Valkyrie Addict's Little Shop of Horrors

[Valkyrie addict]

Hello, I'm a Macross nut, love everything Macross and love building and customizing from it. I am not the best modeller in here but I get pretty decent results and have a lot of fun with doing some unique and simple stuff. I used to do mostly scale modelling when I had a lot of time on my hands, currently I'm mostly on customizing toys since they take less time.

A lot of people have asked me to show them how I do some of my stuff. In here I will show all my WIPs for you to look, suggest and give it a try yourself to expand your Macross enjoyment.

In the meantime here are some links to some of my customs, I'll add more as I keep organizing them:

February 2013 -- Yamato VF-4G FB2012 Hikaru http://s139.photobucket.com/user/cyclosporine/slideshow/Macross/Yamato/VF-4G%20FB2012%20Custom

May 2013 -- Yamato VF-1A Alaska Base http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=39189&hl=

May 2013 -- Yamato VF-1J GBP-1S DYRL version and correct SDFM Reactive warhead tip http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=39168&hl=

June 2013 -- Yamato VF-1J Macross Plus http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=39466#entry1055349

September 2013 -- Yamato VF-1J Phantasm http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=39926#entry1074230

July 2008 -- 1/144 TECT Full Armored VF-11C http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=26770&hl=armored

August 2008 -- 1/100 VF-11B Custom http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=26998

December 2008 -- 1/72 VF-19S Blazer http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=28503

February 2014 - Yamato VF-1J SFV-13 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=40763&st=0&p=1104984

April 2014 - Loose hip bar fix for VF-1 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=40394&p=1112536

Current project:

Fixing the TECT 1/144 Full Armour VF-11C

Edited April 5, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[modelglue]

Very nice, thanks for sharing. I like that VF-11 pose, lots of movement!

[Reïvaj]

Cool! Thanks for sharing!!!

[MechTech]

Those are some GREAT models and photography to match! Thanks for sharing! - MT

[Deadeye_281]

Love that Hikaru VF4. Such a great scheme.

[mojacko]

never sees to be fascinated with a custom valkyrie.....great work!!!

[Dax415]

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed looking at your work.

[Valkyrie addict]

Thanks guys. Updated the first post with the recovered threads links on some old WIP's.

Here's a quick how to on how I did some of my customs.

First off. The GPS-1S DYRL custom. It was a simple mask and paint of the missile tips, nothing more, but taking the missiles out had some disassembling to do since the missiles are in rails instead of just being housed individually like the old 1/48's. The process also helps to completely customize the armor if you wish.

To remove the forearm missiles, take the screws off and separate the pieces, the missiles will come off.

For the shoulder launcher, if you wish you can remove the bay door. Push the pin off and just remove the door.

This part a bit tricky, the rear part is glued and I have not found a way to take it off, so what you do is remove the only screw in there. The front part will be pliable, use your fingers or a tool to pry it apart just enough to pull the 3 missile rails, some force is necessary to snap them off.

If you wish to work on the rear thrusters, it's the same deal, remove the two screws but the front part is glued, so you must also pry apart slightly to take the thruster out.

For the legs is much simpler, just take the screws off and disassemble.

The lateral missiles come off just by pushing them out. You may also snap off the missiles housing, the bay doors can also be snapped out.

The rear missile, you have to disassemble to push the missile inside to come off, the bay door can be snapped out too.

If you're customizing the armor, for the front plate, if you wish to save some extra masking, the clear part can be push out after removing the back part that was screwed.

Just use a small pin the push in the circled area and the light will pop off.

For the chest piece, remove the screws also to disarm the piece.

Open the bay doors and push the missiles and everything will come apart. The missiles are glued, you can safely pull them apart, you don't need to glue them when reassembling, they will stay in place.

If you're customizing the bay doors, they're hold by a pin, pull the right bay door down and then the left bay door up to disassemble.

When reassembling, you will need to glue the canopy armor piece, this is the only piece that needs gluing.

The rest is just straighforward masking and painting, hope this helps anyone who wishes to customize their GBP-1S armor.

[Valkyrie addict]

Second, the VF-4G, I remember someone asked in the VF-4G thread how to take apart some parts.

