UNCF Argonaut - Space Battleship Yamato

[Thom]

So, hitting a bit of a sow down on my F-8 build, I decided to do a 'quick' sci-fi to see if I can break the pattern I've got. Quick being relative, as we rarely see eye to eye.

So, I am starting with Bandai's 1/1000 AAA-class Andromeda kit,

I'll be using the superstructure from the Ginga kit,

In order to make an Aquarius variant.

Some changes will be made, the dome shape from the front will be replaced, either by more squared details and maybe lowering it some, or even a third turret. We'll see how it goes. And I'll also be bulking up the lower hull scoop, like I did with the Nike.

For now, we're starting with the some interior structure used to support the hull sides.

But pretty quick I needed to do some extra work. There's a lower door in the stern, similar to that on the Yamato where the fighter's launch from. It is meant to open, but with nothing to see inside, I've decided to glue it shut. The fit is not perfect though, so I added a shim to one side to close it up.

After that, I cleaned up some mold lines on the aux engine nacelles.

And then started putting the hull sides on. Gotta hand it to Bandai, this fits together real nice!

More updates to come, hopefully at the double-quick!

Thom

https://imgur.com/a/0gzprLs

Edited August 25 by Thom

[Thom]

On with the build, and I decided to drill out these details on the side. I don't know what they are for, either sensors or broadside launchers?  Anyway, drilled out.

 

And then filled with cut rod with their ends countersunk for a little extra detail.

 

And then the top deck was put down, which exposed a self-made snafu on my part. There are a lot of lugs and pins to hold all the parts together, and I had glued some too early, and then had not fully seated them, so the sides would not squeeze in. Ended up clipping out most of them, so I am now going down the seams with glue and pressure/

 

Thom

[Bolt]

Wow ! This is fantastic @Thom, looking good ! 

[Thom]

@Bolt Thank you!

Some comparisons with the previous 1/700 model.

And with the Dreadnought.

I do wish they had kept the same size as the original kit, as the Dreadnought looks diminutive by comparison!

[Thom]

Okay, back to construction, and we're redoing some things, such as the lower hull housing. To me, it is too shallow and rounded, and I want to do what I did to the Nike, basically enlarging it all around.

So, to that, I took the front housing, which is a lot larger and blockier and traced its front profile onto thin cardboard.

Then I used that to get the final shape I wanted, matching it against the hull and the kit part to try and keep the mating surfaces as similar as possible.

Even this one is not final, as I cut and compared side to side, even folding it so I could sand the sides to the same shape. (Doing so snapped it of course, but it's a simple job to glue it back together again.)

Once I had the shape I liked for the front, I needed the side profile and so I traced out a shape and cut out a plastic 'spine.' It is mocked up with the face piece.

With that looking good-ish, I moved to the rear of the new housing, again matching with the kit part for spacing and the new height, cut it out of styrene and glued all three together for a 'skeletal' frame.

 

And set in place, it actually matches up real well with the hull. Sometimes, I surprise myself!

And just to show the new size and shape compared to the kit part...

The size might still get refined a little bit, but that's dang close to what I want. Next up, I need to start skinning it!

Thom

[Bolt]

Good work. 

[Thom]

Back to this, and I used some scotch tape to trace out the curved opening in the hull.

And transferred that to another couple pieces of blank styrene.

Which were then glued up to the new part.

After that, I started skinning, You can see that the pieces I had just glued onto it were already damaged. What happens when you realize you have to change something - and you used CA to strengthen the now superfluous part.😪 No problem though, as that will be covered up.

And some test fits to see how it is going.

I think I can fit some shuttle bay doors into the back there.

And using Gundam paints to check the shaped/sanded edges.

With that done, I can start adding and shaping the shrouds to either end.

Thom

[Thom]

First, I laid down some tape to keep from prematurely gluing it to the hull. Then I started roughing out individual panels on thin cardboard before transferring those shapes to blank styrene.

 

Still a little rough, but once I start sanding it'll smooth out. Before that though, I need to do the rear shroud.

Thom

[Thom]

Starting the rear shroud. I need to leave a gap in the middle for the bay doors, so I cut two walls to frame that and to give a basic shape to the rear. Those were glued on.

And after some error and trial, I got some curved sections to help shape out the sides.

 

Despite how much I curled them, they were still pulling up from the hull, so they were superglued down the scotch tape that had been laid down just for that purpose.

Now they won't flex when I starts skinning them.

