I found a semi-built VF-1S Strike Valkyrie in my stash and decided I to finish it.
Turns out I’ve made quite a bit of progress with this one. But:
- workmanship wasn’t great
- the masking tape has dried out and there was residue stuck to the parts
- the whole clear sprue is missing
- Some parts are also missing or broken
- of note is how the parts have yellowed through the years
Around this time I chanced upon a configuration of the Strike Valkyrie that mounted 2 Super FAST packs under its wings. This variant comes from the Variable Fighter Master FIle ‘SDF-1 Macross VF-1 Squadrons’ book by SB Media and was referred to as the VF-1 S-FAST pack / Config ver. 1.1 w.
I decided to go crazy and mount 2 Strike and 2 Super packs on a VF-1 ie. a VF-1S Super Strike Valkyrie! This configuration however requires another Strike Valkyrie kit. So out one came from my stash.
I’m pretty much building one kit out of 2 boxes. It’s a waste but hey: plastic only.
So I quickly started with the parts I needed to replace from the first kit. First is the main fuselage. To hide the swing wing mechanism I covered the slots with Evergreen grated plate. I also cemented the swing-wing mechanism in place.
I made a simple mod on the inlet on the back (which is now facing the front when the FAST packs are mounted) with plastic plate. This hides the injection pin marks inside the part.
I couldn’t come up with an easy way to paint these after assembly so the exhausts had to be painted up and installed upfront.
Unlike more modern releases there is no wheels up option so the gear doors need to be modified to fit closed.
Thankfully, the main 2-part doors fitted well. The 3rd part, the one with the indent needed to be modified to fit. The base where the door attaches to when the landing gear is down needed to be removed totally before the gear door can slide in. I also had to cut the corner of the door to get a better fit.
With the gear doors closed, there’s now a gap between the 2 sections of the leg/engines so I added a small plastic plate to cover the gap.
The pilot is from the Hasegawa Macross weapon set. With such a crazy configuration the pilot HAS to be Milia Jenius right? The missiles and pylons will also come from this.
The pilot figure is actually male but I think once under the canopy it should be able to pass for a female. I think only hardcore Macross fans will recognize Milia’s helmet color anyway. 🙂
I added 0.2mm plastic plate spacers on the prongs at the back of the cockpit section for a better fit into the fuselage.
The head is mostly unseen except for the head laser barrels so these were drilled out.
Build Log
Part 1 – Construction | Part 2 – Construction | Part 3 – Painting |
Part 4 – Finishing | Part 5 – Final Assembly
