PLAMAX 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie

[Big s]

2 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

They'll most likely add it to the eventual Armour version... 

now I’m trying to remember if Hikaru is the only one to try and use the neck as an entrance and exit. 

[Raikkonen]

5 minutes ago, Big s said:

now I’m trying to remember if Hikaru is the only one to try and use the neck as an entrance and exit. 

Good excuse to rewatch the whole anime again 😅

[GMK]

Related to a potential build…I’ve boom looking at the anime art.

Can easily the front view:

But not this rear view in colour.

Anyone able to help?

[Big s]

1 hour ago, GMK said:

Related to a potential build…I’ve boom looking at the anime art.

Can easily the front view:

But not this rear view in colour.

Anyone able to help?

wasn’t sure if you were asking for a color picture of the back, but here’s this

[GMK]

Thanks - that’s exactly what I was after. 
 

With the release of the kit, there’s lots of posts on (the site formerly known as) twitter. Here’s all of the product development grabs in one spot:

[Big s]

So I finished both legs and arms for test fits. The elbows definitely need glue or they just fall apart, so I only put one on for pics. The ball joints at the hips are tougher than the feet, but you may want to tighten those as well. Down on one knee poses will be pretty easy. I was surprised that there’s no special gimmicks, just  basic joints so far. Even the hips are just ball and poly cap, nothing special, but they’re made in a way that you can still get pretty much any pose you might wantno seams on the shoulders, but there are on the arms but they’re in a way that will be tough to notice. The fuselage has a few seams that could use some attention. 
I’ll try and do head, hands and gunpod soon

[VF-1A Grunt]

2 hours ago, GMK said:

I really hope they produce the TV VF-1A head, since they’re going to all this effort to match the stylized SDFM artwork and starting the Battroid line with the TV J and D models. I see the movie head in this image. It would be nice to have a quality model of the TV head.

[Raikkonen]

2 hours ago, GMK said:

Thanks - that’s exactly what I was after. 
 

With the release of the kit, there’s lots of posts on (the site formerly known as) twitter. Here’s all of the product development grabs in one spot:

This is on *Plamax's X's account?

Edited May 21 by Raikkonen

[Raikkonen]

9 minutes ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I really hope they produce the TV VF-1A head, since they’re going to all this effort to match the stylized SDFM artwork and starting the Battroid line with the TV J and D models. I see the movie head in this image. It would be nice to have a quality model of the TV head.

1A is a given. Armour builders fix. Easy money for Bandai. 

@Big s - How's the weight so far? My Hasegawa one still remains the lightest mech I've built in around this scale. 

Edited May 21 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

8 minutes ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

I really hope they produce the TV VF-1A head, since they’re going to all this effort to match the stylized SDFM artwork and starting the Battroid line with the TV J and D models. I see the movie head in this image. It would be nice to have a quality model of the TV head.

As far as the 1-A it will have a flat lense for tv and the extra cover nor the dyrl version according to the picture. The extra cover bit probably just pops into the same hole that’s used for the tv version lense

[GMK]

5 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

This is on Bandai's X's account?

PLAMAX. 

[Raikkonen]

4 minutes ago, GMK said:

PLAMAX. 

Yeah... sorry, I was searching for Bandai HMR's on another window, and it stuck to me. 😅

[Big s]

22 minutes ago, Raikkonen said:

1A is a given. Armour builders fix. Easy money for Bandai. 

@Big s - How's the weight so far? My Hasegawa one still remains the lightest mech I've built in around this scale. 

It’s fairly light . It’s a thinner body and no heavy abs parts. It might be slightly heavier than the hasegawa battroid, but not by too much

[VF-1A Grunt]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

As far as the 1-A it will have a flat lense for tv and the extra cover nor the dyrl version according to the picture. The extra cover bit probably just pops into the same hole that’s used for the tv version lense

Excellent, thanks! That makes sense now, what that extra lens is that’s show in the image above. I wasn’t sure why they were showing that part separately. I think the TV and DYRL -1A heads are slightly different in design on the sides (kind of hard to tell from the line art, but the movie head always looked longer), but the alternate lens approach is about the best we can hope for.

