Battleship - adding the black

Top pic is just before spraying. To begin the masking i used my old friend Go Fasta stripes. This was because they're very low tac and very flexible, meaning i could lift them up and down again without fear of pulling up any paint, plus they easily fit into recesses.
Just got to tidy up a few places where the blacks seeped under, replace a few decals that lifted off, some white one's on the black surfaces, then pastel.

Gateway Shuttle - starting the rear section.

Very simple this. Put some Plasticard on the underside of the "wings". Got some of this neat semicircle tubing (from B&Q - used for concealing wiring along your skirtingboard), so cut some to size, made a platform for the wings to sit on and attached them. On the original studio model the "wings" were left open on the front but i didn't want that. Blanked them off and added a couple of engine cowls from the B-29 which luckily almost fit. Finally, tidied up the end of the tubing with a piece of ribbed Plasticard.

Top Ten TV Openings - #2

How i loved and love the hardware on show. Makes no difference that a lot doesn't stand up to the scrunity of logic, Meddings and co achieved brilliance.

Battlecruiser - adding decals

The whole things VERY glossy - which is great for adding decals - but a nightmare to put washes on. So have put a few decals on prior to the Matt Varnish.

Battlecruiser - yellow

Gateway Shuttle - now really a variation on a theme.

So, if i'm to be anywhere near accurate i need a 1/24th Huey Hog for the main tail section.
Seems there's none to be had right now in the UK. There's a few in the States but 25.00+ (if i'm lucky), then postage, then the now obligatory Customs charge would make it about 55 quid - if i'm lucky. All for the end off the tail and maybe a couple of guns or a couple of shapes.
No, no way can i justify that.
So, along with the above and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any shots of the rear or underside (meaning a large part of the build would be conjecture), has resulted in my deciding to go completetly my own way and just the vary basic form as a basis for my own design (much like the Blakes 7 craft).
Maybe it'll be another version of the one in the film?
What to use though for the main tail parts? The only 1/24th thing i have is the Airfix Harrier but that's a bit too thick for what i need.
Had a lightbulb moment yesterday when i realised the 1/72nd B-29 i've bought for the Psydon Ship has a tail just the right thickness. So cut them off from the main halves and here they are Blu Tac'd in place with the other parts. Again, no idea what was used for the central section that eveerythings joined to, so have used some nice grooved piping i had lying around.

Top Ten TV Openings - #1

While i'm strolling down memory lane via Youtube Lane, here we go with my favourite ever openings to TV shows.
Number 1 has been quite fairly lambasted for the cheapness of the production, the barminess of some of the tales and the woodiness of some of the acting.
Quite true.
But rising above the tackiness were the credits, which the show itself could never hope to approach in terms of moodiness and downright creepiness.
Dunno what's the most unsettling, the score or the images, especially the foetus and closing hand.
Coming soon: Number2. Which'll it be? Well, its a show that sports my favourite hardware design of any TV show, has my second biggest crush i had during my pre-teens, and was responsible for the only time i've ever fancied owning a string vest...

B7 Attack Craft - main part done

All i've to do is finish off some battle damage (i'd been a hit too heavy with the pastelling in a couple of places and am disguising them with paint chips etc).
I've also put in a window. Wasn't going to do such an Earth-type thing, but the recess here SCREAMED window, and it'd be a nice bit of solid black to break up the white.

Best Moments In Film # 4 - Take off 1

Okay, its the Special Edition but, boy, watch this and i'm a 16 year old again, fair wetting me cinema seat with excitement.

Best Moments In Film # 3 - Goosebumps 2

Brilliant, brilliant stuff, made even better that it was improvised by Mr Haur. I can watch this over and over and over and over and over. If i have one criticism its that it should be "tears IN the rain".

Best Moments In Film # 2 - Goosebumps 1

This sequence, and especially when Supes catches the helicopter WITH ONE HAND, never, ever, ever fails to give me goosebumps - and a lump to my throat.

Best Moments In Film # 1 - Opening 1

Thanks to andrew Glazebrook for showing me how, here we go with my favourite ever moments in film - those that i can watch again and again, the best bits of my best films and that i never tire of.
First up, the best ever opening to a film (from 2:45):

Gateway Shuttle - bugger, bugger and thrice times bugger

Percieved wisdom is that the large helicopter tails at the rear are from a 1/48th Huey Hog.

Postie delivered mine today. Put it up against my 1/72 Wessex and Tornado tails (which i know to be correct) - and not only is it too small, dimension-wise i think its the wrong shape.

Thinking the size difference is pointing to a 1/24th rather than a 1/32nd kit. As to what type? Gawd knows...

Brilliant 50/60's SF Site

Courtesy of a link on Andrew Glazebrooks Blog, this - bizarrely IMO - is a site devoted to a The Humanoid.

Not much for me there. But scroll down and there's an exhaustive section devoted to 50/60's SF film.

VERY indepth and highly recommended:

http://www.golobthehumanoid.com/cosmic-classics.html

B7 Attack Craft - pastelled

Here she is pastelled. But the trouble is she looks, well, pastel. There's no solid blacks for contrast, so in i go with the paint brush.

