David Hingtgen

It's easy--the gear should have the wheels straight. If the gear is straight, the wheels are obviously off-kilter. When the gear is angled outwards the proper amount, the wheels are straight and "look right". Just look at it from head-on.

They need fuel for the verniers, only the main engines are nuclear.

G1 seekers were sleeker, more accurate F-15's than Movie SS is an F-22. 20 years, and we've gone downhill. I've always thought the F-22 would be one of the easiest planes to make a TF---big flat boxy belly, you could pack it full of parts. IDW sure figured out a nice transformation for it.

Then your YF-19 is very different than mine. I folded down the nosecone, unscrewed the grey hinge blocks---and it held together with more force than I could apply. I couldn't pry it apart with a screwdriver. (I tried). Even with one grey hinge eventually removed--it was still so tightly held together by the one remaining block it still wouldn't budge. Also, my grey hinge blocks were glued in place with a very strong glue. When the forward fuselage finally "exploded" apart---one grey hinge was still there, in place, holding down the neck's "hinge" by one end. The other end was flung across the room, but the grey hinge wouldn't give up its death grip on the other. But at least the tabs were exposed by then. That's what I'm saying--even removing every screw and piece possible in the forward fuselage, it still held itself together so tightly, that I could not perform the "sand down the tabs" mod, as they were still locked into the grey hinge blocks. If mine just "fell into pieces" when removing the screws, I wouldn't have had any problems. ::thinking:: While I didn't notice any, I wonder if my tabs were glued in place accidently? Because my grey hinge was glued in place, when other people's don't seem to be.

Ok, less general statement: Big gimmicky/functional weapons, are the most common thing you'll find in a TF in the last 15 years that messes up robot mode. I really hate it when an otherwise cool sculpt (or "it could have been cool") has giant immoble hands, or "no arm" or "half the alt mode permanently attached to his forearm" to fit some 3-inch long transparent "energy blast" piece of plastic and a spring inside it. Leave the spring-loaded gimmicks in the weapons, not the robot.

prometheum5---as I said earlier--I *tried* to sand down the tabs. I had read about them, and planned to sand them down first thing, before even transforming it once. But I couldn't, as it was so tight I couldn't open it up at all to sand down the tabs! And as I said---unscrewing the grey pieces wasn't enough, nor was removing a grey piece---it still wouldn't budge! I couldn't access the tabs to sand them down until it literally exploded into pieces and the remaining grey piece broke itself out of the fuselage. So what would you recommend I do in that situation? You can't sand down the tabs at all when the fuselage is still in fighter mode, locked tight. Sanding the tabs down only makes it easier for subsequent times when you can at least somehow transform it in the first place---if it absolutely refuses to do so without breaking (like mine and Wicked Ace's)----it's not going to work as they're not going to be accessible to sand.

I can confirm the hinge will still come apart with one piece still glued in...

Great, now I'm wondering if my slight fuselage gap is normal, or "caused by extra-difficult transformation" and other people have seamless ones. Can someone post good side views of the forward fuselage in fighter mode?

We do have a thread like that, in the Customization forum.

No chance of that IMHO. Every TF since Headmasters has had "weapon gimmicks that ruin robot mode". With rare exceptions.

I had the screws completely removed, and it still wouldn't transform. I later also had one grey piece removed (after it snapped the glue weld)--and it still wouldn't transform. How can you sand them down, if you can't get it apart in the first place? You have to transform it at least once to be able to access the tabs, but that first time can break it. __________________________ Wicked Ace---your experience shows that there is variation--some are much harder to transform than others. I apparently had a VERY hard one, as is your 2nd one. Perhaps take the ENTIRE forward fuselage apart, to get it apart? I would seriously recommend doing it prior to the first time. Also---I have major stress marks right where yours cracked--and they were there before I ever even TRIED to transform it. The first thing I ever did with my new YF-19 was opening the "gullet" piece---and I looked inside and saw those grey pieces and they had big white stress marks. _____________________________________ do not disturb--regardless of what you call it, the launch bar is not for towing the plane. I put up pics showing both launch and tow bars. The launch bar is for launching, the tow bar is for towing. No valk has come with a tow bar yet. (they're generic, there is no specific towbar for a specific plane) My point is, the launch bar is only for catapult operations, not towing it around the deck or an airfield. ______________________________________ prometheum5---the original YF-19 Yamato made had a rock-solid GERWALK. But that was due to slots in the chest---I'm guessing it was purely cosmetic reasons that the new one doesn't. I might try something like do not disturb suggested---kinda like the original YF-19 had.

