Arii’s 1/100 scale Regult Battle Pod from the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross TV Series is a great example. Manufactured and designed in 1982 this kit is one of the better kits from the line that builds up to a great representation of our favorite two-legged cannon fodder monster, although not without some minor faults.

Regult Arii 1/100

Model kits have an unusual connection with toy collectors. Usually, they are bypassed and forgotten by toy collectors, as most do not have the skill to build the kits leaving some great subjects that have been represented in sprue sadly left behind and under represented.

Arii’s 1980’s Macross line is a perfect example. Some great subjects were injected into plastic model kits but because many of the kits in the line that were produced were less than satisfactory the entire line has had a bad reputation over the years, even though there are few well done gems in the line.

Arii’s 1/100 scale Regult Battle Pod from the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross TV Series is a great example. Manufactured and designed in 1982 this kit is one of the better kits from the line that builds up to a great representation of our favorite two-legged cannon fodder monster, although not without some minor faults.

Arii’s Regult kit includes: 2x off white sprue, 1x black rubber polycaps, 1x instruction, 1x promotional flyer, 1x sheet of decals, 1x Glue. No options are supplied. The skill level is moderate to advanced due to the fragility of the legs and paint masking.

According to Macross World this kit is a rare kit due to some quality issues with the upper leg joints. I picked up this kit about 7 years ago at an antique store in New Mexico for $14.00. I just happen to luck out when I saw it at a vendor booth with an “all items 50% off“ sign. This was good as the original $28.00 asking price was a bit overpriced. Today, expect to pay from $8.00 to $18.00 for these kits.

As with many of the early 1980’s Macross oil painted toy and model kit box art, this Regult box art is fantastic and first rate and really captures the spirit, realism and mystery of what I love about Macross to this day. The downside, and typical of the era, is that the model kit itself is not represented on the box top or sides, but in this case you are getting a decent kit.

The kit itself is a straightforward build, but there are some things you should be aware of. I was surprised to see so much flash on this kit but considering that these Macross kits out produced even the landmark Gundam 0079 from three years earlier shows the popularity of these kits and I am sure that the molds were run down. Some parts clean up are necessary for the parts to fit correctly, especially the rear facing cannons array on the top of the Regult.

Great care is needed when building up the upper leg area. Very much if you accidently drop even one tiny drop of glue in the wrong area forget it, it’s over. Make sure all the seams are filled properly before gluing those upper leg parts together. But if you take your time you should have no problem. I have read that the upper legs were redesigned in Arii’s later Regult kits, but as I do not own any of these later kits, I cannot comment on how they were redesigned.

Also the designers of these kits were more focused on playability of the kit after it is finished. They designed it so moveable joint parts are permanently joined together and cannot be taken apart. Since this kit was for display only I opted to leave those parts off for ease of painting at a later stage. Keep in mind this does not affect the pose ability of the kit after one is finished with the kit.

The six-gun cannons present a few problems, the major one being that two larger cannons are a bit awkward and thick for the scale, as the cannon barrel holes should be filed down to look more scaled. If you have the skill, new cannons could be lathed out of aluminum for a better look. The heels were also open so I boxed them so they can look solid. You might want to box in the toes as well which was something I was planning to do but I thought I did not have the right resources. It was not until I was nearly finished when I realized I did have the right book with the proper info. I will build up these details on the next Regult I build.

The body is three parts, the front, back and the bottom cap. I purposely left the bottom cap off until final assembly so I can put all the cannon parts in after I was through painting and decaling. My biggest complaint is how the jet nozzles are designed to be assembled together. Instead of having a bottom and top half the parts are split down the middle leaving a near impossible seam to fill. Filling the deep seam not only destroys the detail around it, but also destroys the shape of the nozzle in general and demands a lot of reshaping for the part to look right.

Painting this kit is where one needs to deliver, as all the painting details are no joke and quite intricate. This is not like your current Systeminjection multi-color sprue Bandai kit, this kit is molded in one color, off white and every detail needs to be masked and painted. I painted the kit with Tamiya and other than the light blue, which needed to be mixed, all the other colors were straight out of the bottle. Honestly, give yourself about a week to paint this little monster as there are so many small details involved and they just don’t paint themselves!

