mechaninac

3 AM, if I'm not mistaken.

Just got my 19S from HKC, along with a 17S, last friday; placed the order on the 16th of March, shipped on the 21st. I've got to admit that Yamato's VF-19s are impressive pieces of engineering, but my original nitpicks still hold and have been confirmed: I don't like the ultra gloss finish, I much prefer the matte used on every other VF Yamato has made since the old M+ 1/72s. It's even glossier than what Bandai's been doing with their Frontier fare; Still think the innability to remove the intake covers, if one so choses, to be a major design cop-out on their part. And to those two criticisms I can also add: The LERXes, both sides, are very loose and rotate out of allignment at the slightest touch; They made the toy gloss, so why did they make the sticker sheet matte? Odd; Is the gunpod supposed to point down at 10-15o from horizontal when mounted to the arms in fighter mode? Or am I doing something wrong? Because, if it does point down by design, that's just lame. On the plus side: It is a true improvement over the old YF-19... look ma, no gullet! The blue is beautiful, the yellow is vibrant; if only it were matte it would be perfect... personal preference, I know, but still...; I suppose the gloss finish will make the stickers adhere better... if they only matched the finish of the toy... Overall I'm not sorry I got it, at least now I have one; and I would buy the F model, and maybe even a P, if I could find them for the same price I got on the S.

Thanks Dobber, good to know; I can't wait to see images of your finished fighters, either here or in the workbench thread. I think I'm going to attempt bare metal foil aluminum, with select panels in hasegawa's titanium and duralumin to cover the fuselage in authentic metal; either that or Testor's metalizer aluminum buffed to different sheens.

Laputa, hah! Even though it is lifted straight from Gulliver's Travels, anybody from a Latin background is bound to be innitially puzzled why the title to a Japanese cartoon movie would be "The Wh0r3"... In an attempt to steer this thread back to the title topic, is the overall fuselage color of the Cosmo Zero in 2199 supposed to be a light gray such as FS 36622 (Camouflage Gray) or FS 36495 (Light Gray) or FS 16473 (Aircraft Gray), or is it bare matal like aluminum or titanium?

self-described crapy pictures aside, that such a pretty bird. Thank you for posting. Come on Bandai, let's see some new pictures of the 3D CAD, like you've been doing with your new 1/72 VF-1 kit, or an actual prototype model that's further along in the development process... please...

If 2199 were ever dubbed into Portuguese they would rename her completely to avoid dooky jokes. When Patrulha Estelar (Star Patrol, the name they decided to give Space Battleship Yamato, like the rename to Star Blazers in America), where in the USA Yuki's name was Nova, they gave her the name of Luna, because "nova" just means new, and I'm pretty sure the translation was done from the English version instead of the Japanese as the ship's name, and other details, coincide with the US version. Also, the first time I heard the heroin's name from Pixar's Brave I did a double take because the broguish pronunciation of Merida is pretty close to the way the Portuguese say "merda" (the Brazilian pronunciation not as much), and the spelling... well if you drop the "i"... Edit: Instead of crap does not mean it means crap; nuts in its vernacular still means crazy. But I understand what you're saying; It's like when language in movies gets changed for general broadcast, like when you hear a character say "forget you" in a voice that doesn't quite match, instead of the original and much more colorful F U.

Straying off topic here, but isn't "merde" the French word for "sh!t" (the Portuguese word "merda" sure is...), and "noix", "écrous", and more appropriatly in this context, "fous" French for the English word "nuts", and the Japanese "baka"? I got the impression that, given the specific situation of Okita's remark, that some of the translators were definitely referencing McAuliffe's response to the Germans at the siege of Bastogne.

Holy cow Loop, that's an epic haul! I don't know if I should congratulate you, or call the paramedics to give your wallet some much needed emergency care; either way, I am in awe of your buying spree... makes my meager purchase pale in comprison.

