6 Foot Long Daedalus Scratch Build Up

[MechTech]

Thanks guys. The bow door AND ramp will open up and be motorized. The side elevators will work as well as three through-deck elevators (see a few posts back for the conceptual drawings). That's part of what's taking so long, engineering how stuff's gonna work along the way. As opposed to just a scale model.

I'm not looking forward to building all those destroids either Berttt! Ranger565 is actually helping build a couple. There was a pack of Tomahawks on evilbay and my account wasn't working right. I asked him to buy them and I'd just pay him back. He then offered to build and paint them up. If anyone wants to do the same, I'm game. There's been so many people that have helped me out with this project, why not the destroids too! - MT

[DestroidDefender]

Speaking of Destroids, I just had a funky idea. This probably is not practice for weight and balance reasons but if you put a sheet of steel on the deck you could park the Destroids wherever you like by sticking rare earth magnets in their feet. Maybe a more practice way would be to have the magnets embedded in the decks and elevators at strategic locales and matching magnets in the feet of Destroids.

Edited May 30, 2007 by DestroidDefender

[Berttt]

Hey I'll be in on that! Just let me know what Destroids you want and I'll punch a couple your way

[MechTech]

Defender, that's a good idea (though mentioned WAY earlier). I think they won't need magnets. In fact when underway, the ship will be empty of all mecha, except maybe a few near the ramp. I'd hate to lose my whole "army" if something went very wrong.

Berttt, thank you. That's actaully up to you! As you can see, there's a lot of sapce! I'm good for monsters.

UPDATE 30 MAY 07

The pieces are coming together. You can see the supports for all decks. I'm still having trouble getting over how light and strong this stuff is. Carbon graphite rocks! Though I've gone through two razor saws and nearly a disc sanding sheet.

[attachmentid=42761] Sitting on top of the lower hull.

[attachmentid=42762] You can see the two parts, short up front, and the longer towards the back.

[attachmentid=42763] Closeup of the decks and the seam between the tow parts. These will come apart for trasnposrt like the lower hull.

[attachmentid=42765] And spelled out for you what's where Tomahawk to show scale. The white plastic is the first of the outer covering for the hanger decks. The lower part and sides will mate with these.

That's it for now. I gotta go get more carbon this weekend! - MT

Edited May 30, 2007 by MechTech

[isamu_dyson]

still dam' great .. nothing else to say ...

[Gabe Q]

Fantastic work. You are an enlightened engineer for making this all come together. I love checking in on this buildup.

[kensei]

This is gonna be great!

[MechTech]

Thanks guys! I'm working out the anime magic problem now of how to do the Daedlus Attack mode and making the mecha fit in there. The problem is one drawing shows the internal ramps in the way of the mecha when the hatch and ramp open up. I think I can find a middle ground though. Another drawing doesn't show the ramps at all in that area!?? I want some blueprints man! I'm spending a lot of time just staring at drawings figuring out where to put stuff. - MT

[valkyriepm]

I want some blueprints man! I'm spending a lot of time just staring at drawings figuring out where to put stuff. - MT

Be happy! You'r not the only one! (mine in a smaller scale, of course)

And amazing work, as always.

Martin

Edited June 4, 2007 by valkyriepm

[MechTech]

Thanks for the encouragement. We can have a pitty party together! I just had to redraw my plans last night. I measured the Monster model assembled and found out the example I was using was two inches off. That four inches off for two monsters. Then the ramps positioned in one photo gave no room for the Daedalus attack mode. That means all the frame work will not work as I wanted to. Time for some adjustments.

By the way, what's up with the Promethius? - MT

[Tinderfitles]

good thing I contacted those aliens to try and invade earth, so you boys finish quick.

(they have no idea whats waiting for them, suckers)

Edited June 6, 2007 by Tinderfitles

[valkyriepm]

By the way, what's up with the Promethius? - MT

I'm waiting for some custom photo etched pieces to arrive (propellers and some details) and the little detail added does not worth an update at the moment, but still working on it.

Martin

Edited June 7, 2007 by valkyriepm

[MechTech]

Thanks Tinderfitles! No preasure, right! It's just the fate of the earth and so on and so on .

Valkyriepm, I'd love to get some stuff photoetched. I just didn't want to pay that dear for it. How much did it cost you if you don't mind me asking?

UPDATE 12 JUNE 07

I got most of the bow skeleton done. I found a great place for gearboxes and small motors. I'm going to need them for the elevators, cranes and other effects. I'm almost thinking of adding a sound module to it, similar to the 1/350th Yamato http://www.hlj.com/product/ban946749 . The screw up with the frame I talked about earlier works to my advantage and came out perfect anyhow - Thank God!

I printed my plans in full scale and printed them out on standard paper. My printer squints the artwork so everything was a little off from page to page.

[attachmentid=42930] The plans for an idea of the profile.

[attachmentid=42931] Plans with skeleton beside it.

[attachmentid=42932] A 3/4 view.

[attachmentid=42933] Overall so far.

I'm surfin' for supplies now! - MT

Edited June 12, 2007 by MechTech

[neptunesurvey]

Looking good. How will you secure the destroids? Use magnets or screws?