Here's how I did mine.

To paint the feet (don't have to be chocolate ) First pull completely out the feet.

Turn the whole feet to show the ankle screws, unscrew the three for the feet to come off. This screws also control how tight that joint is if you ever wish to adjust in the future.

The thrusters are hold by a small hollow pin, just pull apart from the pins firmly but not to strong and the thruster will come out.

The lateral fins just have to pulled off firmly, be careful for the little neighboring tab to not fly off and get lost.

The forearm just needs to be snapped out of place.

This little piece just needs to be pulled out.

Again, the rest if just masking and painting. Good luck

Edited January 4, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[Valkyrie addict]

Third. How to make an Alaska base custom.

You can do this with an Assembly kit or a 1A Max/Kakizaki. I will show here how to do it from 1A Kakizaki, I believe this process is easier since you don't have to start from zero.

Part 1. How to dissemble the pieces that need painting.

First thing you need to do is get a small bag to put the screws and not loose them.

Poor Kakizaki

Pull the legs and shoulders out.

Remove this screw

The forearm is glued, pry apart very carefully until the inner forearm half snaps off.

Pull the outer forearm off by very carefully rotating, if you break the circled part, you're screwed.

Remove this screw

Pry apart, is not glued, the intake and knee will come off.

Remove the two screws from the leg. the back is glued on the seam line, carefully pry apart until it snaps off.

Remember how the inner assembly goes.

The leg fin, just pull it off but there's a small tab that stays in the leg because it's glued, you have two options, leave it as it is mask and paint, or take the piece out.

To take it out, push with a small tool and plenty of force in the circled area until it comes out. Careful it doesn't fly off.

Remove this screw and the back pack will come off.

And finally just remove the head to finish him off.

Oooops...

:D

That's it for today, will try to see if I have time tomorrow to show you the masking and painting for this. Thanks for looking.

[mechaninac]

Excellent step by step breakdown of how to take these babies apart; it's much appreciated.

[derex3592]

I chickened out short of prying the arms apart for my Alaska Base..I just masked carefully and removed any minor overspray with a small Tamiya pointy Qtip with paint thinner on it. Your way is better...I just hate "prying" Yamato's apart! I would KILL to see a custom blue and light grey GPB armor for a Max VF-1A or 1J...that would be epic! Your customs are definitely the best around.

Edited January 5, 2014 by derex3592

[Benson13]

Looking forward to more.

[MechTech]

I'm more of a model guy, but this is REALLY cool to share with everyone! It's cool to see how you went about doing it. Thanks for sharing! - MT

[derex3592]

Can we see a couple of pics of that custom armor all finished on a Valk if possible???

[Valkyrie addict]

Thanks again, happy to share what I do and hopefully inspire some people to get on the customizing bandwagon.

I love scale modelling but I have so little time to give them all the love they need , toys are quicker to customize since they're prebuilt

One day I'll go back to models.

So, part 2 on how to build you're own Yamato 1A Alaska Base custom.

Here are all the parts that need painting masked. For the forearms I masked the small inner housing where the shoulder articulate because, if painted, it will rub with the white elbow and make a green mess, also, you must by all means avoid painting the the large attachment bar of the forearm, any extra layer of paint will make it extremely difficult to reassemble, it will get stuck and possibly break if you then try to remove it.

The head is all glued, it can't be disassembled so you must mask the lens and the area around the head laser, when painting, first have the laser all the way forward and then all the way back for the rotating bit to be fully painted.

Remove the intake cover and mask them from the inside becase the inner walls have to be green, It seems easier to mask the intake cover and paint but then your paint will not match, unless you wish to never take the covers off.

Almost forgot the knees, this part has an inner spring so the outer housing is glued and can't disassemble to get the knee itself out, but it's quite easy to mask for painting since it's already apart from the rest of the leg, better than masking the whole leg with everything attached.

All painted, excuse the poor lighting.

You can see here the part of the forearm I decided not to paint, crappy lighting doesn't show the head laser turning out quite well.

It's coming along just fine. The parts I left unpainted are not exposed when fully assembled so it doesn't matter.

