Is it possible to take apart a 1/48 DX VF-1?

[Anasazi37]

I've been looking at my Hikaru 1S and TV Max 1A, thinking that if I get an additional one of each I can convert them to a Roy 1S and TV Hayao 1A instead of waiting for Bandai to maybe get around to releasing them...someday. I'm a veteran valk customizer, so dealing with painting/decaling/detailing doesn't worry me. What I don't know is how much of the DX you can disassemble without causing a lot of damage to the toy. The arms and legs look to be mostly glued together, which does worry me. The Yamato 1/48s were great to work with, but they were also cheaper and more plentiful, so if you made a catastrophic mistake, you could easily get another one. I did notice in LEK's cell-shading tutorial videos that he did a partial breakdown of the 1S, which would be fine for Roy, but I really would need to take apart the arms and legs for Hayao. Is it possible to do more?

[chyll2]

you are probably the first one to try (that is documented) if ever. The problem with Bandai is they like their glue, including the screw covers.

[Lolicon]

It's possible to remove the arms from the sliding section by unscrewing the panel then forcibly prying it off, if you don't mind probably breaking the internal tab. Don't worry, you can reattach it and screw it back on and it'll be no worse for wear. It's because Bandai also glued it on in addition to it being held by a screw. This was easy enough on the 1J, but Bandai increased the amount of glue on the 1A and S making it harder to pry open without stressing the plastic.

Another member here managed to pull off the screw cover on the inside thigh region and open the leg up, but I forget who and how he managed it. It was fairly recent so I'm sure you can find it a few pages back in the 1/48 thread.

I was able to easily detach the backpack on the 1J because it wasn't glued on. Not so for the others, where Bandai just decided to just glop some glue on there for fun, even though it's completely unnecessary. Now it's super hard to pry it loose.

That's pretty much the full extent of what I was able to take apart. I'm sure more can be done, but it just became too difficuly and risky and wasn't necessary for my purposes.

[Anasazi37]

Thanks for the info! Sounds like Bandai has really upped the amount of glue in the newer releases. Shoot. I was able to find the post about the screw cover. It was 34 pages back and @SuperHobowas the one working on it. Looks like he was able to use a thin hobby tool to pry the cover off because only a little glue was used. Will keep thinking about whether or not I want to make customs. Might be too risky--at least for the Hayao TV 1A.

 

[Kicker773]

I will attempt something like this. Have some ideas lingering with extra decal sheets. 

[Anasazi37]

Thought I'd share a link to @Corrinald's recent post in the DX thread, where he talks about how he managed to crack open the shoulder