mechaninac

In my experience, when brush painting metallic colors, it's almost never a good idea to thin them (thinners tend to lift the metal particles out of solution); metallics work better when they are fairly thick, actually. Also, if you need large areas to be painted in a metallic color you're much better off spray painting with a rattle can or airbrush as metallic paints tend to show brush strokes more than nonmetallics, at least for me. When painting small details such as buttons and the like, concentrate the paint by letting only what you'll need dry a bit before applying. When dry brushing, just use a tiny bit of the metallic paint straight from the bottle and stroke against a paper towel until the brush is almost completely dry, then proceed to lightly pick out the high spots on the figure/model... the resulting effect can be quite stunning, but remember to stroke lightly and only put down the most minute amount possible, stop, step back, and examine the results -- you can always go over the area(s) repeated times to enhance the dry brushing effect until you've achieved the desired effect... overdoing it is far worse than under-doing it. And never, ever mix your brushes. It's best to have a set exclusively for enamels, another for acrylics, another for metallic enamels, and another for metallic acrylics, and a set of old beat up brushes for dry brushing... mixing mediums in this set should not be much of an issue. As others have stated, try everything out for yourself to see what works best for you, and have fun.

The Renewal VF-25S looks kick ass, and I'm kicking myself in the ass for no preodering this Valk when I had the chance. Now one can't touch one for less than app. $220 plus shipping... Banday, please, please, please release more of these, bundled or otherwise so that those of us who procrastinated can get in on this action without having to pay inflated prices.

If you feel the need to justify your particular insanity, you've chosen the wrong insanity to have...

I too would like for Yamato to include 6 ordnance hard points (just like the picture posted by CF18) of the same design used on the VF-1, that way all the missiles from the VF-1 (VF-0 and SV-51 too, maybe?) could be used on the upcoming VF-4; after all, since this is to be a fully assembled and pre-colored and painted toy of the exclusive variety, it should include as many gimmicks as possible to justify the premium MSRP they're likely to charge. And I second the notion of including, at the very least, a GU-11 compatible gun mount. And the conformal missiles should indeed be detachable with discrete tabs on the fuselage recesses and slots on the missiles themselves. I'm more than satisfied to wait for substantial sale prices on the VF-19s and VF-17s, but the VF-4 is one of those must-haves that I'll pony-up for as soon as HLJ pre-orders are announced, provided they're cleared to carry it... I hope so.

I'm sure he's serious, but don't call him Shirley...

No need to hope for that which has already been confirmed. The only thing I'd hope for is that Yamato would reconsider the web exclusive release and make it a regular one with higher production numbers, but I know better. Edit: SDK7 beat me to it...

Add me to the impatient, picture demanding, peanut gallery...

This! Pilot size is almost never indicative of the actual scale of a Mecha model or toy; they often tend to be woefully under sized.

Ooooh, first I've heard of this. Avatar the Last Airbender was an awesome series; in my opinion, the best animation series to come out of the US since the first two seasons of Gargoyles... even the new Thundercats, as good as it is, does not hold a candle to the epic scope, style, animation quality and choreography, coherent non-self-conflicting story telling, richness of the history and cultures depicted, and general flow of a story with a definite beginning, middle and end... and not an enticlimatic WTF ending at that! And now Nickelodeon is set to debut a sequal focusing on one of Aang's decendents?!!!... Nice bit of Thread Necromancy by the way...

http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=FIG-KAI-3236&template=default/product/e_display.html

That would explain it, but it's a shame nevertheless. Now Max Factory, bring on ED-209 and Robot Cain in the same scale (not size/height) as the Robocop figure... I double dare ya... please...

Regarding Figma's Robocop: The metalic finish with the varying anodized areas is absolutely stunning, and the figure is roughly in scale, give or take, with Revoltech's Iron Man and War Machine... that's always a plus for those who like size/scale consistency on a display shelf. However, I feel that Max Factory missed a chance to design Murphy's head to use a removal helmet instead of the whole upper half of the skull being removable... that way one could have had a helmet-less Robocop with Peter Weller's likeness as a display option. I also found many joints (waist, hips, etc.) to be looser than the average Figma, but not as loose as the average Revoltech. And a word of caution -- watch out for the ankle pistons as they pop out very easily and could get lost.

