Chronocidal

Shoot, looks like I'll have to grab one of these at some point, it looks awesome with that mouth on it. The thing that always bugged me though about the Koenig.. why on earth does the nose have to fold for gerwalk mode? I mean, other than making it look like the original destroid? It looks goofy just hanging there like a.... nosecone. I'd probably keep it in shuttle mode, since I really do like that design, but I want to see what gerwalk mode looks like the with the nose still attached.

Frankly, considering how fragile the SV-51 looks (and actually IS), I'm kind of amazed it has such a relatively good reputation for quality (compared to things like the VF-1's shoulders). I mean, the main body is fine, but the arms, tails, and wings are all connected by such a complicated system of joints that look really prone to failure.. I'm amazed we haven't seen failures backed up in a mile high pile. Course.. on the other hand, I suppose you could attribute that partially to being an enemy valk.. I mean, if they don't sell well, no one's going to care if it breaks. The glued parts are a real issue though. I mean, I don't mind things being glued to be stronger.. but it makes repairing things yourself nearly impossible.

Ok, The good news is, you don't need an entirely new valk. But for all the parts swapping you'll need to do to replace the broken piece, you almost may as well get a new one. To start off, you need to work on this in some place you're not going to lose small pieces. I found this out the hard way.. when I got the screws out, little bits started dropping all over the place. I'd recommend a drop cloth or something. The first thing to do is pull the legs off. Well, maybe. I'm not sure you have to, but it helped me to see better what I was doing, and made the plane easier to deal with while fiddling. Second, look underneath the plate where your hinge cracked, and you should see two small screws. Take those out. You shouldn't lose any pieces here. The magic happens when you take out a third larger screw that is underneath the pink plate that supports the head. You'll probably have to partially transform the torso before you can fold the head at an angle that will let you see it. Remove that screw, and the whole thing should come apart. What happens is, this releases the upper chest plate. This plate holds down the pins that support the nose section rotation, as well as the small flaps plastic flaps on the shoulders that move around, and the silver gun barrels. When you remove the nose, you should be left with the following pieces. What you'll see is pretty much a mess. You've got the three screws, the two metal pins for the nose section, the two gun barrels, and the two plastic flaps. Now, as far as the repair is concerned, my best guess is that you need to replace... well.. everything that isn't the nose section or legs. Technically, yes, you can take apart this section further.. but all it amounts to is disconnecting the arms from the shoulders, and the wings from their hinges. For all intents and purposes, the section that holds together the wings, arms, and head is one big unit. At the bare minimum, you're going to need to replace the main plate that the head hinges are connected to, which will include the head (since it's prety much permanently attached to that plate), the shoulders (since they are attached by a press-fitted pin that you do not want to remove), and the plates with the blue lights that the wings attach to. If you know what you're doing, you might be able to transplant the arms starting at the second shoulder joint, but there's no clear division in sections until you get to the elbow, and a sinle screw that holds the lower arm to the upper shoulder (actually, the third screw up, starting at the hand). In any case, it's ugly. I get the feeling that this entire assembly might be treated as a single part in the assembly line at Yamato, similar to how ordering a new set of shoulder hinges for a VF-1 got you the full arm assembly. At the very least, you need that lower half of the chest plate, and any pieces permanently attached, which will include the upper shoulders, and anything up to the screw joint on the wing plates (the ones with blue transparent lights). I honestly don't know what Yamato would replace in this case.

Ouch.. I was hoping it was something further down the wing linkage. My CF-51 had a cracked area on the plastic piece on the other end of the metal plate, but it looks like your break happened before that metal piece. Yeah, I don't know about that one. I never took anything apart past that metal piece. I'll take a look at it later, but the big problem with fixing the SV-51 yourself is that most of it is glued together, so you can't really take it apart to replace anything that far into the structure. I'd start looking for any clear part divisions around that broken joint as a start, but that break looks serious enough that you might be better off just getting a replacement.

Any pictures available? I've taken mine apart quite a bit to tighten the wings, and it'll really depend on which hinge broke.

Nice, actual ball joints? I do wish they were a little thicker though, those don't look anything like actual exhaust ducts. Hope they're metal too, I'd really love to be able to twist the feet all over the place. I'm liking the head mechanism too, looks like the panels to the sides of the head fold up to let it pass without removing any of the head pieces.

Ok, apologies beforehand, because I'm not sure if this counts as "appreciation"... but I saw this episode recently, and could not stop this from popping into my head.

If that paint is anything like the paint on the canopy, tamiya paint thinner might be pretty safe, or whatever else can be used to remove the rainbow canopy coating. Judging by the smell of tamiya's thinner, I think it's alcohol based, but I have no idea how strong, or what type of alcohol. Personally though, depending on how hard the area is to see, I might just try and scrape it off with a fingernail, or maybe a butter knife. From the experiences I've had with the paint used on DYRL VF-1 tails, I'd think it shouldn't be that hard to scratch off.

