MechTech Posted March 26, 2006 Posted March 26, 2006 (edited) Shawn posted comments looking for help on this for me four years ago! Long before I was a MW forum member! The photos below show the construction of my 6 foot long, 1:200 scale SLV-111 “Daedalus.†The ship will be radio controlled with working bow door and ramp, elevators, and other accessories. I always wanted to build something “BIG†from Macross and I figured this would be my best bet. (The SDF-1 would just take too much time, money and sanity!) The upper hull port/left side will open up and double as a display case and diorama since it’s so big. It’s been tough doing all the engineering; but fun at the same time. A lot of people are going to say, “That’s the wrong length!†(It’s listed as 488m in Macross Perfect Memory). That’s 244cm or about 8 feet long in 1:200th scale. After four years of planning and design for this project, I have discovered that it’s actually about 6 feet long. (It's still bigger than a supercarrier) When scratch-building, you always go with details you can verify the size of. The most accurate “measurements†I have in this case are the 1:200th Nichimo destroids. How did I get my measurements? Kazutaka Miyatake’s final draft drawings mentioned 7 destroids across (abreast) in the doorway. Ceiling/deck height is just a bit higher than the destroids, and we can even see how a Monster fits in. Knowing the width and height, we can go with the length from the drawings – about six feet long. In short, there are contradictions. The comparison drawing below will illustrate what I mean. Several of Miyatake’s drawings contradicted themselves in some areas, so I stayed with the ones marked “final draft.†Those are the ones with the little cartoon character/seal on them. Not all the details are the same or in the same location. Sounds geeky, but where do you put everything-right? A lot of the animated scenes with the Daedalus in them were wrongly sized or scaled which made for a lot of frustration. So I used them as a last resort. I’m still trying to figure out what would be the best colors to paint it in. Blue and red reminds me of a clown car! I’m looking for suggestions. I’m almost siding with good ole’ battleship grey for the upper hull area and rust red for the lower hull area. Any inputs or corrections are always welcomed! - MT - Special thanks to Nanashino for verifying and translating Japanese text! Same scale destroyer looks like it's in dry dock! The sheets are glued together then cut to make them even. Planking, the only way to get the plastic to hug the contours. This hull design is unlike any ship on the seas today. I need a bigger workbech! Here's where I'm at so far. The planking has been done with strips of various thicknesses cut with 35 degree anges to verlap and seal when glued in place. UPDATE 30 March These are the internal detail parts cut by laser engraver. They need to be redone since they got "blurred" when the operator moved the sheet. The detail is not the deeply etched either. The ramp will be redone due to engraving detail issues too. The door will fold on a threaded rod that will screw in and out to drive it open or closed. It was the strongest and most discrete mechanism I could devise. UPDATE 17 APRIL Here are shots with rough planking, sanded smooth, and additional panels on top to give it a realistic welded panel appearance. The panels are paper thin styrene sheet cut at random lengths. I used Squadron Green putty to fill some uneven areas underneath and the glue picked it up highlighting some panel lines for now. The paneling will get a light sanding to smooth out bumps and joints to make it more hydrodynamic. I'm hoping to finish off the bow section this weekend. UPDTE 29 APRIL Impeller Parts Completed Impeller Bow Thruster Housing Construction Completed Bow Thruster Assembly Bow Thruster Mounted in Bow I had to build my own bow thruster since I couldn't find one commercially available with enough thrust. I tested this in the tub and it gave me bout two pounds of thrust. It almost jerked itself out of my hand! Not only is the ship big, but the large hanger area for the destroids will act like a sail in the breeze, so the extra power is needed. I'm hoping to foam and cover the bow this weekend - again. The extension from the thruster will be cut off once the bow is covered. - MT UPDATE 24 MAY 06 This is what I've been doing for the last month. I realized I had to have the radio controls configured for what I wanted them to do. This is an FCC legal modification. Only the switches were swapped around to fit my needs. This would work great for a tank too (turret controlled by wheel)! The 8 buttons are a module from MDC that fits anywhere on your transmitter (the wheel is custom). http://www.modelcontrol.com/switch81.htm This is an awesome way to take one channel on your radio and make it 8 (or 16). All you have to do is push a button for whatever function you want! I'm