Container Spaceship part 10

I have completed the bridge interior for the Container Spaceship. The figures are 1/48 scale. 

I had to make separate walls and floor and back wall sections to get it into the space. I started by hacking out a lot of internal material at the back of the command pod to get enough access to slide the walls in followed by the floor section. When I made the structure originally I didn't think through the problems of getting my fat fingers through the small roof hatch I provided.

Two small windows made from 2mm perspex (acrylic sheet) were glued in.

After construction I sprayed the sections with white primer.

Then painted the figures and added a pin wash with Burnt Umber oil paint heavily diluted with artists odourless turpentine followed by drybrushing with white acrylic paint.

After that had all dried it was installed into the pod from the back and secured with a few drops of superglue. The lighting is the usual 12volt led strip light cut into the shortest possible length of three lights.

The last part of the construction for this model is the hanging deck from which all the containers are mounted. I have not figured out exactly what to do here yet. I also have to come up with a method to conceal the wiring that splays out from the centre pod to both the bridge and engines. 

It would be nice to get this finished before WASMEx 2024 which is at the beginning of August. I'm not sure if I will make it as there is a lot of paint work to do after the construction is finished.

This project was started in October 2016 so it has been a long road to follow with the usual waxing and waning of enthusiasm and motivation over those years. While enthusiasm for the project is still high there is no guarantee that I wont be distracted by the next shiny idea.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

Tank Hull Spaceship part 2

I weathered the bridge interior and added 1/72 figures to the cockpit. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the result which is now hidden behind masking tape.

Then completed the surface detailing of the Tank Hull Spaceship.

The strap on boosters were made from wedding cake plastic fluted columns.

This was supposed to be a quick model but I found I had to add a lot of very small nurnies to make it look right.

As is the custom, after the completion of the detailing step out came the can of grey primer.

Next up paint and weathering.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

Container Spaceship part 9

 Yes it has been nearly two years since the last post on this project.

I have now built the centre module of the spaceship. This is the housing that hides the 15mm water pipe support structure and has the DC power connectors. It is bolted to the under side of the truss.

The first thing was to print out full size the truncated triangle truss cad drawing I used for the previous front and rear modules and glue it to some 2mm styrene sheet for centre popping the corner radii with an automatic centre punch.  Two layers of styrene sheet were temporarily adhered with double sided tape and drilled, cut out and filed and sanded together as one. The corners were then drilled out with a step drill. Step drills work very well on plastics. The remaining holes were cut out on the scroll saw. 

The truss components were then glued to another layer of 2mm styrene to make the end panels and the rest of the truncated triangular box could be built.

Slots were cut into the sides to allow for the side pipe supports. As these supports protrude a bit from the triangle, a box section had to be added to cover it up on both sides. These boxes need to be removable so I can get access for the bolts that attach the whole thing to the truss. They can be permanently affixed once I am satisfied all the electrical connections for the lighting are working. The surface detailing has also been started.

Surface detailing was then completed starting with the underside and then finishing up all sides.

Then, as per usual, out came the grey primer to check the work. In the photos below you can see a piece of tubing stuck into the DC power connectors. I use this as masking to prevent the paint getting on the contacts.

There are two jobs left to do on the construction phase of this project. One is is to start on the detailing for the upper deck  and the other is to build a cockpit interior with lighting and figures..

Will it be two years before the next post on this project? Hard to say for sure but I hope not.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...