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Hurin

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Everything posted by Hurin

  1. Those interested in the "nose/fuselage gap fix" can check out my thread on it here. Thanks!
  2. I had a hell of a time getting the arms to set securely in fighter mode. I kept thinking that they were supposed to snap into the "base of the valk like they do on the Bandais. Let me save you a lot of pushing/pulling, and staring in wonder at just where the hell they are supposed to snap into! They don't! The arms are held together and up inside the valk by a variety of holes/pegs/tabs/slots. And it actually works really well. . . but it took me a while to accept this and stop trying to get those arms to "snap" into the body of the fighter. Good Luck! I've transformed mine probably three-four times each. . . and never had a problem. Don't sweat it too much! Best Regards,
  3. IMPORTANT: I am no longer recommending this procedure unless you really don't care if the landing gear loses its stability. I have now done the below procedure on my VF-1S. I didn't even shave any plastic from the seat bottom. . . but now the landing gear will not stay down when rolling at all. Sadly, it reached this point even before I shaved enough away to fully remove the gap problem. So, my 1A was a success. I'd say my 1S was only moderately successful, with quite a trade-off in landing gear firmness/stability. Disclaimer: I take no responsiblity for any damage done to your valkyrie if you attempt this fix. I am only relating my own experience here. Your experience may vary. Try this fix at your own risk! I couldn't decide whether this should go in the "common repairs for 1/48s" pinned thread. I finally decided to make a seperate post because this isn't exactly a "common repair." I've only heard of one person doing it (SuperJaw). Many of us have been annoyed with the gap that forms along each side of the fuselage (below the cockpit) when the landing gear is lowered on first few 1/48 valks. Both my Hikaru 1A and my Roy 1S suffer from this. The gap is barely noticable with the gear up. As you lower the gear, you feel resistance build in the gear as the gap widens. The gap is biggest when the gear is only partially down. When the gear is fully down, the gap isn't quite as large as it is during deployment. . . but it is still big, and ugly. And, I suppose it could eventually cause problems with decals/stickers apllied over that gap (the UN SPACY kite and fighter number go over the gap). I'll try to take pictures when I borrow a digital camera again. Just in case this description isn't clear. Anyways, the tools you will need are: 1. Clean hands (don't wanna get your Valk all oily!) 2. A small-ish screwdriver. 3. A small nail file. Or any other metal instrument with a blunt edge. Taking apart the valk nose is actually quite fun. And it's interesting to see how it's put together. Once I had the fuselage apart, I was reminded of when I built a Spitfire model when I was in high school. I really wouldn't worry too much about getting the valk back together. Though, it is helpful to have another one nearby to compare things with to make sure you got it right. The basic rule of thumb is, go slow. Take each component out one at a time if possible. Though, things are so interconnected that you may find it just falling apart once the screws are removed. Speaking of screws, there are only three that need be removed to do this operation. One is right in front of the head, within the front landing gear bay. The other two are located inside the bay where the "swing bar" rests in battroid mode. Once the screws are out, try to spread apart the back where the fuselage meets the rest of the valk. You should then be able to remove the nose from where its two halves sorta sandwich the rest of the plane. The head may fall out at this point, but don't be alarmed. When you put it all back together, it will be just as snug and happy as it always has been. Just don't let it fall onto anything that might scratch and mar it. Try to watch as the front of the nose comes apart as well. Note the orientation of the radar! I couldn't figure out which way was up when I put it back together. . . so I had to look at my other valk. Then everything made sense. So, once you have it apart, you should get a pretty good idea of how the landing gear functions, and where all that tension is coming from. Basically, the top of the gear rubs against the piece that forms the seat and floor of the cockpit. There is a raised "globby" thing that looks more like a defect than a planned appendage to the top of the gear. At first, I thought just flattening this out would take care of the problem. However, there was still a bit of gap when I put it back together and tested things out. By the way, you really need to put the thing all the way back together to test because only when it is fully put