Jasonc

I may have to try this sometime. I have a few bottles of Future floor polish. I'm hoping to have a picture of the finished rear leg brackets today. They are looking quite good, and with a light 400, then 800 grit sanding, they feel like toy pieces. I wish I would've had this method down better when working with the drone wing in WSF resin. I know it's going to be a pain with the leg boosters and those parts, but I will try the floor polish with one, and fine surface primer for the other, and see what works best for small parts. I may also try another method of using Mr. Putty on the entire part, rubbing in in very well, or even diluting it, then letting it dry and sanding from that. I know that would fill in instantly with the pores, but not sure of the clean up and how difficult that would be. I think one great benefit of that method, is that the paint would adhere very well to the putty. I'm waiting on my last parts to complete at Shapeways, and for some reason, this order is taking way too long. It's still not done on the printing process, so either there was a problem, or they messed up and forgot my parts. Either way, time will tell.

That's great to hear. Hopefully shipping was nice to it and treated it well. If there are any issues, let me know. I have a few extra parts in case of strange circumstances. I have 3 more going out tomorrow. I will be sending notifications out to those of you who's are about to be shipped. As I'm at work, I can't remember exactly who they belong to, but we're on the other side of the half way mark.

They're all being finished one at a time now. Yours is being worked on now and almost finished.

Nah, I have enough projects for awhile.

Right now, I'm priming the hell out of the white calf backings that hold the leg armor. To get rid of the spongy look and feel of the material, I use Testors super fine white surface primer (lacquer). I put about 3-4 coats, and lay it on heavy, as a good portion of it will be sanded. After it all dries, the I use a 400 grit sandpaper, and lightly sand it all down to get a uniform, smooth surface. The end result is no sponge look. If you have grey parts, use a grey primer, but lay it on heavy. That's the trick. I'm working on parts in between waiting on other parts to dry for the drone.

Those pics look glorious. Nicely done. Very nicely done.

The head looks very Gundam like, but it looks so badass. I want this as well, LOL.

Looks great. Mine are on the way, well, at least most of it. I'll be ordering the rest on Wednesday. I PMed you about the wings, but I might as well ask it here... Will you be adding the larger wings with it, or at least an attachment that can be added to them? If not, that's OK. I know you get busy. I'm really excited about getting this kit. I was thinking of designing this myself, but I'm glad you stepped up.

Yours is up now, so I'm finishing the final touches and assembling the parts. This week, my friend, if not next 2 days.

OK, update time. I FINISHED ALL RECAST FOR THE WINGS!!! These were very difficult due to the design and it being one piece, but in making them like that, they are quite solid and look great. I have put out several sets already to some of you, and the process continues. I have one I hope to be able to finish up today at some point, and ship out tomorrow. Then, off to the next. For those of you who have ordered unpainted kits, your kits are mostly ready, and I will be sending those out this week as well. If you have a combo of unpainted and painted, it's in queue like the rest of them. The next couple sets, I'm hoping, will be sent out fairly quick, as I've already started on painting and cleaning up the wings. I'm still recasting the clear parts, as the resin takes literally a couple days to cure enough so that it doesn't warp. Other than that, I'm more than half way done with those. In conclusion, stuff is going out, and parts are looking good. The light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter.

I love hearing myself talk on this (j/k). I noticed a mistake or two I made, but hopefully it wasn't a deal breaker. In any case, interesting getting POV from different shades of the spectrum. Quite interesting.

This looks like a fun build.

For me, I know there will be a time when I look at what I have, and say "K, I'm done." I know many say that doesn't happen to them, but for me, it has with everything I've gotten into. I guess as long as I have other stuff I can sell to keep this going, I will. I'm at a point now where the toys themselves are great, but I don't need them all, nor did I ever want them all. Even with the books, I have a lot, so aside from mostly pretty pictures, I don't need them, except for reference stuff. For posters, I have a lot of those, and I think those are what I really like getting, along with various oddities (if you consider rare and obscure resin kits as part of that). I'm having fun building Macross kits, so I'm happy doing that, and I think at some point soon, that may be what I do with the rest of my fandom, along with still keeping up with series and information. I'll never completely leave the fandom and the hobby. This is my one true tie to my childhood, and I did leave it all for many years after I got out of high school, so I know what it's like not being tied to your youth. I don't want that to happen again. I'm in my early 40s, so at this point, if I haven't left yet, no need to exit now.

