1/72 Reactive Armor VF-0S Review

My favorite work by far

It took a week for me to finish the kit mainly due the time constraint. Since i was occupied with my study. Initially i intend to make this kit as best as possible though in the end i still make some mistakes here and there. But the kit looks really impressive anyway.

The armored version of VF-0S is not very well known since in the OVA this guy only appear for less than a minute and it was during the SV-51 raid on UN Spacy battleships. The Reactive Armor is the prototype version and later it will be improvised for VF-1 series.

Hasegawa did pretty great job for this kit. The details are splendid as usual and it is not difficult in assembling the kit since you don't need cement most of the time unlike which is quite a staple for Hasegawa's kit. I painted all of the armor parts though i leave most of the VF-0S itself unpainted. The color scheme is abit different with the original one but it still looks great. However the kit doesn't have good articulation especially the leg mainly due to its inherent desigh. The kit also backheavy because the armors attached to VF-0S body are quite heavy which the slim VF-0S body hardly sustain.

I messed up some process during the construction of the kit. I painted the head with black after i applied the topcoat since i didn't notice the color scheme until i check the decalling details, as a result the head doesn't look that good. I also should have stick with Semi Gloss Topcoat to provide surface for decal instead of Matte which i can use it for finishing touch.

The kit is pretty big and as you can see it is as big as the 1/60 VF-1S. I could say this kit is cheap for its given size and bulkiness where usually it will cost 7000 yen for a Kotobukiya kit.

The Armored VF-0S is perfect for close combat since it can ram opponent pretty hard due to the weight and the armor able to withstand alot of damage. Fokker able to repel his Mentor Ivanov during a battle inside UN Spacy with Fist alone. Though the armor weight render VF-0S very slow which is an easy target in open battle.

The reactive armor is boost the defense of VF-0S significantly especially against solid ammunitions though i wonder if it also provide some protection against beam weaponaries.

The Reactive armor is also loaded with a large amount of Micro Missiles on the chest and shoulder armor. Despite it doesn't have the same payload as Armored VF-1, the amount of Micro Missiles are good enough to sink several Battleships.

Due to its heavy weight VF-0S is not suitable for Assault missions though it serves as perfect defense unit for Siege battle where it is capable of defending against the enemies effectively.

As i stated before in my previous blog post, i bought this kit because the kit comes with the mecha and the armor parts. The usual requirement for me in order to buy Macross kit is either it is in Fighter form or capable of transforming into 3 modes. But this kit is an exception since i have a fondness with the kit that has external armor parts which can be removed.

The kit actually does not allow you to make the VF-0S form since it doesn't have appropriate decals. Moreover the number of polycaps is insufficient and it is hard to find the substitute since the size of the polycap is bigger than most Master Grade kits. Surprisingly the 1/72 VF-0S is able to use the 1/60 VF-1S perfectly.

VF-0S standard equipment are same with other Variable Fighters; Gunpod, Micromissiles and Head Laser. If i recall, the head laser can be aimed with the Pilot's eye movement which Fokker used it to shoot down incoming missiles.

After finishing this kit, i can say the Battroid Lineup of Hasegawa is pretty good though i won't get them since it doesn't meet my requirement for a Macross kit. If i did this kit during holiday maybe the result will be better since i have time constraint issues in constructing this kit. Maybe i will get Armored VF-1 if Hasegawa has any plan to release it.