That's it for today, time to leave the paint to fully cure before reassembling. I have to also strip the tampo of some part, will show how later.

Thanks for looking.

Derex, umm...I'm not done with the GBP-1S armor yet. I'm figuring out how to panel line and decal it.

I do have this picture I took while fooling around with the camera settings.

You'd like to see a Max grey and blue custom armor? Not exactly what I'm doing but nothing a little head swapping and photoshop can't do to give us a little idea on how it would look. I'll give it a try later.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[derex3592]

cool! what paint did you go with on your Alaska Base? and did you clear coat it?

[Mommar]

You'd like to see a Max grey and blue custom armor? Not exactly what I'm doing but nothing a little head swapping and photoshop can't do to give us a little idea on how it would look. I'll give it a try later.

I've actually been wanting to get an extra max 1A and set of GBP armor to make just such a custom.

Now that I think about it there's also a pic in the Masterfile book that shows a white 1J head with a Blue stripe that would look good with the Grey and blue armor as well. It would make photo shopping that b&w pic even easier.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Mommar

[Valkyrie addict]

cool! what paint did you go with on your Alaska Base? and did you clear coat it?

Tamiya racing green TS-45 spray can. I have not and will not clear coat it.

I've actually been wanting to get an extra max 1A and set of GBP armor to make just such a custom.

Now that I think about it there's also a pic in the Masterfile book that shows a white 1J head with a Blue stripe that would look good with the Grey and blue armor as well. It would make photo shopping that b&w pic even easier.

Yep, I'm making the one in the Masterfile book. Bottom right.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[Valkyrie addict]

Part 3 of Alaska base WIP.

When reassembling the forearm, remove the paint from the little pegs or the forearm will not attach fully and you could break something by forcing it.

It's not necessary to glue this piece (unless you want to)

Now for the leg fins and tail stabilizers. First I remove the paint, if I can take the piece out I throw it in some brake fluid for a few hours. It's great to remove paint and safe for the plastic leaving the paint gummy like so you can scrape it off with your finger; but, the black tampo from the Yammies is extremely difficult to remove, so you will need some extra light sanding to remove it.

To remove the wing marking, I can't throw the wing into the break fluid cause I don't wan to loose the other tampo. So I just mask around the panel where the markings is and sand it off, I use 400 grit to remove it, clean it with some 600 and finish it with 1000 Grit to get an even finish as close as the surrounding panels.

Now for the hips, the extra coat of layer will rub when you move the hip forward. You can see its a rather tight fit.

So, just sand or cut off a few mm to give extra clearance.

Voila. Now you can pose and transform the legs without fear of this part chipping.

Looking good.

Time to remove the paint here too, I will also sand it out, same process as before. For the Alaska scheme this part is white and the rudder green.

And time to prep masking for painting.

Not bad

And the final markings to be painted, the tail lights, that intake sensor? and the red stripe on the legs. There's a sticker for the leg stripe but I prefer painting it.

That's more like it.

Now I have two, weeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Now to begin adding the decal markings. Little tip, pretty much a given but just in case, add the "no step" marking with the wings swept to match each side.

One more thing, the legs and intake tab that lock fighter mode, mask around and remove the paint here cause it will chip anyway.

Still a few decals left to place but its pretty much done and can now enjoy an Alaska base scheme VF-1 Yammie that can transform with little fear of ruining the paint, you will only need to be careful with the shoulders when transforming into fighter mode (will add pics of this later).

Total working build time 3 days.

Now to finish this other bird.

Thanks for looking.

[Mommar]

Tamiya racing green TS-45 spray can. I have not and will not clear coat it.

Yep, I'm making the one in the Masterfile book. Bottom right.

AWESOME! Can't wait for pics of those. I wanted to make both the SVF-13 and SVF-37 versions. Are you going to mod the arm armor so you can mount reaction warheads and/or additional gunpods to them like in the Master File book as well?

We need more pics of that Lucky 7 too.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Mommar

[Valkyrie addict]

Done with the 1A Alaska.

Just some small personal details of my likings.

I like to paint the feet thrusters gold since they are well, thrusters.

Just mask and paint.

