Macross Collection Display Thread

[grogall]

Hayao Kakizaki Super VF-1A (Mechanic Edition) is still one of my favourites! 🤗

[nonner242]

 

Just pulling out stuff from storage slowly. Finally gonna work on some projects before I get to any old model kits. Some thing haven't seen the light for 20 30 years...others are newer but finally out of box.

Edited June 13 by nonner242
Missing text

[m0n5t3r]

On 6/13/2024 at 9:39 AM, nonner242 said:

 

 

Just pulling out stuff from storage slowly. Finally gonna work on some projects before I get to any old model kits. Some thing haven't seen the light for 20 30 years...others are newer but finally out of box.

 

 

 

 

VF-1S is still so white! 

Did some rearranging again to squeeze back in the VT-1 and VE-1

and some Mac+ which I recently rewatched.

[MacrossMania]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:39 PM, nonner242 said:

 

Just pulling out stuff from storage slowly. Finally gonna work on some projects before I get to any old model kits. Some thing haven't seen the light for 20 30 years...others are newer but finally out of box.

Sweet collection.  Love the combo of both old and new.

[Pontus]

If there's a better place for display cabinet projects, let me know, but I've seen others' here, so... here goes!

I'm finally ready to finish this up soon, so my ulterior motive for posting is to force me to actually DO it while taking time off work next week.  ADHD sucks like that.  I have so many projects that overwhelm my poor brain.  I would NOT recommend following in my footsteps though; After adding everything up, it cost me over $1000, so I could have easily just bought a new display cabinet for that.  This will be way cooler tho! 

This all started with a trip to Ikea to pick up 3 detolfs and a TV cabinet wide enough to put them on.  But when I got home and got the TV cab put together, I quickly realized that its structure was woefully inadequate for the weight.  I had a spare piece of plywood in my garage tho, so I thought I'd use it to replace the cardboard backing (which was the only thing lending any structural rigidity).  But it was plenty long enough to be taller than the detolfs if I use the whole sheet, and after looking at how the detolfs were built with just slots in wood bases, I figured I could restructure them all to make one big frameless cabinet.

I really hated how the shelves in the detolf are held in by a cheap wire ladder frame and aren't adjustable, so I went to the hardware store for some threaded rod instead.

T-nuts hold the rod on the top and bottom:

Then came the need for lighting, so I ordered a power supply, controller, and strip lights and picked up some angled aluminum from the hardware store.  I routed the wires through the top of the TV cabinet and installed the power supply onto the back panel plywood with an AC cord out the side.  I used one of those cheap little controllers with remote for dimming, and it's been working well for a long time now (I actually started this project a year or so ago).  The aluminum angle and lighting covers the threaded rod in the front.  I used high CRI neutral white strips from superbrightled.com.  I see a lot of display cabinets where people use cheap, very blue LED strips with really bad color rendering which irks me.  But I would probably not know any better myself if I didn't work for a high end lighting company.  I really hate how good lighting has been slowly replaced by cheap, crappy bulbs over the years in the name of efficiency, and with cheap LED bulbs taking over the market, they're all just low quality garbage that hurts my eyes.  It's actually hard to find bulbs that list their CRI rating at all because they don't want to include a number on the box that tells people the TRUTH.  Anyway, rant over...

I painted the back panel with high gloss reflective white for a really cool reason that I'll get to in a minute.  I also cut up some shelf rails out of aluminum as well as some custom plexiglass shelves.  I also found that I could use the original glass shelves by cutting down the clear plastic rails that used to hold the vertical glass panes together and cutting slots in the ends.

I installed a matching shelf on the top to hold the glass in place, slid it all together, drilled holes for the door hinges, and it all came together pretty nice!  Nothing to see on the bottom shelf. 

As you can see, I lined the bottom shelf with a very short pile, outdoor carpet for a grass look.  I was going to use felt, but this is basically really thick, tough felt and a lot cheaper that comes in big wide rolls from the hardware store.

You might notice the little black squares and the black strips on the side.  The reason for those and the reflective white paint was to put strip lights on the bottom and top in the very back facing up and down such that it would be backlit.  Then the plan was to print a background onto transparent film and install it with the velcro (black strips and squares) such that I'd have backlit backgrounds (basically the same as ads on bus stops which is where I got the idea).  This is what I was considering using for the background to include all the planets featured in the original SDFM:

But now I have a better idea which I'll be implementing this weekend, so stay tuned... 

