Bandai 1/72 Scale Macross Frontier Plastic Models

[David Hingtgen]

Ok, that's enough "Macross screws" usage to irk me to make a public statement: The semi-official term used for years to describe them is "circle-bar vernier". And regardless of correct designation or not, it's definitely a vernier of some kind, not a giant mecha screw.

Circle-bar vernier

[Graham]

Finished mine over the weekend too... used minimum paint (canopy, canopy frame, side sensors, visor) and stickers as well but I ended rubbing off about 3 of them trying to transform it for the first time I hope the DX toy doesn't need as many stickers as this one.

Very nice looking kit, I found funny the difference in size of the 3 sets of hands included (the one for the gunpod feels a bit oversized). I'll post pictures later.

Graham, did you use the Gundam marker for the "macross screws" as somebody was asking in a previous post?

Yes, I used the Gundam marker for the circle-bar verniers.

I also painted the visor, but I painted it on the inside, so the paint wont rub off.

The paint is starting to rub off the canopy frame on mine. I also painted the bklack stipe on the front center chest plate and that started to rubb off afer one transformation, so I used the sticker, which looks pretty good.

Graham

[Titen-ex]

For those having trouble with rubbing did you sand the area before paint?

And any word yet on the Quarter,if it'll come out as a kit or a toy?

[Kurisama]

And any word yet on the Quarter,if it'll come out as a kit or a toy?

I think the more pressing question is - when the freaking hell are we going to get a 1/72 Q-Rea? I'd get at least 2, one in a Klan paint scheme and another for the Eye-patch-Zent-dude's paint scheme!

[regult]

I think the more pressing question is - when the freaking hell are we going to get a 1/72 Q-Rea? I'd get at least 2, one in a Klan paint scheme and another for the Eye-patch-Zent-dude's paint scheme!

Probably never? The Q-rea is one mecha I am looking forward too, piliot figure of the characters inclusive!! but...I think we're not going to see it anytime soon. This is off-topic, I know, but one last sentence: don't forget the cannon-fodder livery in Galia IV and the Nene and Raramia versions!!

Back to Alto's mecha: cannot gather how to apply the decals or stickers on the wings now that I've assembled it! but neither can align the stripes to the wing-root ones without putting the parts together

wolfx: as you can see, I am already overwhelmed even before applying stickers/decals! but still not completely put-off...will probably give Ozma's VF-25S one chance. Guess I am just too put off by the DX toy!

[Graham]

I made some progress, after panel line and clean up, painted landing gears and cockpit, head, now assembled 1 leg and the front of the plane. I took a shortcut and decided to use the sticker for the crotch area, what about you guys??

I am also puzzled at the instructions, which seem to tell me to add the decals or stickers during assembly, is that really necessary? I am also not sure what to do with the "big screws", they're moulded, so applying the decals could be tricky...and I am not great at painting with a brush, but have no clue how to do it otherwise.

I also used the sticker for the crotch area.

I built my kit first before applying the stickers, but discovered after that there are some stickers that should be applied during assembly, such as the long black stripes on the wings. If you apply them after assembly, you will have to trim some of the sticker, as the end of the wing is hidden inside the wing glove (think that's the correct technical name).

Graham

[Graham]

For all HK based members.

Heh, went to the Waile Models on Wanchai road again today at lunch and they had even increased the price to HK$630 (wankers)!

Then I walked 5 minutes down the road to the little hobby shop on Cross Lane (not sure of the shop's name) and they had 2 or 3 cartons of the kit, which they were selling for HK$299 per kit!

Graham

[regult]

Graham,

you have just given me "double woops" and this is no technical vocabulary...299 in Wanchai!! and confirmed my fear that I will not be able to apply the decals properly now that the thing is assembled. This is what I have so far: spent a lot of time trying to paint the landing gear, but Tamiya flat white just does not stick properly, so after repeated trial and error, decided to leave it unpainted, but had to do the hydraulics, rubber and hubs, also had to do some weathering and washing with gundam pens and/or black paint...looks so much better afterwards!! if the panel lines were not higlighted, the real seams would be distracting and too obvious.

Another part that demanded a lot of time was the cockpit frame. I tried masking and painting, but then opted to go "commando" and rely on my "naked" hand.

