Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[wm cheng]

Hahaha.. thanks for the tutorials.  Well the trick is dunking the tires into a mug of hot water, they just slide right on!  (THANKS Nerd-linger)  I'm going to dip them in a mug of hot water to take them off from now on - it was unbelievable how easy it was with hot water (maybe it was harder for me being up in Canada so my basement work area isn't that warm - those of you in warmer climates might have a much easier time.

 

I did use an airbrush and masked around the area with yellow post-it notes, only using tamiya masking tape just around the edges as I was told by Lolicon that the Bandai Tampo printing could be lifted by the tape so becareful to not let any tape touch the printed details (thanks so much for that tip, I would have swore really loudly if that happened).  I used Tamiya acrylic gloss white as that's the only gloss white I had - I would prefer a lacquer or enamel gloss white if I had some as they are more durable and better suited to sticking to the metal.

 

What a difference the white landing gear makes!

 

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by wm cheng

[sumyumgoy]

Looks great!  Thanks both for the tips!

[Lolicon]

8 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Hahaha.. thanks for the tutorials.  Well the trick is dunking the tires into a mug of hot water, they just slide right on!  (THANKS Nerd-linger)  I'm going to dip them in a mug of hot water to take them off from now on - it was unbelievable how easy it was with hot water (maybe it was harder for me being up in Canada so my basement work area isn't that warm - those of you in warmer climates might have a much easier time.

 

I did use an airbrush and masked around the area with yellow post-it notes, only using tamiya masking tape just around the edges as I was told by Lolicon that the Bandai Tampo printing could be lifted by the tape so becareful to not let any tape touch the printed details (thanks so much for that tip, I would have swore really loudly if that happened).  I used Tamiya acrylic gloss white as that's the only gloss white I had - I would prefer a lacquer or enamel gloss white if I had some as they are more durable and better suited to sticking to the metal.

 

What a difference the white landing gear makes!

 

 

Looks great!

I do live pretty far south in the US, so the warmer climate might have helped.

Did you fix the messed up modex on the 1S?

[wm cheng]

No I didn't - it doesn't bug me enough yet... I can't imagine I can find a proper white font decal in the proper size to fix it without it looking odd or catching my eye.  I think the cure is worst than the sickness.  Maybe if a corrective decal sheet came with Roy's I might consider it (if I can actually get a pre-order whenever that's going to happen), but I'm not buying Kakizaki.

[derex3592]

@wm cheng May we please see a full topside picture good sir of your panel lining and  a quick note about what method you went with for the DX? I haven't decided if I'm going to do mine yet. Yours appears to be fairly light and not over done. 

Edited April 13, 2020 by derex3592

[sumyumgoy]

9 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

@wm cheng May we please see a full topside picture good sir of your panel lining and  a quick note about what method you went with for the DX? I haven't decided if I'm going to do mine yet. Yours appears to be fairly light and not over done. 

I saw this as I was researching Lolicon's and wmcheng's customs.  Looks great!

 

[Sandman]

On 4/9/2020 at 7:40 PM, borgified said:

You actually brought up a point @Smacky. I have used EMS and Parcel post from Amiami and I think that I have never got snagged by CBSA as of yet. 

If I use Manda for EMS, I usually get slapped with Customs on a few occasions and twice using SAL. 

I paid close to roughly $40 CND Customs on the HMR Monster and close to $60 CND Customs on the DX YF-19 Full Set by using EMS on both orders. 

Yep.. Us Canadians get hosed in Customs Fees. 

My amiami packages gets snagged a lot more by customs than Mandarake. In fact hardly even happens with Mandarake. Almost always get hit with customs when ordering from HLJ.

[Chronocidal]

4 hours ago, wm cheng said:

No I didn't - it doesn't bug me enough yet... I can't imagine I can find a proper white font decal in the proper size to fix it without it looking odd or catching my eye.  I think the cure is worst than the sickness.  Maybe if a corrective decal sheet came with Roy's I might consider it (if I can actually get a pre-order whenever that's going to happen), but I'm not buying Kakizaki.

Honestly, I'm tempted to see if I can't remove both tail modex markings like was done with the YF-19, where the white text came right off the top of the black.  Removing both would make it really easy to just replace both with matching decals.

[wm cheng]

If I were to modify anything on the toys, the foggy sparkly canopies on all the VF-31 are a much bigger annoyance to me (why can't they all be like the VF-31A Kiraos?!) but I'm too chicken at the moment.

I'd worry that some of the black would come off as well as the white on top, that black looks painted on.

