VF-1A, armed for CAS

[Fishwelding]

This is not my finest work, but it’s done enough that I did the official photo shoot for my records. A tragic shelf-case begun around 2002, I finally wrapped this kit up in a drive to finish some of my neglected, half-built projects. (Some details remain to be added, which I’ll put on in the next few weeks.)

This is the first Hasegawa Valkyrie I’ve finished. I bought a bunch as soon as they appeared and launched into this one the day they arrived. The kits are jewels, collections of finely detailed parts that build into surprisingly intricate models, given that their prototypes are from 1980s cartoons.

My usual jet work is wrestling together 1/48th scale Monogram kits, and the required skillset for those is more appropriate for Bandai’s old VF-1 kits, than for Hasegawa’s finer product. This kit's little parts were easily losable or breakable, and despite perfect fit the build requires care to align things if you don’t want a warped jet.

Suffice it to say I wasn’t that careful. The canopy, having a cross-sectional curve past 180 degrees, has a seam that needs carefully removed. Well, I scratched that up terribly and then allowed dust to collect underneath it before gluing it in place. The fuselage is misaligned, with the battroid legs not entirely parallel. I compensated by monkeying with main gear legs, a clumsy and partly-effective fix. As I was getting it all together, and it became clear this wasn’t going to be one of my finest builds, I decided to add some ordnance just to distract from the worst of things. So I quickly worked up some Hasegawa iron stuff, a pair of dual racks from an old Testors F/A-18, and some pylons from a Hasegawa Macross weapons set.

By the time I was done, I didn’t have the patience to spend hours finishing the build, so I painted and masked the nose, blasted on an ambush-pattern camouflage with leftover greens, added some accents with a fine brush, and then threw on some decals in a hurry. Some of these silvered. Well, at least it's finally done, and the warload’s interesting.

Alright, enough complaining. If I need to stop ironworking for awhile and build some watchmaker skills, there’s nothing for it to but to run through the exercise all over again. I've got two other Macross shelf-cases, but I'd like to tackle another VF-1 from the beginning...

Edited March 20, 2016 by Fishwelding

[GreyGhost]

Fish, nice job on salvaging a shelf Queen!

the Valkyrie looks sharp in camo!

-Gregg

[ChernayaAkula]

+1 to what Gregg said! It's comforting to see that some manage to escape form the Shelf Of Doom. :lol:

I really like the camo colours. Is there a real life inspiration for it?

[Fishwelding]

Is there a real life inspiration for it?

Nah, not really. I just had some jars of Testors enamel paint that were low, left over from various other projects, and getting old. So I wanted to use up old paint. It sort of looked like a Swedish finish, but I after masking the nose I wanted to paint the thing in a day, so I didn't want to mask the ambush camouflage. Besides, while I am willing to be inspired by historical or contemporary finishes, I like to do sci-fi stuff in a finish that is at least somewhat different than something in real life.

[TaiidanTomcat]

I really like it!! I think the camo gives it a wow factor. Would have never guessed it was such a long journey

[PFlint]

it looks good to me !

Edited March 26, 2016 by PFlint