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MISC Freelancer from Star Citizen (game), 1/200 by JR Design & Fabrication


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This kit arrived a few weeks ago, usually, I'd wait a bit before starting a build, but I'm keen to get ahead with this Freelancer

What is the Freelancer? It is a ship in the MMO game, Star Citizen.
This commercial will give a fair idea of the ship and its use
 

 

One thing the video shows, that I don't believe made it to production ... pretty sure those VTOL jets are fixed.

The kit is among the most beautifully packaged I've seen, possibly the best packaging I've seen.

The box starts with a printed wrapper:
001.jpg

 

In which is a box, with magnetic seals
003.jpg

 


That contains several layers of foam packing - the top layer includes the instructions and a certificate (this is a limited edition kit)
004.jpg

Finally, we see the kit, 3D printed
005.jpg

 

The larger components span two layers, this is layer two
006.jpg

 

The resin, removed from its packaging
008.jpg


Note, some parts have separated from their support sprues.  This doesn't seem to be a problem.
This is the cargo bay
009.jpg

 

And this, upside down, so you can see the ceiling, is the rear hull.
010.jpg
This will, eventually, wrap around the cargo bay above.


Not sure if I'll use it/them, but I bought some cargo to fit inside the Freelancer
002.jpg

 

Which has similar packaging
013.jpg

 

These sprues have, so far, remained intact
014.jpg
 

 

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  • Robert Stuart changed the title to MISC Freelancer from Star Citizen (game), 1/200 by JR Design &F abrication

Looking forward to see what you make of it! My DUR is still sitting about 80% stripped back, since the alclad really showed up my incomplete print line filling. They're lovely kits though. I believe there are a good number of new 1/500 scale ones being released soon, MSR, cutlass, various fighters. 

 

The tutorials on the YouTube are worth a look if you get a chance. 

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Thanks @Ngantek, for the warning about the print line filling.
Presume you saw DRDF's recent email, asked their customers what models should come next?
Just checked their website, 'cause I expected them to have a Cutty - they do, but only in 1:500.  

I'll keep your warning in mind when prepping the exterior - one of the triggers for starting so soon is some paint I stumbled across on evil bay.
The paint is a Spanish brand, Green Stuff World, which seems to be targeted at the miniature figure market.
(Is there something special about Spain and paint?  Vallejo and Ammo Mig are, I believe, also Spanish).

015.jpg

 

The names reflect the target market - el Dorado and Shiny Gold are supposed to be golden colours, Anthrax Metal is a steely grey (looks similar to the standard Freelancer or Prospector colours).
Toxic Purple and Storm Surge Green are a bit different - marketed as Chameleon colours, they should have a colour shift depending on the angle of reflected light.
Haven't seen this sort of thing in SC, but some Elite Dangerous ship skins have colour shift effects.

FWIW, I've used colour shift paints from Golden's interference and iridescent colour ranges.
Golden are very good at publishing technical information about their materials, here's a link to their paper about their similar product https://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo/technicalinfo_iridint
Guessing Green Stuff World uses a srelated technology?

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I like the sound of those paints. The nice thing about this kind of kit is it's a great place to really have a play around with interesting schemes, and get a but more creative with the effects. 

 

Cutty is likely to be down the line in 200 I suspect, it's just such a popular ship.

 

Looking good so far. Re:the print lines, they're really fine. I genuinely didn't pick them up under grey primer or even gloss black. Only once I'd applied the alclad did they show under certain light. So there's probably a little leeway on how meticulous you are priming and sanding, depending upon the finish you're after.

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Moving on to priming ...
018.jpg

 

The yellow is filler primer from a well-known auto parts retailer, another big H, as is the grey primer (on grey, you'll have to trust me on this), and white primer on the cargo pods.
The filler primer's instructions say leave it to harden for 24 hours, so I will.
In the meantime, depending on mood, I might take a look at the cargo or 'pit. 
(Question to self: Why did I paint the rear cockpit wall yellow?  What was I thinking?
For those who want to know, its the panel about 10 o'clock to the ladder above.)

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13 hours ago, Ngantek said:

Cutty is likely to be down the line in 200 I suspect, it's just such a popular ship.

Agree, the Cutty Black was one of the first ships I bought 'in game' - a good all-rounder.  I'd expect the Red to do well too.

As to priming, I took a look at JRDF's video on the subject ... after I'd committed to a totally different approach.
Link to YouTube video: JRDF - Quick Tips - Kit Model Basics Tutorial Series - Priming & Polish

 

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Yep lots. At the moment my plan is to roughly emulate but probably with a different accent colour and heavily 'star wars' chipped.

