Space Battleship Yamato ( aka "Star Blazers" ) GB

Modeling Subjects Group Builds
1

This one’s for all us old-school anime fans and those new to the Yamato-verse thanks to the new movies coming out in Japan.

All Space Battleship Yamato ( American title “Star Blazers” ) themed subjects are welcome.

Rules are pretty simple.

  1. 12-month time from 12/17/2010 to 12/18/2011. Starting on a Friday and ending on a Sunday to make sure there’s a full weekend at both ends.

  2. All scales welcome and more than 1 entry is OK. This will allow for multiple entries as well as adding details to some of the more simple kits.

  3. Non-canon subjects in the form of different warships or paint schemes for the fighters are welcome, as long as they fit the “mood” or “style” of the setting. I figure, “You want a Space Battleship Iowa or Bismarck? Why not?” Of course, this includes everything from kitbashing and scratch work being allowed or something as simple as a fighter with alternate markings.

The one thing I’d limit is “low-visibility” patterns. Most ships in the setting have bright colors somewhere, including the fighters, so ( in the same vein as the “no Mechwarrior-style camo” in the Macross GB ) camo probably wouldn’t really fit. Besides, unless you’re going for the “all-black” look of a Nighthawk or Blackbird, anything else is going to be very visible in space, so why not show off that red-and-white “Sundowners” sqadron marking on the tail instead of the two-tone dull gray version?

Here are the badge options. A big “thank you” to Cosmic J fopr putting these together. The big rule regarding these is to use both only if you finish at least 2 projects.

!http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh234/CosmicJC/Wonderfesr%20Pics/Wonderfest%20pix/MovieYamato-1-1.jpg

!http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh234/CosmicJC/Wonderfesr%20Pics/Wonderfest%20pix/yamato_painting-2-1.jpg

Finally, the most important rule: Have fun!

2

Participants & projects:

Gunpla Master: 1:500 Bandai Yamato

Cosmic J: 1:700 Yamato, 1:700 Andromeda

Kugai: Bandai EX 1:100 Cosmo Tiger and Cosmo Zero

SLW45: TBD

Zodiac XL5: 1:700 Patrol Ship Yuunagi

3

Cool, and you can count me in w/a 1/500th BAN DIA Yamatto

4

My minimum contribution will be the 1:100 scale Cosmo Tiger and Cosmo Zero from the Bandai EX kit series.

Depending on how much time I have with other projects, I may end up throwing in a few of the mini-kits and something from the “started but never finished” stash.

5

I’m in!

I want to do Bandai’s 1980’s vintage 1/700 scale Yamato, and their 1/700 scale Andromeda from around the same time. The Andromeda I intend to wire for lights, in the guns and the engines.

I’ve already started the Yamato kit, but I don’t have much to show yet, cause I wanted to build this ship pretty much straight out of the box. Unfortunately, they are old molds and require some clean-up.

For the Wave Motion Gun barrel, the kit had this little cup that came in two pieces. It didn’t fit the gun aperture correctly, and had almost no detail. It needed some work, because the gun is one of the most iconic parts of that ship.

So I assembled the cup and firmly glued it into the hull. Once it was good and dry, I drilled out the bottom of the barrel/cup, and used a round file to smooth it out and match the edges of the aperture. I then filled the resultant gaps w/ Aves Apoxie Sculpt, and wet sanded it smooth once dry.

After that, I glued lengths of 0.010 x 0.020 strip styrene into the barrel. I didn’t use a jig or anything, I just eyeballed it. I glued the four cardinal points first - top, bottom, left and right - then I bisected those spaces, and the resulting spaces again, for a total of 16 strips all relatively equidistant. This was actually kind of difficult, because there’s not much room to maneuver inside the hull. Once they were in place, I snipped them down on both ends and sanded them flush.

To cover the hole in the bottom of the barrel, I took a shallow M.S.G./Koto burner nozzle and dropped a Wave O-Bolt into it. The one in the image is the first one I made - I used too much liquid cement and that bubbled up around the edges of the bolt, so I made another w/ less glue and used that instead. I couldn’t get the camera to focus down in the barrel, so I can’t show you what it looks like finished.

The image here looks a little rough, but in reality it came out quite well. I painted it w/ Mr Surfacer 1000 to check if it was smooth, and polished it w/ an alcohol dipped q-tip. I’m quite pleased w/ the results. Not like anyone will notice the work once the model is done. [:)]

The bottoms of the turrets are hollow, so I’m using sheet cardstock to block them off. Still working on that…

So that’s where I am. Sorry not more pictures. I started this a little before our GB, so I didn’t really document it. I’ll do better from here on out.

More soon!

6

I want in . Dont know what it will be yet see what the hollidays bring but with a year i will come up with something

7

Welcoma aboard, SLW!

Okay, the pre-holiday craziness has kept me a bit busy, but I’ll be using up some vacation time from tomorrow through New Year’s weekend, so I should be able to fit in a good bit of time on projects.

Here are the “opening the boxes” pics.

