Bandai DX YF-29 Isamu Coloring

[Loop]

Less stuff indeed, 2 wing parts, boosters and a shield.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Loop

[Kanedas Bike]

Less stuff indeed, 2 wing parts, boosters and a shield.

Yup, about 7 pieces added to the Valk.

-b.

[Chronocidal]

There we go.. JUST got the shipping notice for my pair of Isamu part sets.

[Mommar]

Good luck! I tried to separate my Tornado Parts order once I realized the 25F parts would ship later with the 25G parts, I had to cancel the entire order and place them separately.

Although I think another member was able to get it accomplished w/out cancelling - so YMMV.

Funny thing for me, my first impression was of how tiny the box was, I was expecting something the same size as the 25 Super Parts, but it makes sense, since there is less "stuff" with these.

-b.

Yup, I got boinked by that one too even after trying to contact them.

[MacrossJunkie]

May I ask what colors you used for the panel lines and wash/ drybrush? Also thought about doing this once I picked up mine.

The panel lining was done primarily with pencil and a bit of Gundam marker in select areas. Weathering effects used Tamiya smoke colored acrylic paint and some snow color from their weathering kit. It was then sealed in with a mix of Future and Vallejo matte varnish.

[ULessa]

The panel lining was done primarily with pencil and a bit of Gundam marker in select areas. Weathering effects used Tamiya smoke colored acrylic paint and some snow color from their weathering kit. It was then sealed in with a mix of Future and Vallejo matte varnish.

Any tips and tricks you could give me I've done a little bit for Gunpla but thats mainly just panel line and grey drybrushing. Was thinking of using pencil for panel lines or dark brown as the color as straight black will pop out like crazy (I've made my mistakes on Gunpla). Also when you apply the matte coat would it hinder the transformation much (assuming that you even moved if after all that work)?

Also finally decided that I'm going to get the Isamu as my first DX Valk. The premium that I have to pay for the 30th color scheme is just too much. Do want the Ozma but its going to cost me as much as the 30th. Shall wait for an reissue if it'll ever happen.

Soooooo, any words of caution whilst transforming these precious toys to avoid damaging it?

Edited May 26, 2014 by ULessa

[Saburo]

*snip*

Soooooo, any words of caution whilst transforming these precious toys to avoid damaging it?

My suggestion would be to read review and watch youtube video by Jenius and VF-5SS, they are very informative and have helped me greatly.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Saburo

[Scyla]

*snip*

Soooooo, any words of caution whilst transforming these precious toys to avoid damaging it?

1. Be careful when transforming the hips. The little canards on the forward fuselage might get in the way when handling the legs and thighs.
2. Lift the gun turret from the backpack before transforming it. You can't fold the wings upwards with the recessed turret.
3. The wings on the backpack rotate not nearly as much as you might think. Don't apply much force when hinging them upwards and stop when hitting a point of resistance. However on my YF-29 Ozma Custom the wing hinges are very stiff. If they are the same on your Isamu one try to be carefull
4. The head turret is a bitch to transform. If you never handled this design before it can be quite frustrating. The base plate slides back and is on a hinge in the front that you can push out from the inside of the chest area. The head extends also in the neck. You might pop it off but it's on a ball-joint so you can pop it right back on. This can also be troublesome because the joint in the head won't stay in its position.
5. The front landing gear doors should rest between the folded in nosecone and the small fins on the forward fuselage.
6. The Gerwalk-joint has to be extended one click when transforming it back to Fighter-Mode for the legs to sit flush
7. Watch Jenius video for transforming the shoulders/arms back into fighter mode to see how you have to rotate it
8. Watch out for the small spikes on the top of the lower legs. For Gerwalk-Mode you need to extend the legs before rotating them outwards for the A-stance otherwise you will cause a stress mark on the fin because the thigh will deform it.
9. Watch all the video reviews you can get. It takes away some magic but they are very helpful. Veef mentioned in his YF-29 Ozma review many of the issues I listed (http://collectiondx.com/toy_review/2014/yf29_durandal_valkyrie_ozma_lee_custom)
10. Don't worry it might be scary for the first couple of times transforming it but after that they are actually pretty easy and fun to handle. Plus you can apply the gained knowledge to all the other Frontier Valkyries sans the VF-171 and YF-30

For video reviews check out this thread: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=40918#entry1111257

[edit:] Just transformed my 30th Anniversary edition I noticed a few things:

1. It is probably a good idea to protect the black painted plastic in front of the cockpit canopy with some kind of low adhesive masking tape because during transformation the base plate of the head turret is likely to scrape on that part.
2. Be careful when moving the turret and the tail fins so you don't stress the parts

Edited May 26, 2014 by Scyla

[ULessa]

Thanks guys!

