This massive kit was one of my “grail” finds on my last visit to Japan. I found it tucked in the corner of a small hobby shop in Akihabara with a fair amount of dust on it. After asking the clerk to pull it out for me, I found out that it also came with the A.K.D Veil option part (gigantic shield). I asked the clerk how much it was, and he said 42,000 yen (which at the time was about $410 usd). He then mentioned that they would give me a 10% discount on it. I am still to this day not sure why he gave me a discount.

Either way, I now was the proud owner of an original Volks 1/35 LED Mirage. This kit was originally released back in 1992!! Once we got back to the hotel, I opened the boxes to check out the parts, and make sure everything was there. I was really surprised at how super clean and smooth the parts were. The casting was fantastic!  (There were a few parts that I later found that did have some nasty seams, but easily fixed)

Once we got back from the trip, I began cleaning the kit up and working on pinning the beast. This was roughly around Oct. 15th of last year.

After work on it sporadically for the past 3 months, I finally finished it last week while I was home sick. Paint is Tamiya acrylics and Mr. Color Super Metallics. All of the red is painted, I did not use any of the waterslides that came with the kit. All of the gold inlay and trim is hand painted as well. The Exia in the photo for size comparison is my 1/60 NG Exia I had posted earlier.

The finished kit stands just about 28 inches tall. The Veil is about 14 inches tall and comes in at a staggering 2lbs!! (It’s solid resin) I went through 9 bottles of Tamiya Flat white and 3 bottles of Mr. Color Super Iron.