Psydon Ship - movement

Finally, finally, some progress. This project stalled as one of the things i need is an Airfix B-29 kit. But i'll be darned if i'm going to pay out a lot for only 5 parts. Finally got one cheap though so expect progress soon.

B7 Attack Craft - factory finish

Here she is with panels picked out in Skull White, then the panels and detail outlined in pencil and decals added. Kept to a pallette of just red and black with them, and nothing to give an Earth origin.

B7 Attack Craft - Base coated

Was going to go with plain white primer for the basecoat, but i'm a bit bored with that route.

Instead, put on a layer of "Peugot Alpine White" which - oddly - has a green tint to it, then a dusting of the white primer to take it back a bit.

Battlecruiser - white

Finally a decent Coldplay video

Courtesy of Matthew Schuerman and his Blog.
Truly excellent - if only i could burn this to disc and play it on the Digi Projector at work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI179GqNTWg&feature=player_embedded

Battlecruiser - grey

Think i've gone as far as i want to with this (and got to clear the bench) so here she is with grey primer. Looking quite hefty and military methinks.

B7 Attack Craft - almost there

Start of the week - and still no flamin' kits from the Postie. Never mind, went off to my local Modelzone and picked up a Westland Wessex helicopter for my Gateway Station ship. Only need the tail for it so i'm in the process of putting various greeblies onto this. You can see at the rear i've used one of the rotors for a nice chunky panel.

You can also see i've used the Baco Bricks again. One of the elements of the original i wanted to keep is the grid panel all round the mid section. The problem there is that i've got to have a lot of the same thing to repeat the pattern - and the only thing that i have are the Baco's. Thought they were a bit too chunky at first, but they've grown on me since.

You may spot that i've capped the rear with the bottom of the Airfix Lunar Module. Used that because it has a nice rounded indent that the ball should fit nicely onto.

The Trilogy Meter

Pinched from over on Andrews Blog - http://bsmbow.blogspot.com/ - this was a lot of fun to fill in.

Battleship - photoshopped

Blitzspear over on the SFMUK Forum was asking me how progress was going on the Battlecruiser. Thought i'd take a photo to show him but then thought it might be fun to try and show it the way i see it in my minds eye. Took the colour out to try and blend everything together.

B7 Attack Craft - front section nearly done

Hard to make out here, what with the hull and some of the Lego pieces being clear, but i'm almost done on this section. Don't want to put on any more panel lines as, with it being a compound curve, the nearer i put them the more difficult it is to keep them symmetrical. Also holding off putting on any more detail at the mo' as i've run out of nice, tiny, detailed greeblies and i'm hoping the donor kits (which, AGAIN, didn't turn up today) will have some and don't want to put on any old piece, only to regret it in a couple of days.

Ditto the Glazebrook and Battlecruiser.

B7 Attack Craft - the Probes

Still modelling standing up, and it ain't 'alf doing me back in - but a nice, easy bit of work done this morning.

Because the blue shroud i've put on the front is attached to the mouth-piece of the inhaler, which is open, there's no real way of glueing it nor the probes in place.

Got round that by filling the shroud with Milliput and pushing the shroud over the mouth-piece. The slow setting time of the Milliput has the double benefit of allowing me to move the shroud until i was happy with it, and then i could push the seperate probes into the Milliput, taking my time making sure everything was level and nicely spaced out.

In the background you can see i've painted the inside of the EMA Hemispheres with Tamiya Clear Red. I was toying with the idea of adding darker shades or a different colour and swirling them around to try and convey an energy vortex as the power source. But each coat darkens the colour further and i don't think it'd show with the panel lines on. And i also don't want to balls it up.

Blakes 7 System Attack Craft

Probably lunacy to take another project on with so many at various stages of completion already.

But, with me sitting here twiddling me thumbs waiting for various donor kits to arrive, why not?

My good friend Ian Ward came round yesterday, bringing tons of graphic novels to read during my recuperation.

He also brought this shape that another good friend Dave Trelfer had passed on, thinking i could use it in some way.

Its a nice bunch of compound curves and straight away reminded me of the System Attack Craft seen in the second series of Blakes 7. These were smaller, combat ships built by the same race that built the Liberator, hence the design similarities.

As i say, it reminded me of them, no more, and of course i couldn't use this shape i had to make my own.

But a few years ago i made my own Liberator but, rather than slavishly follow the original, i did a riff on the design, keeping enough elements to make it reconisable.

And that's i think i'll do here. I'm going to make it up as i go along, keeping these basic elements:

probes at the front,

white,

panelling in the mid-section,

red ball at the back with white panelling.

Apart from that, gawd knows where's its gonna go. Had a play around with some bits this morning. You can see here i've put a shroud thing where the probes will be attached and dug out two clear EMA hemispheres for the ball. They might be a bit too big. Don't know whether to have the ball just attached to the main section like this, or have the tube part that the original sports.

