Hasegawa 1/3000 Cordoba - Finished

[Madhatter]

Hi everyone

I am taking a break from the relentless detailing of my Star Destroyer to build something easier for a bit. For those following the SD build, don't worry - I will return to it after this one.
For anyone who has no idea what this ship is or where it's from, it's a battleship from the anime series Crusher Joe.
This is a brand new kit from Hasegawa and I must say,. I have really been looking forward to it's release when I first found out about it a year or more so ago. I built the old Takara kit way back in 2012 and at the time was the only styrene kit available of this ship. The only alternative being the hideously expensive resin kit from Soy-ya (?)
The kit is nicely detailed and has a plethora of panel lines and detail where it counts. No, it's in no way close to the kind of fine surface detail you'd get from Bandai but it's good enough for me. I will add some surface detail for interest but nothing like what I'm doing to the SD (this is after all a mojo build). I'll chuck in some lighting and will be trying to get that awesome metallic finish that's present on the box art. Hasegawa will have you paint it just H-308 grey but I'll add some aluminum to the paint which will provide that wanted finish

So to the most important question; how big is it?
Here's a comparison to the Takara kit - which is looking very much in a sad state of disrepair

https://flic.kr/p/2kuPeMo

Next question; what do you get for your money?
Only 3 sprues of plastic is what you get and it's not even all for the ship! You share the sprues with a couple of frigates (the things that look like missiles on a stick) and a small Minerva (Joe's ship). I'm going to rock the boat here and say I really don't like the cockpit shape of the Minerva The rest of the ship looks cool but I think the cockpit section just feels lazy in it's design.

https://flic.kr/p/2kuNJhf

https://flic.kr/p/2kuPeHq

https://flic.kr/p/2kuK5aw

https://flic.kr/p/2kuNJuQ

Another thing that immediately got my attention for being wrong are the intake things here. There are just not enough fins and it's not deep enough. This is the kind of example where I feel Bandai would have done so much better. I'm going to try and add a fin in the spaces between the existing ones and see how that looks. If it still looks wrong, then I drill out the whole mid section and rebuild it.

https://flic.kr/p/2kuPeRr

So yeah, that's my initial impression of the kit - to which I am really impressed. I am no expert on the ship by any means but to me, it looks the way it's meant too (which is beautiful!)
I will be starting work on it tomorrow night, so will update soon
Cheers
Si

 

[Richard Baker]

Great write up on this kit!, I have been wondering what you really get in the box.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with it...

 

[Madhatter]

Thanks Richard. The parts count is reasonable and is worth the relatively high price tag.
I've started by drilling out some of the body work in prep for some detail work to go in behind. You have to use a small grinder to thin out the walls but it's worth it
So this is the untreated side of the upper deck.
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And this is the basic treatment:


[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kvrTRy][/url

This is where I ground the walls thinner to be more in scale. You can see in the first one the big difference between one freshly drilled out and the other finished





I've also removed the attachment points where the inside hull brace sits. I'm not going to use it because it creates quite a gap inbetween the body halves. I got a better fit without it and it seems you only really need it if you're going to build the ship without glue which is not going to be the case for me



I'll hopefully have both halves of the ship hulls finished tonight and then I shall set upon making greeblie walls to go behind the holes
Thanks for stopping in

 

[Madhatter]

Moving along at a nice leisurely pace, I have finished thinning out all the windows, got the engine and cockpit lighting installed ready to go and am discovering more about what I do and don't like about this kit.
I do like how Hasegawa have made it easy to light with not too many tight spaces to have to work out how to navigate a fiber through it and that I don't have to cut out vast sections of inner hull to make it happen.
As for the negatives, well, thankfully its not a serious one. If you decide to build this as Hasegawa intend you to do (as in snap fit, no glue) you will get very large gaps in spaces where there shouldn't be. This is the only thing that I don't like about this kit.
It feels like Hasegawa are trying to stamp their mark in Bandai's superior glue-free market spot but are missing the mark.
What I'm saying at the end of the day, is it's better off built without the bits they give you to make it "snap fit".
You can see a light press fit here and the gaps get a little bit better when you really push it home but the parts don't stay together.

