Cosmos Models/JPG Productions Moldy Crow (1:144 Scale)

[monsterpartyhat]

Hi all,

 

I know it's been aaaaages since I posted here, but I haven't been idle; just busy enough that I've mostly only posted to Instagram for the last two years because it's just the lowest friction avenue. But as the year ends I've been taking proper photos of a lot of models. I'll probably make a single thread for most of them, but this one might interest folks on its own. It's the JPG Productions 1:144 scale Moldy Crow resin kit, mastered by Nicholas Sagan (aka Cosmos Models). It's currently out of production, but JPG has said he may bring it back in the future. 

 

I actually picked it up years ago, and made a start out of it 3 years ago, and then it sat unfinished for 3 years because I couldn't find a good base color. Well -- that all changed when I bought an airbrush and the entire line of Archive-X acrylics. Which, by the way, are *AMAZING*. The slightly paraphrase the immortal words of Ferris Bueller -- they are so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking them up. 

 

The three year break turned out to be a good thing, because this is the first resin kit I've completed; it took a lot of work to build it, from lots of filing and filling to get parts to fit, to completely rebuilding the wing-attachment, using brass and my Proxxon micro-mill setup. I took a lot of inspiration from game artist Jason Lewis's digital Moldy Crow model he built for his personal project remaking the first level of Dark Forces. It is, without doubt, the most detailed digital model of the Crow ever made, and a fantastic extrapolation of the ship from its distinctly low-polygon origins. Check it out at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A929GX

Jason included a mechanism for adjusting the wings, which I adapted as an added detail on my build, made from steel music wire, brass tubing, and cast resin greeblies. I added a lot of additional detail to the built with cast resin greeblies which I molded from various Bandai kits, and I also completely scratch-built replacements for the sensor arrays on the front of the wings, which were extremely fragile as included with the kit. The replacements are also a lot sharper.  I also replaced the kit-supplied barrels on the belly cannon with machined brass Hurricane Mk IIC - Hispano Mk I cannons from master-model.pl Finally, I replaced some of the piping with 1.5mm braided silver hose, a motorcycle kit up-detailing part. 

 

Painting Details

 

I primed it with Mr Surfacer 1500 Black, then applied Vallejo Model Air White for pre-shading under the base color coat.

 

• The base color is a mix of AX-020 Rust and AX-041 Roof Brown, with accented panels misted over with AX-016 Earth or pure Roof Brown.
• The red accents are a 1:1 mix of AX-025 Caboose Red and AX-026 D&H Caboose Red.
• The contrasting rear side panels are AX-008 SP Dark Lark Grey, and the sensor antennas and belly cannon barrels are AX-013 Grimy Black.
• The sensor fins in front of the engine pods are AX-007 SP Lettering Grey (which is one of my favorite colors in the whole Archive-X lineup).
• I used the Vallejo Metal Colors line for the grills and actuator rods, as well as dry-brushed metallic highlights on top of the Grimy Black. Mostly bits of Gun Metal, Magnesium, and Duraluminum.

 

Without further ado, the Moldy Crow. 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by monsterpartyhat
Fixing link

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very nice I like the design 

[monsterpartyhat]

It’s pretty much my favorite non-canon SW ship. Dark Forces was revolutionary in its time  

[Hunter Rose]

Oh cool that's very good, paint and weathering are top notch! Funny coincidence as well as I'm playing through Dark Forces on my RG350m at the minute