For a perfect transformation 1/60 VF-2SS including detachable SAP, squires/bits, and a stand I'd gladly fork over up to $300.00. Even though a Valkyrie II toy would pretty much fulfill my "Holy Grail" wishes, $400 would be a NO and $500 would be a HELL NO. Compared to the VF-2, or the VF-4 for that matter, the VF-17 just doesn't rank as high in my desirability scale and so I don't feel it's worth the asking price of admission, specially when you take into account that Bandai's renewal VF-25 MSRPs for little more than half the price of Yamato's latest offerings. It's a shame since I would truly like to have at least one example of it, but Yamato's high price point coupled with the atrocious Dollar-Yen exchange rate have priced me completely out of the game.

No sir, surfing pocket battle carrier just does not work for me... it just pushes my that's-is-going-way-too-far button. It does not invalidate all the other cool stuff strewn throughout the movie, but it does diminish its overall tone in my eyes.

Not a surprise given the E7-Kawamori connection, but that does not make it any less of a ridiculous concept and execution. It's one thing to have a small Mech surf the air and another thing entirely to have a giant transforming battle carrier do it (granted it was “falling with style”, not flying); in E7 that concept was built into that universe's “physics” and an integral part of what made that show unique... it was never a part of Macross, in any incarnation, that I can recall. The thing is that I thought the beginning of that sequence was brilliant: the Quarter using that big piece of orbital debris to use as a reentry shield equals awesome and makes sense, but then turning the remaining chunk into a surf board equals slapstick inanity. Overall, I'd say that both movies were decent in their own right (1st better than 2nd for me), with many cool visuals, battle sequences and musical choreography, but I thought the series was much better.

The one thing I found eye rollingly tacky in Sayonara No Tsubasa was the Macross Quarter channeling the Nirvash in Gallia 4's atmosphere... totally silly!

I think the shoulders are a bit too wide and the arms slightly too thick; otherwise, it looks pretty good and does a decent job of capturing the likeness of the character... it's not Figma, Figuarts or even Revoltech standard but i'm sure it won't be anywhere near the rarified price ranges of those lines either.

http://www.animesenshi.com/mobile-suit-gundam-unicorn-episode-4/

What kind of additive prototyping process are you employing, SLA, SLS, ABS extrusion, other?

Or it could be done with dry transfers which would look far better than stickers. The only down side is that decals, dry transfers, or stickers all depend on user application and none of them look quite as good as factory applied silk screening or tampo printing.

What, do you think you're a Jedi or something? Besides, mind tricks don't work on me, only money...

IMO, Basara is not so much a character as he is a plot device. So yeah, Gamlin is the show's hero. As for question as to why pre-orders aren't as brisk for the VF-17, I guess it's a price point thing... I like the VF-17's design a lot (D more than "mongo forehead" S), but not enough to drop that much moola on one single item.

Web exclusives; that's a shame, but oh so typical. I'd be very interested in a group buy for the VF-25S but wonder if I should wait for the Armored version instead. One thing is for certain: secondary market prices for these are going to be insane. Edit: Graham beat me to it... yeah, I think I'd be more interested in the Armored Ozma, and since I don't buy multiples of the same character's unit, and I already have a VF-25F, I don't really care for Alto's Super Pack equiped version.

After a couple of days to play around and admire the renewal VF-25F, I must say it's one hell of a piece, and the gloss finish bothers me a lot less than I expected... it's glossy but not automotive gloss, so it's less blatant than I anticipated -- I would still have preferred a matte finish, but whatever; this thing is absolutely stunning. My copy is tight all over with just a slightly less stiff right shoulder, but still more than adequate; the paint and tampo prints are perfectly indexed with no smudging or over/under applications, and no glue finger prints or other unsightliness in evidence, with one exception: I did get the same chewed up edged on the right LERX/swing bar that has been reported by some other members... it's not that noticeable unless you're looking directly at it up close, but it is a flaw in an otherwise perfect representation of the FV-25F; I may be able to "fix" it so that it will be mostly invisible, but still a bummer. One thing is for sure, given its price point and included extras, on the bang_for_the_buck-o-meter Bandai's 1/60 renewal VF-25 trounces Yamato's recent 1/60 offerings. IMO, their relative complexities, engineering and QC are comparable so, advantage -- V2 VF-25s. Of course, things could change if these things do not stand up well over time.

Personally I'd like it if it were closer to Ivanov's SV-51 in color, only darker still -- near black even, with a slight blue/purple hue added into the overall tone. Regardless, I may have to skip/postpone purchasing this bird since I find $300.00 plus to be too exorbitant a price for a plastic toy... so many other things where that wad of cash would be better spent.