1/350 Scale Space Battleship Yamato by Hachette

This is a project I've been working on before I joined these forums, the very first partworks kit I got sucked into-I just had to get into it. Some background info: Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese animated series that aired in 1974 and was translated in English for the Western audience five years later under the new name of Starblazers. It tells the story of the Yamato, a starship built from the carcass of the WWII battleship, and its crew whose mission is to go to the planet Iscandar to retrieve a device which could cleanse the Earth of radiation that was left from the bombing of another alien race. The story of the Yamato spawned several movies and reboots, with the latest one being Yamato 2199, released in 2012. Yamato 2199's story continues with Yamato 2202 (2017) and the upcoming 2205. This partworks kit is based on the Yamato's design from 2202, which doesn't really deviate too much from the original design from the 70's. Hachette's Yamato 2202 run is scheduled for 110 issues, with the current issue being #62. This is what the completed Yamato will look like:
This is where I am on this project, up to issue #55:
All the panels are metal, so it's a heavy sumbitch.
#56 gives you one of the side torpedo tube openings and shows you what the typical fiber optic setup looks like for the lighting:
#57 was a no build issue, it gives you a big motor for rotating one of the main guns. #58 gives you a red centerline panel and shows you how each panel is attached with its own metal bracket:
This panel is attached to the previously shown panel with the torpedo tube openings:
#59 is a big piece of the deck which will be the base for smaller AA guns. One of the previously assembled main guns is attached to this deck along with its motor from #57:
#60 sets up a side panel that goes underneath the AA guns:
That's all I got for now, but let me end with some tips that I wish I knew of before starting this build:
-Do get a long necked micro screwdriver, preferably with a magnetized tip. There are many times that a screw will have to be buried in deep, narrow spots to secure the panels.
-Long tweezers with bent curved tips come in handy when installing lighting parts.
-Pay attention to the length of the optic fibers. So far a few issues have fibers of different lengths, and it was easy to overlook which one is needed for a specific step.
This is where I am on this project, up to issue #55:
All the panels are metal, so it's a heavy sumbitch.
#56 gives you one of the side torpedo tube openings and shows you what the typical fiber optic setup looks like for the lighting:
#57 was a no build issue, it gives you a big motor for rotating one of the main guns. #58 gives you a red centerline panel and shows you how each panel is attached with its own metal bracket:
This panel is attached to the previously shown panel with the torpedo tube openings:
#59 is a big piece of the deck which will be the base for smaller AA guns. One of the previously assembled main guns is attached to this deck along with its motor from #57:
#60 sets up a side panel that goes underneath the AA guns:
That's all I got for now, but let me end with some tips that I wish I knew of before starting this build:
-Do get a long necked micro screwdriver, preferably with a magnetized tip. There are many times that a screw will have to be buried in deep, narrow spots to secure the panels.
-Long tweezers with bent curved tips come in handy when installing lighting parts.
-Pay attention to the length of the optic fibers. So far a few issues have fibers of different lengths, and it was easy to overlook which one is needed for a specific step.