Max Factory 1/20(!) VF-1S/A Hikaru

[Anasazi37]

3 hours ago, peter said:

Apologies for the late reply, but thanks!  I was looking for this pic, but I guess they never finished it or there aren't many pics of it.

Not sure if you were the one asking for pictures yesterday in two of the main Macross groups on Facebook, but someone came back with this:

[TMBounty_Hunter]

HLJ currently has their spring sale going and the Valk, Super Valk and Weapon Set are all 30% off!

 

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-45-minimum-factory-vf-1-fighter-valkyrie-max01206

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-37-minimum-factory-vf-1-super-strike-fighter-valkyrie-max01094

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-38-minimum-factory-vf-1-valkyrie-armament-set-max01097

[Lolicon]

13 hours ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:

HLJ currently has their spring sale going and the Valk, Super Valk and Weapon Set are all 30% off!

 

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-45-minimum-factory-vf-1-fighter-valkyrie-max01206

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-37-minimum-factory-vf-1-super-strike-fighter-valkyrie-max01094

https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-plamax-mf-38-minimum-factory-vf-1-valkyrie-armament-set-max01097

I saw that. I added the fighter valk to my cart, checked out, and shipping was 35k. 

Of course I promptly removed it from my cart...

[kajnrig]

The pandemic might have thoroughly borked the option, but I remember people were able to get a shipping estimate for these specific items individually by emailing customer support. You might be able to send it by sea as well.

[Anasazi37]

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

The pandemic might have thoroughly borked the option, but I remember people were able to get a shipping estimate for these specific items individually by emailing customer support. You might be able to send it by sea as well.

That is exactly what I did for all three of the 1/20 kits. Pre-pandemic, of course. Couldn't hurt to ask if it's still an option, since it sounds like the automatically-generated shipping cost hasn't changed much. I don't remember the exact reduction they made, but it was substantial. Now that they offer a surface option, they might just push people in that direction instead, but I hope not.

[Artoor]

I've got mine last week from ebay. Shipping time was no longer than two weeks. It's huuuge! 

 

[peter]

On 5/4/2021 at 12:23 AM, Artoor said:

I've got mine last week from ebay. Shipping time was no longer than two weeks. It's huuuge! 

 

Nice.  I sort of want one of these now......shipping was probably huge dollars?

 

[Artoor]

1 hour ago, peter said:

Nice.  I sort of want one of these now......shipping was probably huge dollars?

 

Shipping was free. Model was expensive - 357$

 

[jorawar_b]

1 hour ago, peter said:

Nice.  I sort of want one of these now......shipping was probably huge dollars?

 

I see we are neighbors, I live in Surry, I have two of the kits, they are nice but expensive to ship to Canada

[peter]

1 hour ago, jorawar_b said:

I see we are neighbors, I live in Surry, I have two of the kits, they are nice but expensive to ship to Canada

Wow, nice!  I've noticed there aren't very many Macross fans in the GRVD.  Are you selling a few things on FB Marketplace?  I saw a few items that pop up once in a while and it always shows Surrey.

Have you build yours?  How does it compare in detail to the Hasegawas 1/72 or 1/48?  

I saw these when I was in Japan, but I think it would have taken up an entire checked luggage so I passed on it.  Good price though, less than 20,000 yen. 

I might grab one next time I'm over there, but who knows when that will be.  My in-laws are already holding a bunch of my Macross items hostage, but I don't want them to ship them because it is soooo expensive right now.  I'll just have to stockpile them and wait for my next trip.

 

 

[peter]

1 hour ago, Artoor said:

Shipping was free. Model was expensive - 357$

 

[peter]

On 3/12/2021 at 4:41 AM, Anasazi37 said:

Not sure if you were the one asking for pictures yesterday in two of the main Macross groups on Facebook, but someone came back with this:

That is awesome....looks like a scaled up DX.

[jorawar_b]

49 minutes ago, peter said:

Wow, nice!  I've noticed there aren't very many Macross fans in the GRVD.  Are you selling a few things on FB Marketplace?  I saw a few items that pop up once in a while and it always shows Surrey.

Have you build yours?  How does it compare in detail to the Hasegawas 1/72 or 1/48?  

