Bill Clarke wrote:
Just found this,
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10197231Hope it's well detailed.
And look at this little gem:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10197223From the photo (admittedly small) , the Revell kit looks like a re-pop of the old Matchbox kit. I see no improvements to detail. I have a half-built Matchbox Tiger, and many of the finer details are very indistinct. Maybe if the molds got a good cleaning the next generation of kits from them would be an improvement over the most recent... but it looks to me that Revell took the easy way out.
The Bandai kit is a welcome find - I've reposted over in the CASF for Amphibs and Transports with more information and links to photos of the actual ship.
Here's some more history on the ship and mission:
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/about/equipment/ships/chikyu.htmlCompleted in July 2005, the deep sea drilling vessel CHIKYU, features the most advanced drilling capabilities in the world (7,000 m below the seafloor). With these capabilities, CHIKYU allows drilling of the previously unreachable mantle as well as the seismogenic zone. Acting as the principal vessel of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the main objective of CHIKYU is to facilitate a wide range of activities that once achieved will contribute to the future of humankind. These activities may include revealing the mechanism to develop the giant earthquake, the origins of life, future global environmental changes, and new deep sea resources.
The kit supposedly features the ability to remove external features to expose the ship's moon pool for drilling. Seems like this is the kit to start from if you want to recreate a Glomar Explorer-type diorama.