Written by 9:51 am On the Bench

WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 VR-1D Valkyrie Pt.3 – Painting

Unlike more recent Macross kits, the VF-1 kit has quite a few obvious seamlines that require filling. The joint between the nose and the fuselage in particular required some sanding down and re-scribing. It took awhile but it’s time to put paint to plastic!

First on as usual is a basecoat of Tamiya Flat Black.

I then added a marble coat with Tamiya Flat White.

I decided to go with a very light gray for the main body so I sprayed a translucent coat of Model Air Pale Gray Blue.

The 2nd color would be a darker gray so I masked off all the required areas.

The darker gray is Model Air Aggressor Grey and… I didn’t like the results. It looks too much like the F-16 color scheme and I wanted a lighter gray for the main color.

I decided to repaint so I masked off the dark gray areas.

I then added a marble coat again with Tamiya Flat Black.

For the second go, I went with Mecha Color White Grey with a few drops of Model Air Aggressor Grey. Remembering that everything will be toned down under the various layers of weathering I tried to keep the finish patchier and looking like I had a lousy airbrush session.

As is usual with the VF-1, the nose will be white. I used Model Air Insignia White for it.

Also typical for the VF-1 is a black anti-glare panel and a band between the nose and the fuselage. Instead of faffing with decals, I masked these off and sprayed Model Air Dark Panzer Grey. Note the accidental spot of black on the nose.

And of course, I also managed to spatter some Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner on the other side of the nose. The spots were buffed down then painted over.

Anyway, a two feet away check and I think the colors look right now.

So I went ahead and painted the rest of the parts. To add some color I painted the wingtips orange. I also painted the head unit orange to add some interest to the bottom. Let’s just call these the squadron colors. It took a while to mask and paint the various parts as I also dealt with various bleeding and overspray.

The GAF Telelens is a solid piece of resin. Checking photos online, it’s pretty much all gray. Luckily Macross is a work of fiction so I can get away with adding some variation so I decided to paint the 3 panels that have cameras behind them. I went with a mix of Model Air Metallic Silver tinted with Model Color Transparent Green. These were painted over a base of Tamiya Gloss Black which I hoped will add additional glossiness.

The stores were also painted with the pylons following the VF-1’s main body color. The Stormshadows were painted Model Air Pale Grey Blue with Model Air Insignia White for the noses. The AMM-1 missiles were Tamiya Flat White with masked and sprayed nose bands in Model Air Dark Panzer Grey.

So this took longer than usual (again) but onwards to finishing this thing.

Build Log
Part 1 – Construction | Part 2 – Construction | Part 3 – Painting | Part 4 – Finishing

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