Not too flash hey? The way I've figured it, that bit you see in the front of the ship sits in the middle inside and is meant to hold the 2 halves of the hull together but it's totally unneeded as the join on the hull surface is perfect without it
However, there is a small catch: it does actually hold the display stand stem in place, but there are work arounds for that.
You'll also see that the cockpit lighting is just an SMD glued to a backing plate and shoved into the cockpit space. I did cut out the window section with my carbide engraving bit and once its all painted up, I'll put some clear cement into the space and then leave it unmasked when I add the flat clear coat at the end

I lit the engines using small, mushroomed sticks of 1mm Fiber and a 3mm Ice Blue LED. You do have to remove the forewar most mounting pin and holder to be able to get the LED inside, but again, that Pin and holder are not really needed if you're using glue.

As I mentioned earlier, the other windows (well technically they're not actually windows but space-frames) had to be drilled out and then ground out from behind to be made thinner. I am super happy with how that all came out and will be starting to make the machine spaces to fill them this weekend

Well, that's all I have for now but will be back soon enough I'm sure
As always, thanks for looking
Si

 

[modelerdave]

Nice work! I don't know this ship but I subscribed

 

[Madhatter]

Thanks Dave!
The inner machine walls have been made, painted and installed on the top and are ready to be installed on the bottom. You can't really see much inside which makes me think I should've flood lit the area but I couldn't be bothered

These are the top bits:

Installed:

The bottom bits (sounds a bit rude doesn't it?)

And the front guns have been installed:

You can see the not so great fit in those twin fins that sit above the bridge . I'll have to bolster the join with some thin styrene
Anyway, that's it for now but as always, thanks for looking!

 

[Madhatter]

All the detail panels have been glued in and have their relative FO threads also installed
One side of the top half has been done and the other side won't take long. The bottom should be able to be done in one sitting. I'm using bits of styrene tube to route the fibers around the ship

That's it for now
Thanks for looking in
Si

 

[Hoplitespear]

This is looking great! Can't wait to see it finished.

-Hopli

 

[Madhatter]

quick update
Got the top half of the fuselage fibered up and now working on the bottom half.
Not a lot of room in there but enough to do the job
Bottom half should be tidier than the top one now that I have all the spaced worked out

Sits nice and flat too - well barring the power cables it does

well, that's it for now but will be back soon enough with the bottom half
thanks for looking
Si

 

[rbeach84]

I like it!
Regards Robert

 

[Madhatter]

thanks Robert
Things have progressed nicely and the ship is now built and ready to paint (once my new replacement compressor and tank arrive after I blew a hole in my last tank - no, I have no idea how)
I was going to detail the surface here and there but I just don't want to loose my newly restored mojo on this build. I'm saving it for the SD!
The ship except for the inserts is totally OOB now and I am cool with it.
Had to replace one of the engine lights after I blew it by accident but it was easy to do.
There are some gaps to fill but that's tomorrow.
All the lights work too, which is a bonus
So, enough with the words and onto the pics

Inside the bottom half before it was sealed up:

Light testing:

And all sealed up:

All the other fins, guns etc have been added since taking those last pics but it doesn't look much different.
So all being well the next post will be the final product
thanks for looking
Si

 

[Madhatter]

Hi everyone

Well, I'm calling this one done. I am happy with how it came out. It's sadly hard to see the results of mixing the metal paint with the grey but it's there and in person looks metallic rather than just grey
The lights are subtle and in scale
I broke the base wall by accident when removing a faulty switch but thankfully it's all held back together again

I know this hasn't exactly been an exciting thread and probably only of interest to a few people but thanks for indulging me whilst I had a break from the SD (which I am about to now return to - again)

Anyway, here is my version of the Cordoba:

You could really go to town detailing this ship but I didn't want to. I added just enough to make it interesting.
Well, that's it but again, thanks for looking
It's back to the SD for me
Si

 

[JNordgren42]

That's amazing work, nothing boring about it at all. An unusual and interesting subject. And it's not another Falcon or X-Wing (this is coming from a guy who's last two projects are the Falcon and an X-Wing ).

 

[HMR]

Really enjoyed this buil, very cool looking ship! Reminds me of the Nebuchadnezzar from the Matrix for some reason, although I assume its supposed to be the other way around.

Is it the same paint on all the pics with different lighting?

 

[Madhatter]

thanks guys. It was just nice to build something easy
HMR, yes, its the same paint on all the pics - different lighting. I think its the fat backside that has a similar design to the Nebuchadnezzar. I didn't see the similarity until you pointed it out.