Hasegawa 1/1500 Space Pirate Battleship Arcadia Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Space Pirate Captain Harlock is an anime TV series that was produced in the late 1970s based upon a manga written by Leiji Matsumoto centered around a future pirate crew that raided the Mazone who had conquered the Earth. Their vessel was the starship Arcadia which carried the crew through its adventures. More recently, a feature film was scheduled for release in 2013 which takes Captain Harlock and the crew of the Arcadia into the Coming Home War as colonists attempt to return home to Earth.

Hasegawa has reissued their Space Pirate Battleship Arcadia kit which is molded in multicolor styrene and presented on eleven parts trees. The kit consists of five parts trees molded in dark gray styrene, one tree in brown styrene, two trees in black styrene, one tree in white styrene, the same white tree plated in dull silver, and one tree of transparent yellow parts.

The main hull is built-up similar to other contemporary ship kits with interior bulkheads to provide structural strength of the completed model. One of the bulkheads has spars that extend through the hull to support the engine intakes and wings.

One could build this kit without painting and render a rather nice model of the Arcadia, though there are some nice opportunities to detail paint and weather the hull for a more dramatic rendition.

The kit includes an articulating display stand which allows the model to be displayed in a variety of attitudes. The stand also protects the underside of the model from damage as it cannot be set directly upon a shelf without breaking off one or more parts.

This kit looks like a fun build and will probably be seen more on contest tables once the English language version of the new movie becomes available to Space Pirate Captain Harlock fans.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!