Bobby

Great communication --> kajnrig <-- Excellent seller!

Excellent service, communication, and promptness with Duymon!

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Smooth transaction w/bbrain, great communication, prompt...just awesome!

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Excellent transaction with HG Blows! Thank you for getting it out so quick and keeping me posted along the way!

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Thank you Vortech for great communication, prompt shipping, and an awesome item!

BIG thanks to MikeRoz for a great communication and a fast, easy transaction!

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That's so nice, Bobby!

Curious. What's scale is the big one? Is that an old Bandai model kit?

I'm going to guess 1/55...it's actually made out of wood. It was carved by emodelairplanes on ebay. This was a looooong time ago when still waiting for something bigger than the old 1/100 Bandai kit!

Thanks...it's probably the most anime proportionately accurate of them all. (one on amazon jp)

VF-2SS

I'm getting more and more excited for these! With all the comments on the similarities of the VF-31a / YF-30 I thought it was worth a quick photochop "test".

This series of chops is only moving the rudder location, then removing black, red, and adding the 31a paint scheme.

Maybe I'll save some money and just paint my YF-30...not

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I have a possibly dumb question, but one that has bugged me for pretty much forever on this design...

What is with the stupid black gill markings ahead of the wings? And why do they insist on putting those things on EVERY release (minus Isamu's)??

looks to be purely decorative.. I'll admit I would rather them not be there either!

My 29 broke obliterating its resale value...and since I had to fix it, I modded it and one of the first things I did was get rid of the black "tiger" stripes.

Interestingly the red color is what draws me to this Valkyrie. Too many white Valkyries in my Frontier display area.

I really like red valks as well (reminds me of Milia)!

The orange, yellow and some other colored lines were not my fancy so much and it's quite easy to remove the stripes (and any other paint you don't prefer as well). You just need some paper towels, 91% isopropyl alcohol, and some patience to rub it off (and blue painters tape to mask off other nearby paint). Of course you wouldn't want to do this if you are concerned about resale value.

Here's a YF-29 Durandal that I modded shooting for a new Delta's VF-31 kinda look. Here's a color corrected pic I based it off of:

I bought the YF-29 used off of here and the central linking hinge beneath the canopy body was cracked and broke in half after just a few transformations

Bummer. It had to be repaired and it had lost it's resale value. I shaped a piece of aluminum and after fitting it with tiny washers it was actually good as new (if not stronger)

I got the bug to keep going however so this seemingly negative incident turned into the opportunity to mod it. I know the result isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I really enjoyed doing it. First, I had recalled seeing this in a display online

I liked what I saw and adjusted the colors on another display to this

From here I thought I would try it. I used all existing parts, so in essence it was just a re-arranging of planes and parts (with some elimination of excess).

front

back

action

front

gerwalk back

What I was impressed by the original design was the consistent use of acute angles being all within 3-5 degrees of each other all throughout the airfoil pieces. The wings, rudders, canards, etc. all partake in a healthy share of similar acute and obtuse angles to create all corner edges of the various surfaces.

This consistency of angles made transitioning them to other parts of the plane a much easier task.

What I particularly like is that the wings still retract in and out like on the original (but without the engines) and has some VF-19 sweeping movement

So there you have it, when your valk breaks and you venture out to fix it knowing it's value's been compromised, being optimistic and doing something about it can help cuz I went from not liking it (when broken) to really enjoying it (when fixed).

« CAUTION » ARM TAB HINGES « CAUTION »

I disassembled the arm in prep to modify and came across something you definitely should be aware of if when transforming into fighter mode. Even more so if you plan on or have used superglue/nail polish/future, etc. to make it more sturdy.

Quick Overview: In fighter mode ET's uses 4 contact points that hold it together: 2 for the legs and 2 for the arms. I am referring only the ones for holding the arms.

Description: The tabs that extend out of the forearms to connect the arms to the lower legs have an INCREDIBLY under engineered hinge. There is a substantial risk of breaking this hinge if you thicken either the tabs and/or the holes and are not careful when pushing the forearm tabs into the legs because of the need to apply more pressure.

Explanation: This diagram represents the hinge internals. The large folding forearm panel and the tiny connecting tab have a metal rod running through them which is very sturdy. However, supporting this entire assembly are tiny, molded pin-sized pegs.

