[Kit Review] - F-toys 1/144 - Star Wars Vol.1 - X-wing -

Recently got a whole load of the 1st volume of the Star Wars 1/144 collection from F-toys, volume 2 has just been releashed in Japan but i haven't got them yet. Volume 1 includes X-wing, Tie-fighter, EpIII Jedi Startfighter, Naboo Starfighter with Droid Fighter and AT-ST with articulated legs with a speederbike. As with nearly all 1/144 in Japan there is usually a case special, the one for this volume is a Tie fighter Tank which is EU so don't really have any interest in.



Start off with the X-wing because it so frickin cool and the detail on this is amazing, excellent paint work but still quite alot of room for improvement to make it sereen acurate. Landing gear is really nice can have it up or down but looks very fragile. Comes with a stand with some little details about the X-wing displayed and has a ball-joint so that the fighter can be posed in what ever position i thinks cool.

Comes with some Decals for the gun barrels which look like they'll be a little annoying to get correct. What would have been nice would be that instead of the red marking already painted onto the X-wing i could use decals to choose which pilot ride i like most like Biggs or Wedge but still Luke is the one who piloted this fighter and blew up the Death Star.



Nice little instructions sheet, shame i can't read much of it. The back has how to assemble the fighter as per the top photo and i guess this front has info about the X-wing. Like the chart showing which film each vehicle appeared in.

The wing open and close, awesome!

Ian

[Kit Review] - Bandai 1/144 - Macross7 VF-19 "Fire Valkyrie" -

Got 3 of these but now i think i might regret it as they seems to be way too toyish was hoping to change on into a Macross Plus YF-19.

The kit comes with Basara's VF-19 Fire Valkyrie in both Fighter and Battroid. This VF-19 is know either as the Fire Valkyrie or Excalibur.

No decals with this kit but instead some real lame sticker just like with the Bandai Gunplas.

FIRE!!!
BOMBAA!!!

Ian

[Kit Review] - Yellow Submarine 1/144 - Macross SDR-04 Phalanx Mk XII -

First resin kit i will build and a SDFM Destroid to start with, awesome! Yellow Submarine, from what information ive found are or where a model making company who make some cool kits from anime in Japan. They really created a excellent range of 1/144 Macross kits which i ruddy hard to find, especially the VF-4. Managed to get all 4 destroids from SDFM but suspect there recast.

Going to have to find out about using this resin, how to sanding it, paint it an then how to make it look decent when finished.

Here some great information about the Phalanx: http://www.new-un-spacy.com/sdfmacross/destroid-phalanx.htm



Hopefully it will turn out like this, wicked 80's illustration.

Going to have to make my decals, bet that will be harder then using the resin.

Until next deculture!

Ian

Macross 1/144 VF-1J and Macchi Mc.200 WIP

Started on the VF-1J and Macchi Mc.200 yesterday, the Mc.200 is the best fit ive seen yet, almost seamless.

Working on 3 VF-1J's at the same time, Max, Milia and Hiakru. I take them apart and remove all the excess factory glue then fill in the the seams with putty. I'll start sanding them down today, outside so that no dust in my work area to stop any dust mixing when i paint.

Replace the wings on Hikaru so that movable like Max's and no weapon on the wings, prefer my TV version of SDFM to be without a payload.

Until next Deculture.

Ian

Minicraft 1/144 P-51D Mustang

My second completed kit, a P-51D Mustang, an American legend.

The best kit from the ebay win of 4 Minicraft 1/144 Famous Aircraft of World War 2 and the best of the bunch.
Some really nice panel lines on the this and a really nice level of detail but the fit was not what i called great, quite a bit of putty needed to fill in the seams. Painted it up per the instructions and used the decals supplied which i thought was the best part of the kit.



Used mostly Citadel paints for this as i really like the metallic paints, 3 different silver which i used for various panels to make it look the metel used was not all from the same pile, like maybe it got damaged in a previous engagement andf had to have a couple of panels replaced.



Best part of this kit was the landing gear, surprised how good they actually turned out.
Once painted and decaled the entire model was given a wash of Promodellers Wash, which is really great stuff, fills in all the panel line and weather up the aircraft which really brings out the detailing the kit.

