Bandai DX VF-31

[Bub]

Look at the panel lines.

[seti88]

Thanks for the close up posts bub.

The d05 seems to have deeper lines than the rest tho. Prob a prototype difference or angle, i would thk all of them are the same.

Now...

i see the panel lines for the nose wheel carriage but the old lines i tot were for the wing wheel carriages seem to have disappeared again!

oh well put it down as a prototype....

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Awesome! nice pics.

[David Hingtgen]

It's obviously still just an "exterior sculpt" proto. They haven't done much work on how they're going to hollow out the legs and nose for landing gear. I don't even think the nosegear doors we see are scribed, merely penciled on.

It's got a long way to go, so "winter" sounds likely.

[no3Ljm]

I kinda like the roundness of 01's head turrets' base. Hmmm. Looks like I need to segway a little bit on my 'red black white/tan' only rule and get this one as part of my excempted Valks. Hahaha!

Now when's the preorder again on this one?

[Mommar]

I kinda like the roundness of 01's head turrets' base. Hmmm. Looks like I need to segway a little bit on my 'red black white/tan' only rule and get this one as part of my excempted Valks. Hahaha!

Now when's the preorder again on this one?

01 has Red and White, it's totally within your rules.

[seti88]

I kinda like the roundness of 01's head turrets' base. Hmmm. Looks like I need to segway a little bit on my 'red black white/tan' only rule and get this one as part of my excempted Valks. Hahaha!

Now when's the preorder again on this one?

Gonna take the other view cos those 01 head turrets bug me big time in fighter mode. Doesnt blend in as well as the rest of the valks imo but you prob view it differently..

The 01 is still my fav tho by a very thin margin...

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

i'm so ready for delta 04 shots #teammirage

[seti88]

Hmm the 03 this time looks to be the first radome valk whose radome can be folded away in fighter mode correct?

Would this mean that if there was an armor/ add on pack of some sort that can be mounted on the 04 just like a regular valk...

If so would it mean the first so called radomed armor valk? Ie a radome valk with kickass capability? Any ghosts not withstanding...

That may be worth the price of admission....

Edited April 2, 2016 by seti88

[Mommar]

Hmm the 03 this time looks to be the first radome valk whose radome can be folded away in fighter mode correct?

Would this mean that if there was an armor/ add on pack of some sort that can be mounted on the 04 just like a regular valk...

If so would it mean the first so called radomed armor valk? Ie a radome valk with kickass capability? Any ghosts not withstanding...

That may be worth the price of admission....

Not unless whatever armor Kawamori comes up with replaces that pod section as well.

[Mr Bomber]

i love the paint scheme of the 01

[unlogic]

So if VF-31J release is winter 2016, VF-31S is somewhere in 2017? Far far away!

[seti88]

Not unless whatever armor Kawamori comes up with replaces that pod section as well.

I thk the pod section is what makes the 31 a 31 hence i dont thk it would be removed.

The opposite shld be true though, designing something that would enable the pod section to be raised whilst in armor mode.

[Shukenzero]

Delta 01 and 02 look great. The dark turquoise is nicely done.

[Bub]

Thanks for the close up posts bub.

The d05 seems to have deeper lines than the rest tho. Prob a prototype difference or angle, i would thk all of them are the same.

Now...post-458-0-52424300-1459599928_thumb.jpgpost-458-0-95713000-1459599891_thumb.jpg

i see the panel lines for the nose wheel carriage but the old lines i tot were for the wing wheel carriages seem to have disappeared again!

oh well put it down as a prototype....

Awesome! nice pics.

Thanks, I figured MWers would be interested with the ventral parts of these beauties.

[Mommar]

Oh man, I don't look forward to the pre-orders for these things. I want them all so bad I can't skip either.

[no3Ljm]

01 has Red and White, it's totally within your rules.

Actually, it has some blacks too. But I thought Hayate 05 has that bright red whereas 01 is more on the maroon side of red. But yeah if ever I'm going to get one from this franchise it's going to be 01's.

Gonna take the other view cos those 01 head turrets bug me big time in fighter mode. Doesnt blend in as well as the rest of the valks imo but you prob view it differently..

The 01 is still my fav tho by a very thin margin...

Actually it blends nice btw. Looks more unique and new. I guess we're just used on seeing thinned head turrets over the years.

Edited April 3, 2016 by no3ljm

[seti88]

Oh man, I don't look forward to the pre-orders for these things. I want them all so bad I can't skip either.

I only planned on one, but after watching the first episode again...arghh ....

Actually, it has some blacks too. But I thought Hayate 05 has that bright red whereas 01 is more on the maroon side of red. But yeah if ever I'm going to get one from this franchise it's going to be 01's.

Actually it blends nice btw. Looks more unique and new. I guess we're just used on seeing thinned head turrets over the years.

I noticed in the 1st ep the head turrents seemed lower into the fuselage, thinner and a bit longer. No worries, prob get used to it soon

[M'Kyuun]

I hope the final version battroids have slightly beefier forearms; as they are, they look disproportionate and mechanically anorexic compared to the rest of the thing. Too bad those exterior under-wing panels don't wrap around the forearm. Beyond that, Kawamori, as usual, made a lovely fighter mode.

In all my years of collecting Macross, I have yet to own a single E model valk, and the idea of making that radome origami into a rectangular box intrigues me. I was only planning on getting Delta 02, but I may have to get a VF-31E as well, just because.

