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Graham's Review of Yamato 1/60 Scale YF-19


Graham

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Thanks, Wicked Ace. Those schemes ain't too shabby (Actually, I like that Black Scorpion scheme a little more.) But I have another scheme in mind that I'm working/revising in this little brain of mine. ;)

Just to be clear, none of the links I posted contain my own work. I'm blown away by the creative talents of those who contributed to that Fan Works forum thread, and I never get tired of looking at them. Again, it's worth it to look through all 19 pages of that thread. :)

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Also, didn't someone mention that the YF-19 without its helmet or visor looks kinda like an Eva Unit? Wonder if anyone will be crazy enough (I mean that in a good way) to paint the 19 in one of those Eva color schemes.

Hmmm... I'm kinda horrified by the idea of a purple yf-19 but let's get some PS fiends to get to work! :lol:

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I love my Yamato YF-19 :wub:

This is the toy I was waiting all along. Everything is cool on this toy except the price :angry:

It has been a long time since I customized a toy. Inspired by these old photos from Hobby Japan I added a little more black paint on the cockpit area, some panel lining with pencil and the most challenging customization for a US$200 toy. It is a little gimmick, but makes a big difference. If you are afraid to transform your YF-19 then I won't recommend it. Next week I will have my custom YF-19 stickers ready and mission accomplished.

IPB Image

IPB Image

IPB Image

IPB Image

Edited by takatoys
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Are you going to leave your wheels the way they are? They look like they don't angle outwards like the rest of the 19's we've seen...

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i'm sorry to hear you broke yours david. :(

i ended up doing exactly what you did and unscrewed the little dark grey pieces. i watched grahams video and understood what had to be done but i just couldn't take the chance of breaking this thing. after opening it up, i now know exactly how that particular transformation process works. i can somewhat do it without fear....well i still fear it but i did TF it to battroid mode last night without snapping anything so thats a good thing.

one thing i noticed to make the TF process a bit easier is to seperate the 2 halves of the valk to make it easier to work with. for those who don't have one yet, the leg and lower torso section seperates from the head, arms and upper lower sections.

BTW, david and his extensive aviation knowledge is hard to follow at times, so im simple terms....

launch bar = tow hook :D

nice mod takatoys!

i don't care for the wing flap feature much, but seeing how featureless the 19 is, its adds a little something to it.

good stuff!

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nice mod takatoys!

i don't care for the wing flap feature much, but seeing how featureless the 19 is, its adds a little something to it.

good stuff!

For me, the wing flap gimmick was a nice addition on the 1/48 VFs. Many fans considered it annoying coz sometimes the wing flaps fall off. But I really like the movable flaps, Yamato made cool new features on the next VF variants but discarded the wing flap gimmick :(

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that looks really cool with the wing flaps, just have a couple fo questions. For the pencil lining did you just go over the panel lines with a lead mechanical pencil? As for the flaps how'd you make them stay up and down, I'm not much of a toy modder but that does look like something I want to try.

Is anyone on the MW boards making custom decals? I really don't like yamatos stickers and prefer the water slide on decals, I think someone was making custom decals but have now retired.

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that is a really nice mod. good work. i like the panel lining as well, adds a lot of character.

edit: can't wait for the custom stickers

Edited by cyde01
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I love my Yamato YF-19 :wub:

This is the toy I was waiting all along. Everything is cool on this toy except the price :angry:

It has been a long time since I customized a toy. Inspired by these old photos from Hobby Japan I added a little more black paint on the cockpit area, some panel lining with pencil and the most challenging customization for a US$200 toy. It is a little gimmick, but makes a big difference. If you are afraid to transform your YF-19 then I won't recommend it. Next week I will have my custom YF-19 stickers ready and mission accomplished.

Man, that's awesome!!!

I'm not gonna mess with mine, but I may try and commission someone to custom detail it for me.

-Kyp

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I just made another little customization, the neck shield :p It looks nice, just as I wanted.

