Models - what I've been seeing

around 4 inches long and usually under $10 US.

Ok so Hopefully you have downloaded the rules and maybe have played a Game.. (I hope)
Well what did you use to play the game.. some of the cutouts that are available? Maybe some proxies or old Battletech figures.. . Sure they all will work. But I fould some cool figures that will work just fine. The problem is that they only count as Valkyries in Jet mode.
They are the Chara-works line (Macross 1/144 Chara-Works). I picked up a few from the Vol 2 series from Amazon and I wish I could find the brown VF-1A from Vol 1. Check out some of the import Toy manufacturers for 1/144 scale models or even a 1/150  or 1/200 scale - Most would work very well as long as they are under 4.5 inches tall. When this Venture really takes off, I will be getting sculpts and miniatures put together for the whole range. Hopefully I can get a foot in the door to Harmony Gold and approach them with my game. Things would go from nice to Amazing with their support.
I've been using sentinels as battle pods and you can only go so far with them and the bases are currently pretty large.
What models have you been using for your games. Let me know.