Comparing my Wave and ARII 1/72 Tomahawks (except not really)

[DeltaE27]

I’m back! After mentioning I had a Tomahawk in the works in my phalanx post and then proceeding to do nothing with it for months, I can finally show it off.
 

The Tomahawk has always been my favorite of the non-transforming stompy Macross designs ever since I was young. This may explain why I have wound up with multiple. In my defense, I started an ARII kit (we’ll get to that later!) long before I knew the Wave kits were even a thing. But that got set aside for a long while, and then I found the Wave kits. I really like the Wave kit, even if some of the gimmicks come out a bit too tight once paint is applied. I think in total it’s something I can be happy to have on my shelf. 
 

 

And I appreciate the face has a lot of detail. Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here

But as mentioned, I did have an ARII tomahawk, and after finishing the Wave design I thought I’d finish up that gray-blue menace and compare the two. Presenting, my ARII tomahawk. 
 

 

Honestly it holds up great for an old kit. The two are very comparable. 
 

 

In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re-

 

Oh. 
 

Yes, I’ve deceived you (which you hopefully realized when you read the title of the post). As it turns out I have not two tomahawks but THREE. 
 

the ARII design is saddened by the deception. 
 

When all I had was the ARII kit I decided to paint it closer to the show I knew. It wasn’t 100% the same but I wanted something like that tan design I thought I remembered from the show, even if it was basically a color swap of the ARII manual. So I repainted it. I ALSO swapped the legs on the IMAI defender kit I was working on simultaneously with the ARII legs because I liked them better and, as previously mentioned, the Tomahawk has always been my favorite. I got it all together, ready for detailing…and then stopped. 
 

And then found the Wave designs. I built a wonderful new tomahawk. 
 

And then I got a bundle deal for a defender and another Wave tomahawk. It was the cheapest option I could find for a defender somehow. So, inspired by the ARII art and the decals I still hadn’t applied, I wound up with a blue Wave tomahawk. I styled it as an early variant since the art had a red visor and I found a Mecha index tidbit stating that earlier variants were deployed with red visors. Then I decided to style it as a Marines unit like the VF-0C Hasegawa made, deployed to the Prometheus. All the UN MARINES logos were individually assembled from third party decal letters, while the numbers were individually assembled from numbers that Wave at least included as optional decals. Fun times. Meanwhile, the decals I stole from the ARII kit were old and very much disintegrating on me. Even more fun times as I tried to fix those with paint. Still, I like the result. You’d almost never know the “VAM” in the leg art is hand drawn from fragments of decal that were still available and paint marker. 
 

By the time I was decalling and panel-line-ing the ARII design I already had one wonderful completed Wave kit. So I didn’t use as much care as I could’ve to finish it. That, plus decals that I decided not to fix meant the end product is much more rough. But hey, better a kit I decided to quickly finish than one I never finished at all! 
 

Anyway, this post is way too long now, so from all three of my tomahawks, farewell and thanks for reading!

Edited 6 hours ago by DeltaE27

[tekering]

Thanks for the comparison pics, and great work on the Wave kits!  I especially like the blue one. 😁

As always, I'm grateful Moscato Hobby manages to capture mecha designs with more accurate proportions than the licensed manufacturers (vintage or modern)...

Mind you, that Yamato's no slouch either.  

[sh9000]

2 hours ago, DeltaE27 said:

I’m back! After mentioning I had a Tomahawk in the works in my phalanx post and then proceeding to do nothing with it for months, I can finally show it off.
 

The Tomahawk has always been my favorite of the non-transforming stompy Macross designs ever since I was young. This may explain why I have wound up with multiple. In my defense, I started an ARII kit (we’ll get to that later!) long before I knew the Wave kits were even a thing. But that got set aside for a long while, and then I found the Wave kits. I really like the Wave kit, even if some of the gimmicks come out a bit too tight once paint is applied. I think in total it’s something I can be happy to have on my shelf. 
 

 

And I appreciate the face has a lot of detail. Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here

But as mentioned, I did have an ARII tomahawk, and after finishing the Wave design I thought I’d finish up that gray-blue menace and compare the two. Presenting, my ARII tomahawk. 
 

 

Honestly it holds up great for an old kit. The two are very comparable. 
 

 

In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re-

 

Oh. 
 

Yes, I’ve deceived you (which you hopefully realized when you read the title of the post). As it turns out I have not two tomahawks but THREE. 
 

the ARII design is saddened by the deception. 
 

