1/55 Custom shop 2017 Edition!

[mslz22]

So as i found myself a couple of week ago with the kids on summer vacation something strange happened. My 6 year old is well behaved enough now that I have some tinkering time in what was otherwise non productive. Now i can't do anything to intense like molding casting or heavy scratch building, but what could I tinker with.......1/55's!

After a crazy year of crazy big projects i have found myself nostalgic for what i call the "in-between" years of the 1/55. Jung was turning out what I still consider amazing 1/55 customs, but they were pretty straight forward. No crazy mods, just a few tasty ones and nice paint ups to give us the paint schemes that were never produced or hard to get. There were some of the hip and foot mods, but not for that early stuff he did. What i want to do in my down time now is to do some of those types, where i don't get hung up on a crazy ball joint mod and never finish. Simple, straightforward, clean customs that still maintain the "toy" quality that i love in the 1/55, but custom enough to be special.

So i have a boatload of Jetfires or other 1/55's, and a boatload of custom resin stuff, some stuff i did, some that was offered. When the 1/55 started to go out of style i kind of horded some.

First up is the VF1A DYRL Max.

One of the custom heads i sculpted was a modified Bandai re issue head. I made it slimmer and extended the beak a bit. Although i am using it for a DYRL build here it really is much more like the TV head.

One of the mods i did to the armor, i re etched the panel line on the booster to increase the diameter of the circle thingy. I just always thought it looked to small.

I had some of Devin's old decals, which were great, but time has not been super kind to them. I have been drawing and printing my own decals as i move along. Again i am going for simple and clean like Jung's great customs. None of the complex stuff that Devin did with the rivet decals or more Hasegawa type markings.

I am hopeful that i can get a couple done this summer during kid watching time. Best laid plans right? We will see if the excitement continues thru the summer.

mike

Edited June 24, 2017 by mslz22

[Mazinger]

Long live the 1/55's.

Curious mslz22, what paint are you using for the strike armor and for the Max's blue?

The green looks awesome and your lines are so crisp!

Also can you share your decal techniques? I went with some water slide decals from an eBay vendor for a Roy I did up recently and the white in the letters didn't come out well against the black stripe.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon robsthingies.com and turns out Rob has exactly some of the parts I've been searching for in my current sig.

Good luck and hope to see lots of picks of your progress.

[mslz22]

Wow is Rob still casting 1/55 parts or just left overs? I have a bunch of his 1J heads, but i am going to replace the head lasers with ones from the 1/48 hasegawa kit, i have a few extra 1J heads from that and the laser cannons are sturdier in styrene.

The armor is a custom mix of Tamiya Sea Blue and some white, airbrush acrylics.

The Blue on max is all decals so far. I just drew them up in a paint program (not MS Paint) and sized them until they fit. Cool thing is once i had these drawn up, hit a button and change the stripes to Red, Green, Yellow for the other DRYL guys.

For the white i am using Krylon Fusion White Satin. I almost never use a rattle can but since this is a toy and transformable I wanted the Fusion paint since i have found it to be very scratch resistant. I heat the can before i spray so the particles become finer (smaller). A few light coats does it. I do not prime the plastic, just lightly scuff and clean with 91% ISO. It's supposed to really bond with the plastic that way.

Oh, for the UN SPACY on the leg strip, it's the paint under that is so white. The UN SPACY is actually not printed but transparent on the decal film, so it's the white paint under your seeing.

Edited June 28, 2016 by mslz22

[Mazinger]

At this point I'm just ordering left overs from Rob. The casting bug might have bitten him again though, so we'll see.

It seems that he was absent from the forums for a long while when I learned about what he has, but has posted in here recently.

This really is the year of Macross, my first year on the forums as well.

[mslz22]

Did some more decals before bed last night.

[505thAirborne]

Did some more decals before bed last night.

That's going to be one amazing looking VF-1A! The old TF Jetfire was my very 1st 1/55, so I've always had a special fondness for these toy's!

[mslz22]

So a long, long time ago i resculpted a Jetfire nose into a non transformable Gerwalk or Fighter only nose. The headlights were lowered, the body was panel lined and a "fullish" interior was made. All this with the hope of doing a few customs in each mode, which still has not happened. However i am going to make use of the little pilot guy that i sculpted. For the non transformable he is cast into his chair but a little exacto work and i can cut out just the part i can fit into this VF1A.

Since this is a real Bandai VF1 I am going to keep the original canopy but plan to cast up some crystal clear ones at some point for future customs (if i get to them)

[mslz22]

[Mazinger]

Beautiful man. Seriously.

What is the your pilot sculpted from.

[mslz22]

I sculpted the pilot from apoxie sculpt and made a mold of it. I had some pilots chair sitting around and i sculpted him right into it. I made a mold of it so i could run off copies for myself, that white one is a full casting that was intended for the non transformable nose.

Edited July 1, 2016 by mslz22

[Tage]

This is really great! Can't wait to see more of your work :-)

[mslz22]

Thanks, i find this pretty exciting right now.

Almost done.

[mslz22]

Almost done, may add thruster veneers, not sure yet

[vt102]

Looking good!