Alto hime was challenging too, I don't have the proper color, so he turned out to be a bit blueyish...he's too underscaled, which made it harder to paint. I decided to use decals instead of the stickers, have a hard time aligning them, so the decals will give me that extra time to nudge and adjust, but I guess without a clear coat I will be losing them pretty soon (?!)

Edited October 6, 2008 by regult

[Graham]

Just saw one of the shops in Tai Yuen Street, Wanchai had a stack of 12 kits on the table outside their shop, selling for HK$329 each.

I think the name of the shop is Hung Hing Wholesale. It's the shop on the right hand side of the street, if you are entering Tai Yuen Streen from Johnston Road.

Graham

[Graham]

Graham,

you have just given me "double woops" and this is no technical vocabulary...299 in Wanchai!! and confirmed my fear that I will not be able to apply the decals properly now that the thing is assembled. This is what I have so far: spent a lot of time trying to paint the landing gear, but Tamiya flat white just does not stick properly, so after repeated trial and error, decided to leave it unpainted, but had to do the hydraulics, rubber and hubs, also had to do some weathering and washing with gundam pens and/or black paint...looks so much better afterwards!! if the panel lines were not higlighted, the real seams would be distracting and too obvious.

Another part that demanded a lot of time was the cockpit frame. I tried masking and painting, but then opted to go "commando" and rely on my "naked" hand.

Alto hime was challenging too, I don't have the proper color, so he turned out to be a bit blueyish...he's too underscaled, which made it harder to paint. I decided to use decals instead of the stickers, have a hard time aligning them, so the decals will give me that extra time to nudge and adjust, but I guess without a clear coat I will be losing them pretty soon (?!)

I haven't started painting the landing gear on mine yet, I'll probably also just end up using Gundam markers.

I also painted the cockpit frame by hand. Tried masking it in the begining, but it was too fiddly and I just don't have the patience to cut dozens of tiny bits of tape to fit. Plus the only tape I had in the house was electrical tape, which left a nasty residue on the cockpit and took ages to clean off.

Haven't tried Alto yet. Will probably attempt him next weekend.

Regult, I notice from your pics, you haven't trimmed off the parts where you trimmed or cut the off the sprue. I think about a third of the time I took building the kit was taken up by using a scapel and file for trimming after I clipped the parts off the sprue.

Graham

[GGemini]

Yes, I used the Gundam marker for the circle-bar verniers.

I also painted the visor, but I painted it on the inside, so the paint wont rub off.

The paint is starting to rub off the canopy frame on mine. I also painted the bklack stipe on the front center chest plate and that started to rubb off afer one transformation, so I used the sticker, which looks pretty good.

Graham

"circle-bar vernier"... noted.

That sticker (the one in the chest plate) is precisely the one I damaged trying to transform it... I hope it was a problem with the transformation and not because it's actually a part that will be rubbing against another.

And yes, painting the visor from the inside gives it a very nice look to it

@regult:

nice work w/alto! I went for the "colored canopy" to avoid painting everything inside. Couldn't find clear purple-ish so I went with blue (as it was used in one of the kits shown here before) and it doesn't look bad at all

[David Hingtgen]

I plan on free-handing the canopy---masking rarely works for those in my case. (though strangely, when I was like 12, I got an SR-71 canopy just perfect with magic tape)

Anyways---any resin casters etc plan on making us an actual 1/72 Alto? I can deal with 1/72 pilots, but Alto seems 1/100 at best, which is beyond my ability to make look decent.

PS----IMHO, the VF-25 has pale grey landing gear, based on the anime. They also don't have launch bars. And pale grey paint usually has MUCH better coverage than white paint. I'm going to remove the launch bar and paint the gear grey.

[Spitze]

No mods needed. Make sure the joint near the intakes/hips are pulled all the way down. The nose actually dips until it can touch the ground but you can adjust the knees or the hip joint.

Is anyone going to kill me when I say that I am contemplating on a VF-25 with swept-forward manta-shape wings like a VF-19F/S?

Though I have yet to see anyone really mod the Bandai 1/100 VF-19 F/S model kit to make it transform perfectly with better proportions.

[regult]

Regult, I notice from your pics, you haven't trimmed off the parts where you trimmed or cut the off the sprue. I think about a third of the time I took building the kit was taken up by using a scapel and file for trimming after I clipped the parts off the sprue.

