Yamato 1/60 VF-19S/F/P - All Variants

[Mommar]

I'll nit-pick the stickers once I'm done nit-picking the United States Postal Service.

[Raptor One]

I've always wanted to have custom pilot name stickers for CF valkyries. Someone should offer some kind of service..

[VF5SS]

I've always wanted to have custom pilot name stickers for CF valkyries. Someone should offer some kind of service..

can't you just buy some clear labels for your printer

[Raptor One]

I dunno, that never occurred to me. I'll have to look into it.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Raptor One

[Chronocidal]

Should be pretty easy to make labels, but it's not going to be much help on these dark colored valks though... most printers I know of don't use white ink.

Considering how many random sets of markings many of us have collected though, I bet it wouldn't be hard to piece together some pilot names off of either other valk sheets, or even just actual decals from aircraft model kits.

[Scream Man]

id love a stickr sheet that was nothing but a few versions of names. One for everyone who flew a plane in the series.

Im almost sure that the 2 emerald pilots names are mentioned. Doesnt Docker scream their names when they die in Operation Stargazer?

[VF5SS]

HELL YEAH! And he even screams the names of the two replacements when they die a few episodes later!

[IXTL]

id love a stickr sheet that was nothing but a few versions of names. One for everyone who flew a plane in the series.

Im almost sure that the 2 emerald pilots names are mentioned. Doesnt Docker scream their names when they die in Operation Stargazer?

Oldick and Matthews!

HELL YEAH! And he even screams the names of the two replacements when they die a few episodes later!

I don't recall the replacements having names. Docker just called them newbies (at least that was what the sub I watched called them) iirc.

[Scream Man]

Yeah i dont think the replacements did. but Oldick and Matthews: Well done IXTL! maybe someday we'll get a seller doing stickers with names and i can fix this Huge glaring flaw (That means nothing to anyone but me:P )

[Mommar]

Damn, in anticipation of my 19F I transformed my 19S again just to put it in a different configuration and make space. I forgot just how shitty the Gerwalk mode is on this thing. Please tell me the ankles don't suck as bad this time.

[Chronocidal]

Actually, as long as you're willing to loosen and retighten the ankles later, I was able to get some pretty good gerwalk poses out of my 19S when I got it.

[Renato]

Actually, as long as you're willing to loosen and retighten the ankles later, I was able to get some pretty good gerwalk poses out of my 19S when I got it.

This must have been asked a million times, but in preparation for the arrival of the 19P in a few months, how exactly does one go about tightening those ankles? It doesn't look easy to take apart, but I have seen that some members have done just that.

[IXTL]

Yeah i dont think the replacements did. but Oldick and Matthews: Well done IXTL! maybe someday we'll get a seller doing stickers with names and i can fix this Huge glaring flaw (That means nothing to anyone but me:P )

You're most welcome. +1 for pilot name stickers, although I can't see anyone doing these for sale. DIY printing might be an option.

A pity they didn't have a Kinryu one for the 17S. I wonder if the 17D will just have Gamlin again or if we'll see Dick, Mory, Docker and Physica pilot name stickers too.

[Chronocidal]

This must have been asked a million times, but in preparation for the arrival of the 19P in a few months, how exactly does one go about tightening those ankles? It doesn't look easy to take apart, but I have seen that some members have done just that.

I've never taken mine apart, so I can't say much about that, but I have loosened and tightened the two screws on the sides. They're not hard to get to, just close the feet up, and the screws are uncovered.

Loosening them let me get some more extreme poses for gerwwalk mode, but they pretty much lose any tension around the center, so battroid will have trouble standing straight. It doesn't make any sense why the tension on those is so uneven, but we've gone round and round on that subject before. I haven't tested my F's feet to see if they improved any, but I'm not betting on it.

[Mommar]

Actually, as long as you're willing to loosen and retighten the ankles later, I was able to get some pretty good gerwalk poses out of my 19S when I got it.

But that's the problem with the design, if you have to dick with screws and joints to pose it then you've done something wrong. I'm not even looking for anything extreme. I just want the legs to be able to tuck under it far enough that it will stand with the body completely horizontal. The fact the thigh only clicks three times plus the ankles don't angle back means it's tenuously balanced forward on it's toes. I sound like a repeat of last year when I first got this... I'm just reminded, since I hadn't touched that mode, that Yamato's "home run" is still actually pretty crap.

[Chronocidal]

Well, considering how wonky the VF-19 gerwalk mode is anyway, I don't see it as a huge loss, compared to how good the fighter and battroid are.

