StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Everyone likes Flash Gordon rockets covered in fins, so I picked up the 1/1000 Cosmo Navy from Yamato 2199 a few weeks ago. I cheaped out on shipping and it only just arrived, and I'm pretty impressed. I built the middle one first (the 'cruiser') because I didn't want to fuck up the big one and the smaller one appeared to require actual modelling skills.



I'd looked at Dalong to see what the kits are like (which is why I decided against the Gamilas ships because they looked quite boring) so I was really surprised by the level of detail on the ships. They'd looked really flat and boring, but they're full of 'proper model' details. Mr Dalong even lazier than me!?



Alarmingly, however, it appeared the kits required GLUE. Being a super-lazy Bandai lazy modeller, this left me pretty aghast. Luckily, it isn't really true.

The ships are broken up into pieces that fit together more like a traditional Bandai Gundam kit than a regular boat kit; the hull is built in several frames that fit together to hold each other in place with pins and clips, rather than being two huge bits you just glue together down the middle.



I quickly found out that while most of the nub marks are hidden, this construction method means they have to be properly cleaned up or you're left with gaps where they don't fit together properly.



I'm going to go back and use glue (ugh) to get a better fit on the pieces, but I'm pretty happy with my $5 spaceship. I'm planning on trying out a wash and a flat topcoat on these ships; lots of the detail is basically invisible due to the scale, and I hear a flat coat will make the plastic look a bit less ... plastic. HOBBYISM AHOY! I've never used either, though, and I'm not sure how to use a wash so it picks out all the details without leaving smudgy poops all over the colours.

Finally - the essential test. It DOES make a great beam saber!



EDIT SWEET JESUS PHONE CAMERA SUCK

How many ships do you get? Obviously one of Okita's flagship, but is it like one Yukikaze and one of the cruisers?

Yeah, it's Kirishima and a cruiser and destroyer. The destroyer is fucking nuts, it's like 8cm long and 40 parts colour separated right down to the stripe on the tiny turrets. But no glue yet, phew!

Also, work with Gundam bases. :v Not bad for $20. I've heard they're going to make Dessler's flagship, but that'll be like 50+cm going by size of Kirishima.

I'm pretty impressed; I really just bought the kit to get rid of some store credit but it's hell choice.

NNNNNEEEEEEERRRRRRRD!!!

More pics dude.

I started building the tiny little destroyer, and immediately broke a piece. Luckily nobody will ever know. :V



It's invisible right???

Anyway because it's so much smaller (looks like it'll be about 8cm longish) it's much more sensitive to parts cleanup to get a decent fit and some of the parts are super small so just clipping them from the sprue can break them, but it looks pretty cool. On the weekend I'll be using it in wash tests to bring out the detail my terrible phone camera constantly washes out.



There's a good range of scale for my $30; the larger battleship I haven't built is about 25% longer than the cruiser and at least three times the volume; its turrets are bigger than the cruiser's bridge tower.



Finally tricked the stupid phone into white balancing properly. Space B-25!



I'm so happy with this kit that I'm eyeing up other Yamato kits; I've heard that they've demo'd a model of Dessler's flagship, and it's gotta be like 60cm long. I'd buy that for the probably $80 it will cost! AND THEN HAVE NOWHERE TO PUT IT.

Man you gotta learn how to fill and detail and paint and stuff if you are gonna get cool models like that.

The designers have admitted that they messed up the parts sizing on my kit, especially with the cruiser, and I'm not about to putty or paint. I didn't spend $30 to spend A MILLION YEARS WITH A BRUSH. :V I may paint windows, though, but I have pens for that. LAZY, Hav. The key word is LAZY.

That Yamato is maybe a foot long, so if they actually release that kit (which depends on how much money Yamato merch makes) it'll be utterly ridiculous. I'm planning on getting the Gamilon battleship + 2 destroyers kit, though; the battleship is about as big as Yamato and the destroyers are a similar size to the human cruiser.