This is the Bandai Mechanical Yamato (also known as the Cutaway Argo) from the Space Battleship Yamato animation series, or Star Blazers, as it appeared in the United States.

All in all it was a fun kit, and if you can find one, I'd recommend getting one. It's a neat conversation piece, even if the kit interior bears no real resemblance to the interior shown on any of the TV episodes or on the Yamato movies.

The kit was fun to build and went together fairly easily. The biggest pain was keeping the interior components aligned as I was assembling them. I ended up starting with the bow components and moved in series toward the stern. The kit had to be left on its side during construction, and I had to use Scotch tape to keep the parts centered until they dried.

The exterior of the ship was painted Model Master Gunship Gray and Testors Flat Red. I painted the bridge windows with Testors Flat O.D. Green. While I wanted the windows to show up the way they did in the Star Blazers TV series, I didn't want to put too much emphasis on them.

The interior of the ship was painted with a combination of Model Master and regular Testors paints, including chrome silver, light ghost gray, flat yellow, flat red, gold, intermediate blue, flat black and O.D. green.

Image: Bow on port

Image: Midship closeup

Image: Interior: Portside

Image: Interior: Bow

Image: Interior: Midship

Image: Interior: Stern

Image: Interior: Forward port quarter