Pete in Lincs Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 And once again, we're back in the Lincolnshire shipyards for the latest in the series of raids on the bits boxes. I had this picture board, doing not a lot on the mancave wall. What to do? Well, I seem to be in a Star Wars groove at the moment. Following on from my Vaurbian Freighter build, I wanted a different way to mount it (Ooer!) and this popped into my head. I also was partially inspired by the opening scenes from Red Dwarf, where we see a spacesuited figure painting a huge bit of spaceship. In 1/350th scale the maintenance trench is between 100mm & 28mm deep. I am Indebted to @Madmonk for these figures. Yesterday I measured up and cut some wood to make the basis of the trench. Some drilling and screwing (now then!) and we have what you can see in the pictures below... (Which I tried to post earlier but either BM or Imgur was messing about). So, Board on wall, bottle of TET and rulers to show the size. Two pieces of wood to form top and bottom of the trench. And, a section of plastic card to partially represent the skin of the ship for these pictures. I need to obtain some appropriate card (plastic or otherwise) to become the skin. Suggestions are welcome. I will probably need to scribe it and will certainly need to paint it. And a close up shot. The trench, as seen above, is 100mm in depth and height. I will use various false walls to vary the depth, and fill the result with lots of greeblies. This will not be a direct copy of a Star Wars ship, detailed reference shots seem to be few and far between. So I'm going for a 'in the spirit of' build. Something that could be. I'm not going to attempt the hangar bay, I don't know the dimensions for a start. I did think to build the entrance and use a photo behind it, but maybe not. I've made a start today by making up some sections of walls etc, The wood will be covered in 1mm plastic card, BTW. Thanks for looking, comments, as always, are very welcome. Pete 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Now thats an interesting idea..... Let's see were this goes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 25, 2021 Author Share Posted June 25, 2021 I'm not sure if Diorama or Panorama is the correct description for this. Perhaps neither! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Or both! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 (edited) You going to stick a 1:350 Millennium Falcon flying along side ? https://www.scalemates.com/kits/bandai-spirits-5055704-millennium-falcon--1193750 Edited June 26, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 26, 2021 Author Share Posted June 26, 2021 3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: You going to stick a 1:350 Millennium Falcon flying along side ? If I can get one for a sensible price, it may happen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Oh cool this sounds great Pete! Will be watching 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stickframe Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Well, this sure looks adequately unusal and complicated! Perfect! Looking forward to seeing it move along! Cheers Nick 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tzulscha Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Ah Pete, just can't help the double entendre can you? 'Maintenance trench' indeed! (fnar fnar) I really like the idea of a wall hanging display I must say. Display space being a perpetual problem as it is. Do you have some sort of scene in mind here? Rebels screaming along the trench while ack-ack blasts in all directions perhaps? Maybe this is the recreation side of the Death Star, where all the executives go to hang around the space swimming pools to get space tanned? Drinking space mai-tais with space bikini clad space secretaries. Nice thing about something so huge, this will be about a square kilometre on something the size of a small moon, you could build anything and who's to say it couldn't be there somewhere. What scale is this thing anyway? I heard 1/350th being bandied about which would make your bottle of tamiya extra thin about 30-40 metres tall... If you built the rest of the Death Star to this scale, I figure it would be roughly a half kilometre across. (Apparently the Death Star is around 160 km in diameter) You gonna need a buttload of styrene my friend! (and a bigger man cave!) Speaking of styrene sheet (were we?), a relatively cheap source I have found are those plastic sale signs that hardware stores sell. Wow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 On 25/06/2021 at 23:30, Pete in Lincs said: I'm not sure if Diorama or Panorama is the correct description for this. Perhaps neither! how about a PanDiorama its a neat idea rgds John(shortCummins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 4 hours ago, Tzulscha said: I really like the idea of a wall hanging display I must say. Display space being a perpetual problem as it is. It was just hanging around not doing much and I had a lightbulb moment. 💡 Display space is becoming a problem, as you say. Yes, 1/350 is the scale. The same as the Vaurbian ship I just finished. That will become part of the display, plus probably a couple of others, yet to be built. Maintenance trench is (apparently) the official term. As for space mai tai's, This is a 'dry' ship as per U.S Navy Regs! Yes, this could be part of any several Km long Star Destroyer so I can do pretty much whatever I can with whatever I have to hand. (OOER!) Good idea about the plastic sale signs. I'll have a look Her Indoors says a Death Star replica would spoil the light for the roses. Shame. 4 hours ago, Tzulscha said: Do you have some sort of scene in mind here? Rebels screaming along the trench while ack-ack blasts in all directions perhaps? It might be nice to see, but AFAIK the Falcon is the only rebel ship in 1/350th. I've thought of mocking up a couple of Tie Fighters, but I need dimensions first. This will primarily be a means to display some scratchbuilds, to use up the wallspace, and to keep me happy until it gets too cold in there to work, again! BTW, I've changed the thread title. No more diorama, otherwise the mods might make me move this to that bit! I'm happy with 'Wall Hanging'.