Lord Valkyrie

First off, the Yamato 1/200 variables are right on the money for scale. I double checked sources for measurements and the Yamatos are right on! In fact, I put the fighter right up to the line art in Perfect Memory and it's dead on except the legs are slightly longer. The VF-1 and Tomahawk are almost the same height! So I bought two boxes of the first edition at Big Bad Toy Store for the reduced price of $42.00 a box. The Nichimo valks are running $14.00 at HLJ so this is good. Plus the "bonus" valk makes four a box I can use. I'll probably have a couple spare YF-19s and VF-3s when I'm done to sell.

Thank you claude grant, big F and Berttt for the compliments! A lot of work is paying off now! This project is a labor of love. I am thinking about sending photos to Hobby Japan or other Japanese magazine. And for the reason that they don't know how much we out West really do love anime! If they published me, I'd say that too!

Berttt, I wouldn't worry about getting destroids if I was you. I know what a pain it is to get and ship stuff overseas!

UPDATE 1 December 2008

ALL of the interior details you see (except for the ceiling) in the line art for the forward section are DONE! Here are some:

The forward space with winch.

I guessed this thingy is a heater in the line art

My ship comes standard with A/C

Control Cabin

Here's everything on the port-side wall, remember, this isn't all glued together yet and my camera "warps it"!

This is what it looks like in place. You can see where I ad-libbed and added air handlers to the "condensor."

There is a huge "blindspot" in the line art that is about one foot long on my model. It's near the ramp on the port side and not shown. So do I leave it empty? No way! The A/C air handlers are part of my "ad-libbing." There will be another, larger control cabin to "see" the front ramp operations and overhead crane. There is nothing around to control those GIANT mechanisms or control traffic coming or going. I'm working on the cabin now. It seemed the best thing to do. That's it for now! I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend (where applicable). - MT

I have heard in the past of model builders, especially scratch builders, contacting the National Archives or the Smithsonian, or other museums for material on the prototypes they are recreating. Certainly, there must be a way to contact the studio and see if interest can be generated in producing actual blueprints to the Daedalus. Who was the designer? Kawamori????

Its just a thought. Any thoughts? Anyone?

MT,

Thanks, for the welcome. Its great to finally be an active member. Have you ever visited the warship models underway website? Your project fits right in over there. They have many different projects similar to yours, yet not as complex. I have seen a 1/72nd scale escort carrier with a high degree of detail and in Austrailia there is a 1/72 scale USS Enterprise CVAN-65 that is about 12 feet long. Its quite impressive. I have even seen a manned 1/20 scale Graf Spee, driven by an outboard motor with the builder driving it from within the superstructer. It is even registered as a watercraft!

What makes your project so special is that there is no prototype to refer to. There are no eye witnesses, former crew members, actual photos, builder's plans, etc to assist. All you have is animated footage (which is sometimes inconsistant) and that Perfect Memory Book (I have the same book, by the way). It truly is a "scratch build" project.

From what I recall, aircraft elevators are lifted via a pully system. Large cables on either side lift and lower it. It is a rather simple affair. One that, with your expertise and experience on this project would have no trouble duplicating. I think that you merely need to make similar mechanisms to the Bow hatch for the elevators, as the ship is "air tight". I don't recall any footage of their operation, though. Hmmm....

Thank you, for continuing to inspire all of us with this grand project. I am looking forward to seeing more pictures and video of this fine UN Spacy ship.

Thanks guys for the compliments!

Big F, get off your bum, it's been about three years man !

On the Yamato size issue, I'm seeing two different heights for Valks in batteloid mode - still researching it!

Lord Valkyrie, welcome to MW. Here's what pictures I still have:

Winch_Moving.MPG

Basically I took an "I" beam and lined the indents of the "I" with copper tape. The part that hooks/slides on the I beam has contacts for a tiny planetary gear drive motor. I've found smaller ones since then (see my signature block under Gizmoszone).

Don't hesitate to ask for help on your project. I've had to work through a lot of engineering issues. One of the next things I have to do are the side elevators - like on a carrier. - MT

MilSpex, the Daedalus is alomost the ultimate amphib! Valks aren't officially mentioned on the Daedalus that I know of, but hey, they're VTOLs, right!? I'll have some on there. That's the only catch. The bridge/crane gets in the way of conventional landings. Helos and anything VTOL will be on there (I've even built a Tunny a few years back).

UPDATE 25 JUNE 07

I got sick of all the cutting, sanding and carefull cleanup of the carbon fiber so I started on something fun (and that's mostly made of styrene). These are the parts for one of the overhead cranes. This one goes from the main hatch nearly all the way back to the first bulkhead (that's a long way in real life).

[attachmentid=43213] The larger gearhead is soon to be the winch.

[attachmentid=43214] I thought I was done soldering brass pieces - yeah right! The winch and guide. The tubes on the guide accomodate the cable loop that will push / pull the winch along. Electrical contacts will connect the motor to the copper lined rails for winch power.

[attachmentid=43215] Lining the rails with copper foil (as used in stained glass window repair/production). The foil is then coated with styrene safe grease to keep it from oxidizing and smooth winch movement.

[attachmentid=43216] Assembling the tracks and rails The center rail is scribed every few millimeters along its length. You can see how it all goes together now. This will be strong enough to haul a Monster model along (just like in the series when prepping for combat).

[attachmentid=43217] The nearly completed assembly. I wasted a lot of time working on gearcases. I modified two I'm not using (too noisy and "toy like." Both gearcase motors hardly make a sound. The gearcase moving the winch and guide has a belt driven motor to cut back on high speed gear noise. I hope to finish this assembly this week. - MT

I just stumbled onto your build thread. Fantastic! It is very inspiring. I have often thought of doing this project or the Prometheus, but in 1/72nd scale. Your enginuity is commendable. In regards to this particular post, however, the images do not come up. I am curious to see how you are doing things. Is there something you can do? Repost them, or something?