Black ships... I seem to recall from the Shogun II encyclopedia that the large European (Portuguese) vessels making it to Japan were called such, as were Commodore Perry's flotilla. Would black ships signify an outside invasion of the familiar one knows? Or perhaps signalling catastrophe or dread brought in from foreign quarters? Breakers of harmony?
Admiral
Very good! The Portuguese ships were painted in black pitch, hence the Japanese calling them Black Ships. Commodore Perry's ships were also black, from coal soot.
"Black Ships" quickly came to signify any sort of unwanted "Foreign Meddling" in national affairs.
In the case of the Portuguese, it was Christian missionaries.
In the case of the Americans, Japan was forced through gunboat diplomacy to accept treaties and trade.
Additionally, the Dark Nebula Empire soldiers are always depicted dressed in spandex tights and capes (think Superman). In Japanese anime culture, this is a subtle jab at American superheroes ;)
50 slaves to you Admiral :hat off
I think Admiral has it correct. That's definitely in Japanese culture, they called all western ships that, IIRC.
Darkmeer
Cool that you know that bit of history trivia...I'm sending you slaves too good sir :hat off
A small update on the Dark Nebula Empire battleship…I’ve had a bit of trouble getting the overall proportions correct for the Pagoda Mast bridge style. It’s the most distinctive design of the ship, so I feel it needed some love. But I was not happy with my first attempt…so I tore the upper structure off and filed down the lower base section
Recognize the black plastic section? Yep, I sawed up, filed down and glued back together a square Warhammer base…it’s about a quarter of its original size now
I think I redid this upper bridge section about 5 or 6 times. It was always too short, too tall, too wide, too thin. Finally got it scaled out correctly though…the whole thing is really small, barely 3/4 of an inch
I’m just dropping by to tell you I still read the blog even though i now nothing about the subject. The models look a little simple to me, but I’m pretty sure me brain does not understand the small size of these models xD
Any plans of scratch building an entire CD fleet for Man o War or Uncharted Seas? :D
Dînadan
I have not forgotten my plans to make a ship for Admirals cooperative blog Dark Tides...but it will be awhile before I get there. I have an idea for a CD submarine :cheers
I'm just dropping by to tell you I still read the blog even though i now nothing about the subject. The models look a little simple to me, but I'm pretty sure me brain does not understand the small size of these models xD
Malorndk
Thanks for dropping by :cheers
They are indeed very small models, the hull is only about 50mm wide.
You're insane.
Bloodbeard
Yes I am :hat off
But once I go down the rabbit hole, I tend to just keep going down deeper. And here is more proof of my insanity:
This is the upper half of the hull...and it really bothers me that the design is wrong. The two-prong pointed hull opening in the front is not correct (and poorly molded) and the middle section has lots of engraved panel lines, which are not supposed to be there. The more I tried to just ignore these inaccuracies, the more they bothered me.
So once again dear friends, down the rabbit hole...I cut out the offending section (now it looks like the Millennium Falcon a bit)
Plastic sheet added to make a more accurate hull
Further down the hole of my insanity...the side hyperspace vents are wrong too. They're molded with annoying (wrong) curved tips and the top and bottom halves don't align straight.
So off with their vents! And new ones made from plastic sheet
Much better now
More insanity...these are barely 10mm long, but the bits that go together to make them don't fit...so more white plastic card cut and glued to fill the open gaps and spaces
So far so good...all the white plastic card shows how much I have scratch-built on this little battleship.
Wow… just… absolutely stunning conversion work at such a small scale. I know how tiny these models are. The final model is looking awesome, and much more true to form. Really enjoying seeing your conversion skill on these. Nicely done!
Thank you gentlemen, glad you like the conversion work so far. I’m still working on that ship (started painting it last night)…but in the meantime I started another ship
The Gamilon ‘Destora’ class cruisers are beautiful, sleek and were love at first sight for me when I was a kid and first saw them on TV after school. My eyes popped out, jaw dropped and I was riveted to the TV screen. They were unlike any spaceship I had ever seen before…and they are fast! These were no slow, lumbering hulks in space…no! These ships are fast and maneuverable…watch this short Youtube clip if you like (the clip at 34 seconds is awesome! A laser slicing right through an entire ship!), and see what I mean: ガミラス艦隊襲撃 - YouTube
The engineering/model nerd in me loves the computer CAD design of these parts, every slot and pin acts as a ‘slide together’ snap fit to another part. No glue needed.