I plan to spend hours investingating/testing, but not today. Based on how it only becomes misaligned in that last little bit of putting the arms together (you can have them 90% connected and the gunpod still straight) it has to be just a TINY little thing that is in the way---so IMHO no need to cut off an entire peg. More like shave off .1mm of one side of a peg. Just have to figure out which one, and where--otherwise you'll end up sanding/shaving all over, and eventually just have a loose, floppy gunpod.

That's my "last resort" option. It holds fine with just one peg, but when they're TOGETHER you see problems.

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.

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.

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)

PS---anyone else notice the canopy framing was changed to grey? It's a dark grey so it's not obvious, but it is not black.

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:

Sorry, I'm not big on choppers. Looking around, it seems it should be 36118 grey, but tend to fade quicker than most, looking lighter than that. 36118 is your standard Strike Eagle/bomber dark grey. Annoyingly, Pave Low current paint specs seemed decidedly hard to get. (also, my main modeling/paint site is down tonight so I can't check the #1 best source)

That's gotta be 'box scale'. Or possibly "matching size instead of scale".

I like the 1/60 VF-1's quite a bit. If I find a Max VF-1J for a good price I'd like to have one (since the 1/48 is way too much). IMHO, the 1/48 has a better fighter mode due almost purely to the way the backpack is between the legs, rather than above. That's the main difference. But the 1/60 is sleeker on the lower half (no low-hanging arms), has no movable/breakable flaps or nosecone, no BP-8 problems, no arm-armor problems in fighter mode, etc. There really are no "issues" with the 1/60. It's simply a bit more "crude"---most noticeable with all the little rockets and verniers in the FAST packs.

The part on the front of the nose gear that goes up and down. On all real planes, it's white. And all Hase and Yamato VF-0's and -1's, it's white. And that way in the anime. So I really expected it to be white. First thing I'll paint now. Anyways--well, mine literally exploded into pieces trying get the forward fuselage to move. After you "crack" the forward fuselage just a bit to unlock the tab, then you have to move it up and back? Those 2 little tan tabs? Well, even after unscrewing the grey parts, and separating the forward fuselage apart, it still wouldn't budge. (And having seen Yamato's supplemental instructions, and having it apart and knowing how it moves--I was moving it exactly how it was supposed to). Eventually, I applied enough force that it broke the glue welds and stripped an internal screw, and the forward fuselage separated from the rest of the YF-19. But it still was locked together! One side had no parts any more, the other side was no longer screwed together. But it still held. So I gathered up the rest of the YF-19 parts from around the room, checked to make sure nothing had actually fractured (I really, really though it had snapped in half from the noise it made, and the explosion of parts---heart skipped a beat) and re-assembled the rear half of the valk. So, twisting and praying some more, the remaining part of the forward fuselage 'lock' finally gave. Then I spent the next hour carefully sanding down all the pieces, putting the screws back in, gluing the other parts back in, and testing. So it works now. But not without exerting more force than it takes to unbolt parts of my car. I am 100% certain that had I not un-screwed and disassembled as much of the forward fuselage as I could before hand, it WOULD have fractured, instead of merely "popping the glue joints and stripping a screw". I'm amazed no one's broken a YF-19 yet. Basically--I was transforming it perfectly correctly, and supporting the "surrounding" parts as much as I could--and it preferred to strip out a screw and break parts off their glue welds than to move in the direction it was supposed to. PS---GERWALK mode is a floppy mess IMHO.

I thought it was supposed to be white. It is on all the "official" pics. (and is on real planes, and all other Yamato valks)

Got mine today, and think I have a first for a QC error: The launch bar on the nose is grey instead of white. Is it painted white on everyone else's? Mine is bare plastic.

"Dirty disc" is 360-speak for "overheating system".