Chronocidal

Actually the connectors are a custom made part, designed by EXO here some time ago. You can order them in groups from Shapeways, and there are a couple of variations to either mount to the standard flexible tip to the action base 1's, or to mount to the main pedestal and bypass the hinge for heavier valks. The adapters just accept the standard Yamato stand adapters that come with all their valks, so you can mount them in any mode. As far as mounting positions, the more stable the better. I generally push the two legs of the stands as far apart as I can without letting them collapse, and use that small square add-on piece to the base to extend it. I've had a VF-1S sitting on one for a few months now, and it's solid as a rock. Here's the original topic, with links to the Shapeways shop where you can buy the adapters. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=37807

Yep, the action base 1 stands are easily usable for most Yamatos. It's only the really stupidly heavy and off-balance ones (the VF-17 and VF-19) that don't work from what I've seen. Those two are just terrible to mount because their balance point is so far to the rear, but the mounting point is under the far front end of the plane. On they other hand, if you like mounting them in gerwalk and battroid, you probably wouldn't have any problems with any of them.

Well if I go all out and start making shapeways parts for this, I might. I don't know how much trouble that would be. I am tempted to try and replace the existing hips with a VF-19 style joint that'll actually allow a spread-legged stance though.

Oh, it is definitely fun. I haven't done that with everything, but I've definitely had my SV-51s and VF-0s down to their components multiple times. Had to pull apart a VF-17 recently too, to work on one of the shoulders. I just hate having screw covers glued in all over the place, even if the do look better than screw heads. Makes things a pain to get to, and I want to pull apart my VF-19s to tweak them.

Well, the way I looked at this one.. it was kind of trash to begin with. It's already far past the "mint" stage, and I had to rebuild the arms out of the box when I got it. Figured I had nothing to lose, because I wasn't going to enjoy it unless I did what I could to fix it. Only problem is, I got impulsive, and didn't file down the nose very carefully, so it's gappier than it should be.

I'm kinda in the same boat about a YF-19, I'd love to buy a cheap one, but prices on evilbay are fast approaching prices that original Takatoku VF-1s reached. I didn't want to buy another YF-19 until they released an update on par with the VF-19, but that might never happen now.

Surprised they had issues with the Kai, that's irritating, but I guess I can understand how they'd run out. If they weren't following the news about Yamato, they may have still expected to be able to get more from their suppliers.

The trick I used for those is that VF-0As tend to spawn one or two at a time within the group that harasses the north-most hunter guild base. I would just hop in and out of the nearest cave that's on the same island as that base, and keep killing all the spawns that appear near there.

Hehe.. I'm still glad that that's the one 1/48 I got. Saved up and bought it about mid-way through college. I had planned to get a 1/48 Roy, but by the time I got a job and could justify buying expensive toys, Yamato had moved on to the 1/60 line. No regrets though, I don't have enough room for any more 1/48 sized boxes. My closet of Macross (Macloset?) is nearly filled to bursting now, and I might have to play real-life tetris again soon to fit the last few things I've picked up.

Assuming I don't part it out to make a white VF-19S, I might just restripe one of the 19Ss and make it into a Max custom.

What's so funny is that it's literally just causing the nose to point down a few degrees, but it suddenly matches the VF-19 so well. If I ever do get around to making a shapeways mod of this, it'll probably replace the cockpit section and lower fuselage flap entirely. Just need to get stock YF-19 parts to experiment with, since I didn't want to buy another of this mold.

The articulation looks impressive, but I have no idea how they expect to manufacture that in 1/72 and keep the parts from snapping in half if you breathe on them. The 1/72 VF-25s are bad enough, and this is even smaller, and looks extremely intricate. Unless that entire inner framework is metal, I don't know how you'll ever be able to actually transform it without pieces snapping off every direction. Do appreciate that they're actually including all the weapons it seems, even some atmospheric missiles with the fins deployed. FAST packs are definitely wonky though, and way too small. Hope it's not because of weight issues.

I am glad the prices on the VF-19s dropped a little (in part due to the yen climbing back up to 96 per dollar), but they're still on the high end of anything I've gotten. I was really hoping the 19P or 19F would get overproduced like the VF-22s, and wind up on clearance. I seriously would have bought 4 more of them if that happened, let alone the 4 I would have bought if they made a low-vis.

Yep, it's like the Ginsu knife of valks. Just be careful of the trailing edges, they're really really thin, and could probably dent or snap off if they get hit by something at the wrong angle.

Ditto Now the long wait for the super packs begsins.