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, Pontus said:

If there's a better place for display cabinet projects, let me know, but I've seen others' here, so... here goes!

I'm finally ready to finish this up soon, so my ulterior motive for posting is to force me to actually DO it while taking time off work next week.  ADHD sucks like that.  I have so many projects that overwhelm my poor brain.  I would NOT recommend following in my footsteps though; After adding everything up, it cost me over $1000, so I could have easily just bought a new display cabinet for that.  This will be way cooler tho! 

This all started with a trip to Ikea to pick up 3 detolfs and a TV cabinet wide enough to put them on.  But when I got home and got the TV cab put together, I quickly realized that its structure was woefully inadequate for the weight.  I had a spare piece of plywood in my garage tho, so I thought I'd use it to replace the cardboard backing (which was the only thing lending any structural rigidity).  But it was plenty long enough to be taller than the detolfs if I use the whole sheet, and after looking at how the detolfs were built with just slots in wood bases, I figured I could restructure them all to make one big frameless cabinet.

I really hated how the shelves in the detolf are held in by a cheap wire ladder frame and aren't adjustable, so I went to the hardware store for some threaded rod instead.

T-nuts hold the rod on the top and bottom:

Then came the need for lighting, so I ordered a power supply, controller, and strip lights and picked up some angled aluminum from the hardware store.  I routed the wires through the top of the TV cabinet and installed the power supply onto the back panel plywood with an AC cord out the side.  I used one of those cheap little controllers with remote for dimming, and it's been working well for a long time now (I actually started this project a year or so ago).  The aluminum angle and lighting covers the threaded rod in the front.  I used high CRI neutral white strips from superbrightled.com.  I see a lot of display cabinets where people use cheap, very blue LED strips with really bad color rendering which irks me.  But I would probably not know any better myself if I didn't work for a high end lighting company.  I really hate how good lighting has been slowly replaced by cheap, crappy bulbs over the years in the name of efficiency, and with cheap LED bulbs taking over the market, they're all just low quality garbage that hurts my eyes.  It's actually hard to find bulbs that list their CRI rating at all because they don't want to include a number on the box that tells people the TRUTH.  Anyway, rant over...

I painted the back panel with high gloss reflective white for a really cool reason that I'll get to in a minute.  I also cut up some shelf rails out of aluminum as well as some custom plexiglass shelves.  I also found that I could use the original glass shelves by cutting down the clear plastic rails that used to hold the vertical glass panes together and cutting slots in the ends.

I installed a matching shelf on the top to hold the glass in place, slid it all together, drilled holes for the door hinges, and it all came together pretty nice!  Nothing to see on the bottom shelf. 

As you can see, I lined the bottom shelf with a very short pile, outdoor carpet for a grass look.  I was going to use felt, but this is basically really thick, tough felt and a lot cheaper that comes in big wide rolls from the hardware store.

You might notice the little black squares and the black strips on the side.  The reason for those and the reflective white paint was to put strip lights on the bottom and top in the very back facing up and down such that it would be backlit.  Then the plan was to print a background onto transparent film and install it with the velcro (black strips and squares) such that I'd have backlit backgrounds (basically the same as ads on bus stops which is where I got the idea).  This is what I was considering using for the background to include all the planets featured in the original SDFM:

But now I have a better idea which I'll be implementing this weekend, so stay tuned... 

Man, that ROCKS!!! Love the planets image!!!

[Pontus]

7 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Man, that ROCKS!!! Love the planets image!!!

I gotta give credit to NASA for that one.  All I did was take their amazing space photography and slap it together.  It blows my mind when I think about the fact that we sent a high rez camera a bajillion miles out to get such gorgeous shots of... well ANY of these planets really, but especially Pluto 🤍!  And yeah, Pluto is a dwarf "planet" which last time I checked means it's... still a planet, along with Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake.  Technically, by the IAU's own definition of a planet both Jupiter and Earth have not "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit" as they both have "trojan asteroids" in their orbits.  So yeah, teach the kids that there's 12 amazing planetary bodies in our solar system... that we know of. 

[Mog]

There’s a ton of mind blowing science we can teach our kiddos just with planets and their exploration.

But getting back on topic, it’s kinda annoying that IKEA stopped making the Detolfs.

They have their limitations, but it was a relatively inexpensive, efficient, and clear way to organize your collectibles and be able to see them from multiple angles.

