Monday 29 September 2008
Sunday 28 September 2008
Drop Ship XI
Well after the weekend voting, Engine A clearly won the Poll...
Engine A: 42 votes (84%)
Engine B: 2 votes (4%)
Engine C: 5 Votes (10%)
However a few comments made on a TMP thread and the FOD made sense to me, so I shall be remodelling Engine A to shorten it somewhat and add the style of the thrust nozzles from engine C to it.
MOUNTING THE ENGINES
I bought a handfull of concentric rings from EMA Model Supplies (an Architects and professional model makers suppliers with a great range of pre-machines basic shapes). These rings are a nice tight interference fit and, with a little sanding, two of them make the ideal mount for locating the command unit to the main hull.
Then by happy accident I happened to notice that the larger of the rings is just a little larger than plastic gear bought for another project from Maplin. Inspiration struck, and with a small piece of plastic semicircular rod inside the ring, the gear locates nicely and is unable to rotate! Just glue the engine mount to the main hull, and the gear to the engine and as the gear has 20 teeth, this gives me 20 posable locations for the engines! So they can be individually posed and also lined up. A little surface detailing of the engine mounts and you have the pictures below.
I shall drill 6mm holes through the centre of the engine mounts and the gear to allow for small magnets to be glued in place, ensuring the engines stay in place.
Note the forward engine mounts are wider than the rear to try and prevent the rear engines from sitting immediately behind the thrusters on the front.
Friday 26 September 2008
Drop Ship X
EDIT: I'm interested in which of the three basic designs you prefer. None of these engines is finished (especially C which has no surface detail and just pen lines to indicate an air intake!). If you've already voted and want to change your vote, then do so. Thanks.
Comparison shots alongside.
Left to right - engines A,B and C.
Drop Ship IX
Sunday 21 September 2008
Drop Ship VIII
There is a comcen turret mounted on the forward hull, and a missile launcher on the rear hull. I've also temporarily installed one of the two fins. (Two fins won by 12 votes to 2 in the recent poll!). I've also used a plastic 'googly-eye' on the port side of the hull as a dome.
I found an old contact lens case which has amazing engine components! I've tacked them in place, but i will cut them down to a circular shape and file off the L and R before completing. The part still attached inside the case will be used as the 'intake' to the engine (but I need another one! Anyone got a spare?). This has convinced me to re-model the engine and make it less fussy and sightly less bulky.
Wednesday 17 September 2008
Friday 12 September 2008
Drop Ship VI
This is one part of the build I forgot to take step by step pictures for. Anyway it's 5 pieces of 1.5mm styrene laminated together with styrene cement and then sanded, and sanded and sanded some more into a kind of aerofoil shape. This piece is now also awaiting filler to remove some joint lines , and it will need to be panel scribed. However I had a suggestion on the Forum of Doom that the ship should have 2 tail fins. So a moment in photoshop, and we have a choice. Two fin or not two fin? That is the question.
I had envisaged mounting a pair of small Old Crow missile turrets either side of the fin. But there's no reason why i couldn't mount a single turret between two fins. A comms array will be placed on the upper forward starboard hull.
I am undecided. What do you guys think? Poll on the right >>>>>
Thursday 11 September 2008
Drop Ship V
You can see in the third picture that i still have some alignment issues with the two halves of the the resin hull cast that needs to be addressed with filler.
Talking about filler, I tried some new lightweight filler from Deluxe Materials. It dried overnight, and I tried sanding it today... As you can see from the following pics it was a bit of a disaster.
In all fairness as a model RC aircraft filler this stuff probably rocks as it is INCREDIBLY light weight - I thought I'd been sold an empty tub! But it doesn't cut the mustard as a modelling filler/putty. So on recommendation I've put in an order for Squadron Green putty and Aves Apoxy Sculpt filler from Antenocitis Workshop - my favourite online modelshop supplier.
It'll be a few days wait now until I am able to complete the command module structure ready for detailing.
So whilst I wait I have decided that I don't like the Engine Pod design, and I'll model it with Convex sides and slightly thinner, so although not much smaller it'll both look lighter, and mimic the sweeping curves over the hull.
Wednesday 10 September 2008
Drop Ship IV
SO instead I have ordered a range of his 15mm and 6mm turrets to see what works. I'll post pics when I get the goods.
A little more progress on the command module. I decided to add some forward pointing cannon to enable the drop ship to clear soft targets from a landing site before deploying its troops. I also decided to do this because I thought the angled tubes under the nose of the command unit look cool, and it was a bit of a challenge to model.
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Drop Ship III
Further updates on the saga of the Grymn Drop Ship. I started on the nose, or what i shall now pretentiously refer to as the command unit (its the bit where the pilots sit!). I decided on something like a cross between the head of an Eagle spaceship from Space 1999, crossed with the front end of an Old Crow Glaive APC.
The 'command unit' is not yet finished, it requires some awkwardly shaped rear and lower panels to be cut and glued and then the seams filling and the whole lot sanding smooth. Then i need to apply the surface detail that turns this from an interesting shaped box into a space ship.
Hear you can see a little proress on surface detailing the main body and engine pod, and all of the progress so far.
Comments, suggestions and critisms welcome here, or on the Forum of Doom
Thursday 4 September 2008
Drop Ship II
I have decided to go with a style not dissimilar to the Old Crow 25mm vehicles designs that I have already used for my grymn. The vehicles have a simplicity about them with a distinctive style of "notched plates" over much of the surface. I have tried to copy this approach in the decoration of the drop ship.
You'll also see the first of four engine pods which will attach to the main hull as shown. this was scratch built entirely from plasticard and then filled and sanded smooth, and decorated. Its shown attached to the hull, where it will swivel in place to allow both vertical and horizontal thrust, which also means I can use the whole of the rear surface as a loading ramp/door. For the purists amongst you forward pods will be mounted wider and lower than the rear pods, so the exhaust doesn't blow directly into the rear engines. The engine pod still requires engine nozzles and some further decoration but I'm happy with the basic look - functional, chunky but clean geometric lines.
I was concerned that I'd made the engine pod too big and that the whole ship looks too 'dumpy' but then i decided that this was a good thing as it reminded me a bit of grymn/dwarfs - very functional and practical but extremely well engineered with no need of go faster stripes or twiddly bits.
Still on the list of things to plan and do:
- Front cockpit - I imagine something along the lines of an Eagle spaceship from Space 1999, crossed with the front end of an Old Crow Glaive APC.
- Rear loading ramp/door - I'm toying with the idea of casting this model hollow; partly to cut down on the volume of resin required, but also so that I can fit models in it. To make that worthwhile, I'll also want to cast a door that opens and closes.
- Landing gear - as in 2 above, I'm getting ambitious and wanting the landing gear to retract to allow the model to be used both in-flight and landed.
- Further surface decoration including whatever weaponry may be appropriate - I'm thinking a handful of ATA missiles and perhaps a point defence weapon - don't know where i would place these though.
- Tail fin? Should I or shouldn't I?
- Stub wings? - See 5 above.
Suggestions, and comments on very welcome.