Lolicon

Does anyone know what color the discs on the ankle section is supposed to be on Ozma's? I can't tell from any pics if it's supposed to be the same as the grey on the main fuselage, or the lighter grey (almost white) seen on other parts. I'm guessing it's the lighter grey, but wanted to be sure.

The armored is so heavy that the SMS stand can barely hold it up and feels like it could tip over at any time (in fighter mode). I think they're adding weights to the SMS base in those Hobby Japan scans!

Okay, so I'm about done with the test assembly of my Armored VF-25S. I don't know what the Super parts were like, but there's quite a bit of parts scrapage involved, which does not bode well for decals. The worst is sliding the armored plate onto the back. That part fits pretty tight and scrapes pretty hard; it'll probably take the skull emblem decal clean off, I'm afraid. Deciding what colors to paint this baby now.

A translation of the modeling tips would be most appreciated. Those models look incredible and clearly a lot of effort went into them from some skilled modelers... yet they always neglect to paint the underside of the lerx. And Alto's "mouth" is always wrong too. Not a big deal, I just always see these things.

Argh looks like the forums screwed up and deleted my post. Those scans rock! Love the Quarter. I hope Bandai releases a kit of it. Some useful modeling tips too. I like how they cut up the shoulder decals to apply them. What is the guy doing for the canopy frame? Using some kind of white tool to remove the excess paint?

Hmmm wish I could help you aith airbrush specifics, but I don't even own an airbrush as of yet. Still contemplating if I spend enough time on this hobby to justify the cost. However, when I spray or hand paint something, I usually don't worry too much about the finish being glossy or flat, since I end up putting several layers of semi-gloss clearcoat anyway. I don't have the VF-25G kit yet, but maybe Gundam Blue will be a good match? http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZJG02

On the head unit I put red paint directly onto the red plastic, resulting in that deeper shade of red. On the tailfins I used white primer first then applied red paint, which lightened the red and matched the decals. I used Gunze Sangyo Gundam Red 1 spray. As I guessed, Bandai would naturally use their Gundam colors. I put down several layers of Gunze Sangyo semi-gloss clearcoat and then a layer of their semi-gloss topcoat to get that finish. Yours is already looking good. Many of the decals are pretty bad and it's often better to paint some parts. I ended up throwing out a number of Alto's decals.

I'm an amateur modeler myself, but I've learned that the color of the primer used matters a great as it will affect how your paints will appear on the surface. If you use white primer, your paint will appear noticeably brighter. Likewise, if you use grey primer, your paint will appear darker. Check out the attached pictures. Notice that the red stripe on the head doesn't match the decal red? It's because I got lazy and didn't use primer. However when I painted the tailfins, I took the time to use white primer on them, and the red was a perfect match for the decals. I don't know much about airbrushes, so I can't help you there, though with an Armored VF-25S in my mitts, I'm seriously considering investing in one now and giving it the treatment it deserves.

I've never seen a work area that neat before. I'll try to get started on my pre-assembly tonight. My cat chewed the decal off one of my Alto shoulders.

If he lived a little bit closer, I'd consider stealing that model! That is by far the best VF-25F I have ever seen. Even the "pro" built models are fairly lacking and inaccurate by comparison. Good job putting them all to shame! I'm afraid I'm going to have to steal your tinting method too. Maybe you can hand paint the underside of the lerx? It's a fairly easy section to paint. Just one long straight line, really. I've wondered when and who decided that the canopy and sensors are supposed to be tinted purple? The CG model has those sections darkened merely from lack of internal light in exterior shots, and in closeups the canopy is clearly transparent (or has a slight bluish haze).

What the f***! My Armored Ozma arrived today! And it shipped on the 12th via SAL! (I live in the States.) I have never received a SAL package that fast; that was almost EMS speed! Anyway, it's a monster! The box is the size of two regular VF-25s stacked together. Can't wait to get my paws into it!