[Pontus]

5 minutes ago, Mog said:

There’s a ton of mind blowing science we can teach our kiddos just with planets and their exploration.

But getting back on topic, it’s kinda annoying that IKEA stopped making the Detolfs.

They have their limitations, but it was a relatively inexpensive, efficient, and clear way to organize your collectibles and be able to see them from multiple angles.

Indeed, and... WHAT?!  They stopped making those?  That's a shame.  I see that they have some similar displays for the same price, but they're not frameless and open.  Now that I've seen how they're made, it'd be pretty easy to make your own, but not everyone is as handy as all that.

[Test_Pilot_2]

These cabinets and their numerous iterations sold under different company names are better than the detolfs to me. There are also permutations that are 1x4, 5, etc or a whole wall.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09V18X6QD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Examples of other sizes:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C22W3SMD?ref=emc_p_m_5_i_atc&th=1

Easy to put together, too, and there are light kits that conveniently fit these at an affordable price.

Edited June 28 by Test_Pilot_2

[Mog]

But the prices are definitely higher than the Detolf’s.  That was one of their advantages.  And if you lived relatively close to an IKEA, that was another plus too.

[pengbuzz]

57 minutes ago, Mog said:

But the prices are definitely higher than the Detolf’s.  That was one of their advantages.  And if you lived relatively close to an IKEA, that was another plus too.

On that note:

[Mog]

Needs more Allen wrenches. 

[pengbuzz]

9 hours ago, Mog said:

Needs more Allen wrenches. 

Sorry, ran out. Will you settler for an arc welder?

[Pontus]

If you're squeamish about seeing expensive and somewhat rare toys and figures in compromising positions, look away now.

I had to get all my stuff outa the cabinet to work on it, but rest assured that I was very careful with head lasers and such.  This won't be moving anywhere until I'm ready to put them back on display.

 

 

The horror 😱

 

Edited July 1 by Pontus

[Pontus]

And after moving the rear, inner rods forward (and drilling through the bottom nearly drilled right thru my lighting wires), here's the reveal!  Instead of doing backlit backgrounds, I figured TVs have gotten so cheap, even good ones, I can do whatever background I want, even and especially video!

I'm hoping the picture is bright enough to reduce the reflections, as I did not think of that, so this might not be as nice as I thought.

Next step, dust prevention...

Edited July 2 by Pontus

[MKT]

13 minutes ago, Pontus said:

And after moving the rear, inner rods forward (and drilling through the bottom nearly drilled right thru my lighting wires), here's the reveal!  Instead of doing backlit backgrounds, I figured TVs have gotten so cheap, even good ones, I can do whatever background I want, even and especially video!

I'm hoping the picture is bright enough to reduce the reflections, as I did not think of that, so this might not be as nice as I thought.

Next step, dust prevention...

 

TV as the background is a bold idea!

[Test_Pilot_2]

13 minutes ago, Pontus said:

And after moving the rear, inner rods forward (and drilling through the bottom nearly drilled right thru my lighting wires), here's the reveal!  Instead of doing backlit backgrounds, I figured TVs have gotten so cheap, even good ones, I can do whatever background I want, even and especially video!

I'm hoping the picture is bright enough to reduce the reflections, as I did not think of that, so this might not be as nice as I thought.

Next step, dust prevention...

Very cool! I went with an RGB curtain behind one cabinet set and displates behind another... however, I saw a really neat square, flat lcd panel at a local business and it made me think to try what you've done here.

Need to ask the owner what panels they are.

[Pontus]

Moving on to dust abatement... I previously experimented with foam strips for the door seals (everywhere else is sealed), but this failed because it was impossible to get it to seal properly with the upright, aluminum L-bars moving about.  I could probably find some whiskers instead, but with the rest being glass and simple lines, anything else is somewhat detracting from the display imho.  So I thought it better to simply creat a higher internal pressure using a fan and filter its intake.  No dust.  Bonus that I didn't even think about until I got the TV, it's going to need some ventilation.  And since the inside will be warmer, I'll never get condensation in or out, and no mold behind it (I have concrete block walls that sometimes get condensation in winter and will mold anywhere not open to air).

I had a 12V axial fan and some spare furnace filters lying around.  Time to make a vent in the base with a spade bit and a chisel.  A little paint to seal the rough wood, and it may not look great, but it'll be covered by felt anyway.

