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monsterpartyhat

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Everything posted by monsterpartyhat

  1. Thanks! I actually never intended to go this far with 3D modeling the parts - I was just going to do the rear engine and a bit of the underside, but it's amazing what a week of downtime with the family will motivate you to do 😆
  2. I've done a LOT more 3D modeling in the last couple of days, and having finished modeling the gun about an hour ago I'm pretty much ready to call it done (although I still need to model the sensor vane, or whatever the hell it is, on the main wing). And I've organized the 3D printed parts into a file that I can get printed in one go, laid out all ready to be molded directly once it arrives. Now comes the boring part...where I have to have *patience* while the prints arrive from Shapeways, get fitted, and wait weeks more for any revisions....sigh. Tons more in-progress pics of the 3D modeling in the flickr photo album for this project.
  3. Ooh, I'm very much looking forward to seeing this painted! I just ordered mine.
  4. I just put in a Shapeways order for these parts. In theory, they'll drop right into place within the styrene framework. If it works, I'll work on the rest of the greeblies and make silicone molds to cast them in resin.
  5. Since I'm visiting my in-laws for the holidays and away from my models, I'm working on this project virtually for the moment. In order to properly tackle the wing mounting, I thought it would go better in 3D than purely in 2D, so I completely re-drew the 2D pattern in Sketch-Up, entirely out of .020" thick slabs (since that's what it's being cut out of). So, I've gone from a 3D model (made for rendering, not building) to a 2D pattern, to a 3D model of the 2D pattern that I can assemble virtually. It's been a cool process - I found a half dozen small misalignments and inaccuracies that crept in while I was going back and forth working purely in 2D. Plus, now I have a form I can experiment with without producing an endless stream of physical tests, and I've worked out attaching the wings with a set angle.
  6. Thanks, everybody! This one was tons of fun. I have one more U-wing kit in my stash -- once upon a time I was going to build it stock and paint it with Saw Gerrera's partisan color scheme, but this build has me rethinking that :). Now I'm wondering what a U-wing gunship variant would look like....
  7. Build log here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235046797-1144-custom-u-wing-and-landing-platform-too/ This has been done for a while, but I finally got some "studio" shots taken last night and this afternoon. I've been working up a backstory for this highly modified U-Wing (independent of the initial inspiration for the build, which I covered in the build log). My inspiration for the backstory came after Disney announce a live action TV series centered around Rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor. I figured Captain Andor would need a ship for his spy missions, and since he seems very familiar with the U-wing in Rogue One, this is my stab at an infiltration/exfiltration oriented version of that ship. Salvaged from the wreckage of standard UT-60D U-wing, this ship has been extensively modified to compensate for the loss of two main engines and its forward S-foils. The removal of the remaining S-foil actuation hardware has made room for additional modifications to increase the efficiency and power output of the remaining engines. What the ship loses in atmospheric maneuverability it makes up in straight-line speed. The rebuilt S-foils house a highly sensitive sensor array on the port side, allowing K2S0 to remain safely in orbit, listening for communications requesting pickup. On the starboard side, one of the main turbolasers from a T-47 airspeeder has been retrofitted, with a heavy duty power coupling tapping into the U-wing's primary drive system. Able to siphon a fraction of the energy off of the hyperdrive, the cannon is capable of temporarily disabling a medium sized capital ship, allowing time to escape. An extended cycle time means that the weapon is generally good for only one shot - pack a huge punch and run like hell! Far more photos than are necessary are in the flickr photo set, covering the build and the finished model. After the holidays, I intend to paint a T-65 X-wing in a matching color scheme. Enjoy.
  8. There's a thread on the RPF detailing building a 1:350 TIE Interceptor, using an electronic die cutter machine for the wings. I recently got one of those machines and I'm planning to try my hand at TIE wings of various sorts using them during the new year. https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/tie-interceptor-1-350-scratch.293854/ for the RPF thread.
  9. A few more pics of the assembly process - it's pretty quick! I've moved a few tabs around, added a couple more, and fixed a few of the minor alignment issues you can see here. I'm getting closer to a solution for the wings.
