YF-19 Chest Tubes

[Laserstorm]

I'VE GOT IT!

They snap off and can be assembled into a snorkel for underwater usage!

[Graham]

I was unable to make heads or tails of Mr. Kawamori`s crazy moon language so I asked a native Japanese Macross fan what it said. He said "Double chest tubes in Battloid mode"

Oh well, I guess we will never know what they are.

Graham

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Oh well, I guess we will never know what they are.

He just told you.. chest tubes you see.. Haven't you ever seen chest tubes on mechs before?

Yang neuman was studying the faults of all other variable craft to find the crucial ingredient to improve them tenfold and realised one day that what all these mechs lacked were chest tubes to make them more effective than others. He must have seen the two tubes on the Q Rau or vf17 and decided his mech needed some too. Kind of like how you see a spoiler on a car which doesn't really do much but it gives the effect that it moves faster. Tubes would make it look cool. Nobody would know what they were for, but it would at least keep general galaxy guessing.

Edited March 9, 2005 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[striderhiryu]

well, i've checked my hasegawa fighter and the tubes do not seem to attach to any part but the rear of the arms, so maybe they lock there to keep the arms in line with the rest of the chest and nose fuselage.

but also i checked the front of the tubes pretty close and they do have what seems to be four machine gun tubes, and there are no obstacles in front of the tubes so they could be either machine guns, as mentioned before isamu does shoot what seems to be bullets, not lasers.

as i see it they are probably machine guns. perhaps to attack military personel instead of fighting mecha. just imagine a 19 doing what ivanov did inside the asuka.

by the way if anyone can read the decal used in the hasegawa model that goes in the tube, as far as i managed to read was only the first line ''CAUTION'' in a yellow rectangle.

[Graham]

well, i've checked my hasegawa fighter and the tubes do not seem to attach to any part but the rear of the arms, so maybe they lock there to keep the arms in line with the rest of the chest and nose fuselage.

but also i checked the front of the tubes pretty close and they do have what seems to be four machine gun tubes, and there are no obstacles in front of the tubes so they could be either machine guns, as mentioned before isamu does shoot what seems to be bullets, not lasers.

The problem is the Hasegawa kit is not accurate to the lineart in this area. In Kawamori's line art, the front of the tubes are completely covered in fighter mode. This was mentioned earlier in this thread. So while the chest tubes may well still be guns, they could only be used in battroid mode, not Fighter or Gerwalk mode.

Also, as has been mentioned, the YF-19 has the wing root lasers for use in Fighter mode.

Graham

[Geissler]

As the YF-19 was a prototype, could the tubes be housings for weapons that were removed

during testing? Perhaps the weapons somehow couldn't be made to work because of weight or ammo feeding reasons?

Perhaps they are empty missile tubes for experimental missiles that were never installed?

Could also be a maintenance shaft so personnel doing internal repairs wouldn't get crushed by accidentally moving chest parts.

The tubes could be access points for e.g. coolant replenishment or for refuelling the life support system. Or whatever

[Guest Bromgrev]

As the YF-19 was a prototype, could the tubes be housings for weapons that were removed

during testing? Perhaps the weapons somehow couldn't be made to work because of weight or ammo feeding reasons?

Perhaps they are empty missile tubes for experimental missiles that were never installed?

Could also be a maintenance shaft so personnel doing internal repairs wouldn't get crushed by accidentally moving chest parts.

The tubes could be access points for e.g. coolant replenishment or for refuelling the life support system. Or whatever

They're clearly instrument housings for recording test data. Of course, the data would be worthless if the tubes were removed on the production version, thus changing its aerodynamics, C of G, and what not.

You try telling that to a military supplier, though ...

[Jasonc]

Tubes, what can tubes be used for... I know! You could store fishing poles in them, or lunch, or fill them up with hot liquid, soup, like a thermos. Cause in the heat of battle, Valks get thirsty, dehydrated, and used as a bottle of water or Gatorade, replenishes vital fluids that water just can't. Is it in you?

[Cacophanus]

Asked the missus about this and she said, likely many here have already noted, that Kawamori writes very messily. Basically, the one kanji that possibly denotes that they are guns is very badly written. However, it looks like a kanji that suggests "something shoots out" (hence a gun). Will get my artbooks from work and verify sometime next week.

[Graham]

Unfortunately, in none of the artbooks are those chest tubes labled. The only piece of lineart that has any writing next to them is in the Hasegawa YF-19 instructions.

Graham

[nanashino]

Unfortunately, in none of the artbooks are those chest tubes labled. The only piece of lineart that has any writing next to them is in the Hasegawa YF-19 instructions.

Graham

Well Graham , since Kawamori usually labels weapons, verniers and sensors, it may be say to say that these "battroid mode double lower chest" parts aren't anything anymore significant than any of those non-weapon/non-sensor/non-verniers components. Perhaps they are mechanisms that lock the machine in fighter mode.

[Jedi Knight]

Okay, I finally got around to making some scans. Since I don't read/speak Japanese, the first may not have any new or useful informatin. What about thses 2 circles, I have sircled in yellow?

Now the SECOND, shows something I find VERY interesting: these mysterious "chest tubes" in mid-transformation. I have circled the section in yellow. Any thoughts on what is going on there? After seeing this pic, I believe that the "tube" are just something for fighter stabilization.

Any thoughts?

Edited March 18, 2005 by Jedi Knight

[Graham]

Now, that's interesting. I never noticed those two holes before.

Graham