using a plastic template to cover a fancy computer printed template with pictures and words. The plastic is soft enough to still push the buttons through. I started back in on the bow this evening. Glue drying as I type. - MT UPDATE 11 JUN 06 ALL FUTURE POSTS WILL NOT BE IN THIS SECTION, BUT IN REPLIES (this area is gettin' way too big! I've done more changes to the bow section than an "Extreme Makeover" contestant! The stem is made up of styrefoam covered with Milliput, the lower bow is expanding Polyurethane foam (for filling cracks) covered with Milliput. All have been blended and smoothed out. I just have to sand everything and fill in the imperfections. Ready for final sanding and almost a coat of primer. Edited June 11, 2006 by MechTech Quote
big F Posted March 26, 2006 Posted March 26, 2006 WOW !! Wxcellent work so far. I notice youre in England any chance I can come and see the maiden voyage ? Its great to see something scratch built thats not a plane or a peice of mecha. Quote
EXO Posted March 26, 2006 Posted March 26, 2006 accurate or not, that looks bitchin'. Hurry up and finish it! lol. Can't wait to see the rest of the SDF-1. hehe. Quote
J A Dare Posted March 26, 2006 Posted March 26, 2006 Awesome! Me too, I'd love to see it launched! Hey, we could make it an MW Europa Con! Quote
UN Spacy Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 We need to send him some tiny Destroids to adorn the deck. Quote
orguss01 Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Filled with destroid that is gonna look crazzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! NICE creativity>>>>Very nice work area aswelll...neat!!!! Edited March 27, 2006 by orguss01 Quote
Knight26 Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 nice but what we really need is a 1:72 scale prometheus for us to display valks on, lol. Quote
olivers Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Nice scratchbuild. From the pics I can't tell what plastic you are using to model. The planking looks to be styrene. What are the ribs and the structure of the model made of, looks like thick styrene or possibly foam PVC (love that stuff). Lastly have you got a good supplier for plastics, I've used a few places but can never get it as cheap as it seems to be in the US. Quote
Gabe Q Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 nice but what we really need is a 1:72 scale prometheus for us to display valks on, lol. 384435[/snapback] That'd be a pretty big ship. More than twenty feet long. Quote
specr0101 Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 That is truly amazing! How did you cut the inner structural ribs? Quote
zeo-mare Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 wow that is some impressive work i cannot wait to see it finished. chris Quote
Graham Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Impressive. Can't wait to see it finished. Graham Quote
Guest Bromgrev Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Amazing piece of work. Radio controlled? Quote
Mule Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 That has got to be the cleanest workbench I have ever seen Can't wait to see how the boat turns out. Quote
kensei Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 This is Amazing. Mere words cannot describe it. You've given me a reason to frequent this section more often now. Quote
bigkid24 Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Wow. How long did that much take you to do? Quote
Noyhauser Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Can someone say, Nichimo? (BTW awesome... its amazing the level of skill on here) Quote
big F Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Hey, we could make it an MW Europa Con! 384301[/snapback] I was just thinking that the other day. We do need a Europe MW Con. On the subject of destriods to place on it you could use the Kaiyoda destroids they are about 1/200 scale so would look ok. you can still get them at HLJ. That reminds me I better finnish my review before Graham gets board of waiting. Quote
MechTech Posted March 27, 2006 Author Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Hey everyone, thank you for the compliments and encouragement. I’m pushing through this as fast as I can. What you’re looking at so far is just the lower half. The upper half will be mostly square in construction, so hopefully it will fly along. All the compound curves on the bow section are taking a long time to form! I m u s t b e p a t i e n t… (Three months construction so far...) The model is mostly styrene. The keels, bulkheads, and other “heavy load†parts are 3mm styrene. The main hull parts are covered with 2mm styrene. The quarter round grey parts are 2mm thick ABS tubing (nobody makes styrene tube that size! GRRrrrrrr) that I ripped longwise; twice on my micro band saw to quarter up. All the inside intricate cuts in the bow section were by hand on a coping saw. The outside curves I cut