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fruitlewps wrote:
These pics actually raise my hopes up. They look good compared to the rest of what we have seen.

To be fair, the Zentradi stuff never really got much abuse, the Gnerl excepted.

And I'd be concerned over the narrowness on the Recovery Pod's arms. I know that's not a joint (it's got the much wider collar at the body), and I know the plastic's supposed to be relatively strong, but it really doesn't look like it'd take much to snap that, especially with the size of the forearms attached. And if it does snap, it's going to be a significant PITA to re-attach.

I'm surprised at the squinty look of the Regults. But looking at the images, they're accurate. I always thought they were HAL-like (dark lens with a bright light), but it turns out that it was just the 'eyelids' painted black. Heh. Still too fiddly for me. Curious what they'd be like without the front mounted lasers, and use the holes as recessed gun mounts. Be four less pieces to glue in, and four less pieces to snap off.

Some really good discussion

https://www.facebook.com/NinjaDivision/posts/274350969412133

Sining Ong‎Ninja Division
May 14 at 1:55am ·

Dear ninjas, why did you guys partially assemble these figures? It misled a lot of people into thinking the Valkyrie's aren't in that many parts but there are seams on the arms which means they've already been assembled. These are very deceptive practices http://palladiumbooks.com/cuttingroom/Official/Robotech-RPG-Tactics/Valkyrie-proto.jpg
Like ·

Ninja Division Hi Sining,
We do not participate in deceptive practices... we are ninjas after all! But seriously, the early photographs of the miniatures you are seeing are production/prototypes of the miniatures before they go into tooling.
Miniatures are highly detailed, and will require assembly, and necessarily be assembled from parts depending on the complexity of the miniature, some of which required by our striving to maintain a high fidelity to the original concepts and artwork - but also, something not out the realm of expectation and ability of new and veteran hobbyists.
Example - Zentraedi battle pod, at my last count had 12 pieces including the base, which I managed to assemble 3 of them in under 15 minutes.
Its a wonderful plastic and takes glues very well.

The Valkyrie fighter is 6 parts, and add on missiles to your own flavor...

The Battloid, depending on build between 12-15 pieces (as some heads and arms are in multiple parts)

