First mech model

QUOTE: Originally posted by knight667 [1) do you guys/gals paint your stuff, or just assemble it as is?

They are build like any other Model with putty, primer, paints, weathering, etc. Pickup a copy of Hobby japan to see what the experts to with those Kits.
You should be able to use techniques from your current experience.

QUOTE: 2) how good are the decals?

Depends on the kits, some of the older items like the Takara, Arii & Imai Kits had decent decals(aged now). Bandai often includes dry-transfers and sticker sheets. Overall they should be ok.

QUOTE: 3) do you like to stick with a specific scale, or do you switch back and forth?

I build Robots and powered armor suits from 1/144 up to 1/8 scale.

One word of note, many of the mech kits are released by toy-makers in Japan and quality and detail level while fair won't rival Hasegawa or Tamiya.

If you want high-detailed mech kits than you will have to look for the resin kits that are released by a few companies, but those will set you back a pretty penny.

Most of the kits are articulated so that you can pose/transform them, etc, which means more subassemblies than you most likely used to and some parts will need to be sanded/primed after they were joined to painted sub-assemblies(knee joints, etc.)

Rather than going for Gundam, might I suggest one of the older Macross Valkyrie Kits or similar, very reasonable priced and being based on the F-14 maybe a bit closer to what you know.

Let me know towards which type of mecha(super robots, hero robots, realistic robots, transformable robots, combiner robots, exotic robots, armored suits, etc) you are leaning and I might be able to recomment a good kit.
in the worst kit I can pull something out of the stash and ship it to you.

One thing I forgot a LOT of the older models are constantly being re-issued(Lazyner, macross, etc), but those rarely show up on sites like Hobby Link Japan or Rainbow 10.

I got contacts that could yet you those re-issued kits.

That is interesting as the old Macross Battloids fetch a high price on ebay, ramped by collectors...

Are the older battloids being released, such as the Tomohawk at all?

I am a big Battletech fan and the Macross mechs were used by FASA under license.

cheers

Mike

QUOTE: Originally posted by madmike That is interesting as the old Macross Battloids fetch a high price on ebay, ramped by collectors... Are the older battloids being released, such as the Tomohawk at all?

Yes, they are at times re-issued but seem to sell out very quickly.

QUOTE: I am a big Battletech fan and the Macross mechs were used by FASA under license.

Those and a few other Animes designs were used by FASA till they got hit over the head for doing so.

Apparently Harmony Gold withdrew the license,. In Battletech circles they are called th "unseens" Luckily I have the original tech readouts that have these mechs in them!

I have never heard of re-issues until you mentioned it.

cheers

Mike

Ever since playing the Mechwarrior I have been a huge battletech fun. Does anyone know about any plastic kits available of the mechs, I am particularly interested in Daishi, Madcat , Gladiator, Vulture and Marauder.

QUOTE: Originally posted by shirvmaster Ever since playing the Mechwarrior I have been a huge battletech fun. Does anyone know about any plastic kits available of the mechs, I am particularly interested in Daishi, Madcat , Gladiator, Vulture and Marauder.

Most of the kits are long gone now, you can still find the odd piece here or there.
The kits that are available are NOT battletech kits but kits based on the Anime series from which the designs were taken.

Armorcast makes some resin kits of the MadCat, Vulture & Atlas mech, they cost a pretty penny though.

QUOTE: Originally posted by knight667 I've been working on aircraft, armor and cars and decided to try my hand at Gundams and other mechs. I have a couple questions: 1) do you guys/gals paint your stuff, or just assemble it as is? 2) how good are the decals? 3) do you like to stick with a specific scale, or do you switch back and forth?

1) Paint & Glue. I'll paint parts on the sprue with a base coat of what'er colors I;m using. It can help find those elusive seam lines.

2) Most (if not all) of the decals that come with Gundams are stickers and not waterslide decals. But you can get waterslide decals (with lots of extras) from several sources like Models4U.

3) Most of what I've got are 1:144 scale, but I've recently I've been building 1:100 scale stuff. Then there's the 1:72 scale Macross models, the 1:35 Votoms & Gasaraki's, the 1:24 Dorvacks, and the 1:20 MaK stuff.