Macross VF-1S Valkyrie 1/72 scale

Which particular kit are you looking at?

In 1/72, you have the older 1980's Imai kits (3-in-1 transformable kit, Battroid, "Super" Fighter with boosters and armour packs)  which are all ok for their age. Note that the transformable kit has a whole bunch of compromises (such as big hinges, size and shape oddities etc) for the sake of  "transformability"

Then you have the much newer Hasegawa kits. I haven't seen a battroid version in the flesh, but the fighter version kits are the only game in town for 1/72 scale and are nicely moulded, well detailed and  very desirable.

The Hasegawa Battroids are ok, not as good as the fighters though, but than Hasegawa's strength was always fighters.

Their super armored Valkyrie(battroid) seems to be nice.

Wave I think did some battroids in 1/100 or were the 1/72

For 1/72 Valkyries I still prefer the old Imai 1/72 Kit.

Mad-Modeler

For 1/72 Valkyries I still prefer the old Imai 1/72 Kit.

Yeah, the old Imai kits went together pretty well, though the shape of the nose on the single-seat Gerwalks was a bit off (long and droopy-looking)

I never understood why no-one did a proper "Fighter mode" kit (aside from the transformable kit and the "Super" Fighter adapted from the Gerwalk kit) in 1/72 way back when. We had to wait nearly 20 years for Hasegawa to do it.

I've never built one, but I want to. If you build it, please share.

I can see myself building a transformable VF-1S in the near future...

Phil_H

I can see myself building a transformable VF-1S in the near future...

Yes... yes... I close my eyes... and cast my gaze into the Great Beyond... and I too can see you building a transformable VF-1S...

You will begin the project with much optimism and enthusiasm...

...but then there will be setbacks... some minor, some dire enough to invoke the Words of Cursing...

There will be much sanding and fitting... and then painting...

...you will take many photographs of your work, and post them to a familiar online forum...

There will be much "Ooh" ing and "Aah"ing by your admirers...

...and then your kit will be complete, and ready to triumphantly take it's rightful place on the shelf, amongst the others of it's kind.

That is what I see. 

Sounds good to me

Now how about you seeing the lottery numbers and sharing

My daughter picked up 4 copies of the BanDai 1/100 scale VF-1S Super Battroid Valkyrie at the Anime Expo back in July. Haven't had a chance to build any of them yet, but they seem like decent kits. Will be fun building them.

Cosmic J

Yes... yes... I close my eyes... and cast my gaze into the Great Beyond... and I too can see you building a transformable VF-1S...

 You will begin the project with much optimism and enthusiasm...

...but then there will be setbacks... some minor, some dire enough to invoke the Words of Cursing...

There will be much sanding and fitting... and then painting...

 

LMAO...

Actually it's not all that bad. I did a "D" version many years ago and it went together quite nicely. If there's any real problem with the kit, it's that the movable joints work themselves loose in fairly short order and it looks a bit... umm... "floppy"..

I could build it in a permanent "fighter mode" and glue all the movable stuff and eliminate the huge hinge bulges, but that would also involve rebuilding the underside of the fuselage and contouring the underside of the wing gloves. Now that would involve a lot of filler and sanding...

If I were a glutton for punishment I'd have a crack at the (Revell boxied) VF-1J, but I don't relish the thought of trying to paint white over red plastic. Why did they do that, when it's so much easier to paint red over white than it is to paint white over red?

SLW 45

Sounds good to me

Now how about you seeing the lottery numbers and sharing

Oh, I'm not psychic. I'm just buzzing on paint fumes.

Phil_H

If I were a glutton for punishment I'd have a crack at the (Revell boxied) VF-1J, but I don't relish the thought of trying to paint white over red plastic. Why did they do that, when it's so much easier to paint red over white than it is to paint white over red?

I truly do not know. Was the Battletech version of that mech red? I think they were trying a crossover thing back in the 80's.

Cosmic J

I truly do not know. Was the Battletech version of that mech red? I think they were trying a crossover thing back in the 80's.

Actually, what happened was that Revell marketed the three "transformable" types (VF-1S/D/J) as separate entities without any direct connection to Macross, under the "Robotech Changers" heading. (Somewhat odd as the 1/100 and 1/170 scale kits sold by Revell retained their original Macross schemes)

As such, all three had proprietary colour schemes, the VF-1S being similar to the original (but slightly different) , but the J being red all over and the D having a sand/brown(?) camo scheme. So the red moulded VF-1J came directly from Imai from the "Millia" version kit. (I have a :Millia" version battroid kit which is also moulded in red.)

At some point, Imai issued all the 1/72 Valk kits as a "Conversion Type", moulded in off-white with all three (S/J/A) heads and markings for all versions. I think I have at least one each of the Imai boxed transformable, Battroid and Gerwalk kits in this format.

There endeth the history lesson.....

