Moebius-1 part 3

Thanks to a reader comment I have finalised  the design and construction of the forward pontoons.
The reader suggested that the original Battlestar Galactica flat top pontoons were made from Bolton Paul defiant fuselages and that lead me to look at other suitable aircraft kit donors. I was originally thinking submarine hulls but couldn't find anything cheap enough or the right length to width ratio. Finally I found some 1/144 scale Kawanishi " Emily" flying boat kits at the right price and importantly the right size for my needs on Hobby link Japan.

The fuselage sides are cemented to a central spine made from two layers of 2mm styrene sandwiching a core of two layers of 1.5mm styrene. The two layers of 1.5mm styrene leave a 3mm wide pocket for the support struts made from heat bent 3mm PVC sheet.

A section of fuselage was cut away for some recessed nurney kit part detail.

 Here they are with the first coat of grey primer. There is still a bit of spot puttying required here and there to be done, along with some detail on the struts but for the most part they are done.

And finally here they are in position on the spaceship hull.

Thanks for looking, more soon...

Moebius-1 part 2

Part 1 here

Most of the large toybashed detail pieces have now been superglued to the underside of the flat top.
The final placement differs only slightly from the preliminary layout and I have laid out a couple of non-lethal plastic mousetraps which you can clearly see labelled Big Cheese.

The clear baby's toy housing has had some 10mm ABS half round strips added to mimic the ribbing in the concept sketch. It took a lot of bending by hand to get them into the contour to match the surface of the baby's toy. The half round strips were purchased online from HobbyKing along with a selection of the other ABS profiles they carry such as square, rod and tube. They are not very precisely extruded, for example the half round shapes are a bit flatter than an exact half circle and the square sides are not exactly at 90 degrees or flat but they come 500mm long and are very cheap.

On the sides there is half a section of a crane toy, another charity shop find and the Blade support arms from the old Bruder dozer toy. I have to find something to go in the gap at the side in front of the mouse trap, it may be half a cab from the Transformers SCVNGR toy.

The front section is pretty much sorted with just a layer of finer detail and piping to come. I have to remember to leave a space for the "pontoon/float" support struts you can see in the concept sketch. In fact I still havn't come up with anything for those pontoon shapes. I was thinking of a couple of submarine hulls chopped up but I cant find any sub kits cheap enough at the size I need and I haven't stumbled across anything suitable in my charity shop visits so far.

The vacant space in front of the engines is also still unresolved at this point, I haven't found anything in my stash I like for that area yet, might have to build something...

Thanks for looking, more soon.

Post Comments

Google changed the way the comments system worked in May 2018 with out telling me. Since then I have not received an email notifying me that a comment has been left as I always did in the past. All the comments are moderated by me, that is I have to read them and then approve them for publishing on the blog posts. I have been wondering why nobody was commenting anymore, first assuming that interest in my projects had diminished so much that nobody was reading anymore. I just did a search on the topic and find its a huge issue for all the users of google blogger with masses of complaints about the change. I casually looked at the comments awaiting moderation and there was a small stack sitting there I didn't realise was there.
I have now approved all the comments that have been waiting in the queue and apologise for the lateness of publication. The comments really do keep my motivation high and I appreciate the time and effort taken to make them.
In the future I will be more diligent in scanning the comment moderation list.

On a side note I am now on instagram, search for #rcscifi
I occasionally publish sample pictures of the projects before I do a blog post but the blog will be the best place to read all the detail and see all the pics on a any project.

Below is a photo from a show I worked on in Sydney Australia in 1989. It was a series of the Japanese giant superhero Ultraman known as Ultraman Into the Future or Ultraman Great in Japan. It was the first series shot outside of Japan in english. I co-designed and built this underground base along with Adam Grace.  I also designed and built the small white 6 wheel service trucks you can see. They were made from a block of pine wood, some kit parts and some wheels from cheap toys I bought in the Franklins supermarket over the road from the studio. I might do some posts on the work done for this show in the future.

If you're curious the series can be found on YouTube and a making of video the first episode of which is below. I must warn you that it is no Citizen Kane but it does however have some interesting examples of miniature effects done on a very low budget. I can add that it was a huge amount of fun to work on, 'cause nuthin' beats building models and blowing them up.

more soon...