I saw these when I was in Japan, but I think it would have taken up an entire checked luggage so I passed on it.  Good price though, less than 20,000 yen. 

I might grab one next time I'm over there, but who knows when that will be.  My in-laws are already holding a bunch of my Macross items hostage, but I don't want them to ship them because it is soooo expensive right now.  I'll just have to stockpile them and wait for my next trip.

 

 

Once covid is gone we will have to meet up, the kits are still in the box, your more than welcome to come by and see the kits once everything is back to normal .  I was going to trade both kits locally but the person didn't have anything I wanted. 

[peter]

1 hour ago, jorawar_b said:

Once covid is gone we will have to meet up, the kits are still in the box, your more than welcome to come by and see the kits once everything is back to normal .  I was going to trade both kits locally but the person didn't have anything I wanted. 

Lol, damn, I wish I'd seen this message earlier....I just ordered one from Amazon.co.jp.....having it sent to my in-laws

¥18,760

Not that I have anything worth trading anyway, hahhaha!

Just have to wait a year or whenever the pandemic is over before I can go over there to bring it back

 

[peter]

19 hours ago, jorawar_b said:

Once covid is gone we will have to meet up, the kits are still in the box, your more than welcome to come by and see the kits once everything is back to normal .  I was going to trade both kits locally but the person didn't have anything I wanted. 

I have to do a bit of catch up reading to do, but I was hoping some folks here can help me save time and answer a few questions I have.

It looks like some of the earlier kits only came with stickers, no decals?  Looks like someone here was making custom decals because of this? 

Does the fighter come with decals or stickers, or both?  

Does the fighter come with a pilot or is that sold separately?  I know there is a separate weapons pack that I might pass on, we'll see. I didn't see many builds here for the straight fighter, but I've seen some that were very nicely done.

I guess I also want to see how does it compare in terms of detail and accuracy compared to the smaller Hasegawa 1/48, which seems to be the benchmark.

 

[Shawn]

I finally got my first 1/20,..in transit now. Got it from the generic Yahoo Shopping site.
Condition 'used' ($168) but everything intact. Domestic shipping to the proxy was free so saved some money there too.
Fedex air shipping was $51 from the proxy to California which seems like a good deal for dipping my toes into the large scale. Also got the missile set for $66, but that is shipping separately, because if I combined the two, I would be in Strike Fighter shipping territory...ouch!

[Chas]

That's  a good deal- nice find!

Now you need to get the paints and find the time to build it!

[peter]

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

I finally got my first 1/20,..in transit now. Got it from the generic Yahoo Shopping site.
Condition 'used' ($168) but everything intact. Domestic shipping to the proxy was free so saved some money there too.
Fedex air shipping was $51 from the proxy to California which seems like a good deal for dipping my toes into the large scale. Also got the missile set for $66, but that is shipping separately, because if I combined the two, I would be in Strike Fighter shipping territory...ouch!

That's a really good price on shipping.  I just had it sent to my in-laws in Japan, will pick it up whenever I'm there next.  

I went with the fighter because I actually don't like the proportions of the super/strike pack.  I think the boosters are slightly too big, and it's a bit of an eye sore for me when I've gone through a few Hasegawa super/strikes.

So, do we need to get aftermarket decals and pilots for the fighter or does it come with decals (not stickers) and a pilot fig?

 

[peter]

I know there have been issues with other modes with the backpack (too flat?), and I really don't like the head lasers for the 1S:

They're just too squished together.

Are there any other blatant inaccuracies we may feel the need to sort out?

I also heard about some pretty bad injection marks.

 

[Anasazi37]

8 hours ago, peter said:

I have to do a bit of catch up reading to do, but I was hoping some folks here can help me save time and answer a few questions I have.

It looks like some of the earlier kits only came with stickers, no decals?  Looks like someone here was making custom decals because of this? 

Does the fighter come with decals or stickers, or both?  

Does the fighter come with a pilot or is that sold separately?  I know there is a separate weapons pack that I might pass on, we'll see. I didn't see many builds here for the straight fighter, but I've seen some that were very nicely done.

I guess I also want to see how does it compare in terms of detail and accuracy compared to the smaller Hasegawa 1/48, which seems to be the benchmark.