This 3m VHB tape is "used to hold aircraft parts on" as I was told.  I'm not sure what that says about aircraft maintenance, but this stuff is great.  It held my fan instantly and securely underneath.  And this gorilla tape does a nice job of covering wire runs and keeping things sealed up.  Ran the fan to the power supply output (both 12V), and WHOOSH, AIRFLOW!

I carefully cut down a 25x20 filter to match the width of the cabinet opening and took off the cardboard end to reapply over the now bare end and made it whole again.  Now it fits snuggly to the width of the lower cabinet.  I initially thought I'd install some sort of door with a filter, but I like it open.  So I decided to put it all the way in the back over the fan.  Used some of the leftover foam tape to seal at the top, jammed the filter back up there, and taped the bottom to the back of the cabinet.  Clean, filtered heat ventilation and a slight, positive air pressure keeping dust out.

Coming up next; No one can hear you scream in SPACE!

Edited July 2 by Pontus

[nonner242]

13 hours ago, Pontus said:

If you're squeamish about seeing expensive and somewhat rare toys and figures in compromising positions, look away now.

I had to get all my stuff outa the cabinet to work on it, but rest assured that I was very careful with head lasers and such.  This won't be moving anywhere until I'm ready to put them back on display.

 

 

The horror 😱

 

I can't look! 😭 

[Pontus]

Since I couldn't sleep cuz all my toys are on my bed and I have nowhere else to move them to even if I could, I pressed through the night and made a lot of progress.

First I added a light strip at the top facing down and connected it directly to 12V instead of the dimmer because it needs to remain as bright as possible.  More on that in a minute.  I also needed a place to plug in the TV cuz the cord doesn't reach out of the cabinet, so I wired up an outlet below.

Then I got to setting up the TV and became very frustrated just trying to display one picture from Google photos.  I'm gonna have to set up a usb drive.

I've wanted to set up a star ceiling for a long time now in my daughter's bedroom with the sky at her birth, but I needed a smaller proof of concept before diving into such a big project.  Using a sheet of black corrugated plastic, I popped a short piece of fiber optic thru to see if it will work with such a short piece just pointed at a light source.  Normally, a professional star ceiling runs all the fiber to a dedicated light source in a huge bundle, but that gets very expensive.

It works!  When I built the cabinet my intention was to be able to slide the side glass forward for ease of installing backgrounds, and that came in very handy for a test fit and final install.  I put a small screw in at the top to keep it tight to the grooves in the back panel which keeps the glass from bending (same as the plastic strips of a detolf).

Now for the fun part; I attached a sheet of black velvet to one side of the plastic panel.  I did a test with spray adhesive which bles right thru, so I had to use strips of the 3m adhesive on the top and bottom.  I put said strips on the back so that I could lay the velvet out smooth then fold it over to stretch tight and stick. As you can see, light just falls into it!

Next was the arduous task of poking a bajillion tiny holes in it and filling them with various sizes of fiber optic as randomly as possible.  I installed them all angling upward toward the light source and hot glued them in place.

After wrestling it into place and fighting the velcro for proper position, I think it turned out rather nice.

Next, I can finally start loading it up starting with my Alien collection on top.

[MKT]

3 hours ago, Pontus said:

Since I couldn't sleep cuz all my toys are on my bed and I have nowhere else to move them to even if I could, I pressed through the night and made a lot of progress.

First I added a light strip at the top facing down and connected it directly to 12V instead of the dimmer because it needs to remain as bright as possible.  More on that in a minute.  I also needed a place to plug in the TV cuz the cord doesn't reach out of the cabinet, so I wired up an outlet below.

Then I got to setting up the TV and became very frustrated just trying to display one picture from Google photos.  I'm gonna have to set up a usb drive.

I've wanted to set up a star ceiling for a long time now in my daughter's bedroom with the sky at her birth, but I needed a smaller proof of concept before diving into such a big project.  Using a sheet of black corrugated plastic, I popped a short piece of fiber optic thru to see if it will work with such a short piece just pointed at a light source.  Normally, a professional star ceiling runs all the fiber to a dedicated light source in a huge bundle, but that gets very expensive.

It works!  When I built the cabinet my intention was to be able to slide the side glass forward for ease of installing backgrounds, and that came in very handy for a test fit and final install.  I put a small screw in at the top to keep it tight to the grooves in the back panel which keeps the glass from bending (same as the plastic strips of a detolf).

