Help: fixing Bandai's VF-25F

[regult]

I built this model right after it was released, so it was a long time ago. It has been displayed in Battroid mode and gone through no more than a couple of transformations when new. To my surprise, one of the arms fell recently, later one of the wing/backplate folding hinge also gave up. I also realized the head assembly is a bit floppy, because some snap-fit tab is either broken, cracked or simply lose.

I was thinking about making it into a non-transforming single-mode model, but wondering which mode is best for my current situation.

When the left arm broke, I thought fighter mode was best, but now the left wing assembly is also broken and re-attaching that piece may be a problem since the hinge is so small and there is no other attachment point to glue it on again. Tucking the broken left arm under the fuselage in fighter mode is easy, but as I said I have no idea what to do about the backplate+wing piece.

The broken pieces are both ABS, and I really don't know if superglue, tamiya modeling glue or epoxy would do the trick.

Edited September 1, 2010 by regult

[Maiden Japan]

Unfortunatelly there's not much you can do to fix. Hinges and shafts are too small that evev if you glued back they will snap and fall off again. Only way to salvage this model is to glue back and stay in one position ( fighter, gerwalk, or battroid mode ), and display as non-transforming model. Or better yet, make a small diorama.

[mickyg]

In my opinion, your best bet is fighter mode. The wing is what seals it for me. It's only held on with the hinge in battroid and gerwalk and if you can't fix that hinge with some amount of success (and I think that's very limited, given where it broke) there's no way it's going to last.

The fighter mode though, I think that would allow you to glue the wing to the leg, right on the edge where it touches (along the back of the leg and towards the front, too). That, and the hinge area would likely be strong enough to keep the wing on indefinitely. I'd stick with super glue as the adhesive. The polystyrene parts (the wing glove part) are fine to use model glue on, but the hinge is ABS, as you've already mentioned, and that won't glue with normal modelling glue. You can get some specialty glue for it, but super glue should be fine to hold in position if you're just displaying it from here on. You might also be able to fill that hinge area with epoxy but it's pretty likely you'd see it and equally likely it'd drip everywhere and drive you insane!

Hope that helps. Bummer about the breakages - makes me more than just a little bit worried about mine! Did you nail polish any of the joints? Just wondering if that potentially stressed the joints and led to the breakage.

[regult]

I didn't reinforce any of the hinges. The shoulder one was probably too tight since day one, and during one instance (can't remember if it was transformation or just posing, but remember I was repositioning the arm thus applied some torque on the tight hinge, and it came off. You can actually still see how it broke by "twisting".

The backplate hinge was probably under too much "lateral" stress. The shoulder piece was pushing it perpendicularly (towards the tail in fighter mode). I must remark I kept it in fighter mode after the shoulder broke.

There are clear gel-type epoxy in the local market, wondering if that would be better to fix ABS than superglue? Guess my question is, does superglue work on ABS?

Another question regarding the decals. I am debating whether to glue everything in place first or replace the decals first. I was thinking the best course of action may be to remove the old broken decals (I used a fair bit of Mr Mark decal softener), which may prove to be a tough job; then glue the pieces together in fighter mode, then apply the new decals. IT may be easier to align the red and black stripes this way. The only piece I see NEEDS to be decaled before gluing is the leg's black stripe and probably the wings (I was not considering changing them).

mickyg, I would be very careful with transformation because in any case, it scratches paint and decals...and if some hinges are too tight like the shoulders on mine, the twisting and pulling will eventually break it.