Yes as mentioned earlier I use Flory (water based clay washes) from now on, they are just so easy and I don't have to worry about them reacting to anything underneath.  I mix a few shades of grey with the white that comes with Flory set.  I usually use a light light grey for all the panel lines, then a darker grey for some panels that move or gets removed, then black for the vents or flaps - the varying panel wash gives the toy some life. 

I only did the panel wash, no shading or pencil/graphite weathering like I did on my older Yamacadia VF-1s or VF-25s as I haven't decided on whether I want to clear coat it yet.  I like the Bandai plastic finish and it pretty much has all the markings (even a bit over kill for me) I would want.  If I weathered it, I would need to clear coat it to protect it, plus the older toys needed the protection to cover the decals I added and I hated the glossy finish the VF-25s had so it made sense to do those - but I had always worried about the clear coat scratching off or yellowing over time. 

I'll take a picture tomorrow of the top side in better light during the day.

 

 

[Lolicon]

The white modex printing comes off pretty easily with a bit of thinner on a Q-tip leaving the black intact, so it only took a few minutes to replace both modex numbers.

Thanks @tekering for having the balls to be the first to take a bunch of paint thinner to their expensive toy. 

What gets me about Bandai's tampo printing is that while they went a little nuts on the markings, they somehow managed to miss what I consider must-have markings. They missed the ejection seat warnings on the TV valks, and they missed another key marking on the 1S.

And I'm sure we're all looking forward to Kakizaki's skull-less Skull 210. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Lolicon

[vlenhoff]

Great job on the landing gears and panel lining! 

[wm cheng]

Looking great Lolicon!  What kind of thinner (lacquer thinner, emamel thinner, mineral spirits, varsol, acrylic thinner, iso alcohol, ethy alcohol)?

[Lolicon]

8 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Looking great Lolicon!  What kind of thinner (lacquer thinner, emamel thinner, mineral spirits, varsol, acrylic thinner, iso alcohol, ethy alcohol)?

I used Mr Color Thinner to remove the printing.

[sh9000]

Someone repainted the 1S for Max and it looks cool.

[Lolicon]

Several DX 1S available still. Cheapest one is 26k opened.

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1128769927&ref=doc&keyword=マクロス VF-1S&lang=en

[Slave IV]

22 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Someone repainted the 1S for Max and it looks cool.

Oh man, I want. But I’ll wait for official. That paint job looks better than some others I’ve seen though. 

[Sanity is Optional]

That paintjob looks like a photoshop job due to aliasing and the heatshield area.

Regardless, a Max 1S would be nice, but I want a Roy 1S first.

Edited April 15, 2020 by Sanity is Optional

[borgified]

2 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Someone repainted the 1S for Max and it looks cool.

 

2 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Oh man, I want. But I’ll wait for official. That paint job looks better than some others I’ve seen though. 

 

1 hour ago, Sanity is Optional said:

That paintjob looks like a photoshop job due to aliasing and the heatshield area.

Regardless, a Max 1S would be nice, but I want a Roy 1S first.

That is actually a photoshop job like what @Sanity is Optional said. That blue is actually more leaning on the purple side while @no3Ljm's recolour of @Saburo's OG pic of DX Hikaru's 1s more colour accurate.

Here's the pic of the recoloured DX 1s Hikaru in to Max's 1s (short stint as Vermilion Leader in DYRL). 

[Slave IV]

Ah, good catch on the ps. I respect people with the passion to customize but no way I would pay full price for a Valk and then spend the time and effort to paint it, only to end up with something not as good as just waiting to buy it that way from the factory. Now, if you were known as LEK customs, that would be a different story. 

[Bolt]

VF-1S DYRL Max for Christmas 2021!

[Zaid]

On 4/14/2020 at 2:57 AM, Lolicon said:

The white modex printing comes off pretty easily with a bit of thinner on a Q-tip leaving the black intact, so it only took a few minutes to replace both modex numbers.

Thanks @tekering for having the balls to be the first to take a bunch of paint thinner to their expensive toy. 

What gets me about Bandai's tampo printing is that while they went a little nuts on the markings, they somehow managed to miss what I consider must-have markings. They missed the ejection seat warnings on the TV valks, and they missed another key marking on the 1S.

And I'm sure we're all looking forward to Kakizaki's skull-less Skull 210. 

What’d you use for your panel lining? Looks clean

[Lolicon]

That Max 1S was an obvious PS job, as recoloring the heat shield would involve repainting it then obtaining a skull decal in that specific style at 1/48 scale (already a difficult feat if you don't own an expensive decal printer), and there are no telltale signs that any such thing occurred. Also, I thought Max had a black heat shield?