I sprayed a Testor’s gloss coat and applied the decals. I accidently dropped the entire sheet into water bowl so I had a limited time to quickly apply all the decals. Of what I can see the decals went on well but typical of the Arii decals, the instructions only tell you where to about six of the 25 decals provided. Thankfully Macross World saved me again and I was able to use their resources to place the other decals on the kit.

After a spraying a Testor’s flat coat, I applied a mix of black and burnt sienna oil paints for the weathering and finished it off with a silver color pencil to represent chips in the paint.

My other main issue with this kit is the scale. Since we here at CollectionDX already discussed scaling issues with some of the Macross vehicles here, there is no need to open a sore wound. But I am going to say its too small especially if you compare it to Imai’s 1/100 scale of Captain Kamujin Zentradi Armored Space suit, which I feel, is scaled correctly. I know the pilot has a snug fit in the Regult but there is no way the Kamujin kit would fit inside this Regult kit or fit through the hatch in the back. Also viewing the kit from the back, the Regult body looks squashed especially compared to Revoltech’s Regult.

Besides the jet nozzles parts and some scaling issues this kit builds up into an impressive model kit and stands out from the self amongst my other Macross toys and models. The best part about this kit is that it is one of the few representations of the Regult in any form and accordingly it is great to have an item few people have in their collections to display. The pose ability of the kit is quite good, with upper leg and waist pivot and bendable knees and toes and positional jet nozzles.

Again I suggest this kit to moderate to advanced builders due to the paint masking and upper leg fragility but if you take your time with the finish and parts you will be rewarded with a beautiful representation of a classic Macross vehicle.

©2009 Article and pictures Leonardo Flores and CollectionDX.

With the impending release of Waves new Destroid model kits I thought I would go back and revisit an old favorite and reevaluate the 1/100 Destroid Defender "Angel Face" kit and see if our little fork-toed friend still holds up to today’s modeling standards.

Destroid Defender "Angel Face" 1/100 Arii

The Destroid Defender was one of five different styles of non-variable battle robots that were used throughout the 1982 anime series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. The Destroid Defender was very much a walking anti-aircraft gun platform, armed with four cannons and operated by a single driver. Although they heroically put up a good fight against the Zentradi, the slow moving and bulky Destroids usually became one of the series “cannon fodder” mechas. Regardless, they are affectionately remembered and have a cult following by Macross fans.

I have always concluded the Arii’s 1/100 Destroid model kits from Macross were much better tooled and sculpted than the Valkyrie kits from the same line. With the impending release of Waves new Destroid model kits I thought I would go back and revisit an old favorite and reevaluate the 1/100 Destroid Defender kit and see if it still holds up to today’s modeling standards.

I had only build Imai excellent 1/72 Destroid Defender model kit when I was younger, and missed out on building Arii’s 1/100 Defender kit. I picked up my Defender from a dealer at Macross Con ’08 for $5.00, but they have been reissued periodically since they were originally released back in 1982 and can still be found under $10.00. This kit is comes in a reissue box from the 1990’s and although box art looks decent, I definitely prefer the original oil painting style illustrated boxes from the first release.

The Arii 1/100 Destroid Defender kit includes: 2x Dark Tan sprue, 1x polycap, 1x full color instructions, 1x caution sheet. There are no options. This kit does not come with any clear parts.

I have taken for granted the statement “…the model kit has sharp details…” that I forgot what a model kit looks like with soft details. The details of this kit are very soft and rounded, and not sharp at all, unlike a current Fine-Molds or Tamiya kit. I have always likened the Destroids to tanks and accordingly I am used to those types of details for a tank type kit.

When these Arii kits first came out they broke the previous record of number of units sold, beating the previous record that had been held by Gundam kits when they first were released a few years earlier. Nearly 30 years later these Macross molds are still being used and the wear of the molds on these kits are starting to show. Make sure you have a lot of green putty because the fit is terrible, especially on the body, lower legs and where the gun barrels attach to the upper arms. Most of the time spent building this kit was filling up all the gaps with green putty and Mr. Surfacer 500. I also boxed in the arm pivot area with some thin sheet styrene to close up the gap and make it less toy looking.

