Tom Grossman's Andromeda |
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EDF Andromeda
Bandai 1/700
Injection Kit
Built and Painted
by Tom Grossman
"On
the Bench and Beyond", Tom's Model Page
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The Earth Defense Force Andromeda appeared in "Star Blazers" aka "Space Battleship Yamato". This anime
(Japanese animation) series aired in the US in the late 1970's. The Andromeda appeared in the second TV season as the new flagship of the Earth Defense Force. It was 275 meters long and 66 meters
wide. To learn about the series, check some of the
books and websites listed in the Contact Info section at the end of this article. It's a great story but you did come to this site to read about models...
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The kit in this article is one of several incarnations of the Andromeda. It is also available in the 30 ship StarBlazers set
from Bandai. It also appeared among the spaceships for the StarBlazers table top game. Now that one is REALLY small and comes with a sheet of photo-etched parts . I ordered this kit from Q's
Continuum.
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Pictures of the Andromeda are not readily available on the net. I did find a very informative review of this kit by John Lester at Starship Modeler. John rated the kit as quite good: clearly illustrated instructions (good thing since the text is Japanese) and high quality
molding with good fit. He replaced the light bulbs with LED's, the switch from the kit with a real switch and the 2 AAs with a 9
V. He included a resistor in the circuit to adjust the current to a safe level for the LED's. I decided to make some modifications of my own. I intended to use the switch provided. The LEDs would be wired in series. Once that was done, it would become a "regular" model. What an adventure this would be!
I would like to take a moment to emphasize the benefits of research and test fitting. Reading John's article spared me some of the difficulties he had encountered. Following his design more
closely would have saved me some of the problems I encountered. Talking to an expert friend of mine solved some of the problems. Test fitting parts also spared me from others. So for any kit, it
helps to talk to someone who has built it. It also helps to look ahead by test fitting your parts.
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The Lighting System: I haven't done anything like this since I was a kid when we lit our original issue Flying Subs. I decided
to use LED's
as John had and to light the 4 auxiliary engine nacelles as well. So much for the sequence in the instructions. That meant that I would have to mount the LED's in each of the nacelles and attach them to the hull before I could assemble it. The wiring would have to be completed before sealing the hull halves together.
Based on the Radio Shack sales clerk's advice, I bought two 9 V batteries and 7 LEDs (1.75 V, 20mA). Excitement drove me to hooking it all together
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The battery box in the stand was designed for 2 AA batteries
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As I was going to use 2 9V batteries, some modifications were in order.
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Instead of complicated and labor intensive designs, I decided to modify the existing parts
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I installed the contacts in the arm of the stand and assembled the switch
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Later, I would learn that a real switch needed to be installed. I patched the slide opening with sheet styrene after putting
it in.
onto page two
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