Just cycled back a few pages and caught the conversation after my post concerning the retro look of the newer valks, and the ensuing conversation about active vs passive stealth. I appreciate the posted pic of the Grumman ATF Concept 9, of which I was unaware. The YF-23 and YF-22 were the only two ATF designs known to me, so thanks Nazareno2012. Looking at the pic, it's obvious that Kawamori used that design for the VF-9 Cutlass. As for the stealth conversation, the VF-25, 27, 29, 30, and 31 all share aesthetic traits of pre-passive stealth aircraft, which would require other means of avoiding or fooling radar. As I mentioned, there were a host of beautiful fighter designs before stealth aspects informed their designs to an extraordinary degree.

I hope Delta is, at least in part, set in a more terrestrial setting where the valks will fly in atmosphere. Building a traditional looking atmospheric fighter to fight in space makes little practical sense, unless space traversal is merely a requisite evil to move from one planet or station to another, where its aerodynamic design would be of practical use. Lonestar's Space Winnebago would be a more effectice spacecraft than a jet fighter. At least you'd have a restroom.

Edited April 4, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[Valkyrie Driver]

I hope Delta is, at least in part, set in a more terrestrial setting where the valks will fly in atmosphere. Building a traditional looking atmospheric fighter to fight in space makes little practical sense, unless space traversal is merely a requisite evil to move from one planet or station to another, where its aerodynamic design would be of practical use. Lonestar's Space Winnebago would be a more effectice spacecraft than a jet fighter. At least you'd have a restroom.

Well, when you consider that one of the primary concerns for designing a valkyrie, is that they must be able to operate in atmo, and on earth like planets, the jet fighter design aesthetic does actually make sense. As for having a bathroom, well, that's why you relieve yourself before a sortie.

[ManhattanProject972]

Well, when you consider that one of the primary concerns for designing a valkyrie, is that they must be able to operate in atmo, and on earth like planets, the jet fighter design aesthetic does actually make sense. As for having a bathroom, well, that's why you relieve yourself before a sortie.

Or you could be like the Russian Su-34 Fullback which actually has a toilet in its cockpit.

[Nazareno2012]

Well, when you consider that one of the primary concerns for designing a valkyrie, is that they must be able to operate in atmo, and on earth like planets, the jet fighter design aesthetic does actually make sense. As for having a bathroom, well, that's why you relieve yourself before a sortie.

AFAIK if fighter pilots have to relieve themselves in flight, they have relief tubes for that.

[Nyankodevice]

I'm pretty sure you're referring to the 21/22's, no?

yea they really arent.... you know..... however in the movie they look awesome... one of my favorites really....

but as a model kit......

i really want to pic up one or two of those kits and fix them... but also know that i dont have the time to do that

but i like all macross none the less, no need to be offended....

[seti88]

LANDING GEAR CONFIRMED! and you wouldnt have guessed where the wing gears are deployed from..

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/review?scode=TOY-RBT-4059&page=

And other stuff too...

Edited April 5, 2016 by seti88

[abbadon]

LANDING GEAR CONFIRMED! and you wouldnt have guessed where the wing gears are deployed from..

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/review?scode=TOY-RBT-4059&page=

And other stuff too...

Cool! That's quite different from what I imagined.

[neoexcaliber]

Did they remove the hatch that conceals the forward landing gear for the sake of the photo? The rear wheels however, are unexpected.

[seti88]

Did they remove the hatch that conceals the forward landing gear for the sake of the photo? The rear wheels however, are unexpected.

Its a CAD illustration for the bandai 1/72 model kit. The DX would have the regular front hinged doors.

[Moosey]

I'm still hoping the DX toy will have a rear hinged nose gear - just looks better.

The rear landing gear is quite a departure from what's gone before. I quite like it.

[seti88]

Certainly is different, and i wonder if it can be seen partially in the G/B modes.

Plus we get to see hayate in his CAD designed valk suit. Didnt realise he has such a volume of hair tho.

And that shld be freya in hers..

[mechaninac]

Well, that's certainly... different. Ingeniously weird, or weirdly ingenious; I can't really decide which. I can't wait to see how the toy will handle it.

[Xigfrid]

The front landing gear obviously doesn't slide inside, just like the 25s' ones

I am wondering how the DX version will differs

[Nekko Basara]

My first impression is that the main gear have a toy-ish "afterthought" look to them. Like, that's how you'd design gear to go on a Transformer so that you could say it had them and you could place it flat on a table, but not how you'd ever design them on a real aircraft.

On the other hand, I can appreciate that they are less obtrusive to the overall design than past gear have been. It has always bothered me from a realism standpoint how much of most valks' legs are taken up by the gear bays, given all of the other mechanisms that have to fit in there (the entire engines, transformation mechanisms, locomotive components, etc.) Given that a variable fighter can operate in ways that only require landing gear for ease of maintenance and storage, the VF-31 gear seem more in-line with their importance in the overall design than past gear have been.

[Mommar]

I'm willing to bet that's how the landing gear on the DX version will work as well. It explains why we can see the bay doors on the nosecone but not on the legs.

[Chronocidal]

......Ok, just being honest here, those are ducking fugly as hell. I thought they would have learned something from the first VF-25 DX disaster.

Though, I don't know whether to blame Bandai for the nonsense design, or AmiAmi for posting concept renders.

Either way, not looking like I'll ever want to display one of these on the gear. Like... seriously, wtf are they smoking??

Edited April 5, 2016 by Chronocidal

[chyll2]

It looks like the rear landing gear will rotate so that it will lay flat against the knee armor so that it will have less obstruction for gerwalk joint. Though that is the 1/72 model, in that CAD, the rear wheel is not really round and the upper part are chopped.

I am still waiting for the DX toy to see on how this will be improved.