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1/72 Imai VF-1S Kitbash (Project Completed)


pengbuzz

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That's too bad Pengbuzz, it looked like you were making good headway and that you were fixing some of the issues with the kit.  Don't give up, just replace the bad parts with better (like you've been doing). - MT

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On 1/29/2017 at 11:42 AM, MechTech said:

That's too bad Pengbuzz, it looked like you were making good headway and that you were fixing some of the issues with the kit.  Don't give up, just replace the bad parts with better (like you've been doing). - MT

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I ended up flinging this against a wall in sheer frustration. I don't have money for continual rebuilds, parts or anything else period. Right now, it sits as a pile of junk in more pieces than it originally came in.

Thanks anyways though, I appreciate it.

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7 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I ended up flinging this against a wall in sheer frustration. I don't have money for continual rebuilds, parts or anything else period. Right now, it sits as a pile of junk in more pieces than it originally came in.

Thanks anyways though, I appreciate it.

I'll second MechTech: that was a great try, and it all looked very promising! Thanks a lot for the sharing and sorry for your frustration!

I'll recommend you to give the SV-262 a chance. You can always smash my head open with a bat if you end up not liking it  :-D

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1 hour ago, Skypoet said:

I'll second MechTech: that was a great try, and it all looked very promising! Thanks a lot for the sharing and sorry for your frustration!

I'll recommend you to give the SV-262 a chance. You can always smash my head open with a bat if you end up not liking it  :-D

I would, but the VF-1 was the last "available" money I'll see for some time now; pretty much living on a shoestring with my current situation for the foreseeable future (long story involving being disabled and a whole mess of crap best left unexplained).

I'm going to take a break and try to get my head together, then decide what to do next. I haven't had the heart to throw away the remains of the VF-1.

And no: "smashing heads open with a bat" isn't something I would even joke about. I appreciate the humor lol, but a head injury is how I got into my situation in the first place.

 

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I honestly don't know why, but I scraped together what was left of my vf-1 project. Maybe boredom, desperation or whatnot. But aside from a broken tailpack and legs that needs mending, the remaining casualty is that the head transform that had broken managed to pop out of the cockpit/ nose from me flinging it,

 

Just fiddling with stuff right now.... dunno what or why at this point....

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UPDATE: Well, it took a lot of dremel work, making some new pieces (hands are still sore) and a few curse words and threats to inanimate objects....

 

...we've got a heartbeat:

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Required work: tail fins were successfully replanted; head lasers all removed, metal pins cut and implanted; backpack hinge torn out and rebuilt; arm clips removed and reinforced with metal pins; legs torn down to components and reinforced inside thigh with wood (cheap signposts outside from the election); entirely new landing gear doors; crack in back panel mended with epoxy reinforcement inside the plate;and lastly, the damned head transform.

Plate in Battroid mode:

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Plate in Fighter/ Gerwak mode

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Replanting the head was only made possible by the fact that the entire remaining base of the mechanism separated cleanly out of the nose when it hit the wall.

At any rate, after all of that, it transforms and now actually stays together (Who knew that smashing things against a wall got them to work?).

But in all seriousness, to celebrate having the project back on track and almost ready for paint (just a few more things to tighten up before then), I decided to celebrate by making a display base for it (for fighter mode anyways):

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So...we'll see about how this goes from here on out. At this point, contemplating Super Armor for the fighter made from heavy plastic-coated foam blind slats.

 

Stay tuned....

 

Edited by pengbuzz
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9 hours ago, mickyg said:

Nice recovery! That ought to motivate quite a few folks, myself included..

Thanks; to be honest though, until I got the head put back into place and got the model to the component level, I wasn't sure I wasn't wasting my time on a desperate lark.

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UPDATE:

Just working on the wing joints about now; I saw the plastic pins that were holding them were not all that strong, so rather than have a breakage down the line when the model is sealed up and painted, I just went ahead, cut the plastic pins out, mounted poly-caps in the wing pivots and installed metal pins:

 

 

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I also decided to paint up a Star Wars X-Wing pilot into a deck crew "yellowshirt" directing the fighter on the catapult:

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Stay tuned folks...just a few more issues to address here...

Edited by pengbuzz
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On 2/5/2017 at 1:20 PM, MechTech said:

Nice recovery indeed and a good "push" forward with the deck - which also looks great! - MT

Thanks, much appreciated! It was almost a defeat, and just narrowly at that.

 

UPDATE:

Okay, for the first time in quite some while, Battroid pics!