Painting the hyperspace vents…
The hull pieces locking together…
Painting the bridge…
And here is my one complaint/gripe about the model. The side turrets have the gun barrels molded as a single part. I really hate the solid block of plastic between the barrels. :mad
In defense of Bandai for making such a lazy molding…Bandai actually has quarterly public expositions where the Bandai upper management actually sits down one on one with their customers. They actually solicit feedback and act on it (get a clue GW). So many people complained to the CEO about these gun barrels that Bandai then in their later model releases had the gun barrels molded separately and even raise/lower individually. They even take public polls at the expo’s , asking the public "What do you want us to make next?"
Anyways, I just painted the space between the barrels a gray…helps to give the impression that they are separate
Coming together now…
Well…it almost is entirely snap together These small shark fins have to be glued on, but nice that Bandai gives detailed plans for the correct angle alignment of them
Ain’t she a beauty <3
And I recently got this great vintage kit in the mail…the Buff Clan (weird name) battleship from “Space Runaway IDEON”. Even though it’s a battleship, I’m gonna use it as a space fortress in table top games of Full Thrust.
And a bit of trivia! 40 slaves to whoever can correctly tell me what famous spaceship was later designed/influenced from this IDEON ship?
Holy smokes that’s a big ship in scale with the others you’ve done?
No one does perfect as you ‘Mr. work 5 hours for the grey’. So seing those guns I thought ‘he’s gonna bring in a saw!’. You’re slipping master Fuggit. … or saving time at least. Bandai knows how to do costumer relations.
Lastly that weird Ideon. Looks like the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Nice work on the Destora. Beautiful execution and a good quick solution re the gun barrel issue. I think Bloodbeard has it. I see star destroyer lines all over that model.
Holy smokes that's a big ship in scale with the others you've done?
No one does perfect as you 'Mr. work 5 hours for the grey'. So seing those guns I thought 'he's gonna bring in a saw!'. You're slipping master Fuggit. ... or saving time at least. Bandai knows how to do costumer relations.
Lastly that weird Ideon. Looks like the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Bloodbeard
Yep, she's a big model...same scale as the two smaller destroyer models (they are all in 1/1000 scale). The Destora is too big for wargaming, but she looks sleek and beautiful on my display shelf :) And yes, I'm getting lazy, even though I did think numerous times to get out the saw for those gun barrels. Laziness will be the better part of valor at times ;)
truly beautiful. the video you linked makes me want to watch them but I aint got that much time
Abecedar
When you have time, you should watch the Yamato 2199 series...they are really spectacular in storyline and battles :hat off
I think Bloodbeard has it. I see star destroyer lines all over that model.
Jackswift
You guys both might be very well right. The original Star Destroyer design was done by Joe Johnston, and although I will be the first to say he is incredibly talented, it is also common knowledge that he blatantly stole lots of "his" Star Wars designs from Japanese sci-fi anime (he traveled to Japan numerous times during his internship at ILM). The Imperial Walker is a good example, after years of denial, he finally admitted he stole the idea from the 1977 Japanese show "Crusher Joe". So it would not surprise me in the least that he may have stolen (or influenced) the Star Destroyer design as well.
Honestly, looking at that ship, I immediately think Borg Cube, but that's probably not right.
If not, I would guess a later ship in the Gundam series, given the artist did work for both series.
Darkmeer
Bingo! Rick Sternbach designed the Borg Cube, and he freely admits the design was influenced by his #1 favorite sci-fi spaceship: the Buff Clan "Bairal Jin" battleship from Space Runaway IDEON. 40 slaves to you! And 10 slaves each to Bloodbeard and Jackswift for their insightful guess as to the possible "true" origin of the Star Destoyer :hat off Good work gentlemen!
And in case you're curious...Bandai makes Star Destroyer models in the same small Mecha Colle kit series as the Yamato 2199 kits as well:
Well, I have finally finished the little kit of the Dark Nebula Empire battleship Pleiades…looking forward to a game this weekend of Full Thrust space fleet battles
The ship has two large screens (they look like radar dishes almost) on the upper hull…to make them more detailed I cut out sections of HO scale model train grill and glued them in place on the plastic parts
Starting to paint the top hull section…I was tempted to make a masking tape mask and spray paint the red part, but I got lazy and just painted it by hand
Centered on the red painted field, the ship has a stylized pentagon panel design. There is a very simple and fast trick to make thin, even panel lines…I simply paint it quickly on clear decal sheet. The outer lines don’t have to be clean, all that matters is that the inside lines/dimensions are straight. Then just cut it out with a sharp hobby knife and ‘voila’, instant perfectly straight panel lines
All done <3
I’m very happy with it. Hopefully she’ll put up a good fight this weekend and not get blown to bits in the first couple of turns
Top-notch additions and painting as always. The windows and other bright dots of light are my favourite of your touches to it. No big spaceship would be complete without it. Now take to high orbit and crush all resistance!
