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mechaninac

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Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. Once you disassemble the hinge, that part looks eminently fixable without much fuss. I recommend liquid plastic weld for ABS: Apply to the crack with the bottle cap's brush (touch the saturated brush's tip to the split and let capillary action carry it in); clamp the part with a clothes' pin or a any type of spring clamp (watch for molten plastic oozing out of the repair... a very good thing); let cure for at least 24 hours (36-48 would be even better); scrape/file/sand the "scar tissue" off the repair to clean it up; buff the repair area with the coarse surface of a fingernail polishing stick to restore the parts surface finish. Done correctly, it will be hard to even tell the hing split in the first place. But, by all means, meticulously measure every last nook and cranny of the hinge and record the dimensions on a 3 view sketch so that one of the 3D modelers among our forum members can generate a proper mesh file to upload to Shapeways. Best of luck.
  2. They did somewhat screw up on the Beta on 3 points: The limited range of motion of the head, the lack of opening top shoulder missile hatches (present on the CMs version), and the omission of a cockpit "box" cover for the cockpit when in Armo-Soldier mode... to mote closely match the line art. They did nail it down in everything else, though... far better IMO, at least in looks and its Alpha connectivity, than the CMs. It's also likely it will remain the best Beta/Tread toy made, perhaps ever... ET's upcoming Legioss is just too big, and its quality too much of an unkownn in light of their lackluster VF-2SS toys, to expect a link capable Tread will ever be produced. If only Banday, or MegaHouse, or Arcadia would take a stab at toys from this license...
  3. ^ Toy Induced Financial Ruin TM: Proudly brought to you by Macross World since 1999.
  4. That's a nasty crack alright, but since the plastic is ABS it should take to plastic weld like a champ -- STAY AWAY FROM CA GLUE (superglue); I can't stress this enough, not only will it make a mess and look ghastly when cured, but it also won't hold. It is definitely fixable. Proceed as follows: Clamp the peeled flap down with a wood clothes pin, any other type of jaw clamp (you may want to use a piece of flat wooden stick on each end of the clamp's jaws to prevent marring the toy's surface... a Popsicle stick would be perfect). Apply Ambroid Pro-Weld or Tenax, or even Testor's plastic cement (or any other methylene chloride based plastic weld) on the crack. Let capillary action carry the liquid down the seam; if necessary, release the pressure on the crack to allow it to open and make it easier for the weld to spread thoroughly along the crack. Look for a bit o oozing of dissolved plastic along the crack -- this is a sure sign it's working -- that will leave a thin scar tissue tha can be sanded/polished smooth later. Lastly, if extra strength is desired, use a pin vice to drill a couple of small diameter holes diagonally (bridging the repaired crack) into the part so that you can insert metal pins (seamstress pins) inside. file flush and add a dab of matching paint on the exposed metal to finish. Good luck.
  5. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    There is absolutely no way that hideous color is simply due to lighting conditions, background scatter, or camera settings. I could live with beige with a violet tint, but full-on violet toned down with gray is so wrong that it's going to take a serious amount of rationalization, or a fantastically great price, to make that right finger click the preorder button on this HM-R... How could you Bandai? How could you so massively screw up so horrendously on the color specs for the most iconic and anticipated Destroid of the all?
  6. Damn! That's about 1K yen/cm MSRP... more if you factor shipping.
  7. If you really want a Gurab (Shock Trooper), Captain's is certainly the best, if not the only, option out there... the chances of any company releasing a mass market, or even limited release, plastic kit are near zero. Finances permitting, I would recommend you get one and put it aside until your skills catch up with the resin kit's required competence... and it's not that much of a challenge if you have a few models under your belt; more difficult and demanding to be sure, but not overwhelming.
  8. It wasn't the alcohol that left the shiny spot, but the rubbing that did it. The matte finish isn't a coating that can be removed, it's a surface texture built into the mold tooling; in essence, you polished the spot into a shine. Your solution to sand the shine away was the correct one as it "restored" the rough texture to the surface... I like using the roughest end of a buffing stick to tone down glossiness on plastic as it leaves a very fine matte finish with very little chance of residual scratches; it all depends on the end texture desired, however. -- General Warning: Bandai's matte texture on their DX Valks is so fine that regular handling will also cause shiny spots over time as your fingers rub and tug on some areas that undergo the greater amount of skin contact. -- Another option for removing paint would be Oven Cleaner spray as it eats all kinds of model and toy paints for breakfast. Spray some of it into the cap and use an old paint brush apply it liberally over the area to be stripped... the stuff is thick so it spreads like a gel and gives you quite a bit of control -- Oven Cleaner is perfectly plastic safe but do not breath in the fumes as the stuff is brutal on the sinuses.
  9. If your wings are flat, then just about any orientation is fine, but keep in mind that whichever surface is facing down will have the worst finish. However, if you've designed your wings with any curvature at all, then the best orientation would be vertical to minimize the severity of the stair-stepping typical of 3D printing; each wing standing up on its root (wing tip facing up). Or, if that's impractical for any reason: vertical with the trailing edge(s) facing down.
  10. I got invoice for an extra 300 yen for the packs, which amounted to less than 3 USD, but it's still annoying, specially when just about every other retailer would honor their original charge. Oh well, I suppose these quirks theirs are the price we pay for the convenience they offer in securing these web-shop exclusives.
  11. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    I got the payment request for my Spartan preorder with HLJ today; paid for it, and it's now sitting in my PW... to be shipped with my DX VF-31F and 1/1000 Andromeda kit.
  12. 2014's The Book of Life from 20th Century Fox.
  13. mechaninac

