Vaurbian Freighter

[Pete in Lincs]

Due to illness (and the cold in the manshed) I've been quiet on the build front for a while. 

However, today, plastic seems to have been manhandled (ooer) and the smell of Tamiya extra thin has wafted about.

This one has been nagging away in my brain for a couple of months now, and today I had an opportunity to do something about it.

I'd gotten a couple of 'spares or repair' F-18's from the bay for less than a tenner. One Esci, the other a Chinese cheapo. 1/48th scale.

One of them will form the basis of the Freighter. And, you may be wondering what a Vaurbian is? Sci Fi Wikki (probably) says...

 

VAURBIAN FREIGHTER

The type K-20 Vaurbian Freighter is a rare item in the Star Wars universe.

No one seems to know who the Vaurbians were, Or the location Of their home system.

All that seems to remain are these ships. Which seem to be at least hundreds of years old. 

The Freighters are controlled by what may be an A. I. (Artificial Intelligence) built into a sealed compartment in the hull. 

Although it may equallly be an Alien life form or even a Vaurbian.

For the sake of convenience I’ll use the term A.I.

The A.I navigates and controls the ship so there is no need for a bridge. Commerce etc is handled via comms by the AI.

In some ships Humans are employed by the AI for cleaning and light maintenance, as well as cargo handling.

They may even be a family unit. Others use robots.

The FTL drive is totally unlike anything else seen in this universe.  Empire ships etc just seem to turn up the gas to number 11 and vanish. Vaurbian FTL seems to operate in a very strange way, but the AI always knows where and when it is. The drive can also be used as a weapon. It seems that no one who tried to attack one of these freighters in the past has ever been heard of again.

Hence the lack of external weapons.

The ships are fully atmosphere capable, so can deliver their cargo virtually anywhere.

Given the size of the Empire, Freighters are always in demand.

 

And so, some pictures of progress so far...

Some boxes of bits. some of which have been donated by fellow Britmodellers. My thanks to all.

 

More bits being kept close to hand. These will be used to disguise the basic Aeroplane (hopefully).

 

The basic Aeroplane. The ship will be this way up, but the back becomes the front.

I've made a start already, The green Gazelle bits seen here at the back have been glued on. 

It felt good to get something done, though I don't know when the next episode will go to press.

Thanks for looking in. I hope to be back soon. Pete.

 

[TheBaron]

34 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The ship will be this way up, but the back becomes the front.

Pretty standard for one of yours I reckon Pete.

Good luck with this me old Vaurbianator.

[Hunter Rose]

Oh cool! I'm in 

[TristanR]

Looking forward to another one of you builds!

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Thanks for looking in, Guys. It's nice to know that someone else, besides me, is curious to find out where and how this is going to end up!

Having said that, I have an idea of what I want, it's the getting there that is the fun bit. 

It's often said, 'the journey is often better than the arrival'  or something along those lines.

 

I just realized that I forgot to include a scale. I'm thinking (unless anyone else has a better idea) of 1/350th.

This makes it nigh on three times the length of the Milllennium Falcon (114 Ft). A useful size for a hauler, I think.

 

[Photon]

Excellent!  Looking forward to this.

[Thom216]

Interest piqued!

[Pete in Lincs]

Thanks for the nice comments and for dropping in, Guys.

I managed to get a few hours in today, so here are the fruits of my labour. 

 

Not much to see here but P-38 car filler. But take my word for it, under that lot is a Gazelle and an F-18!

 

This is easier on the eye though. A mock up of the front end (though it's the rear end of the F-18).

The big bulgy bits are Buccaneer Slipper tanks.  Part of a donation box from a fellow BM member. Thanks!

They, and the other bits, should make this thing look suitably Alien in form. (No, not that Alien. I still have nightmares!)

 

An overall shot. The large droptank half will go over the cockpit. And on the left, the mysterious Vaurbian FTL drive.

 

 

Okay, so it's a tiny plastic football. So sue me already! It should look mysterious/odd by the finish line. I hope.

There are more bits to be stuck on, and what you see is subject to change at no extra cost. Can't say fairer than that.

 

That's yer lot for today. Dinnertime came along and stopped play. Mmmm, Pie!

Thanks very much for looking in and I hope to be back with more very soon. Once I've rubbed all that P-38 down, anyway.

Take care, Pete

[Jeddahbill]

Very curious now to see how this one will look!

Bill

[Tzulscha]

Noice!

 

Glad to see you back at it.

Now to anxiously await updates!  

[Andy Moore]

Great start Pete. I love the bulged shapes you've created with the slipper tanks, it's reminding me of the Mon Calamari cruisers

 

 

1/350 sounds like a good scale. If you get hold of one of the little Bandai box scale Falcons (which are also 1/350) you could have it docked to your freighter.

 

Andy

[Pete in Lincs]

9 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

If you get hold of one of the little Bandai box scale Falcons (which are also 1/350) you could have it docked to your freighter.

Funny you should say that. This build will merge (scale wise) with the next one and I've seen that Falcon on the bay.

[Stickframe]

This is great - will be cool to watch how the multi-scale, reverse fore/aft, scratch, remnant parts, and mini-football turn this into the VAURBIAN FREIGHTER! (which of course, we'll all immediately recognize!) 😀  Of course, my bet is that, yes, this will indeed be a very cool build once tied up!

 

Cheers

Nick

[Pete in Lincs]

On 5/9/2021 at 6:40 PM, Jeddahbill said:

Very curious now to see how this one will look!

Me too! It depends on what the spares boxes yield up.