Ok, so here's pictures of what it looks like so far. Still need to do a lot of filling/sanding/painting before I could call it done, but I think it's a huge improvement to the overall shape of the YF-19. First off.. you know something about this is right, because look what it does to the stance of the plane on the gear. If the plane plane suddenly is lined up near perfectly with the VF-19 when on the wheels, something's working much better. Before, the nose of the YF-19 was way up in the air, but now it's level with the VF-19. Plus, you can tell that even underneath, the profiles aren't that different. The YF-19 is a bit chunkier in the gear area, but that's due to there actually being a lot of extra space around the front gear that the VF-19 doesn't have. Minus that bulk, the profiles are nearly dead-even. I think it's because the front gear well on the YF-19 just isn't as finely tuned, and takes up more room. The gear bay on the VF-19 is much shallower. Here's a close up of the parts I've added so far. It's just a flat plate of plastic held in temporarily to make sure the whole thing lines up, and to get the proper shape I need to cut out of better plastic. Eventually what I'd love to do is rebuild the entire nose section in Shapeways, and fix it to mesh better with the parts. So far, this is a pretty gappy hackjob, but it's effective at what I wanted it to do. As far as transformation goes, it's hard to tell if this has any effect at all. Since I added about a millimeter of plastic to the upper edge of the torso, the chest plate doesn't seem to sit as securely as it did before, but that' not saying much. Doing this might have caused some minor alignment issues, but it's nothing that prevents transformation.

So, I started this mod in a moment of frustration about a year ago now. After seeing how much better the nose on the VF-19s looked, I got to thinking maybe I could just make the nose drop. So I started cutting away plastic. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done it on the only YF-19 I have, but sadly that's too late to remedy now. Here's the basis of what I did. Hopefully it's all visible, but that red line is the place I made all the tweaks. If I'd thought it through better before hand, I would have documented everything I did, but it's pretty simple. You cut out a chunk of the lower edge of the forward nose, file down a bit off from where the front of the landing gear is so the chin flap can angle down a bit (tricky to file down with the chin flap attached, but it's easily removed), and remove some plastic from the gray pieces under the nose so you can drop the nose further. Once that's done, you need to make a few pieces to fill in the gaps. Mainly, you need a wedge shaped piece of plastic to fill the gap behind the nose where it rotated, and it needs a slot cut into it for the tab on the back of the nose section. That's all I've gotten so far, but it's holding the nose at a much nicer angle now. I've only tacked down that wedge of plastic with a dab of super glue, so it'll probably pop out fairly easily. I'm hoping to find some tan plastic to better match the YF-19's color, but either way a proper finish to this will probably involve repainting the entire nose section. Been wanting to do that from the start anyway, since the black stripe over the nose section always felt uneven to me. I'll post a comparison pic of the actual plane soon.

Not by a longshot. Most of the Yamato valks are disappearing off the shelves as people speculate about the company going under. Funnily enough, they're still much easier to find than anything Bandai makes. Far as collecting.. I buy what I think looks cool, trying not to duplicate paint schemes unless I really love a mold (mmmm.. VF-19s... )

I'd actually think customizing the P might not be too bad of an ordeal, as long as you keep away from painting the main fuselage. Stripping the red stripes off, and repainting them another color would probably be safe, as would repainting the ankle rings and head/lasers. I'd love to get a set of white S/F shoulder covers to replace the normal ones on the P though. Painting over the yellow plastic on the lower half would probably get ugly from rubbing against the rest of the valk. On the other hand, if you could find something that would actually soak in and stain those parts, I don't think they would look bad black.

I think the only one I actually regret not having is the Virgin Road VF-1D. I didn't buy it at the time because I didn't want to get duplicate paint schemes, and already had M&M VF-1Js, so it felt redundant. In hindsight, I might have picked up a VF-X and Angel Bird though.

Don't let Kicker join you. Even with beer, I'm not sure he would survive the ordeal.

Well, I should clarify.. I prefer the 1/60 Yamato YF-19 in gerwalk, because it hides both the gullet and the goofy hip design. Though, I finally got up the nerve to start filling the gaps on my YF-19 mod... and I think it's actually going to turn out quite well indeed.

I'm not seeing it.. says no record found... and when I search for the actual item, it shows sold out at $426... And actually, I'd argue the YF-19's best mode is gerwalk. It hides all the things people get annoyed with in fighter and battroid.

The non-EX variant has a scheme just like that in red, so you can do Millia's too.

Hard to say. I saw a few of those even up to about $100 on there, but then again, that is ebay for you.