I really hope you enjoy them as much as we are in getting ready to launch.
May 15 at 3:56pm · Like
Harley WarWolf If we had more pictures of these models assembled it would help the tension that is building on the kickstarter site. The only assembled model we saw was a poorly assembled destroid that started a firestorm. I was curious why your site has sections for everything but robotech. Thanks in advance
May 15 at 11:13pm · Like
Michael Arnold Ninjas, what type of glue do you recommend? Super, Gorilla, etc..
May 15 at 11:23pm · Like
Brett Smith I had been wondering the same thing, Mike. I'd be interested to know if the Ninjas recommend a specific type of glue for the ABS models...
May 15 at 11:50pm · Like
Peter Ceretti Not trying to stir the pot but "The Valkyrie fighter is 6 parts, and add on missiles to your own flavor... " made me wonder. Looking at this picture http://palladiumbooks.com/.../VF-1A-Fighter-parts... we have 2 wings, 2 legs each 2 pieces, upper fuselage, lower fuselage, 2 vertical stabilizers, 2 pieces for the head. That is a total of 12 pieces not counting the gun and missiles. Is the term "parts" being used to refer to the whole parts? Legs, wings, body, head, gun, and tail?
May 16 at 8:46am · Edited · Like
Ninja Division hey there - this is ninja John - its my job here at Ninja Division to direct the manufacturing and creation of all the miniatures that you will soon be enjoying. We have to make a lot of hard decisions about the miniatures to ensure that we meet the high standards of our partners and the expectations of our customers -
As for glue - I have experimented with both bonding agents like plastic glues (testors, and architectural brush on glue-- works like a charm) and super glue and/or locktite - they are both perfect for assembly - you want something with a control tip to prevent extra glue from spoiling your pretty figures.
I am working with the engineering team in China as we speak, concerning final parting lines on some of the more egregious examples - some can be mitigated, and part count reduced... some by dint of the details, armor lines, and other required details.. cannot.
As an avid hobbyist, I spent time assembling a few recent miniatures kits from a well known company, and am confident that our part count is appropriate for the detail and east of assembly, and we are working to make it easier as best we can.
May 16 at 3:26pm · Like · 1
Ninja Division Here are examples of actual assembled and primed miniatures from the Glaug Command frame - the Regult Scout Pod, and the Glaug Command Pod - miniature assembly time - 15 minutes for both together - The Glaug's components include: Right and Left leg, each in two parts, two feet, two halves to the main torso, two thruster pods, the main cannon - Right and Left arms with 3 parts each - halves, and then a cap for the end of the main cannons. two whisker lasers, hip segment, eye piece, and an antennae - for a grand total of 22 parts. Assembly is quick, logical, and really nice looking.
The Scout pod included two legs, two feet, front and back to the main cockpit, sensor vane and stand, antannea array, thrusters x2, vane antannae x2, hip section, and 3x sensors for the front of the cockpit for 18 pieces.
Ninja Division's photo.
May 16 at 3:45pm · Like · 6
Brett Smith Thank you so much for dropping in and sharing the info with us NJ. Very much appreciated!
May 16 at 4:12pm · Like
Richard Steinberg Jr. ND did they fix the joining pin on the one arm assembly of the Recovery pod?
May 16 at 5:23pm · Like
Harley WarWolf Thank you for the picture and the quick response John.
May 16 at 5:32pm · Like
Harley WarWolf Could we please have photos of the front and rear of those models. What we wanted to see was how noticeable the seam lines were and how well the figures fit together, thank you.
May 16 at 5:50pm · Like
Ninja Division Here is a front shot - as my fellow ninja can attest, I am the worst at cleaning my models - Ill get some more shots in a bit.
Ninja Division's photo.
May 16 at 6:05pm · Like · 7
Harley WarWolf Thank you for the rapid quick response. This type of communication with the backers is what will restore the positivity among those who feel ignored. Looking forward to the future pics.
May 16 at 6:12pm · Like
Peter T. Pidrak Thank you. It is wonderful to see some communication on this issue and quick responses.
May 16 at 6:31pm · Like
Thomas Roache as for glue, please do not use gorilla - it expands!
May 16 at 7:04pm · Unlike · 2
Peter T. Pidrak I will probably wind up doing some tests with the sprue material and testors to see how it works.
May 16 at 7:06pm · Like
Jim Odebralski Wow. Thats nice! Small seems. Barely notice them. I am stoked!!!!!!!
May 16 at 7:55pm · Like
Harley WarWolf Keep in mind they are primed so ideally you will want to fix the seams before priming or they will really show up on your paint job.
May 16 at 10:01pm · Like
Harley WarWolf Still with the fixes in work I believe these will be wonderful minis.
May 16 at 10:05pm · Like
Harley WarWolf These pics are getting me excited for the game again and I noticedfrom another FB that they have attracted a few people who were not aware of the project before.
May 16 at 10:36pm · Like
Ninja Division You are right Sining, after making a careful count, and a few pieces stuck together in the bag - it is 10 pieces including the flight stand - perhaps 11 if you choose a multi-part head - of which the VF1A is not one.
Yesterday at 1:19am · Like · 1
Dick Teh Sweet models
Yesterday at 6:31am · Like
Ninja Division We are here to address concerns, answer questions, and engage in constructive dialogue - we will try and do our best, and do not want to rise to the kind of baiting that goes on in forums like this.
Trolling is not constructive conversation.
Yesterday at 6:23pm · Unlike · 3
Sining Ong should we be worried your part counts for the other models are off by the same factor as well? ie. 10 compared to 6, which is about 1.67x more parts
22 hours ago · Like
Brett Smith Way to try and stay productive and professional dude.
19 hours ago · Like
Ninja Division Ninjas are strong proponents of math.
19 hours ago · Like · 2
Harley WarWolf On to a real question, or request could you please assemble a veritech for us and take a few pictures of it from different angles. I would like to see how wide the seams are on the arms and legs. Didn't look to good on the one assembled and displayed ...See More
19 hours ago · Like · 1
Harley WarWolf Unprimed though please
19 hours ago · Like
Ninja Division Hi Harley, the ones shown we 3d prototypes, and are a little delicate. Once tooled, we will have full images and video with real physical product.
19 hours ago · Like · 2
Harley WarWolf That is great news thanks again.
19 hours ago · Like
Harley WarWolf A few more questions, will you be doing any painting guides once you start getting the final product. I'd also like to know what colours I should use for the more popular line of paints. I'm a big vallejo fan so would love to know what colours from that line would be best. As well as what you think the best primer colour to use on them would be.
19 hours ago · Like
Ninja Division There is a paint guide in the rule book for the popular schemes, with a hexadecimal color key for each model. Primer colors depend on what you are painting, but with all those lovely ruddy Browns in the UEDF, check army painters excellent color ma...See More
18 hours ago · Like · 1
Harley WarWolf I just found a nice hex to vallejo colour
guide, I'll share this with my group! Do you have any painted at the ninja dojo that you could show us pics of? Here is link to the guide I found if your interested. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/Tyler/VallejoColors.pdf
18 hours ago · Like · 1
Brett Smith Ninjas burning the midnight oil.
18 hours ago · Like
Brett Smith How so? Don't be coy.
17 hours ago · Like
Brett Smith I don't think that they were ever out of the game. We asked questions here and they answered pretty promptly. They haven't been on the KS comments section but they weren't exactly hiding either and I don't think that there is any conspiracy or rift b...See More
15 hours ago · Like
John Liller Anders Agdahl Dä Maybe not avoiding questions but actually working? They have Robotech AND their own Super Dungeon Explore project that they are working on plus maybe other projects. Methinks thou art listening too much to trolls and getting thy pantaloons atwist?
12 hours ago · Like
Ninja Division Good morning everyone -
While I appreciate speculation in all of its guises, I don't feel that this is a healthy road to follow for anyone, but I see this as a teaching moment, as for all the speculation and assembly of the controlled information we h...See More
8 hrs · Like · 2
Richard Chalcraft I do wish that there was not so many people assuming in this process. I assumed that the facts presented in the kickstarter were true, like 98% ready and that we would have this before Christmas last year or before. And I sure feel I was made an ass of...See More
7 hrs · Like
Ninja Division Rich - our claim to being 98% ready was not hollow or misleading - we encountered a HUGE manufacturing and engineering problem after all our sculpting was ready to go - and we have since worked through and are checking our work with our team in China....See More
6 hrs · Like · 2
Ninja Division continued...
6 hrs · Like · 1
Ninja Division Super Valks will need a once over after we finish wave 1 - I was worried about the super packs fitting right on all three modes - but we are super close
The Experimental Valkyrie is done and ready to go
The MAC II Monster needs a little tinker to the b...See More
6 hrs · Like · 3
Richard Chalcraft So can you share what that huge problem was? Prodos, a very small team that had a kickstarter for Warzone with 54 different items (some with 5 different sculpts on the sprue) had a flood at their rulebook printers. Not sure that 11ish sprues is something that takes this long?
6 hrs · Like · 1
Richard Chalcraft I do of course appreciate your trying to be open but I'm just not feeling this project and just want it over and done with. Still no idea when it will be in the UK.
6 hrs · Like
Ninja Division nothing so drastic as a flood - but there were a few significant translation errors in the initial process of delivery of the 3D files - which did not gel with the plastics machines and software the factory was used to. And, with out attention to deta...See More
5 hrs · Like · 3
Richard Chalcraft I've heard of the problems with leaking images from 3d to actual models before and understand the process. But a year, really!! Also would have been better to have come clean and been honest from the off!

