Jasonc

Thanks guys. That confirms what I thought.

This is the picture he sent me... Obviously he's opened it since, as the pilot is now in the cockpit, so I just wanted to see if I was somehow missing something.

I did bring that up to him, but he claims it came with that in a sealed package. However, when I look at his image, it is the same construction, at least the same color as the ones that were sold here. I think it was DarrinG that sold them, and they look extremely similar to them.

I recently sold someone one of the Yamato Virgin Road VF-1 toys, and the buyer is saying that another one he owned came with a strap. I don't ever recall these, or for the most part, any standard Yamato release coming with a gunpod strap. Am I missing anything? Also, did the Virgin Road just come out once, or was there a reissue that was different?

They bring good luck

Was a bit bored, so I decided to color it.

Oh, I was not aware that one did. I knew it split, but wasn't sure where. I just want to make access for construction, so there are a few options I can consider. I did test fit the legs, and once the legs are on, this really has the look it was meant to have. I'm really happy at how it turned out. Truth be told, I'm always amazed that I was actually able to put my brain to work to make these things. I thought I'd never really use my engineering education for anything after my career change 15 years ago, but here I am. I gotta start working on the decal for the 20mm diameter (maybe 21 will cover the recessed parts, and make those as well. With the white backgound I left it, probably don't need sheets with white background, but I'll make some anyways, just to be safe. I also need to start on sealing up the gap as well.

Definitely now done, and needs some more detail, but it's in the process. Because I'm not a fan of making it just a white color, I decided to customize an even lighter grey, using an 80/20 ratio of white to light grey of the Mr Color paint. I like the result. I left the space for the kite decal white for a better contrast. Some of the paint needs to be cleaned up, but otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the colors. I'm now trying to make the front glass parts as polished as possible, but I may need to just go and recast these to get the best quality possible. Nevertheless, here's the first pics of it in the works. I may end up adding a few extra parts to it for ease of painting, like removing the back 4 boosters, and maybe make the entire cabin just one piece, but that would make adding the "glass" parts in the door a little more difficult. I could also separate the entire cabin at the black stripe across it, and that would hide the seem. OPTIONS, LOL

Sorry for no updates lately. I started working on the cockpit and canopy. I'm not sure on how much to detail it, as the line art I have is quite detailed diagrams. I at least want to put a figure inside, so maybe enough detail for the control panel, and to give the figure some more detail when in the fighter. I also added two hard points on each wing that are the same size as the Arcadia attachments. I'll eventually make Orguss detailed missiles, but I thought it'd be cool to be able to add some of the Arcadia weapons. I'll probably need to do more cutting in the body for the leg assembly, but that's only in the thought out stages.

It's validation for complaints. Seeing this thing in person, it looks great. I really, really want it. I think if more people saw it in person, they'd probably be a lot more excited for it. If not, I don't think anything can help at that point, but that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...

Truth be told, I was considering getting one of the Sheryl files that were taken from the game, and creating a .stl file from it, and then enlarging it, then using a software that lets you cut it into printable parts with pegs, and creating a 1/1 scale Sheryl. It'd take forever, as I don't have a ton of FDM printers, but it'd be a long WIP. At least it wouldn't cost about $20K. More like $1000 for materials.

OK, tickets are ready for purchase, but our announcement is not up yet. It should be soon. sdcon.ticketleap.com/2023/

OK, so SDC is on a hold right now, until we figure out some issues with the venue billing.

Not much progress, but the tail fins are done. Next up, the hardest part. I'll be working on the legs starting tomorrow.

Tickets are up, but we haven't made the announcements on social media. Give it a few days, and I'll provide the link once we make the official announcement. If any of you are vendors, we have very limited vendor space indoors, and are looking for vendors that specifically sell a good amount of Macross, Mospeada, Southern Cross (if there's still any), and Gundam merchandise. If you are interested in that, send an email to sdcvendors@gmail.com Aside from that, we're official again this year.

I'm really itching for this as a toy. I do hope it gets a release, but if it is going to be released, I guess we'll only know based on if pre-orders start popping up.

This is a redesign of a camera/broadcast camera that is equipped on the VF-11 D Thunder Focus. It is supposed to be a pod that in essence, turns the Thunder Focus into a broadcast unit Valkyrie. I imagine that it would've been a piece that in the year the story Macross the Ride takes place (I believe 2057 or right before Frontier), this pod with its capabilities would be able to work with most valkyries that have a system up to par with its capabilities. I am working on several attachments now, so that it can fit different valkyries that people may have. I was able to get the moving parts to now work. The 1mm pin in the handle does work and holds it in with some tension, and is able to roll up and down. I need to widen the handle slot for the hand. The kit as a whole piece is 5 parts, 6 if you count the pin for the handle.

