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BuildingProject Yamato: by Junpei MitsuiArticle and Photographyby Nathan Bryan,BrickZen.comWalking into the room there was thebattleship in all of its glory.This 1/40 scale model of the battleshipYamato was started in 2003, andbuilt over the next six years and fourmonths using over 200,000 bricks. Thecompleted length is 6.5 meters (21.3feet) long and over a meter (3 feet) at itswidest point.The original Yamato was built from 1937to 1940 and launched late in 1941. Itdisplaced more than 72,800 tons andwas armed with the largest caliber navalartillery ever fitted to a battleship, nine18.1-inch 40 cm/45 Type 94 naval guns.Although it was sunk in April 1945,the ship still generates a great deal ofinterest in Japan. Numerous books thathave been published, several museumshave been built, and in 2005, there waseven a film produced to tell the Yamato’sstory.The builder of the LEGO BattleshipYamato is Junpei Mitsui (Brickshelfaccount: Junlego) A student at TokyoUniversity studying to become amaterials engineer, he has been buildingsince childhood. In high school, hestarted a LEGO education class. AtTokyo University he also started aLEGO club.Because of his building skill, he was asemi-finalist and went to Denmark onthe Japanese TV show “TV Champion.”Besides building with LEGO bricks,he enjoys working with computersand shooting short animations (withminifigs of course!). Junpei has builtmany large scale MOCs includingmany famous Japanese architecturallandmarks and a life-size Doraemon (afamous Japanese Anime character.)00Junpei and the Yamato