on the band saw. All the planking is 1.5mm styrene. I might have top heavy problems with the upper hull, so I’m working that out as I go along. My main styrene source is: http://www.modernplastics.com/. They’ll even do small jobs for us little guys! Oh yeah, I have countless Nichimo kits to go inside. Do I have to build those too? I built the lower hull in two halves because of the shape. Plus, how on earth do you transport a six foot long model inside your car? The upper and lower halves separate to make transport easy. Thanks for the compliments on the work area too! I had to get that together to put my ship together! That included taking my tiny table saw and building it into a larger table area. You don’t know how much it pained me to wait building up my ship while building my shop. Baby steps… MACROSS EUROCON ALL THE WAY! But where/when do you guys wanna have it? I know there’s a lot of large scale modelers out there. I got your large “20 foot model†right here: http://wmunderway.8m.com/gallery6/gallery6.htm I’ll let you guys know when the ship launching ceremony is. I think that would be a blast! - MT Edited March 27, 2006 by MechTech Quote
Zinjo Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) That is DAMN SEXY!! Any plans to put 1/200 scale Valk Gerwalks or Battroids on the deck? I don't recall if the Daedalus was able to launch Valks off it's top deck or not... Like these: Valkyries: http://cgi.ebay.com/Robotech-Macross-1-200...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/MACROSS-1-200-VF-1A-BA...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/MACROSS-1-200-VF-1S-GE...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Robotech-Macross-1-200...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/MACROSS-1-200-VF-1A-GE...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-Macross-1-20...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-1-200-Macros...1QQcmdZViewItem Destroids: http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-1-200-Macros...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-1-200-Macros...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-1-200-Macros...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimaco-Macross-1-20...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimoco-Macross-1-20...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/IMAI-Macross-1-200-sca...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichimaco-Macross-1-20...1QQcmdZViewItem Bad Guys: http://cgi.ebay.com/NICHIMO-1-200-MACROSS-...1QQcmdZViewItem Edited March 27, 2006 by Zinjo Quote
MechTech Posted March 27, 2006 Author Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Aaaah, now you know why I built these suckers: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...=15542&hl=vc-33 The Mom's Kitchen, Tunny and of course Valkyries would definitely go on deck. There's certainly enough room. It's bigger than any super carrier of the same scale. It's like a supertanker, but with destroids instead of oil! I have all the Nichimo releases, plus a ton of the Testor's "Robot" kits, repackaged from Nichimo's first release. Thank you for the e-bay postings. If I buy anymore, my wife might kick my butt! - MT Edited March 27, 2006 by MechTech Quote
Zinjo Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Aaaah, now you know why I built these suckers:http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...=15542&hl=vc-33  The Mom's Kitchen, Tunny and of course Valkyries would definitely go on deck. There's certainly enough room. It's bigger than any super carrier of the same scale. It's like a supertanker, but with destroids instead of oil! I have all the Nichimo releases, plus a ton of the Testor's "Robot" kits, repackaged from Nichimo's first release. Thank you for the e-bay postings. If I buy anymore, my wife might kick my butt! - MT 384677[/snapback] LOL! Just don't tell her... It's not like she'll do some sort of inventory on them and say "Hey! You have 10 @#$#$ more kits than last time!!" Do us one favor. Take LOTS of pictures when you are done! This one will be worthy of much praise and envy! Edited March 27, 2006 by Zinjo Quote
big F Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 I think if we are to have a MW con Eu style we should post the idea in the forum next to the other MW Con posting. there are quite a few european Mw members and a great many U.S members currently in Europe working etc. I cant have it at my house but im sure someone has a big house or a friendly Pub landlord or something. Quote
Knight26 Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 Hey you said you were going to make the front hatch openable right? How about tracks on the ramp that extends and making it so some of the destroids can "walk" down it. No I guess that is too much, but some video of it openning and revealing a ton of destroids would be seriously awesome. Quote
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