First up: finally in one piece after I don't know how long! Good ti finally see the point where I can actually start painting this for a change! (More on the can in a sec, and yes: I know that's an MS keyboard in the back!)

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Metal parts to replace the plastic tabs the were removed early on; these lock the chestplate in fighter and gerwalk modes. I'm tired of playing around with plastic where metal is needed, as I just did previously with the wings..

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Leg landing gear doors: just need some shim-work on these and they should be good to go.

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The 'backpack": all that work, and now it finally stays up. But I'm seriously thinking of rare earth or neodymium magnets to make sure it doesn't fall (especially if I do the super armor like I'm planning!).

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Yes: my "hi-tech" storage container for model parts. Having them tossed is NOT a risk I want to take, especially after recent events!

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And of course, I got the "yellow shirt" mounted to the flight deck. Couldn't resist having a little fun here and doing a scale comparison of man vs. machine. :D

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Just a few nitpicks to handle now: the insert holes for the leg pegs have been reinforced with epoxy now and are curing, just like the metal tabs up top. A canopy shield will be in the works, but for now isn't utterly critical; I'll probably do a wood buck of the canopy and do a "heat and smash" in acetate or something that won't break.

 

Stay tuned folks...

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

Finally....PAINT!

 


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This is just "first colors", where the initial colors are applied. It's streaky and patchy a bit; I already know that and it's deliberate.  I'm going somewhere with this, so don't worry.

Next step is applying "pre-shading" and following a kind of off-shade "patchwork" like USN fighters have after being in service for a bit.

Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

Decided to hold off on the pre-shading and whatnot until decalling; that said, some pics for everyone:

 

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Meantime, the flip-out hinge for the arms snapped on one shoulder, so I'm rebuilding both hinges; the swing joint to deliver them to the shoulders is fine, though. I'm working on them now, and hope to have pics of more work in a day or so.

 

Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
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Small Update:

Working on the shoulder hinge pin now. Yeah, it's a bit of a pain, but I'd like to get this fixed ONCE and never worry about that again.

 

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The pin itself is metal; the plastic piece above it is just a tool I use to push it into place. I had to scrape paint away from where the new pin-mounting went into place (yeah, it doesn't look like it but the paint was scraped down to bare plastic). Once the work is done, cleanup and a repaint are in order, then it just slip-fits back into the rotational mounting for the arm transform.

The next step is to make the mountings for the arm/shoulder joint side and connect it to the metal pin. I have a few ideas about that one and have tried a couple already. I should have this done soon, then back to the finishing stage. But at this rate, anything else that looks weak or about to give out is going to be replaced with metal pins and heavy reinforcement.

By the time I'm done with this project, I think most of it will have been scratch-built.

Stay tuned...

Edited by pengbuzz
additional info and clarification
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UPDATE:

Pin and joint completed, and the project is in decalling and weathering now:

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The weathering's a little heavy; that said, I'll be toning it down a bit once I get a chance tomorrow night. I need to go back over the valk with base color (white) to "ghost" the shading.

Stay tuned... still need to finish details and make a canopy cover...

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE:

Ran out of clearcoat, so further decals will have to wait for a bit until I can afford more. Until then, decided to go for the "USN Fighter" look and do some weathering and "touch-ups" on the craft. since it's white, you can't go much lighter, so not all of it's going to be obvious. But, here goes...

 

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I also did some heat discoloration on the thrust vectors/ feet, as well as the gunpod barrel (not shown). We'll see if I tone this down or not; so far, it's kinda back and forth a bit.

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Stay tuned...more to come...

Edited by pengbuzz
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UPDATE: FINAL-

 

Okay, after getting some more clearcoat, I decided that the model has reached the point where I am satisfied with it. Aside from making a canopy cover (which honestly, I'll do in a later topic as I'm burned out on this build), this one is finished.

Fighter:

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It does have landing gear doors for the nosewheel; I just leave them off unless I'm displaying it on fighter mode for a while to save wear and prevent breakage.

Gerwalk-this-way folks (apologies to Aerosmith):

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And yes: my sense of humor demanded I put THIS decal on the inner back panel! :D

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Battroid mode:

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At 1/72, you begin seeing the size difference between the older valks and the newer ones like the VF-113 (No, it's not an offical valk, but it helps display size differential!)

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And so, we come to the end of this build. It's been fun, been a pain at times, and a wall was involved at one point! But it's been a blast, and I hope everyone will follow me as I return to the Regult build that I still need to finish!

Peace out folks! - PB

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"Y'all come back now, ya hear?"

Edited by pengbuzz
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