 

Good idea with the video, I'm forever loading up the game to check stuff which is no small proposition on my ancient rig

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On 03/06/2022 at 15:51, Ngantek said:

Good idea with the video, I'm forever loading up the game to check stuff which is no small proposition on my ancient rig

Thanks, it is the waiting game is bad enough on my (reasonable) rig:
Load game, (long wait), get up, go to lift, (wait), get in lift, (wait), leave lift, walk to the terminal, call ship, (wait), go to lift, (wait), travel in lift, check helmet ...

Video is up on YouTube now, so, if you're desperate ...

Small progress today, every part that received the primer Friday is sanded back (yesterday, Saturday).  This is a sample:

020.jpg


 

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Thought I should try a quick paint test.
The metals (el Dorado & Shiny Golds, and Anthrax Metal is a steely grey) are fine, giving the expected results over both black and white bases.

As hoped, the colours are a bit different, this is Toxic Purple and Storm Surge Green.

021a.jpg

Sorry for the quality of this image, getting a reasonable representation of colour wasn't easy.

 

The colour is strong over a black ground, with a very subtle (too subtle) pearlescent quality over white.
 

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  • Robert Stuart changed the title to MISC Freelancer from Star Citizen (game), 1/200 by JR Design & Fabrication

This is interesting. I'm sure that I've heard of Star Citizen (I don't do gaming) but I've never seen the ship before.

An interesting design, with (it seems to me) more than a hint of Firefly in it's function. Which is not a bad thing.

I like the packaging too. Very classy. And functional, given the fragility of the contents.

IIRC Green stuff world make a moulding putty? I meant to get some a while ago, but then forgot the name! I didn't know they did paint too.

Your sanded back pieces above have a great finish. It reminds me of a Turtle shell. I think I'd want to just put semi gloss on it. Rather Alien, I think.

Having said that, I'm looking forward to seeing how you do paint it.

I'll pop back later. Cheers, Pete

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Thanks Pete
Firefly? Which I wonder?

Agree, the packaging is excellent – the kit isn't cheap, but that packaging is at another level.
 

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Rather Alien, I think.

Game Lore: there is an agreement between MISC, the manufacture of the Freelancer, and a non-human civilization, the Xi'an.  There are strong suggestions that the Xi'an influenced the Freelancer design.

Lore video about MISC, narrated by Zinya who works for BoredGamer
(note, this is a sponsored video: sponsored section after about 10:16)

 




Had a bit of an accident today.  While spraying a primer coat, I dropped an engine pod on a cement paving slab.
Two pieces broke off the rear of the pod.  They are now glued back, and covered in more spray filler ...

022.jpg

 

Think I'll have to go in with a more conventional filler, and see if that hides the break better.
If I'm desperate, the kit maker does have a spare parts service.
 

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Sorry to hear about the accident. Good luck with the repairs.

Thanks for the video. Very interesting. I love that they've crammed all this detail into the story. It just makes it all seem more real.

I do like the Reliant class. Cool. 

Firefly, The one that those idiots cancelled after about six shows. A small space going cargo ship with an interesting crew. :sad:

Cheers, Pete

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49 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Sorry to hear about the accident. Good luck with the repairs.

Thanks for the video. Very interesting. I love that they've crammed all this detail into the story. It just makes it all seem more real.

I do like the Reliant class. Cool. 

Firefly, The one that those idiots cancelled after about six shows. A small space going cargo ship with an interesting crew. :sad:

Cheers, Pete

Yeah immersion is what the game is all about. The idea is that you fully inhabit a living sci-fi universe.

 

It's rather divisive (having obtained unheard of sums in crowdfunding but generally fallen way behind the original schedule due to massive expansion of the original game concept). But whatever complaints one might have, the immersion is awe inspiring, even now when it's many years from anything like completion. One can wander around inside their ship, fly down seamlessly from space to anywhere on a planet or moon surface, Dock in a city spaceport and climb out onto the metro to wander around town.

 

The reliant is pretty cool I agree. There are something like 100 flyable ships and vehicles right now with many more in development, ranging from little hover bikes to massive multi crew capital ships. Some ships are really cool although I find they all tend to be fairly conservative 'looks cool like an atmospheric ship' classic Sci fi look.

 

JRD+F are a third party prop maker who over lock down had to diversify and now feature a tiny fraction of these ships in kit format. 

