Cosmo Zero Docking in Hangar 3 Diorama, Finished!

I went to the local model railroad shop and found some perfect scale pipe handrails!

That was the final touch needed to finish this pig up. They only had two packs at the store and I wasn't sure they were going to be enough, but I managed to get it to work.

After installing the railing, I mounted the arm holding the Zero in place with some 90 second epoxy, which held perfectly. 

So it's all done! I think it's not to shabby for my first scratch build. 

Cosmo Zero and Hangar Diorama update: A Call to Arms.

I got a bit more done this weekend. I put together all the missiles that came with the Zero kit, painted and gave a panel wash then placed them down in the lower bay. Some may recognize that cluster of tanks in the bottom right as coming from the ancient Revell See-through Apollo 11 command service module! I have been moving this box of spare parts around for over 30 years!











I put together an crane arm from spare parts, mostly Macross Valkyrie parts from the 80's and the landing gear from this kit. God Bless the spare parts box! I set it in place to see how it would look. Good enough for me.































I have been wracking my brain as to how I was going to suspend the aircraft from the crane arm. I settled on glueing small marshmallow shaped magnets to the ends of the arms, and then some flat magnets on the aircraft. They are very strong and hold the weight of the model no problem. They also allow me to remove the plane if I ever need to.

I moved them as far back as I could but it still wasn't at the balancing point of the model, so I hid a piece of steel rod tucked under the aircraft's nose an the right side where you can't see it. To quote Steve Neill, "The Camera will never see it!" This balanced it out nicely.

















I held the arm in place with my hand and took a few shots to see how she looked. Not too shabby. I can't do the final install until I get ahold of some hand rails for the decks behind the plane. I'm going to go the the local model railroad shop this Saturday to get some. Once those are in, I can mount the arm and plane in permanently.

Stay tuned!

Nine Months! I could have built a baby!

I haven't built anything for Nine Months! I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft: Legion and Overwatch for those months. But I finally got the itch again.

So, I cleaned up the garage and started working on scratch building a Death Star II from Return of the Jedi. Long story short, I need a plastic globe and a lot of money to get that one done, so It's on the back burner for now. Looking around the garage for something else to do, I see the Space Battleship Yamato Hangar 3 diorama sitting over in the corner all lonely and half started. I should finish that.

I did a little clean up on the Cosmo Zero I destroyed. I'm going to have to have it be really battle damaged or buy a new kit because I really screwed that kit up after such a great start. I think battle damage will be okay as it will depict a beaten fighter coming back to the hangar for much needed repairs.























I built the second floor and installed the hallway light and painted the hand rails yellow. I set the second floor in place to see the lighting. I need to do some light blocking on the front edge, but overall I think it looks okay. More to come this weekend!

BanDai 1/72 Cosmo Zero and Hangar Diorama Part One

I started working on my BanDai 1/72 Cosmo Zero fighter from Space Battleship Yamato 2199. It's a really nice kit as all Ban Dai kits are.

Initial stages went well. I did some pre-shading on the nose section and painted it a custom orange mix that was to my liking. The camera doesn't really pick up the subtlety of the pre-shading, but it's there to the eye.

I decided to tackle the teeny-tiny pilot figure and instrument panel next. Not too shabby as it will be hardly visible in the cockpit through the canopy.

















At this stage I decided to try my hand at a diorama! I wanted to do something that would show part of the outside of the ship (the Yamato) so I chose to build Hangar 3 seen the 2199 series:

I know that I don't have the skill to do an exact replica of it as it appears on screen so I'm just going for the general shape and feel of the space. This is also my first try at scratch building anything. I used some heavy cardboard as the base to build upon and then bought some styrene and started adding details.

The next part is a lesson in what NOT to do when building a model. I had the flu for about two weeks, but I still wanted to build. Big Mistake. A whole slew of bad decision making ensued. I prepped the body for application of Aclad II Chrome but when it came time to actually do it I, in my sickly stupor, decided that I didn't need the gloss black base coat. SHIT. STRIKE ONE!

So, off it all comes. after much sanding and re-priming I applied the gloss black base. But it had humidity issues and there were some grainy areas. Should I fix it and do it again? Sick brain says, "Naw! It'll be fine!" STRIKE TWO! It was not fine. I didn't take pictures because it was very bad.


So, I soak the whole goddamn thing in Castrol Super Clean (Purple Pond). This was not good for the plastic. Some chunks came off. STRIKE THREE! You're OUT! Long story short, I screwed up this kit so bad that I do not think that it can be salvaged. I have never, ever screwed up a kit this bad in my whole United States life.

I was very bummed. I set it all aside and locked up the garage. I didn't have the desire to return to it for almost two weeks. After that time, I went down to survey the damage and got depressed all over again. Didn't go back down for another two weeks. I was seriously pissed off at myself for such a disaster. I am going to have to get ahold of another kit for $36. Lovely.
This one may end up in the lower section of the diorama as a bird that just returned from combat with some battle damage. We shall see.