I'll make sure to at least watch a few videos before transforming the actual thing!

Edited May 27, 2014 by ULessa

[MacrossJunkie]

Any tips and tricks you could give me I've done a little bit for Gunpla but thats mainly just panel line and grey drybrushing. Was thinking of using pencil for panel lines or dark brown as the color as straight black will pop out like crazy (I've made my mistakes on Gunpla). Also when you apply the matte coat would it hinder the transformation much (assuming that you even moved if after all that work)?

Also finally decided that I'm going to get the Isamu as my first DX Valk. The premium that I have to pay for the 30th color scheme is just too much. Do want the Ozma but its going to cost me as much as the 30th. Shall wait for an reissue if it'll ever happen.

Soooooo, any words of caution whilst transforming these precious toys to avoid damaging it?

In the end, it's really just a matter of practice and experience. I would avoid using the gundam marker for any of the actual panel lining, it's just much too dark and heavy, imo. I only used it in a few select areas that weren't even really panels. I would normally use a wash to do the panel lines, but some of the lines are really fine and hard to get the wash to stay in, so the mechanical pencil worked out better in the end. If you screw up with the pencil, just rub it off and redo, it shouldn't really leave any marks or stains on the plastic. I keep out a piece of paper and after every few lines, I re-sharpen the tip on the paper until it's a fine needle point.

The matte coat should be alright as long as you're careful during the transformation. I've transformed mine back and forth a bunch of times. I guess it's important to be familiar with the transformation first.

[ULessa]

Hmmmm. Been looking at the Isamu with super parts and somehow I feel like its really unnecessary. I really like it on the other YF-29s though so thats just weird for me. I guess it sorta takes away from the Isamu look and thats why it bothers me.

EDIT:

@MacrossJunkie Happen to have any pictures of your Isamu or any other Frontier Valks all panel lined and weathered in Battroid mode? Curious to see

EDIT 2:

Derp, gotta start looking more carefully

Edited May 28, 2014 by ULessa

[Scyla]

I think you can check his Macross Gallery he linked in his signature. Can't check it for myself because the site is blocked but I think that you can see his amazing work.

[ULessa]

In the end, it's really just a matter of practice and experience. I would avoid using the gundam marker for any of the actual panel lining, it's just much too dark and heavy, imo. I only used it in a few select areas that weren't even really panels. I would normally use a wash to do the panel lines, but some of the lines are really fine and hard to get the wash to stay in, so the mechanical pencil worked out better in the end. If you screw up with the pencil, just rub it off and redo, it shouldn't really leave any marks or stains on the plastic. I keep out a piece of paper and after every few lines, I re-sharpen the tip on the paper until it's a fine needle point.

The matte coat should be alright as long as you're careful during the transformation. I've transformed mine back and forth a bunch of times. I guess it's important to be familiar with the transformation first.

Even more excited to get a Valk after going through your gallery. Could I have more tips on the weathering technique and btw did you do anything else to the Yamato YF-19S other than the decals (and the great lighting ), The panel lines looks like it pops out more.

[charger69]

Gamu Review for Super Parts

http://gamu-toys.info/goukin/gouki/dx35/dx35.html

[MacrossJunkie]

Even more excited to get a Valk after going through your gallery. Could I have more tips on the weathering technique and btw did you do anything else to the Yamato YF-19S other than the decals (and the great lighting ), The panel lines looks like it pops out more.

I'm not sure I can describe the weathering process very well. You would probably learn more from looking up youtube videos on weathering models. That said, I used primarily an airbrush to do the weathering, but if you don't have an airbrush or haven't had much practice with it yet, you might want to consider getting the tamiya weathering kits first. They give pretty good results and are fairly versatile. I started out using those exclusively before moving on to using an airbrush as I got better with it through practice.

As for the VF-19S, the reason the panel lines are more visible is because I did some panel lining on it. This is one of the rare cases that I used a fine tip gundam marker pen to panel line. Because the color of the valk was already pretty dark, the ink from the pen didn't contrast too much. I also panel lined my YF-21 and VF-25G with it as well.

[xrentonx]

Finally got my two sets of armor parts from NY! My Isamu collection is getting to be quite something

[Duymon]

it only took forever for my fast packs to be shipped and to arrive O_o

they look much nicer after a quick black wash and cleanup.

[TaikoD]

Wow look nice Duymon.

"Armed and dangerous"

[m0n5t3r]

Sorry to resurrect this old topic but anybody here who has a YF-29 Isamu they can check? 

Wasn't planning on getting one but a good deal came my way and I did some research and read about potential cracking parts issues with the yf-29 in general. 

