Chronocidal

Well, same issue as Fatalist, just in a smaller scale. Anyone have tips for tightening a 1/60 v2 VF-1J's head lasers? Both of mine are completely limp when forward, but tighten up when raised to battroid position.

Time to update... 1/48: Still a single Hikaru Super 1J 1/60: 7 - Nora, SV-51a, and v2 Strike Roy, Hikaru 1A and 1J, and Super M&Ms (and all bought within about a month ) This winter is going to be expensive too. Yay for having a job! Correction: Added the M&M Super 1J's.. my wallet is crying. That's 7 new valks since the HLJ free shipping sale.

I think any Roy is a crapshoot. I waited over a year to buy mine and it still had busted shoulders, same for my Hikaru 1A. On the brighter side of things, I just got my Hikaru 1J from Overdrive, and it's got the updated shoulders with the smaller pins (no updated nose hatch though).

Why not just rework the Bandai one from Frontier? They're quite different, but I think if you strip off a lof of the exterior details they'd be the same base shape.

I never cared for the normal tie that much, but I might be tempted to get an interceptor... I like the smaller vertical space it takes. The only reason I have 4 big X-wings is because they're so easy to disassemble. I have all of them in a single box, all in various stages of reworking/fixing. My A-wing and B-wing sit vertically, so they don't take up much space.. shoot, the b-wing is standing on it's cockpit in between two boxes, it barely takes up any room at all that way.

It's VERY tempting to pre-order.. but I'd rather have them ship together, and although the YF-21/VF-22s have been pretty solid so far, I'd rather wait for a solid review.. would also give me time to save up for them, since I could potentially order a double M&M set (VF-1Js and VF-22s). If I wait long enough, I could get all 4 at once (and then take out a small loan)

I'd be guessing no, since it's a design flaw that's been there from the start, and would require an entire rebuild of the toy's internals to fix. The wing mechanism doesn't have the tension to hold the wings steady (or even fully opened for that matter) and the mounting points for the rubbery wings are just shoddy, with way too much play in them. Beautiful as they are, I've never displayed these X-Wings in any way other than standing on the engines so I don't see the wing slop.

Nice, now my lone 1/48 yammie won't feel so lonely on the shelf. One thing I hope they change... that canopy is a bit fugly. Looks really fat and bulbous, even worse than the Yamato 1/48. Aside from that, I'm lookin forward to painting up a few of these.. finally have a good use for all those spare F-14 decals I get. I wonder how long it'll be before someone rips the internals out of a Yamato one to see if they fit in this thing?

Well, since I finally have more than one valk (1/48 Hikaru Super 1J is still my fave) I can finally say I have a collection. The 1J has stayed in the box till now, but I might have to actually come up with a way to display them now... Might try some poses later, but for now.. you know those "that's so crazy it just might work" moments? I love those. Especially when they actually do. I can kind of understand the 1/60 pylons being swappable, but never expected the 1/48 to be identical. Btw no, there isn't enough room on the v.2 1/60 for all four 1/48 missile pods. But there IS room for 12 reaction missiles on the SV-51.

You know.. I'm actually glad I think. Much as I'd like more episodes, seeing this get the big screen treatment should be epic. Disappearance has enough material for probably 4 episodes, but I'd much rather watch the whole thing at once. I mean, I read the book long ago, so there's no real cliffhangers for me. I'd rather see it all in one continuous story than broken up over several weeks. Haruhi is one anime I really do prefer to watch in one sitting, just to get the whole picture, or at least watch it an arc at a time. Also, storyline-wise, I think this works out better. Disappearance is a serious turning point in the series, and opens the door to what has always felt like a second act to me.. . I remember trying to come up with a good episode breakdown to fit everything in, and one of the longer arcs always wound up getting left out. With Disappearance a standalone, it should open up a third season to really dig into things. Provided that is, that they don't alter the story to remove references to the later books, and use it to completely finish off the series. That would make me sad.

Sigh.. I thought I was done ordering stuff, but it's addictive. I just got my free shipping HLJ order of an SV-51a, v.2 Roy and v.2 Strike 1A Hikaru (seriously shipped in 4 days, I was shocked), and fell in love with the SV-51. So now I ordered a Nora and a plain Hikki 1J from Overdrive to take advantage of their sale too (probably just use the strike parts on the 1J instead of adding an extra fast pack set). And I'm still waiting for that half-priced Michael VF-25 kit to get here.. stupid HLJ shipped it by itself when the other stuff I ordered never got back in stock. This is gonna be an expensive fall and winter, especially with the complete M&M set I plan to buy But I plan to space them out a bit.. maybe one order per month. Might get a VF-1D too, but I want to wait to see if it goes on sale.