But yeah, I've gone over why the ankle design sucks multiple times elsewhere, in great detail. There really isn't any excuse for it, and it makes no sense, but it's all been said before.

I admit, I never keep my valks in anything but fighter mode for extended periods, so I don't have much to contribute as far as how stable gerwalk is for extended periods. I did leave my 19S in gerwalk standing on my carpet for a couple days to test the ankles when I first got it, and it didn't fall over, but since then the ankles have been pretty loose in general.

You can get the ankles to bend, it just takes more stress on the joint than most people want to attempt, and they wind up loose around the center when you move them back. I got mine to bend pretty far, but I do remember them being floppy afterwards. The pics are probably towards the beginning of this topic.

[Mommar]

I wouldn't call it wonky, but it is different and that's partly why I like it. Whenever my 19F arrives I'll test it out and see if it's any better or not.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Mommar

[Mommar]

So my F finally showed up today. Real quick impressions after pulling it out. It's not assembled as well as my S was. Things weren't aligned properly out of the box and I had to adjust it myself. Also the back tip of the right wing root is bent with a white stress mark... not happy about paying $300 for that at all. The left wing root doesn't line up with the folded down tail fin just like on the S and the right side doesn't like up as well (but with the bend in it already that doesn't affect me at all anyway.) The Gun pod is harder to get to sit straight too. That doesn't bode well for this new, fancy plant working on these things but I may be an outlier. So... not a good first impression right out of the box at all. Not like the nice, tight S I got last year. I'll have to transform it but right now I have very low expectations for these problematic ankles.

That being said in fighter mode the white stripes and single head cannon look SO much better then the S. I'll have to play with it more. Hopefully there aren't any other defects besides the bent wing root.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, might be time for another revisit of the VF-19's ankles. I picked up my 19F after work yesterday, and fiddled with it a little last night, and something about this one doesn't line up quite right on mine. Something to do with the locking pegs between the upper legs and wing gloves.

Still holds together fine, and aside from that weirdness it's pretty much fine, but one of the wing gloves doesn't snug up against the main body very well. Not a huge deal, but I might try tweaking some of the bits on this one.

It actually seems a little like the hips are too wide to properly mesh with the main body somehow.

[Mommar]

The wings will rotate horizontally as will the hips. It's possible they aren't lining up because one (or both) of them is rotated a little bit.

I'm going to re-iterate that the ankles suck and Gerwalk fans got effed on this design. Fix the ankles. They need to rotate back a lot farther.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Mommar

[Scream Man]

Mine seems fine. In fact I have less trouble with the wings ion this than on my 19S, which was always very tight. In fact I nearly broke the 19 the first time i tried to transform it.

Heres a few pics i snapped yesterday.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Scream Man

[Chronocidal]

The wings will rotate horizontally as will the hips. It's possible they aren't lining up because one (or both) of them is rotated a little bit.

Well, they might be rotated somewhat, but I can't for the life of me figure out how.

You know how literally everything on this thing locks together in fighter mode? There's tabs holding everything together from multiple directions...

BUT.. if I pull on the right wing? The entire right wingroot will fold out without any trouble. It'll fold out and down just like I can do with my old YF-19, without doing anything to unlock the arm, or drop the leg on that side. The left side wingroot won't budge until I've dropped the leg at the hip joint.

I don't think I'm missing any tabs or anything, but the right wing isn't locking into place like it should. Putting the right leg back in place after lowering it is also problematic, it doesn't like to fit where it's supposed to go. The shoulder on that side also seemed very resistant to let go of the leg too, as if the tabs are all locking in slightly off-center.

All in all, it's not broken.. but it just feels like it's a bit off somehow. Some joint or something might be misaligned, some tab might be misshapen, I don't know. I'll have to look at it in great detail to figure it out.

One thing I did discover though.. if you're having trouble lifting the shoulders off the legs? Use a plastic spoon.

[kamadoma]

One thing I did discover though.. if you're having trouble lifting the shoulders off the legs? Use a plastic spoon.

Haha I used to use a flat tip screwdriver to pry it off. But since it seemed to sharp that it might damage the plastic/paint, I decided to just avoid cutting my index fingers to the fullest when I'm anticipating a new VF toy.

