Continuing in my tradition of offbeat model-building projects, I have decided to recreate an Awatake cartoon drawing. Awatake has made a name for himself, in Japan, drawing several manga series featuring scantily-clad women, usually topless. But my favorite drawing of his is one in which a couple of schoolgirls are inside a garage doing their homework on a grungy old spaceship. On the spaceship is a small model version of the one they're sitting on, and to one side, one of the girls is studying a larger scale model which is taller than she is. Hidden in the corner, almost invisible in the shadows, is a one-eyed alien creature.
No explanation or story, although the caption below (in Japanese) spins a "lie" about the craft having been found in China during WWII and brought back to Japan by some enterprising individual. Awatake seems to like doing full color drawings where the viewer is pretty much expected to come up with a story to fit the picture.
I have several figures (1/35) on order and discovered that Awatake used the Northrop M2-F2 and the HL-10 as the basis for his spaceship. The only model I could find was 1/72 scale. I bought it, thinking, perhaps, it would be big enough (not knowing how big the real M2 actually was). The kit is made by Anigrand and was waaaay too small. About three inches long.
I've since found a small-run resin kit maker in Massachusetts which has produced 1/48 versions of the M2, the X-24, and the HL-10. I'm saving up for it now.
Here are shots of the completed Anigrand kit. As I said, it's only three inches long. I have added a section under the tail with three rocket/jet nozzles so that it looks more like the craft in the Awatake drawing.
And I made a little one-inch-long versdion out of modeling clay.
