Chronocidal

If you check back a ways in this section of the forum, there was a post about scratchbuilding a VF-171. I posted a good collection of high resolution screencaptures of the VF-171, so they may work well as references. Some were nearly planform views.

That's really impressive for a first try, beautiful job. It is a shame about the missiles though.. Considering I've got a pair of super VF-25 sets to build (Alto and Ozma), I might have to come up with a fancy solution for that. How hard would it be to completely drill out the missiles, and replace them with spare sprue, or maybe metal tubing? I just made an absolute haul from HLJ this week from that sale.. Oy.. 4 kits (Michael, Super Ozma, Luca, and Brera) plus the movie edition Alto DX... the box was huge. Now I've got enough Frontier kits to probably last me several years.

I hope they go beyond just improving the joints.. there's so many other little things they got right on the 27 that it puts the 25 to shame. That being said though.. just got my movie version super alto today, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. No damage or greasy residue that I can find (yet, just transformed it once), and the only bit of missing marking is a very small segment of the 7 on the back of the right leg, which is covered by the wing in fighter. The little changes though have made a big difference, especially the remolded pins that join the wings and legs, and the way the hips mount to the fuselage. On my Michael, I can't put the thing in fighter mode without the hips being slightly out of joint, and the wings constantly flap up in the air (the entire wing section, not from the curved wings). The adjustments to the pins make the wings sit much more level, and the wings themselves are quite a bit less curvy on this one. As for the super packs.. yes, they're blue, but and I don't mind the color that much, and the benefits of the new version packs are worth it. Hip armors are nice and sturdy on this one, and they revamped the wing booster connection a bit, it's nice and sturdy with very little play (they reworked the inner lip to cover more of the inner edge of the wing probe). Only issue I have are that the front gear doors don't seem to be seated quite right, and love to pop open. Oh, and the crotch lock isn't bad, but oddly it's not quite as tight as my Michael, which is very sturdy. It stands okay on it's own for now, but it did pop out once while I was posing him.

As for the silver gear, it can really depend on manufacturer/era/country I think. Most modern planes do paint the gear white (I think a part of that is it makes fluid leaks easier to spot), but I remember a lot of older aircraft that just left their gear silver. I think for some time, the white was mainly a navy color, with the air force opting to leave landing gear bare, or sometimes even using green (don't remember any green gear struts, but the interiors of the gear wells certainly were).

Holy cow. Yeah, I'll have to get one now, that thing looks awesome. Honestly, I'm not so worried about articulation so much as I am that it just LOOKS BETTER. Know what kind of ticks me off though? The reason this looks so good is because they did almost everything to it that they should have done on the 25 in the first place. Let's see..Good landing gear? Double check- nice and long in front (articulated catapult bar even), detailed aircraft-looking gear in back. Integrated gunpod clip? Check. Legs that actually fit where they're supposed to, and lock in place with tabs on the sides of the legs? Double check. Collapsing shield design? Check, and they even included the stabbity thing. Removable intake covers? Check, AND THEY MADE THE INTAKES BLACK INSIDE. (Bandai got you there Yamato, sorry to say.) Thigh swivel? Oh yes indeed, check. Inner foot/engine details? Quadruple check, feet and boosters. Non-limp-looking nosecone? Check. Better jointed arms? There's at least 45 degrees of outward motion at the joint this time, not to mention double jointed elbows. Less fiddly head mount? Certainly looks that way, though only will be able to confirm in person. Gobs of surface details? Check (although I'd take quality markings that don't flake off over having even more of the same cruddy applications) It's like a quantum leap over the 25. I just hope the quality is there to back up how good it looks. And interestingly.. they added the thigh cut out for the shoulders. This is something the VF-25 kit did, but not the DX. The shoulders are supposed to fit into a recess on the inner surface of the lower thigh joints, and they forgot to do this on the DX. That's why the wings never sit level in fighter, but drop to the right position in gerwalk - the arms don't fit between the legs without that cutout. I tested this on my DX once by removing the arms at the dotted block. The result? Perfectly level wings. If I hadn't just ordered my box of fun for this month, I'd be putting in an order now. Oh well.. at least I'll have the model kit to tide me over for a while.

Yeah, I don't see any way those wings would be able to fold. They'd look huge and hang way low in battroid, and then look tiny in fighter.

Personally, I actually like the DX better with the packs on, since the wings actually sit somewhat level. Aside from that though, the fastpack attachment for the legs just seems.. well, poorly thought out. Even though the packs go on the back of the legs, you don't actually have to bend the legs any (like the VF-1's packs require)... they just kind of droop down so the packs fit, making the legs hang at a different angle. Either the hip joint is just sloppy enough so it doesn't matter, or it's taking some nasty bending stress.

Well, it was tampo'd on top of a piece that was painted, so that might explain it. Why they cast the rear doors on the VF-25G in blue plastic, just to spray them white, I'll never understand. Makes me glad I ordered a second G kit, so I'll have a lot of extra stickers.