Both Prodos products are IP products, they had...See More
5 hrs · Like
Ninja Division I'm sorry you feel that way Anders. We will not tolerate accusations of disregard or disrespect to customers and friends we care very much for.
5 hrs · Like · 3
Brett Smith Ninjas, thanks again for your openness and details. I can't help but feel that if this level of communication had carried on throughout the last year that a large portion of the heartache that some have could have been avoided. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to the rest of the project!
4 hrs · Like · 1
Ninja Division Agreed Brett,
Thank you for the kind words. And we will always try and answer concerns here.
4 hrs · Like · 1
Richard Chalcraft So about the timescales/ lead times then?
4 hrs · Like
Ninja Division Pending approval of final changes to the Valk and Spartan as discussed earlier, that will start the countdown clock and then we can have a confirmation from the factory when to expect delivery - and the will then go out via the Kickstarter Page to the backers first, and we will mirror that info here - and that will include timetables for product delivery to all regions, for all backers.
4 hrs · Like · 1
Richard Chalcraft Well I look forward to getting the email via kickstarter. If possible could you let us UK backers know who you are using to send out the loot and I do hope we get the product before its available anywhere else as promised
4 hrs · Like
Richard Chalcraft Cheers again for getting back to being communicative. As others have said, as have I, if the communication ball had not been dropped then maybe some (I doubt all) of the negativity would have been avoided
4 hrs · Like
Farting Cow Ninja Division, what was your reaction to Kevin's announcement of possible early shipping given the problems you've mentioned above? Was he completely unaware and should we take all correspondence from him o be inaccurate at best?
4 hrs · Like
Farting Cow I'll just add to that, if the process and problems had been communicated, like with many other kickstarters, the majority of backers are fine. In this case there were obvious issues, but we kept getting updates saying everything is awesome from Palladium. Is it any wonder people demanded answers? I hope for the rest of the process we get NDs professional approach, and no more Kevin S.
4 hrs · Like
Ninja Division From my secret ninja command center - we will try to keep you all abreast of developments as they come clear.
And ALWAYS try to address questions to us throughout the process for clarity's sake.
3 hrs · Like · 1
Jorel Levenson Thanks for taking the time to answer those questions...very informative.