And I like to add a small detail to the head laser in silver, took this opportunity to fix the rotating point, it kept rubbing and scraping the paint off so sand it enough to allow clearance for the extra layer of paint to stop rubbing.

And mask the head laser barrel and paint the part that joins the turret to the swiveling point silver

Pretty close to finish with the GBP-1S

Want to add the reaction warheads on the forearm armor.

Glue won't be enough to hold them since I want to keep the toy aspect to detach and attach the missiles.

Mark the area

Drill a small hole

And screw the missile hard points. This are the same screws used in the whole VF-1 kits, I had some leftover from an assembly kit I botched.

Repeat process for the other forearm armor

Now we can attach the missiles.

The off white from the missiles and yellow tip don't match the armor, so off they go to the painting booth to match. After this it's done.

Leave you with this in the meantime.

Excuse the poor lighting, it was a quicky picture. My next update should have more proper pictures.

AWESOME! Can't wait for pics of those. I wanted to make both the SVF-13 and SVF-37 versions. Are you going to mod the arm armor so you can mount reaction warheads and/or additional gunpods to them like in the Master File book as well?

We need more pics of that Lucky 7 too.

I'm trying to decide if I should mod to add the gunpods too, I know how, but feel lazy about it.........

Edited February 5, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[Benson13]

I love this Valk/armor scheme. Can't wait to see the completed forearm mods.

[505thAirborne]

I love all these custom Valks, its hard to pick a favorite but the two Alaska Base VF's really stand out! Keep the pics coming!

[valhary]

impressive job need see more pics

[mojacko]

great job....love your custom work!!!

[Valkyrie addict]

Thanks.

Final details done before I set up everything for the glam pictures, hehehe

Colored to match, need to fix some overspray in the yellow tip there.

Decals placed to match the Master file They were still drying when I took the pic hence the sheen.

Not bad.

Thanks for looking.

Deciding still if I should add for the gunpod to attach to the forearm armor and how the hell to make the white markings for the torso bay doors.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Valkyrie addict

[MacrossJunkie]

I love that color scheme for the GBP. For some reason, I like off-white/light-grayish schemes.

Very nice work on that.

Cool mod for the forearm to attach the reaction missiles too.

[Valkyrie addict]

I love that color scheme for the GBP. For some reason, I like off-white/light-grayish schemes.

Very nice work on that.

Cool mod for the forearm to attach the reaction missiles too.

Thanks, flattered you like my stuff.

Mommar, why you had and go ask about the gunpod, I can't let a fellow forumite down just when I thought I was done.

Measure and mark

Used a little soldering gun to go trough the plastic and had to extend the missile rack attachment opening for clearance.

New position for the missile rach, if you look pack, it was position more forward, if I kept it that way the gunpod would end up too far forward and this won't affect much the missile position.

Happy now Mommar? ^_^

On to sanding and painting to straighten and smooth everything to make it look pretty. All the handling on the missile rack chipped the paint.

[Benson13]

I love that color scheme for the GBP. For some reason, I like off-white/light-grayish schemes.

Very nice work on that.

Cool mod for the forearm to attach the reaction missiles too.

I completely agree. It's funny because I never thought I would like something like this scheme until I saw that custom Paris Act MM Guard.

[abbadon]

This is an awesome piece of custom work. I particularly love the white GBP. Nice work man!

[Benson13]

I can't wait for it to be finished with all the accessories on it. That pic is going to be my new desktop background.

[Valkyrie addict]

Thanks, still not done, fixing and fixing little details.

I sanded smooth the gunpod hole for a more clean look.

The problem with working with white, every layer adds more white and makes look uneven, also, it was not sanded smooth enough

So, sanded to shape again and repaint the whole part, also stripped the missile rack paint to repaint and better finish that was chipped too much.

That's better now

And repaint those crevasses that needed fixing too.

Now I have 2 extra gunpods!!

[derex3592]

that's just slap your grandma awesomeness right there.

[Mr March]

Very impressive work. These look like a lot of time and effort. It's incredible that you've done so many. They are also interesting since I've never seen some of these before. Some of these are giving me ideas for custom colored line art