Thanks everyone.  I hope to pick up one fromt eh Bandai series in a couple of months.  I promise I will take and post pictures along the way... along witht he Star Wars Venerator... the several HUMVEE's, the 1970 Mustang 429 Boss...  maybe I have too much on my plate now. :)

If you're venturing into the Battletech area, colors are greatly varied.  There are the basic colors of the five great houses, the Perifery states, the Solaris stables and even the clans.  Then you can go into various cammoflage patterns.  Mercenariey units provided even more variation, there's one group that is know as a traveling circus because each pilot is allowed to paint their machine as they see fit.  I think they were Comacho's Cabelerros (or some similar spelling)

Decals for practically any unit are available from Fighting Pirannah Graphics.  Normally they make them for the table top miniatures but by request they wwill provide a sheet with larger markings for use on models.

Not sure  was mentioned:

Bandai does reissues the 1/72 IMAI Valkyries every so often, same as the tomahawk, glaug, zentraedi suits, etc.

Nothing in 1/72 or regults though.  For robotech fans, you are SOL for season 2 and season3 as NO kits from orguss or Mospeada are being reissued(curses on Aoshima who bought the licences).

As for battletech colours schemes(same as dougram) pretty much anything goes as the mech/equipment was often repainted in camo that suited the local planet and environment.

Example: in areas where the trees didn't stand above 9 metres the suits were often painted sky-blue in upper half and lower half in forest camo.

Some of the Battletech/Dougram gear though was often designed for specific environments only though.

Still laugh at the battletech Locust(20 ton mech), it actually is a smallish unmanned drone from "Crusher Joe".

HTH.

P.S.; played the original tabletop wargame and the early computer games,  lost interest a bit after the clan invasion(kerensky return) started as the game took a turn away from the original concept.

Mad-Modeler

For robotech fans, you are SOL for season 2 and season3 as NO kits from orguss or Mospeada are being reissued(curses on Aoshima who bought the licences).

Orguss had no part in (yechh) Robotech. Season two was adapted from Southern Cross, from which Arii and Imai made 1/12 kts of the individual characters' battle armour and some sundry items like the little hover-cycle.

If I recall correctly, Imai had exclusive rights to Mospeada kits and these haven't seen the light of day for many years, except for about a year or two ago when Aoshima re-released the three 1/48 "variable" Legioss kits. IIRC, one variation is still available from HLJ if you really want one. (At one time a "variable" Legioss kit was marketed by Monogram under the "GoBots" branding.)

Sorry old age. Orguss(3rd in  the Dimension fortress series/all unrelated ) was supposed to be season 4.

Still no Southern Cross kits being reissued.

Some Orguss and Dougram kits were included in the Revell Robotech series though.

From now on, you are my go-to guys on all things Macross model related.

ikar01

Decals for practically any unit are available from Fighting Pirannah Graphics.  Normally they make them for the table top miniatures but by request they wwill provide a sheet with larger markings for use on models.

Thank you thank you. That is very good to know - I have another Tomahawk, and it will be nice to be able decal it different than the first. 

When you go to the sight you will also be able to get the warning markings and numbers.  If you check out cammospecs they show minis painted in the various units colors.

Man, I just about choked when I saw several Ebay listings for the Revell-boxed 1/72 transformable Valks (boxed as "Robotech Changers) at $65.00 a pop.  

The Bandai repops can be had new for about $28.00 (excl shipping) from HLJ.

I have built Hasegawas VF-1S in 1:72 scale. And I think it turned out well. This kit has tons of details and the decales are Incredable. I saw that Hasegawsa has released a new kit that has a pull away panel on the left leg / engine.

Thank You for looking  

Very nice..   Looks like you added a HUD to the instrument panel coaming?

Hasegawa released a 1/48th kit with optional open panels to display interior on the left leg/engine and the upper fuselage. The 1/72 scale kits remain unchanged as far as I'm aware.

Oops I think it is 1:48, I need to check.  The HUD came with the kit, The fun part was painting the brackets that holds up the two HUD pains flat black.  

Phil_H

 

 

If I were a glutton for punishment I'd have a crack at the (Revell boxied) VF-1J, but I don't relish the thought of trying to paint white over red plastic. Why did they do that, when it's so much easier to paint red over white than it is to paint white over red?

Just caught this and thought I'd answer that.

Even though the Rick Hunter/Hikaru Ichijo VF-1J featured in the last shot of the Macross/Robotech opening is the one most people here seem to remember with it's white paint and red stripes, it was actually one of three VF-1Js flown by main characters.  The other two were Max ( in his usual blue-and-white ) and Miriya/Milia ( in a red-and-white pattern matching Max's ), and 3 different colors of the transformable 1:72 VF-1J kit were released, one for each character's mecha.  The Revell rebox was of the Miriya/Milia version.

I guess either Bandai overestimated Milia's popularity when figuring out how many of each to build or someone left the production line on over the weekend and Revell got the spares.

Yep, I'm familiar with the origins of the kit, it was a rhetorical question really. It's just irksome to try to paint white (or almost white) over red plastic.

Mad-Modeler

 

  For robotech fans, you are SOL for season 2 and season3 as NO kits from orguss or Mospeada are being reissued(curses on Aoshima who bought the licences).

Man, I gotta check in here more often...

I think some of the Orguss kits were re-released at the same time as the Mospeada kits you mentioned.  I picked up the larger-scale transformable Olson and mass-production Orguss kits last year and the box art looked to be the same type as those Aoshima Mospeada re-releases.