Now for the fun part; I attached a sheet of black velvet to one side of the plastic panel.  I did a test with spray adhesive which bles right thru, so I had to use strips of the 3m adhesive on the top and bottom.  I put said strips on the back so that I could lay the velvet out smooth then fold it over to stretch tight and stick. As you can see, light just falls into it!

Next was the arduous task of poking a bajillion tiny holes in it and filling them with various sizes of fiber optic as randomly as possible.  I installed them all angling upward toward the light source and hot glued them in place.

After wrestling it into place and fighting the velcro for proper position, I think it turned out rather nice.

Next, I can finally start loading it up starting with my Alien collection on top.

This is one of the most engineered displays I’ve come across. Hope it turns out well once everything is set up. 

[Shawn]

In 35 years there will be a future ad on craigslist

"Selling off my dad's old robot tech collection,  As-is $100 OBO"

 

[nonner242]

Proud parent of not 1 but 2 boxed Nikicks..only after 40 years..lol 

Thank you glane21 for 1!

Once I put together the old 1/40 model kit I'll have 3. Been a great week! 

And also thanks to major Tom for giving me the push to go for yahoo jap auction for the kit.

[nonner242]

12 hours ago, Shawn said:

In 35 years there will be a future ad on craigslist

"Selling off my dad's old robot tech collection,  As-is $100 OBO"

 

Lol..I know...

It's gonna happen the second I die 😭

[Test_Pilot_2]

30 minutes ago, nonner242 said:

Lol..I know...

It's gonna happen the second I die 😭

Naw man, make sure in your will that you establish the creation of a mausoleum within which your collection will be displayed with you for eternity... Or until Buy'n'Large decides to abandon the planet or Weyland-Yutani unleashes xenomorphs on Earth or Cthulhu rises from the ocean and turns us all into spaghetti monsters.

Whatever best suits the reader's narrative - can also choose your own adventure.

This McGuyver'ing is awesome.

Edited July 3 by Test_Pilot_2

[pengbuzz]

14 hours ago, Shawn said:

In 35 years there will be a future ad on craigslist

"Selling off my dad's old robot tech collection,  As-is $100 OBO"

 

Er...can we talk?

[Pontus]

The top shelf of the cabinet is for my Alien collection which didn't feel right being shelved and lit like the rest.  I was hoping to find some sort of scale grate flooring that's so ubiquitous in these movies or at least some sort of space ship interior, but couldn't find anything to my liking.  One day on a trip thru the hardware store I saw a 24x48 ceiling tile grate.  It's not perfect, but after some cutting, melting, and flat black paint, I think it looks pretty good.  I wanted it to look like the aliens had ripped apart and partially melted the flooring.  I didn't quite get the melty effect that I wanted by using a lighter (the plastic kept wanting to catch fire, lol), but it works.

And here's the current state of my cabinet just to get things off my bed.  I have a lot of work to do to clean, organize, and set up displays.  I'm gonna have to redo the aliens too.  I was hoping the grating would be sturdy enough to hang valks from, but it very much isn't, especially after modifying it.  My plan here is to hang much of my collection by fluorocarbon fishing line, and several 1:60 scale valks get heavy quick.

Edited July 3 by Pontus

[Lolicon]

1 hour ago, Pontus said:

The top shelf of the cabinet is for my Alien collection which didn't feel right being shelved and lit like the rest.  I was hoping to find some sort of scale grate flooring that's so ubiquitous in these movies or at least some sort of space ship interior, but couldn't find anything to my liking.  One day on a trip thru the hardware store I saw a 24x48 ceiling tile grate.  It's not perfect, but after some cutting, melting, and flat black paint, I think it looks pretty good.  I wanted it to look like the aliens had ripped apart and partially melted the flooring.  I didn't quite get the melty effect that I wanted by using a lighter (the plastic kept wanting to catch fire, lol), but it works.

And here's the current state of my cabinet just to get things off my bed.  I have a lot of work to do to clean, organize, and set up displays.  I'm gonna have to redo the aliens too.  I was hoping the grating would be sturdy enough to hang valks from, but it very much isn't, especially after modifying it.  My plan here is to hang much of my collection by fluorocarbon fishing line, and several 1:60 scale valks get heavy quick.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one around here with an affinity for anime maid girls. 

