1:350 Survey Cruiser (Original Design)

Richard Baker

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This is a larger model of a capital ship in 1:350 scale. It is about 16 1/2" long, all sheet styrene with some detailing bits, no landing gear or mounting point this time. I wanted to create a ship which was devoted to planetary surveys- most sensors and support equipment is on it's underside and along the forward section sides. All hatches are marked in red for easy location. The ship can submerge if needed with the shuttle bay on top being exposed for use (note- this was built a couple of decades before Trek did the same with the Enterprise). There is also a universal docking port forward of the shuttle bay which can be adapted to fit a variety of docking mechanisms. Two long range sensors are mounted in the front and underneath is a rotating turret for self defense. Aside from the front pilots station and the upper observation dome there are only a couple of windows- the ship uses sensors mostly for seeing around it. The main exit hatch has a platform on rails to assist in leaving down the slope of the hull when the ship is on the ground. There are two externally mounted landing pods on the
ventral side and a deployable field generator on the port side.

About the design:
I had fun with this one.There are some animalistic features to the design- the main surfaces are detailed taking cues from a crocodile hide- I wanted to give it an armored feel. The side view shows the forward lower section having a throat like structure with gill flaps. The hull has some perspective tricks built into it as well which come into play when you are looking down it's length from either end'I need to fix the lighting and take a few more pictures. my set up works better with white/light gray subjects. There are also a couple of places where some panels have come off over the years- need to make some replacements and get this model back into shape!

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Still working of getting some better photos-
While the inch grid Background is helpful, this one shows it's true size a bit better I think
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OK, last set of pictures, then I am moving on to another build. This past weekend I altered my lighting setup and tried to show the hull textures better. The hull is built up from thin layers of sheet styrene. most as thing as card stock.
It is really weird, but this model looks better with the old MkII eyeball than what shows up in camera

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As you can see in these last two photo, my fondness for asymmetrical hardware asserted itself. I did not spend as much time here as on the dorsal surfaces, my goal was to create some interesting heavy shadowing.

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Very cool! Good way to get rid of all of the resin pour blocks I've collected over the years.
 

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