[mslz22]

Working on #2 and #3 at the same time.

[mslz22]

[Mazinger]

Looking good!

[mslz22]

Thanks, half the skull squadron from the beginning of DYRL is done.

[derex3592]

WOW! Those are just awesome!

[TheLoneWolf]

Mike, I like those clean, straightforward customs. And I really love those subtle improvements you made, because they improve the overall look of the toy without becoming a distraction. The DYRL arm armor is a perfect example. I also like how you managed to attach the leg armor without using the leg clips. Btw, did you sculpt those arm armors or are they from Rob? I only ask because I bought some ages ago and I can't remember who sculpted them.

[mslz22]

Thanks, with all the other available vf-1's I really wanted these to be an homage to both the original toys and those early customs. It really was in the early days of the 1/60 Yamatos coming out where people were starting to really get creative with the ball joints and stuff. I still do have a deep appreciation for those, however the 1/60's and 1/48's made those modifications obsolete IMO . Not because they are not neat, but because they require an amount of work that seems excessive with those other options available. Over the years, even recent years, i have toyed with those now and again, but have found that if i make a custom too complicated, I tend to not finish it. These are really relatively simple compared to much of the stuff I have done, which makes them easy to finish.

I have 1/4 diameter neodymium magnets holding on the leg armor. You need to fill the back leg armor with some apoxy sculpt but it's pretty simple.

The arm armor is not Rob or even Chris B, there was another guy here who had the idea years and years ago. I took his idea and expanded on it a little bit adding photoetch parts and some other details. I have a single mold for it so i can cast my own armor. I will not be selling any because it's still based off of standard arm armor, even though it has been modified, and the guidelines for those things here have changed significantly since the early days of customs. I am pretty sure that those rules still apply and I am guessing (hoping) I am OK since these are for my personal builds.

I asked EXO years ago and think i am ok on stuff for my personal builds, for example i have a few sets of Super O cast armor, since i had them before the new guidelines i think it's ok to show the custom off as long as i am not selling the armor or the custom itself.

[TheLoneWolf]

Thanks for explaining how you got the leg armor to attach without the clip. I forgot that the 1/55 legs were made out of die-cast metal, so a strong magnet would definitely do the job.

I want to say that Toonz was the guy who originally sculpted those DYRL arm armors, but it's been ages since I bought my sets. I noticed your own refinements because there's no way to clip the gunpod onto my sets. Great work improving the design!

I believe the main reason EXO banned the sales of recasts was that he was concerned that people would buy rare WonderFest kits and start selling recasts here. While WonderFest sculptors don't post here, they do check out the site on occassion, so I think he was concerned about what they might think if they saw recasts of their work being sold here. Simply posting pictures of recasts from personal builds is acceptable because no one is making a profit off another person's hard work. I personally think it's a reasonable policy.

Seeing all these excellent 1/55 mods makes me wonder what the old scene would've been like if CAD and Shapeways had existed back then. Alas.

[MechTech]

You did the Chunky Monkey justice! It looks clean and better than factory! - MT

[mslz22]

If I remember right it also had to do with Yamato, at the time Graham was talking with them sometimes and they were not happy about MW being a safe haven for recast stuff, both WFest exclusives and other odds and ends.

It's crazy to think that well respected members would organize casting runs of Wfest kits, it was just the wild west in some ways. I don't think anyone had any other intention other than to get MW members stuff they wanted, with sites like E2046 and Hobbyfan around I did not really understand that "recasting" was a bad thing until i started to visit other sites like Starshipmodeler or RPF. I was so naive.

In the case of 1/55 stuff it seems like for the customs there was really no other choice at the time but to use some cast parts on them.

In regard to the 3D printed stuff, I personally think part of the charm of the 1/55 at this point is the "hokiness" or home grown look to some of the mods.

Thanks for explaining how you got the leg armor to attach without the clip. I forgot that the 1/55 legs were made out of die-cast metal, so a strong magnet would definitely do the job.

I want to say that Toonz was the guy who originally sculpted those DYRL arm armors, but it's been ages since I bought my sets. I noticed your own refinements because there's no way to clip the gunpod onto my sets. Great work improving the design!

I believe the main reason EXO banned the sales of recasts was that he was concerned that people would buy rare WonderFest kits and start selling recasts here. While WonderFest sculptors don't post here, they do check out the site on occassion, so I think he was concerned about what they might think if they saw recasts of their work being sold here. Simply posting pictures of recasts from personal builds is acceptable because no one is making a profit off another person's hard work. I personally think it's a reasonable policy.

Seeing all these excellent 1/55 mods makes me wonder what the old scene would've been like if CAD and Shapeways had existed back then. Alas.

[mslz22]

Kakizaki gets the first clear cast canopy.

[505thAirborne]

Kakizaki gets the first clear cast canopy.

Looks great, I was wondering if you working on Kakizaki's VF.

[Rob]

Hey there. i just came back from my very short summer hollidays and saw this post.

I got to say that looks great all the stuff you've done on these 1\55. Actually back in the days there were 2 Rob's doing some recasting so it can get a bit confusing heh.