back together is the stress and torque on the parts quite the same (the chair/floor part doesn't sit quite the same way in the fuselage when the fuselage isn't connected to the rest of the valk). However, be careful. I would think that taking the valk apart and putting it back together too many times might cause the screw holes to become stripped, and you might not get it as tight as it used to be. I don't think the risk of this is high (I had to disassemble/reassemble it three times and did not notice any problems), but I thought I'd mention it. I wasn't quite happy with the amount of gap that was still visible, so I took it apart again and this time smoothed the top of the gear quite a bit more, and also went to work on the bottom of the floor/cockpit piece. I used a metal nail file for this work. It has a sorta "hook" end to it. . . and i found myself just scraping away plastic rather than "filing/sanding" it. The plastic is pretty brittle and can be scraped/carved away easily even with the blunt edge/corner of a metal nail file (heck, you could probably use a fork! It's that easy!). There is a long ridge of plactic where the top of the gear makes contact with the floor/cockpit piece. It is this ridge of plastic that causes the constant tension during deployment as the top of the gear rubs it as it deploys. It occured to me that I wasn't so much concerned with the gap that forms during deployment. Rather, I just wanted it to look good after the gear is deployed. So, it occured to me that, if I could just carve a notch out where the top of the gear rests after it is fully deployed, this would leave the tension during deployment, which would keep the gear from getting floppy and/or collapsing too easily under pressure. I still think this "notching" of that platic ridge is possible, but I lost patience after I tried this approach and put it back together for the second time. . . only to find there was still a bit of gap. So, it was closing in on 2AM and I was getting tired. . . and I just decided that if I mangled it, and the gear got to "weak" or "loose", I'd just buy a new one on my credit card! Anyways, I shaved quite a bit off from the the bottom of the floor/cockpit piece along the entire area where contact was made with the gear and even took a bit more off the top of the gear. And, after re-assembly, the gap was completely gone! However, I did definitely lose some tension in the gear assembly. It isn't loose now. Meaning, it doesn't jiggle or anything. But, when I roll it across the table, it does shift back after a while. . . and if I apply considerable weight to the front of the nose, the gear will will collapse/retract. However, this is much more weight, applied in a non-standard spot, than would ever be applied during display, even with FAST packs installed. Heck, even with another valk on top of it! I have to really press on it for the gear to retract. So, the moral of the story is. . . you can get rid of the gap. But, you want to make a trade between that super-stiff gear it comes with, and a gap-less fuselage. So, my advice is, be very careful, take your time, and, when in doubt, shave less than you think might be necessary and test. Remember, you can always shave more, but you can't replace what you shaved! Personally, I don't ever plan on playing "runway" with my valk and rolling it all about. And, even if I did, it still can do it. . . its gear might just retract unexpectedly if I'm not careful. I ran it across my table a few times. And only if I placed downward pressure on the nose while rolling it pretty fast did the gear budge. . . and once retracted. I'm more concerned with how the valk looks with its gear deployed rather than how well it stays deployed when it rolls on its wheels. Before the operation, I was most concerned that the gear wouldn't support the weight of the valk after the operation. This fear proved to be unfounded. You'd really have to go nuts and really shave the parts down to make the gear that unstable. Anyways, because the valk can still roll (with some care), it still easily supports its weight (and any future FAST pack weight), and the "posture" of the landing gear is unaltered, I think this is a worthwhile fix. I'm happy with the results. Though, if I do it to my 1S, I'll try a bit harder to strike an even better balance between stability and "gap-less-ness." I hope this all proves helpful to any of you contemplating this fix. I had heard about this fix in only vague terms. . . and nobody could really provide any details. I finally just decided to take the plunge. Maybe in the future I can provide some pictures too. It's nice to have my Hikaru 1A sitting there with its gear deployed, gap-less, and I don't have to worry about the stress to the seam, or the damage the gap might do to the Takatoys stickers I plan on applying (my 1S already has them, and I avoid deploying the gear on it). Thanks!
  4. Hurin

