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 manual 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 Daedalus. 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 8 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. 

[captain america]

@DeltaE27 I really dig the tactical blue-gray scheme on the Tomahawk. I'm told the Wave kits don't go together so well despite being new; would you say they're an improvement in the fit department compared to the old ARII kit?

[Big s]

57 minutes ago, captain america said:

@DeltaE27 I really dig the tactical blue-gray scheme on the Tomahawk. I'm told the Wave kits don't go together so well despite being new; would you say they're an improvement in the fit department compared to the old ARII kit?

The wave kits aren’t really new, probably 20 years old now, but they actually go together fairly well. The only issue I’ve had was with the phalanx antennae being too fragile. It’s an easy replacement though with some wire and small spring. 
I’m personally curious about their upcoming 1/100 kits since those will be brand new, but possibly simpler but with possibly more seams. The cannon on the arms for the 1/72 tomahawk were a bunch of tube pieces with no seams, which was definitely a cool way to do it.

[derex3592]

LOVE that grey-blue paint scheme! GREAT work on both! Always my favorite Destriod as well! 

[DeltaE27]

3 hours ago, captain america said:

@DeltaE27 I really dig the tactical blue-gray scheme on the Tomahawk. I'm told the Wave kits don't go together so well despite being new; would you say they're an improvement in the fit department compared to the old ARII kit?

High praise coming from someone who designs their own Destroid kits! Thank you!
 

I would 100% say the Wave design is a better kit overall than the ARII. I’ve now built four in total between the different destroid designs (phalanx, defender, two tomahawks). A lot of the modeling I’ve done outside of macross is in gunpla and similar, so I’ve been spoiled by ease of assembly. But with that said, I don’t think they were that difficult to assemble as long as you take your time and have a bit of sandpaper ready, especially if you’ve painted it beforehand.

The ARII/IMAI kits I’ve built (1/72 tomahawk and defender) are finicky in places. For example, the tomahawk shoulder joints that popped off internally so many times on me that I moved them to the outside of the kit, some loose panels here and there, and other things. Nothing you can’t fix with time and skill, but by comparison the Wave kits just kind of work. You can feasibly assemble them as pure push fit models which, with the poly caps, honestly feel a bit closer to a Bandai gundam-style design. It’s not exactly the same, but it is a decent level of flexibility and poseability that doesn’t feel like it’ll fall apart on you.
 

Now, some of the parts in particular suffer when you’re adding paint to the mix, the scope and shoulder missiles on the tomahawk did require sanding and even then they’re still tight. The clear lenses on places like the rear of the legs and torso also required some work to get to fit. So they’re not perfect, but in terms of fit they’re a lot less finicky IMO. The only thing I’d call a problem regardless of technique is the phalanx head antennae, they’re so fragile they’ll snap as you cut them off the sprue.
 

Someone did correct me, I guess 2010 isn’t that new anymore. But it definitely is newer than the ARII design and it feels as much in fitment, mold quality, and the build techniques used. And personally I appreciate that since they all are from the same company, they all use the same leg assembly minus some detail parts. Consistency!

Edited Monday at 01:45 AM by DeltaE27

[Papa Rat]

@DeltaE27

So glad you shared these great builds. I love the color schemes and the storytelling. I’m sold on finding a wave version if the  price is right. Inspiring. 👍

[DeltaE27]

@Papa Ratthank you! I will say that the Tomahawk was on the lower end of the three for pricing when I was looking (with the defender being the highest for some reason). Relatively cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean cheap though, so fingers crossed you can find a good price!