The good feature about this kit is that you are not committed to putting all the main parts together until you are finished building the kit. This helps with the ease of painting, decaling and finishing. The separated parts include the arms, legs, waist, body and radar. They easily snap in and out of place due to the polycaps. I wish that Arii did this for the feet as well, but as is, it is fine with me.

By far the worst engineering in this kit is the bottom leg section. It is nearly impossible to fill and shape the gaps in the front and back of the lower leg. Also they expect the modeler to chisel out the middle section of the front of the leg leaving only the small corner “L” shaped edges on the leg. I knew something looked wrong and it was too late before I figured it out. Why Arii just did not make it smooth with eight small “L” shaped parts to glue to the leg is beyond me as it is considerably more dangerous to allow a kid to chisel out that part with and Xacto-Knife than to just have eight small parts. The rear ankle parts had open holes, which I boxed in to get a solid look.

Gluing the barrels to the upper arm did not go to well either and after applying layers of green putty and Mr. Surfacer I was able to get a good fit. The front sensor part also had some difficulty. Molded in two halves (Parts 18 & 19), when glued it presents itself with a seam that is impossible to fill without damaging the surrounding area. I decided to glue some thin sheet styrene over the gaps. The result is great but it took a considerable amount of time to accomplish that goal. I also suggest not gluing the completed sensor part until the last step after painting and applying the decals as it would be impossible to mask off the ammunition box parts as it is a small area to work with. You will be glad you did.

The real shame of this kit is not including any clear parts. These parts should include the clear sensor covering, the two headlights and the knee lights. A red clear senor gem should have also been included. The senor cover should cover the red and black part on the “nose”. The headlights should be painted white or silver and knee sensors are represented as decals. A red gem could be scratched build and would great improve the look of the kit.

I have made some effort this year to improve my weathering technique and though the Defender would be a good platform to experiment with. As an undercoat I painted Tamiya German Grey around the panels and raised areas and painted Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow as the overall base coat. Tamiya Green Khaki was used for the ammunition boxes and Testors dark Gull Grey was used in lower knee area then sprayed Testors gloss coat for decals.

When I first saw the decal sheet I though the decals were junk. They were very frosty looking, the details were not sharp and even the sheet was not cut correctly. Surprisingly they were some of the best decals I have ever worked with although one cannot read the words on the stencils. Unfortunately the decal placement was very vague in the instructions but luckily enough I was able to go back to my old Imai Defender kit and use the resources at Macrossworld.con to get the decals in the right places. One cool decal that the kit came with was some pin-up art for the Destroid named “Angel Face”. It is suppose to be placed on the left toe, but I moved it up to the lower leg for better display. Over all I love the WWII tank feel with the decals such as the pin-up art, geometric codes on the back, “V” ammunition box codes and stencil serial numbers.

One complaint I have read about the kit is the application of the while leg stencils. The upper leg stencils after being cut in half presents no problem when applying but the lower leg stencils have to set on a high contour raised area. Believe it or not I got it to set with Solve-set a high concentration decal setting solution I picked up at the local hobby shop. It took a while and I had to work with it but I got all four stencils around the contour with no major problems. The finished product looks great and I highly suggest picking up a bottle of Solve-set for your modeling supplies.

After spraying a coat of flat coat, I applied a wash of Winston oil paints of Lamp Black and Burnt Umber. I dry brushed a lighter tan for the raised areas. Most importantly this was the first time I used MIG weather products from Spain. I wanted to represent a Destroid Defender from after the Battle of Mars in episode 7: Bye-Bye Mars. MIG products is a weathering systems of paints and washes developed by a Spanish modeler named Mig Jimenez http://www.migproductions.com/index.htm that has very much taken the military modeling community by storm by introducing some unique products to modelers.

I bought Europe Dust P028 a powdery substance that is mixed together with MIG Thinner for washes. When the two products are mixed together it produces a thick muddy substance. The mud is then applied to the model with a brush, and when the thinner evaporates a very realistic mud coating is left on the kit. I only used it in the lower leg and feet area and other places where Martian mud would settle. It is going to take some mastering but I think these MIG products have a lot of potential for Sci-fi modelers. I finally airbrushed some black in the gun barrel tips and other assorted areas and sprayed another flat coat over the kit again seal it completely.