I don't quite get the "Space Station Politics" complaint; after all, DS9's undertone for its entire run was the politics of having a starfleet command crew administering a Bajoran station of Cardassian construction in a hot zone of trade and migration (the wormhole) where the often conflicting political interests of the Federation, Bajorans, Cardassians, Klingons, etc., and the entire Gamma Quadrant clashed, occasioanally leading to armed conflict, with poor Benjamin Sisko caught between his role as emissary, commander, father, and starfleet officer, forced into "herding cats"... and sometimes failing at it or being forced into positions of moral/ethical ambiguity. DS9 had its share of problems, but the political intrigue and less than Utopian setting and situations confronting the characters, and having them make the best off of the bad was the entire point; i.e. "this is not Starfleet".

I don't know which is best, but there are two Tachikomas that include an in-scale Motoko figure (there may be more, IDK): one is a 1/18-ish die-cast and ABS piece by Good Smile Company with an articulated Kusanagi action figure, the other is an all ABS by Megahouse at 1/20 with a fixed pose (I think) in-cockpit figure of the Major. They're both long out of production and very pricey to acquire at this point, just check ebay to see what I mean. I have the Good Smile one and it is a magnificent piece, the only thing that keeps it from being a perfect masterpiece is that it tends to be somewhat floppy and hard to pose dinamically or to hold any even slightly "extreme" pose because of its weight and loose, even though they're detented, joints.

Indeed. I've just been delivered my small haul from HKC, like 5 minutes ago. I just love it when things just fall into place: Being able to get a pretty good deal on a VF-19S and VF-17S, non-express (less expensive) shipping transiting fairly quickly, and me getting the day off to be home to sign for the package upon its arrival. A good Friday. Happy Easter/Passover everyone.

I've got the F and don't see any real need to get a second as I do not double dip on the same unit in the same scale, although I can absolutely understand that some people desire more than one in order to display multiple modes and pack loadouts at the same time. The one I will definitely park my a$$ in front of the computer in order to secure is Ozma's 25S (and actually contemplating breaking my own no boubles rule because I have the Armor pack for it, but that huge skull art on top/back deserve to be seen too), which is a shoe-in for a reissue shortly after Alto's Messiah.

Let the preorder shenanigans begin in T-minus 2 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes...

It's a pun on the recent announcement of the July rerelease of the DX VF-25F Alto Custom Renewal; but as with all jokes, if you have to explain it the punch line is lost.

There are also: RGM-89De Jegan ECOAS RGM-96X Jesta RGM-96X Jesta Cannon RGM-79SP GM Sniper II has been release in the HGUC line.

Awesome news. I knew it would be just a matter of time before reissues of the renewal 25s got announced; actually surprised it's starting so soon on the heels of the release of the RVF-25, to be honest. I eagerly await the reissue of the VF-25S, as that is the one I need to complete my collection; of course, I'll have to secure a preorder at that time... no easy feat where these Bandai DXs are concerned.

You -- are -- killing -- me!...

Ahhhh! Don't do that... I've already spent far too much this month

And here I thought new content had been posted...

Not bad... that VF-19P really does a nice job of complementing the cherry picker truck...

My recent order from HKC just cleared customs in New York yesterday. Soon I'll get to enjoy, or regret, the fruits of my impulse buy, but at least I'll be able to check off the VF-19S and VF-17S from my list of to-get items that are rapidly becoming scarce. Now, the only two that I'd like to purchase to close out my Yamato Macross collection are the VF-1A CF TV version and the VF-22S Max; after that, aside from Bandai's Frontier DXs, I can comfortably say that I'm done... until and if Arcadia steps into the vaccum Yamato is leaving in its wake.

