1/60 Yamato VF-4G Web-Exclusive Toy

[MacrossJunkie]

Ok, here's my entry into the panel line VF-4 category...Done with the pro modelers dark dirt weathering wash. Not gonna lie... This one was a biiiiitch!!! Different kind of plastic maybe not really sure but, it took me over six hours straight to get it to this point. Never again!! I'll tackle the stickers tomorrow....

You are truly a patient man. I would probably accidentally keep rubbing it off in different places while I tried to panel line the entire thing with the pro modelers wash due to the shallow panel lines. I bet there was a lot of going back and redoing areas that you had done before in those 6 hours. I couldn't even get my usual combo of thinner + enamel to do the capillary effect on these lines, much less the pro modelers. Initial testing with oil paint + turpenoid was pretty good as it flowed right through the lines so I'm definitely going with that option.

[armentage]

I had a horribly scary time with mine...here's what I did..open the cockpit..press down on the instrument panal shroud..that's how I got mine to finely drop down..I was NOT going to push on that canopy any harder than I was...and I know you need to be "firm, but gentle" with new Yamato Valks, but I was worried about cracking the clear plastic.

Great advice! I pressed down just behind the instruments and the entire assembly popped a bit and slid smoothly into place. I was finally able to transform my VF-4. Everything's perfect now!

[funkymonkeyjavajunky]

I just happened to go onto HLJ web site and they had a low stock 1/60 VF-4 i placed the order and now the valk is in San Fran for customs, think I might have gotten lucky....

Just out of curiosity, when did you place that order? I have been checking the site pretty frequently and have yet to see HLJ relist this item. I think you got lucky.

[jorawar_b]

Just out of curiosity, when did you place that order? I have been checking the site pretty frequently and have yet to see HLJ relist this item. I think you got lucky.

29th of dec

http://www.hlj.com/product/YMTGK-19

just keep on checking

Edited January 6, 2013 by jorawar_b

[moncikoma]

^^^great piece of art...too bad the missile is easy to fall of..and the front wheel isnt locked

hikaru??

LOTS OF DIECAST!

FLASHBACK VER STICKER IS INCLUDED

the sexiest vf on the planet

[eyesonme78]

i tried my newest rising sound speakers with VF-4G, looks ok IMO.

wat do ya guys think?

[wm cheng]

Woohoo!! NY came though. Actually the Post Office attempted delivery Thursday, but I wasn't home and couldn't get to the post office Friday to pick it up, so I went today on Saturday and its was there and its perfect!! By far my most favourite Valk from Yamato, they really outdid themselves recently with this and the 1/3000 SDF-1 which are my favourites now.

NY actually declared 900Y on the customs form so I didn't have to get dinged with customs & duty! (definite bonus for those ordering in Canada, we always get killed by duty).

Now to plan the FB2012 paint conversions. I guess I can't really paint the interior of the intakes brown since it would be really obvious in the Battroid mode because it affects the forearms. Would it be too half assed if I painted the nose cone radome tan, and the rear moveable surfaces white (like 70's navy planes that have the gull grey schemes with the white moveable surfaces), but left the fat red strip at the rear red instead of brown? I'd of course paint the rear fins black with the red stripe top and bottom forward of a white rear rudder and the blue leading edges of the rudder and canards in silver. What do you think of that? I was thinking maybe getting ModelMaster Lacquers so they'd be more durable than my usual Tamiya Acrylics.

I can't stop staring at it!!

p.s. anyone know of a solvent to remove the tampo "made in china" and "1997 Big West" on the underside of the wings? I want to paint that white.

Edited January 6, 2013 by wm cheng

[David Hingtgen]

Rubbing alcohol can remove most tampo prints from most plastics safely. Just use a Q-tip and rub for a while.

[MacrossJunkie]

p.s. anyone know of a solvent to remove the tampo "made in china" and "1997 Big West" on the underside of the wings? I want to paint that white.

I've had pretty decent results using Polly S Easy Lift Off, like this. I got some from a hobby store some years back to remove some tampo printed color from a 1/48 VF-1. I tried soaking stuff in windex before that and it did absolutely squat.

[treatment]

All panel lined and stickered. i havent got the time to set up my little display area, but this is her just on my desk:

Nicely done paneling!

Anyone modded a Hikaru-version on their's, yet?

[sil80jdm]

Back to "low stock" status guys on hlj!

http://www.hlj.com/product/YMTGK-19

[lechuck]

NY actually declared 900Y on the customs form so I didn't have to get dinged with customs & duty! (definite bonus for those ordering in Canada, we always get killed by duty).

In the same boat, for us Europeans it is not just a case of what ships cheaper, but also what will customs cost me?