 

On 5/10/2021 at 8:12 AM, Andy Moore said:

it's reminding me of the Mon Calamari cruisers

You can just see the droptanks on that thing can't you. Old school Sci Fi modelling!

I'm now starting to wonder about weathering in 1/350th! Nothing like your Slave 1 obviously. 

 

All of that P-38 car filler got rubbed down this afternoon. It's rough stuff so I used sandpaper rather than wet & dry. It worked!

The secret is to stop when you hit plastic or you get some deep gouge marks. (Ahem).

The gap under the half drop tank over what was the cockpit was filled with scrap card. Otherwise I'd just be pushing filler into the void.

I had a cup of tea and put the darker of the two Milliput chunks under it to warm up (Yes, it makes it more pliable)

Made Milliput worms, twisted them together, mixed them and filled here there and everywhere. Plenty of spit to smooth it out too.

That can now dry overnight. It'll then need some 'gentle' wet & dry treatment before the next bits get stuck on.

Cheers, Pete

[Pig of the Week]

So what kind of cargo are these hauling around the Galaxy then Pete ?

[Pete in Lincs]

Search me. But as we've seen, there are small towns on various planets, so they would need food, technical/medical supplies, etc 

And, what do they export off planet to pay for the supplies? Rare metals, minerals, wood, meat? They exist for a reason.

Without a constant stream of supplies I imagine they wouldn't last too long.

The freighters could be subcontracted to the military (Empire) to fetch and carry supplies to their outposts. 

Or even to rendezvous with Empire ships with spare parts etc. Outsourcing could be universal and could have started long long ago!

We all have to go to the supermarket or order on line for home deliveries. What if we had to do it across space?

In that case only a huge bulk buy for the whole community would make economic sense.

 

[Thom216]

Love the look those slipper tanks give to the back. Or the front...

[Andy Moore]

On 12/05/2021 at 20:14, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm now starting to wonder about weathering in 1/350th! Nothing like your Slave 1 obviously. 

 

Probably keep it subtle, considering the small scale.

 

The Mon Cal cruiser studio model just had a load of scribed/penciled panel lines, and some random patches of colour.

 

 

The Star Destroyers had a similar finish, but with less colour. They'd also got loads of tiny plasticard squares and shapes all over the hull which added a lot of fine detail and shadows; something similar might work on yours.

 

 

 

Of course, both of those are much larger models, so easier to add those kind of details and effects.

 

Andy

[Pete in Lincs]

All pretty much my thoughts too. It's nice to see it confirmed by you though!

[Pete in Lincs]

I finally got around to rubbing down the Milliput earlier today and I'm about to go & fit those slipper tanks.*

 

*I did. They were. Milliput & spit got used to fair them in.

[Pig of the Week]

On 16/05/2021 at 15:27, Pete in Lincs said:

I finally got around to rubbing down the Milliput earlier today and I'm about to go & fit those slipper tanks.*

 

*I did. They were. Milliput & spit got used to fair them in.

Spit, the secret ingredient..! 

[Pete in Lincs]

It's been (believe it or not) a busy week, but I managed to get more filling and rubbing down done.

This morning I found five minutes to take pictures. So, without further adoo doo here we go.....

The front end complete with glued and faired in slipper tanks. The round bits are scanners for the A.I. (Probably))

On your left we have a bit of engine and on your right a 1/25th wheel trim. Both perfect fits!

Note the high tech ultra expensive cradle wot I knocked up.

 

I decided to fill the blank void above the Gazelle halves. So I used half a ship crane jib and a bit of TSR2 landing gear.

 

Underneath. The belly of the beast. How do we get the cargo into and out of the ship?

The brown bit came from the 1/76th scrap tank bits box. I think, from the colour, it's ex Matchbox? Meant for the turret.

Here, with a little fettling it took to the contours nicely with minimal filler. The round bit is 1/35th tank scrap but I'm not sure what it was.

How does this work? The old F-18 mainwheel baydoors are visible here. These are now Landing gear and landing thruster covers.

So once it's on its legs, the circular bit lowers down to the ground and becomes the 'loading ramp' as it were. Cargo is wheeled onto the platform

and raised or lowered as required. It's a very Alien ship so why have a conventional loading ramp like the Falcon or, indeed, a C-130 Hercules?

Was it the film 'This Island Earth' that had a similar feature on a flying saucer?

The gear doors do need further scribing now that I've figured out how it all works. (There isn't a Haynes manual for this thing. I checked!)

 

 

Another shot of the cargo loader. The central green bit will probably get removed. Then the platform will be closer to ground level.

On the left the original nose gear door can just be made out. With the ship now going the other way around, this is now the rear gear/thruster bay.

It's known as a reverse tricycle arrangement. So there is more rubbing down to do and more greeblies need to be added.

I know the filler is a bit rough in places, but I've decided that once this latest lot is smoothed I'll do some priming which will show up what else needs filling.

As always, thanks for looking and your comments of any sort are always welcome. Take care, Pete.

[JeroenS]

Nice work Pete, makes perfect sense too!

[Pete in Lincs]

I measured that circular part. 20cm. So, given the scale of 1/350, It would be 7 metres across. That's about 22 feet in old money.*

So plenty of room for shifting most cargo types. I imagine that it sort of telescopes out to touch the ground.

Given a matching receptacle on a larger ship, this could do ship to ship transfers in space too.

 

*Correct me if I'm wrong. I often am!

[Tzulscha]

So, it's some kind of cargo cannon?

Just shoot your cargo of Midichlorians directly into the cargo pad...

 

Looks good (as usual!)