1:48 Babylon 5 Starfury - 3D print [Completed!!!]

Kallisti · May 16, 2021

Half a month goes by and finally there is some progress to show! First off somethign I did a couple weeks back for the pilot - this is going to be Ivanova's Starfury so she should be the pilot! I found some screen caps of Caludia Chistian in her spacefuit as the Starfury pilot and was able to shrink her head in the helmet down small enough and print on decal paper

Stil need to add some painted detail to the figure, eg the wide seat belts that would strap the pilot into the cockpit. Next is the current incomplete paint job of the base. This is the third attempt at a colour scheme I'd be happy with and I'm still not entirely happy...

That will get worked on again eventually. The last progress report said I would be extracting the winglets from the engines to be able to paint them easier. This was done with generous use of CY debonder and here is everything fresh from the paint stripper ready to start all over again. More on that later!

In the meantime, I have finally, after several attempt, got a colour scheme for the Starfury itslef I'm happy with!

This has been given and initial wash with Flory dark dirt and streaked while drying. Next will be to put some Klear over the top to apply the large logo decal on the top. I'll need to cut out the areas around the cooling fins on top.

The guns have yet to be fitted which is what the silvery conduits will connect to.

The rear detail section has had a paint job applied with varying metallic shades and whatnot

As mentioned, the guns aren't attached yet but here they are after their initial base coat of XF-63. Details will be brush painted in using metallics later. The engine winglets have been painted up and given some panel detailing

These still need some work, particularly on the hinge section which needs to match the general colour scheme of the engine exhausts... speaking of which the engines have had a make over but are still a work in progress

The exhausts have been given a base coast of XF-63 then Mr Metallic Color Stainless was sprayed over the top. Sadly I ran out of that colour and so the job is only half done. The aim is to next touch up the stainless to reach the parts that marking and spraying couldn't and then pick out the XF-63 base colour between the raised stainless 'steel' panels to make the engines visually interesting. I can't do that until my fresh supplies of Mr Metallic Color arrive.

So thats where it all stands right now. This build is taking a LOT longer than I expected, but that pretty much due to external distractions and me changing my mind about the colour scheme multiple times!

Onwards and upwards!

Kallisti · May 23, 2021

Time for the weekly update and there is now significant progress to show! Finally stopped mucking about with the paint job and got on with it! As you saw from the previous pic, I got a bit stuck through runnig out of Mt Metal Color stainless, but a new batch arrived midweek on the same day I got my second COVID jab so then I got on with it!

So the engines have been painted with stainless and then went back over with XF-63 on the frame so that the stainless panels stand out more and they've all been given a dirt wash to bring out the panel lines more, but the photo doesn't really show this well.

The illuminated inserts have also been glued in place and integrated properly

All the guns have been painted and weathered

Ivanova's crest has been added to the upper surface - this is a very asymetric decal so aligning it to anything was problematic and it was pretty large so a work of patience and lots of Micro sol! Its been given a second barrier coat of Klear which is why its so shiny.

The masking has come off the cockpit and the canopy has been sprayed and weathered (forgot to photo it ) Need to finish painting the Ivanova figure to put in the cockpit

Finally in this upddate the winglets have had the base strut painted CF-63 to match the engine exhaust at the pint they attach, next job will be to reattach them and then attach the engines to the main body... we're getting there, will then need to refocus to the base that's been neglected for a couple of weeks!

JeroenS · May 23, 2021

Impressive!

Mjwomack · May 23, 2021

Very, very noice

Kallisti · May 23, 2021

Well, this evening the engine and guns went on and its REALLY looking like a Starfury now! Sadly however I appear to have misplaced the decals I printed for Ivanova's helmet so I'm going to have to reprint those before I can close up the cockpit!

Still need to do some work on the gantry, but I did do a quick video to show the lighting - its not very good quality as I just did it in a hurry and its shot from above with the camera mounted on the tripod almost directly over the model to get the right angle to see the lights...

Kallisti · May 24, 2021

So today's earth shattering news is that having experimented with displaying the almost complete Starfury on the scratch built base, I've come to the conclusion it doesn't work!

Displaying it vertically means a) you have trouble seeing the lights in the cockpit b) the lights in the engines are completely hidden... so all the effor to put lighting in this is wasted if I display it as I had designed.

There are other issues, namely the gantry isn't quite tall enough to possibly prevent the outer winglets touching the table

This is one display angle that would show the upper surface. From the other side you get the underside, which is a nice view

But as I discoverd while trying to make the video last night, in order to see into the cockpit you have to get directly overhead and that is tricky

So this base as it is shown has been abandoned and pulled apart to see what can be salvaged for an alternative display option where I can display the Starfury in a horizontal orientation, but since this is a quite heavy model, I'll need to support it in some sort of cunning manner...

Pete in Lincs · May 24, 2021

2 hours ago, Kallisti said:

I'll need to support it in some sort of cunning manner...

I have every confidence in your abilities. I somehow missed the start of this one, but I'm glad I caught the end. Lovely stuff.

Bill Davis · May 24, 2021

Great work! I loved Babylon 5 and Ivanova Is the Queen of Sci-fi!

81-er · May 25, 2021

That's a great looking model, takes me back to my teens and watching B5 when it was a current series.

Kallisti · May 26, 2021

I don't think I've posted this pic before which shows the painted detail on the rear of the Starfury fuselage. This is pretty much made up by me to make it look interesting, there are no real decent images of this part of the Starfury that I could find.