Don't have a scalpel, but did use a knife and tamiya modelling sand paper (up to 2000 grit only...), but probably some parts were forgotten or left imperfect because I was tired...I know exactly what you mean, I think I spent twice as much time doing the sanding and polishing than actual building...painting was also very time consuming. My wife kept telling me to enjoy the process (the "fun of it"), but I was just tired of gundam pens, trimming, thinner, washing the brush...I wanted to see the VF-25!!

IMHO, the VF-25 has pale grey landing gear, based on the anime. They also don't have launch bars. And pale grey paint usually has MUCH better coverage than white paint. I'm going to remove the launch bar and paint the gear grey.

I totally agree with you: I really didn't see any launch bars in the anime, and the landing gears are usually light grey or off-white. Actually, after posting the photos, I tried using one of the Tamiya flat grays but it didn't go too well either, maybe I should just leave it because I washed the landing gear with thinner too many times and I don't want to damage them. May consider cutting off that horrible, orversized launch bar. In one split second, forgot the episode sorry, you could clearly see Michel's valk's nose gear up close, and the wheels were into some kind of catapult (sorry, not sure what's the proper macross terminology), without the help of a bar.

[wolfx]

wolfx: as you can see, I am already overwhelmed even before applying stickers/decals! but still not completely put-off...will probably give Ozma's VF-25S one chance. Guess I am just too put off by the DX toy!

Sigh....guess i'll wait for an armored Ozma to be released before i reattempt the kit.

I also used the sticker for the crotch area.

I built my kit first before applying the stickers, but discovered after that there are some stickers that should be applied during assembly, such as the long black stripes on the wings. If you apply them after assembly, you will have to trim some of the sticker, as the end of the wing is hidden inside the wing glove (think that's the correct technical name).

Graham

Actually I didn't have a problem with the wings. I just swivel them out when i need to and apply the decals. Probably the decals and stickers vary in the size?

And to the ppl who paint the pilots....how in god's name did you do it? Its SOOOOOOO SMALL! I painted warhammer stuff before but the 1/72 pilot is ridiculous!

[wm cheng]

... but Tamiya flat white just does not stick properly, so after repeated trial and error, decided to leave it unpainted...

Hey Regult, what do you mean the Tamiya flat white doesn't stick properly? I plan of painting this sucker entirely when I receive this kit and I almost exclusively use Tamiya acrylics.

Do I need to primer the entire model first? Flat white is tricky to get good coverage. Sometimes if the part is really molded in a dark plastic, I spray a grey primer first to bring up the shade and eliminate any color tint for the white to lay over - white never has good coverage, but also flat white is better than gloss white at coverage.

So how does one glue the ABS parts? or is it designed so that the ABS parts don't need to be glued?

[DrunkenMaster2]

Man more I look at this kit, the more I want it. Hmmmm should I or shouldn't I. Maybe I'll wait and see how WM Cheng turns out, he said he'll do a step-by-step with this kit.

[Master Dex]

I have to wonder if it is better to panel line and sticker the model before assembly so you don't run into problems of hard to reach places like the aforementioned wing glove. At least for panel lining it makes sense due to the fact that each piece can be done independently.

[big F]

I was thinking th every same thing the other day. I have in the past sprayed things while still on the sprews as they are often easier to handle that way but panelining bits may be worth a try.

[miriya]

Im gonna panel line with weathering wash on the sprues and clear coat over that all before cutting from the sprues. But sticker at the end.

Does anyone know if it would be stupid to clear coat again over the stickers?

[David Hingtgen]

I've only found one glue that'll work decently on ABS----Plastruct Weld, orange-label. However, Bandai MG/PG-style ABS is much "harder" than most ABS I've used it on---Plastruct may work better or worse on it. I have read that "UHU Hart" from Germany is the best ABS glue there is for models, but it's hard to find and I never ordered any.

Heads-up to anyone in the US: Mine came today much earlier than I expected, as I had it shipped via SAL. I haven't even finished my practice-Gundam yet.

[Steve68]

RainbowTen has a November re-release date for the VF-25 and the price 3600 yen, plus shipping ~1500 yen for SAL. A pretty good price as long as the dollar doesn't tank between now and then

Steve

Edited October 6, 2008 by Steve68

[Jarrod]

Hey Regult, what do you mean the Tamiya flat white doesn't stick properly? I plan of painting this sucker entirely when I receive this kit and I almost exclusively use Tamiya acrylics.

