YF-21/VF-22 Battroid

[valkyrie13]

Hi, as promised in a post last week, attached are some pics showing the progress of the conversion of the Hasegawa 1/72 scale YF-21 to a YF-21/VF-22 Battroid. The resin parts were courtesy of the recast kit ("Gokigen-Seimitsu" conversion kit) from fellow MWer PsychoDynaMix. For your information, I have the original conversion kit (which I got off of a Yahoo! Japan auction a couple of years ago) and compared the two. The details and shape of some of the parts were different. I am wondering if there were multiple versions of these. I checked the photos of a WonderFest event from a few seasons back with completed battroids and it seemed that some parts were different for the YF-21 and the VF-22. At any rate, where I think lacked details, I used modeler's creativity to build in the blanks. Hope you like them. By the way, apologies for the low resolution/quality of the pics. Once completed, I will try to post with better resolutions.

Above is the fuselage reshaped into the shorter Battroid mode. I followed the instructions to the letter but attaching the two main engine/burner covers was a pain. I filled in the blanks with epoxy putty, regular putty and resorted to a lot of sanding. Even the instruction says, use your modelling skills to achieve this. It would be nice if someone could just recast the shorter version of the fuselage. The instruction requires you to cut off a few panels in the lower body/hull to shorten it. But upon examining the linearts from KS, they are supposed to swivel and fold into a stack of slanted panels. Perhaps I will try that next time. The second photo shows the resin part with photoetched details I added.

Above shows the body of the Battroid to which the limbs attach. As you can see (again, sorry for the poor picture quality), I have added ball joints for the legs, the shoulders and the head (Yellow Submarine - which I consider the best but quite hard to pull them apart once you attach them). I also added mecha option parts from Kotobukiya and photoetched parts for details as well as mesh pipes. The small recast parts to beef up the detail around the neck area were cast with too many bubbles and was impossible to clean up. So instead, I took some pipes and Gundam details to add hooks.

Above shows the two intakes. I didn't like the pipes that were recast so I replaced them with brass pipes and wire. By separating the two parts, it makes them easier for me to clean them up, paint and assemble at the end. These intakes are to be attached to the fuselage.

The lower side of the head unit with details I've added using springs, pipes, photo-etched and G-option parts.

Above is the nosecone and the cockpit area which was sawed to shorten the length. Added epoxy and regular putty, after which a lot of sanding was done.

The shoulders and the arms of the Battroid. I decided last minute to add the elbow joints. Thus, the shoulder attaches to the intakes using a ball joint. The upper arm attaches to the shoulder using regular poly cap. The lower arm with a scratch built elbow area (8 mm pipe and ball joint poly cap (Wave)) attaches to the upper arm using a ball joint. The hands (not shown in the picture - a 1/144 Gundam resin manipulaters) attach to the lower arm using ball joints (Wave).

Above are the pics showing the legs and the joints. As previously discussed on another post, I decided not to make the knee joints move. Firstly, to preserve the linearts of the beautiful leg design as much as possible and secondly, for fear that anything short of a metal screw would not hold up the weight of this model. I believe another MWer had thoughts about this piece so I am open to suggestions. However, I did use the largest ball joints (Yellow Submarine) to attach the thighs to the body and the ball joints to attach the feet to the ankles.

Above are the pics of the shields that will be attached to the outer side of the thighs, again, using ball joints. Details were added on the inner panel using sheet styrene.

Thanks for looking and again, apologies for the poor picture quality. I finished masking these and other parts not in the pics for priming and will be painting them as soon as soon as the humidity drops a bit in Hong Kong. It's been too humid for a winter (even by Hong Kong standards). We have lunar new year holidays coming up and as I plan to have guests over, I may not be getting around to painting for quite some time. In the meantime, if any of you have suggestions for improvement (falling short of making this into a fully transformable model ), please let me know. I welcome criticism as well as comments.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Nice work Anthony! Keep the pics coming. -=]

[cool8or]

Great Tony!!

I'll keep the eye on this topic, I have this conversion kit too.

[valkyrie13]

Guys, thanks for the encouragement.

I spent an hour last night fine-tuning the details (and more sanding) as well as adding the details and hinges for the wing part that folds. Initially, I was thinking of using photoetch hinge detail to make the wings workable. But given that the fuselage is attached to the torso and can't move, thus, the wings won't be able fold out and fold in anyway, I gave up on this idea. Instead, I added a thin layer of epoxy putty and ran a pattern using the outer barrel of my pin vise and added hinges (photoetch and kotobukiya option parts).

I will post more pics as they are available.

I was hoping to get the priming done tonight but it's raining again today so I doubt that.

[Valkyrie addict]

BUMP... how is this coming along?

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I agree it'd be nice to see more progress!!

[valkyrie13]

I agree it'd be nice to see more progress!!

Actually, this has been going nowhere since the last post. I primed the resin parts and found that they need more sanding and more priming.

With two kids running around the apartment, work keeping me very busy and the high level of humidity in Hong Kong, it's quite hard to tackle this at this time. I do plan to resume soon (I plan to install a dehumidifier and an air purifier in the room) and when I do, I will definitely post an update. Thank you all for the interest.

[Valkyrie addict]

I hear ya', we'll be patiently waiting for your progress...good luck!