Super Poseable VF-17S

[Fly4victory]

Anyone that has been on Macross World for a while knows of Jenius and his toy review website.

http://anymoon.com/blog/2006/09/29/bandai-...issue/#more-414

Also the old Bandai VF-17. Sturdy, Cheep, Ugly in fighter mode but not very poseable. Until you look at the end of Jenius’ review and see the super poseable VF-17.

A great custom job that ended before its time… Seems to have taken a tumble and rather like humpty can not be put back together again.

In honor of that sad end, I shall attempt to recreate his efforts and document the production.

Hope this does not become watch the destruction of a toy.

[Fly4victory]

Our victim and chosen method of execution.

The victim is a reissue 1/65 Bandai VF-17S from Ebay.

Destroy the 17S before the 17D since the S is easier and cheaper to replace.

[Dante74]

How brave,...posing next to the executioners tool.

Ambitious project, I wish you good luck.

[jenius]

I'll tell you this much, you're already off to a much better start than I was by having much better tools. Graham should also be a lot of help here, he has at least one custom VF-17.

[Roy's Blues]

Just figure out a way to store the gunpod in the leg, and she will be perfect.

[Fly4victory]

Thanks for the luck. We will see what happens. Gunpod in the leg noe that would be ambitious.

Starting with the hard part. Hip mobility and improved rotation at leg mounting point.

Disassembly of the cockpit area and upper hip was a simple matter: remove the philips screws. No glue was used in this area.

Seems my jeweler screwdrivers did not make the move so I used my Leatherman.

As currently constructed there is a light blue slider that moves vertically inside the cockpit and is the pivot point for the fore and aft swing of the legs.

Cutting a waist pivot is not an option the way the canopy folds up and the way the slider is installed plus I have no black plastic to make a waist pivot… so I will elongate the holes in the upper part of the legs and remove the internal pin that extends into the leg. Since the large light blue circle is what causes rotation, the leg should still remained attached but allow rotation and pivot without falling off.

A hacksaw, X acto knife, and file made quick work cutting the blue slider in half.

Now the legs rotate, pivot, and slide vertically independent of each other.

Would have been better if it was a ball joint to start with.

Note: Areas that will be cut away will be marked with green masking tape.

[Fly4victory]

Gunpod is in the leg.

[jenius]

LOL, I destroyed a gun trying to make it collapsible. It's definitley "ambitious" especially since the width of the leg wouldn't really accomodate it either.

I didn't even touch the hip area you're starting with. Looks like a good start. The most dreaded area I modded are the blue pegs that come up from either leg to connect to the thigh. That's the area that required my cutting and warping black pieces of plastic and the parts that eventually broke free when poor Humpty fell.

[Fly4victory]

I can see how the next big headache is the thigh attachment point.

It currently rotates 360 degrees horizontally and does not extend like the 1/48 Yamato. From the internals it looks like it should pivot fore and aft but does not for lack of a channel.

Under statement being the sign of true genius… “simply remove excess plasticâ€

Starting with the lower leg, the calf is held together with three philips screws, one is in the landing gear well. Be careful of the tension spring on the foot and the black plastic locks. The plastic locks are key-holed similar to the types on Bandai models, no force was required to separate.

The upper leg above the knee is held by a single screw. The friction of the two parts held firm but again there was no glue. It took some finessing but they separated.

A channel must be cut and needs clearance to pivot. The areas to be cut are marked with green tape and areas to be rounded for clearance with yellow.

This looks like a cut and fit prospect unlike the hip which was straight forward.

Fear that this will be the ugly part of the modification and will result in a joint similar to the back of the knees on the 1/72 YF-19.

About the gunpod, the gunpod is two pieces held together by friction of internal pins. The butt stock could be modified to rotate, doubt that it could telescope without manufacturing new parts, looks like need two to make one, yet still would not fit in the leg. Remove the other sections and barrel of the gun provided is still too long.

Worse yet, the screws that hold the lower leg together are in the center line of the calf where the gunpod needs to go.

The leg could be glued but the barrel will be sticking out of the leg at an odd angle.

Edit: Forgot the calf disassembly photo.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Fly4victory

[jenius]

I'm not sure I'm following perfectly, but for mine I think I had to mod both the piece your showing in tape and the piece above it for lack of clearance after you add the mobility to the lower assembly. So, the intake (hip) hangs over the thigh so if you mod the thigh it still can't move because of the hip. So, after you mod the thigh you also need to mod the hip (well, that's how I remember it, hopefully I'm wrong because that's where things got awfully nasty).