Do I need to primer the entire model first? Flat white is tricky to get good coverage. Sometimes if the part is really molded in a dark plastic, I spray a grey primer first to bring up the shade and eliminate any color tint for the white to lay over - white never has good coverage, but also flat white is better than gloss white at coverage.

So how does one glue the ABS parts? or is it designed so that the ABS parts don't need to be glued?

FWIW, the paint I used on mine was Tamiya acrylic, airbrushed, and it adhered with no problems at all. I've never primered any Bandai stuf, and never have a problem.

As for glueing the ABS(at least the parts that need/could be glued) I've always just used plain old hobby super glue with no isues. This ABS isn't like the same kind of ABS that you'd find on an assembled toy, its feels and acts a bit more like model styrene. I've glued, sanded, and painted it the same as the rest of Bandai's plastic.

[badboy00z]

Since acrylics are water based they tend to not coat properly if the part is not primed. I would suggest you wash the parts and apply some primer before the actual paint job. I personally like to use lacquer paints. They dry faster and sticks without primer but it's harder to clean up and more harmful to your health.

[badboy00z]

Im gonna panel line with weathering wash on the sprues and clear coat over that all before cutting from the sprues. But sticker at the end.

Does anyone know if it would be stupid to clear coat again over the stickers?

While that will be faster and easier, it would leave the places where it's connected to the sprue different from the rest of the parts. Also the flash needs to the sanded down and that might screw up your weathering.

[miriya]

While that will be faster and easier, it would leave the places where it's connected to the sprue different from the rest of the parts. Also the flash needs to the sanded down and that might screw up your weathering.

Thanks. That is a good point. And I did experience that very thing on the Glaug I just built up. I am going to do a low coverage wash though and stay away from the sprues as much as possible, mainly just for the panel lines. However I am considering just gundam markering the panel lines instead of the wash, which will take more time but will be more precise. HLJ is being really slow though and my sumire grey marker is taking for ever, even just to request payment. Maybe I will shop elsewehre.

[SDF-ONE]

the VF-25 has pale grey landing gear, based on the anime. They also don't have launch bars.

Made some screen shots after reading that post. There is indeed no launch bar. That's an easy improvement to make to the kit. The color varies per fighter (or per shot?).

[maximilian_jenius]

My work

Fighter

Gerwalk

Transformation

Battliod

[maximilian_jenius]

Alto's Style

[VF-19]

So how does one glue the ABS parts? or is it designed so that the ABS parts don't need to be glued?

I found some tube glue by testors (with a metal applicator) that does the job very nicely. It's a bit thinner than gel glue, but not in a water like viscocity.

Also, I finally got mine today. Managed to evade customs, even though the true value was printed on the shipping label. It's a pretty big box, which caught me by surprise.

Crazy thing, is that I would have missed it, as the post office just dropped it off in my back yard. No note in the mailbox whatsoever. Personally, I'd rather they just put it in between my doors...

[wolfx]

use Mr Cement Deluxe. It melts the plastic slightly so when you put 2 of them parts together and dries, they're permanently stuck tight. Works well only on 100% flat surfaces though.....on uneven surfaces, its pretty damn useless.

[Hikuro]

I went to a hobbytown and a michaels to find some wash and micro sol, NOTHING.......did get some doll stands for my Hikaru's but NOTHING.......any other suggestions? Online retailers?

[SuperHobo]

What grade of sandpaper do you guys recommend to slight sand down the left over marks from cutting the parts off?

[David Hingtgen]

Micro sol etc: Will not be found at a "craft" store. Kinda surprised a Hobbytown didn't have them, but not stunned---they focus more and more on radio control these days, and less on kits. Any place that is primarily (or at least heavily) a model railroad place is almost certain to have good supplies for model kit building. If you really can't find it, Spruebrothers (spruebros.com) is a good place to order most anything. They are FAST and you always know if something's in stock. ::checks:: They currently have 9 bottles of Sol and 7 bottles of Set on hand. FYI, miriya and I both ordered our wash from there, and I just ordered some Tamiya paint this morning from them after doing an inventory check and noticing I was out or missing some colors.

Sanding grades: 400, 600 for sanding down bits/nubs. 1000+ for polishing them back up.

[Hikuro]

Hm their website wont load up for me, I can probably guess why.

But before I go crazy on this stuff, Stickers are not a good idea to use with Micro Sol right?