MR_Hyde

ok, then. Given the fact that the pre- VF-1D Valk's are having these issues, are the shoulders coming cracked in the box prior to initial posing or is this happening after the first few poses? I ask because I am fairly confident that I could fix the issue as addressed here on the forum. I have some money coming in and though I can solve the issue by purchasing the newer versions, I am drawn to the prices of the others. Over-Drive has Hikaru and Roy for 73.99US plus shipping. This would be my first EVER Valk purchase, aside from model kits.

Even if Yamato removed the knurling, from what I have heard the diameter of the pin may still be too large. What about finding a suitable alternative to the pin, perhaps slightly smaller? Stores that sell model railroad supplies stock various sizes of metal rod, ranging from aluminum to brass and also steel. With a digital caliper someone could find something slightly smaller that might resist future hinge cracking.

Also, what about melting sprue plastic and putting it on the cracks that have appeared in the hinges? Melt it, apply it to the crack and then brush a layer of superglue over the top. The hot plastic should bond to the plastic of the hinge, the superglue would harden over the top and could provide a stronger bond, thus resisting repetitive transformations and holding together much better than just a single superglue application.

When I remove the part from the sprue, I try to clip it as close as I can. Once it is clipped, I take a Squadron Tri-Grit sanding stick and sand it down until it is flat using the coarse and fine grits. Then, I rub a little water or spit on the part and use the polishing area of the sanding stick to polish the nub to almost nothing. The cool thing is that wet sanding it down like that virtually eliminates being able to see where the nub was. It takes time, but in many cases by sanding that nub down to nothing means many of the parts fit together better. If you can't get the Squadron Tri-Grit stick you can get one very similar in the lady's manicure dept of the local drugstore.

Can anyone translate? I want to do the same thing but even if I get the mag I have no idea what is being said.

The above advice from mrsmithz is pretty much straight on. I usually wait until I am done with decaling to do the panel lines or else the decals sit over the 'dirty' lines. I like for the panel line wash to go over the decal, then it looks more 'to scale'.

The Tamiya rattle-cans are superb and the spray settles down beautifully. It works perfectly in lieu of an airbrush. I airbrushed three good coats of Future on my Ozma before beginning to decal. If you use a paint brush, be sure to not stir the future and create airbubbles. You can easily get distracted trying to brush them out. The Future also lays down very good and levels very well. If you use the Tamiya gloss coat you will get the same results. Just remember to mist coat it and keep the can moving, or else you will get puddles of clear coat, and that sucks.

Here's my progress so far. I'm almost done with decaling- a few left around the middle of the top fuselage and the intake area. I painted the area behind the head and the small intakes on the legs that appear just to the rear of the skull marking. The decals are thick and you can see the screen printing but they settle down beautifully with additional coats of Micro Sol. I painted the cockpit with a little grey and some Tamiya Gunmetal. Love the color. The only other area I painted were the thruster/vector nozzles on the end of each leg. I started with Gunmetal and then thinned some Chrome Silver and hit the highlights. Once that dried, I loaded some thinned Citadel Chaos Black and misted the edges of the thrusters. The Citadel black dries very, very flat and looked like soot. The effect was to try to replicate heated metal. Once all that had cured I used some of the Tamiya weathering powder (heated blue) and hit some of the high spots. I'm pretty pleased with the effect and wish the camera did it more justice. In the end, I am probably going to 'glue' it in the fighter mode. The decision will hinge on how well the decals stay after 3 coats of Dullcote.

Shot a couple of coats of Future on Ozma yesterday. Next step is decaling and panel lining with some Windsor-Newton Payne's Gray, followed by a couple of coats of DullCote- hopefully that will get done Monday or Tuesday. I'll post pics when I get the decals on. I will say this, Future shot out of an airbrush dries beautifully.

I'll echo what ggpike3 said- does anyone know of any other shops getting the Ranka Deculture decal sheets as well?

North Carolina, USA

you could also try giving it several dips in some Future. It has worked for me before, and I hope it will work for you.

I just got done putting Ozma together. I'm amazed at how well it all fits together given the load of sprues that are in the box. Granted, their are some large panel gaps, especially around where the cannons are just forward of the wings. Anyone have any ideas on how to make them fit better? I know wm_cheng has gone with the magnets but I'm not sure it is a direction I want to go. I still want to disassemble the pieces so that I can gloss coat/decal/panel line/flat coat the parts. Either way, I will say that these are amazing pieces of work. I love Bandai- they go together amazingly well, like my Star Trek Enterprise collection. Next up is to get the Super Parts for both of them as well as Michel and Luca.

Hi all,

I'm a huge rookie here but I could use some help. I ordered the 1/72 Bandai VF-25S model kit from HLJ and the 1/60 Ozma. I have done lots of panel lines over the years but I'm not so sure about these transforming Valk's. I usually shoot a coat of Future, decal, wash, then shoot a coat of acrylic topcoat over the whole kit to seal it all up. I normally do this after the kit is assembled. Will this affect the transformation process on the model kit? Would this process work on the 1/60 scale too? I hear about scratching paint and I don't want to see any of those lovely markings go bye-bye.

Satinblack, I hope this doesn't hijack your thread- just saw that you and I had the same questions.

Thanks!