Building the SSSP Base [Episode 40] Examining the Control Radar
[I don't quite understand the structure of the control radar]
Although I said the octagonal building was almost complete in the previous work, I'm actually having various troubles. First, the wiring for the warning light above the elevator has broken again. Rather than the ultra-small chip LED with wires I'm using being too thin and prone to breaking, it's likely because the wiring sometimes gets tangled in the gears when raising and lowering the elevator.
Haste makes waste. Since it broke deep inside, repairs will be time-consuming. It was my fault for not taking effective measures while thinking I needed to come up with a fundamental solution.
So, I've decided to suspend work on the octagonal building for now and proceed with the work on the sloped building first.
First, I'll build the control radar on the roof of the sloped building.
Given its shape, there's no doubt this device is a radar, but it's never mentioned in the show, so its exact purpose is unclear.
The papercraft *1 that serves as the model for this kit labels it as a 'control radar.' I suppose it's interpreted as a radar for controlling the takeoff and landing of the Jet Beetle and the takeoff of the Small Beetle (the landing method is unknown). I have no objections, so I will call it that in this series as well.
It appears in almost every scene where the base is shown in the show, but the annoying thing is that the rotation direction is reversed or the rotation speed is different depending on the episode. Sometimes it's even stopped.
However, since the model I'm building is based on the time around the episode featuring Woo (Episode 30), I'll just set the rotation direction to clockwise and make it rotate relatively quickly.
There's another problem: this radar has a rather complex shape, and it's hard to tell what its structure is just by looking at the footage from the show.
So, before making it out of plastic board, I tried assembling the papercraft control radar.
The assembled papercraft is literally made of paper, so there are limits to it, but the image seems a bit different from the footage in the show.
In the episode featuring Bemular (Episode 1), there is a scene where the control radar is zoomed in on, making it relatively easy to see its shape, so I decided to sketch it to grasp the overall picture.
In the footage, the structure of the base and such is a bit hard to understand, but based on this sketch, I'll try scratch-building it by combining Tamiya plastic boards.
To be continued in the next installment.
*1 Koji Nakamura, supervised by Tsuburaya Productions, 'Ultraman Super Weapon Research: Includes Ultra-Precision Papercraft of the SSSP Base (Early Type)', Mynavi, 2013/9, page 48
Continue to [Episode 41] Production of the Control Radar
Return to [Episode 39] The Octagonal Building is Almost Complete
Return to [Episode 1] The Secret Base Begins