Arcadia (Bandai 1/1600)

[YOULI]

I don' teven finished my Star Wars Easy kit pocket models that I worked on this old school kit : the ARCADIA.

It's Captain Harlock's Pirate Ship, the one we can see in the first Galaxy Express movies (1979 and 1981) and its movie (My youth in Arcadia) and TV series (SSX).
The model kit is from Bandai, 1/1600 scale. I Don't think it's the first edition but it sure is old (near twenty years). Though the kit was re-issued a number of time, so it's not hard to find.

I'm sorry about the pictures, it's not top notch quality. I've done better after that. But at the moment I didn't notice that I made fuzzy photos.

The box




Building notice






The kit parts








Some issues are to be expected since some details are wrong : air entries, aft shape, etc.
Just compare this kit builded and the box art.



The skulls will be fun to paint, and other details may be replaced by metal duplacates, I don't know yet.





I did pretty straitght forward. Black first coat with chaos black spray can from Citadel, and then Green dry brush, and brown for the cabin. Will share this with you guys lader.

If you can't wait, though, here is a Face Book link.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151438767376473.498696.580936472&type=3

 

[Grendels]

I have this kit and I have thought of building it many times. So I will be watching this one.

 

[YOULI]

I checked on Hobby Link Japan, they don't have it anymore, but I actually bought it in a Comic shop in Paris - France.

It certainly is not as good as the late Arcadia from Hasegawa (1/1500) but, I've got it so I build it
Thanks for your interest Grendel. Here are the next steps...

 

[YOULI]

(Too much pictures for the forum to handle, I have to reduce the format and all... Don't know...)

Here are the pictures.

Once I've used a Black coat (Chaos black spray can from Citadel) on the runners, I began to dry brush some green color (also Citadel, Foundation line paint). No need to be precise here. The Cabin and the deck is painted brown with a Chestnut ink. Other paint phases are to be done soon...

 

[YOULI]

Some Green dry brush later, we now need to put some white here and there. This details (windows, cadrants) are painted white in order to obtain a brighter color later, with yellow, red or even blue colors.
The only parts that will be kept white will be the skulls.
For the most part, the Prince August (like Vallejo colors) White is used, it's thin enough to be used like a wash. The white will, easily, stay in the recesses. No need to use a tiny brush, hurray !
The Cabin have white, the thrusters too... It's way easier that way than to but color on a black surface.

 

[YOULI]

The yellow paint and other colors are painted (one drop here, one wash there) and some wash and dry brush on the deck and the cabin.
The cabin received some gold paint for the decorations.
The thrusters received some light blue color on the white to simulate the engines glowing.

 

[YOULI]

That's not a very clean job, but I don't want to obtain something clean. It's not a toy. This ship have seen many battles, adventures, journeys... Weathering is in order there.
I finally cut some parts from the runners. The two half parts of the main body is glued and the front skull too. It's heavily glued in order to obtain a strong hold, it need to be sanded and puttied later so it needs to be strong.
Just notice I forgot to place an axis in the fuselage. Silly me. I corrected it later. And the putty and sand phase was easier than I thought.

 

[Grendels]

Looking good and thank you for posting this.

 

[YOULI]

I wanted to do some video, as promise but I still don't have the appropriate tools.

More pictures about this WIP soon

 

[YOULI]

What Happend with the parts glued ? I sanded it, added some putty and "voila". Some black paint coat later...

Beneath...



Bottom...




Some surface will be left as is since it will be hidden with other parts.



I sanded again with a U shape tool, very useful with an abrasive paper, it allows you to sand every kinda surface, with curves or not.





I repainted the surface but forgot to glue another part of the "nose". A part that don't fit well. So I painted red the bottom of the surface to glue on the detail part. There a huge gap, so I used again Prince August Mastic Plastique and some White Tamiya Putty.

 

[Glorfindel]

My LHS has one of these kits that's been sitting on his shelf for years now. I don't know anything about this show but I'll be watching this with interest.

 

[Anlushac11]

Wow... Captain Harlock. That name certainly takes me back a number of years, too many in fact.

Nice work on the kit.

The design makes me wonder if the studio who animated Captain Harlock lso did the Space Battleship Yamato series (Shown in USA as Starblazers).

May just be me but there seems to be several design similarities shared on Harlock's Arcadia and some of the Earth Defense Force warships.

 

[Grendels]

Wow... Captain Harlock. That name certainly takes me back a number of years, too many in fact.

Nice work on the kit.

The design makes me wonder if the studio who animated Captain Harlock lso did the Space Battleship Yamato series (Shown in USA as Starblazers).

May just be me but there seems to be several design similarities shared on Harlock's Arcadia and some of the Earth Defense Force warships.

Don't quote me on this, but I think they did. Youli will know for sure.

I have thought about building mine up many times....

 

[YOULI]

Yeah right, Leiji Matsumoto was the same guy who designed the characters and starships in Yamato and its own manga (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Queen millenium and so on)... So it's defenitly the same "background" and even kitbash spirits. Most of it's starships are inspired by actual modern, or ancient, fighters, vessels and various WWII weapons.
He's famous around the world for his fantasy and Sci-fi titles but you must see it's mangas about WWII. The OAV's THE COCKPIT is a must see anime for instance.

Captain Harlock was known in France as ALBATOR, we had the two TV series in 1980 and 1984. He's weel known and he's, as a matter of fact, one of the biggest TV children heroes of most young adults in France (including women, most of my girlfriends were found of him when child).

Here is the opening of SSX (Albator 84)
Albator 84 (Captain Harlock) Opening Misheard French Lyrics

A most recent one, from one of the recent anime, Endless Odissey.

Captain Herlock - The Endless Odyssey Clean Opening

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely looking good so far, Youli

 

[YOULI]

Thanks.

here is some update.
This detail on the nose would need some modification but I don't have the time and the materials to do so. It will do...



The gap, though, is filled and will be traited with some acetone and Tamiya putty to ensure that this joint can't be visible.




This little antennae escape any injuries, that's kinda miracle !



I thought that this missile launcher would need some fair sanding, apparently not if I'm right with the drawings and documents i've got.



The cabin is done, maybe some brighter yellow would be good but I already placed too much paint coats. Will add some gold though in the finale phase.





This part is not suppose to be windows but, hey, it's done. Let's keep it this way. Let's keep it our little secret.




Didn't talk about the stand. A V shape, really effective and pretty solid. Will keep it since it's perfect (sometimes the stand is too fragile, I'm thinking about the Interceptor or some model kits starships)

 

[YOULI]

The bottom is cut to obtain the correct air entry as seen on various illustration, including the box art.






My first guess was to use some tree runner to cut and obtain the right shape for the "teeth".




The putty is dry, it's time to repaint the nose. Again

 

[YOULI]

The all thing is correctly painted green to obtain a smooth surface. The engraved details (there is some, lines and all) will be engrave again later...







Some test to create the parts needed for the details missing. Here my loyal plastic coffee spoons. And some plastic forks.





Finally the teeth of this plastic fork will be used for this. It will help to stabilise the all part and create the correct air entry shape.

 

[Grendels]

Nice bit of custom work on the air intakes.

 

[YOULI]

Once painted I think it looks okay. Anyway it would be hard to tell once in the right position, right ?







Some shot with my hand to remind you what tiny scale it is.




Some test with the bridge and all...




The blue engines "glow" nicely... And I love the look of the cabin.



Hard to believe that the engines were in two different parts. It fits completely and the sanding and putty phase worked nicely.




The putty added on the bottom is painted black to obtain the same green color later.



This tiny black part near the nose will be another air intake. There is a lot on this Starship, don't know why...