Chronocidal

Actually, I think that makes some sense, in terms of real life aircraft markings. Those stripes aren't decoration. That stripe on the legs (or any plane around this region ahead of the exhausts) usually is an indicator for where the front of the engine is (not sure if it means very front, or maybe the location of part of the compressor). Up to the point in the 80's where all the planes lost their nice shiny high-vis markings, these stripes were red. On camoflaged planes, they generally are painted grey. Granted, a bright red fighter is nothing like camoflage. But I've never seen those stripes blue before on any aircraft. The grey color looks like it matches with the grey used on the intake warnings, since red wouldn't show up.

I know I've got that book stashed somewhere, I'll see if I can find it tomorrow, and post up the ones you're missing (provided they're all listed to begin with). Now a big question... Who here has enough legos to rebuild the collector series star destroyer in all red bricks to make a UCS Errant Venture?

I was drunk for halloween. Meh, not really, but once you get past trick or treating age, halloween basically turns into "excuse to have a drunken costume party" day, or "this is my chance to get away with dressing like a total slurm" day. In the case where you happen to have a large anime-watching group of friends, it generally turns into "slightly less awkward and nationally sanctioned cosplay" day.

Yeah, the hands are straight out of bionicle sets (on of the most useful part they've made yet I think, they're ball jointed, and perfect for gripping things). Really, the big thing that made this possible was a particular bionicle set- a giant tank/walker transforming thing that came with 16 of the biggest click joint Lego makes (same type that support the giant AT-AT legs), and a good set of newer ball/socket joints that are more stiff than the standard bionicle figures. That set is a treasure trove of mech-building parts (since, well, that set IS a giant transforming mech). Lego's even introduced some type of sliding hydraulic joint part that just provides tension on an axle. I may rebuild this some more to strengthen the main body joints, and give the legs a bit more tension. Might adjust the proportions some too, though I dunno how much longer I can make the nose without making it slide like the v2 1/60. If I do make instructions for it, it'll be a while, since I want to refine the design a lot more. And I might just offer them free honestly. Last time I did freelance work online, it screwed with my taxes and almost wasn't worth the hassle.

Actually, it might be possible to get a regular minifig in this one..I started that way, and changed it at some point to make the canopy shape better. I'd just have to hollow out the nose, and replace the canopy. The type of bubble canopy in the A-wing kits should work fine. Might even reduce the weight a bit, which would be good.

Ok, a bit worried about what I'm seeing... Do those both have limp head lasers? My Hikaru 1J lasers went completely limp in fighter after one transformation, and these look like they're drooping already.

Good thing this is a three paycheck month... I'm gonna need it

lol.. once I figure out that antigravity device, sure. This thing is extremely unstable as is. They might work in fighter, but I think anything past that would be tempting fate.

going to gerwalk... done And moving to battroid.. Yeah.. this sucker is a bit huge. Posing in battroid is a balancing act, and although the legs can be positioned pretty well, the joints still aren't stiff enough to do any fancy poses. It really needs the mid-thigh pivot before any real poses would be possible, and even then, the weight will make problems. It's fairly sturdy in fighter and gerwalk, but moving to battroid makes it very clear why Yamato used a metal plate for the chest piece on the v2 1/60.. While that joint was incredibly sturdy on my 1/18 version, shrinking to this size reduced that joint to a giant failure point that'll break easily. Still, I'd say it's an overwhelming success compared to my aborted giant one. It's by no means perfect transformation, since you have to remove the head, and reattach the legs for battroid by adding the main hip joints, but I was really happy at some of the details I was able to cram in.

