1:144 Queadluun Rau

Back in 2003 or so I made my first forays into ordering models through Yahoo! Japan. At the time, with the recent release of the Hasegawa VF-1 Battroid I was very interested in other Macross models – I bought a couple Destroid Monsters, a Regult, and this kit, the Imai 1:144 Queadluun Rau. I don’t remember why I wanted this kit at the time – whether I really loved the design at that point or if this was just something I threw in to some purchase as a kind of bonus… But this was also not too long after AnimEigo’s DVD release of Macross in the US, so it’s possible the Rau was something I was genuinely interested in building. I do remember that at the time I felt the kit would require some significant modifications to look presentable – resculpting the forearms and chest were two of the prime items on the “to-do” list, I think… At various points I gave some thought to converting it to the movie version, as well. But anyway, years went by without any work being done on this kit.

Earlier this year, on MMC we held a “Female Mecha Contest” – and so I decided to finally build up the Rau and enter it. There would be no extensive modifications, no resculpting or anything – just a simple build of an old kit. I missed the dealine, unfortunately, but I managed to get the model close to finished at least – by the time I gave up on meeting the deadline, the model already had all its basic colors on, including detail paint like the black stripes and the red camera eye… But I didn’t want to enter it in the MMC in this state, it didn’t seem really “finished”.

Later on I resumed work on the kit – glossing it up, adding the kit decals (I wasn’t initially sure if I wanted to clutter up the model with all those markings – but after having applied them I think it was the right decision), and reglossing several times to erase any trace of the decal edges. I had been considering doing a weathering step but at the time I also had two other projects I was trying to finish for Granitecon, so I put it on a base and declared it “done”. I have mixed feelings about the idea of weathering it: on the one hand it would add some depth to the model, but on the other hand I like it how it is… So most likely it will stay the way it is, and I’ll move on to other things now.

When I first started modeling I always approached old kits as if they were fundamentally in need of correction. These days, I’m more comfortable building old kits OOB, like I did this one, and appreciating them for their own qualities. I think this kit is one that I vastly underrated back in the day. Once you paint it up, this kit looks pretty damn nice, I’d say.

The kit’s basically a straight build. I didn’t paint the missile unit (in part ’cause the detail is wrong, in part ’cause there’s only one of them) or the pilot figure. I built the cockpit sealed closed in order to simplify construction and also because the cockpit interior is completely undetailed. I think the bit that gave me the most trouble was the backpack – it’s a large, hollow space in there, and I found it hard to bond the two halves of it together sufficiently to keep them from cracking apart again.

Photos