Also, has anyone told you that you might be going a little overboard? Ok, nuts, whacked, crazy, etc.

[MechTech]

On the shelf, the destroids will just sit in there. On the water the decks will probably be cleared to make the hanger decks lighter. It gets windy here and I'll have to do some tests first (I'm afraid a good wind might capsize it - can you say "list". But it will probably run "clean."

A few people have said I'm nuts. But you know, nothing ventured nothing gained. This will be my "display case."

[MilSpex]

Good to hear you you didnt have to redo all that framework.

Dont let anyone tell you you`re crazy, if you`re going to build a Daedalus you should do it like this! No holds barred

[isamu_dyson]

GREAAAAT !!

now you have the cage .... where is the birdy ?

[MechTech]

Thanks MilSpex. I've planned this thing out for years to "do it right." So far so good.

AWESOME place for MICRO sized gearcases (in case you want to motorize something) http://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/

Isamu, the cage still needs some work and then I have to line it with newspaper . - MT

[big F]

When you see the deck plan and the scaled mecha you realise just how big it will be.

Great work as always.

[MechTech]

Thanks BigF. The problem is I don't have a safe place to keep the upper decks away from the children! This thing is big. Nothing is made in 1/350th for Macross or I'd do that! - MT

[pfunk]

so are going to mass produce destroids to "live" in it?

[MechTech]

Yep. I'm also taking donations (look back a few posts) too. Anyone who wants to donate their little destroid (most people don't seem to care much about them) and get credit for them can do so. Of course I'll be mass producing them AFTER the fact (can't put the cart before the horse). - MT

[MilSpex]

What is the actual complement of destroids and valkyries aboard the Daedalus? The Macross Compendium is ambigous listing the complement for the entire SDF 1 as far as I can tell. Are there any hard numbers? Sorry if this has already been covered in the thread.

[pfunk]

Yep. I'm also taking donations (look back a few posts) too. Anyone who wants to donate their little destroid (most people don't seem to care much about them) and get credit for them can do so. Of course I'll be mass producing them AFTER the fact (can't put the cart before the horse). - MT

wish I could help, Ive been working on the house

[MechTech]

MilSpex, I have no idea! There is A LOT not mentioned. That's good and bad! In fact, in some of the anime you see three Monsters side by side in the Daedalus "Attack Mode." The Daedalus will ONLY hold two up front. No room for three - at all. All the connecting doorways are one deck high, not the two deck height the Monsters need. There's nothing on Phalanxes being in there either. But it's a Destroid and it's going in mine! Plus I cast a bunch a few years back (has it been that long?). All I can tell you are that the Tomahawks, Spartans, Defenders and Monsters are drawn in the bow section. Of course that leaves about 2/3 of the ship for whatever I want to put in it . That's the good side to the ambigiousness.

Pfunk, thanks anyway! - MT

[MilSpex]

MilSpex, I have no idea! There is A LOT not mentioned. That's good and bad! In fact, in some of the anime you see three Monsters side by side in the Daedalus "Attack Mode." The Daedalus will ONLY hold two up front. No room for three - at all. All the connecting doorways are one deck high, not the two deck height the Monsters need. There's nothing on Phalanxes being in there either. But it's a Destroid and it's going in mine! Plus I cast a bunch a few years back (has it been that long?). All I can tell you are that the Tomahawks, Spartans, Defenders and Monsters are drawn in the bow section. Of course that leaves about 2/3 of the ship for whatever I want to put in it . That's the good side to the ambigiousness.

Pfunk, thanks anyway! - MT

Sounds like you have it all figured out.

So I`m guessing the Daedalus is an amphibious assault carrier?

I know you mentioned helicopters before but any info on Valkyries on board? ie Did we see them fly off the Daedalus?

I guess you can always include them in the spare 2/3 of the ship and like the US carriers, squadrons can be added or subtracted depending on the mission. For example for the Haiti invasion I remember the US Marines literally took some carriers, took every jet off and covered the upper and lower decks in helicopters exclusively.

A Daedalus configured for combined ops could easily have complements of any UN Spacy mecha available.

[MechTech]

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

[neptunesurvey]

Cool.

[MilSpex]

The detail in this thing is going to be ridiculous

[MechTech]

Thanks guys. I think ridiculous IS a good word. Somedays I ask myself, "what the heck am I doing." I miss doign SMALL mods and stuff. I waited years to do this so I'm just going to shut up ! - MT

[drifand]

Ack! looks like the last round of update pix didn't survive the server migration. Any chance of a re-up? It's been fantastic following this work in progress!

[zeo-mare]

i to would like to see the pictures.

chris

[MechTech]

I found out I'm not the only victim of the server migration. I can't even post pictures right now! I only have "Fast Reply." "Reply tries to initialize images and crashes Explorer! I'm missing the old server about right now! - MT

[007-vf1]

I currently use firefox browser more reliable than explorer, I can use all features that way; the only problem is that I have to log on to see pictures...

[do not disturb]

damn, i've been waiting a few days to see your newest progress pics with no luck.