Gave this kit a 3/5 when i first purchased it but now it complete i'll give it a little raise 3.5/5. Great value for the money.

Ian

1/144 Gundam 00 Exia: staright from the box.

Here is my first Gunpla built straight from the box following the instructions. No glue need at this stage, really impressive fit and level of engineering with this. How the separate parts fit together to make an almost seamless fit is amazing but i will be using glue when i start to build this as a proper model instead of the toy it looks like.

I don't like all the extra pieces like the swords and shields, i think the make the gundam look way too busy. Prefer it to like the photo below, just the gundam in a strong pose.



The kit comes with some cool clear parts, only problem os that they got all scratched on the way from Japan, will probable have to paint them up the colour they are in the anime and give them lot of gloss.

Favorite part is the legs, wicked engineering with them.

Ian

Chara-works 1/144 Macross Valkyrie VF-1J Hikaru Ichijyo

I have alot of theses little beauties, enough to do nearly every version of the VF-1 i can think of1

Thought i would start with the VF-1J Hikaru Ichijyo, the man who put the max in macross.

These little Valkyries VF-1's are from my favorite anime, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, made by Chara-works along with F-toys who make alot of the pre-painted 1/144 planes in Japan.



These have fantastic detail but fail on how they where but together, as can be seen above with the massive seam along the nose, also along the engines/legs there are really bad seams, gonna have to use alot of putty on those. The paint apps are hit or miss but mostly miss with the ones i have,gone have to do alot of detail painting. Should look really good when i paint up the panels lines.



Really cool thing is the decals these come with which means i can make nearly every VF-1 i can think of. Some of the other Valkyries have decals only for that model while this it has some which can be used for quite alot of different Valkyrie designs.

Comes with the option of landing gear up or down but i will choose either one and glue them in, not a fan of changing them over as the landing gear is really small and could easily get lost.



Going to be seeing alot of these customized and improved in the future, hoping i can make every version in the TV series and movie and any on other future macross anime.

Until next Deculture!

Ian

[Kit Review] - Sweet 1/144 - Macchi Mc.200 -

A new kit from Sweet of a plane ive never heard of an Italian Macchi Mc.200. Another amazingly detail kit, the bombs are the best ive ever seen in a 1/144 kit. I reckon this might be one of the first Sweet kits. There no instruction sheet as they are on inside the the box which means i'll have to take the box apart to build this little beauty.

On the box it says "Easy to build, Just 1 Min" which i find kinda unlikely unless im actually a really slow modeller than most. 6 decal option which seams to be the usually excellent choice you get from Sweet and looking forward to painting this one, the Italian had some cool camo design just hope i can pull them off with a brush.

Nothing special about the box art, no beautiful painting of the aircraft or Nasa-Chan anime style art.

Ian

Osprey Wildcat Aces of World War 2

Got this book to go along with the sweet kit i recently got, this is recommend in the instructions and in English i could understand what was being recommend.

Looks really good, no colour photos which is a shame but lots of black and white one and something about nearly all the decal options supplied with the Sweet kit. Have alot of those side profile drawing in colour in the center of the book which will be really useful.

Paid £5 for this so i think it excellent value especially as it retails at £14.99.

Lets hope it helps me build a excellent looking wildcat.

Ian

1/144 GUNDAM first puchase

Some new for me a gunpla (gundam plastic model kit). Boxes got a bit knocked about on there way from Japan.

Never built one of these before nor have i yet to watch any Gundam but will sometimes this year.
Picked these 2 kit a Gundam 00 Exia and Gundam Stargazer because i liked the look of them.

Going to start building the Exia and find out what it like, no glue apparently but that's if i want it to look like a toy.

Ian

[Kit Review] - Sweet 1/144 - Wildcat VI with flight deck -

Sweet Aviation Model Division, a model company i can find very little about but who make the best 1/144 model kits ive seen so far. Limited info ive found is that this small company was set-up by a ex Tamiya employee after he retired and that they release maybe a kit each year then many variant of that kit especially Japanese Zero's.



