This one’s a bit of a throwback. We just unearthed an email about the Arkhitect Advanced Research Colonizer Spaceship model kit hiding deep in our inbox. Like, three years deep. Thanks to Google and its “Promo” tab—the digital equivalent of a black hole—this glorious oddity almost didn’t make it to your screen.
Anyhoo… you know sometimes you look at an everyday object and think I it kind of looks like a spaceship? Well, artist Eric Geusz did, and he proceeded to create illustrations of spaceships based on everyday household objects, and then one YouTuber took it further by making it real with a shampoo bottle. A couple of years later, Perfection Industry Co. Ltd. and Good Smile Company took it even further by making a model kit of a spaceship in the silhouette of an iwata airbrush.
What you’re looking at is the Plastic Model Arkhitect Spaceship, dreamed up by a then-start-up called Perfection Industry Co. Ltd. and produced by Good Smile Company. Sadly, Perfection Industry seems to have vanished into the great unknown, like a space probe that forgot to phone home. Before its apparent disappearance, the Hong Kong-based team partnered with Japan’s iwata—the folks famous for airbrushes—to build a model kit that’s basically a love letter to hobby tools. Yes, it’s a spaceship that looks like an iwata airbrush. And yes, they were officially allowed to do that.
Now, this isn’t just some quirky sculpt. The kit includes 177 plastic parts and 22 multi-colored LED lights. That’s a lot of glow for a model not based on a Gundam or a Star Wars ship. The LEDs were specially made, complete with custom semiconductors and brightness tuning to deliver evenly diffused, cinematic lighting. It’s like the spaceship version of mood lighting.
We’re not even sure if you can still buy one. Though you can still find it listed [JP] on the GSC website. Anyways, if you do find it, just know: you’re holding a tribute to the noble airbrush, a company that dared to be weird, and one heck of a lost inbox gem.
Images: Perfection Industry Co. Ltd./Good Smile Company [JP].