By the way, the screen grab of the original comes courtesy of John and his excellent Titan Find site, the maker of my B7 Pursuit Ship, along with the Liberator and Attack Craft (how i wish i'd got them when i ahd the chance) and his new Scorpio:

http://www.titanfind.com/

U.S.S. Glazebrook - starting

Right, about time i started adding things. There's not too many areas Andrews left bare so its going to be quite simple to finish them off.

The top pic shows how i've used - i think - Fine Moulds TIE Fighter parts to cover a couple of areas.

Next pic has the start of covering up the two rear facing blank areas. I've used "Baco" bricks for this, which are kind clunky but i really like them (used them on the top of my Battlecruiser too).

I was put on to them by Martin Bower who used them extensivly on his 1999 Dragon Ship (see last pic).

Battleship - more progress

Can get out of bed now, but can't sit on anything other than the computer chair. Been modelling though - by standing at the bench. As you can see, i'm still adding bits and pieces to this beastie. Got 3 kits on the way for the Gateway Station ship build so figure i'll have even more to add soon.

Ripley - ding DONG!

Never seen this shot before - and thought i'd share it. Nuff' said.

Gateway Shuttle - discrepencies

Curiouser and curiouser...Just printed some pics off for reference - and there's a jarring discrepency. Take a look at the front mandibles

A circular plate, vertically attached to the framework right? Now look at the next shot.

Instead of the flat plate, we now have something curving in towards the centre of the ship. And on the other side from it, a projecting piece facing foward. Are we seeing the same thing i came across with the Psydon Ship - photos show the ship some time after filming, when parts had fallen off or new parts were attached in way of repair?

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Watched this again for the first time in about 5 years. And, while the Creature design is a rightful classic and Julie Adams is very easy on the eye, i still don't rate it that much.

Sure it had plenty of impact at its time, but the plot is so old and cliched now that it makes for difficult viewing.

Ditto anything filmed in 3D but shown in 2D - there's only so many wobbly claws being dangled in front of me that i can take.

But mainly its the AWFUL signature theme for the Creature that seems to be used every 5 seconds or so. Did they have to use it that much? And, if so, did it have to be played on such jarring, blaring trumpets????

Getting back on the modelling topic, here's my Horizon version of the fella - still in my mind the best kit produced of him.

Gateway Shuttle - puzzle solving

I said in my last post that i thought Bob Skotak had trimmed around the rear of the side windows.

Looking at this angle though, its obvious that he'd kept all the side section (coloured blue) but, if he'd done that, he'd have kept all the canopy. But, if you look at the area circled in yellow, the detail doesn't match the kit.

Looking then that what we've got is the whole part, with something laid on top of the very rear of the top of the canopy.

Am enjoying this mystery.

My Holy Grail

Off-topic, but real chuffed with this.

Back in the early 70's when i were a nipper of 10 or so, i used to regularly get this book out the library.

Don't think i ever read it - just poured over the photos. It would be many years before i saw all the films pictured here, but that didn't matter - i was enthralled by the creature designs and i'm sure the book started me on my way into SF, a huge love of 50's B Movies and a preference of B&W over colour stills.

Anyway, i've always wanted my own copy. Pleaded with the library to sell me theirs but no-go. Then one day it was gone. Resigned to never seeing it again, as i couldn't remember at all the name of it. But last week realised Amazon have a "published before" function to their search engine so typed in before 1980, had a scroll and there it was, published in 1971.

So, a happy, happy bunny.

Its way out of date of course, but recommend tracking it down as the pics are excellent, and some very rare, even now.

Gateway Shuttle - the basis

When i got back from hospital yesterday, the Tamiya Porsche kit was waiting for me.

Frustrating that i can't get started and just have to be content with looking at the parts.

The Porsche is, of course, the main front section of the Shuttle. Comparing the body shell to the finished craft, its obvious Bob Skotak only used some of it, cutting just to the rear of the canopy and losing most of the sides. You can see by the green line where i've roughly got to cut.

The kit is a little disapointing in that i'd kinda hoped Bob had used other parts from it on the build, and maybe he had - but there's none on show in the photos i've got.

The parts that i need for the rest of it are slowly coming together, but what i'm really stumped on right now is what was used at the front to cover the original wheel arches. They look like halves from an aircraft or helicopter.

But which?

U.S.S. Glazebrook a question of command

Hi there.

Sorry for the delay in updates, but i went into hospital yesterday for an operation.

Home now and i'm pretty much bed-ridden. But i have to get up from time to time to stop me seizing up, so thought i'd take a few snaps then go on the Net for a short while.

Can't do any modelling right now, but been umming and ahhing over what to use for the Command Deck for the Glazebrook. The first thing to decide before i can go any further is what's the scale of thing.

You can see in the top pic that i've placed a kit part from the SRN4 over the Plasticard blanking plate i'd already attached. Quite like this part as it suggests windows, and makes the ship pretty big. But its kinda clunky.

Second pic is more in keeping with the lines of the rest of the ship - but isn't really a command deck. So, if i use that, it'd be more a shroud for sensor devices that'd i'd put in there.

Thinking of using neither. What i'm on the lookout for is a slit-shape as i want the front to be sorta like the bridge of the Prison Shuttle in the Dredd film, or ditto of the Galactica Shuttle from the original series.