Noddy4000
Acquainted with the idea of being sensible....
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2010
- Messages
- 91
Hi all, sorry for the lack of input. I've been fairly useless recently at posting fresh stuff, so here to make amends is a quick intro to a build I've been doing for a few months. I was presented with a child car booster seat by my wife one day with the challenge, " Make something sci fi out of this".
"Er...".
So I did, went and got a Stanley knife and a small hacksaw out and set to it:
My thought was the center of the seat could be a load/troop space for carrying gear, vehicles or quite a few suits but to improve the look of things I decided to chop out the shape of the deck and lower it down as much as I could. With some chopping up of some .5mm and 1mm styrene sheet I got the build on the way.
I got some 3" thick, 2' sq insulation foam from Evilbay for about £7.00 and started chopping some of that up to form the basic shapes of the hull I intended to build around the booster seat 'core'.
I wasn't really sure where I was going at first. I did know what I wanted it to look like at the end but wasn't too hot on how to get there, so I just bumbled along adding and cutting stuff off until it started to look more like what I wanted.
The blue part is the base of an egg shaped money box my son no longer wanted. I'd been planning to swipe it anyway but he kindly donated it before I had to sink so low ;D. It was there to help to form the shape of the 'nose' of the craft, where the main cockpit and control room would be. I slapped some clay on to smooth out some of the irregular bumps and lumps my dodgy design-as-you-build technique had created.
Some boring basic stuff next. I used paper templates to create the shapes of the styrene panels I needed to cut for covering the cockpit shape:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/ShapeComingTogether022.jpg
Some really poor doors which I need to tart up big time or re-do completely. These will go around the sides of the troop deck:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/AutoTurretandHatches014.jpg
I went slightly crazy with the marker pen putting in all the possible panel shapes I might do. I knew that I wouldn't use most of them but it did help to see what would and wouldn't work:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/ShapeComingTogether031.jpg
Okay, now it was time to start doing the paneled surface of this beast, for which I decided to borrow a technique used by Mar.K ( http://maschinenkrueger.com/forum/index.php?topic=5455.0 ) over on the Ma.K forum (and elsewhere) in which panel shapes on the model are first coated with a layer of latex glue, then a layer of car body filler (with talcum powder added to increase its viscosity) applied over that and smoothed out with a wet finger to the correct shape and thickness. Once hardened the panel can be peeled away from the model thanks to the latex release layer beneath, trimmed and sanded smooth and glued back in position or set aside till it's needed.
It's the first time I've had a go at using the technique and it's fair to say I made a pigs ear of it where smoothness of finish is concerned! Way too many air bubbles in mine and too many thin/thick spots but I have learned tons doing it and think it's an excellent way to create a hull surface.
Right, going to skip a lot of stuff and come up to relatively recent work on this to show where it is now.
And finally one last WIP including a Ma.K figure for scale:
Apologies for lots of WIPs, won't do it again promise! Just wanted show it quickly from start to present. I have done some more since these shots were taken and hoping to get the last 3 panels done tomorrow. Then it's just a case of sanding the whole lot all over to get the panels sorted out, some filling of bits missed or broken off and then I can start detailing this. The biggest job in that department will be making the cockpit interior for the 'nose' which I am thinking of lighting with some FOs and LEDs.
Will post some more on this soon I hope. Any C+C most welcome guys.
Thanks for looking.
Noddy.
"Er...".
So I did, went and got a Stanley knife and a small hacksaw out and set to it:
My thought was the center of the seat could be a load/troop space for carrying gear, vehicles or quite a few suits but to improve the look of things I decided to chop out the shape of the deck and lower it down as much as I could. With some chopping up of some .5mm and 1mm styrene sheet I got the build on the way.
I got some 3" thick, 2' sq insulation foam from Evilbay for about £7.00 and started chopping some of that up to form the basic shapes of the hull I intended to build around the booster seat 'core'.
I wasn't really sure where I was going at first. I did know what I wanted it to look like at the end but wasn't too hot on how to get there, so I just bumbled along adding and cutting stuff off until it started to look more like what I wanted.
The blue part is the base of an egg shaped money box my son no longer wanted. I'd been planning to swipe it anyway but he kindly donated it before I had to sink so low ;D. It was there to help to form the shape of the 'nose' of the craft, where the main cockpit and control room would be. I slapped some clay on to smooth out some of the irregular bumps and lumps my dodgy design-as-you-build technique had created.
Some boring basic stuff next. I used paper templates to create the shapes of the styrene panels I needed to cut for covering the cockpit shape:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/ShapeComingTogether022.jpg
Some really poor doors which I need to tart up big time or re-do completely. These will go around the sides of the troop deck:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/AutoTurretandHatches014.jpg
I went slightly crazy with the marker pen putting in all the possible panel shapes I might do. I knew that I wouldn't use most of them but it did help to see what would and wouldn't work:
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/Noddy4000/Wifes%20Extreme%20Modeling%20Challenge/ShapeComingTogether031.jpg
Okay, now it was time to start doing the paneled surface of this beast, for which I decided to borrow a technique used by Mar.K ( http://maschinenkrueger.com/forum/index.php?topic=5455.0 ) over on the Ma.K forum (and elsewhere) in which panel shapes on the model are first coated with a layer of latex glue, then a layer of car body filler (with talcum powder added to increase its viscosity) applied over that and smoothed out with a wet finger to the correct shape and thickness. Once hardened the panel can be peeled away from the model thanks to the latex release layer beneath, trimmed and sanded smooth and glued back in position or set aside till it's needed.
It's the first time I've had a go at using the technique and it's fair to say I made a pigs ear of it where smoothness of finish is concerned! Way too many air bubbles in mine and too many thin/thick spots but I have learned tons doing it and think it's an excellent way to create a hull surface.
Right, going to skip a lot of stuff and come up to relatively recent work on this to show where it is now.
And finally one last WIP including a Ma.K figure for scale:
Apologies for lots of WIPs, won't do it again promise! Just wanted show it quickly from start to present. I have done some more since these shots were taken and hoping to get the last 3 panels done tomorrow. Then it's just a case of sanding the whole lot all over to get the panels sorted out, some filling of bits missed or broken off and then I can start detailing this. The biggest job in that department will be making the cockpit interior for the 'nose' which I am thinking of lighting with some FOs and LEDs.
Will post some more on this soon I hope. Any C+C most welcome guys.
Thanks for looking.
Noddy.
