{"id":39516,"date":"2025-03-02T22:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T06:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=39516"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:54:08","slug":"038b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/038b\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the 1\/350 Hyuga<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2502icon\"<\/p>\n

A photo journal of my experience building this model with spicy commentary. If you’re in a position to build it yourself, there will be tips and tricks. If you’re not, this can simply be a vicarious experience. And at the end, unlike me, you won’t have to figure out where to put the thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

by Tim Eldred<\/em><\/p>\n

At the start of 2022, I finally worked up the courage to begin building Hachette’s 1\/350 Yamato<\/em><\/a>. A year later, I did the same with their Andromeda<\/em><\/a>. At the start of 2024, the parts for Hyuga<\/em> were almost all in hand, but I was still so disappointed with the Andromeda<\/em> experience (I never got the damn lights to work) that I just didn’t have it in me to start a new build. At the start of 2025, however, the Patrol Ship was almost all in hand and office space was getting tight, so…here we go, Hyuga<\/em>!<\/p>\n

See Hachette’s Hyuga<\/em> home page here<\/a><\/p>\n

See the promo video on Youtube here<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Like its predecessors, Hyuga<\/em> was released a few parts at time in weekly volumes (with 4 box styles that would rotate continuously). Yamato<\/em> launched June 2018 as 2202<\/em> was nearing its end and ran for 110 volumes. Andromeda<\/em> took its place in March 2021 and ran for 60 volumes. Hyuga<\/em>, first announced in April 2022, began that June with Vol. 171 of the overall series. It ran for 80 volumes, all following in the wake of Yamato 2205<\/em> and concluding with Vol. 250 in March 2024. The Patrol Ship took over from there to finish in March 2025.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you were to buy these models in a store in Japan, you’d get one volume a week packaged by itself. If you subscribed (like I did), you’d get one box a month containing the parts and instruction booklets for four volumes at a time. This was no-frills packaging, but it cut down on waste and shipping costs. I just kept numbering the boxes as they arrived to keep track of how far along they were. When the last one showed up, the clock started ticking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While the Yamato<\/em> and Andromeda<\/em> models were challenging in their complexity, I’d built them both as standard model kits plenty of times before, so I knew their geometry intimately. Not so with Hyuga<\/em>; it was newly introduced on screen in October 2021. Other than the classic battleship bow, all of its parts were fresh, so I would have to learn its shapes and forms as it came together. It was a brave choice for Hachette to invest all that time and engineering into a design that didn’t yet have universal recognition, and I respect their choice.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Every once in a while some custom binders would show up to contain the instruction booklets. They look nice, but are just as impractical as their predecessors, which I never used. They can only hold 15 booklets and take up far more shelf space than a stock-standard magazine box (that can accomodate all 80 with ease). So that was kind of a waste. No idea what I’ll do with them. But…they look nice. And I have six of them…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Finally, the booklets themselves (which also cycled through 4 covers) were always a big part of the attraction for me. In addition to the instructions, most issues come with big, colorful, guidebook-style coverage of the anime. If you’ve read the Yamato 2202<\/em> Mechanic Encyclopedia<\/a>, you’ve seen the results. The images and text details go beyond all other published materials and they’re worth the price of admission. The Hyuga<\/em> booklets did for 2205<\/em> what the previous booklets did for 2202<\/em>, so another Mechanic Encyclopedia will follow when time permits.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The Build<\/h2>\n

You know the drill by now; presented here is a photo journal of my experience building this model with spicy commentary. If you’re in a position to build it yourself, there will be tips and tricks. If you’re not, this can simply be a vicarious experience. And at the end, unlike me, you won’t have to figure out where to put the thing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
VOLUMES 1-10<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
VOLUMES 11-20<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
VOLUMES 21-30<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
VOLUMES 31-40<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NEW:<\/span> VOLUMES 41-50<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NEW:<\/span> VOLUMES 51-60<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
NEW:<\/span> VOLUMES 61-70<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NEW:<\/span> VOLUMES 71-75<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NEW:<\/span> VOLUMES 76-80 & finish<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n

<\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yamato-2205-merchandising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39516"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42598,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39516\/revisions\/42598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}