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Land or Air based ships?


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I quite like the concept of a large Aircraft Carrier and other Naval vessels that aren't ships,but instead flying or ground-based. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has a Land-based Carrier (a few, really):

 

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There's this piece of art with flying carriers and other ships:

 

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And then there's stuff like the Marvel Helicarrier or UNITs Valiant in Doctor Who.

 

I've been thinking about doing something like these myself so was considering either turning a spare Airfix 1/600 HMS Belfast into a Flying ship or perhaps buying the 1/720 Revell Ark Royal + Tribal-class to turn into a Land-based carrier, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about either of those.  There's also that I don't know what the best sort of scale would be considering I really don't know much about ship models! While there's plenty of Dieselpunk, Steampunk, Sci-fi etc art for this sort of concept, I've not really found any modelling examples of them, outside of somewhere here turning a Tugboat model into a flying ship.

 

So has anyone done anything like that or know any examples? I really don't know how i'd ago about it so it's not just still obviously whatever ship it's based on but with engines or tracks stuck on.

Edited by TheVoidDragon
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Conceptually speaking the basic idea of a "land carrier" seems like a straightforward case of kitbashing.  Essentially you do what science fiction modelers have done for decades and combine parts from multiple kits to merge the elements you want - in this case one or more aircraft carriers, and one or more tanks/AFVs.  Up until the rise of CGI this is how many of the legendary vehicles of sci-fi film and TV were created.

 

If you're not sure where to begin, there are a couple of things to consider: the "real world" engineering (how would this work if it were an actual vehicle), and the modeling aspects (how best to represent the design in a model). Both of the above can always be trumped by "artistic license" - i.e. doing something for no reason other than "it looks cool."

 

If you've never tried something like this before, I'd suggest checking out Starship Modeler (including the forums there) and the modeling sections of the Replica Prop Forum for a lot of inspirational builds and useful information.

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There are some nice sci-fi carriers that might make good jumping-off points in Bandai's 1/1000 Space Battleship Yamato range. The Daroid seems like a good one but is OOP at the moment.

 

https://hlj.com/1-1000-scale-gelvades-class-astro-carrier-darold-ban983654

 

The Kiska is a bit weirer but also cool, it was in the HLJ sale until recently so should be in print:

 

https://hlj.com/1-1000-scale-imperial-gatlantis-nazca-class-astro-strike-carrier-kiska-ban994377

 

and there are three triple-deckers like this:

 

https://hlj.com/1-1000-scale-great-imperial-garmillas-astro-fleet-guipellon-class-schderg-ban989491

 

They are all also in the "Mecha Colle" box scale range at pocket-money prices. Those are sized such that you could bash them with 1/72 tank running gear.

Also in the small size is this really cool carrier from Macross, this is my out-of-the-box build:

 

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I know they're not quite what you're after, but I think any of them would be ripe for kit-bashing!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Have a look at this, might help , but is sound like your after a much small scale. I would sketch out a few ideas and then start looking for kits to bash, tanks and steam trains make great donor kits.

 

And if you want to see some flying ships in action have a look for the anime The Last Exile.

 

 

Edited by rockpopandchips
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