Edited May 21 by VF-1A Grunt

[Bolt]

9 hours ago, Big s said:

So I finished both legs and arms for test fits. The elbows definitely need glue or they just fall apart, so I only put one on for pics. The ball joints at the hips are tougher than the feet, but you may want to tighten those as well. Down on one knee poses will be pretty easy. I was surprised that there’s no special gimmicks, just  basic joints so far. Even the hips are just ball and poly cap, nothing special, but they’re made in a way that you can still get pretty much any pose you might wantno seams on the shoulders, but there are on the arms but they’re in a way that will be tough to notice. The fuselage has a few seams that could use some attention. 
I’ll try and do head, hands and gunpod soon

Looking good 👍🏼 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

Looking good 👍🏼 

Yeah, it can pull off some really great poses. I’d show off the elbow movement a bit more, but every time I move it the thing pops apart. It’s not the most extreme bend, but enough to do some the job. 

Definitely gonna need glue for anyone that’s gonna build one themselves

[Big s]

2 hours ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

Excellent, thanks! That makes sense now, what that extra lens is that’s show in the image above. I wasn’t sure why they were showing that part separately. I think the TV and DYRL -1A heads are slightly different in design on the sides (kind of hard to tell from the line art, but the movie head always looked longer), but the alternate lens approach is about the best we can hope for.

I think the only difference is the lense cover in the movie pushes the front top part of the lense forward giving it a longer appearance all the lines appear to be the same, just the above images have a different kind of style to drawing.  Basically just having that longer lense cover and a side arrow decal will be all that’s needed and it looks like an easy assembly.

[Big s]

Heads done as far as test fitting. There are a couple little seams on the head lasers where they connect to the housing, but like most of the seams they aren’t noticeable and actually super tiny. Not much head movement, a little back a slight bit more down and a bit of a tilt. It can torn any direction and the head lasers can point down just can’t aim straight since they don’t move inward . There’s a little detail under the clear lense piece that will look good with some chrome detailing

[Urashiman]

man ... can't wait for mine. It'll hopefully be in my hands on Friday

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Urashiman said:

man ... can't wait for mine. It'll hopefully be in my hands on Friday

Just make sure you got some glue, this thing has little bits that will just plop off . It’s a pretty fun build so far though 

[Urashiman]

33 minutes ago, Big s said:

Just make sure you got some glue, this thing has little bits that will just plop off . It’s a pretty fun build so far though 

I have so much glue ... I plan to GUNPLA this thing. Dissolving some sprues in tamiya glue to fill gaps and then sand the thing and then only decals and panel lining

The only thing to receive color will be the clear parts.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Urashiman said:

I have so much glue ... I plan to GUNPLA this thing. Dissolving some sprues in tamiya glue to fill gaps and then sand the thing and then only decals and panel lining

The only thing to receive color will be the clear parts.

There’s a few little details that could use a touch of paint though. The head lasers are  all white for instance, there’s really only a few other little things that need touch ups

[Urashiman]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

There’s a few little details that could use a touch of paint though. The head lasers are  all white for instance, there’s really only a few other little things that need touch ups

Thanks for the heads-up 👍

[VF-1A Grunt]

On 5/21/2024 at 5:04 PM, Big s said:

I think the only difference is the lense cover in the movie pushes the front top part of the lense forward giving it a longer appearance

all the lines appear to be the same, just the above images have a different kind of style to drawing.  Basically just having that longer lense cover and a side arrow decal will be all that’s needed and it looks like an easy assembly.

Hear me out for a minute. I’ve always thought that the DYRL movie design team decided to stretch out the -1A head to make it a little longer and sleeker. It’s hard to really say because of the weird way the TV artwork was done and the many variations from one scene / one episode to the next, but I think you can see it by comparing the original line art to the movie. Ignoring the lens, I think the area between the front “face” and the round “neck” under the head is stretched a bit in the movie version. The movie version’s “chin” also doesn’t hang down as low.

