atvd1020 Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 (edited) To those of us who grew up watching him on TV, Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock is the archetypal space pirate. Part Byronic hero, part Eternal Champion, he (or at least his space pirate incarnation) starred in two TV series, two movies (one of which came out in 2013), two OVAs (besides the original manga) and is an important side character in several other works by Matsumoto. To me, his style defined what spaceships, battleships and fighters should look like in SF. I will be building the SW-190 Space Wolf, released as part of Hasegawa's Creator Works series as a tribute to this childhood hero (and also because I'm too afraid of buying and making a mess of the model of his pirate ship Arcadia). The Space Wolf was a fighter carried by the Arcadia, whose entire crew were apparently excellent pilots. I don't know if the Luftwaffe-esque SW-190 designation is canonical or something added by Hasegawa, though (i) Matsumoto was known for his World War II stories (cf. The Cockpit) and (ii) one of Harlock's ancestors was in the Luftwaffe and (iii) the Arcadia in one of its incarnations uses an authentic Revi C12D gunsight for targeting its guns may have something to do with it. The kit comes moulded in four sprues, along with a clear sprue and black and white sprues which make up a fine skull-and-crossbones stand to pose the fighter. Parts are provided for a pilot figure, whose features could represent one of many characters besides Harlock himself. The kit has a lot of nice surface detail though I don't have any source material with me to see how canonical it is. The skull-and-crossbones stand, with the skull part thoughtfully moulded in white plastic. The kit suggests three colour schemes. The first (RLM 82 over 76?) is from the 1982 movie. The painting instructions literally recommend RLM 82 as the top colour. The second is from the original 1977 anime, and the third 'low-visibility' scheme is pure fiction. I would like to do it in the second scheme, but the 'off-white' is intimidating, It is worth mentioning here that the cockpit is to be painted in RLM66 and the wheel wells in RLM02. The decal sheet is really nice, with faux-Luftwaffe markings (and stencils in German!) and plenty of death's-heads. The left-over markings can come in handy for what-ifs. While not related to the build, it is worth mentioning that when drawing the original Harlock manga, Matsumoto and his assistants used plastic models as references. Amusingly, Harlock's first mate is a dedicated modeller, who is willing to forgo his duties as first mate to build models. Edited February 28, 2015 by atvd1020 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Nice subject. I have the other version with the under wing guns. Been thinking of doing mine in a what if Luftwaffe markings. I actually have the Arcadia kit (Second Ship version) to build for a review so might just do that here. Will be watching your build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Hmmmm Just checked Hobby Link Japan & they have this on backorder for about 11 pounds. Tempted, If only for the decals for my what if's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knikki Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Just done a quick google and Amazon UK have them as well but at £14.82 Free P&P from Japan, ship 4-5 days, so it says having never ever bought anything that way I am unable to say if it is a good deal or if it will arrive in the allotted time. However it does look like a cool kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Hmmmm Just checked Hobby Link Japan & they have this on backorder for about 11 pounds. Tempted, If only for the decals for my what if's! Drop me a PM and let me know what decals tempt you. I won't be using the stencils and low-vis markings for sure! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Nice subject. I have the other version with the under wing guns. Been thinking of doing mine in a what if Luftwaffe markings. I actually have the Arcadia kit (Second Ship version) to build for a review so might just do that here. Will be watching your build. Hope to see the Arcadia build soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 It's a brutish looking machine, very cool. Is the hole at the front a "space intake" or a cannon? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 It's a brutish looking machine, very cool. Is the hole at the front a "space intake" or a cannon? Will As far as I can tell, it's a 'space intake'. I don't remember them firing from the nose in the anime, either. It has wing and cowling guns, the latter looking suspiciously like an FW-190/Ta-152's. There are some specifications in the instructions, and I can check them at home this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 A small update. I've painted the interior and 'intakes' RLM66 (or whatever I had in my paint collection that resembled it): I've also painted the exhausts and the interior of the nose silver, the former for a base for burnt iron. I should have the main fuselage closed up by the next update as well. I haven't made up my mind on the colour scheme but I'm leaning towards the white scheme, mostly because it's from the anime. The RLM 65 is incorrect and will have to be replaced by a darker blue (RLM24, to stay with the Luftwaffe theme). 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 I've been busy this past week and haven't been able to do much on either of my entries (or a Vickers Wellesley). I did make up my mind on the white/red/blue paint scheme for the kit. Being a brush painter, I expect the white and red to be a pain but it should build character. Apart from that, I've built up the main fuselage with the cockpit (sorry for the blurry photo): I've added a few touches to the pilot's seat. I also painted the fuel tanks and exhausts silver: The former will later get of Citadel Scar White brushed on in thin coats, and I plan to try out thinned enamel on another part of the kit to see which white paint strategy is the best. Apart from that, I've tried to go for a 'burnt iron' look by giving the exhausts a wash with heavily thinned black paint with a touch of brown. I think it worked better on some parts than others. Apart from the exhausts, the fighter's nose has a funny blue glow coming out of it on the box art. To try and mimic it, I painted the inner nozzle/intake that sits inside the nose piece silver, and then gave it several thin coats of Lifecolor LC12-a lurid blue green. I originally bought this to try and simulate aotake by doing just this, and it looks decent enough. After this, I added the top decking to the fuselage and built up the wings (and again, sorry for the blurry photo-it was the best of a bad bunch): Unfortunately the decking was a little wider than the fuselage, and I tried to sand it down to make it flush with the fuselage. I don't discount the possibility of me squeezing the fuselage halves too much together while gluing them with Humbrol Liquid Poly, though. I had to use a little filler where the decking meets the cockpit, and in the area directly behind the cockpit. The wing parts' fit was not great either, but I hope they will join up neatly to the fuselage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Always love the cool anime space jet designs! Bugger about the fit but looking good so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 No idea what this is but it looks interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Since I'm going for the red/white/blue scheme from the anime, I tried out two ways to brush-paint it: On the left, a keel-like part painted with two thinned coats of Humbrol Satin White. On the right, the 'drop tanks' (why do they need them in space?) originally painted silver and then gone over with Citadel Scar White three times. All things considered, I will go with the former as it flows better than water-thinned acrylic and there's none of that surface tension nonsense. Here is the kit mostly assembled. Apart from the area around the cockpit, all the white is putty I still don't know if the kit's fit is that bad or if I systematically messed up all the subassemblies (except the cockpit)-I couldn't find a build review of the kit in a language I understand. Those wings and tail ends are pretty sharp and have often snagged on my sweater. A top-down view of the kit, the shiny plastic and the lighting from above hiding most of the surface detail. The canards, wing sections with cannon housings (an engineering choice I don't get, since the other 'Harlock Custom' boxing also includes them) and the front and side intakes still need to go on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atvd1020 Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 I'm withdrawing this model from the group build as the white paint job (my first!) is taking the build past the 'fun' point now. I will start a new model once my other GB entry is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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