More updates to follow.

Thom

 

[Thom]

And for the rough stuff!

It looks bad now, but it can only get better. I have since taken the housing off of the hull and, after dousing it with super glue to fill gap and help solidify things, I'll start sanding the roughness out and the smoothness in!

Thom

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18 by Thom

[Bolt]

It's coming along nicely 

[Thom]

I forgot to take a pic of the smoothed rear of the housing, but it'll be in the following pics. The next being of the base of the ventral fin being sawed off with a PE saw.

Next was roughing out the shapes of the vanes that go inside the front shroud. Started with thin card stock, getting them sized to fit the opening and then getting the rake that I liked on them.

And the those in styrene.

There is a slight gap between the vanes and the hull, but I'll take some 0.05 styrene sheet and fill that in. Just need to block the light going between them.

And I was going back and forth about leaving the new housing off or one before or after paint, but I've decided to finish it and the inside of the shroud before painting and mate it up to the hull after. I still need to do a little work to clean up the mating area.

Inside there, you can see a long rectangle of plastic that has been glued in on both sides. Since I can't mount the pods that go underneath the ship as intended, they'll be pinned and hang off the sides, so those will help by giving more material for the pins to mount into.

And the last pic is a bit of a shim to close up a gap where the back of the housing mates to the hull.

And that is all for now.

More progress to follow!

Thom

[Thom]

So, calling the new under hull housing just about done. I added the base for the ventral aerial/fin from the kit and smoothed it in with PPP. I also got some greeblies for under the shroud, some vents from a Gundam kit and some necklace clasps. Some antennae will go in there also.

 

Now onto the main conversion! Taking the Ginga's superstructure and grafting it onto the Andie.

 

For that, I'll be needing the rear half of the Ginga's main deck, and the two side pieces that are integral to the Ginga's main hull.

 

Now, if I was putting the laboratory dome on, this would be a lot cleaner.

Instead, the third turret, from behind the superstructure will be moved forward.

 

It's tipped back a little, but once I add the sides that were cut from the Ginga's hull, it'll level up.

 

More to come!

Thom

 

[Thom]

Executive decision time!

This is before.

It looks good enough, but I think it is still sitting too high, even after I sectioned out a piece from the bottom of the main tower. Plus, that third turret location is sitting too high in relation to the first two, so...

I blew it up!

Pulled the pieces of the upper structure apart again, and now I'm going to slip them further down the sides. But they weren't sitting as flush as I wanted, as their backsides are not flat, so, duh-me, I decided to cut out parts from the hull to make room. Only I cut too much room...

That cut is way too low. You can see the gap under the lowered side piece.

Crab-nab-it!!

That presaged a whole rabbit hole of new siding, ill-fits and finally ripping it all off again after calling myself a dummy! Keep it simple, stupid! I'll get the parts to fit where I want them to, then tidy up the mess.

But, the step-pattern between the turrets now looks spot on to what I've been wanting, so good there!

Now, after that, I'll need to fix the upper deck. With it being lower, and thus spread wider, there are some gappages happening near the front.

I'm thinking it might be easier to make a new forward upper deck...🤔

 

Thom

 

 

Edited September 2 by Thom

[Thom]

Yup, easier!

I traced the basic shape onto Scotch tape and transferred that to blank plastic.

 

That was then cut out, and the barbette removed from the original kit part before being grafted into the new deck. Once it was glued down, the edges were sanded into the shape.

You'll note there is no aft deck, because I though I could save that part...

 

But it was too worn and the detail on it damaged, so a new one was made in the same fashion. And yes, there is an ugly hole there were the mounting for the superstructure goes down through, but that will be covered up by said superstructure.

That after deck part was then glued to the superstructure, so that I could still paint the greeblies underneath it. The orange parts are from Gundam kits, the kits that keep on giving, and there is some ribbed styrene between then to act as roll-aside doors.

I don't know whether those could be vents, thrusters, tail light...?

Thom

 

 

 

[Bolt]

Wow. She's really coming along! It's looking awesome 

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

That after deck part was then glued to the superstructure, so that I could still paint the greeblies underneath it. The orange parts are from Gundam kits, the kits that keep on giving, and there is some ribbed styrene between then to act as roll-aside doors.

I don't know whether those could be vents, thrusters, tail light...?

Thom

 

 

 

Tractor-emitters for the automated landing system.