IMG_1171.jpg

IMG_1172.jpg

IMG_1174.jpg

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Hum, did anyone notice that Starship Modeler had the 1/500th Yamato in stock[:O]

9

Oh you lucky dog. I just love these things, they can be build to very high standards if one is willing to put the effort into them. I am so looking forward to these little puppies.

10

Well, to set some realistic expectations on the “standards” I’ll be applying, I’m pretty much planning on doing these things straight-from-the-box with a little weathering, nothing fancy ( also wanting to let them look used, but in good shape ). I’m also considering adding the older, larger-scale kit of the Cosmo Zero to the lineup for a comparison of the classic kits with these more “realistic” ones.

No disrespect intended toward the older kits, more like giving an example of why I think these EX kits seem woth the extra cost if someone would be into having something that already comes with the added detail.

11

Started work on the fighters. A few subassemblies together and plotting the details of painting strategy.

I’m also trying to decide whether to build these gear-up or -down. The former will leave the models less delicate for moving concerns and would be handy if I ever do some kind of photoshop thing, but the latter gives more opportunity for detail and displaying options.

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How do you join this group?

I saw the new film in Japan on Jan 2nd and fell in love with the concept so bought five or six kits, including:

1/700 Yamato

1/700 Andromeda

Patrol Ship Yuunagi (which is approx 1/700 scale)

EDF Battleship

as well as a few mini kits and the larger (not EX) Cosmo Zero. How I got them all in my luggage to bring them home is still a mystery.

I’ve started the Patrol Ship as it just looks to be such a beautiful design.

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Say you want to join and which of those very nuce kits you want to commit to ( I figure no harm in adding sonething later if you have the time and inclination ), and you’re added to the list!

As far as the movie, I’m still hoping Tyler’s contribution to the soundtrack is a sign that an American release is in the works. Hopefully if they do they’ll take advantage of the fact that it’s a live-action reboot to make it more true to the Japanese version than was done with the old anime.

14

Well I’ve started the Patrol Ship Yuunagi, so I’ll stick with that one for now.

Thanks for the reply.

15

Here are some photos to show where I am with Yuunagi.

This one shows overall where I am so far:

In terms of scale I would say 1/700. Why? Well there are charts out there which show the relative sizes of the ships and Yuunagi is pretty much in proportion with Yamato. Here she is with the 1/700 Yamato:

The detail on the kit is around what Matchbox were doing in the 80s so for an anime-based model I think it’s pretty good… but like Matchbox the engraved areas are a wee bit on the deep side. The fit of parts isn’t perfect and I had to use a fair amount of filler on the upper gun deck. Luckily the turrets will conceal most of this but enough will be visible for filler being a must.

I’ll update with more photos as I do more to her. (I intend to replace her guns with turned brass gun barrels for 1/700 ships… Yamato will be receiving guns intended for the WW2 version).

16

Well the brass cannons came from Hong Kong and are lovely little pieces. I will post photos of the turrets with the new guns in place soon.

I am also in the process of building the Cosmo Zero by Bandai - not the EX 1/100 version, but the older, more retro kit. This will be built in flying mode with a custom stand and a fully detailed cockpit. So far I have cut out the ‘shelf’ which made up the interior and added a basic floor. Since a pilot (I am making this 1/76 scale) will take up a lot of the room I can leave the floor and tub sides as they are.

I have several Japanese Yamato books with Cosmo Zero illustrations and I’ll use them to guide me as I build. It won’t be as highly detailed as the EX version, but to be honest I just want it to look pretty much like a 3D version of the anime fighter.

Pics later…

17

Whilst in Japan over the new year, I sought out a cinema to watch the live action movie Space Battleship Yamato. Not knowing a whole lot of Japanese but the plot was quite straight forward. The CGIs were lovingly rendered. Only disappointment being not a lot of other ships of the earth space fleet were shown (something like 3 ships at the start of the movie, hardly a fleet!). The movie was a corny blend of Hollywood cheesiness with a blend of Japanese drama, still enjoyable, though the seat was not as enjoyable - think of economy class of your average cinema seats.

I will follow this thread as a matter of interest.

Uchu senkan Yamato, hasshin!

18

I saw the film at the Toho cinema in Matsudo-city, Chiba with my girlfriend and the seats there were pretty big. I have a little Japanese, but my lady is a native speaker so if I got confused she helped me.

The negative reviews I’ve read about the film seem to revolve around two aspects. One is that the film is rushed. Well if you compare a 2 hour film to a 26 episode TV series then yes, it could be rushed. I had never seen the series so I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

The other complain I’ve read a few times is that the cast is totally Japanese, where “Starblazers” had an international crew. What these people fail to grasp is that for US audiences the broadcasters had the names changed. In the original (which I have now seen) ALL the names are Japanese.

Anyway, it was viewing the film which prompted me to start buying the entire EDF fleet as kitted by Bandai.

19

Okay, mea culpa on being negligent with this GB. I’ve got free time coming up over the next week, have been able to get the other “real world” chaos in check for a bit, and finally have the camera working again to post my WIPs.

Anyone still interested and willing to help me rescue this GB?