SDFM TV:

DYRL Movie:

Again, I know it’s not definitive because the movie art is more detailed and may just be a better a more accurate representation of how the head was always intended to look. However, you can see the same longer, sleeker look at the artwork for the 1985 Bandai transformable VF-1A kit. Not official, of course, but maybe an indicator of how the movie design was perceived:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/bandai-0505197-vf-1a-valkyrie--1076235

Finally, acknowledging that the Master Files aren’t “canon,” apparently they saw the same thing when they included these two versions of the -1A head in their Battroid manual:

When it comes down to it, I’m totally fine with the way it’s represented in the Plamax Battroid kit, but I also think the way the Master File book presented it as early and later variants of the head is a really cool idea.

Edited May 23 by VF-1A Grunt

[Big s]

22 hours ago, VF-1A Grunt said:

Hear me out for a minute. I’ve always thought that the DYRL movie design team decided to stretch out the -1A head to make it a little longer and sleeker.

They did stretch it out. The lense part is probably more of what they meant though. The artwork has always been a bit rubbery and the design team mostly just added a couple details and cleaned things up. As far as head height, that may just be the design team having a bit of artistic difference after a couple years rather than an intentional change like some of the panel lines on the fuselage or square hands for realism as opposed to a more substantial change like the VT-1D as opposed to the VF-1D. But I’m really no expert, just someone that tries to interpret ever changing line art from the age of rubber robots 

[pengbuzz]

5 hours ago, Big s said:

They did stretch it out. The lense part is probably more of what they meant though. The artwork has always been a bit rubbery and the design team mostly just added a couple details and cleaned things up. As far as head height, that may just be the design team having a bit of artistic difference after a couple years rather than an intentional change like some of the panel lines on the fuselage or square hands for realism as opposed to a more substantial change like the VT-1D as opposed to the VF-1D. But I’m really no expert, just someone that tries to interpret ever changing line art from the age of rubber robots 

*imagines Battroid happily bouncing down the street*

[Big s]

I was thinking more like plastic man struttin down the way

[Urashiman]

Muhahaha

got mine today.

 

I like that they have Hasegawa format

Edited May 24 by Urashiman

[Big s]

9 hours ago, Urashiman said:

Muhahaha

got mine today.

 

I like that they have Hasegawa format

It’s an interesting kit in that it’s very poseable more like a Bandai kit, but the construction almost feels a bit like a hasegawa kit. Sort of a blend between old and new in some odd ways. The soft plastic makes for quick nub clean up though 

[Urashiman]

Finished Plamax VF-1 fighter and Battroid.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Urashiman said:

Finished Plamax VF-1 fighter and Battroid.

I wish I had more spare time. I still haven’t gotten the hands all put together or the gunpod ready for pictures yet. 
Just noticed that red stripe looks like it had a little accident. If you wanted to fix it it could just take a quick bit of masking and some red paint, or you could do some battle damage since Hikaru gets shot down a lot

[Urashiman]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

I wish I had more spare time. I still haven’t gotten the hands all put together or the gunpod ready for pictures yet. 
Just noticed that red stripe looks like it had a little accident. If you wanted to fix it it could just take a quick bit of masking and some red paint, or you could do some battle damage since Hikaru gets shot down a lot

Yeah, the decals are rather allergic to tamiya mark setter strong. :S

Not sure if I have the right red tone to fix it or the muse to actually fix it haha

[Big s]

18 minutes ago, Urashiman said:

Yeah, the decals are rather allergic to tamiya mark setter strong. :S

Not sure if I have the right red tone to fix it or the muse to actually fix it haha

I’m sure it’s not too different than an insignia red, I’ll have to double check. The color guide and my Translotor on my phone don’t seem to get along. It just says red parts red, gray parts green gray so I’m not 100% sure on any of it. My plan was just to wing it with most of the colors 

[Urashiman]

34 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m sure it’s not too different than an insignia red, I’ll have to double check. The color guide and my Translotor on my phone don’t seem to get along. It just says red parts red, gray parts green gray so I’m not 100% sure on any of it. My plan was just to wing it with most of the colors 

It‘s a slight orange red tone.

[KOG Water Dragon]

1 hour ago, Urashiman said:

It‘s a slight orange red tone.

Vermilion? 😅