by Raymond Nikel

This is a Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato Cosmo Zero. For those of you who did not grow up seeing this in US syndication I'm sorry, as a kid this show was extremely cool. Unfortunately, you can never go back.

I picked this Bandai kit up several years and several moves ago at a comic book store in Arlington, Texas. When I saw the new contest I dug it out of a box in my model closet. I forgot how small it is. No scale stated, but based on the 1/100 Bandai Cosmo Zero review on this web site (1/100 builds to about 7 inches) this one scales out somewhere around 1/165 at 4 and a quarter inches.

Very few parts as you can see in the just getting started picture. I have it next to a 1/144 F-15 for reference. Straight forward build. In my past moves I somehow lost two landing gear doors, one nose and one inboard main, so I left the inboard mains and nose gear doors off.

No decals are provided. I used an airbrush with Tamiya paints I had sitting around thinned with Mr. Color Thinner. This required much masking because the entire hull only had two pieces, a top and bottom.

This was a fun project that took 7 days from Saturday to Saturday in October 2010. I worked a little every day after work. This finished much better than I expected.

Image: Start

Image: Preshade

Image: Underneath