Grayson72

Here's a closeup of the front of the leg armor after primering. The light is snug and you can see some of the panel lines I did, the one near the foot came out the best, the long oval ones on the missile covers...well... not so good, I may just fill them and leave them out.

Here's a before and after shot with the other leg that has yet to be modified. I got rid of the raised panel lines and big bumps which I suppose were rivets but I thought they looked kinda silly. I gouged out the corners of a raised detail part and used one of my rivet scribers to make better looking bolts.

Well the light was just one small part of the leg modifications I did. I scribed some panel lines along the big missile covers to give them the appearance of where they opened. To do the lines I cut some of the thick label maker tape, makes a nice line and sticks really well and is not easily gouged when scribing.

Here it is with the lens in.

I cleaned up the edges several times with Mr. Surfacer 500 (man I love that stuff). Once I had it pretty clean I just needed to close up the gaps so I used my goosh technique again to get a perfect fit.

Someone did a battroid conversion in one of the Hobby Japan mags that I have and he counter sunk the leg lights so I figured I'd give it a shot. I stole the leg lights from the Hase battroid kit and white glued it to the leg where I wanted it. Then after it had dried I took my scribing tool and lightly traced around it. I kept going over and over it a little harder each time till I had a nice groove to act as a guide when I went to chisel out the middle part.

So after all that here's where I wound up, it's still a little small but looks better then the first option.

I then had to cut away some plastic on the underside of the armored leg to make it sit correctly.

Unfortunately after I got done cutting the stock foot down I tried it on the model and it looked even fuglier. It was just to spread apart from the front and back. Sooo... I went back to the stock Hase parts. I wasn't about to try and fit the whole leg into the armor (it's not removeable so what's the point?) so I cut off the part I needed.

Here's the foot after I was done cutting the foot and my finger.

Here's me using the razor saw, these are great for cutting straight lines. Carefull, plastic isn't the only thing they'll cut.

Here's what I did for the feet. I thought the feet from the Hasegawa kit would look too small so I decided to use the ones that came from the original Arii kit. Unfortunately the stock feet are way fugly so I sanded off the goofy looking bumps and then I needed to cut down the thickness of them. I used the feet from the Hasegawa kit to mark the right thickness.

That's one big gun! Try pinning the joint with a metal rod like with a sewing pin. Hey you need to resize that pic though. Delete and resize it in MS photo editor.

I'm sure you have more my friend.

Heh secret handshake, you're funny. I chose 1/72 scale for several reasons: There's a lot to collect in this scale (as you stated) I wanted to limit myself and this seemed to be the one with the most to offer, especially if you want to buy diorama stuff to go with it I do stray when there's a few items I want like the 1/48 models, and I collected all the little Zentradi ships cuz like they would'nt fit on my property in 1/72 scale Here's the list: This is just the Macross and Mospeada models, I got tons of other scifi and modern military models too, all in 1/72 scale. All items are 1/72 unless noted otherwise All items are original unless noted otherwise VF-1A Fighter Valkyrie clear w/special decals VF-1A Fighter Valkyrie x4 VF-1J Fighter Valkyrie x2 VF-1S Fighter Valkyrie VF-1A Super Valkyrie VF-1S Strike Valkyrie VF-1 Valkyrie Weapon Set x2 VT-1 Valkyrie "Super Ostrich" VE-1 Valkyrie "Elintseeker" YF-19 Fighter VF-1 Battroid YF-21 Fighter Macross Display Stand VF-1A Super Battroid Valkyrie VF-1S Strike Battroid VF-0S Valkyrie SV-51 VF-1 Super/Strike Valkyrie VF-0B Valkyrie VF-1S Strike Battroid, Minmei Guard VF-22S VF-1D Valkyrie VF-19 Fighter VF-1A Valkyrie Angel Birds VF-1J Valkyrie Max & Millia Two-in-One Set VF-1D Valkyrie "Max/Virgin Road" (Wedding Episode) VF-1A Valkyrie Low Viz VF-1S Super Fighter Valkyrie VF-1J Super Fighter Valkyrie (Max) VF-1A Super Fighter Valkyrie VF-1D Valkyrie (Variable) x5 VF-1A Valkyrie (Variable)x4 VF-1S Valkyrie (Variable) VF-1J Valkyrie (Max) (Variable) VF-1J Valkyrie (Milia) (Variable) Destroid Missile Phalanx Destroid Tomahawk Destroid Defender x5 Zentradi Glaug Destroid Spartan x3 Armored Battroid VF-1J Zentradi Standard Regult x2 Zentradi Quel Quallie Theater-Scout Bug-Eye 1/720 Zentradi Fighter Pod 1/72 Destroid Monster (recast) 1/72 Legios & Tread (recast) Mospeada Gurab Mospeada Gurab (recast) Mospeada Ligaa (recast) Mospeada Ligaa w/Booster (recast) Mospeada Legios AFC-01Z (red) VF-19 Sound Booster Add-on Cat's Eye Recon Fan Liner Fan Racer Fan Racer (recast) VF-4G Lightning III Fighter Zentradi Queadluun-Rau VF-11 (Wonderfest Special) 1/48 VF-1S Ultimate Detail Strike Valk (recast) 1/48 YF-19 (recast) 1/48 YF-21 (recast) VF-2SS Lancer II x2 VF-17 Battroid VF-11C Super Battroid

Here is the arm with the rivets or whatever they are.

Welcome to my little club

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!! Oooooh a surprise, hopefully it will contain the words Macross model and 1/72

I scribed some panel lines to give it a little more interest, I'm also gonna add a few rivets here and there.

Another shot of the arm, I primered it with gray tamiya primer from a spray. Man that stuff dries fast. Anyway it really helps to highlight the defects but I'm almost there with the front. This has been the hardest part because I had to build up the gray part with putty and then sand it flat inside that recess.

Great question Chris, personally I wouldn't match the missiles to a specific pilot. I think that's a bit unrealistic myself. I guess if they were going on parade they might do that but in a time of war who'd have the time. "Wait wait Roy you can't launch and defend the SDF1 yet, I haven't finished painting your missiles to match your aircraft. yeah right"

Thanks for the pics, in the future you should probably reduce their size by about 50%. This site is privatly funded and we don't won't to impose extra costs by using up their HD space.

Here's the two together, the fit is pretty good so far, but I'm far from done. I figured out a technique were I fill the voids with Tamiya putty and let it set for awhile, once it's dried up a bit to where it's not sticky but still soft I jam the arm in the armor and it forms around the piece. Then I sand off the parts that goosh out after it's hardened.

Here's the arm from the Hase Battroid, I had to cut off the top part to make it fit right.

Here's the top part of the arm, I finally figured out a good way to get at the seems in those little ridges. I wrapped an old credit card in a piece of 400 grit sandpaper and used the edge, works like a charm.