    Hi-Metal R

    Watch me... I actually like this announcement; it gives me the opportunity to take a breather.
  14. I decided to go with N-Y... with SAL shipping, the total came out to just 530¥ more than Amiami's before-shipping PO price, and 1030¥ less than HLJ, and that's before their mandatory EMS/FedEx shipping.
  15. HLJ request received and paid... and into the PW it goes.
  16. Available for PO at Big in Japan also
  17. Oh goodie, another rabbit hole to fall into... Who am I kidding? Bring it on Bandai; show us what you can do; impress us, and we'll be tripping all over each other to buy them.
  18. You're right... saw it wrong, silly me. But it's still a few hundred Yen too far for what this is, so the PASS stands.
  19. 17480¥ + shipping + no pay later option (it's their current policy pertaining to Special Editions and Exclusives, I know)= PASS It looks nice, but not THAT nice. Oh, well
  20. Which would become a non issue if Arcadia would just release the damned Fast Packs as a separate stand-alone accessory purchases, ditto for the GBP, like Bandai has been doing with nearly everything they've produced from their Frontier and Delta DX lines; alas...
  21. Dear lord, 23 to 18 years ago when B5 aired ; shocking when that realization mercilessly slaps you on the face. Damn, I feel old now . Thanks you so much for that...
  22. LOL! Duty free 25800 still qualifies as a Dayum! in my book... and once you factor in shipping, things go into Hot Dayum! territory , Hikaru premium included. These toys are fast surpassing my ability to justify they purchases, specially for items with fully amortized tooling sporting tampo applications that should've been there all along; it's a bit less jarring to contemplate that kind of price for something entirely new or unique with all the decorations present by default and with an included stand.
  23. ^ It's all about balance. Reducing the lower legs by, say, 5% and having the feet collapse into the calves to reduce the amount by which they stick out would do wonders to improve the look of the Armo-Fighter and have a negligible impact on Armo-Diver and Armo-Soldier modes. Unfortunately, and with no small amount of blame placed directly on the amount of anime magic plaguing MOSPEADA's human mecha, all the contemporary renditions of the Legioss/Alpha slavishly attempt to mimic the battroid line art to the detriment of the fighter's proportions.
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