I went ahead and ordered that one, because right now the discount on HLJ makes it roughly the same cost as a V.2 VF-1 with fast packs. I don't care for the pack color as much, but considering how bad their marking system is, I might as well repaint them in enamels. I literally had one of the SMS markings on one of the rear gear doors on my 25G peel off.. it was like they put the markings on using some sort of rubberized ink, and it rolled up and peeled off in big chunks. I'll probably eventually just strip off all the cruddy markings, and replace them with stickers from the 1/72 kit.. at least I can touch those.

K, I'm curious about VF-0 releases, and the re-release coming up. I know the first VF-0A was NOT Shin, and the second was. Are they re-releasing both, or just the Shin version? And, if only the Shin version, are there any differences in color between the arms of the two? Recently got a VF-0A CF, and the shoulders are holding out, but just barely, so I might try and order replacements from the re-released A. Edit: After a bit of looking.. ok, I know the shoulders are the big problem on the VF-0, but has anyone ever had their upper knee joint just... well, shatter? It looks like the secondary knee joint (the upper portion that pulls out of the thigh) is made of the same explodium as the shoulders. I pulled the knee down into gerwalk, and noticed a huge crack running across the piece. Taking it apart completely, it looks like the piece is about to completely shatter, from the stress marks criss-crossing the inside. Has anyone ever had this particular thing happen? It's a joint that's not used as often as the shoulders, so I could see it being missed. Better yet, does anyone know if Yamato changed the material for that piece when they fixed the shoulders?

I'm not sure, I've never bought any before. Considering they're 800 yen a piece, I might pick up a few when they get back in stock. A few pics of the models on HLJ use a simple black stand, but I've seen recolors of that same stand all over HLJ in different color schemes, for different Gundams. I can't say about the regular stands, but the SMS edition has mounting points for Luca's ghosts if you have them (the ghosts in his kit come with a mounting arm to attach to the base).

Nice... already have a super Alto and regular Michael... so I'll have to get Super Ozma for awesomeness, and Brera for a villain.. But the tough question is.. do I get a Luca for the Ghosts, or do I buy another Michael for a CF? Or do I get both? This is gonna be one heck of an order of models.. especially if I throw in the extra Yammie strike pack set I want. I jus wish the SMS base wasn't backordered, I'd buy a few.

It's much easier than that, just make it out of a paper towel roll. That's actually one accessory that would be pretty easy to make yourself.. it's just a big tube... well, kinda. Betcha it makes all the fold boosters jealous though.

I'm actually wondering if any glue will be absolutely necessary.. maybe for certain things like the head, but the V.2 VF-1s I've taken apart seem to use glue as a backup for the screws in some places, rather than the main method of holding things together. I had to take apart the left leg on my TV Max 1A to fix a floppy strake, and while it wasn't glued together too heavily, I did wind up breaking off one of the locator pins. But putting the leg back together with just the screws worked perfectly well. If anything really needs glue, it will probably be the nose section. I'm probably going to try and avoid glue entirely if possible, just to make maintenance easier if it's ever needed. *curses all the glued joints and screw covers on the YF-19*

Very, everything you need to get to just unscrews. The trickiest part is probably popping the shoulder armor off so you can get to the shoulder joint screws without snapping it apart. Couple of mine have come apart from not being glued together well, but they're easy enough to fix.

The voices weren't too bad.. I just kept expecting Hikaru to clap his hands together and shoot lasers or something. Yeah, I just finished watching the original last week, so this is.. weird. Everyone's FAR too excited with their voices. Not to mention, the sound pretty much blows. Music's the same, but the sound effects just don't cut it.

So I've been comparing my DX VF-25G and 1/72 kit today, and I was reasonably happy to finally figure out why the wings stick up so much. That has been my one overwhelming problem with the DX really.. fix that, and I can deal with the rest easily. I even figured out how to get the wings to sit completely level (minus the built in curve bandai can't seem to fix). You'll never guess what you have to do... You have to take the arms off. Yeah, the lack of communication between the DX and model design teams was epic (fail). The model's wings go level just fine with some tweaking, for one big reason: they left a cut-out in the hip for the shoulder to fit into. On the DX? No cut-out. The arms are too wide to let the wings and arms sit where they're supposed to. I noticed when I just snapped one leg into the wing on one side, it sat level.. but the shoulders got shifted off center. They're too wide to fit in the intended space between the hips. Soo... if you want to display fighter mode with level wings, just take the arms off, and everything sits perfectly. I keep hoping they'll do a version 2 of this, because whoever designed the DX really wasn't thinking. What I'd love to know is why the prototype pics didn't have this problem. At least with the super packs, the wings drop further, so I can just keep it that way. What I really wonder is if anyone's tried to fix this? You'd have to cut a decent sized chunk off of either the shoulders or the lower hips, and I dunno what effects that might have.

Heh.. and go figure, the DX has an all white bottom.

