Lysus' 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1S/A Strike Valkyrie (Macross)

[Lysus]

Can't believe it's June already...



HERE WE GO! A 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1 Strike Valkyrie. This kit is not my first Macross kit ever, but it's my first 1/48 jet so I'm a bit taken aback by the size of it

[PHOTOBUCKET ATE THIS BOX ART IMAGE, STAY TUNED!]





You have a couple options here, you can build the regular, Super Valkyrie with two top mounted missile pods or the Strike Valkyrie with one missile pod and one double beam cannon. You can also do any one of four units of Skull Squadron, and either the 1A (standard) or 1S (commander) version. I'll probably do the 1S with the Strike parts.



Let's have some runner shots:

Armor and Engines:



Nacelles and wings:



The rest. One part popped off the runner:



There's some really good details here, and you have the option to leave off the panels for the engine nacelles if you want:





The Pilot. I was hoping for a bit better, I had considered modifying him so he could be standing next to his Valkyrie but they left off parts of his legs and so on to better fit in the cockpit. But the most annoying part is he has the control sticks molded to his hands...sure hope there's alternate versions elsewhere to use. Hrm...



Decal sheet:



I have PE for this (which we'll look at when the time comes) but this isn't a half bad decal for the main console:



Instructions:



Nothing special, all B&W, color options chart:



One thing I noticed was that there's two canopies; one movie version and one TV version. I plan on doing the movie version, and of course this canpoy has a seam line right down the middle while the TV one doesn't. WHYYYYYYY?!





Grr...why can you do one but not the other, Hasegawa? WHY NOT?! I need to do the movie version if only because for 1986 it's damned gorgeous.



And of course, being Hasegawa, you buy the ordinance separately:





Loadout options:



In any case, it looks to be a lot of fun, and a lot to do! So put on your favorite Macross pop idol and let's get to work.

[kiwigav]

hey buddy looks to be a mammoth build look forward to your progress

SciFi Squad is back in action

[DrSprue]

Oh lysus, like I said back in the Guidelines.. It reminds me of what happens when you mix an F15 or 16 with a bit of Star Wars and some INCREDIBLE guns, yup... Wow that sucker scares me and danngggg.... its hugh.

Good luck with this awesome super jet build!! Very cool!

[privatepete]

Hi Jason, have you got enough room on your bench for all thought missiles good luck with the build and on help from you no who

[Primus1]

I keep eyeing these up, will be watching with interest.
Im not sure i have the paitence for that many parts

[Tiger213]

Good luck with it, mate.

[TheTroyster]

I'm intrigued- please continue.

Going to try and get in on this build myself...hopefully.

[Lysus]

Apologies for the delay, life and a full bench have gotten in the way. You know how it is.

BUT! I intend to start this within the next 48 hours... Stay tuned!

[DrSprue]

Apologies for the delay, life and a full bench have gotten in the way. You know how it is.

BUT! I intend to start this within the next 48 hours... Stay tuned!

No Problem Jason, happened to me and I just started but was knocked out for a few weeks as well. My issue was not life stuff but what I call (The attack of the killer TET monster!) hehe, ...welcome back!

[Lysus]

Hey! It lives. Life etc...

Anyway, got started today. As with any jet kit, start with the cockpit:

Tub



Sticks and pedals were fun...lost the thrust lever to the far corners of my room after it popped out from my tweezers. Thankfully I found it.

Chair was 4 pieces with a bit of sanding needed for a good fit, the center console, however, was loaded with flash. I know this is an older kit, but man--removing flash from the tiny 1mm mirrors etc. was a horrifying experience.



Dunno how visible this might be, but if you want to paint instead of use the decal or PE it's got loads of raised detail:



Ready for priming!



At this point I realized I should check in with the PE to make sure I'm not about to screw up the order of operations. The PE for the 'pit is all colorized so I can do it after paint.



It's been hot lately and I decided I'd prime after sundown tonight--if only because it's warm in the office and I don't like that--so instead I worked on some bits that don't involve the cockpit. I chisled out the vents on the airbrake:



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A little rough but I'll clean this up some more.

Here's something fun, there's a cleat meant to go here that just doesn't exist on the runner (K 31):





Where'd it go? Who knows! No matter, this surface will be buried under some armor anyway.

Next time, more cockpitting!

[Tomcat64]

You started!!!

Great to see you finally underway - doesn't look like the easiest of builds so far - but keep at it and bend it to your will!

[Lysus]

Yay, starting! The jet isn't much more complex than a normal one to build so far. The paint, though...

[privatepete]

Hi Jason see I'm not the only one who uses rubbish but there's builds are 100% better than mine

[Lysus]

Hi Jason see I'm not the only one who uses rubbish but there's builds are 100% better than mine

These are awesome! Makes me want to stop being so fastidious about tossing my garbage and recycling...

[Lysus]

Hey hey! Fun with PE...

So I'm not super experienced with this stuff, and though I have a couple tools on order, I don't have the "right stuff" per se. Just a knife and some pliers.

The back of the wing hinges:





Intake vents:



I do have one handy tool:



One of the hinges smacks into a part of the fuselage so I'll have to sand that bit down (the fuselage bit I mean).



