R-GRAY 1 Starfighter

[Will Vale]

Hi all,

 

I haven't done all the pics yet, but here's one I completed within the last 24 hours. It was supposed to be a quick build and I haven't documented the process but it's been languishing 80% complete for a while now and I wanted to get it out of the way.

 

(click for bigger)

 

A nice kit by Kotobukiya of an interesting space fighter from a PS1 Shoot-em-up (that I never played) called RayStorm. It's red in the game but I wanted to do something with teal, so this one is that colour. Painted with Tamiya lacquers and GW acrylics, and weathered with enamel and acrylic.

 

The nacelles are much heavier than the fuselage and supported by ABS parts. One of mine cracked and I eventually plucked up the courage to pull it off entirely and pin the join. I finally got it *perfect* and then dropped the other half, breaking that join, during final assembly. After a lot of mucking around with brass wire, CA, and a scalpel I got it all together but it's got a visible gap. However the prongs are pointing in the same direction so I think I'll call it a win. It was tempting to give up but it was *so close* to being done that I couldn't really.

 

Now for something more fun I'll process some more pics tomorrow and pop them up here so you can see just how mad the shape is in 3d.

 

[edit: And here they are. Excuse the grobbly noise in the pale areas, I should've done them front-lit rather than back-lit as I couldn't push the whites to clean up the background without losing the detail in the fins.]

 

 

Hopefully that makes it clear just what an odd bugger it is. Cool though!

 

 

Cheers!

 

Will

[Andy Moore]

Love the colour combinations Will. The orange bands really pop, and the darker blue panels are a nice contrast to the teal.

 

Can't help feeling the pilot's all round visibility would be a little compromised by having two vast engines either side of the cockpit, but I like the general design.

 

Andy

[Will Vale]

9 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

Love the colour combinations Will. The orange bands really pop, and the darker blue panels are a nice contrast to the teal.

Thanks Andy, my daughter helped with the colour choices as she was quite keen on the dark blue. I do wonder if the teal could be warmer/paler, but I think the orange turned out really well. Especially those little squares on the fins.

 

9 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

Can't help feeling the pilot's all round visibility would be a little compromised by having two vast engines either side of the cockpit, but I like the general design.

Yes it's not entirely practical although in 3D you can see under the guns to either side a bit, as the fuselage is under the nacelles rather than in line with them.

 

I guess with vertically-scrolling shoot em ups you're really only looking right in front of you!

 

I think I might need to do some pics on black with a keylight, as there's a lot of stuff going on with the metallics which is completely invisible. Hopefully you can just make out the stripey ejection pull-handles through the canopy though.

 

W

[Pete in Lincs]

Crikey, Will. A Beauty, and bright with it too.

[Will Vale]

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Crikey, Will. A Beauty, and bright with it too.

Cheers Pete! I've been looking at all of Andy's lovely teal-coloured things (or at least in my mind he uses a fair bit of teal) and wanted to get in on that as it's such a cool colour. Orange and white I've used before and will definitely use again

 

In other news, I've got these built and primed and while they need a little clean-up I think they might merit a WIP thread in due course...

 

 

Cheers,

 

W

[rockpopandchips]

Not seen that one before, love the Foss like colours. What scale are the space ships are they mini size? 

[Richard Baker]

Very nice build!- the coloring does remind me of the classic Chris Foss as well (getting weary of light gray ships all the time)

Unfamiliar with this subject but you managed to make an outlandish design look real!

 

[Will Vale]

On 10/24/2019 at 7:41 PM, rockpopandchips said:

Not seen that one before, love the Foss like colours. What scale are the space ships are they mini size? 

Yeah they're Mecha Colle ships (the little box kits with the instructions inside the lid) but I *believe* they're in the same scale and I have a diorama plan of sorts for them.

 

On 10/25/2019 at 4:42 AM, Richard Baker said:

the coloring does remind me of the classic Chris Foss as well (getting weary of light gray ships all the time)

You've both reminded me that I meant to put some big letters or numbers on the fuselage somewhere to get that Foss vibe, but I totally forgot. I've got some white futuristic Letraset somewhere that might work but I'm wary of doing anything else to it owing to the fragile joins.

 

W

[Carts]

Agree with the Foss vibe,looks superb Will.

[jake the snake]

Visibility?  In my imagination they have side cameras with a direct video feed to monitors in the cockpit. But damn that's a sweet looking build for that scale. Your colors and panel lines make it an absolutely beautiful ship! Fantastic work! Love those panel lines and did you dip your canopy in future? It's really clear looking.

[Will Vale]

On 10/28/2019 at 4:59 PM, jake the snake said:

Your colors and panel lines make it an absolutely beautiful ship! Fantastic work! Love those panel lines and did you dip your canopy in future? It's really clear looking.

Thanks, the mouldings are really sharp so the panel lines were very easy (apart from one boom where I flooded them with paint a bit, but it's not that obvious) to fill with enamel.

 

The canopy is un-dipped, just masked up and sprayed black around the edges as a) there was a marked "frame" to paint, and b) it hides the edges nicely.

 

Cheers,

 

Will