Hasegawa 1/48 YF-19 “Excaliber” MC-1

The YF-19 comes from a Japanese sequel to the original Macross Series known as Macross Plus.

From Wiki

The VF-19 Excalibur is the production-line version of Shinsei Industries' YF-19 AVF Prototype which won the Project Super Nova design contest of 2040. Although destined to eventually replace the aging VF-11 Thunderbolt as the main variable fighter for the UN Spacy, distribution to date has been slow. Currently the Excalibur is being used as a fighter for UN Spacy colonization fleets. The rare VFs are usually only piloted by the best and brightest pilots, similar to the status enjoyed by the VF-17 Nightmare. The VF-19 will gradually phase out and replace the VF-11 as the main fighter of the UN Spacy.

Statistics

            •           Length: 18.62 meters

            •           Wingspan: 14.87 meters

            •           Height: 3.94 meters (fighter configuration) 15.48 m (battroid configuration)

            •           Weight (Empty): 8,750 kilograms (19,250 lb. or 9.625 tons) (Overload in Space):                    46,102 kilograms (101,424 lb. or 50.71 tons)

            •           Maximum Speed: Mach 5.1 @ 22,000 meters

            •           Cruising Speed: Mach 1.8 @ 15,000 meters

            •           Rate of Climb to 5,000 meters: 65,000 meters per minute

            •           Powerplant: Shinsei/P&W/Royce FF2200B x 2, Shinnakasu/P&W/Royce                     FF2500E x 2

Three decades after the great war between the humans and the Zentradi the U.N. government is developing new technologies to use in their transforming fighter aircraft by running tests on the colony planet Eden. Military test pilots and former childhood friends, loose cannon Isamu Alva Dyson and the Zentradi mixed race Guld Goa Bowman, are selected to each pilot a new aircraft (Shinsei Industries' YF-19 & General Galaxy's YF-21 for Project Super Nova, to choose the newest successor to the VF-11 Thunderbolt variable fighter which is currently still in use by the UN Spacy military forces. Their own personal grudges end up disrupting the tests, and begin to wreak havoc on the program.

<End Wiki>

See my very brief preview of this kit.

I decided to do something different and start off with the engine/legs of the YF-19 as these were the most difficult aspect of the kit.  Hasegawa engineered the kit so that you don’t need to add the nozzles/feet sub-assembly till after assembly which was fortunate as there was a lot of sanding/filling to get everything smooth.  The nozzles were glued together, left for a couple of weeks then sanded/filled.  The rest of the leg assembly was filled and sanded smooth.

Next I tackled the big gun that is slung underneath the fuselage (actually the main weapon when in mech mode.)  This required some careful sanding as the surface had some corrugation that needed to be dealt with.  It was painted RLM02 while the muzzle was painted Steel as per the instructions.

The wings were ridiculously simple to assemble.  All that was required was some simple sanding along the edges to remove the mold seams and some Vallejo plastic putty to fill in some gaps between the wing pieces which were along a panel line and not the trailing or leading edge of the wing.

I went to the intakes next.  Unfortunately, the intakes are rather prominent and have seams that need to be dealt with, but unlike Hasegawa’s “Teen” series of modern US fighters, the YF-19’s intakes aren’t that deep so there are not as many headaches.  Added to this work were some very obvious ejection pin marks.  This meant several rounds of filling with CA glue and sanding the excess down.  Eventually, the various seams and ejection pin marks were sanded/filled to my satisfaction.  This was probably the most tedious part of the kit.  The intake interiors were painted flat white before the silver fan faces were added.

Next up was the cockpit.  It was painted Dark Gull Grey and the various cockpit decals were added before it was glued on the bottom fuselage section.  I left off most of the other parts (ejection seats and consoles) till after painting.

The fuselage was actually the easiest part of construction.  I glued along the seam and held it together with C clamps.  The leading edges and the “beaver” tail were the only areas that needed a modest amount of filling and sanding unlike the intakes.

I followed the instructions and did not combine sub assemblies till after painting.

Painting

First step was to mask off the various openings using tape, foam and liquid mask.  Next the plane  and the various sub assemblies were preshaded flat black along the panel lines.  The instructions state that the color of the plane is a 50/50 mix of Radome Tan and White.  I don’t use Radome tan that often, but the problem is that I was unwilling to burn my only jar of Gunze Radome tan on a single model so I used Tamiya Wood Deck Tan instead as I thought it was pretty close to Radome Tan.  Unfortunately, Wood Deck Tan doesn’t have enough yellow unlike Radome Tan so instead of a light cream color the YF-19 took on an almost a desert pink.  Instead of freaking out, I just went with it.

Once dry, I masked off the various areas that were to painted gloss black.  I find that I don’t have much luck using the big decals over curves so I prefer to paint the markings instead.  Part of that has to do with my own (traumatic) experience with the Polar Lights 1/1000 USS Enterprise Refit model.  The strakes and tailfins were masked and painted flat black and shine red.  I had to repaint a couple of sides due to the paint leaking through the masking tape.  The engine pod/leg doors were kept off as I painted various areas black then when it was dry, masked and painted the fuselage color.

The canopy clear bits were masked and painted flat black (interior color) and dark grey (exterior color) while the nose clear bits were painted clear red.  I used Tamiya Clear Red with Tamiya Paint retarder for the first time and I have to say it worked out a lot better than my previous experience with Tamiya clear red which was awful.

When everything was dry, the model was sprayed with a couple of thin coats of Future to provide a gloss coat for the decals.

Decals

I had no major issues with the decals.  There were a lot of decals as the kit has a lot of stencils like the modern jets it resembles.  I left off many of the big fuselage decals as I painted the markings.  These decals went down well using MicroSet and the stubborn ones went down with some Solvaset.  Once dry, the model was wiped down with a wet cloth to remove the excess decal solution.

Weathering and Final Coat

I didn’t do much except put down a watercolor wash on the panel lines.  The excess was removed with wetted Q tips.  I used Xtracrylix Semi Gloss for the final coat.

The various sub assemblies (intakes, legs/engine, engine nozzles/feet, and head) were glued together.  No issues with assembly.

Next were the cockpit pieces were added and the canopy was glued on.  The various maneuvering thruster nozzles and maneuvering fins were glued on after.

The various landing gear parts were painted and assembled with the oleos covered in aluminum foil glued on with  Micro Tinfoil Adhesive.  It was a fairly straight forward sub assembly.

I glued on the various landing gear doors and it was then that I realized I had goofed and reversed the rear landing gear wells so the mounting holes for the doors were on the opposite sides they were supposed to go on.  Ugh.  I ended up gluing the doors with CA glue to hold them in place.  The landing gear were glued in place without any issues despite my stupid mistake.

Finally, I painted the various lights with a fine point brush.

I guess being a kid of the 1980s and who grew up with Robotech and other Japanese mecha anime it is no surprise that I have a weakness for these new Hasegawa SF Macross kits.

The one thing I really enjoy about these Hasegawa SF kits is the ease of construction (for the most part) and the fun in putting one of these things together without any concerns of accuracy.