I’m finally back making my own Girlpla again, and damn, this is the most work I’ve put into a 30MS girl yet, and she’s easily my favorite one yet. This is Yufia Valkyrie, a Yufia custom equipped with the 30MM Wing Unit, partially painted in Tamiya Light Ghost Grey to have color parity between her base kit and the wings, and my god she turned out really freakin’ good.
First, let’s talk about Yufia’s build—she’s definitely the most solid girl I’ve built from the line. Joint strength is actually so good, it would get a bit too tight in some areas after painting, causing me to sand a few joints, something I don’t say often for 30MS kits. Her torso is very involved compared to others, being on par with Tokai Teio, and for someone whose price is the same as Rishetta and Tiasha at $28, she comes with quite a bit of plastic. Granted, once you actually complete her Normal form you only have to build her weapons and backpack after, but her backpack does add a lot to her silhouette.
As for the Wing Unit, I got it as I wanted to copy this configuration of her, and building it comes with no surprises, it’s all in one color, it’s basic, but it adds a lot and matches pretty well with her aesthetic, even if she’s meant to be customized with 30MF stuff. The wings all individually articulate, and there are 2 sections for each wing, all coming with a big range of motion.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do any custom paint at first, so I did a quick edit to see if I wanted to gray the wings and was instantly sold on the idea. I wanted to match the gray as much as possible, but the closest I had available as a spray can was Tamiya Light Ghost Grey, which I would repaint the gray of Yufia, some joints of the backpacks and the wings, which the result ended up looking pretty fire anyway. As for detail painting, I went on a real frenzy on putting Tamiya Metallic Grey for the white and yellow, painting inside the backpack bits that really needed something in there and just a lot on the wing unit because it was supposedly still too white for my liking. Vallejo Steel was added to the painted grey parts and used to panel line the black, which ended up looking really good somehow. I thought I should add some color that could stand out from the shades of gray, so I opted for Vallejo Royal Blue in just a few areas, which was kinda a bitch to clean up the excess paint.
Next up was panel lining, and boy was there quite a bit as she has white limbs rather than black I usually deal with, as well as her torso and the wing unit having a lot of surface detail to go over. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give her decals or not, but I wanted to add some on the wings, so I put just a few caution decals here and there, being quite the struggle as the cutouts are so goddamn small ;-; It was finally time to topcoat, and you may notice that Yufia wasn’t fully flat coated. Instead, for the first time for girlpla, I opted for a gloss coat instead, though I kept her skin and hair flat, and as I will say my god again, she looks absolutely stunning with it. The gloss black is real hot and overall makes her look like she’s in shining armor, which is why I went for a gloss finish in the first place. All that was left was for posing!
Having multiple joints painted and coated, Yufia’s joints got really tight, which is absolutely weird to think about for 30MS girls. Loosening them up a bit, she was super solid to pose with and unlike any other girlpla I’ve done this year, she can actually stand by herself, even with her armor AND wings! Using a Simple Stand, she was also a breeze to get her airborne. She’s just a real delight to pose, her curves giving her a lot of nice poses to do in her Normal form, her weapons, armor and angry face providing a lot of great action shots, and the wings just making her look real mighty, or even act as a really cool coat.
Overall, this is hands down my favorite girlpla kit of the year so far, there’s a lot of kit for just $40, she’s a fun solid build and just looks real nice to look at. As a knight, she fills my need for wanting an unarmored Durga, and I’m just really impressed how everything was as a 30MS kit. 30MS kits usually give me no trouble, but they’re always kinda behind the looks of Koto and Chinese girls. Yufia does compete though. Anyway, that’s that, thanks for reading and I’ll see you again!
