Sanity is Optional

I've got some sample rods showing up today so I can see how thin I want to go. Unfortunately a full 1mm thick rod like I'd prefer wouldn't quite fit. Made up a colored render to show the detail a bit better.

I don't think so, as the hatches would show up on the side of the pod. Now, I could certainly make one with missiles on both sides, but fore-aft like the YF-30 makes more sense than top-bottom and firing half the payload into your own fighter.

For Bandai, it shouldn't be an issue, but for a Hasegawa kit I doubt they'd make a transforming dish, rather just out, in, or one of each.

Slow day at work, so I added some detail to the doors.

I wonder, if they make a VF-31E, will it have the dish out or stowed? Or option for either?

Had some free time at work, don't tell my boss, so I figured out the door hinges and made sure everything had clearance. This will require some 1/64" steel rod to pivot the doors on.

Thanks for the input, I'll probably go through and strategically thin out a few places where the parts need to fit together. Btw, does anyone have input on the door hinge location? There's 2 general options I'm considering for how the doors open, as shown below.

I have a Yamato Tomahawk myself, and it's great and huge, but I need to tighten up the forward-back waist pivot, and I got it with the clamshell unopened. Also it looks kinda plain without any of the stickers added. So as to be relatively on-topic, here's a WIP shot of something VF-31 related:

The Regult, Glaug, and Desdroids are great. I can't wait for the HMR Tomahawk. The 1/60 Yamato one is nice, but the HMRs have great detail and all the tampo markings, plus better joints.

I keep meaning to order some, and then something shows up on Mandarake and I can't afford it again.

Here's today's WIP: Up next I think I'm going to make the missile trays a bit deeper, and the missiles taller and maybe larger, they look a bit tiny in there. I'm still thinking over how to hinge the missile doors and where to separate the top and bottom parts of the main housing.

Checked the fit on the weapons pod, and altered the missile doors to where it ought to fit properly in fighter mode (both with and without super parts). If you want to deploy in battroid mode I'd suggest having it be fore-aft rather than left-right. As to being stowable in battroid, going to say that one's flat out not possible without removing half the pod. Hey Xigfrid, as someone with more experience in this, you have any suggestions on what wall thickness I ought to be using for the plastic? Right now I have it set at 2mm, but that's pretty beefy considering the size of the pod itself.

Going by the art it wouldn't work too well, it's decidedly asymmetric and the launch is going towards the top of the tube rather than the front. I could try and work up another that mimics the VF-30 pod I suppose, though I'd rather do that after the beam cannon pod and alternate side-pod.

I don't think it could stay retracted in battroid anyway, though I can check tomorrow how much shorter it would need to be. (To match lineart it's ~6mm shorter). I did notice that I need to make the missile hatches more or less flush with the rest of the pod to make it stow properly in fighter mode, so I need to re-do the missile doors.

Here's today's WIP, added the midpoint protrusion, cutouts for the missiles, and the missile doors. It's pretty close to the lineart, with the exception that the rear set of missiles is 8 cells long rather than 7. I tried 7, but it actually looked further from the art, it seems the drawn pod is a bit shorter, which means it won't work as well in fighter mode underneath (big gap). So I decided to add an extra set of missiles.

That's a great idea, ought to be easy enough to design a part that'll slot over the gun and let it sit on one of the wing mounts. We'll see, since it's almost certainly going to be more complicated than just scaling everything. Hopefully it's just re-working the dimensions. I do have a 1/72 Bandai VF-31J I can work off of.

My Arcadia VF-1S Roy had the same issue with the flap on the tail/backpack section. After looking at it, the reason appears to be that the nubs were on the sides of the peg it rotates around, rather than the ends, and the nub wasn't cleaned off very well. Essentially a big chunk of extra plastic rotating around inside the peg hole. Cut it flush with a hobby knife before I glued the hinge back over the top and no more issues.

Unfortunately, by the lineart none of these alternate weapon pods have a place for the gunpod. After I'm done with the cannons and missile pod I think I'll work up an alternate side-pod to replace the drone charger, but to put it on you'll have to open up the middle section, which appears to be screwed and glued shut. At least the VF-31 still has the arm guns?

Spartan up there at the front like "I don't need no guns, I GOT MY STICK!"

Actually, if you look you could theoretically swap the drone charger in for one side of the cannon pod (they share the same mid-section), but it'd be pointing the wrong way.

Those are the ones I'm planning to do, other than the top-right, which is the "cluster missile missile", a missile that fires cluster missiles.

Mk3, if I'm going in, I'm going all the way. Then some day add on the multi-spool attachment.

Depending how long this takes to finish, and what I get for Christmas, I may have a Prusa I3 by the time I'm done modeling it up.

The only VF-31As I'm aware of are: 1/144 VF-31A fighter mode kit (pre-painted) by Tomytec (Released) 1/72 VF-31A fighter mode kit (unpainted) by Hasegawa (Released) 1/60 VF-31A transformable DX Chogokin by Bandai (Pre-orders up, Tamashii Web Exclusive)