It was my first purchase with NY and I can gladly say that it worked out great. Item was marked at 900 Yen, meaning it completely by-passed customs and went straight to my doorstep.

Shipping might be slightly more expensive, but in the long run it was less expensive, compared to if I had ordered from HLJ.

Europeans members bookmark this shop! They will help you with customs.

Now on to my impressions of the VF-4G:

1. Box: Standard stuff - typical Yamato design, as wide as VF-22S box with a bit more depth.
   
2. Un-boxing: QC for packing these things could be a bit better. On mine the nose and one of the nacelles were not locked-in properly as well as one missile floating freely.
   
3. Accessories: Minimalistic comes to mind, I think they could have thrown in a mighty block stand for the price. I have a gazillion stand adapters, but not a single stand from them. In contrast - I have two stands from the two Bandai Valks I bought.
   
4. Fighter mode: Very clean, no bigger gaps to be spotted and everything locks in. So good that even the VF-22 "sleekness" pales big time. Pilot is loose in cockpit.
   
5. Gerwalk: I admit to not being the biggest fan of this mode in general, but I would say it is OK. The appearance tends to give off a bit of "stiff" vibe, but maybe I just wasn't able to pull of that wide A-stance.
   
6. Battroid - in general my favourite mode for Valks, hence more details here:
   
   • Give me back ball joints for the feet! The pivoting is lost once you retract the feet back to the correct position for this mode. Also you cannot rotate them forward only backwards.
     
   • On mine, the left foot seems to be assembled slightly crooked
     
   • The bending joint in the knee area seems looser to me now, after only two transformations. If you are not careful when posing/balancing, the thing will just flop backwards from the knee joint.
     
   • Arms are a bit weak on this thing. The giant shoulder pauldrons are static and hinder movement. Also no double jointed arms - think VF-11 with these.
     
   • Fisted hands look a bit small to me
     
   • Those gun-thingies under the forearm should have had a backward slide mechanism so the hands have a bit more freedom
     
   • Torso locks nice and tight
     
   • Head does not sit on a ball joint, so no sideways tilting
     
   • Over all proportions in Battroid look good, slight nit-pick would be that the nose-cone is too long
     

[*]Transformation: Very easy and intuitive. I belong to the dying breed that actually read and follow manuals whenever they get a new product. But on this one I gave up after transforming to Gerwalk and just figured it out myself. The manual itself feels like it has a lot of filler for very simple steps, but I could be wrong as I am just judging by the pictures.

[*]Other stuff: Lots of fail-safes, if something pops off, then just put it back on. The two vertical stabilizers can be pulled out, so can you have those canted outward if one prefers.

[*]Annoyances: MISSILES!!! Exactly why was everybody craving for this!? If these things could be setup on a stand that make it look they are being fired, then that would make sense. Otherwise it's a feature that adds no value.

[*]Appearance: Should have been Hikaru's!!! I mean the VFX variant is not aggravating or anything, but it is boring at the same time. Never played the game and never will, so there is no connection or association with this variant.

Final comments: The toy is great and you are not doing anything wrong if you get it. That being said, only get it if you are absolute fan of the VF-4G or completionist. Otherwise skip it, because the price is just too steep for the casual collector. My disappointment would be the presentation of whole thing; everything feels so standard other than the fact that it carries the "web exclusive" moniker. Maybe I am putting too much weight on "exclusive", but they should have gone out of their way for some "extra goodies" in one way or another, e.g. box with artwork, or teamed up with Big West to give us a DVD showcasing some short but awesome VF-4G CGI action, or maybe as mentioned a stand, more pairs of hands, Gunpods, pilots etc..

Battroid comparisons:

[Shaorin]

Rubbing alcohol can remove most tampo prints from most plastics safely. Just use a Q-tip and rub for a while.

indeed. 91% is the most effective. i use it all the time for truing up paint overruns on model kits. very effective on TAMIYA colors...

[Hikuro]

I just used tamiya paint thiner and a q tip on TF figures I wanted to customize and get rid of the tampo. Hard work but it did what it needed to do.

[Chronocidal]

Now to plan the FB2012 paint conversions. I guess I can't really paint the interior of the intakes brown since it would be really obvious in the Battroid mode because it affects the forearms. Would it be too half assed if I painted the nose cone radome tan, and the rear moveable surfaces white (like 70's navy planes that have the gull grey schemes with the white moveable surfaces), but left the fat red strip at the rear red instead of brown? I'd of course paint the rear fins black with the red stripe top and bottom forward of a white rear rudder and the blue leading edges of the rudder and canards in silver. What do you think of that? I was thinking maybe getting ModelMaster Lacquers so they'd be more durable than my usual Tamiya Acrylics.

