# 1/72 Starblazers Medevac Shuttle



## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Enjoy


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## Rattrap (Feb 23, 1999)

Got to see this up close at the Virginia Shootout. Looks like it's going to be fun.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Coming together. Should start the cockpit area soon.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

A little more progress. Making the plug for vac-forming the canopy.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)




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## backof (Mar 10, 2007)

Cool. Nice to see a very unique build from an old favorite. I can't wait to see how it turns out.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

There have been some PMs and emails regarding how this is made.

Here's the process we use, just with another pattern:

http://arveymodelproducts.com/thumbs/Chen.html


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Cockpit/Flight Deck


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

More cockpit progress.


















and pilot seat.


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## sg-99 (Jan 11, 2009)

That is one Rockin scratchbuild!:thumbsup:


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Thank you.


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

Awesome.

Have you considered the Marine shuttle in 1/72?


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I get so conflicted at times like these, between just keeping my mouth shut and trying to help. 

Thunderbearr, you're doing some amazing work, I'm very impressed with what you've done so far, but...

I'm afraid it looks like you've got the pod and aft section of the lifeboat a bit wrong. 

(yes, it's called a lifeboat, as for some reason 'gig' and 'pinnace' don't seem to be a Japanese Navy term, and given Nishizaki's love of the Navy I'm sure it would have been used)

There's a frankly strange arrangement attaching the pod (which seems to have its own controls, for flying it to the needed site, probably ala a Higgins-style landing craft) to the ship, a pair of large paddles/arms split and fold down to capture the aft sides of the pod and lock it in. When the pod is dropped these arms fold back up to streamline the aft of the ship as you have it built so far.

(I think the overly complicated docking was done for potential toy use, but no toy was ever made.)

I think this scan of the establishment sheet for the lifeboat as see in Arrivederci, Yamato will help. I think it's under the posting limit... 

Arrgh, I suck at scanning. I hope this works out!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Thank you for the input, Steve.
The scan is awesome and does help answer a couple of issues I had with the drawings I'm working from.
I've also used the tiny one that comes with the Bandai Airone as reference as well.

I won't have to do much to the existing pattern to fix this.

Thank you again.  :thumbsup:


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

You're welcome! Always glad to help!

Some details that might not be obvious:

Cockpit wall is aft of the windows and airlock hatches. Hatches are identical port/starboard. This does give a large empty space behind the pilot seats. The cockpit is evacuated when people exit so everyone is wearing pressure suits. 

There appears to be no way to transfer from the lifeboat to the pod. 

Pod has an aft hatch (see the pic I posted), the lower part is a stairway. Any wounded are usually traveling in a sealed space gurney. 

The three 'vent' looking stripes (one under each wing engine, one along the centerline at the c/g point) are VTOL nozzles, the centerline one is covered by the pod and not used if they land mated. 

The grabber arms shown were never used, I assume they're there to steady the pod and hold it to a ship if there is no space to land the pod safely. 

That center circle at the bow is a searchlight. I would assume it can be steered to some extent. 

There is no actual landing gear. The 4 pads on the bottom of the pod are all that are ever shown, the lifeboat is never shown landed without a pod attached. Note the fold down lower steps on the airlock hatches. They always engage and fold down even in spaceflight when the hatches are opened. 

The outline of a figure near the pod seems to be a case of poor perspective drawing, as it makes the pod seem shorter than 'man high'. By all indications the pod hatch is 'man high', and there is enough clearance for a man to walk under the bow without ducking. In other words, you seem safe at 1/72 scale to my eyes. 

Hope that's not too confusing!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Nope. Not confusing at all, Steve. Thank you again.

More updates. It's small, but complicated. I LOVE it...


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

That's looking REALLY nice, very well done!

Pardon me while I lecture a moment, in explaining about the pic I'm hopefully attaching with this. 

The problem with rendering any anime object into 3D, especially from the 'golden age' of the '70s and '80s, is the simple fact that everything was hand drawn. No matter how detailed the model sheet (establishment sheet) is, there are still many hands of variable skill levels doing the endless drawing and inking and painting of the cels. Details change based on who is drawing the key cel, the level of detail desired, the time allotted for the drawing, the budget, all that. And sometimes the director will say 'change this' or 'make it look more like that' and before you know it, what shows on screen barely looks like the original sheet. So when building a model you pretty much have to pick some defining element, a particular scene and go from there. 

Because understand, back in those early days, we weren't MEANT to have access to such things as model sheets and rough drafts and even actually owning the TV episodes or movies to re-watch in single frame stops to see all the rough edges and shortcuts and off-model drawings. Actually, it was Yamato and Yamato fandom in Japan that pretty much CREATED the entire publishing industry that revealed such things to the general viewing public. Before that, when a show was done model sheets generally went into the trash, with maybe a couple copies held on file against future use. Amazing, huh? Boring? probably. 

(for a deeper insight, there's some amazing articles over at Starblazers.com on this subject, I urge those with the interest to go seek them out and no, I don't get paid for sending anyone there.  )

I say all that as a lead-in to this picture. When a design is created there's generally a lot of prototype and rough drafts, where the designer and producer work over the look, trying to balance functional need of the production Vs. time, money and all that. The attached pic is from a draft for the lifeboat cockpit, from when the design called for it to be smaller. As you can see it takes a lot of design cues from a modern helicopter, I would say akin to a Bell Jet Ranger. Note the bench seat would fold up to create more space. Note it's very cramped. This is not how it appeared in the movie Arrivederi, Yamato (aka Farewell to Yamato), there was more space, the controls and panels were never shown. I offer this pic as an inspiration point to help with fleshing out the cockpit, not as a suggestion of you being slavish to the design. All that glass up front, it's a good idea to put something in there, yes? 

