I last worked on this old model from the 1990's in September 2019. I never liked the original front and at some stage I made a modification the front and didn't like that either so the project sat around neglected for decades. In 2019 I hacked off the front end and started building a new one making a third version. Inevitably I didn't like that one any better and so the project lay dormant once again.
Below is the model with the third attempt at a command section in 2019. Everything in grey primer dates from the mid 1990's. See the part 1 for the 2019 work done on this project and this historical introduction of the model as it originally was.
Just recently I had another idea of what to do with it, combining a cockpit from an amphibious vehicle kit I have had saved away for a future project. Why I hadn't thought of using this kit cockpit for this project before I can't fathom. I had been thinking about a project I could use the cockpit shape for and in a sudden flash of inspiration I thought of this old spaceship project.
First thing was to draw up some rough thumbnails to firm up the concept in my head.
The first concept was the middle and bottom sketches which show a flat panelled shape rather like a large sized Y-wing. Given that the rest of the ship uses predominantly widened cylindrical forms I thought the front should echo this and so drew the top sketch. This scribble consolidated the idea particularly as I already had a plastic shape in my stash that would fit the bill.
Below is the result still a work in progress. The idea is that this is a science vessel liberally festooned with a multitude of sensors for planetary survey.
The sides of the command section are made from a plastic (acrylic) cocktail shaker as usual a charity shop find. It was cut in half and separated by a 2mm styrene structure.
The black curved shape at the very front of the clear cocktail shaker is a knob from a kitchen timer also cut in half.
The cocktail shaker is lightly scribed with lines to aid in aligning panels still to come.
The new front end is attached to the 2019 mid section which I have started to detail.
The sensors are made from an assortment of kit parts and a number of bits from old transformer toys. The front panel detailing has been completed.
The detailing on the under surface is mostly completed.
There is another sensor mounted underneath.
The mid section features the ubiquitous Panzer hull. The red part is the case from a servo tester which I managed to fry with a faulty servo.
The cockpit well is removable until I complete the wiring for the interior lighting. You can see the PVC tubing which acts as the spine that all the section are mounted on. Each section is removable for ease of working. Eventually I will glue the whole lot together permanently.
I have made a start on the interior but need to get some 1/48 scale pilot figures in order to figure out the rest. The original kit the cockpit is from was 1/35 scale but I am upping the relative size to 1/48 as I want it to be roomier inside.
So far I am happy with this the fourth iteration of the command section for this project. It has a certain brutalist esthetic which I quite like. There is a very good chance this is the final version and I will take this model through to completion.
Thanks for looking.
More soon...
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