Suggestions on painting a valkyrie?

[chyll2]

Yamcadia VF-1 is one of the easiest toy to paint since it can easily be disassembled. For the most part, you dont need to mask except for the glued parts (canopy, back pack and intake, from the back of my head).

 

The problem on the canopy is the crackling of the rainbow coat. It can easily be removed with cotton buds with alcohol.

 

How do you remove panel line? Depends on what is being used to panel line it.

[dur]

Just thought I'd chime in with some things I've learned from painting valks...

-If you want the paint to stay on parts that rub, you pretty much HAVE to use some kind of epoxy resin paint.  The valk in my profile pic is an HMR VF-1S I used to practice with: I used Duracoat firearm paint as the base coat and then used acrylics that were similar to finish (only because acrylics are easier to work with and duracoat takes 3 weeks to fully cure!).  Which reminds me, I should really photograph my completed, decalled HMR VF-1S .  The duracoat has been strong enough to stay on my Glock 19 slide coming into and out of my kydex holster under (simulated) stress so I don't think its coming off from a valk transformation any time soon!

-I'm experimenting with using dispersion dye to change valk colors.  This has worked great for me on my Acid Rain figures and transforming toys which I handle a lot- the dye gets IN to the plastic and has survived a whole lot (50+?) transformations on my '88 team Speeder mkII.  The downside?  It's really hard to mask, it's really hard to figure out what the final color tone will be and its a function of time and temperature.  Also, at least for bandai valks, they like to use multiple types of plastic that dye at different rates (or some not at all without heat...).  You also can only go darker, since it's a dye- (can't dye "up" to a lighter color!)

-BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THINNER!  I was told mr. thinner was plastic safe, but I didn't realize it was actually causing embrittlement to the point where I started getting some cracks from just leaving my VF-0A in gerwalk.  People who build static models don't really think about durability!  Use isopropyl alchohol instead when you can, or Testor's Easy Lift Off, both of which I can confirm are genuinely valk safe.

[Shizuka the Cat]

Thanks for all the advice everyone gave!  I really appreciate it.

I have decided to sell off my VF-1A TV Max. 

I just don't think I have the experience or hand/eye coordination necessary to properly paint or de-yellow this valkyrie, 

Better to give it a new home with someone who can do a more competent restoration job.

[yman1437]

On 4/2/2019 at 10:49 PM, tekering said:

That yellowing is much too pronounced (and much too widespread) to make it worth the effort.  Unless it can be done with chemicals, I don't think that Max is worth salvaging.  It's a mess.  

Better to repaint with a unique color scheme... something like this, maybe?

Actually this paint scheme does make sense. It's a good camouflage flying near a zentraedi warship

https://images.app.goo.gl/jcgZGMmBKD2wvmuf6

Edited April 6, 2019 by yman1437