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Cheers @Hunter Rose I'll see how the thing turns out, take a few snaps and then decide what sort of background would suit. The easy route would be a copy of the show's elevator and crater set up as that just needs the background wall and a fairly plain elevator. The top moon surface view just visible above the elevator could be added in later on the laptop.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

Time for another update from the collective 5 year plan shipyard.
As you can see, the interceptski cockpit has some paint. I use artist acrylics for this sort
of detailing because I already have a stack of them, what with my other-other hobby being
painting landscapes/seascapes etc. I have found that the art acrylics stick very well to
the primer plus they are quite cheap - a few quid for a large tube.

The blue/green cockpit colour came from a few MiG 21 pics I harvested from the web, so it is sort of authentic.
Yuri, our cosmonaut pilot, is dressed in a fetching spacesuit ensemble inspired by pics of Gene Cernan's suit
as worn on the 17 mission.

 

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You can also see the panels going onto the frame. I had to use a lot of blue tape to hold the little devils
down while the glue dried as despite my best efforts, the panels never quite followed the line of the ribs
so the tape proved to be a lifesaver.
The intention is to create a MiG 17 style nose, but blank it off (no need for an 'air intake') and add some detail, maybe headlamps or something.
I applied a lot of filler around the nose so I can sand it to the profile I want.

 

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I also thought long and hard about a canopy. Initially I wanted a bubble canopy but making such a thing, from scratch,
would be extremely difficult. I don't have any kind of vac-forming or casting equipment so I have to make everything either
from existing shapes or entirely from scratch. I tried a couple of existing shapes, from food packages etc, but nothing
matched the canopy shape I wanted, so I had a re-think and went back to my stock of pics filched from the internet.
While I was looking at the pod racer pics I suddenly thought, "Hey, why does Yuri need a canopy at all? He's wearing a space suit."

So I decided to go for the pod racer look and give him an open cockpit. I have to say, this was a relief. I saved myself hours
of work by going in this direction.

Here's the front of the cockpit, you might call it a binnacle or shroud, again made from thin styrene and smothered in filler
so I can sand it into a smooth curve. You can also see (or not see) that the meccano holes have now been covered up.
Less said about them the better.

 

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So now I think progress will slow down as I get stuck into a long round of sanding and filling before I get to
prime once again and then top coat.

Comments always welcome, cheers for now.
Monty.

  • Like 9
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10 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:

Like the open cockpit, especially as it means all the details and pilot won't be hidden away at all 

This is true, and in a way it'll be a bit more fun being able to go to town on the cockpit without wondering why I'm bothering cos "no one is going to see this anyway"...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

Another update from the Interceptski project.

First of all, great news! I worked out what sort of legs to give it.
In my stash I have the remains of a Bell UH-1 and I thought that the landing skids
look pretty good. Back then they were simple (cheap), rugged, easy to make and repair. Just
what my interceptor would have needed in real life, so I made some out of sprue and styrene.
Basically, just like Medding's interceptor, this is a space helicopter gunship so it sort of fitted.

 

From the pics you can see lots of filler on the nose and around the cockpit which will hide the ragged edges.
You can also see that the guns have been fitted and the rear radar assembly has been glued into place.
Tragically it fell off ten minutes later and I was so pea'd off I put it to one side and thought
"Sod it, leave it until last because it'll just fall off again."

 

Yuri now has a roll cage as I felt the cockpit needed something if not a full canopy. The roll cage was made of sheet styrene,
plus styrene rod. I also added a box behind him to make him look more 'in' the interceptor rather than sitting on top of it.

 

I guess all the big design and build decisions have now been made so now I'm into paint and decals, wish me luck.

Happy modelling, cheers
Monty

 

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  • Like 7
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

Another update, now we have paint going on and the interceptski is starting to look a bit less like a slab of plastic and a bit more like a spacecraft.

The paint is Tamiya light grey which ironically is labelled as 'USAF' colour.
I'm putting on a little bit of weathering on the leading edges because I read somewhere that the Moon is very dusty and therefore Yuri would often
find himself flying through a dust storm. That's the theory, anyway.

I might add more instruments to the cockpit as it looks a bit spartan, maybe a large binnacle or similar.
Following that, I'll be on the final run with just paint and decals to go on, then I can take a few space shots and we'll see how she looks.

cheers for now
Monty

 

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  • Like 10
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Thanks, I was going for the bigger-is-better approach. I spent many happy hours playing Mechwarrior 4 back in the day and I wanted to include some of those mad designs in one way or another.

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Thanks @Richard E, it would make a mess of any aliens who landed and started getting a little too close to moonbase. A pair of Gatlings could make a mess of pretty much anything. I wondered if i should add a missile or two and then thought no, that's going a little bit too far :)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

I reckon this one is as finished as it will ever be, so here are the last few pics plus I posted more on RFI if anyone wants to pop over and take a look.

I beefed up the cockpit a bit by adding some extra instrument clusters and touching up the paint a little.
The decals were made in Gimp and printed on waterslide decal paper. The idea for the star and nose number were pinched from the Airfix MiG 21 kit.
I had to use some wet & dry to smooth off the paint before applying decals and then I sprayed a thin coat of matt varnish over them.
After that, some dirtying with acrylics and a brush, tissue paper and sponge, whatever gave the best effect on the surface.

It turned out ok in the end, I think it's got that grubby industrial look I was going for.
It was a fun build and very satisfying to use a bunch of odds and sods that I had lying around. The only real expense was
having to buy styrene sheet and rods, but I have plenty left over so the actual cost for this build was pretty small.
Looking forward now to the next one :) I was at Bovington Tank Fest a few days back and bought some kits, so maybe it's time for a kitbash.

cheers for now and happy modelling
Monty

 

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  • Like 4
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Hi @Hook what is this 'excellent' marking? I added a few russian decals to the kit which you can see in the photos; google translate came in useful there as my knowledge of Russian is zero....

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