Thanks Andrew

Topbloke Andrew Glazebrook has come to my aid again: Not only supplying an undamaged X Wing part for my Hairdryer Ship, along with one of the weapon prongs from the same kit (bottom left) but also a stack of really neat shapes seen here.
Am particually taken with the large shape on thew right, along with the two smaller pieces below it.
Was initially thinking of going with a docking port sort of an affair just on a slab of hull to make for soething different.
But now thinking, if i can find something suitable to attach to the rear of the large bit, i've got the hull of a ship and the two lower pieces can be the very front of two nacelle's slung low, a bit like how the Vulcan Shuttle has things.

T.I.E. Fighter - cockpit

Despite it being absolutely TINY,the chair is still made up of three pieces and the detail on them and the pilot is just astonishing.
Here's the main parts of the cockpit done, with the pilot basecoated and plopped in. Next is to pick out some details on him in gloss black and add his helmet decals (yes, really).
The side walls have decals depicting various lighting grids and doubt VERY much if they'll be visible when done, but will have a go anyway.

Victorian Blaster - based

Keeping costs down, i've gone with the same colour as on my Lunar Lander. Works okay i think.

T.I.E. Fighter

Coming via my good friend Dover Dave, is the Fine Molds version of the very destinctive badguy ship.
Knew it would be small, coming in at 1/72nd, but still had a shock when i saw the size of the eyeball cockpit.
But, already got the FM Y Wing and figure it might be nice to get all their SW ships in that scale and have them alongside each other. Adding weight to that is that the Revell AT-AT is pretty much the same scale - so ideas a go.
Even though its tiny, its still mighty impressive, with tons and tons of detail you just don't get on bigger scale kits from other producers.
Looking forward to the build.

Victorian Lunar Lander - shiny

Been umming and ahhing about whether to go steel or brass for this one, but in the end decided to go with this gold colour, figuring i can pick details out in brass and bronze's, making for something a wee bit more striking.
Good timing - tonight we have the BBC's version of First Men In The Moon. Feeling pretty confident as Mark Gatiss has a long proven love of classic SF and horror (loving his doucumentaris on BBC4 right now) and really get the feeling that he's one of us.
Looking like they're sticking close to the 60's film version of the Sphere and am interested to see what their take on the Selenite's and Grand Lunar are like (although can't see them bettering Ray Harryhausen's)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vfgcw

Blake's 7 Ore Ship - underside

Turning now to the lower sections, you can see there's a whole mass of shapes in the sphere area.
Trouble is, part identification is proving to be difficult. I know there's bits from the Leopold kit, but i've been buying up too many kits just lately for, at best, 3 or 4 pieces i need (have you any idea how many motorbike, helicopter, ship and plane bodies i have now?).
That, and the fact that i'm now doing my own version of the craft, means i'll just make it up as i go along and try to approximate the feel of what's going on.
Made a start:
The white piece is a cut-down upper hull from the X-Wing that i got for the R2 and engine pieces.
The grey ribbed lengths are from the Airfix B-59.
And the long grey shape is from Airfix's Refueling Set. Detail on the original doesn't go all the way back to the tanks, but it fits just right, looks good, so why not?

Your favourite Star Wars moment?

Okay, been a while since i've done a poll - so here's another.
What's your best ever moment from Star Wars?
By that, i mean a snapshot scene, no more than 30 seconds long, that sums up to you what Star Wars is all about.
I've listed what comes to my mind - apologies if yours isn't in there - and stuck to the original trilogy for simplicities sake.
So, what you having?

Best Star Wars moment?
	"Weeeeeooooo" - the Blockade Runner flies overhead, pursued by the Star Destroyer - " New Hope"
	"Stand by Ion Control. Fire" - Echo Base clears the way for the Rebel fleet to leave Hoth - "Empire"
	"Chewie, get us out of here!" The Falcon blasts out of Mos Eisley - " New Hope"
	"No, I am your father" - Vader fills Luke in - "Empire"
	"Copy Gold Leader, i'm already on my way out" Wedge starts the ball rolling - " Jedi"
	"Ok, punch it" - The Falcon leaves the Death Star - "New Hope"
	"Pooof... Fsssh" - R2 launches Luke's Lightsaber to him" - "Jedi"
	"You're all clear kid" - Luke has the money shot - "New Hope"
	"Sit down sweetheart, we're leavin'" Han clocks just where they are - "Empire"
	"Its a trap!" - Ackbar rumbles the plan - "Jedi"
	"N'yaahhhhhh!" - The Emperor plunges to his doom - "Jedi"
	"Stop that ship!" - Han has it out with the Sandtroopers - "New Hope"
pollcode.com free polls

Victorian Blaster - built

A right old mish-mash of kit parts and odd shapes, but she's finally done. Looks a bit better primed.

