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1/72 VF-4 Fighter Resin Project


Valk009

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From what I know, there were three different 1/72 VF-4 fighter resin kits made.

First, there is the Hobby Base Retppu kit, which is a hollow vinyl kit. This kit is not bad but it does lack of details and many say it looks a little bit on the chubby side.

Next, is the Club-M version, which I believe looks very good and they do have a bonus of allowing you to build the kit in semi-gerwalk (without hands).

Last but not least is the Musasiya kit, which my version is based on it. Out of all three kits, the Musasiya kit is the oldest and rarest but it is also the most streamlined of all, at least in my opinion. But since the kit was released in the late '80s, the sculpting and casting quality is also from that era, hence the extensive modifications on my newer version. Besides upgrading those old and chunky landing gears and the blob pilot figure, two main differences are the new engraved panel lines and the one piece nose cone design instead of three pieces on the original Musasiya, which did not fit properly for a start and had one fiddeling with it for ages to get it right.

All these three kits are long sold out and discontinued, Club-M actually does no longer exist, so makes them very collectible and is worth having in anyones collection.

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Okay...the answer to the question...does the kit include the side thruster pods...

...well, actually no <_<

Those additional pods were added by the person who finished up the valk, a little touch of his B)) If you look at the line art drawings by Kawamori, you will notice that there are also no pods in those places. For the people who are interested in getting those pods, if I remember correctly, they were either taken from some old Gundam parts or one of those option parts sets sold by Kotobukiya!

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No biggie on the thruster pods. I haven't seen the line art (heck I haven't even seen the VF-4 in action) :mellow: I wonder what those little spots are for. It really doesn't make sense for them to be thrusters anyway as there aren't any others anywhere else besides the engines.

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Next, is the Club-M version, which I believe looks very good and they do have a bonus of allowing you to build the kit in semi-gerwalk (without hands).

Actually, it does include hands for gerwalk mode. But both hands are just fists, so there's no way of building it holding the gunpod (which is non-canon, but still pretty cool)

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Got my kit today, and it's beautiful. Just an FYI. I had a broken part right out of the box. It's one of the arches that fit over the end of the engine pods. It's a clean break, so it's easy to fix, but it's something that should have been designed a little better.

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Got my kit today, and it's beautiful. Just an FYI. I had a broken part right out of the box. It's one of the arches that fit over the end of the engine pods. It's a clean break, so it's easy to fix, but it's something that should have been designed a little better.

Good to hear that the kit arrived quicker than expected but sorry about the broken part. Once all 20 kits have been casted, I will cast an extra one or two for parts. If you want I can then resend the part to you.

Actually, that design was taken straight from the original Musasiya kit. The main changes of my kit is the one piece nose cone design, all new wings and stabilisers and all-round updated detailing..and of course the new landing gears and pilot!

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Good to hear that the kit arrived quicker than expected but sorry about the broken part. Once all 20 kits have been casted, I will cast an extra one or two for parts. If you want I can then resend the part to you.

Actually, that design was taken straight from the original Musasiya kit. The main changes of my kit is the one piece nose cone design, all new wings and stabilisers and all-round updated detailing..and of course the new landing gears and pilot!

As I said, it's not a big deal, it's easy to fix. Besides, there's a good chance that if you do send the part to me, it'll probably break again in the same spot. The post office is pretty good like that...

Just wanted you to know, that's all.

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Got mine in the mail today! Hubba, hubba. Very nice.

Valk009,

Could you post a couple of the pics off of the instruction CD? Specifically the one holding a completed engine pod showing the rear. The pics on the PDF are a little small and aliased that makes the details hard to see.

Whatever your next fighter project is I'm in as this is outstanding work on the VF-4.

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The kit arrived just now.

The casting quality is very good. This seems to be the best looking VF-4 compared to the club-M and the Retppu version.

Thanks Andy. B))

There is just one small problem (carried over from the original kit, I guess), the thruster panel (not sure if this is indeed for thruster or not, have not check the line art) next to the cockpit is slightly miss-aligned.

The pair on the port side seems ok, but the starboard side pair need some work.

Anyone have any idea how to deal with this? My expericen in resin or model building is very limited, any advise will be helpful.

the isside of this thruster panel is also not smooth. Some sanding will remedy that, I think. But I can't imagine how I go about sanding the inside of the panel without doing other damage. What sort of tools will be useful to do this ?

A great kit in general. Very happy that I decided not to pass on this.

vf4_small_prob.bmp

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To Steve68: Will take a few close up pics of the area you need clarification. The instructions were done hush hush and I did not bother to set up my camera system, just used a handheld digicam, hence some pics cpuld be a little blurry.

To kkx: The nose cone piece is a new sculpt and not taken from the Musasiya kit, which was a three piece design. I will take a look at a kit and see what kind of problem you are referring to.

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Got mine today... (It has apparently been here since saturday, but no-one told me....)

Nice clean casting with minimal bubbles... And those that I have identified are in easily fixable places.... On the matter of the misalligned thruster port.... From looking at mine, the issue appears to be that the two sides of the nosecone are not *perfectly* symmetrical... But the misalignmet is minimal.

-Adam

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Got mine today, and better than that the Postie who is an old school mate saved it up for me and dropped it round on his way home, to save me going to the sorting office to sign for it.

Great sculpt Andy, I like the CD idea for instructions. You pack your stuff so well, I never worry about it getting damaged.

Thanks again

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To Steve68: Will take a few close up pics of the area you need clarification. The instructions were done hush hush and I did not bother to set up my camera system, just used a handheld digicam, hence some pics cpuld be a little blurry.

To kkx: The nose cone piece is a new sculpt and not taken from the Musasiya kit, which was a three piece design. I will take a look at a kit and see what kind of problem you are referring to.

No problem Andy, the problem is really minimal (like Straycatt said) and it is mainly due to the original nose cone being not symmetrical.

I am sure it is easy to fix, I was just asking for advise from more experienced resin kit builder for some advise in how to deal with it.

Anyone who is still thinking of getting this kit, please do so before it run out. It is so nice that I am thinking of getting another one.

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Anyone who is still thinking of getting this kit, please do so before it run out. It is so nice that I am thinking of getting another one.

I second that. I got my two kits yesterday and the result of the casting is just awesome. For a kit that is 1/72 scale, they come in such cute little boxes, too. Another thoughtfulness that went into keeping the shipping cost down. Thanks, Andy!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

woa, that link is about8 months old, it was an ebay link for an auction on one of Valk009 VF-4, long ver...

sorry, I don't have any For Sale, I noticed you ask for them on the for sale section, you should try contacting Valk009 if he has any left or posting on the Wanted section, sorry mate, good luck

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woa, that link is about8 months old, it was an ebay link for an auction on one of Valk009 VF-4, long ver...

sorry, I don't have any For Sale, I noticed you ask for them on the for sale section, you should try contacting Valk009 if he has any left or posting on the Wanted section, sorry mate, good luck

Alls well, thanks.

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