In the summer of 2002, two new kits were announced which quickly caught my attention: the first was Bandai's HGUC Zaku II, the second was Hasegawa's VF-1 Battroid. I had been impressed with Hasegawa's VF-1 fighter kits, but hadn't felt confident enough in my ability to handle fine details on models to attempt one. Besides which, Gundam had taken over my modeling hobby: since my first Gundam Wing kit, I hadn't done any Macross stuff. However, the prospect of doing a full-action robot kit that looked as good as Hasegawa's VF-1 fighter kits appealed to me, so I figured it might be worth pre-ordering one.
I received the kit sometime in July, and spent most of August attempting to complete the kit for the Cyber Model Competition's August competition, "Best Macross Mecha". After the first full test-fit I fell in love with the kit: it was everything I've come to believe a full-action mecha kit should be. It had pleasing proportions and an emphasis on quality of representation over simplicity of assembly. All its joints were well covered, with no parts wasted on representations of non-visible "internal mechanisms", and everything from the thorough colorguide to the extensive decal sheet was set up to make the kit build into a very nice model. As a nice bonus, the finished model has a rather surprising knack for standing up in odd positions. Given the very limited ankle mobility and the Valkyrie's hollow jet-engine feet, I didn't think it would be able to stand in convincing action poses, but in fact it can. I attribute this to the model's lightweight construction.
At this point, really most everything is done, but I made some mistakes along the way that I want to fix. The colors don't quite match up, and some of the panel lines are really screwed up. Also, one or two things have cropped up that I actually would want to change about the kit, so I'll be dealing with those as well. The renovation will begin with paint and decals being removed from the arms and lower legs... so if it doesn't work out, the pre-renovation photos are Sempai's last message to us from The Land of Eternal Pineapple Salad.
