Photon

Sad news. I just read that legendary model maker Bill Pearson has passed away. Bill worked on ‘Alien’, ‘Flash Gordon’, ‘Outland’, 'Lost In Space', 'Battlefield Earth', 'Thunderbirds The Movie', 'Alien Vs Predator', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'Casino Royale', 'Moon', 'Gravity', 'Prometheus', and many Sci-Fi TV shows like Dr.Who, Tenko, Blake's 7, Horizon, Squadron, Shackleton, Red Dwarf Series' 4, 8 9, 10 & 11, and Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct. Here's an interview with Bill about working on Alien and Flash Gordon:

I was always told that you couldn’t make a silk purse of a sows ear, but you’ve proved them wrong. Great work. 😍

Just about done... Some small details to add, maybe another weathering pass and then bodge together some kind of display case. I'm pleased with how it came together. My only regret is allowing a few problems along the way grind me to a halt. Here's the original Ron Cobb drawing: Thanks for your patience and continued interest. I feel bad the build was so protracted. I have a couple model ideas I'm dying to get stared on. Watch this space... Peter

Excellent! I love it.

Yes, my hand is feeling much better. Thanks! I’ve not worked on this since my last post except to start to plan out the paint job. Shameful. I have been working on the Nostromo Airlock a bit and should have a update soon. But truthfully the main reason is, some kits I had ordered from Japan for a future project finally arrived and I admit that I’ve been mucking around with them instead of focusing on all the outstanding stuff piled everywhere. ADHD is for real, man. 🥺 My projects seem to start out with an explosion of enthusiasm that gradually tapers off the closer I get to finishing, then it’s all I can do to keep from getting caught up in a new project. Thanks for the friendly prod. I’m going downstairs right now and putting the new kits in a closet....

Ok...it's been a while. Sorry 'bout that. I haven't been at the bench as often as I'd like. I’ve developed a bit of tendonitis in my hand from work and haven’t been able to put the hours in. The top round radar shroud (?) was made from two Tamiya Flakvierling 38 fenders glued together and a styrene disc to fill the hole in the center. It sits in the recess where a hatch was meant to go. I added a rolled steel texture to the lower half of the ship using Tamiya putty thinned with a bit of acetone. I also scribed some flame cut marks into the edges of the styrene and scribed a groove that I hope to add some weld beads to. My hope is it will help to give a rough hewn look and up the McQue factor a bit. You can also see that I drilled some small holes below where the cab will be for some ladder rungs. I'm still undecided if they'll make the cut. Here you can see I've added more details to the lower hull. The electrical lines are solid-core wires meant for electronics bread-boarding. They're stuck down with superglue and a small bits of aluminum tape. Next up are the two front stabilizers on the bottom of the ship. This was one of those magic scratch building moments, where I agonized for weeks time about how I was going to make these and then today I pulled some parts from 4 different kits and they all fit perfectly. These came together in a few minutes. (I probably should fill those ejector pin marks...) Here they are in place: that's all for now. Thanks for looking in.

Great work, Pete. The spoons were a great idea. Curious to see how the drop tank looks. I still am anxious to try the MaK style myself, but first I’ve got a few things to finish. 🥶 I often look to Japanese sci-fi modelers for inspiration and the technique of glueing lots of disparate bits together and then blending with putty is really cool and effective. yeah, 70s/80’s sci-fi paperback covers rule. I really dig Chris Foss. Also check out John Berkey and Peter Elson. While their names may not be immediately familiar, the paintings will be. Very Awesome.

This just arrived today...

Got mine today.

Thanks for the kind words. -Peter

Thanks, Pete. Great idea. I’ll definitely give that a try.

I haven't had time to model much lately, just an hour here and there. I finally got enough done to warrant sharing with you guys. There were also a few mishaps, so read on.... I realized that I had to paint the driver/pilot and detail the interior & get it sealed up before I could attach it to the rest of the model (something I've been avoiding). I did a quickie, good-enough paint job on the figure and got it closed up. I think the orange helps make him look less Modern Armour and more Guy From The Future. I got the windscreen and side windows glued in and taped up when the first mishap happ'd. The driver's side window came unglued during masking and fell into the sealed cabin. I was able to fish it out after much effort, but since everything is glued tight, there's no fixing it. Oh well. At least I was able to get it out. Next up I started to add some details. I picked through my cache and laid out some good candidates. After much messing about I came up with this for the back panel. I hit it with some grey primer to see how cohesive it was. I plan to add a few more bits and lots of dangling hoses. For some reason it kept reminding me of this... Anyway, here it is in place I also started to add some small gubbins to the sides. I cut a few square holes and fit some square evergreen tubes. Not sure what they're supposed to be, but there were some details in the original drawing that were suggestive of these. I think they will look cool with some rusty stains running from them. I also started to scribe some flame cut marks on the edges of the “steel” plates that make up the bottom of the ship. I also plan to try adding a rolled steel texture and some epoxy putty welds. Basically some armor modeling tricks that I’ve been wanting to try and think will suit this subject well. At some point during all this, I noticed that the pot of Tamiya cement that I had just bought was on it's side. When I went to right it, I realized the cap must have been loose and the entire contents had spilled all over the bench, but because my house keeping is poor I didn't immediately notice. By some miracle none got on the myriad of semi-precious greebles scattered over the work surface, but my shop smells minging.

Thanks, guys. yeah, Will, it’s very obviously a HEMTT cab. I’m not sure I can disguise it without loosing the very things about it that appealed to me in the first place. Hopefully, once painted, it won’t scream HEMTT quite as loudly.