Well, my coffee table either looks like a VF-1 assembly line, or crash site, take your pick. I took apart my Roy and Hikaru 1A last night to get at the arm hinges, and every time I look at these things, I get more scared at how tight they are. There's already stress marks on the joints that connect the backplate to the chest, and while they're much beefier than the arms, I wouldn't be surprised if those fail at some point. Anywho, the shoulders are all coated in superglue now. Although I managed to crack one of the hinge points while forcing the pins out, everything seems sturdy enough. I'm thinking though, I may just replace the hinge pins altogether. I don't mind the shoulders a bit sloppy if it means they don't break, so I may replace the pins with segments of a paperclip.. slightly smaller, so I don't have to bore out the holes after adding the glue, giving the pieces a bit more material around the joint. How I'll keep the new pins in, I dunno yet.. I might just put a drop of glue on them, and assume they won't need fixing again. It's a lot easier than grinding down the existing pins to fit the smaller holes, and I'd rather not stress the parts out by drilling the holes bigger again. Hopefully this'll last a long time, but at the very least, it should last long enough for Yamato to update the replacement parts to use the smaller pins.

Just out of curiosity, how are the shoulders on this one? If they're stressed at all, the marks should be easy to see on this plastic.

I'm already saving to buy these, but for those of you falling in love with the colors, beware... whole lotta shoppin' goin on here. Either that, or Milia hijacked Max's ride (and dyed his cockpit upholstery red too). I think that's her in the cockpit, complete with her retro TV style uniform.

Gah.. sad as it is, I'm almost convinced I should just clip the dumb antennas off (maybe replace them with a softer material).. accuracy be damned, I want my paint to last. Least this won't be a problem with the 1J's if I get em later.. Hikaru's tails are blank, and if I file down the rear antenna on the M&Ms, the big one will only press behind the white tail stripe. I just hope they've fixed the shoulder issues by the time I get those.. I thought I was safer waiting a year on my Roy, but I still got broken shoulders.

You know, it is beautiful.. but am I the only one who thinks something just looks... well, wrong about the head-on shots? I know it's probably nit-picking to a riduculous degree, but the whole plane looks ... twisted. The nose looks off center from the canopy, and both look misaligned with the fuselage centerline. Or maybe it's just that both of the tails are leaning the same way... I dunno. I think if they offered an unassembled/unpainted version I'd probably jump on it, but I really don't like the factory weathering, and this thing would take a lot of work before it would be accurate. Sure, it's a nice display piece.. but for $230 I also could probably get a 1/32 kit (or two), build it, detail it up, and actually find that I have a place to put it when it's done. Btw, seconded on the VF-1 scheme. I think it's actually completely unique in terms of markings. You see all manner of squadrons using some sort of diagonal band on the nose, but I've never seen anyone else who did a full length horizontal stripe... and now that I think of it, someone needs to make a VF-1 VF-1.

Well, without the boosters it's not so much of a problem, even if they aren't perfectly flat. Long as you don't have anything pressing them down, the tails are fine. Only time they'd normally be held down is if you use the clip, and considering how tight the tail section joints are on mine, I don't see myself ever using that, even with fast packs (the booster clip seems to hold itself up extremely well). The problem is when you add the left booster (using the right booster only leaves a small gap between the antennas and the tail, so there is room there). That booster presses on the right tail, and since it's the first one folded down, the small amount it moves forces the other tail down quite a bit. Even fixing the hinges to lie flat wouldn't fix this, since both tails are being pushed down by the booster. I guess the question to ask is, has anyone scratched their tails without using fast packs?

Interesting discovery I just made a minute ago.. So I just tried out the fast packs on my 1S (just fighter mode to keep the arms immobile), and noticed the same problem others have been having.. the two antennas on the back plate are scratching up the tail paint. I've only folded up the tails a few times, and already there are shiny spots in the paint. I reduced the potential for damage a little by sanding down the rear antenna a bit, while leaving the front one taller. Now the rubbing will only be along the back edge of the tail (and hopefully easier to cover up). But something I noticed when I mounted the fast packs.. the tails aren't lying flat. It's probably a combination of the hinge tightness, and thickness of the tails that makes them not like lying completely flat, but with the fast packs mounted, the tails are being forced against those antennas by the fast packs. I removed the boosters from the center bracket, and attached just the bracket to be sure. The bracket doesn't push the tails at all. The 1/48 missed this problem entirely since it had the collapsing antenna piece, but there's also one other thing the 1/48 did that took me a while to notice. On my Hikaru Super 1J, there's a rather large indentation on the underside of the left booster. For a long time I thought it was a mold flaw, or some kind of manufacturing defect, but it's actually a cut out for the tail. They cut a part of the booster away to give room for the tails to sit flush, since in the 1/48 there's no room between the backplate and the tails. The 1/60 left booster doesn't have this cutout. If it did, the tails probably would have plenty of breathing room, since they wouldn't be pressed down by that booster. Now, I'm not quite sure I want to file away a piece of my booster pack to duplicate the fix, but it's definitely something that got overlooked this time around.