Below is the metal hinge for the tab and the forearm coverplate. You can see the tiny hinge pegs are on the actual arm itself. To contrast, Transformers usually use a dimple for the hinge so if too much force is applied it snaps out. This peg being longer has the potential to bend, stress, or break. When inserting the tab into the leg for fighter mode, almost all support gets placed on the bottom peg-hinge.

Conclusion: Whether you thicken the tabs/holes or not, while inserting the forearm tabs into the legs to convert to fighter mode, always be careful and not press too hard or you will eventually snap one of these tiny pegs because all the force is focused on these 2 points...they are only 1mm thick.

An EDIT to Post #1754, consider not even applying any thickening agent on the arm tabs. You may find that you are quite satisfied with just improving the leg tabs (which are waaaay more sturdy). I will go so far as to suggest that if you want to preserve these hinges in the forearm tabs from ever stressing or breaking, just forego even using the tabs while in fighter mode as it still holds together extremely well imo by just improving the leg/hip tab.

Thanks! So that is what you used to "tighten" the leg slots where the arm tabs slide into? I'll look for it this weekend. Thanks again for the tips!

Yes, this is what I used and did it to both the slots for the arms and the hips. Your brain will go from thinking, "Man, I don't wanna even touch that thing!" to "Man I can't wait to pick it up n' hold it!"

BTW...on another note, is everyone aware that the feet do retract in and out from the legs (if so I didn't see any comment about it sorry)? Makes it even TALLER in battroid mode

Thanks! So for some one that is trying this for the first time...what is more "goof-proof" future or clear nail polish? I'm thinking nail polish would be easier since it already has the "brush"...but what works best for the newbies....especially in terms of the VF-2SS?

And what of the tailwing tabs...is there any hope?

For me personally, you wanna do something like this as few times as possible and you want to be able to make sure you have good control when applying whatever it is. So I always have a couple bottles of this lying around because it can actually be applied just like nail polish

It's not gonna be at every store...I usually see it at office supply stores or Walmart more often than I do something like a Home Depot. But like others have said, once you apply it, it is night-and-day difference! I only did the 2 long edges of the openings on mine.

...where to actually apply the future/nail polish...is it applied to the tab or to the slot? does it make a difference? Also, how much do you apply?

Did you add anything to the tailwing tabs? if so, did it help?

It's actually not that difficult to explain. In general, you will only want to apply it to the edges of the respective holes/openings and not to the tabs and I'll explain the logic behind my opinion.

To Secure Arms

To keep the arms more secure, apply your preferred thickening agent onto the edges of the holes in the legs (inside of the calves area). If you apply it to the tabs on the arms, you will make it more difficult to open/extract them since they already have a tight fit (at least on mine) and you don't want it to be any more difficult to pull them out from the forearms for fighter mode. Please See Post 1766 for further info regarding the arms.

To Secure Legs

To keep the legs (referencing the top of the intake) more secure, only apply your preferred thickener onto the edges of the holes in the top of the intake. If you apply it to the tabs coming from the chest area, you will thicken them up making inserting the arms into them (for battroid mode) unnecessarily more difficult since it is already pretty solid and secure as is (again, at least on mine it was).

Summary

Only the legs end up getting any thickening agent.

Another tip: Since thickening agents vary in their "thickening" effectiveness you can consider applying in stages. Since each hole opening has 4 sides that you can each individually thicken, you don't have to do them all at once. Doing just 2 sides might be enough to satisfy how secure you want it.

Now on the contrary, if anyones tabs are not thick enough and needing to be built up, then apply it to the tabs, but it would be better to start with the openings in my opinion. Also, if you do need to build up the tabs that come out of the forearms, if they ever become tight/harder to pull out you can always just open the forearms and push them out.

...this mold could be milked for so many different color schemes, ET could definitely cash in with this Valk...

These were done quiet a ways back by tennozeorymer I think. Oh the fun that could be had by imagining upgrades for all your favorite pilots/paint schemes...

As you know this design can E...A...S...I...L...Y be milked (albeit hopefully with some significant improvements), and since canonization has been debateable for years and years...could that work to a VF-2SS lovers advantage and get milked into fantasy territory? Probably not but it won't prevent inevitable customizations which could look like previous bandai mods such as this made by a VF-2SS fan...

Which without armor could look something like...