These really take me back to when I first started with all of the customizing after my days as a youngster. Nevertheless, they look great. I kinda wish I could work on one, but alas, I've sold all of my 1/55s off. I now have a ton of unassembled Yamato kits, but those require a different type of work. I'll live my 1/55 customization through you. I remember making the feet be able to vector thrust, the legs rotate out, and so on. Those were the days of our innovation, LOL. Great work.

They are listed in order of payment. I can message you your number when I get home from work. I'm on the 4th now.

I'm glad they got to you in great condition. Again, any issues, let me know. Thanks. As I said, I get a little fixated on making them look as good as possible. I know that's great for everyone here, but it's part of why some of these have taken forever. I'm still working on the clear parts and those are steady in being done. The latest wing will probably be the last recast, because I have enough to go through more than half of the orders with what I have currently. I made sure the new wing was going to be an exceptionally smooth recast, and with that, I also painted and prepped this one myself. The prototype part is perfect. I'll be making the parts until the mold wears out, so at the end of this, there might be a couple more orders, with the exception of keeping a couple extra parts around for any mishaps from you guys. Today I pour the new wing mold base. Tomorrow the "lid" of the box.

Yeah, just sent 3 out today, the next 2 are for another order, and those are just a matter of waiting for some paint to set before I box those. AS A REMINDER: I'm doing this, because I want those of you who ordered these painted to know that these are still not sturdy like a toy. They have some gimmicks to them that are cool for certain display purposes, but they are not meant to be played around like a toy, and will probably wear down paint if moved around too much. For those that ordered them painted, the kit will come with 4 parts (not including decals). The wing and and hook are going to be separate, as well as the camera housing. These will still require you to fit the pieces in and glue them down. If I completely assemble the item, it will be a bit bulky, and would be more prone to breakage in shipping. Because of this, I will provide quick instruction if needed. It should be pretty easy to figure out, but you'll need to fit the wing latch on the wing, then you can glue the wing onto the main body. Please make sure you test fit the pieces first. If the wing is a bit tight, you can ease this by lightly sanding the front of the wing. The resin will let it bend a little, too, so make sure not over sand it, as it'll leave a gap. Once those two pieces are secure, dry, and how you like them, you can then put on the camera housing (cockpit looking piece. If the piece doesn't quite fit into the wing hole where it is supposed to anchor, you can use an exacto knife to trim the camera housing section that fits into the wing. Again, it is resin, so be very careful not to damage it. If you need to sand any of the parts the housing will fit in, the camera piece on the main body that it sits on can be sanded down and/or thinned, as it won't be seen. Also, if there is a bit of a gap between the camera and the housing, it may be due to the camera part itself hitting the clear parts. You can even sand that down, as it's not too visible under the clear parts. Understanding that these are resin parts is a must. some parts may be prone to change in very hot climate conditions, and so, if you have and parts that have warped, you can fix them by getting a bowl of ice water, then while you faucet is running really hot water, put the warped piece in it, while lightly massaging the piece to the place it's supposed to be. Once it's in the correct spot, put it in the ice water. It'll stiffen up real quick. This is mainly for those that have the standard resin wings, and not the task 2 wings. The task 2 wings are really solid, and should be just fine, but if not, same rules. The wings will look like they're broken on the bottom. I did this because painting them and putting all this stuff together, along with shipping meant having to make the wing where it would fit onto the main body that is already attached. The engine housing portion has a really good lock down on the wing, so once it's in there where it should be, the front wing area that was supposed to anchor to the main body can just be glued and have zero negative effects. If you want to put on the decals, they may not stick all that well, being that the kits come in matte coat. As many of you are modelers, you know how to fix that, but if not, I suggest looking on youtube on putting on decals. If you have issues with any of the decals, I can send out more, but if you want to avoid paying for shipping, just be careful. If you need to do any touch up painting, I used Tamiya TS-8 Orange paint. For the black, it's just Tamiya matte black. For those that chose unpainted kits, I hope to see what you used, and your finished kits. As I have mentioned before, because I'm painting a lot of these, time is not on my side to do them perfectly. I do try, but with assembly line painting, it can be a bit of a stretch to detail them up like I'd want to do mine. I know some of you have sent me messaged about that, and I do try to make them all look as beautiful as possible. If anyone gets their kit and has any issues with it, just send me a pm. And by issues, I mean broken parts, decals that don't work properly, that sort of stuff that I can resolve. Thanks, and hope this helps. OK, now, I'm back to making more.

