By Scott Sperti

MODEL DESCRIPTION: 1/500 Scale Argo (Yamato) from the Starblazers cartoon series

MATERIALS USED: Stock kit, Styrene sheet and rod, Testers spray paint and Clear color printer labels. Small cannons from a damaged 1/1000 scale Argo kit I bought 17 years ago. DVD's for reference.

PAINT: I used Tester's Model Master spray paints in 3 colors; Intermediate blue (Upper Hull), Panzer gray (Main Engine and Radar), and Flat red (Lower Hull).

DETAILS: I painted rust streaks on all over the surface of the kit by using varying combinations of the 3 hull colors. More red on the Lower Hull, More gray on the top.

FEATURES: Airfoils open and retract. Smoke stack removes to show missiles. Main guns rotate.

MODIFICATIONS /CORRECTIONS: I first saw this kit 17 years ago in my local hobby shop when I was 12 years old. I had been a big fan of Starblazers since I was 8 and had no idea there were models of my favorite ships. At that time I could not afford the $80 price tag, so I settled for the $10 1/1000 version. 17 years later I finally found another copy of this kit. Most of the Japanese kits I have assembled in the past need very little modifications, but this has got to be the least accurate Japanese kit I have seen. After waiting this long there was no way I was going to assemble it as is. Following is a list of the items that I modified broken down by ship section.

1. 3rd bridge neck support. This was molded with a deep recess on both sides. I filled in the hollow areas and added the missing vent details.
2. 3rd bridge. The bridge did not taper in the front like all my reference books' detail. I decreased the height of the lower front portion to get the right look.
3. Main hull. The side missile ports were molded in the open position. I added covers to the missile ports that look like the 8 separate doors that should be there.
4. Auxiliary engines. These engines we molded flat across the bottom and blended into the divider that should be between them. I rounded both engine housings and defined the shape of the divider between the two engines.
5. Upper hull. Upper and lower hulls did not mate properly so I shortened the rear of the upper hull for a better main engine nozzle fit.
6. Main hull. One of the things I always liked in the cartoon was the use of reaction control thruster to turn the ship in space. I added reaction control and lift off thruster ports, fore and aft, by printing decals on my color printer.
7. Side observation rooms. I added upper and lower windows by creating decals on my computer.
8. Rocket anchor. The anchors were missing some details. I added thrusters, equaled out the sides of the hooks and added a small wing to each.
9. Main engine. The main engine had a large deformity on the tip of the inner cone. I sanded the "wart" off of the Main engine nozzle.
10. Bridge tower. The rear observation deck had no supports on the underside. I added a small half cone with lines drawn on it to look like supports to observation dome underside.
11. Bridge tower. The captains quarters were molded hollow on each side. I filled in the hollow areas and rounded out the captain's quarter's window area.
12. 2cd Bridge. This are was missing 2 antenna, a small rib detail on the top and only had 5 of the six windows that should be there. I added the antenna and ribs with small styrene rods and styrene sheet.
13. I sanded off the windows and covered that area with styrene sheet, then I carved in the correct number of windows.

Image: Bridge area

Image: Bow-on view

Image: Top view