When all I had was the ARII kit I decided to paint it closer to the show I knew. It wasn’t 100% the same but I wanted something like that tan design I thought I remembered from the show, even if it was basically a color swap of the ARII manual. So I repainted it. I ALSO swapped the legs on the IMAI defender kit I was working on simultaneously with the ARII legs because I liked them better and, as previously mentioned, the Tomahawk has always been my favorite. I got it all together, ready for detailing…and then stopped. 
 

And then found the Wave designs. I built a wonderful new tomahawk. 
 

And then I got a bundle deal for a defender and another Wave tomahawk. It was the cheapest option I could find for a defender somehow. So, inspired by the ARII art and the decals I still hadn’t applied, I wound up with a blue Wave tomahawk. I styled it as an early variant since the art had a red visor and I found a Mecha index tidbit stating that earlier variants were deployed with red visors. Then I decided to style it as a Marines unit like the VF-0C Hasegawa made, deployed to the Prometheus. All the UN MARINES logos were individually assembled from third party decal letters, while the numbers were individually assembled from numbers that Wave at least included as optional decals. Fun times. Meanwhile, the decals I stole from the ARII kit were old and very much disintegrating on me. Even more fun times as I tried to fix those with paint. Still, I like the result. You’d almost never know the “VAM” in the leg art is hand drawn from fragments of decal that were still available and paint marker. 
 

By the time I was decalling and panel-line-ing the ARII design I already had one wonderful completed Wave kit. So I didn’t use as much care as I could’ve to finish it. That, plus decals that I decided not to fix meant the end product is much more rough. But hey, better a kit I decided to quickly finish than one I never finished at all! 
 

Anyway, this post is way too long now, so from all three of my tomahawks, farewell and thanks for reading!

Awesome work.

[Bolt]

4 hours ago, DeltaE27 said:

I’m back! After mentioning I had a Tomahawk in the works in my phalanx post and then proceeding to do nothing with it for months, I can finally show it off.
 

The Tomahawk has always been my favorite of the non-transforming stompy Macross designs ever since I was young. This may explain why I have wound up with multiple. In my defense, I started an ARII kit (we’ll get to that later!) long before I knew the Wave kits were even a thing. But that got set aside for a long while, and then I found the Wave kits. I really like the Wave kit, even if some of the gimmicks come out a bit too tight once paint is applied. I think in total it’s something I can be happy to have on my shelf. 
 

 

And I appreciate the face has a lot of detail. Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here

But as mentioned, I did have an ARII tomahawk, and after finishing the Wave design I thought I’d finish up that gray-blue menace and compare the two. Presenting, my ARII tomahawk. 
 

 

Honestly it holds up great for an old kit. The two are very comparable. 
 

 

In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re-

 

Oh. 
 

Yes, I’ve deceived you (which you hopefully realized when you read the title of the post). As it turns out I have not two tomahawks but THREE. 
 

the ARII design is saddened by the deception. 
 

When all I had was the ARII kit I decided to paint it closer to the show I knew. It wasn’t 100% the same but I wanted something like that tan design I thought I remembered from the show, even if it was basically a color swap of the ARII manual. So I repainted it. I ALSO swapped the legs on the IMAI defender kit I was working on simultaneously with the ARII legs because I liked them better and, as previously mentioned, the Tomahawk has always been my favorite. I got it all together, ready for detailing…and then stopped. 
 

And then found the Wave designs. I built a wonderful new tomahawk. 
 

And then I got a bundle deal for a defender and another Wave tomahawk. It was the cheapest option I could find for a defender somehow. So, inspired by the ARII art and the decals I still hadn’t applied, I wound up with a blue Wave tomahawk. I styled it as an early variant since the art had a red visor and I found a Mecha index tidbit stating that earlier variants were deployed with red visors. Then I decided to style it as a Marines unit like the VF-0C Hasegawa made, deployed to the Prometheus. All the UN MARINES logos were individually assembled from third party decal letters, while the numbers were individually assembled from numbers that Wave at least included as optional decals. Fun times. Meanwhile, the decals I stole from the ARII kit were old and very much disintegrating on me. Even more fun times as I tried to fix those with paint. Still, I like the result. You’d almost never know the “VAM” in the leg art is hand drawn from fragments of decal that were still available and paint marker. 
 

By the time I was decalling and panel-line-ing the ARII design I already had one wonderful completed Wave kit. So I didn’t use as much care as I could’ve to finish it. That, plus decals that I decided not to fix meant the end product is much more rough. But hey, better a kit I decided to quickly finish than one I never finished at all! 
 

Anyway, this post is way too long now, so from all three of my tomahawks, farewell and thanks for reading!

Looks great! I love the comparisons, always interesting. I also really like the blue colored look.