The most hastle free, least involved, way to apply a top clear coat is to use a rattle can. In my opinion it is best to spray subassemblies whenever possible when dealing with 1/144 Gundam kits; the more subassemblies the better as you'll have a much better chance to get to every nook and cranny with minimal overspray since they are much easier to handle than a whole model; with things like aircraft kits you'd be doing the whole assembled model, minus landing gears and equipment/weapons stores, but in the case of articulated humanoid mecha kits you have the luxury of separating limbs, etc. With MG (1/100) and PG (1/60) Gundam models you have even more freedom because most/all armor panels are removable, so you can spray the inner frame subassemblies and all the armor bits separately. Always remember that successive light coats are better than one single heavy coat (go too heavy and you'll get dripping, pooling, runs, and the flat coat will lose it's dullness... not good). Also make sure to leave off or mask anything you don't want coated. And make sure to spray in a well ventillated area as free of dust as possible.

Panel lining your Gundam kit will greatly enhance its appearance. Since you're new to modeling and not really interested in advanced techniques such as washes, your best bet is to get a hold of some fine tipped gundam markers ( I'm partial to the fine tipped gray pens myself as they yield a less harsh result than the black ones). Just run the tip along inside edges and grooves until you get the desired build-up/depth of ink, let dry for a bit and then wipe with your finger until most of it is gone except for the amount you desire; repeat as many times as necessary until you've achieved the look you want. An alternate method is to park the tip on a location along the line you desire to line and let capillary action carry the ink as far as it will go, then move the tip to where the ink stopped to spread and repeat so that it travels further, then repeat until the whole edge or groove is inked (you will be left with several pinpoints of ink that you can easily clean by running a clean fingertip or thumb over the area to wipe out the excess. The best part of using gundam markers though is that if you really screw up it's easy to clean off using a Q-tip dipped with a bit of alcohol. Regarding clear coats, the reason to use them is to seal your pen lining, washes, dry brushing, sticker/dry transfer/decal application, etc., so that they don't get worn off due to handling of the model. It also serves the purpose, in the case of a dull or flat coat, of making the kit look more like a model and less like a toy in that it tones down the shine of the bare plastic and makes the plastic look less platic-y... it tends to make everything look more unified. The way I hadle separating parts from sprues is to use platic nippers such as PLATO model shears to cut the parts off about 1-2 mm (~ 1/16") from the part itself by having the flat part of the shears face away from the part; this leaves nubs on the part that need to be cleaned up later but prevent damage to the part by mistakingly cutting too close. Once the part is separated from the sprue tree, the nubs can be cut down much closer to the part's surface by turning the shears around so the the flat portion faces the part; just cut very close but do not touch the nipper's cutting surface to the part... you want to be as close as possible without touching. Next, use a No. 11 X-acto blade to cut the remaining bit of nub off the part until you're at the part's survace (this takes some practice and a lot of patience, so take your time); you can use the blade's edge to cut and scrape at the nub until it's gone, and you can use the back of the blade as a scraper too. Sometimes these innitial steps are enough, but most of the time you will need to sand and/or file the spot where the injection gate nub was in order to make everything nice and uniform; I like to use a 280 grit or finer sanding stick such as Micro-Mark's Flex-Pad to eliminate any surface inperfection -- don't be afraid to sand past the nub's spot; if necessary, sand the entire surface of the part. Once the part is evenly sanded down to a 400 grit level finish, use a triple grit polishing stick to get rit of any scratches sanding might have left behind; use only the side with the two different grits (the single sided grit is great for polishing clear parts but is too fine to use on regular parts as it will polish them to a high gloss). After the polishing stick you can give the whole part a further polish by rubbing it with a cotton T-shirt... it does wonders. Also, is some cases you can rub away any offending sprue nub marks with your gingernail. Hope all this helps; I know it looks like a lot of information, but it's all kind of intuitive once you've practiced a bit. Bear in mind, however, that what I've described is what works for me; once you start you'll quickly learn what works best for you. Good luck and happy modeling.

I don't know about a still in "every" ship, but in Scotty's bairn, you better believe it...

I'm scared to think of how many of these new Iron Man 3 suits will see release as Revoltech, et al., figures... I don't think my wallet will be able to survive the merchandising aftermath of this movie...