Friday, May 21, 2010

Bandai 1/72 RVF-25 Messiah Luca Unit

RVF-25 Messiah Luca unit. This is the reconnaissance variant, so it would have a huge satellite tracking disc on its back. This kit comes with 3 Ghost fighters as well. I didn't snap any pictures on the Ghost units because I haven't finish the work due to the fact that I'm lazy to work on it at that point.

Fighter Mode
RVF25 - Messiah - Fighter 2

RVF25 - Messiah - Fighter 4

RVF25 - Messiah - Fighter 3

RVF25 - Messiah - Fighter 1

Basically it's the same as the Alto unit and Ozma unit, except that it has a big satellite tracking disc on its back.

I did face problems on this one as well, and quite a few of them. Firstly, the lower body part contains a retractable plate in the middle, where during the transformation to Fighter mode or Gerwalk mode, the plate would retract inward, thus giving space for the head section to come down; when it is transforming into Battroid mode, the plate would retract outward to fill up the empty space. Due to the reason that I put the cement on a wrong side of the parts, the excess flows into the retractable plate, and as a result of that I could not have it to retract as it should be; it has to be stationed at one position to allow the transformation to take place.

The second problem that I faced is with the head. It has 2 horns-like parts at the bottom of the head that hindering it from folding downward into the body during transformation. It is very unlikely to not scratch them during transformation.

Thirdly is the join between the leg and the body. The join part is glued together with instant adhesive. I used to sand the excess of the glue before joining the parts together but I didn't to it this time. As a result of that, the movement of the leg become quite stiff to the point that if I forced it too much, I might break it.

Still, what I found amazed is with the shield. I could connect the shield to the body without much problem as compare to the previous 2 that I did.

Gerwalk Mode
RVF25 - Messiah - Gerwalk 2

RVF25 - Messiah - Gerwalk 1

RVF25 - Messiah - Gerwalk 3

Except for the back, it basically looks the same as the other 2 Valkyrie. As I mentioned previously, due to the excess of the glue that I didn't sand of from the join between the leg and the body, I have to be extra careful with the transformation related to the leg section.

Battroid Mode
RVF25 - Messiah - Battroid 1

RVF25 - Messiah - Battroid 3

RVF25 - Messiah - Closeup

Except for the head and the back, it looks basically the same as the previous 2 units. The head of this unit in my opinion suffered the same problem as the Ozma unit - not much articulation. Still, it doesn't suffer much to the point that it will always staring upwardly.

Because of the problem with the excess glue again, the transformation to Battroid mode really taking me a while to do it because it is during this transformation that the legs have to be rotated a few times before settling into its position.


Experimented Technique
I did basically the same thing as I did on both the Alto unit and Ozma unit. Apart from that, I did try to experiment a new thing here - dry brushing.

I tried to dry brushing on the frame with Tamiya Enamel silver color using a pointy brush. The result is not as good as what I would hope for, so it is considered as failed. In the end I did change the brush to the flat brush, and it turn out fairly better than my previous attempt. However, I must say that I don't really have a very imaginative vision on how to dry brush the unit yet so I couldn't really get it done like how the pro did: to give it a reality feel.


Conclusion
Basically the same conclusion as the previous 2.