Vehicle build – Batmobile (Tumbler)

Whelp, this didn’t take too long to build at all! My favorite version of this iconic car, it’s the Batmobile (Tumbler). 1/35 scale plastic model from Bandai. From the Batman “Dark Knight” trilogy movies.

It’s nice to do a simple (but nice looking) build every once in a while. No putty needed at all, and only a few bits needed gluing. Only colors needed were flat black, silver, a gold/steel mixture (instructions say gold, a video I saw of one of the film used props was more a bronze color. don’t have bronze, hence the mix), and burnt iron. Only weathering I did was to brush on a little Tamiya Burnt Blue around the jet exhaust.

The interior just consists of only two seats that you really don’t need to use, seeing as how the glass is so tinted you can’t see anything in there anyways.

Guess my only real complaint is I wish it were 1/24 scale instead of 1/35. I still recommend one of these if you can find it, though.

This kit was completed on May 26, 2024.

Macross Build – VF-171 Nightmare Plus (Macross Delta version)

VF-171ナイトメアプラス、アルベルト・ララサーバル機 「惑星ヴォルドールのエースパイロット」

1/72スケール、ウェーブから。

Another build down, another build that doesn’t actually exist as a “you can buy it like this” kit. This is a VF-171 Nightmare Plus, piloted by Alberto Larrazabal. 1/72 scale plastic kit from Wave. From the Japanese animation “Macross Delta”.

The 171 is used as the main NUNS fighter in both Macross Frontier and Macross Delta. However, the Frontier version is blueish-green, and that’s the only version Wave has released so far. As usual, I wanted to do things a little different.

Build wise, it’s typical Wave easiness. Took less than a week for the primary building, only had to use putty on 2 small areas. Once again, it’s the painting and marking that’ll get ya.

A majority of the decals I used are from the previous VF-171EX kit Wave put out. They announced that they’ll be releasing an armored version of that kit, so I didn’t feel bad poaching the decals for this build. (already have alternate plans for that kit)

The black NUNS logos, and the cat squadron marking I made myself.

This build was completed on April 14, 2024.

Macross Build – VF-31J Siegfried

ＶＦ－３１Ｊシークフリード　ハヤテ機。1/72スケール、ハセガワから。

First build of 2024 completed! Yes, I know we’re in the second week of March now. This is a VF-31J Siegfried, piloted by Hayate Immelman, with Frejya Wion in the backseat. 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Macross Delta”.

The Siegfried. Easy to build, a bitch to detail. That’s one of the reasons it took so long to complete. All of the blue (except for the thin stripes on the back) were painted. When I mixed up the shade, it was a touch darker than the decal shade, so I decided not to use any of them.

A majority of the gray were also painted on, as well. I think with all the masking and painting I had to do is what killed off my motivation for working on it (another reason it took so long). But, a re-watch of the entire Macross Delta series helped to cure that.

This particular scene I’m thinking comes right when they’re landing back at the Macross Elysion after their unauthorized flight, when Messer found them and threatened to shoot them down.

This kit was completed on March 10, 2024.

2023 – Build year in review

Another year down! Got a few kits off of the storage shelves, and onto the display shelves; but of course more new kits went into storage than came out (we all prepare for retirement in our own ways). Here’s what I managed to get built in 2023.

VF-25A Super Messiah. 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Macross Frontier”. Completed on March 1st.

VF-1J Valkyrie piloted by Max Jenius. “What an ace pilot!” 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Super-dimensional Fortress Macross”. Completed on April 23rd.

A-Wing starfighter. 1/72 scale plastic model from Bandai. Debuted in the Star Wars film “Return of the Jedi”. Completed on May 7th.

VF-22S Sturmvogel II, SVF-41 Black Aces 100th Anniversary. 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Macross 7”. Completed on July 18th.

United Nations Cosmo Navy Combined Cosmo Fleet- Part 1. All 1/1000 scale plastic kits from Bandai. From the Japanese animation “Space Battleship Yamato 2199”. All completed on September 26th.

UH-1D Iroquois helicopter, aka “Huey”. 1/48 scale plastic kit from Italeri. Completed on November 23rd.

Here’s to a buildful 2024. Remember, if you can complete at least one kit to your satisfaction, you’ve had a productive year!

Aircraft build – UH-1D Iroquois “Huey”

UH-1Dイロコイ　「ヒューイ」。1/48スケール、イタレリから。

Dipping my toes back into the real world. Just completed a UH-1D Iroquois, better known as the Huey. 1/48 scale plastic kit from Italeri.

I changed out the original pilot seats with armored seats (which you can’t see in these photos, but can see in my build progress thread on Twitter), and added door guns thanks to accessories from Reskit.

The tail boom antenna was made by stretching out a scrap piece of sprue over a candle flame to get something that looks like a wire. For some reason, I couldn’t get the Italeri sprue to stretch properly, but a piece of Hasegawa did the trick.

“First of the Seventh was an old cavalry division that cashed in its horses for choppers and gone tear-assing around ‘Nam looking for the shit.”

“Well, Air Mobile. Those boys just couldn’t stay put.”

(paraphrasing “Apocolypse Now”)

This was my first Italeri kit. My impressions are that while it’s not a difficult kit, it’s hella frustrating, mainly due to poorly drawn instructions. There are multiple holes you have to drill, but the part in the instruction sheet doesn’t match up to the actual part (the guide holes are in totally different places between the two). Any historical accuracy mistakes are due to the poor instructions, and my not caring enough to do any thorough reaseach. I made it for myself. I’m not a “rivet-counter” type of modeler, and I have no plans on entering this in any type of IPMS competition. I recomend building one, but don’t try to make it your first couple of kits.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, and no one else who’s built this seems to mention either, but you do not need nose weight for this kit.

