ibleedspeed said:

hmm sounds like a cheap shot at somebody.... who could that be? i wonder..

Sorry man, I hope you're not too offended.

As for Motion Control and model work, it's more complex than it sounds at first.

building camera tracks to film model ships you could do that with some construx dude

It's not just having tracks. As I understand it, in order to composite multiple model shots together, you film each model separately (or maybe a group of them....maybe) and then stick the shots together. The camera has to either move in exactly the same way for each different model if the ships (assuming these are ships) are moving together or in very precisely different ways in order to achieve the illusion of motion. Having tracks is a good start, but then the motion along those tracks has to be the exact same constant speed each time, or the speed has to very in exactly the same way for each pass. You need precise, repeatable control.

Furthermore, it's not just a matter of a track - Optimally you want several axes of control so you can roll, tilt, etc your camera in any direction. Otherwise your ships are going to be very limited in how they move. And of course each of those axes needs to be precisely controlled.

we are talking about 1970's style film making here

We're talking about groundbreaking 70s special effects with a budget. Their camera had 7 axes of control, which is a lot more than 1 track.

duct tape a tripod to a beagle and teach him to walk in circles. instant 360 degree pan shots. and for tai fighter scenes teach him to roll over...

I don't even....

I couldn't find a better photo than that, unfortunately, but the model is completely still, on a rod, and the camera does all the motion. There's a track, and on the track is a platform, and on the platform looks to be a second, shorter track, and on that is a turntable, and on that is the counterweighted-arm system, and at the end of that are more axes of movement.