1:72 Bandai/IMAI Macross VF-1J Super Valkyrie plamo build update 2
November 28th, 2017
Progress is slowy being made on this Valkyrie kit. Above you will see that the thruster parts are prepped for lighting. The three small engines on the “backpack” are perfectly-sized for 3mm LEDs, and the two big engines on the fastpack boosters are perfectly-sized for 5mm LEDs!
I decided to clear-cast some parts for lighting this kit. On the right is Oyumaru, which is marketed as a child’s toy here in Japan. I bought it at a toy store. Take out a stick, put it in boiling water, wait for it to get soft, and then use it to create molds. On the left is UV-curing craft resin, which I bought at the 100 yen shop Daiso. It’s unnecessary to mix two equal parts or anything. You just squeeze the liquid resin out of the tube and set your part out in the sun to let it cure from ultraviolet radiation. Neat!
I wish to light up what I believe is the infrared sensor on the top of the gunpod. So I taped the gunpod halves together for a dry fit and squished the top of it into the warm Oyumaru to create a mold. I then poured the clear resin into the mold, cured it, and cut it down to shape.
I used a Tamiya saw bit to cut out the plastic-molded to cut out the sensor. Above you will see the replacement clear resin part I made. The parting line showed up in the mold, so I sanded it down. This also will help diffuse the light, of course.
Here I have temporarily situated a 0402 pre-wired red SMD from HDA Modelworx inside the gunpod.
I carefully placed the clear resin piece I made on the top. I will have to work with this piece to get the fit right. You can see some light leak coming from the gunpod’s barrel. I will have to work on that. This is where a rapid-flashing yellow 3mm LED will be placed. HDA only has slowly-flashing LEDs, so I bought this from Lighthouse LEDs.
I also realized that there is a sensor in each fastpack booster. This detail is shown on the box art, but not molded into the part. So what I did was take some .75mm fiber optic and used a cigarette lighter’s flame to mushroom the tip into a nice lens. I just used my best judgment to determine where to place these and fortunately they are pretty symmetrical. I drilled a hole into each nacelle with a .8mm drill bit with my pinvise, and then used a larger-sized drill bit on top of that to drill onto that hole to make a shallow indentation around these holes.
Here is a test fit with the fiber optic in. You can see where I used a bit of epoxy putty to correct a mistake I made. Notice the fiber optic trailing out of the hole that is where this part fits onto the backpack part.
Here I have tested it with a red LED.
Here I’ve situated three 3mm flickering blue LEDs from HDA Modelworx into the backpack.
Here are the flickering 5mm blue LEDs in the fastpack booster engine cans. Looking nice!
OK, so the blue part you see in the upper left of this picture is supposed to go into the foot thrusters. You can see where I carefully drilled out the holes before I realized that this whole part is crap. It is not at all accurate, so I have decided to ditch this. So I went back to using Oyumaru and UV-curing clear resin to recast the foot thruster piece from the 1:72 Valkyrie Battroid model from Hasegawa (bottom right). You can see one cast piece that didn’t turn out right. The two that turned out well are the ones you see stuck onto the stick. I have applied Mr. Masking Solution into the thruster modules I wish to remain clear. The rest will be painted steel or something.
Here you can see the holes I’ve drilled where the wires will need to be fed through. There is a hole in the central hub which allows articulation and another hole you can see behind there, which is the top of the foot. The wires will lead up through the top of the legs and into the bottom of the fighter where they will be soldered with the other wires. I am hoping that I could somehow attach the replacement thruster modules into this central hub.
I’ll update you all later on this project.