This has been the crux of the drama, silence and misinformation coming from Palladium has really soured things with their backers. It sucks to be the bearer of bad news but if they'd just manned up and informed their backers when the file issues were happening people would have been much more understanding. Instead they keep saying everything is great and we're 98% done when in reality it sounds like they basically had to scrap everything and do a hard reset.

I really wish that ND would have been given free reign to cover the post KS communication, be it Robotech of their other RPG projects PB is just terrible at communication and giving tangible information.

 paulson games wrote:
This has been the crux of the drama, silence and misinformation coming from Palladium has really soured things with their backers. It sucks to be the bearer of bad news but if they'd just manned up and informed their backers when the file issues were happening people would have been much more understanding. Instead they keep saying everything is great and we're 98% done when in reality it sounds like they basically had to scrap everything and do a hard reset.

I really wish that ND would have been given free reign to cover the post KS communication, be it Robotech of their other RPG projects PB is just terrible at communication and giving tangible information.

I don't think ND handling post-KS communication is a good fix either going by Relic Knights. They bungled that one at roughly the same step according to my admittedly biased source and the communication about it was horrible with the delay of 6 months being announced around a month prior to the scheduled delivery IIRC. Subsequent delays were announced almost as delinquently and the KS still hasn't delivered despite being over a year late (although that light is actually at the end of the particular tunnel unlike this project).

So far they are infinitely better than Palladium

Sining wrote:
So far they are infinitely better than Palladium

Yeah, but since we're comparing zip to zilch, your answer only makes sense because you used L'Hopital's Rule.