[Fly4victory]

The channel was cut exactly as taped.

The top of the thigh had to be more rounded than I expected or indicated in the prior photos. The bottom of the intakes have not been modified.

The front of the thigh, diamond cut, does not need to be made if you do not want the Gerwalk forward swing on the leg.

The nasty part will be shaping the same channel and round surface on the opposite leg.

I doubt that I have the same mobility of the original modification but I did not have to cut, shape and then glue so I hope it has retained the strength, yet I can see why this is a easy point of failure.

Edit: Photos

Edited February 6, 2007 by Fly4victory

[Fly4victory]

The knee does not involve cutting more of shave and polish.

The interior bottom of the knee is square and does not clear the front of the lower leg. This is what keeps the knee from bending with the lower leg swinging aft.

A notch must be made in the lower leg while the interior bottom sides of the upper leg must be rounded to increase clearance.

The less round the interior sides of the knee the larger the hole in the front.

This was done with the grinding disk on the dremel and then X acto knife.

[Fly4victory]

One leg done and I could not resist the urge to play.

[jenius]

isn't it crazy how easy the knee mod is and what a huge difference it makes?? It's almost like Bandai sabotaged themselves when they made the toy... it makes no sense at all. Looks much cleaner than mine!

[Fly4victory]

Yes, a ball joint at the hip leg attachment and slight adjustment to the knee makes all the difference.

Variation

If you do not like the deep V, second knee and want to give up the forward Gerwalk swing on the thigh just cut the aft part of the channel and round the back top.

You now have aft swing and do not need to see the internals of the joint.

Variation

Dig the shag carpet? My VF-17 likes to grove.

[jenius]

The only problem with that variation is that you can't pose that portion of the leg forward for a super aggressive GERWALK stance like the VF-1 poses in.

[Fly4victory]

Done! Well with the legs at least. I don’t like the hands or the fact that the wrists are fixed.

Plus there is the gunpod… anyone have a 1/72 recast that they want to get rid of?

To be honest when I got the VF-17, I thought what an ugly piece of crap since it came out of the box in fighter mode.

After modifying it, I am really impressed. It is very posable, super stable, and still seems strong. Unlike a model or some Yamato mods… this one you can play with.

The plastic is very strong, easy to work with, and more importantly easy to polish to hide the cuts and scratches.

Thank you Yamato for releasing your new stuff in 1/60 which caused me to look at the 1/65 VF-17 and to Jenius whose original mod was the proof of concept.

Oh Yeah, Its still ugly in fighter mode.

[jenius]

Man, now I wanna dig up my pic of mine hugging a beer can. Good work, I'm sure you'll have a ton more fun with that toy now than you could ever have with a stock one.

[do not disturb]

wow dude, is this your first stab at doing ball and joint mods?

it looks damn near professional, awesome!

[Fly4victory]

Thanks. I have been spying others work for sometime.

Yes, this was my first joint mod. It looks so good because of the dremel.

Only Macross work before has been a two seat 1/48 VF-1A conversion, toynami SP VF-1S Max, and 1/48 VF-1S Max.

Plus custom decals for a low-vis 1/60 VF-0A and 1/72 S-3 Viking from Macross Zero .

I borrowed your Gundam hand idea... but need to get bigger hands. I will post the how... if and when I can find some.

Edit: Ordered a set of the 1/100 HDM-116 Colored Gundam Mk-II Titans ver 2 from HLJ. Hope they are bigger and I get more than two hands.

Anyone get these before?

Edited February 8, 2007 by Fly4victory

[Knight26]

Questions:

1) how durable is it post modification?

2) do you think you can make the neck posable?

3) How much to take two beaten up bootlegs (1D and 1S) and combine them into a superposable 1D?

[Fly4victory]

1) It is still very durable. The "Variation" on the upper leg would be a stronger version and the front of the battroid looks better.

2) The neck other than move left and right? Yes anything is possible based on time, money, and skill. Which I may not have the skill. The quickest problem I see is the point of rotation is under the chin as opposed to the center of the neck and there may be a gap in fighter or Gerwalk mode.

3) Thanks for the complement. Well my Bandai VF-17D is still waiting to be hacked on and I have not received my hands for the 17S.

Cost??? I can not guarantee any results and just the leg conversion would not require any materials just removing plastic. We will need to talk via PM.

