¹⁄700

Build Up of the Tamiya 1:700 IJN Yamato

The Crane

The crane need worked very carefully. The pulleys would need gentle handling and I wanted the crane base to rotate as well yet be more secure than the current base allowed. Since the Gold Medal Crane was more durable and provided more detail I used it. I completed the boon as instructed. The crane base had all detail carefully cut off with a new hobby knife blade and sanded. The piece resembled a capital “T” when viewed from all sides when through.




I then drilled a hole in the center base and glued a thick piece of brass wire to aid in assembly and provide a pivot for the crane to turn. I next drilled a few small holes in the top portion to provide a bit of detail as was on the real crane. Some styrene triangles were fitted underneath this area to provide some more detail. A block of styrene was glued to the front to provide a mounting point for the boom.

The rear pulley arm was made with doubled up paper with triangular cut styrene and stretched sprue added underneath after the paper was glued to the base. Making this piece out of paper was a good choice as the piece moved up and down slightly without damaging it or the glue point. 32G wire was put through the boon holes and then glued to the mounting block. The wire was then cut and the excess bend downward. This method allowed the boom to freely move up and down as well.




I then proceeded to add the crane tower being sure that there would be a small hole on the top for a rigging pivot. I next added the Gold Medal middle length pulleys as instructed. Then, using the book for a reference I created additional pulley mounts out of paper on the base and a Gold medal Pulley was bent and added to the boon. Then Tom’s Modelworks pulleys were added in these three places and 32G wire was used for the cabling between them. The hook was also added on the tip of the boon. The base wire was cut off leaving just 1/4 inch to help secure and aid in pivoting the crane.