Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 (edited) Noticed quite a few references to the late Iain M Banks' novels in various IDs, Titles and Signatures.....Wondered if anyone might fancy having a crack at realising a few of his splendid imaginings in plastic/resin/whatever? There are no kits whatsoever out there as far as I'm aware, so it would be scratchbuilds all the way, straight from his pages, via your imagination, into the physical in miniature, or possibly massively magnified.....This is The Culture we are talking about after all (or maybe you might prefer The Affront). By the way.....I'm fairly convinced that all of his Sci-Fi novels are Culture directly or indirectly, even the ones that aren't. Personally I'm sore tempted by the mad machines of his delightfully daft, yet extremely edgy 'Against A Dark Background' (which I suspect might represent the very last remnants of The Culture after it, in its turn. encounters an 'Outside Context Problem'). I was thinking about maybe starting off with a 1/72 Be-6 hacked into a 1/100 (15mm) representation of the flyingboat, or if I'm feeling plush, hacking Trumpeter's big hovercraft around for a bit of Solipsist fun. I've already chatted with some of the more obvious candidates by PM and was pleased to receive a generally favourable response, but if there are any other Culture fans lurking out there, please make yourself known.....Alternatively if you've not read the novels yet, but are at all interested in some doing sci-fi scratchbuilding, maybe pick one his superb books up and join in? The storylines are not in any particular order really, although there are some chronological links between them and 'Consider Phlebas' is definitely the first. Edited January 28, 2016 by Sgt.Squarehead 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I'll be up for this of course. Huge variety of stuff to go at; figures and drones to huge spacecraft. No kits available means the spares box and cheap! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 The Colour of a Different Horse has always fancied himself as a GSV mind without the hardware and reckons that if I build him a proper GSV it would definitely put Attitude Adjuster in the shade! However, there is also Clear Air Turbulence which has always fascinated me. How about a giant battleship stuck in dry dock rusting away and with a large amount of battle damage? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 The Colour of a Different Horse has always fancied himself as a GSV mind without the hardware and reckons that if I build him a proper GSV it would definitely put Attitude Adjuster in the shade! That's fighting talk that is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I'd be up for this. What about a large scale model of the gas giant survival suit/flyer things in The Algebraist. They sounded like fun! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 How about Killer class "Attitude Adjuster? Here is one artists idea of how it should look: http://iain-m-banks-culture.deviantart.com/favourites/53170151#/art/Culture-OUs-258496068?_sid=4ba472cc 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I have real problems with modelling a Culture ship - they're all magic fields and amorphous stuff, how would you define where the hull was, etc. etc. I guess it would be interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I quite fancy scratchbuilding the Outside Context Problm which featured in Excession. I'll spray a ping-pong ball black... I could also build a Lazy Gun, but I'm not going to turn it upside down. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 The easiest vehicle would be the Volvo estate from The State Of The Art. It's hard to imagine a less likely spacecraft. The whole of BM would have to pool their spares boxes to produce an orbital or a GSV. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 (edited) Wow.....Really wasn't expecting so many responses so fast. Some great ideas there guys:....I'd love to see 'Jabberwocky's suggestion of The State Of The Art Volvo done as a diorama (possibly including a Mirage fighter), Modelling the ships could be great fun too.....An evolution of The Culture warship might be interesting (KT likes this idea, because he would be at the top of the tree.....Abominators don't count in his opinion, 'cos they're more than one ship so they cheat). Anyhow I wasn't thinking of any sort of formal build.....I doubt we'd get the numbers (but you never know). Edited November 7, 2013 by Sgt.Squarehead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I have real problems with modelling a Culture ship - they're all magic fields and amorphous stuff, how would you define where the hull was, etc. etc. I guess it would be interesting! IIRC, Attitude Adjuster from The Player of Games was conical in shape with effector blisters. But it's been a while since I read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Interesting idea... the only issue (for me) lies in envisioning the things. Not so worried about representing the fields that make up much of the outer hulls of the larger vehicles, as I'd tend more to ROUs and Superlifters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 IIRC, Attitude Adjuster from The Player of Games was conical in shape with effector blisters. But it's been a while since I read it. The vision I had of Attitude Adjuster was of a much more sleek vessel that that drawn by the artist in my link. I will have to dig out the book and research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 How about Killer class "Attitude Adjuster? Here is one artists idea of how it should look: http://iain-m-banks-culture.deviantart.com/favourites/53170151#/art/Culture-OUs-258496068?_sid=4ba472cc Must admit - that these seem to look how id always imagined them - i.e. rather simple external shapes. The thing that always got me about IMBs spacecraft was not how they looked, but how they acted - in that sense they are a reflection of the Culture itself: Obsessed with not appearing like the technologically ultra developed high end race they are, but more than capable of being quietly fully tooled up should the need arise. Jonners Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 It's ages since I've read any Culture, but I used to imagine them as almost featureless, as when describing their construction, the parts were pretty much "solid state", so you wouldn't get much in the way of "industrial dirt" going on. This pic is a good imagination of what I saw: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Yes similar for me - sort of elongated oblate spheroids, mainly in white. I think the minds are described as looking like that only much smaller of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 That would make a challenging finish!! That's why I'll be doing mine fields down. Lots and lots of bodgery possible then... Cracking picture though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 IIRC, Attitude Adjuster from The Player of Games was conical in shape with effector blisters. But it's been a while since I read it. For some reason I thought he was shaped like a dumbbell! Amazing what the imagination gets up to innit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Am totally unfamiliar with this author; is The Culture a UK thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 If you like SciFi, I urge you to get some his books. You will be in for a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Am totally unfamiliar with this author; is The Culture a UK thing? What are you still doing here?? Get over to Amazon immediately! Read them; you're missing out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Am totally unfamiliar with this author; is The Culture a UK thing? I'm here in the USA as well, but yes, Banks was a UK (Scottish, actually, IIRC he was not very fond of the UK as an entity, alas) writer and seems to be better known there. He wrote more postmodern fiction as Iain Banks, and his science fiction was as Iain M. Banks, a subtle and important distinction. His books focus mainly on the the posthuman Culture, which according to interviews he viewed as a utopia; I found it rather less so myself, but very plausible as an end-state for humanity. The ships in his books were almost all sentient, and had some rather remarkable names as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 (edited) I'd say the Culture is a Utopia for its humans.....Let's face it, it's the Minds' civilisation really. The Minds keep the humans around out of respect for their past achievements (crawling out of the primordial soup, conquering fire etc. etc.) and to help them to keep their moral systems grounded in the 'real world' and also because they like their company.....Exactly the same as we do with dogs & cats. The bigger ships (GSVs) are beyond sentient.....Building Universes is the sort of thing they might list as a passing hobby. Edited October 31, 2013 by Sgt.Squarehead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Quite so. The humans would be kidding themselves to think they run things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I've just been reading the list of culture spacecraft wikipedia page and it had me laughing out loud a couple of times and I finally understand the Gravitas running joke! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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