I have been collecting this for about a year now and I have almost all the issues except for the extended issues that include another ship called the Andromeda. This particular ship was from an animated cartoon from Japan. Those unfamiliar with this ship it is a spaceship that was built from the sunken hull of the WWII IJN Yamato that was sunk April 7th 1945. The series aired on Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, totaling up to 26 episodes. It revolves around the character Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar in the English version) and an international crew from Earth, tasked during an interstellar war to go into space aboard the space warship Yamato in response to a message of aid from the planet Iscandar in order to retrieve a device which is able to reverse the radiation infecting Earth after being bombed by the Gamilans.

Many sequels have been made as well as movies and video games. This particular version of the ship is from the sequel Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love

In 2202, three years after the Gamillas invasion of the Solar system, the people in the Solar System are finally at peace. The Earth's biosphere has been restored with the Cosmo Reverse System brought by the Yamato at the end of Space Battleship Yamato 2199. With the end of the war, there is a peace treaty between Earth and Gamillas which will strengthen their military bond and secure true peace. In addition to the reconstruction of Earth, the joint forces form a new intergalactic defense fleet with a new ship, Andromeda, to be its new symbol of power. Earth is set on a path of military expansion despite Starsha Iscandar's wishes of peace, and developing new forms of wave motion gun despite the agreement between Starsha and the crew of the Yamato.

When a new threat called Gatlantis, also known as the White Comet Empire, starts to wreak havoc on a newly reformed galaxy, the goddess Teressa calls upon the Yamato once more in order to fight back against the new threat.

And with that lets get started on the build...

This model has a lot of cool features, the hull is made of white metal and pre-painted in a blue and waterline red. I don't care much for the blue hull sections I will tone it down with weathering and battle damage. The turrets rotate and simulate firing with sound as well as lighting and fiber optics. Since I had to buy this model through a 3rd party I wont get the freebies that the subscription in Japan receives.

Issue 1: The magazines that come with the model are in Japanese so I have no idea what they are about. By looking at the pictures, they talk about the ship and its workings as well as the characters in the series. There are some detailed blueprints in the articles. They also go into some detail about the other ships that are involved in the series. I am going to see if I can translate the magazines to English somehow.





Front cone of the lower section of the hull. I was surprised that I didn't have to force the screws into the metal parts like you have to with most models. The threads are already tapped for the screws.





Upper section of the hull attached to the lower. Went together a breeze and didn't have to used 3 in 1 oil to help cut threads. Might use some thread lock to keep the screws from backing out.



Some nice clean detail printed to the parts.



The other 2 parts for the upper hull are set aside for now. That is the end of this issue. More to come soon...

Issue 003: Just a small update on this build. Building one of the fighter aircraft that the Yamato carries for support.

Issue 003


Parts in this issue.


This is the Cosmo Tiger II. The basic one-person Cosmo Tiger II design is adaptable for specialized warfare needs. A lightning strike variant of the fighter was introduced in time to participate in the Battle of Saturn, amplifying the standard fighter's firepower and operated by a crew of three. The UNCN is also working on adding electronic warfare capabilities. For long-distance travel, a Cosmo Tiger II can be mounted to a warp booster that allows the fighter to make two warp jumps.


Underside of the Cosmo Tiger II


Topside of the Cosmo Tiger II


I just glued on the bits required for this part of the build. I will do some clean up and weathering later. That is it for this issue.