 

I know that the Strike Gerwalk and Strike Fighter kits only come with stickers. I haven't checked my Fighter kit, but I'm assuming it's the same. The Armament set comes with decals, but not stickers, however you need to purchase *two* Armament sets if you want to add anything other than two UUM-7 and four RMS-1 armaments to your valk. You only get two AMM-1 clusters per set, which is really dumb, but since I have two sets, I have enough armaments to cover all three of my valks (AMM-1s will go on the Fighter).

I made the decals you're thinking of. Did both a "full" set that covers everything on the sticker sheet and a "lite" set that is only the essential markings. Not long after I finished designing those sets, Max Factory announced their add-on decal sets, which also came in full and lite versions. Because when you pay $350 for a 1/20 kit, you should have to pay another $30-60 for decals that make it look more like the high-end model it's supposed to be, but even their full set doesn't contain everything on the sticker sheet. Here are links to the those sets:

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8278/minimum+factory+VF+1+Decals+Normal+Ver.html

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8277/minimum+factory+VF+1+Decals+DX+Ver.html

Due to what it costs to print my sets, I wasn't able to offer them for a lot less than the sets sold by Max Factory, but my point is that I shouldn't have had to print them at all. At that price point, they should have just included decals with the kits.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Anasazi37

[jorawar_b]

Posted some pictures of the VF1 kit. 

[peter]

4 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

I know that the Strike Gerwalk and Strike Fighter kits only come with stickers. I haven't checked my Fighter kit, but I'm assuming it's the same. The Armament set comes with decals, but not stickers, however you need to purchase *two* Armament sets if you want to add anything other than two UUM-7 and four RMS-1 armaments to your valk. You only get two AMM-1 clusters per set, which is really dumb, but since I have two sets, I have enough armaments to cover all three of my valks (AMM-1s will go on the Fighter).

I made the decals you're thinking of. Did both a "full" set that covers everything on the sticker sheet and a "lite" set that is only the essential markings. Not long after I finished designing those sets, Max Factory announced their add-on decal sets, which also came in full and lite versions. Because when you pay $350 for a 1/20 kit, you should have to pay another $30-60 for decals that make it look more like the high-end model it's supposed to be, but even their full set doesn't contain everything on the sticker sheet. Here are links to the those sets:

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8278/minimum+factory+VF+1+Decals+Normal+Ver.html

https://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/8277/minimum+factory+VF+1+Decals+DX+Ver.html

Due to what it costs to print my sets, I wasn't able to offer them for a lot less than the sets sold by Max Factory, but my point is that I shouldn't have had to print them at all. At that price point, they should have just included decals with the kits.

Are you effin kidding me???  Oh man, that blows.  I'm not sure I like the idea of stickers on my model.  Crap.

[peter]

3 hours ago, jorawar_b said:

Posted some pictures of the VF1 kit. 

Wow, nice, thanks for posting pics!  Did you open the decal sheet/instructions by any chance?

 

 

[jorawar_b]

No not yet

[Anasazi37]

Took pictures the stickers that come with all three valks and the decals that come with the Armament set. In order: Super/Strike Gerwalk, Super/Strike Fighter, Fighter, Armaments. I keep forgetting how crappy the stickers are. The film is pulling away from the backing and wrinkling in many places. I will never use them.

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Anasazi37

[peter]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

Took pictures the stickers that come with all three valks and the decals that come with the Armament set. In order: Super/Strike Gerwalk, Super/Strike Fighter, Fighter, Armaments. I keep forgetting how crappy the stickers are. The film is pulling away from the backing and wrinkling in many places. I will never use them.

 

Damn....so the Fighter definitely only comes with Stickers....ok, will have to source a set of decals for it sometime in the next year.....probably won't be going to Japan for at least that long by the way things are going, lol!

 

[peter]

17 hours ago, jorawar_b said:

No not yet

Are you planning on building yours or pretty set on getting rid of them?

 

[Knight26]

I want one of these, but know that my building and finishing skills are not up to the task,

[Anasazi37]

2 hours ago, peter said:

Damn....so the Fighter definitely only comes with Stickers....ok, will have to source a set of decals for it sometime in the next year.....probably won't be going to Japan for at least that long by the way things are going, lol!

