Yamato 1/60 scale YF-19 Fix/Modification Thread

[whitestar]

Have you slide the "round" shoulder cap to lock the shoulder pin joint? I made the same mistake when I first got my YF-19, until Kensai point it out to me. Apart from the first issue, to me, the YF-19 is fairly robust.

Yes, I did, if you're referring to the plastic "sleeves" on the upper arm (referring to the pic you posted above). The looseness is coming from the joint where the arm connects to the body of the valk. The shoulder joint is loose on both sides, preventing the valk from keeping its arms raised when the gun or shield is put in either hand. I heard about all the improvements with the YF-19 with fast pack and I was disappointed when I discovered the floppiness of the shoulders. Thanks so much for your help anyway! I'm hoping that I'm not the only one with the problem, because this valk would have been perfect otherwise.

[zebu]

Posted per request from "Wicked Ace"

Posted by "Zebu"

________________________________________________________

Howdy,

I’m Newbie to this forum, so I would like to contribute to all.

As you could've guessed from the title, this is about chest locking fix mod (possibly… you will be the judge of that).

I've always been the fan of YF-19 and love 1/60 Yamato version. However, I also been extremely frustrated with the landing gear, gunpod, and chest locking issues it comes with it.

After doing some researching on this forum and learning a lot, I decided to do my own mod for chest lock. Unlike the GERWALK Mod out there, I did not want to cut nor do any “carving of plastic”.

Also one pose I really wanted my YF-19 to do is the free falling pose like the one shown on photo 01. As we all know by now, recently released yf-19 figure (not 1/60) can do this because it is not transforming, action figure (See photo 02).

Now let’s get to the point here. Check out my photo 03 and see if you think I've came close.

Now photo 4 and 5 is showing me holding the YF-19 by its leg and upside down (Without any mod, you all know what happens ).

How did I do it?

To do this you need, following supplies

1. super glue (don't be scared, you cannot see any glued parts from exterior view of the model as you can see)

2. wires (American wire gauge size 24, it is about the same size as little wires inside of your ethernet cable)

3. wire cutter and forceps (though not required)

That is it.

Obviously, the concept is to place the wire to aid the chest to lock. I decided to use wire because it easily mold to any curved surface, and the rubber covering give the necessary "softness" and do not cause any "grinding" of plastic parts.

Photo 06 shows where the wires go. Cut about 1.5 cm of wires (I've used 2 rows to ensure it secures the chest tightly) and glued it just below the base of chest cannon plate as shown. Photo 06 should give you precise locations I am talking about.

Photo 07 is shown from another view and with approximate distance from the cheat cannon base plate (3.5 - 4 mm below).

Photo 08 shows what it looks like once is completed (frontal view)

Finally, photo 09 explains the concept again. The wires are not pressing against the side of nose cone; rather, it is gripping the nose cone just below the radar sensors (shown as red lines in photo 08).

Few advantages for this mod

1. Easy to do (once I figured out the correct reference and distance, it took me less than 5 minutes to complete the mod)

2. It does not interferes with any other mode (in fact, it hold the chest little tighter in GERWALK mode which is added bonus)

3. unless you flip the model and expose the location to show that you have glued these wires, these wires do not show in any views (people will never know if you ever did any mod to it)

4. If you do not like the mod and remove the wires or need to adjust the wires, it can be done with ease... also since wires are out of the sights, so are the glue marks.

Few disadvantages

1. The reference points and distance of the wires must be exact in order to make the chest lock tight.

2. you are using glue so... it can be messy (again, you can't see them though)

3. this does not lock the bottom of nose cone (I am working on it)

Try it.. I am completely satisfied with the result.

Zebu

[David Hingtgen]

The inside of the "calf" of the YF-19 is too thick, so when you put it in fighter mode, the tension of the calf pushes on the inside of the shoulder forcing it to pop up. Because both of my shoulder's were modified ahead of time, you may need to modify both sides of the calf in order to make it wide enough for the shoulder to fit flush. Just make sure you're careful and don't compromise the overall shape of the leg. I'm very pleased to see both shoulders sitting very flush in fighter mode;

Bumping this because I just did it----works great, easy (but slightly time consuming) mod. This will not allow the shoulders to move foward, but it will allow them to move all the way DOWN so they don't stick up at all. Use an emory board/sanding stick, and just go back and forth along the "inside wall of the inner calf"---right where it's circled. Make it half as thick as it is from the factory, maybe even thinner. (assuming 1st release YF-19--maybe later ones are different). Just compare the inner and outer walls where the shoulders touch the calf in fighter mode---try to match the outer one. Doesn't have to be QUITE as thin as the outer one, but a lot thinner than it starts out as. You do not need to thin where it starts curving down towards the knee--just the straight area.

You do NOT need to take apart the legs, and I would highly advise against doing so. Just take out the 3 screws in the calf, and you can then easily remove the upper half of the leg and the feet to make it easier to work on.

[Valkyrie addict]

oh man, since I got my YF-21 i started playign again with my YF-19 and remembered what a mess it was and how I was too lazy to fix most of it's issues.... well, fixed most of it, but I got a problem

the right arm is saggy, right under the shoulder cover, only one screw holds it, I tryed tightening the shouder but it didn't work and then noticed that it unglued itself on the seam, I try putting some glue but it's very difficult to tighten it cause the shoulder cover gets in the way (chubby fingers), is there any way of taking the shoulder off without breaking it in half were it's glued so I tighten the arm?

