1/72 Resin Launch Arm kit w/ Max VF-1A Super

[wm cheng]

I'm so pyched! I just recieved a huge box at my doorstep this morning!! I got Jesse's signal arm bits and pieces last week (all non-first run kits will have all the pieces in one box) but the sheer size of the parcel took me by surprise.

I would like to thank them for all their efforts on producing this amazing kit - for those of you who haven't ordered one - GO AND PAYPAL THEM NOW! I've wanted a launch arm for my Hasegawa Super Valkyrie ever since Hasegawa put out the kit - and then I saw this crappy photo on these boards at some Wonderfest a few years back showing a launch arm - boy was I dissapointed. Then I found out it was limited run and really expensive - so it was salt on the wound. Anyways needless to say, its one of my most sought after mechs to be produced. And what a job they did! from that very simplistic arm Gundamhead has added so much more details (all of which was really appropriate - and I'm pretty picky when it comes to non-canon improvisation) and they really produced a kit in itself.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=14475

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=16293

I promised them I'd drop whatever I was doing, and start on this immediately. Well, I was thinking, how hard or complicated could a launch arm be? its essentially a stick with a base at one end and a claw at the other. Well, now after studying the kit for a bit, its quite a deal. With all the extra bits and pieces that GH&Jesse put into it - it really becomes its own entity, and not a mere Hasegawa kit add-on! So it may take me more than a few days to power through this - I need to give it the time their efforts deserve.

The first thing you'll notice is the size of the box (did I say it was large?! ). Its basically big to fit the base (presumeably a section of the surface of the ARMD-1 or maybe a section of the SDF-1 itself) - and its a fair hunk of resin. Also included is a few pages of written instructions (with a cool history pre-amble on the Launch Arm mech) and a colour copy of some photographs of the basic parts lists and a few select assemblies.

Edited October 31, 2005 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

Upon ripping open the box - the first thing I did was lay out all the pieces. I used the colour copy of the parts list as a guide. This was a good way to double check you had all the pieces (and get familiar with what they look like - remember unlike a styrene kit with sprues and identification on the sprue of the kit part - you need to recognize its shape). Plus there's lots of great little detail bits to add (and possibly loose )

The following are other close ups of the many pieces that go into this kit - I tried to keep their layout and orientation similar to the instructions in the beginning, this helps me become more familiar with them.

(gotta help the wife prep for the kiddies - more to follow after the young gouls go to sleep...)

[qrest fourstar]

subscribing to this thread now.

[mano_l]

Thanks wm_cheng I've waiting for your step-by-step cause I don't cleary understand in construction to this kit. May be I have to check all parts again as you did. Mine have some trouble points to clear. Not sure that is the same as other kits.

First is some dust in the part. But this is easy to clear out by heavy primer

The bubbles shown in the edge of detail.

some of overlap occur on the detail, one thing I can do is sand it out and remake the detail

copper rod has nearly show out from the piece of arm. hope it can be sand down and disappear when prime.

[wm cheng]

Hey Mano, sorry to see the casting flaws on your kit - with such a limited small run kit, its pretty hard to get a flawless cast (I'm always prepared to fix casting flaws - its just an unfortunate reality with resin kits ) I haven't quite inspected the quality of each components yet. However I do have a bit of pitting on the large base as well, but I don't think its a huge deal, and actually, I don't think I intend to correct them with sanding, its okay to have pitting on the large ship exterior, it could be battle damage . It's great that the resin arm pieces have brass rods embedded into it for strength, but it must of been a bitch to align in the mold as they poured the resin! The good of it, is that it probably easy to hide by adding some extra pipes or wires on either side of the exposed brass rod to hide where the resin ends and the brass rod becomes exposed - just more pipe gak! Yes, I have some seams that run through some nice detail too, I'll just have to sand them and rebuild the detail - there's nothing you can do about resin kits in this regard - its not a styrene injection kit where each mold is almost perfect.