Exactly. I'm just eagerly awaiting the next iteration. I guess what startles me a little is that the YF-19 is a step backwards from the 1/48 VF-1 in my opinion. The 1/48 was sturdy, and had pretty darn reliable joints. The YF-19? Not so much. This is getting pretty far off the subject though. I really can't wait to see this thing completed, and get a full set of views of it.

Unless they plan on including the remastered THX versions, I think I'll stick with my "bonus" editions. Seriously, I don't think I've ever watched the special editions that came with those 2 dvd versions of the original trilogy. And seconded on the CG not looking right in episode 4, but fortunately by the time ROTJ came out, the ship combat was good enough they didn't tweak it nearly so much. Those X-Wing CGI models were okay at the time (except for the 16-polygon-sided guns.. yes, you can see them clearly if you pause), but they did a lousy job capturing the look of the original miniatures.

Heheh.. well, personally, there is very little about the current YF-19 design I appreciate in terms of appearance or function, but that's my personal opinion. I know there are those who really do like it. I just happened to get an absolute lemon that was half broken out of the box, and it pretty much killed what I did like about it to begin with. All issues I have with the appearance aside though... I know it's an older design, but there are just so many dumb engineering mistakes in the way it was made... I mean, comparing it to the YF-21 in terms of engineering is like comparing the DX VF-25 against the VF-27. There's such a leap in quality between them, you wonder if they were even made by the same company.

See, I dunno about the VE-1 really... mostly it's just unique and the completionist bit of me screams at me to buy it so I can have both DYRL two seaters.. I don't actually like it as much as the VT-1... except for the design of the fast pack boosters, and the thought of swapping parts around to be creative. Doesn't help that HLJ lists it as discontinued, but that sometimes seems to actually mean "We're out of stock, and we forgot to order more." For the VT-1, I actually would like a spare VF-1D orange head for it.. considering they're all easily swapped, I think that head would look good on it.

Personally, I was disappointed enough in the YF-19 that I doubt I'd put any more money down on that particular sculpt. It would take a really epic repaint for that to happen. The only reason I have the one I do is because I already had the VF-11 and YF-21, and found one for very cheap on ebay. Shoot, I'll just repaint a VF-19 as the YF-19 and swap out the heads if I have to, this one just looks 100x better so far.

The same thing kept me from buying the VF-0S until this most recent sale really. For all the bad press they got, I couldn't understand why the VF-0s never went on sale until just recently, even while the SV-51s were hitting half price and lower. As for the Super Ostrich though.. For all you see the Super-O with the arms out, you might as well take the plunge and grab one now while they're still around, and worry about the arms later. I know I got the bad pins, but on the other hand, I don't think I've actually ever taken mine past half gerwalk anyway. I might take the opportunity and grab a DYRL Super Max 1A since they're getting re-released, but that'd be my only non-ultraviolent canopied valk then. Course, it'd give me a good excuse to buy one more and round out my full VF-1 squadron. Then the question becomes.. Do I want the stand-alone TV Roy (would be my only real duplicate), a DYRL super Kaki to fill out my Skull squad, or a VE-1 to have one of each type of two seater?

Screw HAWX, I played the first one for a while, was absolutely disgusted, and then got Afterburner for the 360. Afterburner has more realistic physics. I'm not joking. (Well, ok.. maybe partially joking, but at least in AB you can turn while banking.) I am a little worried that if they try to add gunner levels and choppers it'll dilute the focus they usually have, but they could be a fun diversion for a couple levels. Although.. if the option to have multiple players in the same aircraft as pilot/gunner appears, I will throw an absolute hissy fit if they don't allow console based multiplayer. Pissed me off to no end that AC6 ditched any local multiplayer for their stupid online service. I had to dig out my ps2 again to have any decent dogfights with my brother. Btw, I'm pretty sure I've seen choppers perform rolls before, it just doesn't happen very often since they tend to stick closer to the ground. They lose so much altitude, it's just not practical.

Do you always look at your valks with a magnifying glass? I'm kinda torn on this, so I might have to pick up Hikaru and Roy so I can get the main icons, but I really wonder if you can improve the fast pack angles... they just look horrible that way.

Even if the movie is a vapid cgi plot hole, I'll watch it just so I can say I watched a B-25 fighting a fire-breathing dragon with rocket-powered paveways. Feels like this might have something in common with American McGee's "Alice," at least as far as the asylum aspect goes. What I'm hoping though is that they'll leave things ambiguous so you never know whether what happens is real or not.