So, a few people might remember the ginormous 1/18th-ish lego VF-1S I made back a couple years ago (still have the pics up at http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/34788 ). Well, I took that apart when I moved out. Just took too much space. But I figured someday I'd return to it... That someday started about two weeks ago, when I moved my lego collection out of my parents house. I restarted from scratch, shrinking the overall size, with the intention of hitting about 1/32 scale this time, and just about nailed it (from the pictures, it's about the length of two 1/60 valks). I finally found a decent set of huge hinges to use, and used them to great extent. Overall result is about the same posability of a chunky monkey, with the rough proportions of a V.2 1/60. The arms are a bit weak, and probably need a rebuild. Anyway, to the pics! Early pic, when I still had ball/socket joints in the hips... weight made me change those out fast when the arms got added. But the poses possible here were awesome. Second progress shot, before a few leg changes and the tail section test shot for the gunpod Fighter mode comparison This shot amazed me that the feet didn't break clean off.. this thing is heavy. underside tails fold up nicely continued....

Hmm.. It may have been in that huge collection somewhere and I missed it, but I wonder if anyone has actually tried doing the costume that Nanase designed for Ranka? I'm pretty sure it was Alice in Wonderland themed, and I coulda sworn it had bunny ears. There was one outfit in that collection that looked kinda similar, but no bunny ears (or giant spoon for that matter ).

Ok, THAT is an interesting thing.. instead of making the entire fins and tails as decals, they only made the smaller portion a decal.. that could be bad, since now, you have to match your red paint to the red decal, or nothing will match. Oh well, for markings that big, I'd rather just paint them all on anyway.

Assuming the VE-1 has the same friction-type head mount as the other v2 1/60s, I'd check and see if another Valk's head fits it, or if the VE-1 head fits another neck. The hole in the head might be a bit big, or the neck might be too small. Either way though, I think you could fix that just by applying something to the head peg to make it a bit bigger (preferably something you can sand down if it gets too big). I coated a couple pegs on my SV-51s' wings in super glue to enlarge them, and that seemed to work well for that. Depending on how loose the head is though, it may take a few coats of glue before you get it big enough. BTW, I use an extra thick superglue for this, so I can build up a bit of a bulge fairly quickly. I wish I could get into my VF-1J's head to fix the floppy lasers, but the gaps are too small to get to the hinges easily, and I think they're riveted on. Still no ideas on how to get the head apart? Edit: K, I know what's wrong with the head lasers.. the hinge pins that keep them on are press fit, and the surface of the head is not quite perpendicular to the pivot axis.. When I first got it, the head lasers were fine in fighter... after rotating up to battroid the first time (quite a bit of friction here the first time), they're completely limp, except in battroid. If I reach into the head with a pin, and press outward on the hinge pins while pressing the laser mounts down tight, they'll go tight enough to stay level in fighter... but rotate them up for battroid again, and the pins pull loose, making the lasers limp again. I'm wondering now if I just have a head that got molded badly. Has anyone else had this happen? Should I maybe think about ordering a replacement?

Assuming you're talking about the folding/rotating tail assembly, my new Nora wasn't bad, but the left tail was a bit limp. I already risked breaking my Alpha fixing its limp tail, so I chose the quick and easy path (and somehow managed to avoid the dark side.. this time). Basically the tail was flopping back a bit easily, so to tighten the joint up, I applied some super glue to a pushpin, and used that to apply a VERY TINY AMOUNT to the shaft the tail rotates on. I rotated the tail around a bit to get the glue spread out, kept rotating it till it dried, and it firmed up that joint nicely. You might be able to do the same for the hinge for the lower fin attached to the tail, if that's what you're trying to fix. Note, the super glue did leave a trace of white residue on the plastic, but it's fairly well hidden.

Well, same issue as Fatalist, just in a smaller scale. Anyone have tips for tightening a 1/60 v2 VF-1J's head lasers? Both of mine are completely limp when forward, but tighten up when raised to battroid position.

Time to update... 1/48: Still a single Hikaru Super 1J 1/60: 7 - Nora, SV-51a, and v2 Strike Roy, Hikaru 1A and 1J, and Super M&Ms (and all bought within about a month ) This winter is going to be expensive too. Yay for having a job! Correction: Added the M&M Super 1J's.. my wallet is crying. That's 7 new valks since the HLJ free shipping sale.

