Revoltech Yamaguchi VF-1A (3-way Transformation) Review

I woke up with a surprise last Wednesday. A package from my friends at 45Fresh arrived containing a Revoltech Yamaguchi VF-1A (3-way Transformation) inside it. And boy I was excited to open it like a kid at Christmas day. 

The hefty box...

...which contained THIS!

Warhammer 40k Orks: Kult of the Kitz Defkoptas

Time for some Ork mecha (Or should I say 'mekka'). Here's my Deffkoptas Squadron the 'Skall Skwadron'

Color scheme's inspired by Macross' Skull Squadron. These were my most favorite minis topaint among the 'Assault on Black Reach' set. Loved the design for these, they're essentially one-Ork mini-copters with some formidable fire power. They mainly serve as Fast Attackers/Flankers for an Ork army, among their other outlandish war machines.

Remembering some (Macross) Love

Time flies so fast. I remember watching the original Macross TV series in grade school, before I was exposed to Gundam a decade later (college years). It was the first 'real robot' show I laid eyes on and fell in love with. The show was cutting edge even at that time when anime was not that popular yet (and still awkwardly called 'japanimation') and the only SF series shown on the 'tube was of the hardcore kind. It was more than a mecha show, a span ahead of the 'monster-of-the-week' robot shows back then. Don;t get me wrong, Super Robot also have a spot on my heart. Any mecha show for that matter. But Macross is special much like love at first sight.

And now, 30 years past, Macross still reminds us to 'remember love'.

1/72 VF-1 Finished

I had this little piece featured a few weeks ago and now it's finished. It took around 6 weekends to finish this one and I can really say that big kits are a challenge to me.

Anyway, i had this planned to show it's original colors but since I like to look like no one else's Valkyrie, I decided to have it on metallics. I used Vallejo acrylics on this one, mainly gunmetal, soot, flat black and silver. The panel lines were done with Copic markers sized 0.05 and 0.03.

Probably the best thing I've enjoyed on this kit is the Skull Squadron emblem on the cockpit cover. Also, I loved the sticker placement I did on this one (which are actually left-over sticker from a RG RX-78-2 Gundam)Turns out the color scheme worked fine and dandy, definitely one of my best works thus far.

More pics after the jump.

Deviant Feature: vash68

We have the talented vash68 gracing Rai's Garage DeviantArtist feature for this week. vash68 is most especially known in DA for his builds ranging from Model T's, movie and TV vehicles (like the Delorian which he has some awesome builds of) and war planes but as it turns out he's also a visual artist too. Let's hear the rest of his story from him:


Rai's Garage (RG):First off, what’s your real name? Can you tell us that or would you stick to your DA persona?
vash68:Daniel Hollingsworth

One of his most realistic, A For TT complete with a scratch built bed.

Rai's Garage (RG):Tell us something about yourself: age, occupation, country of origin, and other hobbies/interests beyond DA etc.

One of his T's

vash68: I’m 24 years old going to college to learn about automotive paint and body work , also metal fabrication. I want go into building hotrods and customs and hopefully open my own shop. I enjoy mainly building car models, but I also enjoy building military subjects. I also like restoring and collecting antiques, mainly classic trains, military memorabilia, and classic car parts, pretty much anything that catches my interest or has history behind it. I’m a car buff, I love classic cars from all eras. Right now I’m restoring a 1968 Camaro in my free time, which is the 2nd cars I’ve owned, but my first project car.

Rai's Garage (RG):What do you normally post in DA?
vash68: Mainly car photos, pics of the models I’ve built, car sketches on occasions, paintings, and WIP pics of various projects I’m working on.

Rai's Garage (RG):How did you know of DA?
vash68: A few friends of mine urged me to join, so I did! And because of that I’ve made more new friends over Deviant Art, I’m on DA more than I’m on
Facebook!

WIP: 1/72 Battroid Valkyrie

Unpainted, shown to scale next to a can of flour pumice.

After finishing the 1/100 V2 recently., I decided to work on another hand-me-down from a friend of mine: A 1/72 scale Battroid Valkyrie made by Hasegawa. This is the second 'large' mecha kit I'm working on, as 1/144 is usually my working scale.

Now this is a 'fixed' figuration kit; It's non-transformable apparently because Bandai has the license for the transformation gimmicks for their Macross kits. So the Hasegawa kits have to make do with their Macross kits molded in one configuration. But then again, Hasegawa is known for their top notch aircraft kits and this shows in their Valkyrie.  There are a lot of little details in the form of groves, pinions and notches akin to a Hasegawa aircraft kit. So far, I'm loving this build.

Base coated after some weeks of procrastination

 This one is in Battroid form kinda like how Starscream looks like in his robot form. The fuselage forms the torso, the thrusters form the legs and the arms are formed out of the body of the Valkyrie. The kit is mostly snap built, but there were a lot of parts I've cemented and sanded so that everything would fit and look seamless.  

I've base coated the parts with gunmetal, so you can be pretty sure how this will be turning out. As you can see, details. A lot of it. I'm yet to see a Bandai VF kit have all this crazy detail.

That's all for now! Oh, you might want to check out some Revoltech Valkyries from 45fresh. If you're the kind that's more into mecha action figures then this line is for you.

*A few notes: I constantly refer to the VF-1 as a 'Valkyrie'. I am using Macross naming conventions which are very different from Robotech conventions. For example, the VF-1 is designated as a "Veritech' in Roobotech and so is the word 'Battloid' (humanoid form). Mre into this, but I'll leave it off for another day.

One more pic,for the road. Look at all those parts!