EDF Andromeda Part 1... the Intro stuff

As you may or may not know about me is that I love an old anime called "Star Blazers" or "Space Battleship Yamato" in it's original Japanese. The best part of the show are the cool spaceship designs.

I haven't built a plastic model in a while but have slowly been psyching myself up to tackle some of the larger modeling projects I still have laying around the house. I decided to use the re-release of the "Space Battleship Yamato" Earth Flagship the Andromeda.



In the show the Andromeda was the Flagship of the Earth fleet and played a counterpart to the "Star" of the show, the Yamato. While the Yamato was built from a World War 2 Battleship the Andromeda was shiny and new. In the Second season of the show she was destroyed in a final last stand against the Comet Empire.

As a kid I thought this ship was awesome...

The Model: The model is a 1/700 scale re-release of the Andromeda that must be well over 20 years old. The Panel lines are a little overdone for the scale but the proprtions to the "real" subject are pretty close. It comes with some simple lighting(Which I will junk).

My first goal with this model are to internally light the ship. I've never done anything with lighting or wiring before so this will be a great learning experience. The Goal will be to light the the twin Wave Motion Guns in the bow, the main engine as well as the 4 secondary engines. I'm still debating as to whether I should try and light the Bridge or not.

Now... Onto the building...

The first thing I did was open the box and lay out the parts. Aside from the over-sized panel lines the overall Hull looks pretty good. The plan is to sand down the main hull to reduce the panel lines or remove them all together and then re-scribe them.

(The sanding has started!)


The Engine pods were a little softer in the detail. This too shall be sanded down but I also wanted to take the opportunity to add a little detail.

Using small strips of styrene I built up some detail on the intakes.

(well, that looks a little better)

I also drilled out a hole for the lighting. I will use 5mm bulbs mounted in each engine housing.

(Well, not the roundest hole, but it won't be seen and should work just fine)





The Andromeda has several "Energy Cannon" Pods located on the ships. I wanted to give these more detail so I cut some small metal tubing and inserted them into holes drilled into the Pods.

I also added additional "Energy Cannon" mounts to the bridge superstructure.

Okay, that's the update for today. Next time we should actually have some lighting to show off.

Until next time!

Jon