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Description
Ship: Odyssey/Odysseus
Series: Ulysses 31, 宇宙伝説ユリシーズ31
Design: Shōji Kawamori (Studio Nue) 1981
Model: James Margerum 2013

DESIGN NOTES
In keeping with the classical theme, the ship's unusual shape was inspired by the Apotropaic eye traditionally painted on ancient Greek sailing vessels. But, far from being a case of form over function, it was actually a very well thought out design with the elliptic hull containing a garden to provide clean air and food for the crew. The Photonic energy drive core was placed in the centre, well away from inhabited areas of the vessel, and it had thrusters that allowed it to brake and steer in quite a realistic manner - not bad for a kid's show!

Some fans have credited artist Philippe Bouchet (Manchu) as Odyssey's designer, but I can find no actual evidence to support this. These are the facts as I understand them:

Philippe Bouchet, along with Philippe Adamov, François Allot, and Bernard Deyriès, created the original concept art for the show. It is possible that Philippe Bouchet did the original concept drawing for the ship, and that this defined the Odyssey's basic shape. The problem is that, although I have seen French artwork for characters and environments, I have never seen any for the ship. Therefore it is not possible to say how much of the concept is in the final design, or who drew it.

Studio Nue had the job of turning the concept art into final designs that could be used by the animators. Shingo Araki was responsible for the characters and Shōji Kawamori was responsible for Mecha. His early designs show the ship powered by an energy bubble which at some point evolved into the iris. The energy relay masts, on each side of the iris, still remain from the bubble design. The eye shape is present in all of his designs, even when only used as a small part of a larger structure, which suggests that is was already a fixed component of the design when he started work on the project (Source: 'Mecha making of studio Nue' Animage 1981).

BUILDING THE MODEL
Ulysses 31 made a big impression on me as a child. It was darker and more serious in tone than any other children's cartoon of the time. I had wanted to build the Odyssey for a long time, but a lack of reference material always held me back. Eventually, after finding some episodes online, I managed to scrape together enough visual research to make a start.

Including research, I worked on this project, off and on, for around two years: sometimes hardly touching it for months, and other times losing entire weekends to it.
This has been the most difficult model I have ever tried to build. Unlike a 3D model, or Studio Miniature, a hand-drawn spaceship isn't one-hundred percent the same from every angle. Working out consistent details of the design required a lot of squinting at blurry screen-shots and low-resolution scans of production drawings - often sketching out on paper before I could build anything, and almost every part of the ship had to be rebuilt from scratch at least two or three times.

You may have noticed that the side-walls on my model, which connect the top and bottom halves of the elliptic hull, do not match how they look in the side-on flypast from the show. I found it impossible to have tubes connecting the twin hulls at the front to the engines at the back without seriously compromising other elements of the design.
The configuration I have used closely matches what can be seen on the outside edge of the most common forward three-quarter view of the ship, but retains as many of the details from the side view as possible. The designer of the 1980's Popy toy version seems to have run into the same problem.

Although the toy is not an accurate model by any means (For a start the Odyssey is meant to be an unarmed vessel), it proved useful in one respect: I noticed that some of the details on the toy's elliptic-hull closely matched what I could see in the show. Working on the assumption that the toy designer had better quality images to work from than I did, I used pictures of the toy as a reference for building any parts I couldn't see clearly. Not an ideal solution, but better than having no hull plating at all - and preferable to just making it up.

In the end I had to accept that my model could never be perfect, because the ship never existed as a three-dimensional object, but I think this is about as close to screen-accurate as it is possible to get. It is certainly more accurate than the High Dream Die-cast.

UPDATE
It is now confirmed that the original Odyssey concept art was by Manchu. Sadly it is the only Ulysses 31 concept art he still has. manchu-sf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/…

If you would like a plastic model kit of the Odyssey please vote for it here: ideas.revell.de/ideas/item/111…
It's a long shot, but worth a try.

