Spindizzy, another Kreiger build

[Pete in Lincs]

Here we go again! My last build was the Star Wars wall display, but for this one I'm sliding back to the kreiger universe.

A stray comment on another thread led to the donation of an ancient built Airfix SRN1 Hovercraft by @TonyW.

So very many thanks to Tony, and now lets see what I'm going to do with it.

 

I saw a kreiger 'skimmer' type attack craft some time ago and quite liked it. I've stolen the word 'Spindizzy' from

the James Blish 'Cities in Flight' Sci Fi novels of many years ago. Time to combine the two I think.

 

After I'd stripped off all the unwanted bits of the model I was left with this basic form. 

This too was disassembled, various blobs of ancient tube glue were removed & mating surfaces rubbed smooth.

 

Here are a couple of the removed air ducts and various other bits.

 

After a good search of the spares boxes and various combinations of parts (Ooer!) I think I'm settled on this.

Or something very like it anyway. The front is at the left here. The ribbed items may look familiar?

They are from a Star Wars Slave One, cut in two. The oval bits to the right are pencil sharpeners.

 

The driver sits here between these two shields. It may even be an armoured fighting suit (AFS).

 

And from the back, the dome contains an Anti Grav unit, while the sharpeners provide steering thrust.

They will be mounted higher and will use air sucked in via the big central fan.

So far I think it all makes engineering sense (which, to me, is an important issue on these things). 

I think I do need to add fuel tanks somewhere though.

 

Household management is in decorating mode, so modelling time may be short in the near future.

I only get time at the weekends as it is. Please bear with me if this build stretches out into the future.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

[TonyW]

That poor old Airfix kit doesn't know what's hit it!

The old duffer will be learning some new dance moves by the look of it. Once it's got the hang of it, there will be no stopping it.

[rockpopandchips]

That's is a really nice start. Let see were you take on this one.👍

[Tzulscha]

Hey Mabel!

That crazy Krieger guy is at it again!

Come have a look see!

[Hunter Rose]

Cool, its already looking interesting Pete, I will be watching with lots of interest and popcorn!

[Pete in Lincs]

Thanks for looking in, and for the comments, Guys. Much appreciated.

I managed to get a couple of hours on this today. Not enough done to make it worth taking photo's though.

I stretched some sprue and used it to fill the gaps around that front section on the main disc.

Time was spent searching the spares boxes and I've found the bits to make fuel tanks. They've been glued together and any gaps filled. 

I modified the lower ring on that big central intake by sawing off the ducts that led to the steering ducts.

And I've found bits that I'm happy with to modify said intake, which will alter it enough so it looks more Ma.k.

Busy day tomorrow so the next update may have to wait another week. Sorry, I'm eager to get on with this but lack the time to do so!

Cheers, Pete

[Uncle Monty]

There's no better feeling than rummaging in the spares box and finding a widget which looks exactly like a doodad when it's turned upside down and sawn in half. Bliss.

[TheBaron]

On 11/09/2021 at 22:01, Tzulscha said:

Hey Mabel!

That crazy Krieger guy is at it again!

 

Pete is clearly from the future and sending his builds back in time to us. Witness:

On 11/09/2021 at 19:53, Pete in Lincs said:

And from the back, the dome contains an Anti Grav unit, while the sharpeners provide steering thrust.

They will be mounted higher and will use air sucked in via the big central fan.

So far I think it all makes engineering sense

You know he's just copying and pasting this from the Spindizzy Haynes manual that isn't published for another 123 years.

[Tzulscha]

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

 

Pete is clearly from the future and sending his builds back in time to us. Witness:

You know he's just copying and pasting this from the Spindizzy Haynes manual that isn't published for another 123 years.

You know, you just might be onto something there.

How could anyone from the present day know anything about, um, what did he call them?

Oh yes, 'sharpeners'...

 

I'd say that is more than a little suspicious.

[Uncle Monty]

Never mind the builds, he could send back some lottery numbers....

[Pete in Lincs]

5 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:

Never mind the builds, he could send back some lottery numbers....

I could but it's very difficult to convert the future's numbers into your decimal system. Ahem.

That Haynes manual was a limited edition in microdelux. We have that sort of thing fed directly to our brains. So it could get messy if you want a look.

 

Today, for some reason, was a very short day in the beer distribution system. Just Scunthorpe (A Church!) and Beverly (The Tiger pub).

So I got a couple of hours at the bench, and, I have pictures to prove it.

 

This is just a loosely assembled mock up to show what's happening. The brown tanks are proper kreiger bits. The white tanks will be mounted alongside them.

So what we'll have is a dual fuel mix in the Thrusters (Pencil sharpeners, then). BTW, in future Kalamazoo there is the world pencil sharpener museum!

Legend has it that on the site there was once a plastic model store. In a corner of the museum is a virtual statue dedicated to the unknown sales assistant.

The rocket pods are ex 1/24th Harrier and a mix of the rocket nozzles and bombs.

 

Here's a close up of what's going on. That's guitar wire there, with the red & green bits being from a kids bead set.

The two holes you see are where the original thrusters were mounted. Here I'll use them for supports for the rocket pods.

 

Some more bit's. Large scale motorbike carburetors and a kreiger gun which may find itself used on the one.

And that's yer lot for this time. I'm in at 05:15 tomorrow for a trip to Barnsley (whoopee) so It's an early night for me.

Goodnight and, as always, thanks for looking in. Pete

[Uncle Monty]

Scratching of the highest order, I like it.

[Pete in Lincs]

Are we sitting comfortably? It's time for another update!

A few hours today resulted in the following changes...

The Slave one bits are at last stuck to the saucer (if that's the right word). The long thin tanks have been primed.

