Scratchbulding a Banshee (Wing Commander IV)

[elend]

I am currently in the process of trying to scratchbuild a Banshee. The Banshee is a space ship from the well known Wing Commander IV game and it basically looks like this:



Apart from the SMA EGGZtravaganza contest and some random boxes for a Harrier mini diorama, I have never ever scratchbuild something. This will be a first for me and to kinda force myself to actually finish this, I am posting this here.

This is, what I am currently at. Built the main shape of the three "wings" and am now trying to add that weird ventilation, exhaust... things.



The next update may take a while, because it takes ages to do those ventilation things. I am currently cutting out a thousands of thin polystyrene stripes, which will be placed in the recessed areas. :'(

 

[Jack-Swiss]

That's a nice project mate...
kinda difficult but i see you have everything under perfect control...So surely it will come out awesome!

Can't wait for more
Cheers man

 

[Junkie]

Very cool. Looking forward to more of this one!

 

[Panzer-Plastic]

Looks like some state of the art German precision there, surely will be an interesting build to follow!

 

[Ialarmu]

Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Shark]

That is going to be a great model. Good choice of ship. I'm always afraid of compound curves.

 

[bttfspencer]

i have never heard of this ship, coooooooool

 

[Junkie]

Me niether. Welcome bttfspencer! Good to see you.

 

[igor57]

Beware the scratchbuilding Dude! You will have so much fun doing it you will not want to go back to OOTB!

Great subject for a first SB. Will watch with great interest.

 

[Chas]

Looks like a tough build ahead. Great start and good luck!

Chas

 

[Blitzspear]

Thats got some serious fire power, i've never played the game or any of them but seen the film and was wondering if the ships in that where new designs or taken from the PC games.

I will be following this with great intrest, love the scratch building process and as Igor says it is addictive.

blitz

 

[jetjock]

Cool subject.

Scratchbuilding is a special skill. I look forward to learning lots from following your build.

 

[elend]

Yeah, as Scott used to say: "Learn from my mistakes!" Bear in mind, that this is my first major scratchbuild.

Oh and the ships in the Wing Commander movie didn't have anything to do, with the game's ships. But that would have looked weird anyway. From Wing Commander I only like the original Drahlti.

 

[elend]

So, this is where I am at.



Doesn't seem to be a lot of progress, yet it took ages. The grids on those ventilation thingies were quite a tedious work. I had to cut around 250 thin stripes of polystyrene and place them into those recessed areas. I wasn't able to cut them all in the exact same size so it looks a tad weird. The "frame" thingie, which I put over them, covers most of my mistakes.

Then I just glued everything finally together. So the next step will be the fuselage, I guess?

 

[Backbreaker]

WOW I think its coming on in leaps and bounds.
Can't wait to see more.

Joolz

 

[Panzer-Plastic]

That is a lot of progress. You did excellent work on the grids and I can imagine having to go through the same arduous process 3 times takes quite a lot of passion. Excellent work! Are you building all of this just from pictures or do you have more references?

 

[elend]

3 times? I had to do that 6 times, since there are 2 of those grids on each wing. One grid consists of around 35 stripes. And yes, that was quite some tedious work and I had to pause it quite much.

I am using the picture I posted as reference and luckily even found a 3D model of it. That differs a bit from the picture, though.

 

[Panzer-Plastic]

3 times? I had to do that 6 times, since there are 2 of those grids on each wing.

Yeah, I was referring to the 3 wings but now that you mention it, it takes even more patience having to do it even 6 times! Hats off!

 

[Junkie]

Real nice building there. Keep at it.

 

[Jack-Swiss]

Wow...dude,You're da man with plasticards!!!

Cheers mate