them look right. It reminded me of Yamato's 1/3000 SDF-1. Instead of doing a straight scale down of their 1/2000 kit, Yamato had to make some tweaks to the SDF-1 to make it look "right" at the smaller scale. Much less pixelization scaling down vs scaling up.

Decals are tiny at this scale...

Slightly cleaner copy for ya. (Dusted off the scanner first)

Old glossy still looks pretty good!

Alto's unit preceded the CF release so Bandai should have known better. They cheaped out or contracted it out to a different factory or something.

Yeah, though I'll need to clean them up and scale them down to whatever HMR scale is supposed to be. I just use an inkjet printer to make decals, though it's more limited compared to a real decal printer. The insides of the kites are indeed clear. Since it's a model kit, I'm guessing they probably wanted people to have the option of painting it to whatever they like and using the clear insides to match the color of the aircraft.

Wait, people actually read the instructions that come with their valks?