1:170 Macross Valkyrie Fighter VF-1J by ARII

December 2011

Here's another model that sat around in limbo for quite a while. I'd airbrushed this Valkyrie with white Tamiya paint several years ago. The cockpit was Testors Gloss Bright Blue enamel paint from a spray can. I wanted to get some waterslide decal experience with this, so after doing the Zippo oil + Testors flat black enamel for the panel lines, I did a gloss coat of Future Floor Polish, applied the waterslide decals, and sealed it with a coat of semigloss Future by mixing Tamiya Flat Base with Future floor polish.

The small 1:170 scale of this Valkyrie makes it a good candidate for using it as a miniature for playing a Robotech or Battletech tabletop RPG. The legs can be moved down into a Gerwalk position, but without the proper articulation, this looks pretty dumb. What I don't like about this kit is that you must decide between attaching the gunpod or putting the fighter on its display stand. Oh well. The nose didn't fit quite right, so I had to use some puttying and sanding to get it to look right. This was good practice. However, the paint job was a bit lacking, because I either didn't thin the acrylic paint enough, or I was spraying too far away. The panel lining on the underside of the fighter looks like crap, as a result. Oh well; this was a learning experience. I bought it for only 300 yen at the Madarake in Osaka ten years ago, so I'd rather practice on a throwaway like this than screw up on a bigger kit.

ARII was one of several plastic model companies that released Macross kits back in the 80s, along with IMAI and Nichimo. Bandai was actually a latecomer to the Macross plamo world and didn't start releasing Macross kits until 1985. ARII and the others were releasing their kits starting in 1982. Nowadays, Valkyries are released in 1:72 scale by Bandai and Hasegawa.

Go back to the model gallery