  10. Threw a quick and slop paintjob on #2 - white fine surface primer on the bottom and Mr. Surfacer 1000 gray on top are a pretty good color match, with Tamiya Dull Red for the horribly-masked-but-I-don't-care red stripe I'm also starting to think about how to detail this with greeblies, and possibly how to cast the greeblies as well so I can make a nearly complete kit out of it. One of the inner wing pieces from the Bandai X-wing vehicle model kit works nicely as an "in spirit if not detail" version of one of the studio model greeblies.
  11. Thank you! Once I got this cutter machine and determined it could accurately cut down to 0.5mm, making the pattern more assembly-friendly just started to fall together easily.
  12. Catching up on prototype #2, I started combining pieces that didn't need to be separate and adding slots and tabs for slide-fit construction and alignment. Building a visible cockpit is actually possible.... For the next prototype I've got even more alignment tabs and slots, and I'm about to start tackling how to fit the wings on with guaranteed alignment, because that's currently "hold and pray while the glue sets".
  13. Thanks! The cutter is very impressive. As I just commented on flickr -- I'm already on the second revision of this pattern - I'm adding interlocking tabs for alignment. Flat-pack IKEA spaceships, here we come!
  14. So, more than a year later.....my wife got me a Cricut Maker cutting machine for my birthday, and I quickly re-drafted the above plans in SVG and started playing with the machine. Started out with a test cut in printer paper to get used to the software. That worked pretty well, so I moved on to a test cut in .020" styrene sheet. I was able to assemble that quite quickly with a little square styrene rod for bracing. So, thanks to the work I did over a year ago to convert the accurate 3D model to a 2D pattern, I was able to go from unboxing the machine to a credible 1:144 scale T-16 in just a few hours: The machine can hold 2 tools at once, raising the possibility of doing cuts and panel lines without having to stop and change tools, but the scoring stylus doesn't really make deep enough marks. I have a scoring wheel that makes deeper marks on order, but it has to be swapped out with the knife blade I'm using for the cuts, but it should still be a completely automated process other than a tool swap in the middle. Because the canonical T16 panel lines didn't work out on this test run, I experimented with Corellian-style plating, cutting some pieces out of .005" styrene, the thinnest I can find. Notches as small as 0.5mm by 1.0mm actually cut out cleanly! Making clean notched plating for scratch builds a reality, since I can't cut that cleanly by hand (I've tried, many times). I'm now working on refining the pattern to make it even easier to assemble, as some of the parts can slide together with mating slots for precise alignment.
  15. Almost forgot these shots with the ship! Can't decide which angle I like best, so you get both.
  16. Yesterday I got the time to decal and panel-line the landing pad. My process for that is the same as I've worked out for ships: * After base and accent color painting, I apply decals directly to the paint. I don't bother with a gloss coat prior to decals. At 1:144 scale I do try to minimize the number of layers of spray paint, especially since I don't have an airbrush. * Seal the decals in with gloss coat, which also preps for the panel lining. * Panel line with Flory's clay washes. So easy to use. With the gloss coat and cleanup using a slightly moistened cotton bud, you can really get the wash only in the panel lines. * Seal the panel washing with a flat clear coat. Things like dry-brushing edge highlights and adding fuel/oil leakage washes I do after the flat clear-coat. Continuing with the theme of the U-Wing's decals, the majority of the landing pad decals are from Gundam sets. I did use a couple of the 1:72 decals from the Rogue Leader X-Wing 2-pack that I never used because I fully painted my 1:72 X-Wing.
  17. Back when I started my first box-scale dioramas, I embedded little neodymium magnets in a bunch of crates and stuff. It turns out they're just strong enough to attach to a steel plate under a .020" styrene sheet, so I added steel strips to the underside of the top in a few places. If I'd thought about it sooner I'd have done the whole thing. Here's the full underside pre-priming: Then I primed, and painted in Haze Grey: I painted all the pipes that will be visible through the mesh before putting the top on: It was at this point that I realized painting the under structure Haze Grey was a mistake - the whole thing needs more contrast. The answer to "Haze Grey or Gunship Grey?" was actually "Both". So...some careful masking: Yeah, much better: I also ended up replacing the mesh, because it had accumulated too much paint and gotten a bit damaged - I was over-eager actually gluing it in place so early
  18. I'm keeping the top and the base separate until they're painted, as I won't be able to paint the greeblies visible through the mesh once the top is attached. Now I'm facing the WORST decision -- what base color to use? I've used primer grey (visible here), Imperial TIE fighter Haze Grey (seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aalpern/37806952855/in/album-72157689721575254/) and Gunship Gray (seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aalpern/25101775297/in/album-72157688265980483/) as base colors for similar structures before. I'm leaning to Haze Grey, as the U-Wing features Gunship Gray prominently already.
