1:48 Strike Valkyrie VF-1S with Weapons

I had waited for this Hasegawa 1:48 Strike Valkyrie ever since they rolled out their 1:72 kits. Reading the history of Hasegawa, their specialty is in 1:72 and less on the larger kits, which explained their very late foray into the line. Given the accuracy and the detail of the final product though, it was worth the wait.

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I have previously done a short update when I finished the kit and a more detailed WIP post, and this time the belated studio shoot is ready in the way I meant to do it. The wide-angle frontal shot of the plane displayed in full glory of its arsenal as displayed in the weapon kit’s art. The kit was done with the Valkyrie photoetch option kit, and the cockpit ladder was a Eduard 1:48 F-105 ladder. It was difficult to find a compatible ladder that looks like the box art! The hanger base was the Kotobukiya chain base – which at the time of writing is being reissued (yay!) in Oct 2016. The missles were supported with modified carts from the chain base kits, and the nuclear missiles were supported with 1/48 USAF Missile Maintenance Stand which also took me a while to find. A more seasoned modeler would just scratch build that :-/

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It was a bit of a perilous build since the decals were getting old and started to crumble. Hasegawa decals are of good quality but they don’t last very long, unlike the thicker Bandai and Wave offerings. Had I be patient and used Micro Liquid Decal film I might now have so much trouble… I enjoyed finishing this kit nonetheless.

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4 comments

  1. Cody, I think I’ve followed your blog for nearly 20 years now and your work never fails to impress me.
    The last time I touched a Macross kit was over a decade ago and that fared poorly due to my inexperience and overall poor fitting of the parts. How did this kit do and how much work was involved?

  2. Ahhhhh is it 20 years already?! Man I’m getting old…

    This kit is excellent and fit is great. It is a pretty standard aircraft model, which means a bit of sanding glued fuselage halves, masking cockpit and painting. Quite enjoyable and as you can see finishes into a nice Valk. Highly recommended!

  3. Cody, when I think of how I want to finish my own version of this, THIS is almost exactly how I wanted it to be. It has the perfect amount of weathering. Feels like you pulled it out of the boxart. Beautiful. Definitely keeping this as reference.

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