I found this pic on Mandarake and are those cracks on the shoulder armors?

Thanks in advance!

Edited June 30 by m0n5t3r

[Chronocidal]

I'd have to dig one out check, but I thought those were just the seams from where the shoulders go together.  The tops are opening caps, so those portions have to be sandwiched around the shoulder front to back (or side to side in this case).

[WhatBoutMyStar]

2 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

Sorry to resurrect this old topic but anybody here who has a YF-29 Isamu they can check? 

Wasn't planning on getting one but a good deal came my way and I did some research and read about potential cracking parts issues with the yf-29 in general. 

I found this pic on Mandarake and are those cracks on the shoulder armors?

Thanks in advance!

I don't have the Isamu 29 but these are seams on my other 29s and not cracks.

[m0n5t3r]

20 minutes ago, WhatBoutMyStar said:

I don't have the Isamu 29 but these are seams on my other 29s and not cracks.

Thanks for that. I thought they were, just wanted to make sure. How about the hip joint on your 29s? How prevalent is that issue?

Edited July 1 by m0n5t3r

[WhatBoutMyStar]

56 minutes ago, m0n5t3r said:

Thanks for that. I thought they were, just wanted to make sure. How about the hip joint on your 29s? How prevalent is that issue?

The torso hinges themselves are fine for now. I can't say the same for my 25 renewals. One of my 25s also has a cracked neckplate.

As far as the hips, they are like other Frontier era toys with hips and shoulders that were floppy out of the box right away or became easily floppy over a very short period of time with very little handling.

Even the most recent 29 I have my Max 29, got loose pretty quickly. Tightening the screws worked initially, but they soon didn't. So I disassembled the shoulders and hips and applied some floor polish, which helps but will wear over time.

I really like how the 29 looks especially in fighter mode, but if I'm being honest, I'm not very fond of playing with it and transforming it. But then I look at how pretty a bird it is and I'm glad I have them.

[m0n5t3r]

Thanks for the insights @WhatBoutMyStar. I really like the look of the 29 too. I had the original Alto 29 and the 30th Anniv. but sold them years ago for fear of yellowing, esp. the nose cone. Isamu is one of my fave Macross characters (hotshot pilot and all that) and I'm also digging the bayonet rifle. And i'm hoping this color won't be as prone to yellowing. I'm hoping the seller is honest and I get an unopened one seeing as this is almost a 10 yr. old product. Thanks again. 

[MKT]

6 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

Sorry to resurrect this old topic but anybody here who has a YF-29 Isamu they can check? 

Wasn't planning on getting one but a good deal came my way and I did some research and read about potential cracking parts issues with the yf-29 in general. 

I found this pic on Mandarake and are those cracks on the shoulder armors?

Thanks in advance!

Confirmed these are seam lines where the shoulder cap meets together.

 

4 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

Thanks for that. I thought they were, just wanted to make sure. How about the hip joint on your 29s? How prevalent is that issue?

My Isamu doesn’t have cracks on this. In fact, none of my 29s have this problem, only the 25s - both the renewal 25G & 25S. I was thinking not too long ago that this issue seems more prevalent on the 25 rather than 29, but then again there are others who reported their 29s also have cracks at this area.

Isamu’s colour is not to say more yellow resistant, just that any yellowing will be better masked by the beige colour. The Isamu 29 pics that I took not that long ago (posted in the other tread) actually have yellowed quite a bit in many sections, but I used warm white lights for those pics so it wasn’t very apparent.

[David Hingtgen]

The Perceval YF-29B is the only one I recall being more susceptible to cracking.  It was the last/newest one for a while, but cracked first.  (which sucks because it has awesome coloring, but it's hard to match its periwinkle-powder-blue if you did manage to get a 3D printed replacement piece etc)

[pengbuzz]

On 6/30/2024 at 9:51 PM, WhatBoutMyStar said:

The torso hinges themselves are fine for now. I can't say the same for my 25 renewals. One of my 25s also has a cracked neckplate.

As far as the hips, they are like other Frontier era toys with hips and shoulders that were floppy out of the box right away or became easily floppy over a very short period of time with very little handling.

Even the most recent 29 I have my Max 29, got loose pretty quickly. Tightening the screws worked initially, but they soon didn't. So I disassembled the shoulders and hips and applied some floor polish, which helps but will wear over time.

I really like how the 29 looks especially in fighter mode, but if I'm being honest, I'm not very fond of playing with it and transforming it. But then I look at how pretty a bird it is and I'm glad I have them.

That circled torso joint should have been die cast;  it looks like a tragedy waiting to happen.

Edited July 4 by pengbuzz