*image removed, areaseven friendly*

hey man, what did you make it out of? is it plastic or just a black piece of paper?

looks kind of neat like that either way.

the only mod i did was the rear landing gears. it took all 20 minutes and now my 19s LG's work like they should.

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hey man, what did you make it out of? is it plastic or just a black piece of paper?

looks kind of neat like that either way.

the only mod i did was the rear landing gears. it took all 20 minutes and now my 19s LG's work like they should.

Look at the pic again and notice the big piece of the spray can cap that's been cut out. ;)

-Kyp

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Sooo, mine arrived today and I immediately set down to transforming it... Gerwalk mode is goregous but a little precarious, Fighter mode is simply stunning...sitll have to fix the landing gear. Transforming to Battroid mode was interesting... definetaly going to have to sand down those stupid tabs... however, I had one small issue that really isn't that big a deal and was an easy fix once I figured out the cause, but Im mad about because I took a huge hunk out of my thumb with a knife getting the screw cover off to isolate the problem... the right shoulder armor wouldn't lock angled up, so I figured it was loose where it hinges, and tried to take it apart, but nooooo, Yamato decided to glue the shoulder armor together and glue the screw cover to underneath the shoulder... bastards. So while I was prying off the bottom screw cover, my knife slipped and went thru my thumb.... bled all over EVERYTHING but luckily I wiped it off the toy real quick and didn't leave any marks.... turns out the friction to hold the shoulder armor angled actually comes from those two square plates on the sides of teh grey shoulder joint bit.... it basically just sits on those, so all I had to do was add a little extra thickness to them with some plastic card and paint to match... not difficult, but the bloodloss Ive already suffered from this toy has me kinda angry...

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i'm sorry to hear you broke yours david.

BTW, david and his extensive aviation knowledge is hard to follow at times, so im simple terms....

launch bar = tow hook :D

1. I didn't break it. It separated into pieces which flew across the room, but amazingly----it just separated into pieces with nothing breaking. Amazingly, the "sliding part of the spine that always slips out"---has never done so.

2. Launch bar is NOT a tow bar. It is used for attaching a plane to the catapult. The tow bar is much larger, mounted lower, and not part of the plane.

A launch bar's normal position is up, it is only lowered when the aircraft kneels down to launch from a catapult. It actually does kneel down, it compresses the nose gear. Have a look:

Next, an F-14 kneeling with the launch bar attached to the catapult shuttle (the shuttle is what actually pulls the plane to fling it off the deck):

Finally, an F-18 with a tow bar attached---it's MUCH bigger, and below the launch bar:

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That has in fact always been the correct coloring actually DH.... I've always thought it was stupid too and painted it black on my Hase 19, but it;s actually dark grey in the official stuff......

Well, after about 2 hours of love and minor work, one major flesh wound, and getting to see far more on the interior of any Yamato than I;ve ever had to (and yes, there are megnets on the inside of the legs for the FP in case noone noticed), my 19 is finally totally set... one of my white undershirts has massive bloodstains on it, but I fixed the shoulder, trimmed down the fuselage tabs, and fixed the landing gear.... with a little tweaking, my gunpod actually sits mosty straight, so I'm not gonna worry about that right now. I also added some clear nail polish to the end of the right shoulder flap rail to see if that helps it stay in...

Edited by promethuem5
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That's why i hate using knives to pry open toys. Its kinda dangerous....i shall think of getting gloves or something. :lol:

My YF-19 drew blood from me as well. While trying to tighten the wing roots the legs in fighter mode, my thumb kinda slipped and the wing root jammed into the flesh between my thumb and finger nail. Ouch.......

>_<

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I know it's supposed to be grey, and I wanted it grey---but it seemed I was the only one when we were talking about it! There was a lot of outcry from people who wanted it to stay black like the prototypes. So I'm happy it was changed to the correct grey. Maybe it's so dark to try to please the people who wanted it to stay black. I actually think the canopy frame and "intake striping" should be the same color, but Yamato made the intake ones much lighter.

