The Ship Model Forum

I've been eyeing the Space Battleship Yamato for some time now, but at $500 + for the 1/350 scale and my own dis-taste for the Yamato class in general, I've been thinking of attempting some modifications to a Tamiya or minihobby New Jersey or Missouri. The problem is, I have no idea where to start. I've scoured the internet but I still have no ideas. Perhaps some of you creative what-ifers could help me out here?

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The ship in question is from the 7o's Anime Classic Space Crusier Yamato. Which was made into four movies and the english version Called Star Blazers. Episodes of these classic and well drawn shows can be found on ebay, amazon and netfilx with instant downloads. I have copies of the English series on DVD the better one is the Second series the comet empire. However, the main issue was they just upgrade the stern for the new wave motion engine along with gun port for the wave motion gun.. if you check you-tube under star blazers or space crusier yamato.. There is a series on building the 1/500 version of this beast. each is about 6 mins... check it out.. Good luck,, OOH one last thought, for the fighters used by the ship try to modify f-18 and F-14 they look close enough for the update just have to redo the turkey feathers to square shapes instead of round.

Also have a look on youtube

For anyone interested in getting ahold of the space battleship yamato at a good price, here is a suggestion:

If you know a Marine (or Air Force or Navy)who is stationed in Okinawa, or know someone who knows someone, etc, ask if that person would take a ride to the Marine Base Camp Kinser. There is a hobby shop about a quarter mile up the hill on the main drag that is stocked to the cielings!

I went there one day and found the 1/350 Space yamato for about $50. I thought it looked kinda cool, so I bought it and built it. When we shipped home, I just tossed the model out. If I had realized how hard it is to get ahold of these and how big the demand was, I would have bought every last one they had and shipped them home to sell on Ebay.

It is a long shot, but if you know anyone stationed there, you may be in luck.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

@ ex-navy and aleccap: I'm going to try to find the series online or something and watch it. The main problem I'm seeing in converting the Iowa to a space battleship is the giant thrusters needed on the back. I suppose I could use paper coffee cups for the general shape as well as brass tubing? Interestingly enough, I think that I'll be using the main batteries from both the Iowa class and 1/400 scharnhorst class because a space battleship should be covered with laser guns haha!

@ sgtryan: You could have made a fortune if you had bought 100 of those kits and came back to the states. I have a friend stationed in Korea right now, but theres not much over there. I guess I'll have to wait until my "eventual" deployment and see where my vessel goes

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If only I had known!!!

For the engines, I remember the ones on the space yamato looking very close to the engines on my 1/48 hornet, with the same lengthy taper and general shape. Maybe you could rob some from an aircraft build or builder??? The biggest difference was the overall rounded shape of the hull, other than the top deck, the main shape of the ship was very rounded off, not circular, but more of an overall oval shape to it if you looked at it head on.

Then there was a large taper inwards from aft of the last main gun battery tapering down towards the area where the engines were seen.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

I think I'm going to scour the internet for some 1/48 F18 and A10 kits, the A10 engines would probably look good. I have absolutely NO idea what to do for the deck. Maybe sand it down completely?

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You will probably save yourself a ton of time and aggrivation if you just throw some styrene sheet over the kit decks rather than thry to sand them all smooth. One pack of evergreen styrene sheet is more than enough and should only run you $4-$5. I think once you have that smooth surfafe is should look cool when you detail it with different bits of styrene and parts form the spares box.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

That's a thought. Actually I have a 1/350 New Jersey deck that I've already sanded down the wood planks on, I was planning on replanking it with real wood, but given the circumbstances, perhaps I could just get the Tamiya NJ and switch the decks. PE is another big question, I guess modern radars might suit a space battleship, but I've been thinking of creating something entirely new.

As for the hull, I think I'm going to build it into an oval shape as you suggested by adding styrene sheets and putty, kind of like creating bulges on a Hornet to turn it into Enterprise. The props will be replaced with turbines or rocket engines (whichever you prefer). I think I'm going to cut a hole in the bow in order to launch space jets out of ?