* *I wonder if 3D plastic tapestry would be better? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head in the clouds. Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 I like this idea Pete, will be fascinating to see it take shape, any lighting effects planed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 6 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said: any lighting effects planed? It's something I'd not thought about. I do have some bits lying about (ooer!) so I might have a go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tzulscha Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 I don't know if you get them over there, but Fantasy Flight games does a series of X-wing and TIE fighter models for their Star Wars game in what looks very close to 1/350th scale. The boxes don't actually call out scales, I am basing it on the size of the cockpits. The bigger stuff comes in MUCH smaller scales, as you might expect. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Even if you don't buy these they might get you a step closer with dimensions Pete. https://www.shapeways.com/product/VENW42U7M/tie-fighter-2x-1-350 https://www.shapeways.com/product/4R95WA2J5/1-350-x-wing-four-pack https://www.shapeways.com/product/WQXK6M2SE/1-350-a-wing-four-pack?optionId=161872315&li=more-from-shop 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 30, 2021 Author Share Posted June 30, 2021 And the dimensions are right there. fabulous! Thanks very much for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 30, 2021 Author Share Posted June 30, 2021 Now you may have thought that I was slacking on this build. But I've been playing with my Greeblies (Ha Ha) I've built this lot to go along the back of the trench. All approx 100mm. Except the ones I made on Sunday. I went all Imperial and built them to about 4 inches. Sightly blurred close up. The bits boxes were raided unmercifully. Goodness knows what they are supposed to be. The big white bits and the one on the right here are megablox. (Cheap lego copies from the car boot sale). I've used lots of ship bits and on the right, the brass sheet is stuck to Megablox parts. More Megablox on the left, with added ships railings, which I've also used on other sections. I think once sprayed up and detail painted this lot should look the part. That seems to be how ILM did it. Thanks for looking in, Pete 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LorenSharp Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 If John Dykstra could raid every hobby shop in S. California for panzer IV tank bodies and submarine hulls to make the Galactica, I say the more megablox the merrier! When it comes to greebles there is no such thing as too much. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head in the clouds. Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 You have been busy but not owning the Haynes manual on Star Wars ships and Death Stars I cannot comment on accuracy, but it all looks good to me. 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Quote On 6/30/2021 at 1:24 PM, LorenSharp said: If John Dykstra could raid every hobby shop in S. California for panzer IV tank bodies and submarine hulls to make the Galactica, I say the more megablox the merrier! When it comes to greebles there is no such thing as too much. I remember an old video game by John Dykstra, "Sewer Shark", where you had to navigate through trenches and tunnels to get to the end of the levels. Much like Pete's build. Good Fun! Hey Pete, The big "4 inchers" are nice by the way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan R Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Well, if it's Star Wars, then "Imperial" is about right ... Cheers, Alan. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted July 3, 2021 Author Share Posted July 3, 2021 I enjoyed making those greebies so much, I made some more! I found more bits to use! On the left, two F-4 Phantom engines from a mid '70's Revell 1/32nd build that I used for parts a couple of years ago. Rather fanciful painting on the engines! Next is two Airfix 1/32nd wheel arches (Jaguar or Aston) Glued together. The yellow bit is from a Japanese submersible kit and above that, bits of a pen. These three are almost entirely made from bits of Airfix Steam Engines (Biggin Hill & Evening Star). They seem to be already weathered! Another wheel arch, a bit of a rocket, and maybe a bit of jet engine (not sure). There are two of these which used similar parts. I need to get lots of plastic card soon to build the body panels of the starship. In the meantime I'll paint & detail this lot. Some of these greeblies may not get used on this build, I may not have room. But they'll wait for another build instead. Thanks for looking in. Comments are welcome, as always. Pete 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photon Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 Wow, what a crazy-huge project. Are you looking to clear out your entire stores of detail parts? There are easier ways…for instance, you could send them to me. 😎 All kidding aside, this is the kind of project that I dream about…a wall of greebles. However, since a typical model kit is $$, I will have to continue to dream and live vicariously though your build. Will watch with great interest. 🍿 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Are there any plans of this trench, or do you have to keep running the film sequence over and over for the details? Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Ian- Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 4 hours ago, bootneck said: Are there any plans of this trench, or do you have to keep running the film sequence over and over for the details? Mike I don't think there are any (official) plans and I don't recall a scene in any of the films where you see a close up of the trench, the closest was a scene towards the end of the The Empire Strikes Back but that was a Super Star Destroyer. That's the beauty of a project like this, you can let your imagination run wild and still come up with something which looks right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now