Something straightforward next for which a Bandai kit (usually) is. The Cosmo Falcon is a mecha from Yamato 2199, a remake of the classic anime Space Battleship Yamato.
Much like the Cosmo Zero, the Cosmo Falcon itself is fully snapfit. The underwing pylons and missiles however, will require cement.
There is an option for the belly missile bays to be in the open position. However, they can’t be in the opened if the landing gear is down. Oh well. Also, note the complete lack of detail in the wheel bays.
The kit is meant to have the pilot figure fitted as there is a slot in the middle of the seat for the tab that’s molded into the back of the pilot. I filled the slot with styrene and added masking tape to replicate safety belts. All the console details are molded on and these were painted and given a drybrush with each dial given a drop of Future floor polish to give them a slight shine. Note the larger than usual panel line gaps around the canopy. These will be the only ones that were filled with Vallejo Plastic Putty.
The instructions called for the exhausts to follow the color of the fuselage but I changed this up with a mix of Metal Color Jet Exhaust, Metal Color Pale Burnt Metal and Model Air Metallic Black Metal.
On a side note, I just have to mention that while they fit well eventually, it took some time to sandwich the six exhaust petals onto the two sides of the exhaust shrouds. If this was a more modern Bandai design, I believe there would be less faffing about.
I painted in subassemblies so masking was minimal. Something I very much appreciate when it comes to Bandai kits. Except for the fuselage which required masking, the light gray and yellow areas were all painted separately.
The instruction calls for the bottom of the wings to be same color as the underside but I went with the same overall dark blue color instead.
After a gloss coat, I applied the decals which, on the whole didn’t pose any problems.
Well, except for the sharkmouth, which I had to cut into halves and applied separately. Once it cured I cut into the decal to make the holes for the nose probe tabs.
As usual with Bandai decals, they went on without a problem and were opaque. They did have a slight satin sheen to them though.
The rest of the parts were each painted and detailed. I followed the Cosmo Zero build and painted red bands around the missiles.
Bandai plastic is notorious for breaking apart with enamel thinner but I’ve been quite lucky so far with my various builds. Not anymore! The wheels broke apart when I used Tamiya Accent Color on them. I quickly cemented them back together and hoped for the best with the other parts.
Thankfully, the rest of the kit handled the enamel thinner without issue. I’m still not sure why some parts break while others don’t though since they all went through the same type of paint and gloss coat. As usual the details really pop once the wash has been applied.
I went with a medium gray wash for the dark color and the usual dark gray for the other lighter colored areas. Once dry I sealed everything with a satin coat and it’s time for final assembly.
It was at this time that I realized I had lost the two clear parts that are supposed to fit onto the nose. Leaving them off didn’t look right so I decided to fill them up and fair them into the nose. I use GEMO UV Putty Master Shrink for this which dries a lot faster than epoxy putty.
With that done, I then cemented the pylon and missiles into place. The landing gear and nose pitot all snapfit into place and thankfully there was minimal cleanup needed for the canopy.
The Cosmo Falcon has been one of the easiest builds. Other than the nose parts that went missing and the landing gear wheels that broke in half due to enamel thinner, everything went very smoothly. If only every build was like this!