5 are now done. 3 of them are for one order, but the other two are for the next. As I'm going in order of when they were received, I'm just going down the list and getting them done, and notifying everyone when they're ready. Yours is a custom paint, so I made all the major parts that are ready to go. At this point, I'm just working on the small parts for yours (clear parts, engine, etc.) I'm hoping yours can go out this week as well. other than that, not much to tell. All of them are on final stages now, and should be going out one order at a time now.

I was able to order two of the unassembled 1Js when they came out, so I have two of those sitting around. They're pretty small, but are very cool additions. I'm not going to recast it, but they can easily be redesigned in CAD. I got two back when the M&M were nowhere in Yamato/Arcadia's mind to re-release these, so I wanted to make them. Now that they are, I'm going for the Hayate/Mirage red/blue.

WSF polished is very porous, and a little soft for thinner pieces. In working with it to prep a larger piece, I have to primer, light sand, primer, light sand, and do that about 6 or so times just to make sure all the pours are gone. Afterwards, I usually scribe in panel lines again to redefine them, and then clear coat. It's a process. I haven't used black hi-def stuff, but I do use the Frosted Ultra Detail. It's brittle and not good for durable stuff, but it takes just very light sanding and one or two coats of primer to make sure you got it all, and you're ready to go. I wouldn't use that stuff on permanent pieces though, as if you drop it, it breaks very easy. I may try some of the new material they have and see how that works, but at the same time, one has to consider costs as well. For the rest of you waiting, I'm back from my trip, and got back to work today with it. I did manage to break a piece I was all but done with in some accident, so that was a drawback, but it's why I recasted extra pieces. I have 3 going out tomorrow, and hopefully another 2 Monday. I did make a new mold for the clear parts, and it works as good as possible, but the resin take 2 days to cure for the pieces. I'm trying to get ahead of them, so that they're ready when each kit is. I have some in the tank now, and those will be out tomorrow. All decals are done and clear coated, so I'm happy with those. I printed the kites on white backing and the rest on clear, so there will be white for those. The only thing with the white backed decals is that they have to be cut extremely accurately in order to not have it show past the black circle of the decal. If I thought about asking a decal guy, but the time and cost just isn't something I budgeted for. I'll also post up some simple instructions for those that are getting painted ones. There is some gluing needed, as the wings are too wide to fit in the box, and I don't want to have it completely attached to avoid possible breakage. Also, some of the gimmicks added don't work as well as they should, i.e. the retractable laser. they can get a little loose when they're set to fully retract. Because of this, I need to leave them a little with some integrity. It's probably best to just leave them out, and maybe even glue them permanently out. That's what I'm going to do with my own, but that's just because it is a kit, and I don't plan on using it as a toy, so I'm fine with that. The wing attachment piece that opens and closes works fine, but because they're painted, it's not something I plan to move all the time. That works great, but again, to each their own. With everything out and flight ready, it looks great. I'm happy with the kit. It should look great with those other 1/60s.

Sorry for the delay. I have two painted, and two unpainted done. I'm actually out of town, but once I get back, they are boxed and ready to go. I don't know,who they're going to, as I'm going based on the list, but they're on a fast track, now that the,hardest work is done.

I saw this at the Walkure 2nd Live concert in the lobby of the Yokohama arena. It looks very nice. From this picture, it doesn't look like there has been anything done to it since, except maybe all these are all Hi-res 3D printed parts. I think it's probably on its last checks, if not done by now, and just waiting for the diecast molds to be made and off to the races.

I have those coming out this week as well. I painted one too many, so I just finished up the extra unpainted. I have two painted going out this week, and I believe it's two unpainted. I'm just waiting on the clear parts I'm recasting for them. So far, those came out much better than the last batch, so if you are one of the unpainted kit guys, yours is out this week.

I'd buy that in a second. Pink is not my color at all, but I did really like Aisha in the game, so it's worth a buy. Anyways, I guess to many here, it's a white color for them anyways.

I'd be down to get one, but with so many other things coming out this year, I just can't justify that price. It looks great though.