Advice wanted on building a Hasegawa VF-1 Fighter kit

[SteveTheFish]

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit.

I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake?

I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that.

I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

[Big s]

18 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit.

I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake?

I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that.

I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

As long as you have your basic colors and gloss coat the kit then you can do the decals, just make sure to top coat the decals before touching the parts too much to avoid them getting damaged. You can either assemble the kit and then weather it or weather it then assemble, it’s really up to you.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Big s

[geck]

I always build in sub assemblies and try to paint as much as I can before assembling.  Depends on the kit and parts...some are easier than others..  I find this gives the advantage of having a neater build and paint job.  It can make masking difficult areas easier as well.

For finishing/weathering...same thing depending on the situation.

[Urashiman]

On 10/13/2023 at 1:19 AM, SteveTheFish said:

I've got a question for you guys with more experience with Hasegawa Valks. I'm currently working on a standard VF-1A by Hasegawa. Gonna use Kakizaki's decals. It's certainly not my first Valkyrie kit, but it's my first Hasegawa Valkyrie Fighter kit.

I've made the cuts to straighten out the legs/engine nacelles and some other improvements. I've painted these parts in subassemblies and I was thinking of laying on decals before final assembly. Would I be making a mistake?

I've been following the "VF Modeling Manual" published by Softbank Creative and have been uploading my progress as a step-by-step build video series on YouTube & Odysee. The whole world and somebody else does Gundam builds on YT, but I don't see enough love for VF-1 Fighter builds on there. The book shows doing all of the assembly first before painting. How do you guys approach this? The book also has a section called "reinforce the adhesion between the body and the tail block" in which sheet styrene is used to cement the tail section where the stabilizers go to the engine nacelles. I wasn't planning on doing that.

I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

hey ... I actually follow you on youtube and watch your stuff.

I think you are doing it like most people here. The VF-1 from hasegawa breaks down easily into build groups. I am doing one by one so you have:
- The nose with canopy and cockpit
- The main fuselage
- Jet intakes
- The "Backpack"
- Jet engine bays (the legs)
- wings and stabilizers
- wheels and landing gear bay panels

I usually do priming on the cockpit (partially build), the engine bays and the main fuselage first. Then painting. After that I will put together the different build groups one by one and sand them. Then priming again, checking for imperfections, sanding and priming again. Then the paint job, decals and sealing. done. After all of this, I am putting the groups together. Let me check if I have some pictures of old VF-1 builds...

In the beginning of the above video, you have the pieces for the jet intake colored already and then glue them. I usually put that together in one go, safe for the fan, that will be added after painting.

 

Edit: didn't find anything from mine yet, but just check rocketpunch.biz, he has a great build log there.

https://www.rocketpunch.biz/wip-hasegawa-vf1a-1/

Edited October 16, 2023 by Urashiman

[SteveTheFish]

23 hours ago, Urashiman said:

hey ... I actually follow you on youtube and watch your stuff.

Oh, thanks. Yes, in that video i realized that I should have painted the intakes and engines first, then assembled, then primed and painted the outside. I ended up making more work for myself the way I did it. Thanks for the link. It looks like I am on the right track. Last night I started decaling the wings. I seem to have lost a tiny "no step" decal, unfortunately. I'm building mine as Kakizaki, but when I purchased replacement decals, they sent me ones only with the red and yellow stripes. They have the other decals for Kakizaki and Max; just not the colored stripes. So I am looking at possibly trying to come up with masking off and painting the green/black stripes myself.

[Urashiman]

2 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Oh, thanks. Yes, in that video i realized that I should have painted the intakes and engines first, then assembled, then primed and painted the outside. I ended up making more work for myself the way I did it. Thanks for the link. It looks like I am on the right track. Last night I started decaling the wings. I seem to have lost a tiny "no step" decal, unfortunately. I'm building mine as Kakizaki, but when I purchased replacement decals, they sent me ones only with the red and yellow stripes. They have the other decals for Kakizaki and Max; just not the colored stripes. So I am looking at possibly trying to come up with masking off and painting the green/black stripes myself.

that is how I did my Kakizaki VF-1A. I never use the giant black and colored decals. Too much of a hassle. Just mask the areas and airbrush it. I looks better imho.

[SteveTheFish]

14 hours ago, Urashiman said:

that is how I did my Kakizaki VF-1A. I never use the giant black and colored decals. Too much of a hassle. Just mask the areas and airbrush it. I looks better imho.

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, SteveTheFish said:

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

Maybe you could leave the sheet intact and lay down the masking tape right on top. Then peel the tape and place it on the part

[SteveTheFish]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

Maybe you could leave the sheet intact and lay down the masking tape right on top. Then peel the tape and place it on the part

Hmm... Or tape the decal sheet to the bottom of a clear sheet of plastic, then lay down thin masking and trace the outline? The problem is that it's not one large decal, but it comes in segments. I remembered that there is a how-to on the Cody's Coop website, but apparently he used decals. https://codyscoop.com/models/features/ht-valkyrie

I have put my decals in the window a few times to try to bleach the yellow out from them, and now they are very stubborn to lift off the backing. Maybe if I used very warm water they may come off. I dunno.

[Big s]

You could also see if anyone here has an extra set of the decals you’re looking for 

[Urashiman]

On 10/18/2023 at 4:25 AM, SteveTheFish said:

How would I go about doing this? Cut the decals out closely, place them onto a masking sheet, then outline around the decals and cut them accordingly? I plan to have the air brake on top raised anyway, so that would be difficult with the decal involved anyway. I'm concerned about getting the shape of the stripes correct as well as a properly symmetrical placement.

Well ... you have it in the other comment there. I use a clear sheet and tape the whole decal sheet to the other side, then carefully place masking tape on it and follow the outline. Here are two pictures of me doing that for the VF-22.

It works quite well.

Another method is measuring everything and placing by hand, or how I do it sometimes: just guessing the right position and putting it on.

For the Kakizaki VF-1 I first marked the whole area for the top of the fuselage, then sprayed it green. Then I masked off the green areas and went on with black paint for the black portions.

 

Went to the basement and took a picture. Unfortunately the vertical stabilizers went off in the storage. But here is my kakizaki vf-1a.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Urashiman
Additional picture.

[Goodman Models]

I think you're on the right track. As you go along you'll have to consider the steps down the line. Take notes on the order of operations as you think of them! As for your decal masks, try photocopying the sheet and use that to cut your masks out tamiya tape. You can cut out the shape and place over top of the tape and cut along it. If you mess anything up you'll be sure not to repeat it again. Best, Anthony