[Valkyrie addict]

NEVERMIND...fixed it

[MangledMess]

Ok, sorry if this may seem old, but I finally got around fixing that cracked left bicep. Seems superglue was enough instead of getting a special glue. *slaps himself hard*

Gluing it back was easy enough, but two obstacles got in my way: the shoulder cover and the sleeve. Took me awhile to find out that I don't need to take it apart, for I could just pivot the cover 90 degrees up. But the bicep sleeve was annoying me. Only glued back the last broken part after I put the sleeve back in.

Yeah, it's a mess. Let's hope the superglue doesn't crack in a few days. *crosses fingers* Will fix the right bicep next time, as that old nasty crack is still there...

Sorry if the images(yes, I haven't invested in a digital camera yet) aren't detailed in fixing the bicep. Sacrificed sleep to get this problem over with, so forgot a few details.

In the meantime, here's my -19 standing tall among my small collection(and might keep it that way. Don't want to turn toy-collecting into an addiction... ^^; ):

Later.

Edited August 26, 2008 by MangledMess

[Chronocidal]

Bumping because I just had a similar problem to the one above.

I got a supposedly brand new YF-19 on Ebay (previous owner said he had only displayed in fighter and never transformed it), and the shoulders were a mess out of the box. I'm inclined to believe the seller about it never being played with, since he was more than willing to refund me, but he gave me a great deal, so I'd much rather fix it myself than look for a similar deal.

My problem wasn't quite as external as the above pictures. I noticed that the shoulders would not lift at all, and noticed that the upper arm was very loosely held around the shoulder joint.

On pulling up the shoulder covers and unscrewing the top joint, I realized that the shafts that the screws go into were both sheared off at the base. Once the screw was out, the arms just fell off, leaving the shaft still inside the hole in the shoulder.

For now, I just superglued the screw shafts back where they belong, and reassembled the arms. I REALLY wish I could get the shoulder covers off, because they made this a pain.

Btw, I did discover one thing.. the arms are MUCH easier to put together if you remove the lower arm. I just popped out the rotation pin for the sideways bicep joint, and everything went smoothly.

The shoulder lifting motion is nice and tight on both arms now (the glue tightened the joints a little, on top of the screw being tight).

Unfortunately, this thing has a host of other minor problems that I'm working on slowly (landing gear already fixed, working on the crooked gunpod).

Two things I'm not quite sure about fixing.. well, three actually.

First, the left upper thigh pivot (the "bendy" joint used in gerwalk) is extremely loose... It seems the ratchet tooth was molded too small, and it won't grip the joint. I've tried getting the area around the joint apart, but the area is really glued well. I might just add a thin layer of glue to the surface the tooth grabs onto, and see if it helps it grab better.

Second, I can't for the life of me get the intake covers to stay in. It's like the pegs were molded too small, or the intakes are too big. I might need to beef up the pegs to get them to attach.

Last, the upper shoulder rotation joint is just floppy. The arms will barely hold up their own weight, let alone the gunpod. I've been trying to get at the that joint to see if I can tighten it, but the amount of glue used on this thing is beyond frustrating.

I might just see if Overdrive can ship me some spare parts at some point, and try replacing the arms and left leg, but that's a good chunk of the plane to replace.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Chronocidal

[whitestar]

Upper shoulder rotation was also a problem for my yf-19. Overdrive shipped me a set of complete arm/shoulder replacement, and even these were as loose as the ones I intended to replace.

[ae_productions]

Upper shoulder rotation was also a problem for my yf-19. Overdrive shipped me a set of complete arm/shoulder replacement, and even these were as loose as the ones I intended to replace.

That bites.

I don't have the 19. But, is there a way to partially take that shoulder apart? Add a drop of superglue to an unseen area to add friction (tightness)? I've had to do this trick with several of my Transformers. It's a great fix to tighten a loose joint. Instead of superglue, I've also heard of people using clear nail polish (which doesn't last very long), or future floor sealant. Now, once it dries, if you put too much glue on, you can sandpaper or dremmel the excess glue to a tightness you are happy with.

Just a suggestion. Hope it helps. Again, don't have a 19, so don't know if this is viable or not.

[cypherzero]

I've heard of these arm issues with the Yamato YF-19, but I never thought that I would be an unlucky recipient of this structural design flaw.  I had repainted my YF-19 into a VF-19A, and I had one shoulder joint just fall apart when I pulled down the sleeve.  I thought the other arm was immune, but that one had a fine crack.  After I had reattached the good arm, the crack broke off and now I had to glue the broken part.  I wonder if the latter releases have the same issues as well, such as the black 25th Anniversary release? 

[Sanity is Optional]

I really hope not, I have as anniversary Yamato 19 unopened in storage...

[Chronocidal]

So, just from the relative timeframe of the YF-19's release, it has always been my suspicion that the bad plastic found in the early VF-0 shoulders also made its way into the YF-19.  It's just too similar a behavior to have parts shattering left and right.

I was also concerned when I first saw how the later VF-19 and Arcadia YF-19 used almost identical shoulder assemblies to the earlier YF-19, but the plastic is of a completely different quality, and I have very rarely if ever heard of any issues with those releases.