Moebius-1 part 4

I started paneling and detailing the flat top side of the moebius-1 project.
It's still a work in progress.

 
The long grey finned panel at the rear above where the engines sit is a paper guide from an inkjet printer. The two red panels are from the transformers SCVNGR toy.

The rest is an assortment of kit parts, evergreen panels and strips, black 2mm, 1mm and 0.5mm styrene and 3mm and 6mm foamed pvc sheet.

There is still more paneling and piping to be done as well as a fine detail pass.

Thanks for looking.
More soon...

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.