Popped the top half on:



So there's two PE spines that go into some holes on the back of the fuselage. These were fun to get straight...the PE is just a flat piece in a round hole:



Frustrated, I put some Tamiya putty in there and after about 20 minutes I popped the PE in.



There. As it cured I managed to get them even more straight than the above pic. Then I realized that a part of the armor is supposed to sit there and I had to rip them out.





Ahem.

Moving on, not sure how well you can see this but these gates are placed directly over some panel line details. Fantastic. True, this part will be hard to see when it's all done, but still...



Up next on the PE-o-rama are these vents inserted perpendicular to a PE grating. At this point I decided to stop and wait for my cutters to arrive. The hobby knife isn't awesome at catching the tiny nubs from the fret and these need to slide into the slots easily.



Instead I went through the manual and made a plan for how to build around this stuff until it shows up:



That's it for today, maybe more progress tomorrow!

[MakingModels]

Looking good... and ahhh Newcastle brown ale.. yum yum

[Tomcat64]

I didn't realise there was so much PE in the kit.

That stuff drives me cross-eyed but it's amazing how much those small details bring the kit to life.

PE fret scissors or clippers make a world of difference so it's definitely worth the wait for the right tool in this case.

[Lysus]

Looking good... and ahhh Newcastle brown ale.. yum yum

Thanks! Yeah, the ale has been a real sanity saver

I didn't realise there was so much PE in the kit.

That stuff drives me cross-eyed but it's amazing how much those small details bring the kit to life.

PE fret scissors or clippers make a world of difference so it's definitely worth the wait for the right tool in this case.

I hear it, my eyes hurt just thinking about sitting down to work on it. I'm working around the PE while I wait for some scissors to appear in my mailbox (maybe today!). Have some benders on order at the LHS, too, but I feel like the scissors are a must have now kind of thing. Plenty to do in the mean time, not to mention the zillion missiles I need to start

[Tomcat64]

Have some benders on order at the LHS, too, but I feel like the scissors are a must have now kind of thing.

Yep the benders are really useful too


I've not sprung for one of the sets for making curves yet, but have found that some pieces can be formed around the shank of micro drill bits with a little care (and a lot of swearing!).

[aur0ra145]

Good start! I've always thought about building one of these.

[Lysus]

Good start! I've always thought about building one of these.

Do it!

Finally had some bench time, so let's get on with it!

I need to drill out the holes in the wings for the ordinance set:



You have some options, so I picked the setup I wanted then drilled the holes needed:





Some pegs from the weapon set are inserted:





Cockpit is next, some PE for it, too!



I used a combination of Mr Color 13 Grey for the base color and some Citadel metals etc. for details.







Some slop to clean up, but when isn't there with me

Console decal, used the Tamiya decal solutions this time for a change of pace, the work really well and the adhesive stuff will stick the decal on in seconds...be ready!



It turns out the PE set is made for the 1/48 VF-1J Valkyrie and NOT the 1S/A (movie version) I have here, so some trimming of the console PE was needed to fit it around the sticks. There's also a void there behind the thrust lever that I'll need to detail up somehow (that grey square on the left).





Added a gunky wash to the seat to give it some high and low lights and make the cushion look more crinkled and less smooth (Future with 70/30 shadow rust and rust by Mig and then brushed on):



While that settled I worked on getting the thruster cans assembled and PE installed (there's 26 parts to make the four thruster halves in this photo if you can believe it):



MORE PE:



That's for a vent at the rear, it was fun. I mean, "fun"...

Of course the canopy has a seam down the middle, so we have to get rid of it. Scraped with a blade, then wet sanded and buffed out with Ultimate sanders (grey to buffer, to polisher):





Just to get it extra shiny I went ahead and buffed it up with some polish. (yeah, those are huge bottles--Amazon had a sale and it was cheaper than the little ones so why not):



After spraying the inside of the nose cones with more Mr Color 13 I put it together with the cockpit. Maddeningly the panel lines don't match up. And I don't mean it's all off kilter, I mean like the first line doesn't match one way, and the last one doesn't math the other...make sense? Like this:

--| | |
| --| --|



It also put up a fight to seal up the back half. The fit isn't terrible, but I think the mold is showing its age...



Anyway, while that sets up I'll start in on all the seam sanding and filling and sanding again I need to do. There's a lot. More on that next time!

[DrSprue]

Wow its looking great Lysus, love the tamiya decal stuff, never saw that!

[Lysus]

Wow its looking great Lysus, love the tamiya decal stuff, never saw that!

Thanks, dude. It's nice to make progress for a change.

Tamiya decal stuff is great so far. I used it for an all Tamiya build and liked it.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Gorgeous cockpit
That is nicer looking PE than I have seen for most modern aircraft

Good to see you working
Acrylic dip that canopy!!!!!

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you back at the bench mate!

Really nice work on the cockpit and sorting out that canopy seam.

Those mismatched panel lines are a pain though - I've had a few kits like that and you end up wondering if the right side and left side were designed by different people who met up after a liquid lunch on a Friday afternoon.

[DrSprue]

Those mismatched panel lines are a pain though - I've had a few kits like that and you end up wondering if the right side and left side were designed by different people who met up after a liquid lunch on a Friday afternoon.