This kit was completed on November 22, 2023.

Space Battleship Yamato build – United Nations Cosmo Navy Combined Cosmo Fleet (part 1)

Every time I finish a big build project, I tell myself “No more big projects!”, of course until the next one arises. Such as this. This is the United Nations Cosmo Navy Combined Cosmo Fleet- Part 1. All 1/1000 scale plastic kits from Bandai. From the Japanese animation “Space Battleship Yamato 2199”.

This is actually only 1/3 of the kits included in this set. There’s 24 or so total ships. Not a bad buy for only ￥10,000! Really lucked out on a second-hand shop find here.

This is a Kongoh class battleship, the BBS-555 Kirishima. Under command of Captain Okita, this was the lead ship of the fleet that got wiped out near Pluto as a diversionary tactic to allow Starsha to get the Wave Motion plans to Earth.

Murasame class cruisers. CAS-707 Murasame, CAS-253 Yuhkiri, CAS-266 Atago, and the CAS-229 Abukuma.

Isokaze class destroyers. DDS-117 Yukikaze, DDS-106 Shikinami, DDS-172 Shimakaze, and the DDS-103 Ayanami.

All of these went together relatively easy, it’s just that building 4 of the same kind of ship can take a little while, especially since I couldn’t paint, then build the cruisers. I had to build, then mask off and paint each color on them.

Everything was finished on September 25th, 2023.

Macross build – VF-22S Sturmvögel II “SVF-41 Black Aces 100th Anniversary”

ＶＦ－２２Ｓ シュトゥルムフォーゲルII　「ＳＶＦ－４１ブラックエイセス100周年記念」。1/72スケール、ハセガワから。

Another build completed, and another kit built that doesn’t actually exist. This is a VF-22S Sturmvogel II, “SVF-41 Black Aces 100th Anniversary”. 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Macross 7”.

The kit itself exists, it’s the livery that came from my imagination. I based it off of the 75th anniversary F/A-18 kit, with a few tweaks, and a couple of custom made decals.

I made a spade template, and painted it. “First to fight, first to strike” is the Black Aces’ squadron motto. I also included a small “modern” squadron insignia.

I was debating on either going with the “retro” red color, or staying with the “modern” yellow that they switched to with the VF-1. Retro red won out (remember, this plane is from 2050).

I got the name decal off of a set of real world decals I have, so there may be a real Lt. Dave Spangler out there.

This kit was completed on July 17th, 2023.

Macross modeling group VF-1 Riders at Shizuoka Hobby Show 2023

May 13th and 14th, I participated for the fourth time (and my first time back-to-back) with the Macross modeling group VF-1 Riders at the Shizuoka Hobby Show, the largest hobby show in Japan. Last year was reduced due to covid restrictions, this years was a little more back to usual. Here’s what we did:

We also had Macross (and others) artist Hidetaka Tenjin stop by to say hi and check out what we built. Of course we got his signature to go along with Kawamori-san’s!

BONUS CONTENT

There was another Macross modeling group called Project VF-M, that a couple of the Riders also participated with. Their display was all 1/72 scale VF-1’s from Max Factory.

So, if you ever get a chance to go to Japan in early May, be sure to hit Shizuoka and check it out! I plan on being there next year again.

Star Wars build – A-Wing Starfighter

Ａウイング・スターファイター、1/72スケール、バンダイ。

Latest build completed, in hardly any time at all. This is an A-Wing Starfighter, 1/72 scale plastic model from Bandai. Debuted in the Star Wars film “Return of the Jedi”.

Very easy build. Didn’t have to do any puttying or sanding of seam lines, and I only had to mask off the tips of the lasers for the painting, all the other parts pretty much broke down into the color they needed to be painted.

I had an urge to paint this Kakizaki green, instead of the reddish-brown of the movie. What, you think every A-Wing in the galaxy was at the Battle of Endor?

The forest moon of Endor. Now, is the moon’s name “Endor”, or is the planet the moon orbits called “Endor”? Never really felt like looking up the answer to know for sure.

This kit was completed on May 7, 2023.

Macross build – VF-1J Valkyrie “What an ace pilot!”

「天才パイロトだ！」
いつも第3のワイヤーを捕まえて
マクロス・パーフェクト・メモリーページ８８のイラストを作りました。全部ハセガワから。1/72スケールＶＦ－１Ｊファイター、肘と手はバトロイド、パイロトはガウォークからです。エッチングセットも使いました。

Latest build complete. This is a VF-1J Valkyrie piloted by Max Jenius. “What an ace pilot!” 1/72 scale plastic kit from Hasegawa. From the Japanese animation “Super-dimensional Fortress Macross”.

This is my interpretation of a filler illustration on page 88 of “Macross Perfect Memory”. Had that book for years, but never really noticed that Max was grabbing the arrester cable with his hands instead of the arrester hooks, so I had to try and build it.

The fighter kit is a VF-1J, the hands and elbows are from a Battroid kit, and the pilot figure is from a Gerwalk kit. I also used a Hasegawa photoetched parts set. The base is some cheap one I found on Amazon that I cut down to a smaller size. The arrester cable is one of my wife’s old hairbands with a bit of 0.5 mm brass rod threaded though it, and painted steel.

This particular kit only had the decals for Hikaru’s VF-1J, so to make Max I painted everything white, then masked off the areas to stay white, and painted blue over that.

The flap struts are pieces I cut off of the etching set and inserted into the wing halves before gluing.

This kit was completed on April 23, 2023.