I'm obviously the Rob from Robsthingies.com and yes i'm getting back to recasting i actually (re)did a whole lot of molds already but this is your thread so i won't talk about

That .

I guess everything is invented already LOL. the other day i was casting the arm armor of my Ostrich and found that it won't work for some reissues and such and

was thinking about changing it to a clip on system like the Elint armor has but i suppose this is that same system right? I'm going to make it so anyways as it IS a better system.

BTW i spoke with EXO about what can and can't be sold and i understood as long as it is modified it's okay. They don't permit the strait recasts anymore though. In the end everything is based on

the origenal stuff so with that rule you couldn't sell any parts at all i guess. Luckaly it doesn't seem to be that stricked. Pardon my english it's not my native lenguage.

Again i love seeing the 1/55 getting some love at it's still my favorite. Keep these custom 1/55's going .

Edited July 26, 2016 by Rob

[mslz22]

Hey Rob, thanks for the comments. It's good to see you back here.

I have a handful of those 1J heads you did years ago, I think i got them from Jerry's site if i remember right?

I picked up a few 2nd hand but I think the first few i got from Jerry's VF1X site, he sold them i the states right?

Either way they are cool and very nostalgic. I plan to do my 3 1J's with them.

Please feel free to post anything you want 1/55 in this thread, i would love to see what your up to.

thanks

mike

Hey there. i just came back from my very short summer hollidays and saw this post.

I got to say that looks great all the stuff you've done on these 1\55. Actually back in the days there were 2 Rob's doing some recasting so it can get a bit confusing heh.

I'm obviously the Rob from Robsthingies.com and yes i'm getting back to recasting i actually (re)did a whole lot of molds already but this is your thread so i won't talk about

That .

I guess everything is invented already LOL. the other day i was casting the arm armor of my Ostrich and found that it won't work for some reissues and such and

was thinking about changing it to a clip on system like the Elint armor has but i suppose this is that same system right? I'm going to make it so anyways as it IS a better system.

BTW i spoke with EXO about what can and can't be sold and i understood as long as it is modified it's okay. They don't permit the strait recasts anymore though. In the end everything is based on

the origenal stuff so with that rule you couldn't sell any parts at all i guess. Luckaly it doesn't seem to be that stricked. Pardon my english it's not my native lenguage.

Again i love seeing the 1/55 getting some love at it's still my favorite. Keep these custom 1/55's going .

[mojacko]

Welcome to the 1/55 customs mafia

[Rob]

Thanks Mike i´m glad you liked the heads .

Actually yeah Jerry sold most of my recast stuff in the USA back then. I really like the 1/55 so yeah pretty much everything i´ve done has been for those.

Did do some VF1S heads (1/48) too.

I´ll shortly update my website ( as well as i can lol i´m not a web pro ) I´ll post on MW some of my stuff when i have some armor complete. First will be the Ostrich.

I want to do some custom stuff on that like that antena and maybe even make some structural change. I always though it should be a tad bit fatter for example.

Also the ARm armor i want to modilfy. never cared for that very breakable clip.

I would love to see more custom 1/55. Strange thing is that i haven´t seen a lot of my armor painted and such and i did sell a lot of those back in the days.

I really like jung´s customs too . I still have some custom decals aswell, someone made those for my elint seeker/Ostrich conversion kits .

Can´t for the live of me remember his name i´m getting old lol

[mslz22]

Yes, the buying parts thru Jerry's website was so long ago i used to have the packages sent to my parents house. I was young and poor so the parts went to a more secure location than my apartment.

So anyone with 1/55 customs should feel free to post here, even old pics of Jungs stuff that may not be readily available on the web are welcome, or old pics of your own stuff.

I was able to recover a bunch of the Jung custom pics using the Wayback machine but feel free to post away. I was not really able to get any of Rosario's pics

Thanks Mike i´m glad you liked the heads .

Actually yeah Jerry sold most of my recast stuff in the USA back then. I really like the 1/55 so yeah pretty much everything i´ve done has been for those.

Did do some VF1S heads (1/48) too.

I´ll shortly update my website ( as well as i can lol i´m not a web pro ) I´ll post on MW some of my stuff when i have some armor complete. First will be the Ostrich.

I want to do some custom stuff on that like that antena and maybe even make some structural change. I always though it should be a tad bit fatter for example.

Also the ARm armor i want to modilfy. never cared for that very breakable clip.

I would love to see more custom 1/55. Strange thing is that i haven´t seen a lot of my armor painted and such and i did sell a lot of those back in the days.

I really like jung´s customs too . I still have some custom decals aswell, someone made those for my elint seeker/Ostrich conversion kits .

Can´t for the live of me remember his name i´m getting old lol

[edstuff]

I've always loved the 1/55 scale. They're just nostalgic

[mslz22]

Summer time means long days home with the kids,  that means I have tinker time when the only thing that makes sense to tinker with,  1/55 customs!  Max and Millia in progress.

[derex3592]

yeeeeeeeeeees! 

[mslz22]

Changed the topic,  please if anyone else is working on 1/55 stuff feel free to post here.  Summer seems a great time to get stuff done.