Missile Phalanx

Another early attempt at a vintage kit! My first ever Macross kit as well - I got this without a box for only $10 and decided to give it a go on this classic design that was often shown to die in droves in the original Macross anime series. This kit actually has a bit of a funny (and mildly infuriating) story behind it for me.

The kit was originally painted in the stock brownish-tan colors per the anime artwork but then took a dive off a table as the parts were drying from the top coat for decals.

Since the kit needed to be repainted, I figured it might be a good idea to try a whitewash effect (something I had never done at the time), and also since the last section of the original Macross series is around Christmas time, it stood to reason that a few Destroids guarding the city would have been camouflaged for winter operations.

However, the kit after being finished and photographed as you see here - took another dive, this time off a very high shelf and more or less smashed "into a million pieces" as the saying goes. It was beyond salvageable and thus had to become one of the few kits that was consigned to the dustbin of history. I suppose a weirdly fitting end to a mecha that was so disposable in the show as well.

That all being said - these vintage Imai kits are actually a lot of fun and a great way to have a decently detailed representation of these classic Macross secondary designs. I'm sure if I ever had the chance to build another one, I probably would... and mount it securely to a display base this time around...