More than anything in the Gundam universe, I love Valkyries. I inherited a love for airplanes from my dad and I just always liked robots going back to the Shogun Warriors toys that were out when I was 4 or 5. So when this show called Robotech came along with an actual plot and these cool robots THAT TRANSFORMED INTO JETS!!! It was the coolest thing ever for the eleven year-old version of me.
I've collected a bunch of Valkyrie kits over the years and even built a few back in my brush-painting days but this is the first time I tackle on in my "real model builder" era. The Gundam kits always call to me, "I'm easier... build me next." This time I'm resisting the temptation.
For this project I'm combining Hasegawa's 1/72 scale VF-1D kit (I like the longer nose on the VF-1D in fighter mode), which comes with a photoetch parts set, with a Super VF-1A (just the Super parts and the folded backpack and bent legs that go with them, I'll still have a complete VF-1A fighter kit when I'm done), the weapons set (for the pilots and missiles) and the Option Decals Set 3 (
http://www.hlj.com/product/HSG65766).
I'm going for the "7th Aircraft" of the Minmay Guard. Both the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels have a 6-plane aerobatic team, but they each have a 7th plane, a two-seater which serves as a backup plane as well as a promotional plane to take up VIPs and members of the media. I haven't worked out the exact color scheme yet, but it will be more or less blue and white to go with the decals.
Anyway, here's the progress...
Airplane models pretty much always start with the cockpit. I took one quick detour to deal with the landing gear doors (technically, the wheel well and cockpit tub are the same piece of plastic). I wanted the doors closed on this model. Like the Hasegawa Mustang I built last year, this plane is meant to be built wheels-down only and putting them up requires some surgery. At least these gear doors are in the neighborhood of the size of the hole they are supposed to cover. The Mustang gear doors were a joke.
I started by cutting the tabs off of the doors and gluing the two main doors together using a piece of plaplate to brace them into one solid piece. I then installed some plastic strip inside the wheel wells and them sanded them flush with the edges. These provide a lip for the gear doors to sit on when I glue them shut.
But, of course the gear doors are too thin, so I had to glue tiny thin strips along their edges to mate with the plastic lips I had added. Some careful sanding made for a pretty damn good seal. Once I finish the cockpit and really glue the nose halves together I'll perfect the fit of the doors.
Next came the actual cockpit (or the front office as many plane modelers call it). I had actually done a bit of work on this kit about 5 years ago before shelving it, so the instrument panels and a few other random pieces are glued on already. This shouldn't be a major problem to work around.
A few photo etch parts are meant to go in the cockpit, like these ones on the tops of the seats:
I assembled the two pilots, giving them different poses to make them not look like two identical pieces of plastic. The backseater gets to wave since the guy in front is doing the driving. I still have to work on his right arm. It's ridiculously skinny and his hand is kinda limp-wristed right now:
Here's a test-fit with the canopy, can't have anybody's head or hands keeping it from fitting later:
The cockpit on this thing is extremely simple, so once I get the pilots set and add a bit of mesh or something onto a bare and very visible piece of side wall, I'll paint it and close it up.
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