Well the next step after opening and sorting your pieces is to wash them thoroughly with comet. I scrub them with a toothbrush and comet bleach powder to get rid of the release agents used in the molding process. There were so many tiny detail pieces in the kit that I decided to wash them over a strainer just in case I drop a piece, I don't want it to go down the drain! I spent a few hours scrubbing! I'm a bit paranoid, since I had a few incidents where I was too lazy to do a thorough job and went on to building, then when the time came for painting, I'd get a patch where the paint bubbled up like water on wax paper! Its much harder to wash at that stage. I've tried a few other solutions such as dish detergent, which is good too, but you have to becareful that it doesn't contain any moisturisers for your hands (that leaves a greasy film behind). I've also tried this Polly-S mold release detergent that you're supposed to let the parts sit in overnight and it dessolves the mold release. Well, it doesn't work at all - in the end only elbow grease and scrubbing works. This step applies to all resin models.

Edited November 1, 2005 by wm cheng

[fernarias]

Wow Mano, that looks terrible. Do any of the other kits look like this? Removing the sprue and seem lines and filling pin holes and bubbles is one thing but having to re-sculpt pieces that result from a misaligned mold is unacceptable. I still don't know how you're going to fix the misaligned brass rod. You can't sand it, you're probably going to have to split the piece in half down the rod, remove the rod, create a new trench for it to sit in and then putty and glue the two pieces back together.

[wm cheng]

...you're probably going to have to split the piece in half down the rod, remove the rod, create a new trench for it to sit in and then putty and glue the two pieces back together.

341368[/snapback]

WHOA! Isn't that a bit overkill - its like killing a flea with a hammer!

Firstly, lets look at where the brass rod is exposed. Its fairly linear and parallel with the lenghways of the signal stand. Additionally, if you look at the signal stand or any of the arm pieces, there are plenty of "tube-like" umblical details that also run lengthwise. Lastly, there are no "canon" line art that truely discribes each and every pipe and umblical that run along the arms - so we are allowed to interpret (as long as its within reason).

I would suggest cleaning any remaining resin attached hap-hazardly onto the exposed brass rod - making it exposed properly. Use the brass rod as part of the details running up and down the signal stand. Additionally add a few pipe or wires along side of it - especially where it will connect to the next piece. I guarantee you that by the time its painted - you can't tell which one was the brass rod and which ones are the surface detail umblicals that run up and down the arm. Remember there are always alternatives to making any mistakes better it just depends on the time you have and whether its worth it to you or not.

[wm cheng]

OK, I laid everything back out according to assembly and the photo of the list of parts again. This time I took some masking tape and double side taped the parts to the card that came in the box which protected the longer pieces - this way, if I sneezed or something, the little pieces are still arranged roughly according to instructions.

I also put away those extra/optional pieces that Gundamhead provided (I recognize some of these Gundam parts ) this can be used to spruce up the large base in the end - but I just didn't want to confuse them with any of the essential parts of the arm itself for now.

[wm cheng]

Neat tricky joint (glad that the joint isn't just a straight line, but the angle and the fact that a smaller solid brass rod goes into a hollow brass rod helps so much!) However there is a bit of clean up work here.

I'd take a rough file to do this work first, since you don't care so much about the inside finished surface (in fact you'd want to rough it up a bit for the epoxy to bite) additionally, the rough file is to file down the hollow brass rod (I don't want to wreck a nice fine file on the brass).

I'd just carefully draw it in one direction (towards you) on the file to work down the hollow tube.

Keep test fitting the pieces all the time.

[wm cheng]

I don't think I got a particularly flaw-free cast kit - I believe it to be typical. So of course there are going to be a few seams here and there (its not a toy after all! ) That's what separates us masochistic modellers from toy owners!