Well, good news.. I didn't break anything fixing the tail. Turns out, the tails are screwed on.. in a fashion. The main mounting peg has a screw in it with a lip that catches on the inside of the mounting point. This screw wasn't loose, but perhaps it wasn't screwed in quite as tight as the other side.. this would've caused the peg to spread and fit the hole more tightly. I never actually got the arm all the way apart, but I was able to push the end opened just enough to let the tail section come out. That was a bit scary really, and keeping the little arm magnet in place while using a screwdriver was a pain. In the end, I don't quite know why what I did worked, but now the right tail is tighter than the left. Basically, I made a small washer out of clear plastic (taken from a sharpie package, yay for recycling), and put that over the screw before putting it back in the tail. Either some of that plastic got into the threads and forced the screw to widen the peg some, forming a tighter fit, or the plastic itself was thick enough to pull the tail closer to the arm. I may see about getting a pair of replacement arms shipped if I can, just in case something goes screwy later. I may just drill out those two screw covers on the arms, and cut a piece of scrap plastic to make a substitute plug. Btw, SchizophrenicMC, I dunno if your post was meant to go in here or not, but I found a quick, cheap, and easy fix for sloppy air brakes a long time ago. I basically just doubled up a tiny piece of scotch tape, and stuck it down to the inside of the brake. Not the most elegant solution, but it's kept my Hikaru 1J's airbrake closed for several years (I just dunno if I want to open it and see if the glue did anything to the plastic ). It may have killed some amount of resale value, but considering how hard Super Hikaru 1Js are to find, I have no intention of selling my only 1/48.

So I was aiming to get a Nora, but HLJ finally ran out of them (been on sale forever), and I decided to grab an Alpha at the discounted price. I get it, and I was a bit shocked at the size... I was under the impression this thing was comparable to something like a Sukhoi... Even in 1/60, it's almost the same size as a 1/48 F-15. Anyway, I get it out, and notice right away a few odd problems. First, the landing gear doors are all terribly floppy, especially the rear. There's really no tension in any of the hinges, and while they will stay closed for a bit, breathe on them and they flop open. Second, and this may be related, the nosecone will not fold over completely. The front doors don't open far enough to let it fold completely, and pressing it forces the doors apart unnaturally. Makes me think the doors aren't seated in their spots correctly. Third, the right side tail is a sloppy mess. The left is fine, and only rotates on it's mount when I want it to, but the right has a lot of play in the pivot, and there's not enough tension to keep the tail up. Left alone, the rearward weight of the tail will make it pivot so the leading edge is facing straight up. I dunno what to do about the gear doors.. they won't let me put the plane in battroid mode since the nose doesn't fold, and the ones on the legs pop open if you look at them funny. The arm I'm working on as I type, I've got it disconnected at the elbow joint, and I'm trying to see if I can tighten up the tail (hoping there's an internal screw I can tighten). Anyone know of a good way to get the screw covers off the arm? Or better yet, anyone ever make a write up documenting how to take this thing apart? I've been trying the search function.. but something about the website seems broken at the moment.

That's what I'm planning to do, provided I can get the pins out.. basically, pull the pins to file down, then rebuild the part a bit by soaking the breaking areas with superglue, and redrilling the holes to fit. I may try to reinforce the part too, but dunno how I'd want to do it. I'm almost tempted to try making a new part altogether from scrap styrene (or shoot, maybe some aluminum sheet), but I don't know how that might hold up.

Well, sad to report a couple of problems, but hopefully I can fix them. Just got a Roy -1S and Hikaru -1A, and both have visible problems in both shoulders out of the box (neither even transformed yet, I just pulled the legs down to check the shoulders). The Roy has stress marks (possibly hairline cracks) on both shoulders, while the Hikaru has a large crack on the right shoulder, and a stressmark on the left. Apparently this is what I get for jumping on HLJ's free shipping So, now the question is what's the most reliable fix? Will Overdrive sell you replacements if you didn't buy from them? And do they even have replacements with the fixed pins yet? Really, since none of the parts have actually broken fully, I'm tempted to just coat the whole assembly in super glue around that area. If I knew pulling out the pins and filing them down wouldn't break the already stressed hinges, I'd do that in a heartbeat. What I really need is one of those do-it-yourself 3d printers they have now.. I'd redesign the part from scratch. Oh well, for now everything stays in fighter mode. Edit: Btw.. are the wings supposed to have detents? Mine all move smoothly, with no restriction.

Now I know what that reminds me of.. It's basically a rough color variation on the YF-16 demonstrator model scheme, with completely different tails. Hehe.. and I just got a 1/72 YF-16 kit from a friend. I think it's time for a mashup...this one could really benefit from a brighter red, and matching tails.

Great, thanks!

So, I wanna jump on the chance at getting stuff while HLJ has their free shipping deal going. They have the 1/60 Roy plain (no fast packs) and the 1/60 Hikaru with fast packs), but the strike Roy is backordered, and the free shipping only applies to stuff they can ship quickly. I'm guessing the fast packs are easily swappable, but do the fast packs come with the decals pre-printed? I'd really want to use the black jolly roger logos on the boosters if possible, so I could swap them to the Roy without clashing. Feel free to delete this once answered, and I apologize if this has been answered before.