I like the VF-25 battroid mode for my own reasons. The mass of the VF-1 is a lie. Where's this extra mass coming from? The area directly below the chestplate (in fighter mode) is the air intake/upper leg. There's really nothing between the front and back plates. Yes I know in the TV series these magical side covers appear from the VF-1's hidden Tartus section to fill in the gaps but even that just puts a lid over the space, it doesn't really give the VF-1 more mass. Even Yamato didn't bother giving side cover inserts, much less actually build it into the toy. The VF-1 is just as skinny as the VF-25, it just hides it better. Anyway back to the VF-25. I wish I had read about your silver + clear paint method earlier. I was already almost done with mine and I was only able to apply it to the gunpod sensors. Ah well I'm working on Alto's battroid now, but I'll probably set it aside when my Armored VF-25S arrives. I've already scraped off part of the SMS logo on the sides of the cockpit just from test fitting the battroid. Luckily that part isn't seen in battroid mode. Early on I made the mistake of using the instruction booklet's model for reference. Talk about inaccurate! Since then I've been using the CG model and this one for reference: http://npgpm.web.fc2.com/vf25f.htm (It was posted way back in the original VF-25 model thread.) I thought you were going to paint the underside of the lerx later. That's something that people usually look; I almost overlooked it myself if I hadn't noticed it on the model in the above link. I also threw out the landing gear and just got an SMS stand. This kit was definitely designed more for snapping together and playing with it rather than as an intricate display piece (which makes me wonder why they didn't just mold the visor green instead of including a hideous foil sticker). If it wasn't so expensive I'd get another one just to stick together quickly and transform around with at my desk. I look forward to the finished model!

That looks spectacular! How many clearcoats are you up to now? Looks like you're in the home stretch. After this VF-25 experience, will you be jumping right into an Armored VF-25?

Nice. Even unpainted and without decals it looks 10x better than the DX.

Things change. Never planned on getting Armored Alto, wish I hadn't bought a plain Ozma way back when, etc. And I foolishly thought for sure I might actually use the special decal sets. But no way I'm building two Armored Ozmas!

Warerarorikonda! I got them from the Deculture Campaign a few months back. I ordered my initial kits from HLJ and they included them. Currently have two Altos and one Ozma, and getting Armored Alto and Ozma this month. Holding out on Super Pack bundles for Michael and Luca, but I'm not sure that's ever going to happen.

I'd be annoyed at the lack of custom decals, but I have the first Sheryl and Ranka decal sheets and I know it's going to be a long, long time, if ever, before I get around to building another VF-25F to use them on. I thought "Do I really want to build four Altos? Three Ozmas? etc etc" It's a clever strategy on Bandai's part to get us to buy more kits.

Some pics with better lighting. The lighting available at my home kinda sucks. I tried taking pics outdoors but most of the shots ended up overexposed. I don't like using the flash; I prefer natural lighting.

Very nice, Cowpeeler. The modeling force is strong with this one. Mine's mostly snapped together too, as I (foolishly) thought that I would transform it a couple times at least, but that'll never happen considering I've already experienced some minor decal chipping just from handling it! Not that there's much to glue anyway. Plus, I'm lazy and don't have all that much time to work on modeling. Gonna have to increase the number of clearcoat layers for Armored Ozma. Maybe 9 or 10 layers...

That's how the missile doors open in the anime. Got my R10 shipping notice. Woo!

Armored VF-25 is the only VF where I prefer seeing it in battroid mode. Can't wait to get Alto's too so I can do the salute from the last episode.

Got my Rainbowten notice and paid for it this morning. 8480 yen with SAL shipping.

What are you using for purple coloring? I like the shade that some of you guys are getting.

Some quick pics of my VF-25F that I recently finished. Pretty amateurish, but I like it, despite all my screwups. These are some quick indoor pics; I want to get some good pics of it outdoors sometime this weekend (no good indoor spot for photos, and the sun is the best light source anyway!) Additional notes: -Used waterslide decals. I haven't done waterslides in ages. -Tailfin red is painted, as the decals were pretty awful. -Chucked out the terrible landing gear in favor of SMS stand. -Painted the underside of the lerx (is that what it's called?) black as it appears in the anime. -Painted the wingtip navigational lights, because the decals suck. -Painted the gunpod sensor, because the decal sucked. (I'm noticing a theme here.) -Painted the sides of the main body interlocking parts red and black to minimize the unsightly white gaps between them. And yes, those decals sucked too. -Canopy looks rather milky in this poor lighting. It's much more transparent in person. -Cockpit display is a scan of the Hasegawa 1/72 YF-19 display decal. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll get better pics later. Enjoy!

Wow just wow. Mine looks like it was assembled by a blind monkey compared to yours. Man, I wish I had that screencap earlier for the instrument display. I used a scan of the instrument panel decal from my Hasegawa 1/72 YF-19 for the cockpit display. Looks decent, but I think I'd rather have the real VF-25 display. EDIT: Whoops! Meant to ask: where did you purchase that ink from? It seems to give a good result too.