1:32 SCALE FACTUAL-SPACE MODEL FROM AOSHIMA: JAPANESE HIMAWARI WEATHER SATELLITE
MAT IRVINE REPORTS: Continuing the Aoshima factual Space Craft Series No 7 comes Japan’s Himawari (Sunflower) weather satellite, one of several placed in geostationary orbit from 1977-1995. The 1:32 scale kit is fairly simple, with just 33 components, moulded in white and clear plastic. The spacecraft is supplied in two main sections, a solar-cell covered cylindrical ‘bus’, and an instrumented section, with dish antennas at the base. Solar cells The kit supplies the bus as top and bottom discs, plus six sections of solar cells. These should be finished in the usual iridescent blue-purple, for which the kit instructions indicate a mix of Gunze Sangyo metallic-blue and metallic-red. Personally, I tend to go for the bluer end of this purple mix for such cells, so for this review kit I used a House of Kolor True Blue Pearl spray. It’s intended more for custom cars, but seems to match the look of photovoltaic panels very well. Gold foil The real-life instrument section is covered mostly wit...