atvd1020 Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 (edited) One of my builds for the Sci-Fi group build is the Nelson-class 'Space Battleship' by Kami de Korokoro. This is one of a number of resin spaceships in their 'Original SF Mechanics' series, which consists of WWII warships reimagined as spaceships à la Leiji Matsumoto, and the only one to be based off an actual battleship. I bought this kit on a whim from Hobby Link Japan two years ago, for 2600 yen. It comes packaged in a plastic bag with the artwork/header-cum-instructions inside as well. The main hull is a single piece, with the turrets, parts of the superstructure, and winglets to be attached on. The smaller parts, which include smaller turrets, radar dishes, aerials (with a keel included?), and two tiny fighters came in smaller ziploc bags. The instructions simply consist of a parts list and exploded views. Like the real-life Nelson battleships all the main gun turrets are carried forward (and an extra one is added to the underside). It can't be seen from the photo but the bow of the ship contains a Yamato-style cannon. The kit is straightforward in the way small resin kits are, that is only straightforward after proper cleaning-up of the parts. The casting is pretty rough, the main hull will need quite a bit of smoothing-down and I will probably need to scratchbuild some replacements. The kit is actually small, smaller than a 1/72 Spitfire. I will post a picture with this comparison once I finish the kit. Edited April 7, 2015 by atvd1020 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knikki Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 OOOO that looks interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 very nice and resin as well, my favourite material! It's small size will make handling and working with the small bits....."interesting". Will have to follow this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 It's small size will make handling and working with the small bits....."interesting". Indeed...I'm still terrified about cleaning up the gun turrets (unless I pre-emptively break off all the guns and replace them with something else). I will also have to give the kit some kind of a wash just to make the surface detail (and there is quite a lot of it) more visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorheadtx Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Too cool for words. Green w/ envy here. Go man, go!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 After fiddling around with my camera's lighting settings and giving the kit a cursory 'wash' with whatever thinned paint I had at hand, I took a few more pictures to show the detail a bit better: I've started assembling the 'conning tower' (the darker resin block) as well. A lot of the parts are very close to 'badly cast blobs of resin' and I think some can be best 'fixed' by smoothing and gluing them on to the hull, and then trying to approximate the correct shape after that with scrap plastic and putty. In spite of this, I have to say I'm tempted to buy the other models in this series by Kami de Korokoro. The ship has recessed anchors(!) carved into its hull, which is on par with other space battleships. I will try and post some 'before' and 'after' pictures of the small bits next, and look into getting a stand for the completed ship. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 It does look quite nice, but boy it is small! Thought it may have been a bit bigger, the extar size would have made it easier to work with. You may find it easier just to use the resin "blobs" as reference guides and make replacements from plastic card, you'll get much crisper lines and shape......plus you may find bubbles if you dig too deep into the surface. Sitll looks very nice though...go for it and get the rest! You could then have fleet size battles on the dinner table!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Thought it may have been a bit bigger, the extar size would have made it easier to work with. You may find it easier just to use the resin "blobs" as reference guides and make replacements from plastic card, you'll get much crisper lines and shape......plus you may find bubbles if you dig too deep into the surface. To be honest, since the hull and larger parts containso much detail already moulded in, and given the size, I will limit myself to reshaping the smaller parts such as gun barrels, aerials, fighters, 'things' which look suspsiciously like pitot tubes which go on the ship's underside. Regarding buying the other ships, I still have to make up my mind on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 (edited) It's not obvious from the pictures so far (and the ones I will post), but the whole ship is warped. Considering the scale and the lack of fun involved, I have decided to live with it. I have spent most of the past weeks' modelling time cleaning up parts of this kit that let themselves been cleaned up. First, the two 'fins' near the stern were of different sizes and aligned crookedly. I rebuilt and realigned the 'off' one, seen on the right: I filled up the worst voids and bubbles on the hull, painted them over with silver paint, smoothed down any obvious bumps or voids again, and then down stuck on the masts: I also sawed off the 'base' for some kind of observation port on the underside to smooth it down and get a good fit to the port before gluing them back on to the hull. I also rebuilt some of the details on the underside which had bubbles in them with plastic strip (not really visible, though). Then, I cleaned up the guns to the best of my ability: Beyond this point I'm afraid of breaking off the gun barrels (though I already did thrice). I thought of replacing the barrels with metal rods (styrene being too flexible) but in the end I haven't time to go out and get some. Here is how she stands as of yesterday evening, with the superstructure fully assembled: There was a catapult with two tiny fighters to mount on the superstructure but I gave up on them. I've also decided not to glue on the 'wings' seen in the instructions because they spoil the ship's lines. If Space Battleship Yamato is a good enough yardstick, I'd guess they were not always deployed when in space anyway. I will add the guns on today, posed for a broadside and smooth the larger mast further as it's quite uneven in cross-section. It would be better to do it while glued on since then asymmetry is easier to catch (though the ship itself is pretty warped...). After taking some measurements on the ship and comparing them to the real Nelson's size, I've come to the conclusion that it's approximately 1/1750. Based on that, other models by Kami de Korokoro in the same series would be the size of my thumb or forefinger, depending on whether I'm building a space cruiser or destroyer. Too small. Sadly, there are no other battleships in the series so I'll probably stop with that. Edited April 7, 2015 by atvd1020 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 it's a shame your not going to put the wings on it - those were what made it look cool to me. But then, this is your ship, so you model it how you like it. Aside from how small it is, Ii think it looks awesome. What colour is it going to be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 I was thinking of a blue-grey as base, most likely Extra Dark Sea Grey since I have that. I'm still not sure if it will get disruptive camouflage like the original Nelson, though. If it was a 'bad guys' spaceship (and in my mind the Nelson can't be that), I would have painted it a garish green/purple/yellow mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Splinter styled camo in space does seem a bit redundant really doesn't it but damn it looks cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 You're right- I've only seen one show in which spaceships had camouflage so far. On the modelling side I'm planning to add a few smaller scratchbuilt turrets to the stern, just like the real Nelson had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 And so, after a lot of broken cannon and stretched sprue glued to my fingers, the kit is assembled, primed and ready for a broadside: Sorry for the blurred photo, but this was the best one I had which showed off the ventral turret. It's surprising how a coat of aluminium paint can make this look more real. I scratchbuilt two more small turrets, since the real Nelson had quite a few of them. The ship's curves, and my patience, limited the number of turrets I added to two. The 'fins' on the ventral thingy are replacements from styrene since the original ones are warped beyond repair. For reference as to how small 1/1750 is, here it is next to an Eduard 1/144 Spitfire IX (I'm in Denmark now, so Danish markings): I plan to paint her in Extra Dark Sea Grey overall, with the prow in black, and add a decalled 'N' on one of the turrets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Really cool little model! Looking great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 And here she is with the paint job (mostly) finished: She's painted in Xtracrylix Extra Dark Sea Grey with some bits done in black. I still want to make the parts which look like intakes a little darker, maybe with RLM 74, and need to tidy up some of the demarcations. This photo (if a bit out of focus) should bring out her battleship lines: To break the monotony of the profile views (somewhat necessary since I posed the turrets that way) here is a head-on shot. where you unfortunately get an idea of how the main body is warped: This should be done soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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