Thursday 15 October 2015

Blakes 7 Ore Carrier - pod

At the very front of the Ore Carrier is some sort of pod with a prong on it.
It looks to me like some kind of fuel tank, but its not from any kit i've ever built before, so chances of me finding one were pretty slim.
That left me having to fashion my own.
First thing i did was study the pods dimensions in relation to the cage it sits inside and eyeball the size hemispheres i'd be needing and order some from EMA.
Luckily, i got it right first time, so i then need to find a tube to fit between the two.
Looking around, i realised the external rockets from the Space Shuttle kit were just the right diameter and decided to cut one down for it - after all, the more i use from these donor kits the better.
That's where i was until yesterday, when i was planning a trip to the local model shop to find a substitute for the prong thing. In the reference shots up until now, its clear there's two incarnations of the pod thing:
1. The original has the pod set back from the front of the cage and a two-shape prong,
2. There's also later shots which are obviously post-repair as the pod is now flush with the end of the cage and there's a piece of plain rod for the prong.
Electing to go with the original set-up, i'd planned on trying to find something at the shop to duplicate what i could make out in the photos.
That's when immaculate timing happened and a whole bunch of new, excellent, very clear shots of the ship came to light, including stunning detail shots of the areas that till now have been vague.
Including the pod/prong, which clearly shows the prong is in actual fact a cut-down weapon prong from the X-Wing kit, and stuck backwards into the hemisphere.
Wow!
The BBC must've bought up a whole bunch of the X-Wing kits, as they're used a heck of a lot in their effects models, and Mat Irvine really has used a lot here on this build.
So, "X-Bit Number One" - Weapon Prong.

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