Vifam7 Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 I know I won’t finish my Hasegawa kit before the end of the year but I figured I should at least finish my Arii 1/100 fighter mode VF-1S. Finally completed it today. Took me half the year to complete this relatively simple kit! But that’s more due to my extra slow pace and repeated delays in working on it. Putting the kit together wasn’t that difficult but it did require glue, putty, and sanding. It’s an old kit so the fit wasn’t that great too. But it was a cheap kit ($10) and thus it made for a good kit to attempt my first full paint job. Pretty much built the kit straight out of the box. The only mod I made was to the main landing gear doors. Didn’t like the large one piece rectangular doors , so I split it in half down the middle. The sculpt of the VF-1S head underneath is completely wrong and perhaps a bit too big but I haven’t got the skills to fix that. As for painting, I used USAF light grey from a rattle can (Tamiya AS-16) as the base color. Brush painted everything else with enamel paints. I’m sure if I used an airbrush, some of the edges would be sharper. But since I won’t have one for the foreseeable future, this about as good it gets with my mediocre skills. As you might see on the last pic, I messed up on the decals. Silvering happened. Ack! Oh well, another lesson learned. My build isn’t anywhere close to what others here at MW can do. The photos are hiding some of the really bad blemishes. :embarrassed: Quote
gwfalcon Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 Nice job, man. Thx for sharing. It would be perfect if doing the panel line + light weathering. Quote
jardann Posted December 15, 2009 Posted December 15, 2009 That looks really good! Your brush painted areas look good. The landing gear are very nice. And, I really like the results you got on the missiles. The main color seems spot on as well, a great choice! You did quite a nice job on that kit. They are good kits to just have some fun with. Those fighter mode kits are probably the best of the 1/100 scale kits of that generation. They have pleasing proportions. They also have three things that I just hate. 1-The heads don't look like anything that you see anywhere in the anime. 2-There are no pilots! It's not like you can pick up very many aftermarket pilots in 1/100 scale! 3-The decals tend to be terrible. Not just the printing, but they are thick and don't stick that well either. Quote
Vifam7 Posted December 15, 2009 Author Posted December 15, 2009 (edited) Nice job, man. Thx for sharing. It would be perfect if doing the panel line + light weathering. Actually I did panel line it. I used a mechanical pencil so it came out rather light. The camera flash pretty much wiped it out. That looks really good! Your brush painted areas look good. The landing gear are very nice. And, I really like the results you got on the missiles. The main color seems spot on as well, a great choice! You did quite a nice job on that kit. They are good kits to just have some fun with. Thanks! Those fighter mode kits are probably the best of the 1/100 scale kits of that generation. They have pleasing proportions. They also have three things that I just hate. 1-The heads don't look like anything that you see anywhere in the anime. 2-There are no pilots! It's not like you can pick up very many aftermarket pilots in 1/100 scale! 3-The decals tend to be terrible. Not just the printing, but they are thick and don't stick that well either. Yes, as I noted above, the sculpt of the head is utterly wrong. When I first saw it, I was like "what's this? this is no VF-1S head!" I actually had a 1/100 scale pilot from an old Tamiya 1/100 kit which I considered inserting but nixed it when I saw the thick canopy and figured you'd only see something distorted anyways. As for the decals, maybe that's why I got such bad silvering. Though I think it's mainly because I didn't prepare the surface better and didn't use any Microsol. I'm looking forward to the Wave kit. It'll be interesting the compare the 2 kits. Edited December 16, 2009 by Vifam7 Quote
AcroRay Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 Awww... Very nice! Picture-perfect old school piece. Warms my heart, Vifam! Quote
Wicked Ace Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) Yes, the nostalgia is what many members like myself love about Macross collecting -- thanks for sharing the pictures of this model. I laugh at the inaccuracies of this kit's castings but still enjoy my memories of the same kind of kits I not-so-skillfully built many years ago. Edited December 20, 2009 by Wicked Ace Quote
leading edge Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 Yes, the nostalgia is what many members like myself love about Macross collecting -- thanks for sharing the pictures of this model. I laugh at the inaccuracies of this kit's castings but still enjoy my memories of the same kind of kits I not-so-skillfully built many years ago. I like the white a little grayer than pure kind of titanium white and the black looks pretty pristine. Did you do anything to the surface like a little epoxy and sanding to even out the imperfections in the surface? Thos e older kits had areas with "dimples" where the plastic wasn't properly cast. From what I can see from you pictures the body is all there and the paint is applied very evenly. Quote
Vifam7 Posted December 20, 2009 Author Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) (AcroRay) Awww... Very nice! Picture-perfect old school piece. Warms my heart, Vifam! Even built it old-school style! Yes, the nostalgia is what many members like myself love about Macross collecting -- thanks for sharing the pictures of this model. I laugh at the inaccuracies of this kit's castings but still enjoy my memories of the same kind of kits I not-so-skillfully built many years ago. I think a good many of us Macross fans bought and stocked a number of these classic kits over the years. I had this particular kit since 1995! I have 1 more of these old 1/100 Arii fighter kits and an Imai 1/100 full-transform Super Valk still in my closet. I need to get them built before Wave's upcoming 1/100 kit and Bandai's Hi-Metal toy spoils me. Edited December 20, 2009 by Vifam7 Quote
Smegalot Posted December 21, 2009 Posted December 21, 2009 Cool, I remeber making those myself. I still have a few on my Shelf, even though they have a bit of ware and tear. I mnade these probably 10+ years ago. and I still like them. ANd the old ARII kits are still good Quote
AcroRay Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 I think a good many of us Macross fans bought and stocked a number of these classic kits over the years. I had this particular kit since 1995! I bought & built my first 1/100 Arii Valkyrie fighter in 1985! Quote
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