captain america

Holy guacamole!! That build just totally blew my mind I've gotta hand it to you Petar, you did a masterful job on that kit! I feel like a proud father

Hi everyone. Apologies for my long absence, I've been trying to take care of a few things behind the scenes and enjoy some of the summer weather while we have it. As it stands, installment 4 has been ready for quite some time; I was hoping to have the joints done by now, but it seems that there are delays related to that, meaning that the joints and the landing gear have been (unfortunately) pushed back and will be included in the last 2 segments yet to come. As such, installment 4 will begin shipping August 1st, just as I begin taking payments and doing the prep for installment 5, which will be the main body/right engine nacelle/right wing. There are a few components that I'll be updating for the next installment as usual. In the meantime, I've tasked myself with doing molds for the buck that will be used to vacuum-form the canopy; seems that there will be some very interesting technology used to make this. More news as it develops Lastly, a single, solitary pic of the canopy masters being prepped for molding. More to come next week!

Got back from the theater a little while ago; I think that this is the last time I go see a 3D film. If anything, the effect didn't really improve the experience and honestly, it made the battle scenes blurry and hard to follow. I think I'll have to see the film a few more times in 2D to really take everything in.

Epic win!! Thank you so much for doing this, the parts look fantastic!! Gotta love it when the community pulls together like this, you guys are awesome!

Hi guys. Casting for Installment 4 is already underway and has been for some time. I'm sort of on forced leave ATM since I ran out of resin and am awaiting replenishment. In the meantime, I'm occupying myself by preparing boxes and doing some minor prep for the last 2 installments. Oh, and I may take some time off in July also; mostly to avoid doing too much casting during the sticky season (problematic due to most resins' sensitivity to moisture/heat.) Until then, the Little Engine That Could, soldiers on!

Actually, there IS an ARII kit under there, believe it or not, it was just heavily modified with Super Sculpey because the basic kit was, well... Not that great. When it was made: 1993 Scale: 1/15000 (approximate) Can you still get this: you could never get it, even back in the day: it was a one-off that's still in my display cabinet collecting space dust

Hi everyone! Just wanted to provide a quick heads-up to all that Installment 3 will be shipping between tomorrow and Friday. The kit will contain screws, but the joints and landing gear parts will be contained in Installment 4. Also, since payment time for Installment 4 starts tomorrow, I merely want to give a quick reminder to use my new paypal ID, which changed approx. 2 months ago. If you're not sure if you have the updated info, just shoot me a PM, thanks

Good catch! In fact, the bottom of the ride-armor stowage compartment is visible under the chest thruster when the model is complete. No ride-armor will be included in the base kit, but dimensionally, the stowage compartment space was taken into consideration when I did the design. However, I feel that it's important to mention that for reasons of moldability and structural integrity, you can't actually put a ride-armor in the stowage location. When I did my re-design, I made it such that the ride-armor would have to be manually lifted from the compartment by the pilot or a technician: the compartment is accessed by removing the main viewing monitor inside the chest module. I did it this way because it seemed more realistic considering the space limitations on the fighter, and I also wanted to do away with any unnecessary gadgets; just makes for more stuff to break-down and cause problems in a real-world scenario. Payment 4 will be due June 1st; just about when i'll be shipping installment 3.

I tend to think that the Legioss flying backwards in Ep. 3 was a kind of animation mistake. FOD stands for Foreign Object Damage (doors.) I inspired myself from what was done on the MIG 29 & SU-27s to allow them to taxi on rough runways & grass fields and not have to worry about the engines ingesting debris that would wreck the turbines. The way that the LEGIOSS' intakes are designed made this a natural choice. I have no plans to scratch-build a VF-1, since that's been done to death, but maybe 1/32 Inbits if there's enough demand later on.

Oh yeah, I went nuts: droop-able air brakes, positionable flaps, multi-axis thrust-vectoring main engine nozzles, FOD doors for the engine intakes, maintenance/access panels, detailed radar array, you name it, it's in the kit. Without wanting to seem like I'm bragging, when you see all the technological goodies that I designed into the Legioss to make it real-world, a VF-1 would simply pale by comparison in terms of performance and survivability.

Hello again, it's me: The Beast Master! I just thought I'd provide a mini-update with the new joint parts that I've been raving about lately. These are provided courtesy of fellow MWer Codam23, whose help and expertise have helped make this project possible. As I'm told, the parts I have are actually pre-production prototypes, and the material to be used for the final parts will actually be even stronger than what I have now, which are already ridiculously tough, especially considering that they were made in a 3D printer. Pics 1 and 2 show the joint parts in question, complete with 3mm alloy screws for optimal strength. Pic 1 shows the socket joint for the hip, while pic 2 shows the ankle joint (left) and hip hinge assembly (right.) Pics 3 and 4 show the assembled hip joint as it will fit into the thigh module. While complex, this elaborate setup was needed in order to not only allow the joint sufficient range of motion, but also configure the parts to allow them to line-up correctly when in fighter mode. Pics 5 and 6 show the same parts mated to the main body in both fighter and soldier modes, respectfully. While CNC technology was available a decade ago when the Legioss was being fabricated, the 3D printing technology certainly was not, and consequently, the parts would not only have been devastatingly expensive to make, but would have had to be made of aluminum, which I'm told is perhaps even a tad weaker than the new composite material, and the latter is much lighter.