Always expect seams that separate halves. Most just take some sanding, however when they run into a depression or recess - it becomes a little harder. In my case, I'll sand off all the raised bits, but when it come into the recess, I'll fill it with some scrap of plastic as detail.

[wm cheng]

Just following the instructions given - I'm essentially going to do it in the order that Gundamhead and Jesse laid out in the typed instructions. I was never strong in word problems when I was a kid - I'm a visual learner, so I tend to do a lot of test fit (trail and error) to get the gist of the instructions before I commit too far.

The next step is to look at joining the wrist to the upper arm. I've left the upper arm and lower arm still apart for now, since I'm thinking I'd kill two birds with one stone - when I mix up the 5min epoxy, I have 5 minutes to glue both the upper and lower arms as well as the wrist in place with the same batch of glue.

Once it got the orientation of the wrist to the arm, and where the rod goes through. I look at the mating surfaces, and noticed that there are a few little bumps and extra bits of resin here and there to file down to get a nice tight fit.

[wm cheng]

Now I'm looking at the wrist a little more closely - hmm, the first potential problem surfaces. On my copy, the other side of the wrist is molded very thinly towards the pivot end. This will cause a problem since this is a very visible part of the arm (it will be right above the Valkyrie) and there is the other side to compare too. This must be corrected.

First, I dry fit the two halves together, and holding the two halves in my hands, I lightly sand the edges by putting a sanding film on the table and running the part over it - this aligns both edges so that they are parallel with each other.

Then I have some extra styrene strips (you can get them at any local hobby/train store) and I'd thought I'd use these strips to create an even visible edge on both sides.

So I laid down a thin film of crazy glue on the edges and ran the pre-cut thin styrene strips along each edge. (You can also just cut thin strips from a sheet of styrene too - I just happened to have some of the right width laying around).

Now on the thin side, I used the styrene edge as a fence to fill some Tamiya putty up to. I will put aside and work on something else as the putty dries.

[wm cheng]

I think its pretty essential to get yourself a set of fine files - it is nice to have a variety of profiles such as a flat, square, round - they are pretty inexpensive.

I decided to go around and clean up a few areas around the wrists - mostly to sharpen the details and clean up any circular indentations that did not transfer well from the mold.

[wm cheng]

I used a 3/32" drill bit to "ream" out the circular indentations - don't attach it to the drill, just hold it in your hands and use the bit like a pin-vise.

[wm cheng]

I thought I'd look at the wrist joint again. I carefully lined up the hole by pressing the end of the brass rod into the resin to make an indentation - then I used a dremel to drill the hole. Of course I drilled too far and it went out the other end - but not to worry, I'll plug it with some piece of gak later. Its wise to not use any power tools on this kit, and just use your hands, but I didn't have a pin-vise that accepted any bits as large as a 3/32" bit.

[wm cheng]

Here's a shot of the parts properly aligned.

[wm cheng]

I've got to show this amazing cast! Whoever (Gundamhead or Jesse) cast this portion - its amazing!! there is a fine coruggated hose on the surface of the upper arm that is casted so that its actually free of the arm! WOW! way to go! I just had to mention it since I realize how hard this must of been.

The rest of these shots just show boring old sanding. Like any other kit, I just started to sand any seams I can see. Plus there was an area with some small divits that will be filled in with some Tamiya putty.

Edited November 1, 2005 by wm cheng

[wm cheng]

I skip all the sections that tell us to attach any of the hydraulic pistons. Its important to dry fit them to get a sense of orientation and angle, but I usually leave them off till the end because its easier to paint the actuator part in chrome silver without have to mask it.

So I skip to the 4th item in the instructions, the claw sensor part. I drill out the holes as instructed to locate the other side. The 3 small ones use a 1/16" bit and the large hole uses a 3/32" bit.

[wm cheng]

There's a bit of excess to this part on one side, so I flats sand the excessive side. I don't mind that there is more resin - as long as there isn't less!