 

The real nut punch is that even the $60 DX decal set doesn't contain everything on the sticker sheet. Plus, those decals were designed for the Super/Strike kits. Everything *should* fit the standalone Fighter kit, but I'm not sure. You also don't get items like the big black and red markings for the vertical stabilizers. Extremely frustrating.

[peter]

On 5/7/2021 at 8:06 PM, Anasazi37 said:

The real nut punch is that even the $60 DX decal set doesn't contain everything on the sticker sheet. Plus, those decals were designed for the Super/Strike kits. Everything *should* fit the standalone Fighter kit, but I'm not sure. You also don't get items like the big black and red markings for the vertical stabilizers. Extremely frustrating.

That is brutal. 

Well, I have a year or so to figure out how to scan the Hasegawa decals and upsize them to 1/20 scale, then I'll just have to paint the rest.

That suuuuuuuuuuuucks.

[Anasazi37]

6 hours ago, peter said:

That is brutal. 

Well, I have a year or so to figure out how to scan the Hasegawa decals and upsize them to 1/20 scale, then I'll just have to paint the rest.

That suuuuuuuuuuuucks.

Scanning and upsizing might be a lot more trouble than it's worth, depending on which markings you're after. The proportions between the two kits, even after accounting for the different scales, will be different, meaning that decals covering larger areas (kites, stripes, etc.) likely won't fit correctly. What decals do you need? As I mentioned earlier, I made a decal set for the two 1/20 Super/Strike kits. I haven't extended it to the Fighter kit yet, but I don't think that will be too difficult. The only new stuff will be the vertical stabilizers plus some modex numbers, I think.

[jorawar_b]

On 5/7/2021 at 4:01 PM, Anasazi37 said:

Took pictures the stickers that come with all three valks and the decals that come with the Armament set. In order: Super/Strike Gerwalk, Super/Strike Fighter, Fighter, Armaments. I keep forgetting how crappy the stickers are. The film is pulling away from the backing and wrinkling in many places. I will never use them.

 

Wish they would have made decals for a low viz  or Jet fire would have been cool.

[peter]

On 5/9/2021 at 7:10 AM, Anasazi37 said:

Scanning and upsizing might be a lot more trouble than it's worth, depending on which markings you're after. The proportions between the two kits, even after accounting for the different scales, will be different, meaning that decals covering larger areas (kites, stripes, etc.) likely won't fit correctly. What decals do you need? As I mentioned earlier, I made a decal set for the two 1/20 Super/Strike kits. I haven't extended it to the Fighter kit yet, but I don't think that will be too difficult. The only new stuff will be the vertical stabilizers plus some modex numbers, I think.

I was thinking I would just try to figure out how to upscale the warning labels.....the no steps, the beware of blasts, the intake warnings etc.....maybe the pilot name and stuff, the skull and Macross kites, but the main color stripes I would mask and paint.  

I have to do some more research and see where I want to go with it, but at this point, I'm probably leaning towards building it in Roy colors.

[jorawar_b]

On 5/9/2021 at 7:10 AM, Anasazi37 said:

 I made a decal set for the two 1/20 Super/Strike kits. I haven't extended it to the Fighter kit yet, but I don't think that will be too difficult. The only new stuff will be the vertical stabilizers plus some modex numbers, I think.

Can you make one for the low viz version?  I want both my version to be low viz. 

[Anasazi37]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:13 PM, peter said:

I was thinking I would just try to figure out how to upscale the warning labels.....the no steps, the beware of blasts, the intake warnings etc.....maybe the pilot name and stuff, the skull and Macross kites, but the main color stripes I would mask and paint.  

I have to do some more research and see where I want to go with it, but at this point, I'm probably leaning towards building it in Roy colors.

I'm going with Roy for gerwalk and fighter mode strike kits. If a strike battroid version is ever released, I'll make that one a Roy, too, so I have him in all three modes at 1/20. For my basic fighter kit, I'm going with standard CF.

Anything where you need a white decal or have to put a color decal on top of a background other than plain white (kite on black stripes, white modex numbers on the black section of the leg fins, white skulls on the vertical stabilizers and boosters...) is going to be very challenging.