Lego Starblazers Space Battleship Yamato

Hey there everybody... One of my fondest memories from my childhood is sitting around with my cousins on Saturday, playing with Legos and watching Starblazers on TV.  We built many versions of the Argo (Yamato) over the months, but they never looked very good.  (My Grandma did not have the most elaborate set of Legos.) Recently while surfing around on the net I came across a Lego Space Battleship Yamato that a professional Lego builder made. Hey! I thought.  I can do something like that!   So, here it is.. my kids have quite a collection of Legos so I borrowed out of their sets.  It's not quite as elaborate as the professional one, but I'm pretty proud of it.

Step 1: RED! Too Much RED!!

RED!!!   The Yamato is made up of two main colors... Gray and Red. I didn't think that gray was going to be a problem... lots of Lego sets use gray, but Red... How many Red Lego's do you have? and how many of those are rounded?  I think I exhausted our entire supply.  The interior superstructure is made up of multicolored pieces.

Step 2: Only Shades of Gray.....

Lego's apparently have at least five different shades of Gray.   I started trying to only use one shade and quickly gave up on that.. I suppose if I lived near a Lego store where I could go buy special pieces. The upper hull also has multicolored pieces on the inside.

Step 3: Engines and Other Finishing Touches.

The Yamato (Argo)  just wouldn't be complete without the Wave Motion Gun and Engine.   That rounded engine cowling was HARD to make.  it has an X shaped interior supporting the four main sections.  then the other four sections are attached with hinged connectors. It was a case of.. 'I know exactly what piece I need.... but I can't find it!'  More hinged pieces round out the arrays and antennas.  I gathered up some black pieces to make the stand for it too. This has been a fun multi-day Lego project. Hope you like it.