Altho if you did build the cockpit to the drawing spec, I think it would change the scale to...oh, I'm bad at this, roughly 1/60 or thereabouts?

anyway, just thought I'd throw this into the mix. Keep going!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

In the second season, the last episode, IIRC, there is a brief shot of Dr Sane and Wildstar in the cockpit. It appears to be similar to some of the panels on the bridge. I like the pic and agree about the change in scale. Although often the sketches and such aren't used in the final production, this cockpit image gives me some ideas how to progress with the flight deck controls I've started.

Thanks again. :thumbsup:


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)




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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

thunderbearr said:


> In the second season, the last episode, IIRC, there is a brief shot of Dr Sane and Wildstar in the cockpit. It appears to be similar to some of the panels on the bridge. I like the pic and agree about the change in scale. Although often the sketches and such aren't used in the final production, this cockpit image gives me some ideas how to progress with the flight deck controls I've started.
> 
> Thanks again. :thumbsup:


You're welcome as always! I just keep butting in and blabbing!

That scene, from the end of the second series of Star Blazers, shows the use of the second, larger class of lifeboat. It doesn't have a pod and the interior space can be configured in a number of ways (implied, not actually shown). As used in that episode, a number of capsule gurneys are loaded on board, other times the interior is packed with crew. So, it's like the minivan of the ship. 

Logic says the cockpit layout would be the same between the two lifeboats, but I recall it being more roomy still in the larger version. I would love to load this post down with page after page of model sheets but for some odd reason the large lifeboat has almost NO paper on it! There's a couple of somewhat rough views and that's all! It's maddening! It doesn't help any that in Japan, Yamato 2 is the unloved stepchild of the saga. 

OTOH digging thru my books I found a REALLY nice still from Arrivederci, Yamato that shows exactly what I mean about the scale change of the small lifeboat cockpit. Frankly, looking at this pic now I think you nailed it perfectly at 1/72. Note the room that's shown overhead of the characters. Even hunched over Sgt. Knox was a BIG guy and he's got plenty of headroom there. I also note what seems to be the edge of a control panel very much like what you created! So, you're clearly locked in and on track, it seems!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

I'll be posting updated pics soon. Been a little overwhelmed with the project and forgot to shoot. D'oh!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

here's more updates. Been busy with Christmas and such.


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## Styrofoam_Guy (May 4, 2004)

Thanks for the WIP photos


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## J6S (Jul 6, 2010)

Thunderbearr is that Balsa Foam?


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Sheet Styrene and resin. The red stuff is bondo.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

And now it's in kit form. Photo Etch coming soon.


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

Kit?.....did you say KIT? .....please say you said KIT! 

If so...have an idea on cost yet? 

WOW!!! Its looking very Kool! :thumbsup: Thanks for posting!


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Thank you. 

Yes. I said 'Kit'.  Still hashing out the cost, but these will be available at Wonderfest.


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

KOOL! I can not go 'again' but some buddies are maybe I can have it picked up for me.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Sounds like a plan.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Some progress.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)




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## Lou Dalmaso (Jul 13, 2004)

Great to see these updates!

Even if I didn't know the show, that is still a unique design


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

It's coming along very nicely, I must say! How are you dealing with the problematical 'too small to really work in real life' surface contact areas at the wing root and the folding thrusters/pod gripper hinge point? Wing root, that's probably pinned, I'll be buggered if I can see anything that would work for the pod gripper hinge point, except maybe a very tiny and embedded piano hinge.


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## machgo (Feb 10, 2010)

That's a beautiful kit! I hope you sell as many as you want to! I never got into Starblazers, but I'd be interested in this beauty! Thanks for the WIP! I can't attend Wonderfest, maybe you can post how this can be acquired "remotely."


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Thanks gang! This was a fun build. I'm still tweaking on it so it'll be on the table for Wonderfest. Those not going can pick them up at arveymodelproducts.com 

I think Steve's idea for the hinge would work.  I don't think I'll be trying it, but it's feasible.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

thunderbearr said:


> Thanks gang! This was a fun build. I'm still tweaking on it so it'll be on the table for Wonderfest. Those not going can pick them up at arveymodelproducts.com
> 
> I think Steve's idea for the hinge would work.  I don't think I'll be trying it, but it's feasible.


Well, don't be too quick to think I have the solution, because I just recalled how that's supposed to work, and honestly, I think the only option would be 'pod on' or 'pod off'.

See, those grippers are supposed to fold in and up, seamlessly filling the volume where that 'hump' or 'notch' on the pod is. That's a fairly tricky and fussy hinge point I think. Something akin to the wing fold hinge on the WW II TBM Avenger.

Altho given what I've seen people do on this here website, I bet someone would do it


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

It will be at WF?

Cool how much?

You know what I'd love to see someone do in 1/72, is the Space Marine dropship/carrier.

Always loved that design.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Steve. Check your PM.

Tepes... Yes. I'm not sure of the price yet. Is the dropship you're talking about the tracked vehicle? Lemme see a pic!


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

thunderbearr said:


> Steve. Check your PM.
> 
> Tepes... Yes. I'm not sure of the price yet. Is the dropship you're talking about the tracked vehicle? Lemme see a pic!



Advance to the 1min 30 sec. mark.


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## thunderbearr (Jul 16, 2005)

Cool! BTW, price is $129.99


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