Galactica Viper - bye bye Pilot

All done, and time to say goodbye to the pilot for what looks to be a looong time.

Blake's 7 Ore Ship - balls.

Moving to the other end, we have these two shapes in Pic 1. Looks to me like two ping pong balls each with half an R2D2 from the old X Wing kit and an unidentified tube facing forward.
But they ain't ping pong balls as they're too big.
Had a rummage and came up with a couple of Christmas baubles which are a tad smaller but are close enough. Pic 2 shows them alongside a couple of pieces i'm going to attach them to. Looking back at Pic 1, you can see the original has mounting plates for the spheres and a mass of machinery around them. So will be emulating that.
Pic 3 is one of the balls attached
And Pic 4 is them in place.

Galactica Viper - a slog.

Got the cockpit done and am nearly finished on the assembly but, boy, its really fiddly and for no apparent reason. Case in point here is how the landing gear and wings attach to the body. Such a mass of overlapping shapes that you have to try and get to slot against each other. Tssk.

Blake's 7 Ore Ship - getting started

Okay, here we are with the Shuttle Fuel Tanks attached to the ladder. It was a simple matter of just missing out the middle section of each to give it the shortend form, add two lengths of plastic tubing along the length and to cap the pointy end off with a chrome detail from the old R2D2 kit.

Galactica Viper - cockpit done

And what a chore that was. REALLY suprised that a kit so clearly put out by folk who care about such things, some parts were just annoying to do. Painting guide for the cockpit so small you can't see it, none at all for the pilot, raised part numbers on some pieces plainly visible so needing sanding off, no word at all that there's actually decals for the dials, decals that crumble when you try to put them on.
As i say, glad to be past this section now.

Blake's 7 Ore Ship - first hurdle

Take a look at the first shot, a close-up of the engine section. Long time modellers i'm sure will spot the engine from the Airfix X Wing set at 90 degrees above the part from the same kit that the engine fits onto.
So, needed one of the kits. But didn't want to shell out a lot for only two bits. Waited and waited on eBay and eventually bought a built one for 4 quid. Trouble is, the builder had REALLY plastered the glue on - and this is the state of the best one i could get off...

E-11 Blaster - ready for paint

One more thing to deal with before putting the primer on was to deal with the crappy orange crossfire thing at the front of the scope.
Pretty easy to do - removed it, found a tube in the spares box that slid very nicely over and, before putting it on, i placed a circle of clear plastic inside it.
Here it is primed, with the red LED and speaker grill covered up.

Aliens Gateway Station Shuttle for sale.

Long term readers of this here Blog may remember this project i undertook waytime back.
Had it in mind to build something a bit different from the Alien/Aliens universe.
Which this craft certainly is, being only very briefly glimpsed in the establishing shot of Gateway Station at the start of Aliens.
Despite it being hardly seen and hardly known, there's quite an interest in it, not least over on the RPF Forum:

http://www.therpf.com/f10/aliens-gateway-station-shuttle-research-thread-33207/

Anyway, i haven't had a go at it for along while, being busy on so many other projects to track down the rest of the parts i need.
Feel guilty about it just laying there in its box though so thought i'd pass it on to someone who'd like to take a crack at it, and its now up for sale on eBay - just type in "Aliens Gateway Station Shuttle" and you'll find it.

As i say in the description there, a lot of the ammassing is done already, consisting:

the main hull made from the Tamyia Porsche kit,
the green Macross hull for the bit that joins to it,
the 1/24th Huey Helicopter for the rear section and parts for the front mandibles,
the Yamaha RZV500R bike kit for the guns and some other sections,
loads of Macross Regult parts for various sections,
a Tornado tail for the, er, tail,
and a helicopter tail to be lain down horizontally beside the Tornado tail.

