Hi folks, I've learned from and been inspired by many of the builds here over the years so I thought I'd share one of my own.
I'll be building Hasegawa's recently released 1/48 VF-1 Strike Valkyrie, along with the accompanying weapon set.
Here's a shot of the box along with my previous finished kit, the Master Grade Jesta.
This piece is the air brake, a panel that sits behind the cockpit. This is the first piece I'll modify, by carving out the vents. This modification adds a little bit of detail. To make this easy I'll create several holes in each slot with a pin vise. Later, the underside of this part will be covered with a thin photo etched grill.
After removing the remaining plastic from each vent, there's still quite a bit of rough debris which was smoothed down with some sandpaper.
The underside of the air brake has molded detail which I'll remove and replace with the photo etched grill.
I removed the detail of the underside with a sharp hobby knife and made sure both surfaces were nice and smooth.
Next, I moved to the cockpit. Since the cockpit will be covered by the canopy and attached to the fuselage (to be painted later), the interior of the cockpit needs to be completely finished before I start on the rest of the aircraft.
I began by assembling the pilot. I used some "green stuff" putty instead of plastic cement around the neck and armpits to add a bit of support and fill out the thin upper arms.
I test fit the pilot inside the cockpit and attached additional photo etched details to the cylinders toward the rear of the cockpit.
To make air brushing the pilot easier, I drilled a hole and super glued it to an unbent paper clip. The other end of the wire went into a wine cork. I'll prime the pilot and cockpit parts with Mr. White Base thinned with Mr. Leveling Thinner.
Cockpit parts primed and ready for base coats. I thought the white base coat was too bright for the flight suit, so I gave the pilot a coat of Mr Color 311.
I hand painted the pilot details with paints chosen from various lines.
The rest of the cockpit parts received a coat of Mr Color 13, except for the forward console which was painted black with Mr Color GX 2. The inside of the fuselage surrounding the cockpit was also painted grey at this point. I hand painted the the seat details with Citadel paints, and also gave the cushions a sepia wash.
I'll be applying Hasegawa's photo etched parts to the interior cockpit panels as well. This set of parts comes with additional details that I won't use in this build, as they are intended for builds with an open cockpit sans pilot. Interestingly, these tiny parts are pre painted.
I cut out the photo etched cockpit panels with a sharp hobby knife and stuck them to the sides of the cockpit with super glue. Regular hobby knives aren't really sharp enough to cut into the metal, so I recommend the special scissors Tamiya sells specifically for photo etched parts.
Next time I'll finish the cockpit!