If I was really brave, I'd go one further and go full 70s gull gray with scalloped white on the bottom.

That sounds like a great option though, and sounds like an extremely simple custom job to do to boot. I don't know why you'd want to paint over the red leg stripes with brown, since even if it isn't quite accurate, the red looks nice, and goes with the scheme. White control surfaces with silver leading edges should look beautiful.

I think the only tricky part will be figuring out how to keep the nose from scratching. The top might be safe, but the way the underside nestles up under the chest might scratch it up. Same for the canards, since they're buried in the torso. I think with a good metallic lacquer though, it should be ok.

Not like you're likely to be transforming it much anyway though, so you should be fine painting whatever you want on it.

[VF5SS]

The prototype for my missile mounts just went to the printers at Shapeways. They're speeding up a lot lately.

[marthf1]

I ordered up the VF-4 missile mount for testing. I will let you guys know how it goes.

Hopefully it won't flop, if you kept the hinge, or straight up fall out. I suppose none of the missiles are that heavy, though.

Edited January 6, 2013 by marthf1

[Kurisama]

Veef - did you keep it as one piece or several pieces for the articulation?

Also, does it bother anyone else that A) it doesn't need a gunpod and B) when mounted in fighter mode - the ventral nose fin would be shot off?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have it off-centre slightly?

[VF5SS]

I kept it as one piece although I think I may have forgotten the front mounting peg. Oh well that's why we have revisions. Given the size of the missile pods I don't think you could leave the panels on in Gerwalk mode.

[lorn_13]

VF-4 Full Armed

[MichaelS]

Ok now we need an under side shot what a taunt!

[CoreyD]

lorn_13, did you use Kurisama's weapon hard points from shapeways?

[eugimon]

Veef - did you keep it as one piece or several pieces for the articulation?

Also, does it bother anyone else that A) it doesn't need a gunpod and B) when mounted in fighter mode - the ventral nose fin would be shot off?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have it off-centre slightly?

yeah, I'd like to see the gunpod mount slightly off center as well.

[Mechamaniac]

I'm not bothered by the lack of a gunpod. To me, the cannons mounted in the engine pods makes perfect sense. Why use a gunpod when you have built in cannons in each arm. I have to say though that the fully armed with missile pods is pretty sweet

[eugimon]

but lots of valks have built in cannons that are able to be used in battroid mode like the vf-17, vf-22 and yf-29. They all got gunpods.

my personal fiction regarding my armed vf-4 is that this unit is towards the end of the service life for the vf-4, when they realized that it didn't have enough arms for extended missions and they decided to retrofit it to make it a more versatile platform..

Edited January 7, 2013 by eugimon

[derex3592]

I had fun today trimming all the stickers (yes...even the No Step's) and applying them....I'm done. This one is going into the cabinet....as soon as I make room!

[Valkyrie Magnus]

These are great pictures of the VF-4! Nice custom work and thanks for sharing guys!

[Kicker773]

I think putting missiles on the VF4 looks a little bit overkill doesn't it. It wasn't meant to carry that many armaments.

[Valkyrie addict]

We're on holiday over here, my VF-4 is probably ready for pickup but it won't be open till tuesday. Sucks, my 2nd VF-4 is on its way.

Great customs guys, first thing I'm gonna do after swooshing my valk is get rid of that made in china and start panel lining.

I think if you apply a clear coat first can make the capillary effect easier, although, I have to see it to understand you guys.

[eyesonme78]

VF-4G is out of stock at NY.. there goes my 3rd piece due to my hesitation.. sighs..

* wait.. Kicker, did ya just did a massive buy out on NY?? lol...

Edited January 7, 2013 by eyesonme78

[Mommar]

I think putting missiles on the VF4 looks a little bit overkill doesn't it. It wasn't meant to carry that many armaments.

Well unless they were keeping the VF-1's around for specific errands (and they were still around when the VF-4 was flying) you would think they would still need a way for fighters to deploy Reaction Warheads so it may not be a stretch that at the very least they could hold one or two someplace.

[rnurmin]

Wow, where can you still get one of this?

I checked all the sites and I guessed you guys cleared up most of them.

Any idea of where I can still get one (around bay area) or US?

Thanks.

[sil80jdm]

Hkcollectibles.com still has them in stock

[Old Man]

Hkcollectibles.com still has them in stock

Yeah...$400+ before shipping!!!

[Radd]

Hopefully it did well enough to warrant additional colour schemes.

I only have one, but would love to pick up two more. Just can't afford it right now.