Fancy a go?

E-11 Blaster

So, my son's stiil deeply into Star wars, his birthadys coming up, i'm in Toys R' Us looking for presents, still in Blaster mode after starting my Victorain one, and come across the Hasbro toy version going for half price.
Always loved the design and know the costumers often use this very thing adapted with a resin conversion kit to make it more accurate.
So thought i'd have a go.
Buy the toy, order a the conversion set, and have it withina few days. Which is what you see in Pic 1.
At Pic 2 i've filled the screw holes in with P38 and sawn the orange tip off. I was careful here as i wanted to keep the red LED working (incidently, the sound effects in it are great - but far too tinny. Did think about cracking it open and replacing the speaker, but that'd be far, far too time consuming).
Pic 3 is the new end of the barell fitted, which fits nicely over the LED. And at the other end we've got a couple of detail pieces.
Pic 4 shows the magazine and other gubbins attached. There are far, far more accurate versions out there, as well as a proper scope, but, really, they're for if you're going for a 100% version.
Which this isn't.

Blake's 7 Ore Ship

Came across this on the Web and really like the skeletal apperance of it, so thought i'd have a go (btw, its the ship that crashes into the Nova Queen at the start of the "Star One" episode).
The Eagletransporter Forum is an excellent resource tool and i turned to them for the parts i'd need.
I'd already spotted the two Airfix Space Shuttle external fuel tanks missing a section each for the main bulk, and a few Star Wars parts but the rest was a mystery.
It quickly came back that the framework was a "ladder with cage" from EMA.
So, got the Space Shuttle kits quite quickly as i also needed bits from it for my Hairdryer Ship. And got the ladder when putting in an EMA order.
Yet again i had to eyeball it and decided to go with the 1/20th version as its the biggest they do.
Trouble is, if you comapare the two photos, they're not the same scale. Looks to be that, back in the 70's, EMA produced an even bigger scale.
But not now.
Oh well. Its the biggest they do so i'm going ahead with it - and have it more as an "inspired by" rather than a faithful reproduction.

WOTW Martian - finished

So here he is all done, with lights off and lights on. Cameras gone a bit mad and whited out the lenses, they're actually still the colour they should be.
Great fun building this, one of my favourite ever alien designs.
But do i now dare get the Spielberg version to sit alongside it?

B7 Hairdryer Ship - EMA parts on.

Well that was hit and miss.
A lot of the detailing on this craft is with items from the EMA catalogue (Matt says they had boxes of all sorts from them in the late 70's and just had a rummage for anything that looked right).
Some parts i had names and part numbers for and some i just had to eyeball, guessing what size to use by looking at what i had in front of me and judging where things might reach too.
Most successful of the eyeballing was this middle prong thing. I knew it was made from two Concentric Reducers with two Hemispheres glued together to form a ball between them. To try and get the right size of the parts, i roughly drew out the shape on card, changing it until i had the right size in relation to where it sits between the hairdryer handles. Then measured them and looked for roughly that size in the catalogue. Pretty pleased to see i've got it about right.
On this rear shot you can see i've got the odd end shapes each side of the tube. Exterminator over on the Eagle Forum very kindly pointed out what they were - hinges - and here they are with the Saturn V engine bell half inside it.
Less successful was the ladder affair here at the rear. It'd been suggested that it wss EMA, and maybe it is, but not this size. Far too small.
Ditto the next pic. The middle prong ends with a cap affair and i'd been told that they were also up top to make the dome shapes either side of the R2D2 leg piece. Nope, far too tall. So i'm not using them.
Ditto the green things at the side here. They're meant to go on the front but are far, far too small. Which is a bugger as i ordered them from the States especially. can't be bothered to order more so am going to look around for felt tip pen caps for soemthing similar.

WOTW Martian - nearly done now

Okay, got the lighting problem sorted by putting an LED behind each lens, and i've put him back together and the skins pretty much done.
Base too. Apart from the camera, i'm keeping it in muted colours so as to not detact from the figure