tetsujin

Wikipedia can be very educational. Basically, it's a process where you take some kind of screen (like a wire, silk, or nylon mesh) and apply a stencil to it (permanently attach a material to certain areas of the screen to block ink from passing through) - then you lay the screen down on something, and apply ink to the other side. Ink will travel through the areas of the screen not blocked off by the stencil, and when you remove the screen you'll have the desired pattern printed. It's very common as a way to create T-shirts, for instance. There are DIY kits for that kind of screen printing. But it looks like what we're talking about here isn't screen-printing at all - it's dithering or halftoning. That happens in any printing process, any time the colors you're trying to reproduce don't correspond to the inks you're using to reproduce them. Dithering of some sort is then the only way to approximate the color. If the design isn't made up of a few easy-to-reproduce colors it's bound to have some of this. Gradients of any kind will be a problem. The effect is terrible on a scale model IMO. Of course, you could simply mix the color you actually want and print with that - this is something that is within the realm of possibility for mass-produced decals and stickers. But I think it's cheaper to just use a consistent set of colors across a whole product line and dither anything that doesn't match up.

Well, not by definition. Screen printing just describes the process used to put pigment onto the decal carrier film. I think that's the main way mass-produced decals are made. But short-run or home-made decals can also be done on a printer.

Cool! I just got mine yeaterday, but haven't had much time to do anything with it yet. I was thinking about getting a 1:100 VF-25 as well... I'm not happy with the sticker situation with that kit but the price is nice at least. I'm thinking about getting multiples of that kit to do a transformation sequence build... But I'm trying hard to buy no more than one kit for each model I finish - strictly speaking I haven't built enough even to get the Thunderbolt, so I couldn't really get another kit beyond that anyway... If you're ordering from HLJ, there are tricks you can do to manipulate what gets shipped.

I would probably just scan the 1:100 sticker sheet instead - though printing decals carries additional limitations, like dithering if you're printing a color your printer doesn't provide. At the very least, though, one would probably be able to print them on ink-jet, since Alto's fighter has a fairly bright white as the background for everything.

Painting the stripes would certainly be a good exercise in masking. There are some markings that would be a bit hard to mask and paint, however: any of the lettering, the warnings on the intakes, etc. At least the "SMS" logo shouldn't be too hard, though...

Mine's already waiting for me at home... I plan to start my build immediately.

I was thinking probably just the Mac Plus scheme for the first one I build. Although I've been wanting to do non-"canon" color schemes and squadron markings and such, I don't have a lot of time if I want it ready for Otakon, and I do like doing "the standards" as well. Mac Plus is what got me into Macross, after all, and on the merits of those few scenes in Ep. 1 I've wanted to build a Thunderbolt for a long time... So going with the standard scheme definitely has its appeal for me, too. If anybody's considering a Battroid mode conversion (and you know we'll see one in a hobby magazine within the next few months...) here's a quick composite I did from the Hasegawa color guide to test out the concept. No parts were resized or reshaped (but see the note below about the wings) I think it would work out rather well... The legs could probably use a bit more length - and it also must be noted that the way I've laid it out, the wings' control surfaces wind up overlapping (so it wouldn't be exactly lineart-accurate unless you folded the control surfaces 180 degrees under the wing, to make room for the rotating segment of the forward fuselage to be seen from behind. And of course there's all sorts of tweaks that could be done to improve it - but I think a straight-up Battroid conversion of this kit, even just using the original fighter-mode proportions of the parts, could turn out rather nicely... (Well, it should also be noted that the image of the forearms, that the back of the forearms - the long side. The short side of the forearm would come up about to about where those scribed triangles are. So the forearms could probably benefit from some overall up-scaling, but still...)

Good timing on that (HLJ) Fedex promotion. I'm looking forward to starting this one as soon as it arrives. I hold out the vain hope that I might manage to finish it in time for Otakon.

Now in stock at HLJ and Hobby Search (with scans!)...

I expect they could get it "close enough" without too much trouble. (Though personally I wouldn't bother - not for optional parts that many people won't care about...) But admittedly my experience with color casting and with making large numbers of castings is rather limited.