What do I think of this kit? At first I was quite disappointed with the kit with its soft details, lack of clear parts, ill fitting parts and the many problems with the lower leg area. But after I painted, decaled and weathered it, the Destroid kind of came into its own. The raised details weather quite well and the small details such as the pin-up art make this an interesting kit. The Arii Defender kit does stand a bit stocky for my taste but overall I am quite pleased with the kit.

The real question is how much time do you want top spent on fixing a $5-$10 model kit? I only did some minor improvements but a modeling expert could make this a stand out kit. And for $5.00 it is cheap enough for a beginner modeler to have some fun, and the overall one color is great for modeler who uses spray cans. Yes this is an old kit, but unlike the Arii’s Valkyrie kits, with some elbow grease this kit still has little life left in it for the Macross modeler.

© 2009 Article and pictures by Leonardo Flores and Collection DX.

There is something about toy and model collectors that when a manufacture reissues a product in chrome or clear, we just lose it. We could be perfectly content with our collection and be about our business but as soon as we glance at a chrome reissue of a toy we already have we are drooling fools.

Arii Metalized Custom VF-1D 1/100

(For my review of the building and scale issues with this kit please read my Arii 1/100 VF-1A review, as it is the same kit with a different head detail and without the chrome plating.

There is something about toy and model collectors that when a manufacture reissues a product in chrome or clear, we just lose it. We could be perfectly content with our collection and be about our business but as soon as we glance at a chrome reissue of a toy we already have we are drooling fools.

Arii picked five model kits from their 1/100 Super Dimensional Space Fortress Macross line and plated them in blue tinted chrome. These included A Battroid VF-1S, Destroids Defender, Destroid Spartan, Gerwalk VF-1J and this Fighter VF-1D. I do not know how limited edition these kits were but I do know the Valkyrie fighter was fairly common back in the 80’s and 90’s but the other four are quite rare as the only other kit I have managed to locate is the Spartan.

When building this kit remember that glue does not stick to plastic chrome plating well, so the main issue when building this kit is making sure you scrape off all the plating with an x-acto blade in the areas about to be glued before building as your model will fall apart if you don’t. Trust me I found out the hard way all those years ago when I originally built this kit when I was a kid in the 80’s and the kit kept falling apart! I am surprised I still have as many pieces of the kit as I do.

I purchased this kit on clearance at a great, but no longer in business, hobby shop called The Hobby Hut in Upland California for $6.00 in the 1980’s. The Hobby Hut stocked a lot of great anime, airplane and military kits at great prices and it was a huge loses when they closed down. Not only that the Hobby Hut has got to be the greatest hobby shop name ever!

I am not particularly fond of the box art of this series as its very boring and the picture of the model could have been framed better.

There are some details with this kit that work and others that do not. For one thing the one of the main themes in building model kits is filling the seems in and with the chrome plating one simply can not fill in and sand the seams as the unique chrome finish can not be duplicated. You could use Testors Metalizer or Alclad metal finish but it would not match the chrome finish of the kit. Metal finishes are the hardest paint finishes to duplicate on model kits and it would be much easier to just buy an unplated kit and spray it with Alclad or Metalizer, which kind of defeats the purpose of a chrome plated kit to begin with. So if you are going to build it understand the seams are going to be part of the kit when it is finished.

And because its chrome I’m sure you’ll get a lot of discussion and remarks from other collectors and casual fans about that shinny Chrome Valkyrie on your shelf.

Leonardo Flores “ModCineaste” Copyright 2008

It is odd to note that when Japanese model kit firm Arii was licensed to produce model kits for the 1982 series Super Dimension Space Fortress Macross that the worst scaled kits in the line would be the flagship vehicles of the show, The Valkyrie Fighters, Battroid and Gerwalk variations.

ARII VF-1A Valkyrie Fighter 1/100 #50

It is odd to note that when Japanese model kit firm Arii was licensed to produce model kits for the 1982 series Super Dimension Space Fortress Macross that the worst scaled kits in the line would be the flagship vehicles of the show, The Valkyrie Fighters, Battroid and Gerwalk variations.

Looking back all these years it’s good to note that most of the other kits produced by Arii of their 1/100 Macross model line still hold up quite well. Good examples are the Destroids and Regult battle pod lines, one of which I should have finished for a review shortly.