As promised, here you go guys! 7 freakin' pages of destruction goodness!!!

Indeed. There was a lot of work involved in this phase of the project, and I'm happy to be back in gear, so-to-speak. I'm also going to start shipping next week or so; I would have started sooner but my printer gave up the ghost, almost as if on cue. Oh well, just another speed bump

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I received some updated joint prototypes and they absolutely rock! I'm close to finished with the instructions, and those will be posted tomorrow. I'll also do a little update later on to show-off the special composite joints that are going into the kit. There have been a few speed bumps, but otherwise, the Legioss is progressing nicely! Stay tuned

I suspect that the project may have been mothballed.

Unless you're a fairly competent model builder, you will likely be disappointed with the kits. They require glue, paint, and some creative modeling skill to put together. Also, the transformability means that certain compromises had to be made, and being a model, it won't stand up to actually being transformed one tenth as well as the toy. If anything, they were meant to be built in a given mode and sturdily glued that way, save for a few key joints that allow for slight re-posing every once in a while. I had one of the DX toys for a time, and I actually thought that it was okay, so long as you grasp that it's intrinsically complex design-wise, and don't try to mount all the armor junk onto it, you should be fine.

The kit is made such that you can build it in any one of the three modes without swapping parts; it's not made to actually transform from one mode to another.

Yes, actually! Casting for Installment 3 has been done for a few weeks now; parts are bagged and will be packed over the next few days. While I'm still waiting on the joints and the landing gear, I think that I *should* have the former before the end of May. I would have liked to have both ready in time, but situations won't seem to allow it. As such, Installment 3 should ship by the end of May with joints, and Installment 4 will (hopefully) have the metal landing gear. I'll also be starting on the newest set of destructions. Pictures are done, just need to do the layout. A few bumps in the road, but otherwise the project stumbles forward!

Holy cow!!! What scale are those kits?? Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but I've very rarely seen a garage kit that was really worth more than a G-note, and most of those were from the Five Star Stories line.

Hi guys. I took a few random pictures of the castings I have so far, which are coming along excellently well. I should have some news on the landing gear by week's end, and hopefully on the joints as well. Needless to say, I'm also looking forward to a quiet moment when I can start mocking-up my parts and experience, for the first time, my own creation with all its limbs without the use of Photoshop

"Is there a certain way to cut / extract the parts from the molds? " -Yes, very, very carefully! "Are the molds only good for one use or are you able to get a few pulls from them?" -The life of a mold depends on a whole bunch of factors; some molds die after fewer than a dozen pulls, while I've had others last well past 50. It's always a bit of a crapshoot.

Sophisticated mold boxes are for suckahs!! I use a Sharpie to mark cut lines and also indicate what part is in the rubber block; the writing on the plexiglass imprints onto the rubber so that I have a basic guide to extract the parts as cleanly as possible.

Hi everyone! As you may or may not have seen from my previous post, the next segment of the Legioss is now underway. As such, I figured I'd offer a cursory glance at the mold-making process. Pic 1: using a hot glue gun, I proceed to glue runners to the parts and then glue the runners to a base made from acrylic; I like this method as the material's transparency allows you to more easily visualize the part and vital resin flow characteristics. Once things are set to my liking, I glue the mold box over the parts, once again using hot glue. Pics 2 and 3: this is my vacuum degassing setup; I use an industrial vacuum pump to suck the air out of my newly-mixed silicone rubber. The pump can pull a little over 29 inches of vacuum, but the chamber's (just an old paint tank) lid design is such that I only get 27 inches of vacuum realistically. No worries though, that's quite sufficient for my needs. Pic 4: A newly-degassed batch of green rubber goo! Don't let those few bubbles atop the mixture fool you, these will break as soon as I begin to pour the mix into the mold. Speaking of pouring… Pics 5 and 6 show 2 mold boxes in different stages of pour. The first is actually custom-made with acrylic, as some parts are just too large/awkward for me to use tupperware containers. Pic 7: a series of parts extracted from a mold. These will need a once-over, and any damage to the part will need to be repaired. It's rare, but it does happen. Pic 8: the finished moulds! I generally let these air-out for at least 48 hours prior to using them to make sure than any residual ammonia has evaporated. I should have some test-shot pictures by next week; I'm also testing the prototype ball-joints that I received from Codam23. Stay tuned!

2 noses: not on the books, as the current workload is demanding enough. The old, shorter nose was ideal from a practicality standpoint, but robs the fighter of that last remaining modicum of elegance that a fighter should possess. I'll see to it that either the paint demarcation is scribed, or I'll provide a demarcation template with the parts to take the guesswork out of painting. ...And while I'm here, I'm pleased to announce that it's that time again. Work on Segment III (right leg) has already commenced, so you may now send the third payment installment. Some molds are already done, some have just been poured and the remainder will be done by week's end, at which point I'll have another pictorial update ready. Soooo much green goo...

I also mastered the Garfish from Mospeada in 1/350, 1/48 VF-1D conversion, 1/24 Raptor from BSG, and 1/18 Tachikoma from GITS, but obviously not part of the 1\72 Macross line.