[Angesdad]

4 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Well, I guess I'm not the only one around here with an affinity for anime maid girls. 

You dirty old man. I have a rather private display case in my closet featuring bunny gals of different shapes and sizes solely for my eyes if you know what I mean lol.😆

[Froy]

5 hours ago, Pontus said:

The top shelf of the cabinet is for my Alien collection which didn't feel right being shelved and lit like the rest.  I was hoping to find some sort of scale grate flooring that's so ubiquitous in these movies or at least some sort of space ship interior, but couldn't find anything to my liking.  One day on a trip thru the hardware store I saw a 24x48 ceiling tile grate.  It's not perfect, but after some cutting, melting, and flat black paint, I think it looks pretty good.  I wanted it to look like the aliens had ripped apart and partially melted the flooring.  I didn't quite get the melty effect that I wanted by using a lighter (the plastic kept wanting to catch fire, lol), but it works.

And here's the current state of my cabinet just to get things off my bed.  I have a lot of work to do to clean, organize, and set up displays.  I'm gonna have to redo the aliens too.  I was hoping the grating would be sturdy enough to hang valks from, but it very much isn't, especially after modifying it.  My plan here is to hang much of my collection by fluorocarbon fishing line, and several 1:60 scale valks get heavy quick.

You better do it ASAP. Looks like those xenomorph already have their eyes on "something" 🤣

[Pontus]

30 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

You dirty old man. I have a rather private display case in my closet featuring bunny gals of different shapes and sizes solely for my eyes if you know what I mean lol.😆

Yeah, that's only about half of what used to be there.  Not only was it WAY too cluttered, but I figured I'll be posting a lot of pics from this cabinet so better make it pg13.  Those are all Nekopara, and I honestly have no idea what possessed me to start collecting them.  It started with some cheap cast offs from ebay that I quite enjoyed piecing back together and couldn't believe how... nice... they were.  My favorite is a Super Sonico in her wedding tackle that was missing some bits, loose broken pieces, etc that was clearly a prototype after I looked up the actual figure... and saw the real price!!!  I don't mind paying a fraction of that to fix and keep a bunch of beautiful broken plastic outa the ocean.  The problem with the Nekopara stuff, and the reason I never buy cast offs to collect a set - or of anime I actually like - is cuz then I have to get ALL of it.  Macross is hard enough on my wallet, and it's good to know thyself.  But after getting a few of these mind meltingly cute Nekos, I found myself paying full price to complete the set/s.  The 1/4 scales were $500ea!  I did check out the "game" (a very loose term in this case), and... lol, this is a ridiculous series.  It really seems to be catered to a type who likes to fetishize their own sexual repression.  I don't want to over generalize an entire culture, but that does seem to be a strong aspect of culture in Japan.  These anatomically correct yet fully clothed figures take it up a notch.

[pengbuzz]

7 hours ago, Pontus said:

The top shelf of the cabinet is for my Alien collection which didn't feel right being shelved and lit like the rest.  I was hoping to find some sort of scale grate flooring that's so ubiquitous in these movies or at least some sort of space ship interior, but couldn't find anything to my liking.  One day on a trip thru the hardware store I saw a 24x48 ceiling tile grate.  It's not perfect, but after some cutting, melting, and flat black paint, I think it looks pretty good.  I wanted it to look like the aliens had ripped apart and partially melted the flooring.  I didn't quite get the melty effect that I wanted by using a lighter (the plastic kept wanting to catch fire, lol), but it works.

And here's the current state of my cabinet just to get things off my bed.  I have a lot of work to do to clean, organize, and set up displays.  I'm gonna have to redo the aliens too.  I was hoping the grating would be sturdy enough to hang valks from, but it very much isn't, especially after modifying it.  My plan here is to hang much of my collection by fluorocarbon fishing line, and several 1:60 scale valks get heavy quick.

Looks like a bunch of anime girls going ga-ga over some Valkyries.

Lucky mechs!

[Pontus]

Btw, I just got back from Target, and they have these perfect, single cube display boxes disguised as clear bins for only $15!  You can use them like a drawer as designed or set them on their side to pull out sideways like this:

 

[pengbuzz]

Just now, Pontus said:

Btw, I just got back from Target, and they have these perfect, single cube display boxes disguised as clear bins for only $15!  You can use them like a drawer as designed or set them on their side to pull out sideways like this:

 

*goes and buys Target's entire stock!*