Most model airplanes plastic model kits are usually manufactured in four scales: 1/144, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32. 1/144 is considered the airliner scale, as most all airline model kits would be much too large to fit on a shelf if they were produced in a larger scale. The second scale 1/72 is considered an international or standard scale as most all manufacturers worldwide still produce kits of this size. It is a great scale as it is just large enough to produce a decent scale kit of a small WWII airplane but just small enough to produce a large bomber kit such as Monogram’s B-36 Peacemaker kit.

I/48 and 1/32 are great scales for large high detailed kits and it is a good scale to mix armor and airplane kits with for same scale diorama scenes. Yes there are other scales but these four are the most popular in aviation plastic modeling.

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One scale that has seemed to have died in military modeling is 1/100 scale. In the 60’s and 70’s there were quite a few companies producing 1/100 scale model kits, but over the last couple of decades 1/100 scale has seemed to disappear from the model shelves for aviation modeling. The huge exception of course is if you build anime robot model kits.

Most Gundam model kits are produced in 1/144 and 1/100 scale and those two scales are the most popular in anime robot modeling, with 1/100 scale being reserved for Gundam High Grade model kits. I personally build model airplanes in 1/72 scale and having these Arii Valkyrie kits produced in such a small scale that is out of scale with all my other airplane model kits, the VF-1A just does not look right sitting on the shelf next to my other airplanes.

Is it really not too much to ask to produce a 1/72 scale or even a 1/48 or 1/32 scale Valkyrie kit? The Grumman F-14 Tomcat, which is slightly larger than a Valkyrie, has been produced in 1/48 and even 1/32 scale by a few manufactures. So I ask, “When is our large scale Valkyrie model kit going to be produced?”

The VF-1A was the standard and most numerous fighters in the Macross TV show. Usually they were the cannon fodder in the series and most of the pilots on Macross seemed to have started with the VF-1A.

If you are going to build it out of the box, one fault is the clear window is molded distorted and thick and is out of scale. If you have the ability it would be best to vacumform a new window with thinner clear material. Also there is sparse detail in the cockpit and landing well areas of the kit.

I painted my VF-1A with Testors Model Master Flat Military Brown and flat white, they appear to be a great match to the colors on the instruction sheet. The model was painted with a Badger 350 airbrush. After spraying a gloss coat I applied the decals, which were a bit thick but went on and set well with Microset and Microsol decal setter. After a flat coat to seal the paint I applied a thin wash of paint thinner and black paint although these days I do not apply washes that way (I use oil paint now). I built the kit around 11 years ago, and although I have lost a few pieces over the years it still looks nice.

Now lets talk about Arii scale issues with the entire kit and entire Valkyrie line. If this model kit were to transform it would look nothing like the Arii 1/100 scale Battroid. The body of the aircraft is too thin and long and the arms would be too long and small. The heads are too completely different sizes as well. The Battroid is shorter looking and stocky and the legs and arms are fat. The Gerwalk and fighter bodies are two different bodies. It seems there was no continuity in designing the Valkyrie series, which is too bad as the Valkyrie was the main icon of the series. But of the three the Valkyrie Fighter looks the best and still looks in proportion even though it is out of proportion.

Since these poor kits were manufactured a few other Valkyrie kits were produced. Soon after this kit was released one of the other Macross model kit licensee Imai would produce an excellent 1/72 scale Variable Valkyrie model kit that 20 years later still hold up beautifully. Also Arii will scale down the Imai molds to 1/100 scale and release their own variable Valkyrie kit that also still holds up well.

Most important and recently, the model industries most innovative and important model aviation manufacturer Hasagawa started producing Macross Valkyrie kits. Of what I have seen they look beautiful and better yet they are manufactured in 1/72! It appears the designer of the new Hasagawa Valkyrie kit approached the kit as if it was a real aircraft, something Arii should have done all those years ago. I am looking forward to building one these Hasagawa kits soon; their Strike Valkyrie Fighter is a beauty!

Leonardo Flores “Mod Cineaste”

This is a figure based off of an Arii kit. It is pre-painted and assembled.

This is a figure based off of an Arii kit. It is pre-painted and assembled.

The figure is pretty poor. The proportions are off, and it can barely stand on its own. The legs bow in for some reason.

The figure came on a blister card, and included a mini figure of Minmei and a photo card.