I've had some time this week, so here's a few updates... The bottom half has been built up. I also did some plastic surgery on the front end and lowered the placement of the cab. I really didn't like how high it was sitting before. The cab is just held together with tape at the moment, so I can paint the interior. Here I'm starting to plan out engine compartment details. Everything is just temporarily stuck in place with some double-sided tape. I've also started to add some Meng brand bolt heads. I've built the engine up separately, so it can be more easily painted. The white fairing was made from some 1" diameter styrene rod. The engine itself is from the AMT Pod Racer kit. The rest of the engine details were bottom of the barrel kit parts, since they would be hidden in the shadows for the most part. after a dusting of primer... in situ... Thanks for any interest Peter

Yes, that’s the video that did it for me, too.

Excellent work. Completely nuts! I love it.

Thanks everybody. I really appreciate the nice comments. I've recently made some progress on this, so here's a quick update... I finally found a suitable figure for the pilot. The 1/24 Fujimi figure was way too big. This resin figure is 1:35 and looks much more in scale. So yeah, the vehicle is now officially 1:35 scale. I think with the right paint job, he can be made to look a bit more 'futuristic'. With that sorted, I added some panels to the sides, added a few greebles on top and started to fill out the front. All along I had been planning to scratch-build the cab, but as time has worn on, that started to look less and less attractive. Now that I had settled on 1:35 as a scale, I decided to see what I could find for a truck kit to transplant. I was at the local stationary shop, (which has a weird assortment of model kits) and this Italeri M-977 Hemtt jumped out at me. Without knowing how it would work out, I threw caution to the wind and here it is: It's a bit of a departure from the original sketch. I think the cab is sitting too high. I think it needs to move down a bit. Thanks for stopping by.

Glad to hear it!. Yeah, definitely get some, it's cheap, re-usable and very forgiving. There are a bunch of youtube videos showing how to use it as well.

Thanks for the nice comment. The problem is that I tend to work in short bursts, followed by extended periods of inactivity, where I'm planning how I'll tackle the next problem. So a project can drag on forever. My last model took something like 19 months. It can be hard to sustain interest without getting distracted by ideas for 100 other models I'd like to build. 🙄

Thanks for the suggestion. I think that would work great. I actually did find a large sheet of frosted translucent plastic at a local craft shop. It’s about 60cm square (and about .15mm thick) and was only a couple dollars.

So I've made a few attempts to scratch build the hydraulic greebles seen in the recesses of the doors (presumably some sort of locking mechanism), but I haven't been happy with the results. I decided to model it on the computer and 3D print them. My printer can't output the fine detail needed here, so I found someone on Etsy with a SLA printer. The price for three was a bit more than I was willing to spend, so I just ordered one and decided to come up with some way reproduce it. (yeah, I'm a cheap skate) I found a pretty cool product that I think is worth sharing here. Apologies if this is old hat. It's called 'Blue Stuff" (yeah, I know...) from a company in Spain called Green Stuff World. It's a reusable thermoplastic for making molds. You just drop it in hot water for a few minutes and then press your part into it. I got some directly from the company on Ebay. After ordering, I found that there is another nearly identical Japanese product called 'Hinodewashi Oyumaru' . I suppose 'Blue Stuff' is not such a bad name after all... So here's the process. Put the kettle on. Drop a couple bars into the hot water and let them soften for a few minutes. For a two-part mold, I pressed the part half way into the Stuff and used a sculpting tool to press it up close all around the part. Then I pressed some registration marks around the part with the blunt end of a pen. ( the 3D printed part was printed in transparent resin, so it doesn't photograph very well.) Pop a couple more bars into the water to soften, while the 1st half of the mold cools. Then you just smoosh the softened Stuff onto the cooled mold half. After everything is cool you can peel the two halves apart and remove the original (comes out very easily). The stuff is tough, but pliable when cool. Here's a shot of the empty mold. The red arrow is pointing to the part I had printed. Then you mix up some epoxy putty,such as Milliput, and press it into both halves of the mold. Close it up such that the registration keys match up and give it a squeeze. I actually clamped it gently in a vise while it set up. Here's the finished epoxy part: There was a bit of flash to clean up but It was easy with a scalpel and a small file. Here's a shot of the original 3D printed part with some primer on it next to the epoxy casts, the last one straight from the mold with out any clean up. Not too bad, huh? I think this would be an easy way to reproduce small detail bits for scratch building when you need multiples of something you only have one of and don't want to spring for six Sd.Kfz. 11/4 kits. Here I've just roughly positioned them behind the door to get a feel for how things are coming along. Thanks for reading along. Sorry if everyone already knew about this stuff. I was pretty excited to have found it. Its dead easy to use and can be reused over and over again. Just chuck it back in the hot water. Peter

Quick update. I've got the ceiling and the beginnings of some lighting. Cheap strip LEDs from China via Ebay. I went for warm white (70's film stock vibes) rather than the cool, which tends to have a blueish cast. Got everything wired in series. They're bright as hell, I also bought an LED dimmer from the same seller, but it doesn't seem to do anything . 🙄 Here everything's just barely balanced, no glue I need to find a suitable diffuser material for the LEDs. I have some meant for fluorescent light fixtures, but its WAY out of scale. I'm going to try and find some milky white translucent sheet plastic.

Thanks. Yes, that sketch is Ian's. I believe it's from his book, "Robots, Space Dudes, Flying Ships, Etc."

Thanks! There might be. I haven't really looked into it. Part of me is reluctant to add figures because once added they become the focal point.