Box painting of Takao
Isn't that pretty?  Takao box art from the 1/700 Water Line Series of models.  It is probably based on the 1940 photograph I used on the main page.
PACKING AND TRANSPORT

At the outset, the plan was simple.  Build ship; pack ship; transport ship; assemble ship; show ship.  Inside that simple process resided a lot of absurdities and struggles, but also a lot of help (thanks to Joe Meno and Frank Filz, in particular!) when things got hairy.  Unfortunately, packing and transportation were mine alone to worry about.  Packing, while onerous, was not disastrous; I discovered then for the first time how touchy section 4 was, as well as how un-flat my car's trunk was.  At least I didn't trip carrying sections down the stairs.  The car (a little 1990 Geo Prizm sedan, alas not the hatchback) was almost completely filled by the hull sections, and I had to drive with the prow (section 1) and fantail in the front passenger seat.  Somehow, it all fit, and didn't break apart on I-95.

It was fairly warm the evening of Thursday, 18 July, when I drove down to Brickfest, being held for the third year at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginnia.  I went at night for two reasons:  first, to avoid driving during the hot sunny day; second, to avoid traffic; and third, to pick up Frank Filz from the airport.  As it turned out, I ran into the worst construction zone I've ever seen near the Beltway, and arrived nearly an hour late.  Frank had, by that time, already gotten a ride back with T. J. Avery--who wins my personal "amazing reconstruction" award for packing and unpacking that incredible pedestal crane of his--to his hotel.  I picked Frank and some of his gear up there, wasting no time and not unpacking the ship, which made it necessary to get that gear in the morning.

THE SHOW

We partially unpacked the ship (just sections 1, 2, 6, and 7)  using a baggage trolley that night, and stayed up chatting over things brick and Frank's flight from the left coast.  Unfortunately, I stacked sections 1 and 2 for storage--as I did in the photo I took of the two sections standing in the construction section--and section 1 tipped off as I was setting section 2 down.  It didn't shatter, but it "rolled", losing a lot of its sculpt in the process.  I spent about an hour reconstituting it, and cursing myself (and laughing) all the while.  Frank and I arrived as early as possible on Friday to set up and meet Chris Weeks, who was driving down and sharing the room as well.

I had to use a wheeled dolly to unpack the ship (and later to pack it up again), but it eventually took shape.  Of course, we were put up on the top floor on the other side of the building from the elevator.  Argh.  This was the "Space Room," but it very quickly became the "Space and Military Room," and I got to share space with an august company of my favorite MOCs and modelmakers.  Takao started out against the wall, but a shortage of space dictated a move to much nicer narrow grey display tables in the center of the room, making a middle aisle.  By Saturday it was a very crowded room.

.space room
The space-and-military room at Brickfest 2002 in its early state, as of noon or so Friday.  The cool models in front are Adrian Drake's
"Matrix" hovership Nebuchadnezzar and original design Blood Moon.  Photo by Jon Palmer.

Takao got plenty of visitors, including on Saturday morning some folks from continuing ed classes at GMU.  We were a bit scattered about the place as a 'fest, and some rooms had to pack up and move at certain times, but I'm much happier with the 2002 traffic than I was with the 2001 situation, where we were well off the beaten path.  The move from the wall to the center of the floor also allowed visitors to circle Takao fully and, when MOC voting was underway, view the interior without losing the aesthetic view of the exterior on the other side.  That worked out very nicely, and the 'fest staff and GMU folks were all wonderful about finding tables, ensuring security, and the like.  They also allowed me to make Takao the "last MOC out" of the room on Sunday so that I didn't have to risk any disasters.

My greatest edification, however, was derived from the approbation of my peers--Takao was judged in the "best sculpture" category (as a "best military" one does not exist!) and took home awards both for best in category and Best in Show for the fest as a whole.  With the surfeit of great models at the show, I felt very humbled by the recognition but delighted that the other festgoers found merit in the (mostly!) finished product.  And, of course, it came with LEGO as a prize, which is always a Good Thing™.

Sunday was the sad part, when I had to take the ship apart--I left it for last, and took it down on a little wheeled platform (no wheeled dolly was available for use) two sections at a time.  At that moment I had a couple of major jostles with sections that would have been maddening on Friday or Thursday but on Sunday weren't so awful.  I will, however, almost certainly be picking bits of LEGO out of my seat cushions and the corners of my trunk for the remaining life of my car.  At Christmas 2002, in fact, I found a whole searchlight under the passenger seat even though I'd cleaned the car twice since August.

IMAGES

Below are thumbnail links to some of my favorite pictures from the 'fest, taken by various people.  Some of these are over 150K, so be warned!  If you have a good picture of Takao that's not here, let me know; I was unable to slurp up as many of them as I'd like and the Brickfest archive page, while very good, is not necessarily complete.  I've included small captions here below the pictures.  I hope they will be readable for those who view this page below the recommended resolution (1024x768); please do let me know if they're not.  The linked images are at least 800x600, and often 1024x768, so they're therefore quite large (600K).  I may add captions later.
1. Photographs by Todd Lehman
Todd's pictures include two complete sweeps of the ship, once each for port and starboard, and taken together make an excellent primer to all of Takao's features inside and out.




















































































2a.  Photographs by Lindsay Frederick Braun (builder)
My interest was in trying to capture "whole ship" views, given that I couldn't assemble it in my own apartment. The camera quality unfortunately meant that the pictures
generally didn't come out very well; nevertheless I did manage to get at least this one view that nobody else was able to capture.

(This photo required I hold the camera diagonally, at the back of the opposite wall, and that I wait until the room was empty of MOCs and people!)

2b. Interior Photos by Lindsay Frederick Braun

This is the entrance to the cold store; the refrigerators themselves are not visible in this photo.
The ship's main electric generator, located between the funnels on the upper level.
This is one of the forward gangways to topside; I included it to show the door detail.
This is the forward (officers') kitchen and pantry, located in the forecastle just below the top deck.
The ship's PX, behind the after funnel.  It's well stocked!

A shot of the interior of the ship's main radio room, located abaft the PX and below the radio room.
Another shot of the radio room, angled to allow viewing of the charts and radio gear.
The uptake flues for the  after funnel.  The bottom level shows the tops of the boilers and the ventilation motors.
The after torpedo stowage, located between the two triple launcher mounts.
Every Japanese fleet unit carried the Imperial gold chrysanthemum on its prow.  This is Takao's.

3.  Photographs by Troy Cefaratti
Troy's photos allowed for views of the ships that neither I nor Todd attempted.












The Large Sculpture MOC Award.





The Best of Show MOC Award.


4. Photographs by Jon Palmer, Paul Hartzog, and Tommy Rainwater
These pictures capture aspects of the whole ship that I really like, for one reason or another.  The big guy with the goofy expression in the middle picture is me.

Photo by Jon Palmer (my favorite aft-on view of all)
Photo by Jon Palmer
Photo by Paul Hartzog
Photo by Paul Hartzog (this is a great picture of the cutaway view from aft)
Photo by Tommy Rainwater


Back to Main  -  Planning  -  Construction  -  Exposition  -  Continuation
The Brick Shipwright

All text and images copyright 2002 by L. F. Braun or the original photographers.