Trying to disassemble Yamato 1/48

[wickedrsr]

Hi… I’m trying to disassemble one of my yellowing yamato 1/48 VF-1s… I’m attempting to recolor it a new custom low viz ozama tribute color to hide all the yellowing…

Does anyone know how to take apart the legs? There are no screws visible on the legs… I can’t seem to figure out how the legs are mended together.

I would like to fully disassemble the valkyrie to give it a really good paint job. 
 

thanks in advance!

Edited May 9, 2021 by wickedrsr

[505thAirborne]

I'm doing pretty much the same with a VF-1A & 1J that I purchased that yellowed.  There are screw hole covers on the legs, so you'll have to carefully remove those and hopefully then you can unscrew/disassemble them. 

So far on both of my VF's I either have screw cover that pop right on off OR appear to be glued on OR worse the little screws started to strip as I tried to remove them. I have a feeling I'll be using a ton of masking tape for my projects vs. an all out disassembly. 

Keep us posted on your projects, an Ozma VF-1 sounds pretty damn cool! 

This pic attached shows the covers and are on the inside portion of the legs. 

 

[wickedrsr]

Thanks I got it! 

[Anasazi37]

Yep, the Yamato 1/48 is a joy to disassemble and reassemble. No glued-together parts like you see on the Bandai DX line. Taking it apart definitely makes you appreciate the ingenuity and engineering involved. Same goes for the 1/55, BTW.

The verniers that hide the screws on the legs fool everyone (myself included) the first time around. You'll also want to check the tolerances between parts that move past each other during posing or transformation. They are generally tight enough that paint scrape will happen if you're not careful. It's been many years since I've customized a Yamato 1/48, but I remember having to use a Dremel to thin out some parts. Normally you just don't fully tighten screws during reassembly, but that can cause problems of its own and doesn't always put sufficient space between things.