This is the first of many of these sweet kits which ive been adding to my stash, a Royal Navy Wildcat VI with a cool looking American built Carrier Deck and cute cat crew (who i will probably not build).



Some of the box art is really excellent painting of the model or one of these anime style box art with the cute Nasa-Chan (Chan means young girl in Japanese and named after NASA which is strange as no space kits from sweet) and her little pet cat.



8! decal option for different style of Wildcat VI. Something these sweet kits have are alot of decal option which sometimes make choosing the one you want difficult, almost makes you want to buy multiple kits and build them all.
That would end up being costly as these kit cost around £10 each in the UK.



The instructions are quite nice, kinda cartoon-ish with lot of description telling you what to do and how to make different version like a different engine or antenna.
The plastic is top quality and the paneling lining is the business, looking forward to seeing what the fit will be like especially as these are made in Japan instead of the obvious China.

The reason i looked into the Tamiya extra Thin Cement is because there a little picture telling you to use it in the instruction, also to get a Osprey Aces of WW2 book which is on the way.

This kit is a big 5/5 so far.

Ian

Psalms of Planets Eureka seveN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Seven wikipeadia does a good description of this anime, i wont even try explaining whats it about cause i would fail.



Just finished watching this anime, 50 episodes of awesomeness.
Its the story of Renton Thurston and his relationship with Eureka and the Nirvash. (The 2 kids above with the super cool Nirvash behind)
As per lots of anime ive watched the young male lead, has parent issues, ends up piloting a super cool mecha, crys alot and shout alot too.



I noticed there was alot of shouting in this anime, especially name, Renton shout "Eureka!" Eureka shouts "Renton!" and then Holland shout at poor Renton constantly.
Holland the cool but also idiot leader of Gekkostate, which at first appears to be a cool bunch of surfer type people but are actually paramilitaries or even terrorist.



The Nirvash or TypeZero, the first mecha or LFO constructed in the series. LFO short for Light Finding Operation, have no idea what that means. Super cool as it can surf through the air one these beautiful looking trapars, which i guess are wave in the sky.
At first was not a fan because of how it is coloured but after a couple of episodes realise how cool it was, though i would prefer to make a model of the military one.
Designed by Shoji Kawamori, the Macross creator and design king.



Eureka sure does look cute in the image above.

Ian

[Kit Review] - Revell 1/144 - Eurofighter Typhoon -

A nice looking kit this revell one, excellent plastic and some real nice armament.

Has decals for the cockpit which ive never seen before, looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Looks to be the best detailed kit ive bought so far, lots of little details and some real nice panel lines. Looks quite simple to assemble but then with all those missiles could be a bit delicate.

Ian

First build: Aoshima 1/144 MiG-25 Foxbat

Here's my first build, a Aoshima 1/144 MiG-25 Foxbat which i picked up cheap knowing that this would be the first build i wanted something that i didn't spend aload of cash on then ruin with my limited skills.



Learnt loads from putting this together:



Watch out with your fingers, don't touch the paint or glue cause then you get a massive finger print right damn center of the wing.



Never put masking tape onto a decal, rips them straight off. Then you don't realize until you start working on it again next weekend and that masking is in the landfill.



Leave gluing on the landing gear and any little bit which can easily be knocked off until the end, so frustrating how mant times i broke them off then glued them on again.



Sand and putty those seam, look awful once paint then you got to start again.



Make sure no bubble under the decal, stand out a mile and can not stop looking at them.

Overall a good kit, could have done with alot more detail to bring it alive and quite good paint work for the first completed model. Still got so much to learn to make it look realistic.

I'll give the kit a 3/5, good for a cheap kit and an excellant starter for this beginner.

Ian

Felined Fighters WIP

I really impressed myself with that title.

Got the Jaguar and Tomcat put together over the weekend. First time using the tamiya extra thin cement and i'm really liking this stuff. Filled in some of the seams but not really much to do with these 2 and then sanded and primed.

All ready to be painted in whatever camo i decide to go with the Jaguar and ive bought some new decals to replace the yellowed one which came with the dragon kit for the tomcat, going to be gulf war version.

Ian

Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.

