Dismantling a 1/55 Bandai Reissue

[Deadzone]

For the most part, dismantling my reissue has been easy except for one part. The nose cone does not seem to want to come apart no matter how much force I use. Did Bandai glue the two parts together at the front. Included are pictures of what I am talking about. The back part can be separated. However, the piece starts holding together like cement when you get to the "001" decal. The nosecone won't even budge. What's the deal here? Can anybody help?

[Deadzone]

As you can see from this picture, I have removed all the screws including the one behind the head.

[mslz22]

I did a few customs with the reissues and i needed to "guide" the nose by inserting an exacto knife where I could and kind of slowely opening the nose like a clam. I never broke anything but I will say do this with care, for the parts and your hands.....

[kanata67]

you may have to either peel back or slice hrough the black sticker tat wraps around the nose of the valk in front of the cockpit. Took me a while to realize that was my problem on my first jetfire dis-assemble. If that doesn't do it off the bat [that sticker is surprisingly strong] try pushing a small screw drever into the hole below he head pivot plate and pushing them apart from that point. I do know that the re-issue tail assemblies are either a whole lot tighter than the old school ones so they almost appear glued. Perhaps the assembly line is more streamlined now-a-days and they are assembled before he plastic is completely cooled... not sure. Get back to me if you still have probs.

[Deadzone]

Thanks, I'll give both methods a try.

[AL11]

Wow that's really weird. I've never come across problems with separating the nose of a reissue. The ONLY parts that are glued, and I have taken apart a good many, on a reissue is the backpack(glued on the sides) and the areas where the 2 metal shoulder hindges are held down(by the other section that connects to the nose). I don't get it. Either you have a nose with two halves that are real snug or maybe all the reissue valks I have taken apart just had poorly glued noses.

Hopefully, by now, you've got them separated. Let us know what you find and good luck!

[Deadzone]

Here's what I found,

The reissues I've been pulling apart have been the VF-1S super valks. I never had problems with the back pack. I had some difficulty with the shoulder areas but was able to get them apart. I had major problems with the nose cone. As it turns out, they are not glued together. Actually, the fit is so tight that I needed to use a combination of a screwdriver and exacto knife. The fit was so tight in fact that some of the pegs broke while pulling the thing apart. This doesn't really matter to me. I can always glue the thing back together again. It was annoying though.