Description
Ship: Odyssey/Odysseus
Series: Ulysses 31, 宇宙伝説ユリシーズ31
Design: Shōji Kawamori (Studio Nue) 1981
Model: James Margerum 2013

DESIGN NOTES
In keeping with the classical theme, the ship's unusual shape was inspired by the Apotropaic eye traditionally painted on ancient Greek sailing vessels. But, far from being a case of form over function, it was actually a very well thought out design with the elliptic hull containing a garden to provide clean air and food for the crew. The Photonic energy drive core was placed in the centre, well away from inhabited areas of the vessel, and it had thrusters that allowed it to brake and steer in quite a realistic manner - not bad for a kid's show!

Some fans have credited artist Philippe Bouchet (Manchu) as Odyssey's designer, but I can find no actual evidence to support this. These are the facts as I understand them:

Philippe Bouchet, along with Philippe Adamov, François Allot, and Bernard Deyriès, created the original concept art for the show. It is possible that Philippe Bouchet did the original concept drawing for the ship, and that this defined the Odyssey's basic shape. The problem is that, although I have seen French artwork for characters and environments, I have never seen any for the ship. Therefore it is not possible to say how much of the concept is in the final design, or who drew it.

Studio Nue had the job of turning the concept art into final designs that could be used by the animators. Shingo Araki was responsible for the characters and Shōji Kawamori was responsible for Mecha. His early designs show the ship powered by an energy bubble which at some point evolved into the iris. The energy relay masts, on each side of the iris, still remain from the bubble design. The eye shape is present in all of his designs, even when only used as a small part of a larger structure, which suggests that is was already a fixed component of the design when he started work on the project (Source: 'Mecha making of studio Nue' Animage 1981).

BUILDING THE MODEL
Ulysses 31 made a big impression on me as a child. It was darker and more serious in tone than any other children's cartoon of the time. I had wanted to build the Odyssey for a long time, but a lack of reference material always held me back. Eventually, after finding some episodes online, I managed to scrape together enough visual research to make a start.

Including research, I worked on this project, off and on, for around two years: sometimes hardly touching it for months, and other times losing entire weekends to it.
This has been the most difficult model I have ever tried to build. Unlike a 3D model, or Studio Miniature, a hand-drawn spaceship isn't one-hundred percent the same from every angle. Working out consistent details of the design required a lot of squinting at blurry screen-shots and low-resolution scans of production drawings - often sketching out on paper before I could build anything, and almost every part of the ship had to be rebuilt from scratch at least two or three times.

You may have noticed that the side-walls on my model, which connect the top and bottom halves of the elliptic hull, do not match how they look in the side-on flypast from the show. I found it impossible to have tubes connecting the twin hulls at the front to the engines at the back without seriously compromising other elements of the design.
The configuration I have used closely matches what can be seen on the outside edge of the most common forward three-quarter view of the ship, but retains as many of the details from the side view as possible. The designer of the 1980's Popy toy version seems to have run into the same problem.

Although the toy is not an accurate model by any means (For a start the Odyssey is meant to be an unarmed vessel), it proved useful in one respect: I noticed that some of the details on the toy's elliptic-hull closely matched what I could see in the show. Working on the assumption that the toy designer had better quality images to work from than I did, I used pictures of the toy as a reference for building any parts I couldn't see clearly. Not an ideal solution, but better than having no hull plating at all - and preferable to just making it up.

In the end I had to accept that my model could never be perfect, because the ship never existed as a three-dimensional object, but I think this is about as close to screen-accurate as it is possible to get. It is certainly more accurate than the High Dream Die-cast.

UPDATE
It is now confirmed that the original Odyssey concept art was by Manchu. Sadly it is the only Ulysses 31 concept art he still has. manchu-sf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/…

If you would like a plastic model kit of the Odyssey please vote for it here: ideas.revell.de/ideas/item/111…
It's a long shot, but worth a try.