The only thing is I am not on the flightline anymore and back in school for the next year and this requires more effort than flightschool!!! oh and I am the class leader so free time will be under the control of my wife. She will be busy with Ca. Bar Exam for the next 10 days so I have additional MW time.

Please post some pictures of the bootlegs. I may be able to talk you through it. Unless they are broken I do not know why two need to become one?

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Excellent custom!!!

It really shows the difference

[Fly4victory]

Continuing to destroy VF-17S, this will have the modifications from above minus the Gerwalk forward bend of the knee.

She will be a complete disassembly for repainting. The final product a Miria VF-17S.

Using the new Krylon Fusion for Plastic bought at Hobby Lobby.

[Fly4victory]

To keep track of the parts, screws, and gears have traced an outline of the VF-17 and then inserted the screws in the cardboard relative to their position on the toy.

[Fly4victory]

Bamboo sticks are great to hold parts for painting and drying.

Surface preparation was cleaning with 91% alcohol.

Painted outside 86 F, 54% humidity.

Used Faskolor and Tamiya masking tape to keep the original yellow strips.

Waited about 30 minutes after spraying and used an exacto knife to lift off the tape.

The instructions on the can are “dry in 15 minutes, touch in an hour, fully chip resistant in 7 days†so assembly will not be for 7 days to keep things from chipping or sticking.

[MechTech]

Can't wait to see how it comes out in 7+ days. - MT

[jenius]

Goin' the extra mile... I love it.

[DestroidDefender]

Goin' the extra mile... I love it.

Lookin great. I wish I'd been into Macross7 when these were reissued. I've been looking for them for awhile and not seeing anything I get delivered for under $90.

[Fly4victory]

Back in February, ordered a set of the 1/100 HDM-116 Colored Gundam Mk-II Titans ver 2 from HLJ http://www.hlj.com/product/BCL2558.

The back of the hands are a great match for the standard VF-17 but will need to be repainted for the Miria.

The fists have to be removed from the original forearms so I used a hacksaw blade.

The remaining lip at the wrist will be sanded down.

[Fly4victory]

The 1/100 HDM-116 has six fixed pose resin hands, two left and four right. One of the right hands can cradle the gun pod the other two cannot since the VF-17 gun pod is a round peg.

The sides of the peg must be squared off and a slight taper cut on the front. I decided to use the right hand with a trigger finger so the trigger well had to be opened up.

Since I was cutting up the gun pod, removed the front vertical peg and replaced it with a handle made for the blue resin parts tree. Just drill the hole from the inside of the gun pod where the forward friction pin holds it together.

Cut the tree to length with a slight taper on one side and now you have a horizontal handle.

It still does not fold, telescope or fit in the leg.

[kensei]

This is shaping up to be the best mod that I've seen so far on the forum. Wow. I can't wait for it to be finished.

[Fly4victory]

Thanks much just building on the ideas of others. Jenius came up with the knee mod, Haterist AKA Do Not Disturb had the Gundam hands idea for the 1/48 VF-1's, and Ray painted the first Miria for Graham.

The only thing that is truly mine is the hip mod.

[Fly4victory]

Start by marking the center of the hand/wrist and drill a 7/64 hole. If the drill bit walks then make a pilot hole with your exacto knife.

Use the knuckle bit on the dremel to make a cavity through the 7/64 hole for the wrist ball joint. The hole will need to be widened but 7/64 is a good start.

SWAG! The cavity must be large enough for the ball if too large then the wrists will not hold, also the entry hole must be smaller than the ball to keep in position.

Use pressure but not too much force or you can break the ball joint at the wrist. If you break the joint just make a new one from a section of the parts tree.

The hands are not interchangeable! Once on the light blue slider that is it. They will break if you try to remove them!

[Fly4victory]

The Krylon states that it will bond to the plastic at the molecular level.

BULL!

After waiting the seven days required for maximum chip protection still had chipping during assembly.

The paint is very think and heavy. While it is not meant to be a splatter paint some parts had a textured finish.

It took two cans to finish and the color was consistent.

The Testors Chrome enamel used for the chest gun tubes reacted and bubbled on the right side. Guess all the solvent had not evaporated but no problems on the left.

The kite and diamond emblems were painted with Gunze Sangyo Aqueous. Great paint no problems there.

As for the Krylon Plastic keep it for the patio furniture. There is not benefit going back to the rattle can.

Edit: Fixed the picture.

Edited June 16, 2007 by Fly4victory