So after the decision at the weekend to scrap the bease I'd built, here is the second attempt at it

If you look carefully along the middle section (ignore the circular dimple in the middle, nothing to see here, move along please!) you will see scribed the dog-tooth impression of the joint between the two launch doors that would open to allow the Starfury to 'drop' out and launch. The acrylic rod is offset as the support for the Starfury...

Yes, I DID have to drill out the hole that I filled some time back to accommodate the acrylic rod... sigh. So the Starfury is offset from the door joint because the gantry pivot would naturally be directly above the door opening, speaking of which, the gantry was one of the pieces I managed to salvage from the earlier base...

which with a few monor tweaks will comfortable sit on the back of the Starfury without visible means of support! The large tube has been added to represent what would be the pivot of the gantry and I intend to build this up above the Starfury as if its extending up to the ceiling... hopefully it won't be too heavy and it can just attach to the back of the Starfury without further modification.

Finally for now, something I'd thought of before but wasn't prepared to attempt when this was 'upside down', but now its at 'resting' orientation, how would the pilot get into the cockpit? Easy solution... a retractable walkway...

This is supported by a brass rod drilled into the wood at the edge of the base so in theory is "off screen". The walkway is made of industrial floor texture plastic card and will have handrails attached later. I'm in two minds as to whether to extend the walkway along the other side as I'm sure the maintenance techs would need access to that side too. It is so far a quite light construction, amply supported by the brass rod at one end so I'd like to keep it as light as possible to avoid having to add further support on the other side... its a tricky decision!

Kallisti · May 27, 2021

Things are moving along now that I've got over my mental block about the paint job The walkway had handrails added yesterday using thin plastic rod

Here is the rear gantry construction with the vertical supports added - although in this photo they are horizontal! These were constructed from Evergreen strip 6.3mm x 3.2mm, with the ends sanded down to make the angle that is then secured by extra strips on the inner and outer faces to give it strength.

Here is what it looks like on the Starfury

Sadly as you can see here, they really just are not long enough to make a proper impression, so I think I need to build them again but about twice as long. I've ordered some extra Evergreen strip to accommodate this plan. More to come...

Edited May 27, 2021 by Kallisti

Kallisti · May 31, 2021

Another productive couple of days - I seem to be making up for the slow early progress now

Returning to the walkway, the next problem I need to solve with the new base is where on earth do I put the batteries for the lighting??? The solution meant a total re-engineering for the power supply so that now instead of a 4 AAA battery pack, I'm going to use two 3v coin batteries as they are smaller and easier to hide. Where to hide them then? Easy peasy...

So they can sit under the walkway with the a connector at the point directly under the cockpit so that the wires from the rear gantry can loop under the Starfury and connect up using a 2 pin socket for easy of disassembly. There is no on/off switch in this - if I don't want the lights on I take the batteries out! For the base, I've built two rams to operate the opening and closing of the doors

This is just a dry-fit test - the end of the ram should join up with the bracket on the door once its fully assembled after painting. Next, after the new Evergreen suppies arrived on Friady, a new set of gantry supports were created by gluing, shaping and laminating the 6.3mm x 4.2mm plastic strip so that the vertical struts had a gentle taper to them

You can also see the other end of the wires that will plug into the back of the Starfury, although they've been covered with maskign tape to protect them during painting.

This time I've gone for the more accurate 3 struts which matches the screenshot better. One of my main concerns was would this be to heavy since its only clipped to the back of the Starfury but a test seems to show its within acceptable limits

This length looks MUCH better than before

Next job is to make the rams that operate the pivoting gantry. I've used various diameters of brass rod that fit inside each other and then constructed some brackets and joints using plastic strip

With some very careful assembly, this looks pretty good!

I'll add some control wires and such to give it a bit more interest and complexity. Its all in the paint shop at the moment having been primed,

JeroenS · May 31, 2021

Nice work, and a good recovery for version 2.0. And, you're keeping Mr. Evergreen very happy as well 🙂

AdrianMF · May 31, 2021

4 hours ago, JeroenS said:

And, you're keeping Mr. Evergreen very happy as well

And Mr. Albion too, by the looks of it.

Unstoppable modelling , very inspiring!

Regards,

Adrian

Kallisti · June 7, 2021

Major result this weekend - found the decals I'd printed for Ivanova's helmet faceplate!!!

In other news, the remainder of the decals were applied to the Starfury and the final flat coat was sprayed. The walkway was fully painted along with the final touches to gantry and the base, so we are THIS close to be complete!!!

You can see I've painted the top rail on the walkway yellow - health and safety innit! The hydraulic rams for the doors have been fitted to the base along and the grantry is fully painted up with ancillary wiring and cabling added. Ivanova has been installed ready for launch...

The last job I want to do it add a bit more streaking dirt to the Starfury to try to get it to look a bit more like the CGI renders I'm using as referecne, but to do that I need to wait for the Alclad flat varnish to completely set which can take a couple of days.

Stu_davros · June 7, 2021

The Starfury and gantry really work well as a display, by far the best Starfury build I've seen in a long time.

So Thunderbolt next?

Cheers,

Stuart.

Jinxman · June 7, 2021

That really looks the business - looking forward to seeing it lit up in all its glory.

Kallisti · June 7, 2021

4 hours ago, Stu_davros said:

So Thunderbolt next?

it should be but I need to finish the Sea Fury (lots of Fury going on!) that I began before this GB started and has been sitting neglected all this time, then I was going to do the UFO Moon Hopper resin kit...

Kallisti · June 19, 2021

Last weekend was when I considered this build complete, however it took me a couple of days to get round to photographing it and then uploading it here, but better later than never eh? So here we go - there are quite a few photos here, but I'll post the best 4 (or whatever the limit is) in the gallery later