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This fighter definately qualifies as an obscure subject. The SF3A Lancer II was a spaceborne fighter used by the orbital forces of UN SPACY at the beginning of Space War One against the Zentraedi in the TV series "Macross". As a friend of mine put it, the Lancer was laser target practice for the invaders. Though probably a "throwaway" design that Studio Nue came up with early in the development process (I can only find about 5 small sketches anywhere), I've always liked the design quite a lot. Trust the modeling community to hang on a vehicle that has about 2 seconds air time.
The kit itself seems to have the shape of the fighter down pretty well. Dimentions put it at 1/72 scale, and the proportions are as accurate as I can tell. The only questionable parts are the ventral and dorsal engine cowlings. On the kit, they are angular and boxy, whereas in one or two of the sketches, they seem a bit more rounded. Such is the pitfall of translating from anime to reality. Overall, it looks spot on. The molding is very clean, with only minor seams on either side of the fuselage to clean up. A few microbubbles under the surface appeard after sanding, but were easily filled. The parts break down allowed for painting to be quick and easy. I primed the piece with Tamiya white primer, and painted the parts with Tamiya white, light grey and light blue. The kit came with some rub on transfers. I used the Macross roundel for the fuselage, but opted to add more decals from a Macross decal sheet that I had in my spares box.
Sitting above the main fuselage is the fighter's radar boom. This piece was molded in super thin resin, and though to scale and well cast, was very flimsy. Afraid it might snap or droop excessively, I chose to replace it with a scratchbuilt piece. My replacement consists of a piece of thin brass sheet cut to shape and sandwiched between two even thinner sheets of styrene. The sandwhich was sanded towards the trailing edge and given a bit of a curve at the front. This replacement, though heavier, is much sturdier, and sits straight and true. Overall, this kit only took about 2 weeks to build, and was a real joy.