The Hasegawa product page lists an approximate release date of the 18th, but notes that it will be shipped out on the 15th. If everything went according to schedule, then that means Hasegawa has already shipped the kits out. If shops really do receive the kit on the 18th, that's about two and a half days away... I'm optimistic that they'll receive it even sooner than that. But we'll see.

It's almost time... The Thunderbolt should be in-stock within the next few days... I can't wait!

They probably could (color-casting isn't too tricky, really) - it would just cost more.

Let's see a 1:72 VF-25 in fighter mode with a smooth, continuous, gapless surface over all those upper-torso/shoulder panels that make up that section of the dorsal fuselage, and then we can talk about "amazing precision".

That's actually Bandai's coporate slogan: "Some damn sloppy work" But of course they usually make the tolerances so forgiving that people praise them for their exceptional engineering quality anyway.

More likely HLJ just miscategorized the kit...

Cool... I especially like the cockpit control panel/monitor and the canopy hinges/edge details... I tried doing an open canopy conversion a while back, didn't do too well unfortunately... So I bet those parts would be a great help. As it happens, I've been recently working on a replacement for the valk's vernier nozzles for a Battroid build. I took a slightly different approach: my plan is to drill out the whole of the original vernier (not just the recessed circle in the middle), mount a resin-cast "thruster bell" detail (just made the original copy last night - just used a 4mm drill bit to bite into the surface of plastic sheet, then drilled out the center with a 2mm bit, and spun the part to create the 4.5mm outer diameter) I had planned on etching my own "multipurpose hook & handle" detail (the circle with the line through it) to go over that. ...I'm guessing your sheet won't be ready soon enough for me to take advantage of the ones you're making, so probably I'll stick to that plan... Maybe I can post up some Battroid WIP sometime this week to share what I've been doing... One thing about those - I don't know how other people feel about this, but on mine I'm moving away from the Hasegawa design for those "handles" and going back to something more like the original - just a straight bar instead of making it thicker at one end. There was a time when I liked the Hasegawa design better, so I can understand why someone would choose to stick with that. But have you given any thought to going with the original "straight-bar" design instead of the Hasegawa design? (EDIT): Also - what about the extending boarding ladder? (Or is it not considered part of the DYRL design? Or is it even worth doing as photo-etch?)

<sigh> I really want one of these... But I can't justify $200 for it right now.

Aw, but you know deep down there's nothing that gets a girl excited like sci-fi scale models.

It's hard to believe the release is only a couple weeks away now! Very exciting... I'm hoping to one done in time for Otakon. It's tough, though... There's so much I'd like to have ready for Otakon.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pink Peckers!

I know what to say to that: "Goddamnit, Bandai, you suck!" I mean, Bandai makes some good stuff. They even make some great stuff. But this sort of thing is why I get pissed off at anybody who gets all teary-eyed fantasizing about how much better all those other mecha kits in the world would be if only Bandai would get the license Scanning and printing decals works but it's not ideal (in particular, ink colors not matching the desired color of the markings. It results in either incorrect colors, like magenta-for-red, or halftoning... Professionally printed decals can use custom ink mixtures which can yield pretty much any color without halftoning... Though Bandai decals still have halftoning sometimes all the same...) But the whole issue has made me look at my reliance upon decals. I mean, do I really need decals to put stripes on the fighter? Even angular/bent stripes like the ones on the VF-25? I should be able to mask and paint that stuff. Even an SMS logo shouldn't be unreasonable to do by hand. I think there are some markings that would be very difficult to do by hand but a lot of what's on the fighter doesn't fall into that category. And I, too, want to do some custom schemes which does take the edge off the decal issue a bit...

For a non-transforming fighter mode build - I think it could be better, honestly. Discarding the transformation system gives you the opportunity to cover up those wing glove hinges, open up the air intakes, fill the various gaps, really line everything up and fit it properly... Though I guess if you started with the intention of a transforming build and only fixed it to fighter mode after building then that could limit your options...

Once I make a bit more progress on it, I will... At the moment there's not too much to show.

Goddamn it...