    Yamato Stickers

    TakaToys does some incredible stickers. I have four sets for the 1/48 valks. The U.N. SPACY on the legs looks great. And, with a toothpick, the stickers are so thin that you can even press them into the panel lines. I promised a review of them a few months ago. But I lost my motivation when I started selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay (non-Macross). And then the digital camera I had borrowed was given back. But I hope to take some pictures some time this week and give a more detailed overview of them. They are great. Downright incredible compared to Yamato stickers. Plus, you get to keep the Yamato stickers "mint" and in the box. So, anyways, you can buy them at Twin Moons Anime or Valkyrie Exchange (currently sold out). I believe this is the Takatoys homepage. And, finally, here is a 1/48 Roy VF-1S that has been panel-lined, and has Takatoy's stickers applied. Very nice! Okay. I'm linked out now. I think I'm going to go apply some stickers.
  5. Sweet! I'm originally from Cupertino/Saratoga. So, I know exactly where you're talking about. Of course, I'm 300 miles away now. But the next time I'm in town, I'm stopping by and spending a boat-load of quarters. H
  6. Will the standard FAST packs being released in a few days/weeks fit the VF-1J? I thought that possibly the VF-1J would come with its own FAST packs because its arms had been subtely re-molded (thus making the DYRL FAST packs not fit).
  7. I went with the WHM-6R Warhamm-- I mean Tomahawk! Tomahawk!!!
  8. That being said, however, let's have a little patience here. Jeez! It's just a couple colors and a logo! Give the guys a break! The boards will be fine for a while. The important thing is functionality! Which they have done a bang-up job providing.
  9. The '84 always threw me off too. Almost made me fee like: "What, they haven't bothered to come up with a new logo since 1984!?!" But, yes, I know what '84 really means! H
  10. Howdy, First of all. . . these new boards rock. They rock so much that it seems a shame that we have to taint their coolness by allowing the old boards to exist at all. That being said, however. . . Any link on the old boards that points to any other post on the old boards is now broken. They are absolute links. . . so they didn't survive the change in the old board's URL. Because the new boards are located at root/mwf/, can't the archive/old boards be moved back to their original location? (root/cgi-bin/) I mentioned this before any of the moving was done. But I'm sure you guys are overwhelmed by feedback and problems. I wonder if perhaps a "virtual directory"-type pointer might also be used to fix the problem. Or, hell, just tear down the old stuff. I used to think they'd be cool to have. . . but now I'm not so sure. The old stuff sorta detracts from the coolness of the new. IMHO. Thanks!
  11. I doubt Yamato would dare try to make this into a toy. After all, it has hands. Hands! And we all know that if the hands don't look perfect. . . the entire toy then sucks.
  12. Yeah, I gotta agree here. We had such a thread on the older forums. . . and nobody is forcing anyone to read a thread! Just because some people don't have broadband or have a bad route to these servers shouldn't mean that threads like the "show your collection" thread should be arbitrarily deleted/locked. Seems pretty, well, selfish to say "If I can't see these. . . nobody will!" Best Regards,
  13. I've heard a few times here (old boards), that the voice actor for Hikaru has passed away. That's a shame. . . and obviously not just for reasons related to Macross. But, if it's not too ghoulish, I was wondering if there is any further information on how he died. Natural causes? Heart attack? Thanks!
  14. Hurin

    Meeting with yamato

    Well, while I think panel lines would look cool. . . at least my existing valks won't seem to plain now next to the newer ones. Then again, they're already re-releasing the Hikaru 1A (with 1S head of course). So, were that to have panel lines, then they'd only need to figure out a reason to re-release the Roy and Max. . . and like the sap I am, I'd buy them if they had panel lines and all the improvements of the Low-vis and Max. H
  15. I think it's working now because I just uploaded mine. . . and it is displaying correctly.
  16. I wonder if there is a setting to keep one large image from screwing up the text wrapping for every post in the thread. Though, I have to say, that the large image causing the problem above is actually appreciated. It's now my new desktop.
  17. Hurin

    3D MODELING

    For some reason, these models remind me of Strong Bad.
  18. crap. Nevermind. I didn't read closely enough. The link is above! Is there an archive of these anywhere? I would love to get my hands on these for decaling my 1/48s! I don't want to take the 1/48s' sticker sheets out of their bags. . . and I'm using the (superb) TakaToys custom stickers. So these would really help! Thanks! Hurin
  19. My valkyrie does all these crazy things. . . like it transforms into a robot. And then sometimes, if I get really confused while trying to fix it, it turns into this half-bird, half-robot thing. HELP! H P.S. Hopefully we can have this thread point back to the archived thread when it is available on Friday?
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