  19. Thanks! Getting caught up, here's the overall look so far: The small detail near the notch on the right side is another Gundam detail part. Greeblies through the mesh: I started experimenting with molding parts recently. I'm using several casts of half of a Jedi Starfighter engine on the underside: And it's a tight fit, but the modified U-Wing does fit. This landing pad is for a rough field outpost - not a lot of extra room or equipment available for safety!
  20. So this is the top with mesh laid on top of the greeblied frame: Like the Gundam decals I used on the U-Wing, I applied a few Gundam photo-etched aluminum after market detail parts - circular exhausts here: I also used some brass photo-etch from the Green Strawberry 1:144 Millennium Falcon detail set, with some pre-cut copper tubing from the craft section of a local art supply store: On the underside, I'm finally implementing something I've been thinking about trying for a long time -- this is a steel plate; the support legs will have neodymium magnets on them, allowing the platform to be removed easily for storage (or re-configuration; if it works well I plan to build more platforms with the same mounting style).
  21. I haven't taken finished gallery photos yet, because instead I immediately started work on the landing platform, which is as much fun as the ship was. Started with a basic frame out of square styrene tubing. It's sized to match 2 Bandai large bases, which is the same footprint as two Bandai Death Star tiles, and still fits inside a Vehicle Model box for storage. Add some I-beam bracing: And some interior cross-bars, and then I started greebling the underside, mostly with leftover pieces of sprue as pipes: Cut a sheet for the top: I had this idea to cut a familiar Star Wars pattern out of the top to view the greeblies through: But when I cut it out, it wasn't nearly straight enough for me, so I went another direction. Just cut the offending portion off: And instead I'm using some micro-mesh: I skipped a couple of steps without photos - cutting out notches in the end and cementing the off-cuts onto the side, as well as scribing panel lines into both sides.
  22. Mostly because I've never modeled water before, and that's a whoooole new set of materials and skills to work with. Snow and sand over rocks I've got down pretty well
  23. I did one final paint chipping step last night - I wanted some subtle variations in the red and dark grey sections. I mixed up a slightly darker red and a slightly lighter grey. I may have gotten *too* subtle on some of it. Here's a couple of exemplars of the grey: (and of course I forgot about the red panels on the bottom 🙄) Red end bits before: And after: Since even just a couple of drops of mixed paint was waaaaaaay more than I needed, I pulled out a bunch of my other primarily red ships to add some dark red chipping to, like my 1:144 Tycho Celchu "Bacta War" X-wing: I also added some to my previous U-Wing, and my custom half-plated "Consular Escort" Y-wing. And here's the overall top view - I also added some minor streaking with Tamiya Weathering Master "soot". I'm calling this done. I'll take some proper glamor shots the next time I set up my desktop photo studio. I'm going to start on a proper landing pad diorama for this as well - I just have to decide on snow planet or sand planet
  24. I got another session of detailing in - I added yet more decals to the top side, decaled the underside and the engines, and did a lot more weathering. It's nearly done. Here's a few pics of the evolution of the back end, from painted but un-weathered: After this shot I decided to paint the middle deck metallic. Decaled but no weathering: With panel washes: And the current state, with some decal additions, paint chipping, and additional wash details (notably fuel leaks, using Seraphim Sepia): Wide shot: And from the side:
  25. Did some panel washing last night - mostly with Flory's clay-based washes, augmented by Citadel shades in a few spots. Here's a quick look, next to my previous U-wing build, after that step: Then this morning I did some basic paint chipping around the edges, using the torn makeup sponge method. It does manage to look more warn in closeup - at a normal viewing distance for a palm-sized model is does look a little more subtle, at least to my eyes. In case you were wondering, I haven't finished applying decals to the engines, hence why there's no weathering on them yet. Next up is some more controlled chipping with a brush and Vallejo Duraluminum metallic.
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