Edited September 5 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

On 9/4/2024 at 10:29 PM, pengbuzz said:

Tractor-emitters for the automated landing system.

Could be! Anything, really!

And I am calling the added sides as done! They are as 'smoothed' in as I am going to be able to get them. You will notice I finally sanded down the two bumps on either side. I felt they fitted more on the Yamato/Ginga than the Argonaut, and they were getting a little damaged from all the work.😉

 

I also scrounged through the PE collection and found a few bits that might come in handy.

I will not be going crazy with this! Honest!

And the Viper launch tubes from the BSG Pegasus fret should work pretty well as some broadside missile launchers.

Need to start detailing this!

 

Thom

[pengbuzz]

On 9/6/2024 at 9:44 PM, Thom said:

Could be! Anything, really!

And I am calling the added sides as done! They are as 'smoothed' in as I am going to be able to get them. You will notice I finally sanded down the two bumps on either side. I felt they fitted more on the Yamato/Ginga than the Argonaut, and they were getting a little damaged from all the work.😉

 

I also scrounged through the PE collection and found a few bits that might come in handy.

I will not be going crazy with this! Honest!

And the Viper launch tubes from the BSG Pegasus fret should work pretty well as some broadside missile launchers.

Need to start detailing this!

 

Thom

Neat!!

I wonder if some 1/700 scale people on the flight deck would help this out?

[Thom]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Neat!!

I wonder if some 1/700 scale people on the flight deck would help this out?

Figures always give a great sense of scale, not that I have any. Figures that is, not sense of scale! Although, sometimes my sense of scale...

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, Thom said:

Figures always give a great sense of scale, not that I have any. Figures that is, not sense of scale! Although, sometimes my sense of scale...

I have some that I bought for my 1/700 U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65) carrier diorama. Let me know if you want any.

Edited September 9 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

10 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

I have some that I bought for my 1/700 U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65) carrier diorama. Let me know if you want any.

Thank you! I appreciate the offer, but the scale would be off too, as this is 1/1000.

Although, compared to the old version, which was 1/700, there is still not much of a size difference.

[Thom]

I ended up not using nearly any of the PE that was set out. A few pieces here and there was all. I used styrene stock to make some missile hatches down the side below the superstructure and little details on the deck, reminiscent of what was on the original piece.

For the base of the superstructure, I replaced the vents that were there (but were damaged) with some from a 1/72 TIe Interceptor, and added some misc shapes and machinery on both sides.

And mocked up to see how we're going.

Still a few bits to add, but we're getting there!

 

Thom

[Bolt]

Great job!

[Thom]

Alright, more updates! You'll see in the pics, I started adding the normal bits and pieces here and there, finishing the hull up. Some of those are the wings for the bow.

No.

Wings on a space battleship feels a bit incongruous to me, which is one reason why I never build the Yamato with them deployed. So those will be deleted. First, I needed to cut some material off from them in order to fill the then open trench in the sides.

Those pieces were then glued and fared in. The long PE piece that was going to be the side missile arrays are the perfect size to cover the trenches and those now become forward mounted chaff/flare/decoy dispensers.

From there we move to the pods slung under the hull. I had considered grafting the mountings from the kit part to the new housing, but that would be a lot of work, so I decided to just pin them. But first, because the angles are different between the new housing and old kit part, I needed to add material to the struts, otherwise both pods would have a 'toe-in' when they were mounted. The white is the added material. Sandwiched plastic strip and CA, all sanded nice and smooth.

Then were then drilled for cut down satin pins to serve as mounting pins.

Then I had to mark and drill the spot on the new housing for them, trying to make sure they are even from side to side. I had glued some extra stryene in there to give the glued pins something more the grab onto.

I put three pins in per strut. Maybe a little overkill, but it doesn't hurt, and because the pins are all slightly misaligned, there is a comfortable bit of friction to help hold it in place.

I'm still going to glue them of course.

And a shot of the mounting pins and both pods test-fitted.

 

I think I am close to paint-stage now. Woohoo!!

 

Thom

 

[Spacecore]

This is a VERY impressive level of scratch building and kitbashing! 

I loved doing the 1/1000 2199 Yamato kit I did about two years ago, was never able to find one of these Andromeda kits at a decent price, so as good as it's looking, it does hurt a bit seeing one cut up so bad...

[Thom]

@Spacecore

Thank you! Just trying to do a good job on it.

And if you feel some angst about the Andromeda model, I won't show you the remains of the Ginga...