I think any Roy is a crapshoot. I waited over a year to buy mine and it still had busted shoulders, same for my Hikaru 1A. On the brighter side of things, I just got my Hikaru 1J from Overdrive, and it's got the updated shoulders with the smaller pins (no updated nose hatch though).

Why not just rework the Bandai one from Frontier? They're quite different, but I think if you strip off a lof of the exterior details they'd be the same base shape.

I never cared for the normal tie that much, but I might be tempted to get an interceptor... I like the smaller vertical space it takes. The only reason I have 4 big X-wings is because they're so easy to disassemble. I have all of them in a single box, all in various stages of reworking/fixing. My A-wing and B-wing sit vertically, so they don't take up much space.. shoot, the b-wing is standing on it's cockpit in between two boxes, it barely takes up any room at all that way.

It's VERY tempting to pre-order.. but I'd rather have them ship together, and although the YF-21/VF-22s have been pretty solid so far, I'd rather wait for a solid review.. would also give me time to save up for them, since I could potentially order a double M&M set (VF-1Js and VF-22s). If I wait long enough, I could get all 4 at once (and then take out a small loan)

I'd be guessing no, since it's a design flaw that's been there from the start, and would require an entire rebuild of the toy's internals to fix. The wing mechanism doesn't have the tension to hold the wings steady (or even fully opened for that matter) and the mounting points for the rubbery wings are just shoddy, with way too much play in them. Beautiful as they are, I've never displayed these X-Wings in any way other than standing on the engines so I don't see the wing slop.

Nice, now my lone 1/48 yammie won't feel so lonely on the shelf. One thing I hope they change... that canopy is a bit fugly. Looks really fat and bulbous, even worse than the Yamato 1/48. Aside from that, I'm lookin forward to painting up a few of these.. finally have a good use for all those spare F-14 decals I get. I wonder how long it'll be before someone rips the internals out of a Yamato one to see if they fit in this thing?

Well, since I finally have more than one valk (1/48 Hikaru Super 1J is still my fave) I can finally say I have a collection. The 1J has stayed in the box till now, but I might have to actually come up with a way to display them now... Might try some poses later, but for now.. you know those "that's so crazy it just might work" moments? I love those. Especially when they actually do. I can kind of understand the 1/60 pylons being swappable, but never expected the 1/48 to be identical. Btw no, there isn't enough room on the v.2 1/60 for all four 1/48 missile pods. But there IS room for 12 reaction missiles on the SV-51.

You know.. I'm actually glad I think. Much as I'd like more episodes, seeing this get the big screen treatment should be epic. Disappearance has enough material for probably 4 episodes, but I'd much rather watch the whole thing at once. I mean, I read the book long ago, so there's no real cliffhangers for me. I'd rather see it all in one continuous story than broken up over several weeks. Haruhi is one anime I really do prefer to watch in one sitting, just to get the whole picture, or at least watch it an arc at a time. Also, storyline-wise, I think this works out better. Disappearance is a serious turning point in the series, and opens the door to what has always felt like a second act to me.. . I remember trying to come up with a good episode breakdown to fit everything in, and one of the longer arcs always wound up getting left out. With Disappearance a standalone, it should open up a third season to really dig into things. Provided that is, that they don't alter the story to remove references to the later books, and use it to completely finish off the series. That would make me sad.

Sigh.. I thought I was done ordering stuff, but it's addictive. I just got my free shipping HLJ order of an SV-51a, v.2 Roy and v.2 Strike 1A Hikaru (seriously shipped in 4 days, I was shocked), and fell in love with the SV-51. So now I ordered a Nora and a plain Hikki 1J from Overdrive to take advantage of their sale too (probably just use the strike parts on the 1J instead of adding an extra fast pack set). And I'm still waiting for that half-priced Michael VF-25 kit to get here.. stupid HLJ shipped it by itself when the other stuff I ordered never got back in stock. This is gonna be an expensive fall and winter, especially with the complete M&M set I plan to buy But I plan to space them out a bit.. maybe one order per month. Might get a VF-1D too, but I want to wait to see if it goes on sale.