I think the darker the blazers get, the better that yellow will look, so I have to agree with you there. The blue on the YF-21 would be perfect. I'm kinda worried we'll get a lighter blue blazer like the Hi-Metals though... it's not terrible or anything, but darker blue offsets the yellow stripes much better. If the blue approaches anywhere near Max's VF-22 though, it'll just look hideous. I'll probably buy them all anyway, but unless they're going to actually mimic the Blue Angel blue and yellow, I just think the white striping is easier on the eyes.

Well, think of it this way... buy a spare Fire Valk, and swap the parts out with a blazer when it comes out. Pretty much one of the simplest custom jobs ever, all you'd have to do is paint and swap out the wings and canards. Those parts are probably fairly secure from scratches compared with the rest of the plane too. I'm kind of counting on the F though, really want the white stripes instead of yellow.

Wait... a Bandai-Namco produced Macross game? Can't look at it at work, they autoblock anything about games... But.. just the thought of a Macross game done in the style of Ace Combat makes me all warm and tingly.

Well, the nose is longer... I can imagine it working with some tweaking of the nose shape. You'd probably need to fit the entire front cockpit under the nosecone, and the big bulb part under the back. Tricky for certain, but I think it could be done.

You know.. I don't actually recall ever seeing that used, outside of the opening credits to the show. Anyone remember it better?

My main concern is the development cycle time.. I mean.. It's been a long time since Yamato gave us a new release. We've had the V2 VF-1 which came out in 2008... but everything else they've made in the past few years has been a rehash of something they made long ago.. YF-21 gave us the VF-22.. VF-11B was repainted to the VF-11C... It's been easy to miss due to the influx of Frontier merchandise and Bandai stuff, but Yamato hasn't built anything truly new for 2 years now. Granted that gives us some good time for development, and stuff may be going on behind the scenes all the time.. but they're just now re-releasing the YF-19, which indicates to me they don't have another one even on the table yet. Can't be old stock, since they remanufactured the YF-19 with lighter colors. I should vote yes, because I really really do want a better YF-19.. but not right now. There are other things I'd rather see first. Besides.. the more time they spend doing other stuff, the better they'll get at engineering Valks, and the better the YF-19 V2 will be when it eventually becomes a reality. Besides.. we know they're going to milk this VF-19 for at least a few planes (I'm hoping for a lot) In the meantime, they can be working on a VF-0D. And honestly... since they've begun making Sound Force, the natural progression would be to make the VF-11MAXL, followed by a VF-17, and possibly the Jamming Birds. Jamming birds are a no-brainer.. just slap a new cockpit assembly on the existing VF-11 and you have it, since the cockpit isn't even involved in the transformation. You just need new booster packs. Ray and Veffidas' VF-17 is a unique one.. but I can't imagine them making the two seater without making Gamlin's D-model, and maybe a Millia custom red one. The MAXL might be a tricky one.. but I know more than a few people who want one, even if it has the speaker boobs. Plus, I can think of a few easy methods of making those completely hidden in fighter, so it's easy to imagine them being retractable. Anyway... yeah.. a bit off subject, but my point is there's a long line up ahead of a new YF-19.

I might be partially misunderstanding what you mean, but I think I agree. The underside of the nose is supposed to be flush with that plate in one way or another, but that plate should meet the nose at an angle. I think the plate has to be wedge shaped to achieve this though, and that's how we wound up with the gullet on the YF-19 in the first place. The only way to make that plate sit flush against the nose and remain angled down toward the waist is for it to be much thicker, like the YF-19's was. Ideally, that plate would be thick, and be sunk mostly inside the upper nose in fighter, then lay flush against the underside of the nosecone in battroid, but there probably isn't enough room to store a thick nose plate in that area with all the other internal hinges that have to fit in there. I suppose it would be possible to keep the gullet, and just angle the nose down more, but I'd rather see it gone entirely. Considering the compromises for both battroid and fighter on the YF-19, I can deal with the gappy torso much better than I can deal with the plane looking like a pregnant goose. All in all, I think they managed to do a nice job on the battroid. I like the idea of hip fillers though. No qualms admitting I'm a fighter guy, but on the flipside of that.. part of why I don't care for the YF-19 battroid is the goofy cutout on the hips. I know Yamato doesn't like using swappable parts, but having something to fill out the legs would really help that. Unfortunately they're probably in the same realm as VF-1 side covers as far as being on the Yamato care-o-meter.

As much as I want a YF-19 that doesn't look like ass in fighter mode, I'm not sure I'd say I want one bad enough that Yamato should just ignore all the other designs they could do. If they do choose to do it, and can pull it off well this time, sure, you'll get one of the biggest "FRAK YEAH!!" moments in history outta me... but there are other valks I'd rather see first, like a VF-17, or a VF-4. Considering how long development on these takes, it'll likely be a while before we see another project of this magnitude. I forget which valk was directly before this one, but it's been a while I think since we've seen a brand new design.