3 hours ago, Zaid said:

What’d you use for your panel lining? Looks clean

Combination of mechanical pencil and Flory's model wash.

https://www.florymodels.org/washes

[Alan Molina]

On 4/14/2020 at 8:57 AM, Lolicon said:

The white modex printing comes off pretty easily with a bit of thinner on a Q-tip leaving the black intact, so it only took a few minutes to replace both modex numbers.

Thanks @tekering for having the balls to be the first to take a bunch of paint thinner to their expensive toy. 

What gets me about Bandai's tampo printing is that while they went a little nuts on the markings, they somehow managed to miss what I consider must-have markings. They missed the ejection seat warnings on the TV valks, and they missed another key marking on the 1S.

And I'm sure we're all looking forward to Kakizaki's skull-less Skull 210. 

thats not a DX is it?

[sqidd]

4 minutes ago, Alan Molina said:

thats not a DX is it?

 

It's a DX. The HUGE kite is the giveaway (I think).

[Alan Molina]

but it has more stickers specially the skull shield  in the back of the cockpit 

[sqidd]

6 minutes ago, Alan Molina said:

but it has more stickers specially the skull shield  in the back of the cockpit 

If that's @Lolicon I'd wager he put those there. He's all about the details.

[Grey728]

4 minutes ago, Alan Molina said:

but it has more stickers specially the skull shield  in the back of the cockpit 

@Lolicon is known around here for improving his toys by adding missing decals, panel lining, and weathering. They just discussed painting the landing gear here just a few posts up. He was one of the first to modify his DX and normally takes his toys apart the day he gets them.

[DYRL VF-1S]

Anyone getting an update on SSPs yet?  P-Bandai is showing "Shipped on April 15, 2020."  I don't expect to begin hearing about it from NY until next week at the earliest, but know that some people did Proxies.

[borgified]

4 hours ago, Lolicon said:

That Max 1S was an obvious PS job, as recoloring the heat shield would involve repainting it then obtaining a skull decal in that specific style at 1/48 scale (already a difficult feat if you don't own an expensive decal printer), and there are no telltale signs that any such thing occurred. Also, I thought Max had a black heat shield?

It so indeed.

From Macross Mecha Manual: http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrossdyrl/variant-vf-1s-dyrl-max.htm

Edit: Found another link as well: https://news.toyark.com/2009/04/21/yamato-macross-160-tv-vf-1a-vf-1s-max-customs-images-1198

Question -  Why do some 1/60 versions have either the black and blue heat shield (or did they just transferred it from the 1a DYRL to the 1s DYRL version)? 

Edited April 15, 2020 by borgified

[jenius]

Yeah, some people swap heat shields to get it to be blue from personal preference rather than accuracy (black is correct). DYRL was inconsistent with heat shield coloring... so there's room for playing with it. Why would all the 1A shields match the trim but then Roy and Max would have black 1S shields and Hikaru a red one? IT'S CHAOS I TELL YOU!!!

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I've seen a fan modding a Fokker 1S to sport a yellow heatshield!!!

Only if I could find the pic.

[jvmacross]

Guessing the black heat shields are for squadron leaders and Hikaru drawn with a red shield for his -1S was an animation error

[jenius]

42 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Guessing the black heat shields are for squadron leaders and Hikaru drawn with a red shield for his -1S was an animation error

While that's possible, it's also possible that it was intentionally done to differentiate the hero.

[Chronocidal]

2 hours ago, jenius said:

Yeah, some people swap heat shields to get it to be blue from personal preference rather than accuracy (black is correct). DYRL was inconsistent with heat shield coloring... so there's room for playing with it. Why would all the 1A shields match the trim but then Roy and Max would have black 1S shields and Hikaru a red one? IT'S CHAOS I TELL YOU!!!

This actually turned out in my favor when I kitbashed a Max 1S from a broken 1A and a broken Roy 1S.  The Max was missing the heatshield entirely, but I still had the black one from Roy.  

[jvmacross]

Hikaru's VF-1S was the only "hero" valk prominently shown in the last few minutes of the film...it was also the only time his VF-1S was animated on-screen....not sure what other VF-1 would it need to be differentiated from during this sequence...it wasn't the only time animation errors occurred during the film and it happened several times during the TV show also...practically every episode

The switching heat shield colors happen a few times in the final battle sequence, with it going from black to red....here is one example...