Some bubbles might appear as you sand the side down - but don't worry, since these sides will never be seen - they attach to the inside finger plates.

[wm cheng]

The inside finger plates can also use some sanding to bring their edges down a bit so they are more uniform with each other.

On my copy, I have some chipped edges to one of my plates, so I covered them with Tamiya putty to be sanded down and re-shaped to get a sharp edge again.

[wm cheng]

This is another problematic area - the outside finger plates are molded with an inconsistent thickness again. Its especially worst at the top of the plate. I'm not sure what to do at this point, I may re-build them out like the wrist with the styrene edged strips - but it may interfer with the claw arms later on. I wait till I get more of the arm together first in a dry fit before I determine what is the easiest way to correct this edge.

[wm cheng]

Remember to re-scribe any panel lines that you may of sanded away or made shallow.

(I've got to let the putty dry - I just tried to sand the puttied piece only to hit fresh soft putty below the dried skin argh, I hate being impatient - now I have to re-putty and let dry properly)

In the meantime, I'd welcome anyone else building theirs at the same time to post here too - I'd like to see where you're at and what you're solutions are too. Additionally if Gundamhead or Jesse has any comments or suggestions to how I'm "bastardizing" their kit I'd love to hear them here too.

[wm cheng]

I'll put my references here (anyone with any others especially colour ones please feel free to post them here too - for my benefit! )

(P.S. Anasazi - if you're listening, I'd love it if you came up with some decals like the wierd stylized numbers or "Fire" lettering for the tiny signal arm?! - that will be a bitch to paint)

[neptunesurvey]

Here are a couple.

[neptunesurvey]

For some reason I can't attach the other picture. I'll try again later.

[Myersjessee]

WM CHeng...looks great! I can't wait to see more! Sorry about the finger plates and the outside arm bend...great fix on the arm...the originals are extremly thin...I did the best I could...but your arm fix is supberb. I would recommend that for all. Not sure about the finger plates...the chipped section can be sanded flush (thats sprue) As for the sides...can you sand or cap? Its so thin it may just vanish when built?

Mano...sorry for all the problems....Gundamhead and I both agree with a standard that we are doing this for fun, not work. So, please don't hesitate to ask for a refund and send the kit back. I would hate you to be unhappy. That said...I thought I was careful with pitting...the discolored bits "dust" are from the first pours (you have likely #1, #2, or #3...its tiny flakes of primer that stuck to the mold and flacked off and immersed in casts...it shouldnt cause a problem when painted and shouldn't require more then normal priming. (didn't on mine) The small pits should be rare and easy to "Mr Surfacer" (or should be) The seam on the main arm should be easier to clean up then the suggested split and realighn. Took me 15 minutes and some sandpaper to make it disapear. Im not as detail oriented as WM..but it is a small piece and should be easy to hide.

Again...if you feel this is not what you expected please, just send it back. I would hate to think anyone who has bought my stuff feels ripped off. I do this for fun, not work...and I do the best I can. My success is only measured in the enjoyment of those around.

Best wishes.

[Gundamhead]

Ok forgive the gazzilion replies, I'm about to do but it's just to try and be helpful without adding confusion.

First off if anybody isn't happy, I'll gladly take the kit back, and give a refund. I kinda figured it was a given that everybody knew that.

[Gundamhead]

I just wanted to say, does anybody know how goofy it feels trying to come up with names for 'thingamabobs' and 'whozitswtsits' on a fictional sci-fi early '80's cartoon? Try it sometime.

I promise, you'll feel like a dork.

And damn it man, I am a model geek!

Upon ripping open the box - the first thing I did was lay out all the pieces.  I used the colour copy of the parts list as a guide.  This was a good way to double check you had all the pieces (and get familiar with what they look like - remember unlike a styrene kit with sprues and identification on the sprue of the kit part - you need to recognize its shape).  Plus there's lots of great little detail bits to add (and possibly loose  )

The following are other close ups of the many pieces that go into this kit - I tried to keep their layout and orientation similar to the instructions in the beginning, this helps me become more familiar with them.

