Finally Actually Working on the YF-19 Gullet

[Chronocidal]

So, I started this mod in a moment of frustration about a year ago now. After seeing how much better the nose on the VF-19s looked, I got to thinking maybe I could just make the nose drop.

So I started cutting away plastic. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done it on the only YF-19 I have, but sadly that's too late to remedy now.

Here's the basis of what I did.

Hopefully it's all visible, but that red line is the place I made all the tweaks. If I'd thought it through better before hand, I would have documented everything I did, but it's pretty simple. You cut out a chunk of the lower edge of the forward nose, file down a bit off from where the front of the landing gear is so the chin flap can angle down a bit (tricky to file down with the chin flap attached, but it's easily removed), and remove some plastic from the gray pieces under the nose so you can drop the nose further.

Once that's done, you need to make a few pieces to fill in the gaps. Mainly, you need a wedge shaped piece of plastic to fill the gap behind the nose where it rotated, and it needs a slot cut into it for the tab on the back of the nose section. That's all I've gotten so far, but it's holding the nose at a much nicer angle now.

I've only tacked down that wedge of plastic with a dab of super glue, so it'll probably pop out fairly easily. I'm hoping to find some tan plastic to better match the YF-19's color, but either way a proper finish to this will probably involve repainting the entire nose section.

Been wanting to do that from the start anyway, since the black stripe over the nose section always felt uneven to me.

I'll post a comparison pic of the actual plane soon.

[Chronocidal]

Ok, so here's pictures of what it looks like so far. Still need to do a lot of filling/sanding/painting before I could call it done, but I think it's a huge improvement to the overall shape of the YF-19.

First off.. you know something about this is right, because look what it does to the stance of the plane on the gear.

If the plane plane suddenly is lined up near perfectly with the VF-19 when on the wheels, something's working much better. Before, the nose of the YF-19 was way up in the air, but now it's level with the VF-19.

Plus, you can tell that even underneath, the profiles aren't that different. The YF-19 is a bit chunkier in the gear area, but that's due to there actually being a lot of extra space around the front gear that the VF-19 doesn't have. Minus that bulk, the profiles are nearly dead-even. I think it's because the front gear well on the YF-19 just isn't as finely tuned, and takes up more room. The gear bay on the VF-19 is much shallower.

Here's a close up of the parts I've added so far. It's just a flat plate of plastic held in temporarily to make sure the whole thing lines up, and to get the proper shape I need to cut out of better plastic.

Eventually what I'd love to do is rebuild the entire nose section in Shapeways, and fix it to mesh better with the parts. So far, this is a pretty gappy hackjob, but it's effective at what I wanted it to do.

As far as transformation goes, it's hard to tell if this has any effect at all. Since I added about a millimeter of plastic to the upper edge of the torso, the chest plate doesn't seem to sit as securely as it did before, but that' not saying much. Doing this might have caused some minor alignment issues, but it's nothing that prevents transformation.

[Kurisama]

Nice work dude ! Makes me wish I had a YF-19 to tinker with :-)

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Now that's how the YF-19 should look in fighter mode!!! Great work, night and day difference.

[Chronocidal]

What's so funny is that it's literally just causing the nose to point down a few degrees, but it suddenly matches the VF-19 so well.

If I ever do get around to making a shapeways mod of this, it'll probably replace the cockpit section and lower fuselage flap entirely. Just need to get stock YF-19 parts to experiment with, since I didn't want to buy another of this mold.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Chronocidal

[MechTech]

That looks MUCH better. It's kinda the differnce between a fat and neckless person versus a normal one. - MT

[Loop]

Awesome job Chronocidal! I wish I had an extra 19 that I was willing to mod. I was supposed to buy a duplicate a while back, but let it slide....

[Chronocidal]

Well, the way I looked at this one.. it was kind of trash to begin with. It's already far past the "mint" stage, and I had to rebuild the arms out of the box when I got it. Figured I had nothing to lose, because I wasn't going to enjoy it unless I did what I could to fix it.

Only problem is, I got impulsive, and didn't file down the nose very carefully, so it's gappier than it should be.

[Kurisama]

Now I want a YF-19...

Thought of making a mod for gerwalk where the wing roots can peg in ala the new 19s?

Edited March 23, 2013 by Kurisama

[Chronocidal]

Well if I go all out and start making shapeways parts for this, I might. I don't know how much trouble that would be.

I am tempted to try and replace the existing hips with a VF-19 style joint that'll actually allow a spread-legged stance though.

[Kurisama]

Can't wait! Look forward to your progress!

[GU-11]

That's such a massive improvement! That said, there's no way in hell I'll ever dare to put a knife to my YF-19, especially with the toy becoming increasingly rare.

[grapetang]

Nice work! Thanks for posting!

[Reïvaj]

Great job, Chronocidal! Looking forward to the progress!!!

[Mommar]

Well, it's an interesting experiment and it definitely improves the angle/look of fighter in regards to the nose section however I don't feel it addresses the gullet itself. It's still a cool mod.