I've made cradles for the big white tanks & fitted said cradles. I'll make clamping strips for the tanks at a later date.

In the centre is a bit of Aircraft engine cowling (I think). The main fan shape will sit above it. This is just to improve the original Airfix layout.

 

So this is what it looks like. A duct within the main duct. I've left it unpainted down there, why couldn't it be plastic?

Of course you can't have this thing buzzing around the battlefield sucking all sorts of debris down there can you?

 

Et voila! Instant debris guard. The chrome ring? would you believe I found it in a pub car park? 

I've no idea what it once was but it fits nicely here.

 

The original anti grav housing wasn't good enough, so I knocked up this collection of bits to replace it.

Also seen here are the rocket pods. 1/24th Harrier bits with a tank wheel as the exhaust at the rear.

I did do a bit more but that can wait until the next time, can you? 😆

Thanks for dropping by, Pete

 

 

[Uncle Monty]

Love it. Pub car park? It doesn't get any grittier than this, well done sir.

[TheBaron]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The chrome ring? would you believe I found it in a pub car park? 

Surely the modelling equivalent of 'a bloke down the pub told me'

That debris  mesh just makes this contraption leap to life Pete - a brilliant feature.

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

did do a bit more but that can wait until the next time, can you?

Ooh you tease.

[Tzulscha]

Well, it's starting to look confusing, complicated and technical so...

 

Just curious, are you gonna do a pilot seat or does this thing just get welded to the back of a suit of armour?

 

[Pete in Lincs]

26 minutes ago, Tzulscha said:

Just curious, are you gonna do a pilot seat

Seating arrangements will appear as and when I've figured them out. Not sure yet if it will be solo or tandem.

[TheBaron]

23 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Seating arrangements will appear as and when I've figured them out. Not sure yet if it will be solo or tandem.

May I draw your attention to the Frankfurt Loveseat as a potential solution? Allows for both tandem and horizontal positioning...

 

[Pete in Lincs]

30 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Allows for both tandem and horizontal positioning...

It's slightly outside my normal model spending limits (usually around 10p) 

The buttoned look too? It's been overdone in the Jules Verne department. I'll stick to military utility thanks. 

Waterproof canvas is where it's at. Man.

[Pete in Lincs]

Time for a Sunday update! After Winterizing the garden by putting stuff away or covering it up, I've had nearly five hours on this today!

 

It may not seem like much but this is not shake & bake building. Stuff has to be thought out/cut/sanded etc.

Any parts that are desert sand plastic were saved from the gluebomb Hornisse that @SafetyDad very kindly donated to me last year.

So a big thank you (again) to him. I used most of it in a build back then. Never throw anything away is the kreiger scratchbuilding motto. 

So what we see here is the weapons/seating platform. A couple of radiator thingies, and two thrusters.

 

Gun platform. The blue ammo box was a 1/24th Jerrycan. The gun is ex Hummel, as is the framework it sits on.

The framework then plugs into another ex Hummel box affair that I've beefed up with white plastic card.

This assembly will be glued to a piece of card that slots into the front section.

 

Here is the basic frame that will support the rocket pods. It will be subject to changes in the near future to fulfill it's role.

 

Radiator thingies. On the left, another Hummel piece, repaired with white card. This goes between the pilot and the main fan.

On the right is a modified bit of a rail wagon & some slatted bits that I think I got from @bootneck so thanks again, Mike.

This goes behind the main fan and will be mounted on card to enable easier painting/assembly.

 

Here's the seat and framework plus that radiator wossname placed into position for your delectation.

Again this lot is/will be mounted on card for painting porpoises 🐬

 

Another shot showing the gun on it's swivel mount. Once I get the jockey sorted I'll need to sort his controls etc.

 

At the back, we now have thrusters for forward thrust and steering. I can't remember the origin of these Helicopter? engines.

But I cut them in two and remounted the parts. The joint has since been smoothed out with good old Milliput.

The red bits are 1/24th car wheels. On their forward side the thrusters will be joined to the ex rail wagon unit with pipework.

 

The overhead shot might make things easier to visualize what's going to happen here. Those are 1/72nd tank wheels there, BTW.

And that's yer lot for another week. I'm happy that I got to this stage and got the thrusters & seat etc sorted at last. 

I'd have liked to have done more, but the roast beef was calling and the gravy won't stir itself.

I'm off to Kings Lynn and Suffolk early tomorrow with a wagonload of booze. Have a good week and thanks for looking.

Cheers, Pete

[Hunter Rose]

Amazing details Pete! It's looking good 

[Stickframe]

This is looking great - I was wondering how you might be fitting the seat in place - and, now I know!  Looking at the weapon, I wondered if you might try adding some bits to make it look like a CROWS, aka, the Common Remotely Operated Weapons System, which our friends in the armor modeling (and real) world install on many modern vehicles.  They include some optics, various power/control lines and so on, which might look pretty good on this too!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS  You could buy a kit for one of these, but, I'm pretty confident you could scratch something with convincing realism!  Maybe your pilot could operate via gun to helmet tracking optics and fire via joystick controls?  like on attack helicopters etc?? 

 

Build on - 😀

Cheers

Nick 

[Uncle Monty]

It looks great, I'm loving how this is coming together. Nice big gun you there as well 😀

[voozet]

I couldn't imagine what you actually want to build, because my poor English made it difficult to understand your descriptions.

But latest photos clearly show what is your point.

 

I like it both: this project and your working methods. They are similiar to mine. 

I also collect items found on a street if they have a nice shape or look.

[Alan R]

Poor pilot's a bit exposed, but then with that gun, he's pretty well protected...

 

Cheers,

Alan.