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Something like this ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5oniErmeuE

I have the 1/500 kit it very basic in design, as i stated check out the youtube session on building this beast. the stern section is a once piece deal with the stablizer or fins on the nozzle and the two smaller nozzles look like 1/48 f-18 nozzles like sgt ryan suggested. It your project however, in the series they had cats to launch wildstars (hero of the series) superstar fighter he was also second in charge and then became the captain after the death of ships captain but I degress.
The remaining fighters exited out a hatch just below the aft nozzles. Don't forget the missiles tubes on the sides or in the stack. Good luck regardless of your feelings about the yamato.. this series is a classic and has to many whole cool battles.

Alec and ex-navy, thanks for the advice. I've been trying to watch some clips or stream some of the film to get an idea of the role my space battleship Iowa would play. I'm thinking of doing some "CAD" work in autoCAD if I can find a line art of the Iowa Class. I might use a round bridge conversion like the Iowa set from YMW or the NJ set from Toms because I think a round bridge has a more "spacey" feel. The other problem is the stacks. From what I've seen on the space battleship Yamato, the stack is still there. Perhaps I should reuse the stacks as two gigantic missle pods capable of a nuclear strike? It would be a shame to just remove them completely.

Jon

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Don't know if you've seen this, but it's pretty cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqaaRgeuprg&feature=fvw

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Looking at the Utube vid's I did spy a 2.6m monster
http://www.youtube.com/user/HITEN0A
http://www.green.dti.ne.jp/h-naoki/yamato.html

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My job was to comfort the disturbed & Disturb the comfortable.

Mes enfants. Yes the silly old buggas being patronising. AGAIN you say?
Who wants a Yamato? the spaceship version of course,
look here open the windows on there in new tabs.
http://www.geocities.jp/papercraft_etsu ... O-000.html
It's not a free model, but for those modifing an Iowa, the pictures help

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My job was to comfort the disturbed & Disturb the comfortable.

that really helps a lot.

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How is this project going? Nothing for four months! I would like to make one point that is lightly addressed on the Space Yamato. I noticed it has a second tower on the bottom of the hull. I would presume these are for duplicate sensors. This is one area many people forget about space battles. In space, you are literally fighting inside a globe. Attack can come from ANY direction. Submarine warfare is somewhat similar in a limited sense. You therefore need overlapping sensor coverage at every possible angle from the ship. It would also help if your weapons covered all possible approaches without having to roll the ship to present your weapons on target, or worse to have to flip 90 degrees to cover directly above or below. If your weapons can elevate slightly beyond 90 degrees, then above or below could be covered by rolling. Flipping or rolling the ship would take longer than simple elevation. Possibly enough time to be seriously damaged before you could respond. Unless your technology has anti-gravity so your maneuvers can be accomplished faster without turning the crew to paste on the bulkheads. The presumption on the Space Yamato is that any enemy will be spotted in plenty of time for the attitude of the ship to be adjusted. But would not help a lot if an enemy came from six or more directions simultaneously. Which any enemy with half a brain would do in order to overwhelm the defenses, if they had sufficient vessels, and time to set up the ambush. But this is just my opinion as an avid Space Opera reader. It always amuses me when an author has everything lined up nice and neat in a space battle. Everybody on the same plane of the elliptic and so forth.

So, anyway, have you started any construction yet?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/capalec/5064551412/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/capalec/5064551410/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/capalec/5064551406/
Please don't ask the names of these 2 ships, when I first came back into this hobby, I saw this on ebay, told the blokes at work expecting this to be some 13 inches in length (main spacship) how they laughed when I told them it was just over 3 (three) inches.

If you're going to do it, go for broke. Space battleship Yamato was very much on my mind when I whipped out this steampunk monster:

Steampunk certainly does offer possibilities!

Is it congruent also with Space 1889?