The absolute biggest kit in my stash. Macross VF-1S Strike Valkyrie

[BlrwestSiR]

Okay, so for those of us who didn't grow up in the early '80s, Macross was a Japanese anime series that had humans flying in transforming fighter planes fight off an alien invasion. Throw in a love triangle, a catchy song and some fantastic animation and you have a classic. It was popular enough that they made a feature film out of it called Macross- Do you Remember Love?

Many of the Japanese model companies made various kits of the robots or mecha featured in the series but most were in smaller scales, like 1/72 or 1/100. There were a couple kits in 1/48 but not many. Then Hasegawa came out with a series of kits starting with 1/72 and branching out into 1/48. These are some of the best kits from a detail and fit standpoint. I thought that they would be the biggest I'd see of my favourite mecha subject.  Here's my 1/48 build. 

Then a couple years ago, a company called Max Factory announced they were going to do one in 1/20(!) scale. This became a grail kit/must have instantly. I managed to preorder it from Japan and accepted that shipping was going to what it was. 

Needless to say, it's a big box. It even have warnings on the corners. 

Inside, the outer box is the kit box itself. 

The contents are spilt into two boxes labelled creatively upper and lower. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Here's what inside the boxes. 

Compared to the Tamiya F-14 that I'm currently working on. 

Fuselage

The FAST pack secondary cannon

A bottle of Tamiya acrylic inside one of the engine nozzles. 

The pilot. 

This is the AM I'll be using on the build. I decided to add lighting to the model so I contacted Evans Design and they were great help in figuring out what I needed and how best to light the model. 

I also bought the optional decal set as the kit comes with stickers. 

Lots and lots of paint too but we all know what they look like. 

[DocRob]

You'll need a bigger bench, Carl .

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Carl

Absolutely amazing and going to be an epic build. Looking at the box and packaging, it surely seems to equal the Border Lancaster in size and especially care.

I've often thought of a GB, based around the following guideline:

The kit comes in a very large box with lots of sprues and parts, will occupy a lot of space when finished and is going to take time to build. Of course, I had in mine aircraft kits such as the Border and HM Lancasters, large size ships, large size armor and of course large size cars. 

The kit/model has to be BIG.

Not sure how many of the guys would be interested in such a GB but who knows. Just food for thought as I keep getting nearer and nearer to building the Lancaster.

 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Some how that doesn't look like a Tiger 1 Carl...lol. Cool kit, by the 80's I was married with two kids.😁

Ron G 

[BlrwestSiR]

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Carl

Absolutely amazing and going to be an epic build. Looking at the box and packaging, it surely seems to equal the Border Lancaster in size and especially care.

I've often thought of a GB, based around the following guideline:

The kit comes in a very large box with lots of sprues and parts, will occupy a lot of space when finished and is going to take time to build. Of course, I had in mine aircraft kits such as the Border and HM Lancasters, large size ships, large size armor and of course large size cars. 

The kit/model has to be BIG.

Not sure how many of the guys would be interested in such a GB but who knows. Just food for thought as I keep getting nearer and nearer to building the Lancaster.

 

Peter, that could be a good topic. Certainly this kit would fit into most of those categories.

If you look at the first pic I posted of the box, you can see the fuselage to my HK Lanc to the left. 

[BlrwestSiR]

9 hours ago, CrankyCrafstman said:

Some how that doesn't look like a Tiger 1 Carl...lol. Cool kit, by the 80's I was married with two kids.😁

Ron G 

Nope, definitely not a Tiger. The Tiger is near the top of the pile but this and the Tomcat are first. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

I went back and saw your Lanc. I just thought a GB based on Large/Big kits and not by scale would be a great idea. The possibilities are nearly endless.

, 

[BlrwestSiR]

Peter, I agree. I know @ScottsGT has a 1/350 USS Enterprise which might sound like a small scale but is close to 1m (40") long. 

A large, scale model vs. a large-scale, model. 

 

 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Sure does. My idea is just a large model, can be any scale.

 

[Clunkmeister]

Carl, I’m so incredibly disappointed in you, man.  I’ve truly lost faith!   THAT BENCH!?!  I’ve never once seen you with such a criminally clean bench in all my days.  It’s bleeding well spotless!   How dare you!   I find you guilty and hereby sentence you to permanent bench time until that bench is suitably cluttered with only a 10” spot left to build. 
😂😂😂

[BlrwestSiR]

@Clunkmeister, have no fear. That was a true aberration. 

The current state of my bench:

If that's too neat, there's my other bench to the right of that one:

I think I could give Davis-Mothan a run for their money with that one. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Not sure how you find what you are looking for; I'm just the opposite. But seeing all your amazing work over the years, your system absolutely works for you.