(gotta help the wife prep for the kiddies - more to follow after the young gouls go to sleep...)

341202[/snapback]

[mano_l]

So sorry that my picture make somebody here too upset. I didn't think to return anything back to MyersJessee and Gundamhead for sure. In my opinion, the problems that I shown is not hard to clear, but may be I need some advise from someone here. (Hard working is make me more funny )

I agree with wm_cheng in many points but I think my working step will be different. I planing to modify this claw to movable and attach to my valkyrie by using magnetic force. And if I don't too bore, I will make it in a full hanger as you can see the Hikaru's strike valkyrie fly out in the climax scene

I think I don't cleaning all part before construction. I don't afraid to the remaining of mold releasing agent. Because I use the cheap lacquer spray primer and I have to sand all part before I re-prime. I think the lacquer thinner is strong enough to disolve the releasing agent.

And I hate Tamiya putty so much. it's alway shrink and can be disolve out if I have to clean the wrong color. Then I always use poly-ester putty such as mori-mori. I hve no waiting too long cause short curing time and it's less shrinkage than normal putty. I never try to using Tamiya light curing putty. But they said it can be cure in 1 min.in direct sunlight or 2 mins in strong fluoresence light. May be I will try in this kit.

[Gundamhead]

Mano, the 1st 3 pics are very minor in my opinion. a little primer and sanding should make them invisible. The tiny bubbles are little trickier in the 3rd pic. Mix a tiny bit of CA with babypowder and apply it with a toothpick, Zip kick it, then sand it away within a 1/2 hour.

The 4th pic, isn't too bad. It's quite small and will sand away quickly. The spot of detail, is a bit tough, but a square flat file's tip should also make quick work of the seam through the detail without wrecking the detail.

The 5th is a bit easier, it's all square. It was just a bit of detail to break up the smoothness of the part. It doesn't have to stay centered even, unless you want it to.

In the 6 picture, once you cut the ends of the signal arm flush, the connector fits right over that rod right about the middle of the picture to the rectangle on top. You won't see it or have to worry about covering it because it will be by the connector. All you have to do is make sure the pattern in the gaps between the upper and lower arms line up when you saw off the extra bit of rod. the connector will do the rest.

Hope this helps some.

Thanks wm_cheng I've waiting for your step-by-step cause I don't cleary understand in construction to this kit. May be I have to check all parts again as you did. Mine have some trouble points to clear. Not sure that is the same as other kits.

First is some dust in the part. But this is easy to clear out by heavy primer

The bubbles shown in the edge of detail.

some of overlap occur on the detail, one thing I can do is sand it out and remake the detail

copper rod has nearly show out from the piece of arm. hope it can be sand down and disappear when prime.

341286[/snapback]

[Gundamhead]

Great point about the soap, no moisturizers! A detergent type works best. Read the labels to check.

Hey Mano, sorry to see the casting flaws on your kit - with such a limited small run kit, its pretty hard to get a flawless cast (I'm always prepared to fix casting flaws - its just an unfortunate reality with resin kits  )  I haven't quite inspected the quality of each components yet.  However I do have a bit of pitting on the large base as well, but I don't think its a huge deal, and actually, I don't think I intend to correct them with sanding, its okay to have pitting on the large ship exterior, it could be battle damage  .  It's great that the resin arm pieces have brass rods embedded into it for strength, but it must of been a bitch to align in the mold as they poured the resin!  The good of it, is that it probably easy to hide by adding some extra pipes or wires on either side of the exposed brass rod to hide where the resin ends and the brass rod becomes exposed - just more pipe gak!  Yes, I have some seams that run through some nice detail too, I'll just have to sand them and rebuild the detail - there's nothing you can do about resin kits in this regard - its not a styrene injection kit where each mold is almost perfect.