 

I too miss firefly! Unsurprisingly, it has influenced many ship designs since. 

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Thanks @Pete in Lincs, I've set that engine pod to one side while I plan my next step there.

What @Ngantek said :ditto:

The game is well worth trying.  We've just had a free fly event, the next is in November, which is a good time to give it a go without commitment.

Progress:
Started painting the interior.
The cargo bay
023.jpg

 


025.jpg


Cargo bay, dry fitted


And the cockpit
024.jpg

 


 

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I wanted to get into this game, as it looked right up my street.  Unfortunately I'm a console gamer, so I played Elite Dangerous on Playstation which was awesome.  Looking forward to seeing this finished, gutted about the engine pod though :(

 

On 02/06/2022 at 08:48, Robert Stuart said:

Toxic Purple and Storm Surge Green are a bit different - marketed as Chameleon colours

 

I have 3 GSW chameleon colours, Emerald Getaway, Red Goblin, and Cobalt Blue.  They do look ace, but need to be painted over a black base coat for maximum colour, and they really start to pop when clear coated.  I used them to paint my PS4 controller shells.  I base coated in black, then stencilled a design in grey

02w5f4b.jpg

 

This was the end result, in Red Goblin (can just see the colour change down the left hand edge, but as you know its really hard to capture on photos)

OY2pmyF.jpg

 

I will be following this build with great interest, hopefully you can get the engine pod sorted without too much stress.

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Hello @HoolioPaulio
You played ED on a Playstation?  I loved Horizons, bought Odyssey ... that was my incentive for trying SC.

If you can plug your controller into a PC, then give SC a go in November's free fly week.
Alternatively, a lot of people play mouse and keyboard, so a controller isn't essential.
Even with a controller, WASD keys + Mouse can give a better experience on foot or in a turret - there are lots of on foot opportunities; pilots with larger ships are desperate for crew to occupy the turrets.

 

Thanks for posting images of your controller, that gives me an idea for the paint job here ... and, maybe, for a component I'm printing right now (eight hours till it finishes).

From the YouTube videos I've seen, Red Goblin is a particularly successful colour.

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I decided to use the spare parts service to replace the damaged pod.

While waiting, I had a look around to see if I could find a pilot figure for the Freelancer.
Couldn't find any space people, but I did find somebody who makes architectural figures in 1:200 on that EBay...

026.jpg

 

This is two selections, one of seated people, the other of standing characters.

Hope I can make a crew from some of these figures, using thick paint to give them under suits, and maybe some armour?

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19 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

You played ED on a Playstation?  I loved Horizons, bought Odyssey ... that was my incentive for trying SC.

If you can plug your controller into a PC, then give SC a go in November's free fly week.

 

Yeah, I loved ED.  I did some massive 3 week exploration trips in my over engineered Diamondback to visit some of my favourite celestial bodies.  I love how its an accurate map of our milky way, so things I've read about and seen photos of from Hubble and such can be visited in game.  I had the Horizons update, but haven't bought Odyssey yet as I've not loaded it up for months.  I've just Platinum'd Horizon Forbidden West, and I'm now working on Gran Turismo 7.  But ED is still installed...

 

I can plug a controller into my PC, but it is very much not a gaming PC.  My mates who moved from PS4 to PC tried to get me into SC when it had a free to fly week a couple of years ago, but my PC would not load the game.  I might give it a try on my current PC, but its not a gaming rig by any stretch so even if it loads I'm not expecting it to run too well.  Shame because it looks right up my street.

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On 16/06/2022 at 12:11, HoolioPaulio said:

I might give it a try on my current PC, but its not a gaming rig by any stretch so even if it loads I'm not expecting it to run too well.  Shame because it looks right up my street.

Give it another go in November's free fly week.

 

 

Progress with the figures
7026.jpg

 

Photos can reveal so many horrors that would be missed by the eye alone, these people ... they clearly need a bit more attention with the brush.

 

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The replacement pods arrived a day or so back, and were cleaned up & given a coat of primer.

The pods given a coat of filler primer, rubbed back, primed and rubbed back again
027.jpg

And re-primed
028.jpg

 

Hope painting proper can start soon 🤞

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1 hour ago, Robert Stuart said:

Hope painting proper can start soon

I'm looking forward to it. I'm at the painting stage with my build at the moment.

The pods look smooth and are an interesting shape. My mind always tries to figure out their origins, as on a Maschinen kreiger model,

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