January 2014
Bandai tries to make their models easy for kids to make, so the parts come in pre-colored plastic. The assembly of this model is made for this, with different-colored plastic and stupid stickers instead of waterslide decals. Well, fortunately, the stickers weren't necessary since I just hand-painted those area with Testors enamel paints.
I painted the body of the ship with a spray can ofTamiya AS-28, Medium Gray. That went on real easy. I painted the red prow of the ship with a spray can of Mr. Hobby 68, Red Madder. This needed to be applied with multiple coats, since apparently, Mr. Hobby spray paints don't go on as nicely as Tamiya spray paints. That was disappointing. I had the same experience when doing a Gundam model (which is pretty much done by now; I just need to take pictures of that one and add it to the gallery here.
Since I wanted to assemble the red prow of the ship first and work with the plastic, I felt it was necessary to assemble it separately from the rest of the hull. Therefore, I had to modify the build process. You're supposed to put the two halves of the hull together, then both parts of the red prow fit over that. That's nice if you don't care much about how it will look. So I clipped off the ring part where the red pieces are supposed to fit around, and instead used glue. I did a clear gloss coat of Tamiya TS13 before applying the panel lines. The panel lines were a bit shallow, so using the Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped. I ended up using Gundam marker pens on many panel lines.
This was my first attempt at using pastel chalks to weather a kit. My local stationery store carries a brand of artist's chalks called Nouvel Carre. I scraped the chalk with my hobby knife and applied the powder with cotton swabs and brushes after I put on a dull coat of Tamiya TS-80. I wore white cotton gloves my wife bought at a drug store to avoid leaving fingerprints.
I didn't glue every piece together, and the bridge assembly can be removed for storage in a box.
Yamato 2520 was an anime doomed from the start. They did not obtain official licensing to make the show, so its plug was pulled after only a few episodes were made. What I have seen of the anime is FREAKING FANTASTIC, however. I'm an '80s anime fan and SF fan through-and-through, and I think the decade of the '80s was the epitome of epic SF space opera. The animation reminded me of something between Macross: The Movie DYRL and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Badassery at its finest. Maybe I can find an old VHS of this show on Yahoo Auctions Japan (or "YAJ," as I call it). The producers hired Syd Mead to do the space ship design, and fans of his works will immediately recognize his style present in this model. The show may have been nixed do to improper licensing, but at least we're lucky to have Bandai make a model of the titular starship.
Here is the build of this model on my YouTube channel:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Go back to the model gallery