Uncle Monty

I'm loving how this is coming together, a great example of kit bashing.

That's a very neat piece of work

Thanks Jim I was hoping for Elon Musk to call, he's got more money than NASA

Thanks very much Yg The backgrounds are all planet Earth, just with the red turned up a bit. Thanks Pete, much obliged

I wouldn't be surprised if someone on here has already done that...

Thanks Hunter. It was a quick build which made a nice change - and I was lucky in that I had just about everything I needed - I didn't have to buy anything extra.

Cheers! That was a show that had a lot of very cool designs, and the plot was pretty good as well.

Hi All Time for the final update. The MCRN decals are on and the display stand and the ship have been labelled with the ship's name. After a lot of thought I decided to name it after my county because a) I couldn't think of anything better and b) Essex is a short word that would fit on the hull. After applying the decals I sprayed it with rattle can gloss varnish. Here are the decals, created in Gimp and printed on waterslide paper. Here is the finished ship. I dirtied it down a little with black acrylic paint, some of it watered down and sploshed on, some of it dry-brushed on. I quite like the screw thread in front of the engine section. That could be a means of retracting the engine back onto the hull for some technical reason - maybe so it can get into those smaller parking spaces...? I have posted the RFI which can be found here, please pop over and have a look. I've added some action shots with backgrounds courtesy of NASA. Enjoy! cheers Monty

It's finished! Here we have another MCRN freighter made, like the first one, from bits of old camera lenses and assorted other garbage I found whilst rummaging in my neighbour's bins. The WIP can be found here, feel free to take a look at all the gory details. cheers Monty

They are the gift that keeps on giving

Thanks! I guess it could work as a real ship, it's clunky and ugly enough

Thanks ! I'm at the stage now of applying decals, and then a coat of gloss varnish to seal it all in. That should be it. I've decided to use up some spare MCRN decals so this will be a Martian Marine Corps freighter.

Evening All Back at the Man Cave a great deal of frenzied activity has been happening. And after that, some model making. First of all, I realised that the little plastic guards for razors actually fitted perfectly onto the rear of the hull, so I raided the bathroom and scrounged enough to go around the back end, on the ridges. Here you can see what they look like with primer: Next, I added some paint to the rocket nozzle. I used Game Color brass and gun metal and silver to create the effect (hopefully) of super-heated metal. I sploshed on some black acrylic across the 'vents'. I also added a wheel inside it. I think the wheel came from a toy car - don't ask me where the rest of the car is. These cube things have been used before - I grabbed them off the coat hangars that we seem to have thousands of, for some reason. I decided that by adding some small tank wheels they could be attitude jets. I decided to make a proper stand for it using some 5mm plastic sheet, similar to the one I made for the previous space freighter. I can't leave it sitting on a squashed takeaway tray for ever. Here it is, just been assembled and waiting for its coat of primer: Finally we can see the freighter starting to come together. The attitude jets and solar panels are on, the rocket nozzle is on, now it needs a bit more paint detail, dirtying down and decals. I will probably use up some of my spare Expanse MCRN decals as that saves me the bother of trying to invent my own logos. What was that about modellers not being lazy? Anyway, the next update will probably be the last, after that the final stop will be the RFI, unless we have engineering works in which case you'll have to get out and walk. cheers all Monty

Lovely build and the result is a nice blend of Derek Meddings and George Lucas. The nose job suits it and I really like the exit stairs as well, a very nice bit of detailing.

Modellers are not lazy, they are economical with their effort.