Masterpiece Jetfire from Yamato 1/48 VF-1S

[echophonic]

Yeah, I know, it's been done before, but none of them seem to go in the same direction and, well, it's my first repaint so I'm gonna flaunt it. :tflaugh1

 

About a year ago when saw the Yamato 1/48 VF-1S for the first time (I don't frequent Macross boards) I fell in love with it, if only for it's repaint potential as Jetfire, as shown by aurascope and Grand Admiral over at the macrossworld boards. I'd always loved the original Jetfire more than any other TF I had growing up, and having a partner in crime for MP01 sounded tasty. I was scared as all get out of using paint, though, especially on a $200 toy (:tfpuke), so after I got it, it just sat on the shelf as a Macross figure for a little over a year

 

After repainting a little bit of my alt prime with some Fusion, I decided it wasn't so bad and that I needed to man up and crack a can of Safety/Red Pepper Fusion. Disassembling him was a breeze, but masking everything took waaaaay longer than I expected and my utmost respect to out to all of you hardcore modders. While not perfect, I'm super happy with how it came out. I didn't want to do any big re-imagining of the figure like auroscope did on tfmaster, so I stuck to the original paint layout on the G1 toy. I always wanted to have a translucent red visor, but sourcing that was impossible so many years after the VF-1's came out, so I decided to just paint the damn thing, which turned out descent.

 

The heat shield was a Starscream-- the way they're made is the have the paint on the rear side and just finished clear plastic on the top. After 15 minutes of trying to get off the red and crossbones with 91% iso and q-tips, I decided to go more gungho and use nail polish remover. BIG MISTAKE. There's now a permanently melted recreation of my thumb print on the inside, and more melt marks on the front where the liquid dripped. I spent a good while with a dremel, polish attachment and buffing compound, but all that did it melt the plastic further. Lame. So I wound up having to paint both sides of the shield, which took out the shine of it. Does anyone know of a way to either buff the paint to a shine, or a good lacquer to use to protect it? I'm afraid of it smearing.

 

My only gripe is that it looks a little plain, so if any of you have any suggestions on some detail markings anywhere (the leg boosters are bothering me specifically), LET ME KNOW!

 

Anyway, on to the pics... oh, and I don't have any decent lighting stuff, so the pics are a little wonky, but it gets the point across.

 

 

more pics in next post...

 

can't post the rest until we get a reply.... frak. stupid image limit! ;)

 

Oh well, I just posted them in the action pose thread...

[Smokescreen Magnus]

heres you reply buddy, awesome work by the way and for your first its even better!

[echophonic]

Thanks! Here's the rest...

 

A tumultuous past with Starscream...

 

[RickCoronel]

I'm new here, I love seeing customs on any forum I register at and this is not exception. I love the size, and would definitely consider buying if it was made or I would seriously commission it if it wasn't made.

[Grand Galactic Inquisitor]

Very, very nice work :thumb

[spazzboy]

nice work!

 

and yeah, nail polish remover (acetone) usually does serious harm to translucent plastics. Sorry to hear it happened to ya.

[brawn1228]

That is absolutley beautiful! Nice work!

 

One suggestion, have you ever thought about putting a cartoon Skyfire head on that?

 

Maybe one with a pull down visor.

 

Could anyone digibash a G1 Classics Skyfire head over that pic?

 

Echo Would you object to someone doing that to your pic?

 

Just to see what it would look like?

[Grand Galactic Inquisitor]

On the heatshield I suggest Testors Glosscote. That usually works pretty well. Also Partha Matte Spray Sealer tends to work well; even though it's supposed to be a matte finish I usually end up with a bit of a gloss when I've used it.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

:thumb thats a very clean paint job, awsome work!!

[echophonic]

Thanks for the compliments, guys! Makes a man feel good about masking tape! ;)

 

Brawn... by all means go ahead. I have no interest in a toon accurate version (I think the G1 toy is the quintessential Jetfire), but go ahead and digibash!

 

Action Bastard-- thanks for the tip-- I may have to go to the store this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.