Harkonnen ship from the 1984 film Dune

[glueman]

Hi everyone,

Been a while since I last posted on the forum.  Been very busy with one thing and another ... 

 

Over the past few months I've been working on a little 3D printed model of the Harkonnen ship from the 1984 film Dune.  This model was purchased as a 3D printed model from Shapeways.  The kit comes in two parts ... and is about 15cm in length and 13cm wide when put together.  It is printed from what is called sintered nylon which when viewed really close up looks like lots of tiny little balls.  This stuff is almost impossible to work with as you can't sand it smooth and is difficult to cut. 

 

 

The only solution was to cover the model in automotive filler-primer (I used a brand called autotek).  You apply a coat, then sand a bit ... then apply another coat etc. until you get a smooth finish.  This is a photo of an early stage in the process.  Took me ages to get the smooth finish.

 

 

 

 

After several coats of filler - primer it was time to starting the painting.  I used Mr Surfacer to fill in the remaining irregular surfaces ... to some degree of success.  Then it was time for the paintwork.

 

 

 

I was aiming for a rather gritty, grubby 'used' look like in the actual film.  I first applied a flat black base coat then used Mr Gundam metallic gunmetal grey (UG05) as the top coat.  This came out as being a bit too sparkly for the scale of the ship so I applied several coats of Tamiya flat clear to tone down the speckle effect in the paint.  Burst rust colour was used for the inserts and some minor weathering on the body.  I couldn't really do much as this model is only 15cm in length and it's quite hard to 'weather' a dark grey model (I didn't think ahead in other words!!).  Finally, I applied some Tamiya weathering products (gunmetal grey, soot and silver) to give it a bit more of a worn and used appearance.  Added some fine brass wire for the sticky out bits and some gold paint on the detail on the 'crown'.  I'm pretty happy with the result given that this was the first time I had built and painted a 3D printed model.  I have another version of this ship at a bigger scale that I'm currently working on.

 

 

 

This last photo is in black and white.  It's actually quite tricky to photograph being so small and almost uniformly grey in colour.  This is some variation in the dark grey tone but it is a bit too subtle for the camera.

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

It was worth all that sanding. That's a nice smooth finish. There were some oddly designed machines in that film if I remember correctly.

Try a mist of a very light grey or white for weathering. Have a look at my Vaurbian freighter to see what I mean.

 

[glueman]

8 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

It was worth all that sanding. That's a nice smooth finish. There were some oddly designed machines in that film if I remember correctly.

Try a mist of a very light grey or white for weathering. Have a look at my Vaurbian freighter to see what I mean.

 

 

Thanks Pete in Lincs.  That's very interesting about the fine misting of light grey for weathering.  I might give it a go, see what happens.

 

Yep, that version of Dune did have some very odd but really interesting designed space craft ... that's probably why I like the design of the film.

 

Cheers

 

Pete (also in Lincs)