Pretty much. But people are buying it so it works anyway

 warboss wrote:

I don't think ND handling post-KS communication is a good fix either going by Relic Knights. They bungled that one at roughly the same step according to my admittedly biased source and the communication about it was horrible with the delay of 6 months being announced around a month prior to the scheduled delivery IIRC. Subsequent delays were announced almost as delinquently and the KS still hasn't delivered despite being over a year late (although that light is actually at the end of the particular tunnel unlike this project).

Some of the issues there were (and continue to be) CMoN; ND couldn't actually post updates and had to send them to CMoN to be posted which reportedly introduced significant delays. According to the RK thread. there was a recent update sent to CMoN that wasn't posted to the backers for over a week.

A better gauge would be their own SDE KS which hasn't really done anything yet, but the communication has been pretty steady and thorough in sharp contrast to the comms on this one.

Ninja Division Conversation for the FB impaired
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0VSNzmthd1vOUttb2VTQmFINjA/edit?usp=sharing

Has anyone found a polite way to ask ND why NMI was trolling their Facebook? Especially as everything was so rosey between both companies the whole time.

How would that make any practical difference? NMI is a hypocrit plain and simple and there is likely much drama behind the scenes that we won't ever get to know about. I also think that Ninja Division is "spinning" this almost as much as Palladium has done in the past but at least they're finally giving us real information instead of just copy pasting Palladium's weeks after the fact so I'm not complaining.

Joyboozer wrote:
Has anyone found a polite way to ask ND why NMI was trolling their Facebook? Especially as everything was so rosey between both companies the whole time.

The same day it happened I sent some screen captures to PB and a few other notes and I think he had his short hairs pulled because he shut up on the ND site and backed off a lot on the FOTM site. There are very few people the gain my outright enmity but he has been one.

Given that we're now getting some feedback from ND on Facebook (for which I don't have an account) any chance anyone can ask these questions:

1. The Valkyrie prototypes we've seen have very blocky wings and bulbous protrusions on the leading edges where a curve can be seen in the animation and artwork. Is this an issue that is being addressed?

2. Why was it recommended that the color chart have RGB values which are only useful when painting with light and can't be used to generate a pigment mix as is needed for paints?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry... Painting with emitted light...

 jacobus wrote:


Bob- Have you joined the Facebook refund group?

Yeah.

 Nari224 wrote:
Given that we're now getting some feedback from ND on Facebook (for which I don't have an account) any chance anyone can ask these questions:

1. The Valkyrie prototypes we've seen have very blocky wings and bulbous protrusions on the leading edges where a curve can be seen in the animation and artwork. Is this an issue that is being addressed?

2. Why was it recommended that the color chart have RGB values which are only useful when painting with light and can't be used to generate a pigment mix as is needed for paints?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry... Painting with emitted light...

I think both of those have been asked. I know the wings one was asked at least once already.

Regarding the use of the RGB numbers, they probably dodged a bullet by not listing particular colours from particular companies - everyone has their favourites.

They have said that links to converters to match up your favourite paints will and are available.

Seeing some of the Zentraedi stuff in plastic is nice. It makes me feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel finally visible... even if it's only a single small LED at the moment.

 paulson games wrote:

The noses are a bit too sharply pointed and they also managed to leave off the nose lasers.

Are we looking at the same pictures? I see the sensors just fine. (thank you animation error for making them nose lasers for the rest of time)

 judgedoug wrote:

 paulson games wrote:

The noses are a bit too sharply pointed and they also managed to leave off the nose lasers.

Are we looking at the same pictures? I see the sensors just fine. (thank you animation error for making them nose lasers for the rest of time)

Yeah, looking at the posted images and then after reading your comment I went looking, The noses don't seem less point than the average in the source material (Lord knows the animation is not always great for that). If there is a difference in how pointed they are compared to the model kits I've viewed on line I can't see it.

