Hasegawa 1/72
Perfect Variable VF-1 Valkyrie
w/Full Options

Fighter Mode:
                 VF-1A                             Super VF-1S                     Strike VF-1J
                              
Pic 3   Pic 4   Pic 5  Pic 6                       Pic 2                                  Pic 2

Transformation to Gerwalk

Gerwalk Mode:
        VF-1J                    Super VF-1J                   Strike VF-1J
                              
Pic 2

Transformation to Battroid
      Legs                Body/Fuselage          Gunpod
             

Battroid Mode:

         VF-1A                           Super VF-1S                       Strike VF-1J
                                         
Pic 2  Pic 3  Pic 4                  Pic 2   Pic 3                   Pic 2  Pic 3  Pic 4

    This was the ultimate challenge to myself, to make a perfect transforming Valkyrie from Hasegawa's fighter kit. I didn't just want a VF-1 with a perfect transformation either, it had to have correct proportions, great detail, plenty of options, and of course full articulation. I began with few guidelines that I felt had to be in the finished product: legs that were always attached, even during transformation; integrated heatshield; wrist/hand covers while in fighter mode; opening hip intake covers for fighter mode; articulated hands; working landing gear; optional fast packs; and as previously mentioned, full articulation. The opening intake covers didn't work out(there was simply no room after adding the poly socket joint), but everything else came out as I'd hoped. Of course, all this might have been more spectacular had Yamato not stolen my thunder by releasing their 1/48 scale VF-1 :) Anyway on to the details.

Parts:
   This VF-1 was made using Hasegawa's Super VF-1A Fighter kit, the weapon kit and parts from their VF-1S Strike Fighter, no Battroid parts were used. The hands are from a 1/100 V2 Gundam, and the shoulder "lights"(?) as well as the middle section of the gunpod are from a 1/72 Bandai variable VF-1. Sheet and strip styrene was used for most of the scratch built parts (upper arms, knee joints, heatshield, etc), and the hinge joints (shoulders, landing gear doors, etc) were made from styrene tubes with 1mm brass rod as the axle.

Construction/Engineering:
    Where to start here...well for those curious I based my transformation process off of a variety of different VF-1 toys/models, as well as a few of my own touches. The leg swing bars are based off IHP's variable VF-1(except mine detach), the nosecone and chestplate as well as a few other aspects are based off the two variable Hasegawa's in the June '01 issue of Dengeki Hobby, and the tailfins and body pins are influenced from Yamato.
    In fighter mode, everything locks securely: the legs are held by pins at the intake, and tabs at the rear. The chestplate locks into the backplate via the shoulder lights, and the nosecone in turn locks into the chestplate with a tab. The arms don't attach to anything, but the shoulder joints are more than tight enough to hold them in place.
    Gerwalk mode looks great, but is a bit unstable. I overestimated the strength of the ball joint in the mid-thigh joint, so the Gerwalk is a bit shaky and the legs sometimes want to splay out from underneath the body. Also of note is the movable joint cover seen here. In Fighter and Battroid modes, this piece hinges up and slides into the leg, but in Gerwalk mode, it folds down to cover the ball joint and approve appearence.
    Battroid mode, like the Fighter is fairly solid. The nosecone plugs into the backplate, the shoulder blocks plug into the backplate, and the chestplate plugs into the shoulder blocks. All joints are articulated including ball joints in the hips, mid-thigh shoulder, and the S-head neck. The feet have a wide range front and back and although I'd have liked side to side movement, there was simply no room for it.
    Transformation is fairly involved are care must be taken, however it follows just about every previous VF-1, with a few exceptions: The legs feature a detachable swingbar similar to Kawamori's lineart, I 'd have liked this part to be more detailed and mechanical looking, but space limitations prevented this (I'd also like to point out that the swingbars are really only for looks, they're way too fragile to actually support the legs); The nosecone is on a small double-jointed rotation part, enabling it to fold down to allow the heatshield through, and help it attain a better position in Battroid mode; Finally the chestplate swings into position intead of sliding. The hands are a part I'm particularly proud of, the arm panel can only open when the arm is in a straight position, the elbow block prevents it from opening while bent. The hands themselves barely fit inside the arms, and only will when the thumb is folded down, and the fingers extended.
    Fast Pack attachment is simple and required almost no modification. The arm packs simply snap onto the arms exactly as Hasegawa made them. The leg packs clip onto the leg fins and plug into the rear of the legs. For the boosters, I extended their attachment arm, and added a polycap insided the backpack. To attach them, the small cover piece on the backpack is removed, and the boosters simply plug in. Now originally when I'd built the backpack joints they were more than stiff enough to hold backpack up with the boosters attached, however after many months of test transforming the joints loosened up and no longer held the boosters. To compensate, I added two new parts. The first was a small styrene block which was inserted underneath one of the backpack hinges, seen here in the large red oval. This piece is removable (when not in use, it can store inside one of the front missile pods on the boosters) and helps to keep the backpack in proper position while in fighter and Gerwalk modes. Also shown in this pic, the blue box is the booster attachment, the red box the leg pack attachment, and the blue circles the leg connection parts. Second, I added a hook similar to Yamato's 1/48 VF-1 which swings out of the backplate and clips onto the tailfins, holding the backpack in place for Battroid mode.

Color scheme:
    I'd first planned for this to be a DYRL Max type VF-1A, but after I picked up Yamato's 1/60 version, I decided on something different. My next idea was a Mass Production color scheme with gray instead of brown, but I wanted some stripes. The final colors evolved from there, and in fact I was still deciding what would be which color as I was actually painting it. I'm very pleased with the final result, it looks like something that could come out of Macross, but different enough to not be repetitive.

In-progress pics:
Fighter 1   Fighter 2   Gerwalk   Battroid progression   Inner leg detail