RVF-25 Messiah Valkyrie Luca Custom, Bandai 1:72

[braxat2000]

Hi,
I'm building another Valkyire, this time from Bandai Macross Frontier series.
I loved this anime series, and my son is in love with the final two episodes and I watched them with him so many times... 

Anyways, here is my blog for this model.



It has tons of parts, molded in various green tones, black, gray, and clear.
There are decals inside (which I'll let you know later how much trouble they gave me) and some stickers.
At first my plan was to paint it like the anime, but as I struggled with the decals I decided to strip the paint and do it in a more colorful scheme.

[braxat2000]

Simon, Jhon and Peter the three ghosts were built at first, no problem at all. building went smooth and fast.





continuing with the arms, and dish. The model is posable and snap fit, though I use glue. It is apparant from these stages that I'll need a lot of filling to do.









I'm planning to build it in Valkyrie form, so everything is glued and fixed in place for this pose. I have to say that Bandai's engineering is absoloutly awesome. Very smart break of parts and design.

[braxat2000]

I didn't post the pictures yet, but the ghosts were painted green and gray, sprayed clear from tamiya, and then I went for decaling them.

Wow, these myst be the thickest decals I've ever seen. I tried my usual way of using micro sol and set, and the decal will not dissolve. Whats worse, is that aprart from not getting fixed properly to the model, it would not solve into the panel lines and cause silvering.

So after lots of help from my home forum, I tried using future and a setting solution, and it works great. But when everything was done, all the future, clear, and wash darkened the models and they looked very bad. So currently everything sits in a nice bowl filled with bleacher and soon I'll strip them from their paint and decals.

I plan my own scheme which I hope will be much more fun to do than green..

[MarkW]

Future as a decal set can be tricky.  Too bad about the decals--do you have an alternative set of decals to use?

[braxat2000]

Hi,
Yep a lot less forgiving, but not as bad as I thought. The future doesn't dry too fast so I had time to maneuver. Anyways I stripped them of the paints and decals, and will go a totally different direction with this kit. I'll use a different paint scheem all together, but am still waiting for the paints and decals to arrive :)..

[braxat2000]

Hi,
So after some thinking I stripped the green and gray paint. Next I tried to paint a different way and it was so bad I had to strip the paint again.
Today I finally got the time to paint the model the third time, and this is the result.
I didn't take pictures of the ghosts, but here is how the Valkyrie looks like.





Hope you like, will be happy to hear feedback

[Steel-Mark]

I like third version :)

It is looking Fast!

[Funaka]

Looks sexy! Gonna have character decals on it??? Idolmaster Valkyrie? 

[braxat2000]

Hi,
That was the plan, but in reality the red doesn't work with the white so well, so I'm going to put this model for while, and then strip the paint again, and then go for another try 
The red is too dominant, I think I need to pick a softer color to go with the white, or a colder tone.

[braxat2000]

Hi,
Mu routh painting trial.
After a break from themodel, I started again. This time I'll divide the painting into a couple of sessions. I sprayed the undersideof the Valkyire in light gray, highlighting it in white. The ghosts undersides will be darker.

Now I have a couple of options for the top. Go simple or more interesting. I hae to think, this time is the last time I'm painting this model 

[Steel-Mark]

Good start :)

Good luck with your last (I hope) attempt

[braxat2000]

Hi,
So... after half a year I'm going to reboot this project once more, but I think this type will be the last.
The new colors are painted on, this time I painted it in solid military colors, and will make it a marines aircraft.
I added some weapons pod to buff it up, and here it is after the details were brush painted.
Now I'm gathering some decals to add to it from various sources..

What do you think?

[Grail]

I like this version best. 
Have you considered doing a thin pinwash before decals? I was thinking it might bring up some of the cool panel lines on the kit. Then decal and weather accordingly. Just a thought. I like the military feel of this one.
Nice work! 

[MGmodeler]

I agree with Grail.  This scheme looks different than all the other Macross F schemes and I like it alot!  I would put the decals on next then clearcoat with gloss and then do the washes and weathering.  Makes everything look weathered together.