Well the next step after opening and sorting your pieces is to wash them thoroughly with comet.  I scrub them with a toothbrush and comet bleach powder to get rid of the release agents used in the molding process.  There were so many tiny detail pieces in the kit that I decided to wash them over a strainer just in case I drop a piece, I don't want it to go down the drain!  I spent a few hours scrubbing!  I'm a bit paranoid, since I had a few incidents where I was too lazy to do a thorough job and went on to building, then when the time came for painting, I'd get a patch where the paint bubbled up like water on wax paper!   Its much harder to wash at that stage.  I've tried a few other solutions such as dish detergent, which is good too, but you have to becareful that it doesn't contain any moisturisers for your hands (that leaves a greasy film behind).  I've also tried this Polly-S mold release detergent that you're supposed to let the parts sit in overnight and it dessolves the mold release.  Well, it doesn't work at all - in the end only elbow grease and scrubbing works.  This step applies to all resin models.

341344[/snapback]

[Gundamhead]

It's acceptable when you see how the parts are supposed to go together. The seam is a bit bad, but it's only about 10 minutes with a file to fix. It's quite a small area in real life. And you can actually sand brass rod to shape fairly easy, but it gets covered by a connector anyway. No rod removal required, honest. The rods and connector are only to prevent sagging and warping on the signal arm. Especially for the adventurous who might wall mount this kit. the arms rods and pins however do play a pretty important role in supporting the actual VF.

Wow Mano, that looks terrible.  Do any of the other kits look like this?  Removing the sprue and seem lines and filling pin holes and bubbles is one thing but having to re-sculpt pieces that result from a misaligned mold is unacceptable.  I still don't know how you're going to fix the misaligned brass rod.  You can't sand it, you're probably going to have to split the piece in half down the rod, remove the rod, create a new trench for it to sit in and then putty and glue the two pieces back together.

341368[/snapback]

[Gundamhead]

Again, that rod does get hidden by the connector.

...you're probably going to have to split the piece in half down the rod, remove the rod, create a new trench for it to sit in and then putty and glue the two pieces back together.

341368[/snapback]

WHOA! Isn't that a bit overkill - its like killing a flea with a hammer!

Firstly, lets look at where the brass rod is exposed. Its fairly linear and parallel with the lenghways of the signal stand. Additionally, if you look at the signal stand or any of the arm pieces, there are plenty of "tube-like" umblical details that also run lengthwise. Lastly, there are no "canon" line art that truely discribes each and every pipe and umblical that run along the arms - so we are allowed to interpret (as long as its within reason).

I would suggest cleaning any remaining resin attached hap-hazardly onto the exposed brass rod - making it exposed properly. Use the brass rod as part of the details running up and down the signal stand. Additionally add a few pipe or wires along side of it - especially where it will connect to the next piece. I guarantee you that by the time its painted - you can't tell which one was the brass rod and which ones are the surface detail umblicals that run up and down the arm. Remember there are always alternatives to making any mistakes better it just depends on the time you have and whether its worth it to you or not.

341381[/snapback]

[Gundamhead]

Gundam parts?! On my creations? Quiet you fool! They might hear! In the Star Wars model circles, your 'gak' is known as 'greeblies'. To others it's 'junk', 'optional stuff', 'doodads', etc... Gundam has a plethora for greeblies and gak.

OK, I laid everything back out according to assembly and the photo of the list of parts again.  This time I took some masking tape and double side taped the parts to the card that came in the box which protected the longer pieces - this way, if I sneezed or something, the little pieces are still arranged roughly according to instructions.

I also put away those extra/optional pieces that Gundamhead provided (I recognize some of these Gundam parts  ) this can be used to spruce up the large base in the end - but I just didn't want to confuse them with any of the essential parts of the arm itself for now.

341384[/snapback]

[Gundamhead]

OOps.

Edited November 2, 2005 by Gundamhead