Excellent stuff, started to use it today on the Tomcat and Jaguar.

For the last couple of model ive put together, ive just been using either super glue or liquid poly. Not bad but a bit messy, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is totally different glue.

First of you don't have to put glue on to the joint then stick them together,with this you hold what you want glued together and use the tiny brush which is attached to the lid and run the glue along the seam. when it dry it kinda melt the plastic together to give a excellent fit and very little sanding it required. There's very little residue left after it dry, which was a big surprise.

Now when i look at modeller work station you can always see this stuff, going to have a look into other tamiya products to add to my tool collection. Already got some tamiya masking tape and putty on the way.

Ian

[Kit Review] - Dragon 1/144 - "Fightertown USA" F-14A with Ground Support Equipment -

Another new purchase, got this because ive have yet to see any ground equipment and who doesn't like an F-14. Kit is from 1991 so the decals have started to yellow, which is a shame. Wondering if because the ground equipment is yellow, i can still use them there.

Good looking plastic and the canopy is tinted which might be cool when finished.

Ive noticed alot of Dragon 1/144 kits on ebay, looks like there are some cool fighter produced and some released recently so made the decals are still in good condition. See if i can pick so up on the cheap and find out.

Ian

[Kit Review] - Academy 1/44 - Sepecat Jaguar -

New kit i got for the excellent price of £2.00. Wanted to find out how good a Academy kit was and always like the look of the Jaguar, not sure which colour to paint this in like the desert camo but the grey/green European camo was its usual colours.

Kit looks good, nice plastic and some alright panel lines, will have to use another source for decals, the colour of the R.A.F. symbol is really bad, the red circle practically looks pink. Wouldn't mind using the decal which read The Guardian Reader, something unique about that.

Ian

MiniCraft Ebay win review.

Won these kit off ebay about a month ago and thought i got a good deal. Turns out that some are not the greatest kit out there. I'm thinking that it because the company MiniCraft is trying to make them affordable (a noble effort) but that means a lack of say Japanese model kit quality.

Soon as a i received them i got to work on all 4, first thing i noticed was the what i presume to be cheap plastic. Kinda plastic Christmas cracker toys are made out of.

The decals looked excellent and turned out to be when i decaled them up (post pics of them soon, still wip) Printed by Cartocraf of Italy who seem to be a massive decal producer for major model company's.

Easily to follow instruction but then at 1/144 scale, these little fighter always seem to assemble easily.

After a couple of hours assembling them i decided to bin the Spitfire and lightning, where really bad in my opinion, cheap plastic and really did not fit together very well. Shame about the lightning, really like that fighter and have yet to see any other available. Kept the decals from these and the landing gear which i though might come in handy for other project.

Thunderbolt was average, fitted together fine but needed alot of putty to fill in the massive gaps on the undercarriage, chunky landing gear, nasty looking canopy and has hardly any panels lines.

Best of the bunch was the Mustang, so far this has been the best kit ive built, has the better quality plastic, good fit, really nice panels lines, best canopy out of the lot and the best landing gear.

Overall-
Lockhead P-38J Lightning 1/5
North American P-51D Mustang 3/5
P-47D Thunderbolt 2/5
Supermarine Mark V Spitfire 1/5

From the date of the kit these date back to 1998, which means i will give MiniCraft another go as they have quite few kit i would like to build and i reckon they must have improved in the last 11 years.

Ian

Introduction and first post!

Hello all

Names Ian and i'm going to use this blog as record of my little adventure through 1/144 scale modeling and blogging about anything else i like in general.

Recently wanted to get back into model after giving it up when i was 14/15 about 10 years ago, and what interested me after some research was the Japanese modeller who do awesome work in 1/144 scale. (Also really interested in Japan, taking Japanese lessons and watch alot of anime)

Got the idea for the name for the blog from a kit which i bought and reckoning that the cockpit was made for an ant to pilot. Once summers hit i will see if i can taking a photo of an ant next to a 1/144 figure to see the size difference. Leave a apple core out in the garden and see it be engulfed by the little blighters.

Going to start by doing some reviews of kit i have so far acquired and how i get along with building them.

Ian