WAVE SDF-1 Macross Arm Fix

[Cyclone Trooper]

I've had the WAVE Macross all of 48 hours and have already obsessively poured over every scrap of line art I could get my hands on to check the accuracy of this ship's mold. And I gotta say that the folks at WAVE did the ship justice...except in one area: the arms. Not the ARMD platforms; those were beautifully represented. I'm referring to the upper "biceps", if a mile-long ship has such things. Since when has the SDF-1 had double-jointed elbows? To me, this makes the arms appear somehow not-quite-right, enlongating the upper arms too much. In Storm Attacker mode, nearly all of the line art shows only one "bicep" on each arm assembly. Its the housing that has four wing-like finials protruding from each corner. The TV version of the SDF-1 doesn't have these housings...only the movie version does. See below...

Photo courtesy of Macross Mecha Manual

So I took it upon myself to do a small modification to the SDF-1's arms to more closely resemble the line art. The simplest mods are usually the most effective. I removed the lower bicep housing and the second "joint" that would normally attach to the ARMDs. I then used super glue to build up the insides of the connector rings, since the lower ones are slightly larger than the ones in the upper elbow. Once it dried, the ARMDs fit snugly into the new upper housing. The end result is a shorter arm with a more anime-accurate look. The other great thing is that both of the ARMDs sit much more snugly against the ship in Fortress mode. No "drooping ARMD syndrome" with the new configuration.

I'm sure others have done this very same thing, but I thought this turned out very nice...

[SchizophrenicMC]

This is a toy. The macroscopic Macross is large enough to have huge, single joints, but a WAVE is tiny and single-joints don't work so good.