1:100 Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1J Plus Valkyrie; aircraft "300", mount of Flight Leader Taqisha T’saqeel, SVF-789 ‘Dar es Carrack’ of the U.N. Spacy Zentraedi Fleet; Tefé Amazonia Base, Brazil; early 2013 (modified ARII kit) - WiP
Painting and markings:
This was planned to be a more exotic or extravagant interpretation of the profile from the book, which was already used as a guideline for the VF-1A build. The overall design of an all-green livery with a white nose tip as basis was kept, together with yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. The VF-1A already deviated from this slightly, but now I wanted something more outstanding – a bold flight leader’s mount.
Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green, actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
In order to set this J Valkyrie apart from the all-dark green basic VF-1As, I added a bright green (Humbrol 38, Lime) to the legs, around the cockpit section and on the fin. As an additional contrast, the head, shoulder guards and some additional trim highlights were painted in a pale purple (Napoleonic Violet from ModelMaster’s Authentic Line). Sick color combination, but very Zentraedi/Meltraedi-esque!
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Meltraedi (yes, the fictional pilot Taqisha T’saqeel is female) with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! The gun pod became dark blue (Humbrol 112, Field Blue), the AAM-1 and the air-to-ground missiles received a pale grey livery while the ECM pod became white and the chaff dispenser standard dark green.
The U.N. Spacy roundels were applied in standard full color versions, the squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush. Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘200’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.
1:100 Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1J Plus Valkyrie; aircraft "300", mount of Flight Leader Taqisha T’saqeel, SVF-789 ‘Dar es Carrack’ of the U.N. Spacy Zentraedi Fleet; Tefé Amazonia Base, Brazil; early 2013 (modified ARII kit) - WiP
Painting and markings:
This was planned to be a more exotic or extravagant interpretation of the profile from the book, which was already used as a guideline for the VF-1A build. The overall design of an all-green livery with a white nose tip as basis was kept, together with yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. The VF-1A already deviated from this slightly, but now I wanted something more outstanding – a bold flight leader’s mount.
Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green, actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
In order to set this J Valkyrie apart from the all-dark green basic VF-1As, I added a bright green (Humbrol 38, Lime) to the legs, around the cockpit section and on the fin. As an additional contrast, the head, shoulder guards and some additional trim highlights were painted in a pale purple (Napoleonic Violet from ModelMaster’s Authentic Line). Sick color combination, but very Zentraedi/Meltraedi-esque!
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Meltraedi (yes, the fictional pilot Taqisha T’saqeel is female) with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! The gun pod became dark blue (Humbrol 112, Field Blue), the AAM-1 and the air-to-ground missiles received a pale grey livery while the ECM pod became white and the chaff dispenser standard dark green.
The U.N. Spacy roundels were applied in standard full color versions, the squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush. Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘200’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.