Heh.. yeah, I forgot about the MAXL's shoulder magic. Too bad, I love delta designs. Oh well, it's true there's really no canon milking potential for that plane. Sure, you could make all manner of repaints, but unless you could come up with some way to make parts of Mylene's MAXL and a standard VF-11 interchangeable, there'd be no reason to make a non-pink MAXL. My original thought was that the Sound Force VF-17(T?) would be close enough to the other VF-17's that you could make it without too many changes, but then again.. the cockpit and head were very different, and I don't think it'd be as simple as a VF-11D Jamming Bird mod. Either way, it's very good to know those issues have been brought up about this one, and looked at. Agree on the locking chest area in gerwalk, you need something to hold the thing together. Also, hopefully they'll improve the attachment point for the hips to the fuselage.. the YF-19's just doesn't stay together. If they use the version of the mechanism from the Bandai it'd work well I think, even if it is a blatant copy. I'm kinda meh about the changing faceplate.. it'd be nice, but not if it's too complicated. One way you could do it.. have a reversible faceplate, similar to Masterpiece Starscream.. just have the top of the head pop off like the YF-19, and the faceplate lift out and turn around for the closed mouth. Shoulder speakers would be nice, but not essential I think.. it'll be hard enough cramming stuff in those shoulders as it is.. and I want these shoulders to be STURDY, ratcheted if possble. The limp shoulders on my YF-19 are pretty sad. Combined with the standard requests of a lower nose and reduced gullet ... yeah. Remember, lowered nose is really the more important part.. whether the gullet gets cut or not, the nose tip needs to be lowered so it's nearly level with the center of the feet, like the bottom in this comparison. For that drawing the only changes are a slightly altered Z-fold line/angle and a slightly smaller flap on the underside of the nose. The landing gear, gullet, and forward nose aren't really changed at all, but angling the forward nose down makes a world of difference. If Yamato can do even this much to improve the VF-19, I'll be thrilled.

I don't know about the fast pack version, but the recent GBP release has had definite problems.

I'd say it's only a matter of time. Granted, it's an entirely new plane, but Yamato does love to make complete sets of things, whether it's paintschemes, or groups of Valks from a certain show. They've done the YF-19, now they're doing the VF-19, which has quite a bit of mold-milk potential, what with the various versions. I think the biggest clue would be whether they decide to make Mylene's MAXL or not. The VF-11's already been done, and while the relationship between that and the MAXL is similar to the one between the YF-19 and VF-19 Kai in terms of shared parts, the dirty work of designing the transformation has been done (and done very well at that). If they do wind up doing the MAXL, I'd think the VF-17 is almost a sure bet. Not necessarily because they can milk the mold so much as they might make the VF-17D variant, just so collectors can have a complete Sound Force set. That's not saying the other VF-17 variants wouldn't sell as well as a Roy/Veffidas valk (probably better, due to the Diamond Force paintschemes), but making a complete Sound Force might be a good motivation to get the VF-17 ball rolling. Btw, when I mentioned including the booster packs as standard from the start, I was mainly referring to the other VF-19 variants, not so much the sound boosters. There's very little difference in terms of content between the VF-11 FAST packs and the later packs we see on Emerald Force (can't remember if there were separate atmospheric and space versions though). The sound boosters on the other hand are more akin to things like the Ghost for the VF-0. They're much bigger, with quite a few gimmicks of their own. I could see those getting released separately, possibly with extras like a fold booster, or maybe the giant speaker missile they used in a couple episodes (forget the official name, but I like to call it the ICBS - inter-continental ballistic subwoofer Yes, I know, no continents in space). The big questions now: how much does Graham know about this (that he can share), and when do we get to see some CAD?

Three words, Yamato, just three words. Drop. The. Nose. The YF-19 has its snoot so far up in the air, it ruins the sleekness of the design. You don't even have to fix the gullet (though slimming down it would be nice), just drop the nose till the tip is level with the engine centerline. It'll make a world of difference. You think it's too much to hope they make some crazy new innovations on this design, and then use them to redo the YF-19? Either way, this is great news. The Hi-Metal is just way too small for me, and I've wanted a good Blazer for years. Let's just hope they follow the trend with the later Mac+ valks, and make the FAST packs standard from the get-go.

So, how long till someone starts the next official MW Upcoming Release Panic and Blatant Speculation ThreadTM? Usually it takes at least a CAD drawing to start it off, but since we already have the YF-19, maybe this'll be kicked off earlier.. I mean, we probably don't even need pictures to start up the chants of "KILL THE GULLET!"

Just to clarify, there are enough available to place an order now? (as opposed to earlier when it was announced) I wasn't sure if they were being ordered in bulk, or just to fill the current demand. If so, I'll send a pm shortly.

Ok, possibly dumb question... what's the actual proper color scheme for the underside of Michael's plane? Bandai included both blue and white versions of the panel surrounding the front gear doors, but it makes absolutely no sense to me to use the blue one, while the rest of the underside (gear doors and the panels to the rear) is white. I guess it's a moot point for me anyway though.. either way, I plan on making the entire belly white, even if it's wrong. I just think it looks better to have the underside consistently white. Really, Bandai seems kinda clueless with the correct color scheme on the VF-25G.. Aren't the entire intake assemblies supposed to be white? If I make my Alto with the super pack, I might use the spare white intakes on Michael's plane.