And I can see the nose lasers as well as the 4 raised bits behind them.

I can see the little bumps on the underside, but the scale and position seems wrong. They are larger and much higher up on the sides in most of the reference art and on the toys/models.

The underside of the nose also slopes up a bit, so it's slightly upturned it's not a full on cone shape.

 paulson games wrote:
I can see the little bumps on the underside, but the scale and position seems wrong.

Agreed. But also, the shadow on the bump is so faint, that it's difficult for me to make out exactly where it is. I think I'll need to wait and see a properly painted model before I come to any conclusions about this particular item.

wilycoyote wrote:
Regarding the use of the RGB numbers, they probably dodged a bullet by not listing particular colours from particular companies - everyone has their favourites.

They have said that links to converters to match up your favourite paints will and are available.

I'm glad that they will be listing actual paints as RGB codes are actually useless for paints. It's a completely different mechanism for producing what we recognize as a color. If you take your RGB code down to the local home store to get a tin of (enamel unfortunately, acrylics are too thick) paint based on RGB codes you'll get a very blank look as they create color by mixing a bunch of pigments (that are not red, green and blue). And you won't see them listed by paint manufacturers as they also know that listing RGB colors will just lead to disappointed customers. And your mileage will vary greatly in using the various websites who try to reverse engineer RGB colours from the online color swatches the manufacturers (which often look wrong if you have a glance) release. Just look at the online Tamiya chart for example.

The reason is basically that the two different mediums are creating what we recognize as color (specific wavelengths) in completely different fashions. On your screen, RGB represents the combination of the three emitted wavelengths. In your paint (and your printer) light is being reflected by the base paint (or paper) and tinted by the pigments. That's why to get white with RGB you blast all three wavelengths at max and to get black your turn them all off. Compare this to pigments where you get black by mixing three appropriate colours and white is either a separate pigment ( some painting) or no pigment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
This is why, if you've ever attempted to match colors just on a screen, you've likely encountered much frustration.

 paulson games wrote:
I can see the little bumps on the underside, but the scale and position seems wrong. They are larger and much higher up on the sides in most of the reference art and on the toys/models.

The underside of the nose also slopes up a bit, so it's slightly upturned it's not a full on cone shape.

I looked over at my 1/48 Yamato VF-1J and compared it to my 1/60 Yamato VF-1S v2 and the nose bumps are in different places.

On the 1/48 they are directly across from each other near the bottom of the sides of the nose and the nose is very flat on the bottom.
On the 1/60 they are slightly angled and the nose is less flat on the bottom.

Even my $200+ official Macross Valkyrie toys can't get it right

edit: i just noticed the 1/48's entire nose/cockpit is maybe 10-20% longer than the 1/60. What the hell...

I suspect if you went in to the animation and measured it you'd find supposedly 'identical' stuff didn't quite match up either based on when/who drew it,

the problem of the source material

@judgedoug I miss having a vf-1 in 1/60. I'll just make do with my 1/60 frontier valks and miriya vf-22.

I wish I had a 1/48 vf-1. Very nice guy.

I'm considering selling one, I don't really need two. Also have the clear adjustable aftermarket/3rd party flight stands as well as Super/Strike packs for both, and original packaging...

So um... Does anyone know when we'll get our stuff?

Whenever papa Kevin deems the dirty peasants worthy thats when.

 Davespil wrote:
So um... Does anyone know when we'll get our stuff?

It'll ship from Detroit sometime in June, and we'll receive it sometime in July.

At least, that's what the last factual information we received was. Take that with a pinch of salt-blocks.

PB's own original estimates puts the process from start of production to shipping from Detroit at 4-5 months. Production begins "soon".

So it's good to see the Glaug painted up on ND's FB page.

It's less good to still see the seams so clearly. At least they'll be easy to fill on the Glaug. On the RDF stuff, not so much.