I'm going to work on mine the next couple of days. Got the tabs sanded down (they are about half-sized and now curved on 3/4 of their surfaces), carved out some room in the grey parts they attach to, and made the nose gear doors close flush. (It really bugged me how off-kilter and protruding they seemed to be--I even sanded down their exterior surface then polished them back up). Next up is tightening the shoulder armor flap, and working on the knee joints. (One has an issue--not sure if it's a molding or assembly issue, but I can see the spring protruding, and that knee is forced to spread

wider than the other one)

Then I'll work on the main gear, then gunpod. I vow to find the real reason the gunpod is angled---if you put it on either arm, it's perfect---tight and straight. But when you put the arms TOGETHER it gets messed up. I also narrowed it down to the "upper" part of the arm's slot, as I can close it at an angle and the gunpod is still straight. I'm also leaning towards it actually being a shield problem! Look carefully at how the shield attaches to the arms, and how it forces them together. Will report if/when I figure it out. (I want an "invisible fix"---I know that somewhere just a tiny bit of sanding or carving will fix it---but sanding everything will just make it loose and floppy--the key is to find just that little spot that messes things up, and eliminate it--could be the arm, could be a shield tab, could be the gunpod itself)

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I vow to find the real reason the gunpod is angled---if you put it on either arm, it's perfect---tight and straight. But when you put the arms TOGETHER it gets messed up.

You might be right about the shield being a possible problem. You can see without the gunpod that the pegs on the arms do no line up, thus making the gunpod crooked when it's finally mounted. I'm not sure how adding width to the handle, like previous members have done, will fix the problem, but I'll give it a try until you or someone else figures out that clean fix.

Oh, and I guess I'm the only one that's bothered by the gunpod more than anything else, including the landing gear-lol...

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Yeah, but how much blood? aside from someone actually severing something, I'm willing to bet I've got some kind of record for most blood lost to a Yamato toy now...

U got pictures to prove this claim?

:lol:

Yeah well mine wasn't bloody till it dripped on the yamato...but it still hurts. :p

Beware, your YF-19 might have a life of its own tonight. :ph34r:

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If you take the shield off, and put the arms together--the pegs line up perfectly. At least that's what I recall when I first transformed it.

You're right, the pegs do line up perfectly with the shield off. So now what? :huh:

I just re-mounted the gun with the shield remaining unattached, and the gun is still crooked, although it's alot easier to "wiggle" the gun into proper position without the shield holding the arms in place. So we're looking at a combination of the pegs and the shield as the source of the misalignment...

Edited by myk
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If you look at the gunpod head-on, is the grip angled off to one side? Pretty minor, and don't think it's really an issue, but it's something to look at.

Also, to me, the lower hole on the grip seems "not perfectly circular". Another thing to investigate.

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If you look at the gunpod head-on, is the grip angled off to one side? Pretty minor, and don't think it's really an issue, but it's something to look at.

Also, to me, the lower hole on the grip seems "not perfectly circular". Another thing to investigate.

Yeah, looking at the gun head-on reveals a slight angle of the handle to the left. The lower hole on my handle is slightly larger than the other hole, however it seems to be shaped acceptably circular...

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...And the list of QC issues gets longer and longer. Now we even have casualties!

I'm glad I decided to wait, but the problems are so many now that I seriously doubt Yamato will address them all.

really? i haven't had a lot of problems with mine? just the gunpod in fighter mode and rear landing gear that is common on all the 19s. the shoulders and shoulder flaps on mine are fine and the tabs, while scary to transform at first, don't bother me now at all.

Edited by cyde01
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I think the main cause of it is the peg. One of the pegs is misaligned, and its quite clear if you take off the gunpod and look at the pegs directly. The fix of making the gunpod thicker or removing the shield etc are just modifications to re-align the gunpod despite misaligned pegs.

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