Something interesting upcoming from AFV Club. It’s the follow-up to their F-5E Tiger II. This is the 1/48 RF-5E Tigereye, a reconnaissance variant of the F-5E. I only collect F-5s mainly to model Aggressors but this has a very distinct look to it.
Monthly Archive for April, 2010
Clearer and more detailed pictures for Bandai’s VF Hi-Metal VF-1J Valkyrie Hikaru Ichijo’s Unit has surfaced and it is sweeeet. Translated features are from Ngee Khiong.
- Double joint for the elbow for wider articulation of the arm
- Pull-out mechanism implemented for the pelvis joint, allowing the legs to spread wider for more stable standing
- Improved design for the ankle, allowing it to be able to touch the surface better
- Both the pelvis and ankle joint design make difficult poses like kneeling possible.
- Knee joint can be turned horizontally to create beautiful poses for the legs in Gerwalk mode
- Hands can be retracted during transformation
- Landing gears are attached to the Fighter Mode via part-swapping.
Hot damn!
This was announced by Bandai recently. This is their ‘VF Hi-Metal‘ series. The first release is the VF-1J Valkyrie in Hikaru Ichijo colors coming in late June to be priced at 5,775 Yen (inclusive of tax).
I’ve always felt there’s something wrong with the proportions of the metal content VF-1s that have been released so far. I can’t wait to see more detailed pictures for this one. It looks like it has both perfect transformation and poseability. Can’t wait.
Just announced by Bandai for June, to retail for 5,250 yen (inclusive of tax), is the Master Grade FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam. I’ve been waiting for the plastic treatment for ages even though I already have the original B-Club conversion for the RX-78-2 v1.5. This one is based on the RX-78-2 v2.0 which means it’ll be more poseable. However, the proportions and ‘look’ is decidedly much more old school than I would have like. Still, an excellent offering from Bandai. Hopefully they will choose to release FA-78-2 too.
The ejection seats were quickly painted up. Based on the rules of WOOB 05 (which has passed hehe), I didn’t add safety belts made out of tape (which I usually do).
The canopy parts are given a dip in Future floor polish to gloss them up. Then the front panel of the canopy was brushed painted with clear blue. I usually do it straight from the bottle. The corners of the canopy are masked and the middle parts with liquid mask. Now protected by a coat of Future, I cemented the canopy to the fuselage.
Then it’s more basic construction. I added the RWR blisters and main pylons. The kit doesn’t come with any weapons (as usual) so I’ll have to dig through my weapons sets for the proper ones.
The kit is generally free from injection pin marks, except for the landing gear doors. Simple matter of puttying these up.
So I finally managed to get a hold of a set of Aires‘ F-16 gearbay resin set. And WOW… the details are superb. Puts the kit parts to shame. Incidentally, the Wolfpack set also provided some of the same parts, namely the bulged gear doors and a seamless exhaust which includes the front gearbay. The kit itself also includes these parts and the difference in the amount of details is staggering. Obviously the kit and Wolfpack parts are going into the spares bin.
First up, I slowly sawed off the existing gearbay on the kit. The Aires gearbay is very slightly smaller length-wise but careful positioning reduces how obvious it is.
In early 2000, the Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Udara) F-16 received a new color scheme dubbed the ‘Millenium’ scheme.
At this point in time, the wing area was also reinforced (appears as bright orange plates on the fuselage). These were applied locally.
Full details can be found here. Camouflage pattern information courtesy of Alex Sidharta.