[Mommar]

So I finally attempted to sticker my F last night. I have avoided stickering anything dark because I don't like the way the edges of the stickers look. I noticed ever since I put those little no step stickers on Gamlin's 22 how awful it looks. I finally got an Xacto knife and a pair of straight and curved scissors to carefully cut that stuff. I've found that the Emerald Force Logo and all of the little Red warning arrows/etc... look just fine. I still can't cut those tiny little No Step stickers down though. Anybody know of a better way to trim something so small? Hell, even the "102" stickers and the UN Spacy stickers look like crap even after trimming the big borders. I tried to individually trim the white 102 so there isn't that blob of sticker between each number but it still doesn't look great. I noticed some of you guys always seem to have really clean looking decals but I'm not sure if with clear coats/etc... if it obfuscates some of the issues I've described.

[Phalanix]

^ one reason why I prefer water transfer decals rather to stickers. Dunno why Yamato doesn't just come with them - I know they're suppose to be toys and all, but what kid can afford a $300 toy? LOL

The only time I've seen Yamato give the water transfer decals were on my weathering destroids, dunno if any others came with them.

[Chronocidal]

I definitely got a couple of sets of 1/48 VF-1 decals from Yamato, but I forget why. I think it was some promotional offer through HLJ.

[charger69]

BAT's VF-19F

[derex3592]

So I finally attempted to sticker my F last night. I have avoided stickering anything dark because I don't like the way the edges of the stickers look. I noticed ever since I put those little no step stickers on Gamlin's 22 how awful it looks. I finally got an Xacto knife and a pair of straight and curved scissors to carefully cut that stuff. I've found that the Emerald Force Logo and all of the little Red warning arrows/etc... look just fine. I still can't cut those tiny little No Step stickers down though. Anybody know of a better way to trim something so small? Hell, even the "102" stickers and the UN Spacy stickers look like crap even after trimming the big borders. I tried to individually trim the white 102 so there isn't that blob of sticker between each number but it still doesn't look great. I noticed some of you guys always seem to have really clean looking decals but I'm not sure if with clear coats/etc... if it obfuscates some of the issues I've described.

I feel your pain...I HATE freakin Yamato's stickers..but I like my Valks to have them. The darker colors are far less forgiving. I recently tried my hand at trimming every single one I put on my VF-1 Cavaliers. I used a brand new #11 Xacto blade and a LOT of patience. It was VEEERRY tedious and painful but the overall result looks awesome! And yes,,,,event the "no steps" are done this way. Practice makes perfect. I wish I could go back and redo my 21 and Gamlin 22 and several others as well.

[Chronocidal]

Ok, good news about my problems with sloppyness, looks like there was just a bit of mold flash inside the tab slot on the underside of the right wing glove. Trimmed that out, and now everything locks together nicely.

As far as the ankles go on mine, seems to be the same situation I've had with all of the VF-19s. I'm able to push the ankles to their extremes after loosening the screws, but they get a little sloppy around the center. Can get a decent gerwalk angle that way, but I don't know if I'll ever let this beauty leave fighter mode to begin with.

I'd really love to explore a permanent solution to all this nonsense, but Yamato went back to their old ways of gluing everything together, and leaving none of the major assembly screws exposed. Also, never really realized it before, but the way they started using spring-pins for everything really stymies the idea that we might ever get a kit of this one. There are some assemblies on the VF-19 that I'm half convinced you couldn't assemble by hand.

[ArchieNov]

BAT's VF-19F

Those gerwalk pics look pretty awkward/horrible. But the head looks better than I initially thought. Still prefer the look of the S version over it though. May get this one only after it goes on 20-30% discount which I think it will before the end of the year.

[Mommar]

I feel your pain...I HATE freakin Yamato's stickers..but I like my Valks to have them. The darker colors are far less forgiving. I recently tried my hand at trimming every single one I put on my VF-1 Cavaliers. I used a brand new #11 Xacto blade and a LOT of patience. It was VEEERRY tedious and painful but the overall result looks awesome! And yes,,,,event the "no steps" are done this way. Practice makes perfect. I wish I could go back and redo my 21 and Gamlin 22 and several others as well.

Man, even with a precise blade and as much patience as I can muster I only kinda sorta get lucky with cutting those No Step decals correct. But I've never been able to get them to adhere after cutting them that small either.

[Raptor One]

I find using a pair of pointed tweezers makes cutting stickers a lot easier, it also helps prevent them from losing adhesive. I've never tried this with a glossy valk though so I'm not sure how much the finish matters

[Murphy]

Stupid question: what numbers are on the 19s and both 19F in emerald force? ie. dockers vf-19s had 101 right?

[kamadoma]

Darn, all these Emerald Force pics are making me want to get one.

[Mommar]

Stupid question: what numbers are on the 19s and both 19F in emerald force? ie. dockers vf-19s had 101 right?

Docker would be 101, and the other two would be 102 and 103.