Yup that’s right thanks to Hosts selling services that exceed their hardware we are yet again moving. So please excuse all the boxes everywhere while we unpack and settle in.
Like the Cloud Car this was another fast track studio scale project. The majority of the work was accomplished over a four day period. The remaining work is to complete painting of the eyes and mounting to a display base. This project features lights, sound, and animation of the antennas and head. Both the antennas and head required the fabrication of a mechanism and mounting hardware. The over all objective was to build this as it appears on display.
Video test of head animation.
This is a studio scale build of the Cloud Car as seen in Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back. This project was completed over a four day period. It was quite a challenge as the hulls where designed as upper and lower halves. These did not mate up well at all and required the insertion of an MDF plate cut to fit to maintain the correct shape. This plate was sandwiched between the upper and lower hulls for both pods. The kit parts where also modified to receive lighting to both the cockpit and engine.
This was built using the 1:1000 scale Polar Lights TOS Enterprise kit. All of the damaged areas where scratch built and made to represent the remastered photos floating around the web. I always liked the damaged Constellation but have to admit I like it even more sporting this new look. Now she really looks like she grappled with a planet killer.
After a flood of emails asking for more photos and information on the three little alien saucers I decided to post some additional pics. All three where complete scratch builds and have lighting to illuminate the eyes and antennas, even the tips of Wheems little arms. Both Flotsom and Jetsom have working joints at the hips, knees, and ankles. This proved quite the challenge to design a joint that could both hold the weight and have a long life with little to no ware. Each of the kids have a hidden battery box and power switch. They where also built to match the actual size of the filming puppets as much as was possible.
Pouring thousands of kit parts into this thing now and what feels like miles to cover still. So far the forward engine notches have been detailed and all 13 engines are set to elevation.
The forward engine cluster
The mid engine clusters being fit and detailed.
Fantail under construction and final fit up.
Just a quick update on the SSD project. Here is the forward bay after being blocked in an detailing started.
This has been quite the interesting project to work out. When looking over photos of the actual studio model it is clearly visible that is had begin to sag under it’s own weight. The banana effect with long thin subjects like the SSD. While sorting out the base shape of the structures on the bottom several areas became clear as to why it did this. There are several areas that completely lack any major support. The objective was to correct this issue and insure there won’t be any sag over the long term. So in short after several modifications to the armature the substructures have been started. The rear area has been blocked in and the forward shuttle bay will be blocked in by days end. What does all this mean? It means now the fun starts and the final leg of this journey is about the begin.
The 24″ Star Destroyer is nearing completion. Here she is with the hull closed up and only the super structure to be attached and one last layer of detail to be applied before painting starts.
And just for fun a view of what these start out looking like.