I went on a bit of a roll today, and got a bit done. I managed to finish up the wings, as well as put in some detailed panel lines for the kit. While I'll be putting more detail in tonight and tomorrow, I also managed to start on the upper boosters (?) These look like they're going to come in about 3mm off the bottom from what the line art has, but that is due to the line art having the boosters hugging the main body. As a kit, it doesn't work so well, and makes it a bit more difficult to make into easy parts that can be glued and aligned the right way (I hope that makes sense). Then again, 3mm isn't that much, and will also add to some of the main body paneling under them. I still need to angle the sides of the boosters, and then create the tail fins attached to rotate down. I also added the picture of the wing harness. I made it to where a 6mm OD x 4mm ID rubber O ring will fit there to keep it a bit stiff when the wings are in there so that they don't flop around. The wings will have the end pieces be able to angle down when in GERWALK, and will use a 1mm pin. There's also a stop that will keep them from rotating straight down. I can't seem to find this, but does anyone know if this is supposed to have landing gear, or is GERWALK the landed version?

It's more my wife's group, but they're damn good. And it's Kpop group Stray Kids, LOL. Here's a quick update. I didn't take a capture of the wing slide, but they'll rotate.

I've been much busier than I thought. From a concert yesterday, to overtime today, to seeing the same group tomorrow, I barely had time to do anything with this project. I did manage to start on the wing housing. I'll be doing a cutaway part on top to insert the wings once those are done. I just need to work out where to put the wing pegs. I'm going to look into having them lined with rubber inserts to give them better tension, so my shop on Amazon will start tomorrow once I figure out a good size for the pegs. In making the wing housing, I did have to flatten the bottom a little more than the sketch for the mechanics of the legs sliding forward. While it wasn't really necessary, I feel that if I curve it like the sketch, it will leave a wide gap in the leg slide mechanism that will be built to the curve of the body. If I find that I can change it later, I will adjust it, but for now, I'm going to stick with what it looks like now. On a side note, it's always bugged me how the lines show when smoothing out the edges (the strange, almost random lines) looks on these, but once it's actually printed, it should be really smooth.

The Ai-kun plushie is awesome. I only saw that once for sale at AX in 09 or 10, and got it instantly. Have yet to see any others for sale floating around.

Yeah, I totally see that as well. It's very throw back, but with the sci-fi edge to it. I really like the design of it.

Thanks guys, I do appreciate it. Yeah, they definitely are, and when they do show up, they are in the realm of selling organs for what you actually get. It's one of those mechs that I was always kinda mad that they didn't make a real toy out of it. It should've been made, and sadly never did. I always found the design of it to be a bit on the obscure side with the short stubby kinda nose, but had a very beefy look.

Yeah, it bugs me, too. The kit has an indent as the protrusion, but this line art, and interesting enough, the art on that very same kit shows it as a piece that really just sticks out. I've been able to do the cutting into the piece, and FINALLY got it to where I think it looks like it should. Here's the update so far. I've had very little time, especially today, and tomorrow I probably won't update since I'm going with the wife to buy a new car. Then Saturday is overtime work, so maybe Sunday. I added the little center back piece in the center, as well, so those are done. I think next I have to put in the ratchet system for the bottom arm cover. That may take a short minute, but that's not going to change the image much. Anyways, here's an update image.

Not much of an update yet. I've been trying to make sure and look at all angles of line art to make sure the lines are as accurate as possible, and still be able to convert the legs. Honestly, the fact that it only has the main legs moving as pretty much the only part of the transformation helps, but as of now, I do plan to make the harness for the arms open and close, along with the cockpit, and maybe at least have the arms be able to either slide out a little, or provide parts that can be swapped out to fix the anime magic of those tremendously long arms. I will also make some hard points on the wings, and probably use the Yamato/Arcadia VF-1 pylon dimensions so that they can be interchangeable. The tail fins will also be able to swing down as they're supposed to, along with articulation in the legs. I need to engineer how I'm going to lock the legs in fighter, but that doesn't seem too hard to do. Anyways, here's the latest. Obviously, a bit of a way to go. Being at work for 10 hours doesn't leave a lot of time for my projects. The second picture is just a material change that I use to compare line art to where I'm placing dimensions. As of now, I'm quite happy with how close it's staying to the line art. I hope I can keep up.