Unknown Ship - the start

So, got that Panzer.... vehicle to turn into something SF. Trouble was, couldn't find anything as a substitute for the turret and REALLY want to crack on this with as i want to justify the hideous cost of the kit.
So, did a complete turnaround and now its to be a spacecraft rather than a land-based craft.
What's made my mind up is the intricate underside to this vehicle that would go unoticed - indeed, its such a nice bit of work its popped up in Star Wars and Galactica craft.
First pic shows the detail after i've pulled off the wings. still need to pull off the suspension that i'd glued on while thinking it'd be a tank.
Second pic is what i have in mind - the intricate part being the front to show it off and joined by a ribbed tube (which i've yet to source) to an engine section again an unfinished project kindly donated by Andrew Glazebrook.
Third pic is a bad shot of the engine section which you can see just needs a couple of panels finishing. But the Panzer... kit has so many great bits, its not gonna be a problem.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - pastelling

Been thinking long and hard about how i'm going to weather this ship and in the end decided against washes - the ships so huge i thought it'd looky a bit silly.
Instead i'm pastelling and you can see here i'm nearly done on the engine area. I'm doing it in sections then sealing as to do it all in one go would mean smudging the pastels through handling.
There's not too much in the way of the pastels as, again, i don't want to do anything that'd throw out the scale.
On top of this there'll be some rusty washes to bring out the most intricate detail Andrew put on.
Also, you'll see its still mainly grey. I will be putting on a ton of metallics but don't like the finish of them if i put varnish over them, so will do them when the whole ship is sealed.

Empire Of the Sun

Bit off topic, but when modelling, the usual music of choice is Electro - usually from the early 80's.
But am becoming obsssesed by this song, which sounds like it would fit right in back then. Lovely video too:

Gateway Shuttle - the high cost of modelling

See that beige bit on top of the green bit? £27.00 that's cost me.
Its from the "Tamiya (deep breath)Schwerer Panzerspahwagen 8-Rad" and 27 quid is the cheapest i could find anywhere (guessing the high price is it comes with brass etch parts) and i'd never usually pay that for only one tiny piece, but its a nice design and will use the main body to turn into a Lunar Tank or Anderson-style vehicle or Chris Foss-type thing.

Shield Ship - rear section done.

Here it is in grey primer and a few panels picked out in other greys. Next up is a heavy black wash and lots of drybrushing.

Gateway Shuttle - hull

Thanks to the top bloke that is Matt Noble, here we are with even more Macross parts in place, albiet stuck there crudely with Blu Tac.
Getting this far really has prompted me to identify those guns coming out the pods.

Gateway Shuttle - rear hull

Thanks to those clever bods over on the RPF, i've manged to get the rear half of the main hull.
Its actually the lower hull of this Macross kit, a kit i built back in the mid 80's (along with seemingly hundreds of others).
Bit of a shame to buy one just for that part as i've always liked the bizarre look of the ship and wouldn't mind another go.

Shield Ship - getting there

Another 15 hour shift at work yesterday, so took the Shield Ship in to work on.
Top pic is the dome with its top coat of "Ford Polar Grey" (pretty much the same shade as primer but nice and glossy for the decals), panels roughly outlined with pencil and various decals. Didn't go to town there as, with the amount of beating up i'm planning on doing to it, they wouldn't really notice.
Next pic, it with pastels added and Matt Varnish applied.
Below that we have the engine section, which is almost done.
Then an underside shot showing the connecting tube ready for the crew compartment.
And here it is, Revells MIR Station - which is a bit too clunky with its detail, so i'm adding new parts.

Doctor Who - The Green Death

Chuffed to bits that my 8 year-old son is as much into Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee era Who as i am.
We're getting through The Green Death right now and he's enjoying it a lot (even Pertwee dolled up as a cleaning lady) but, strangely, not affected at all by the maggots - which i certainly was at the same age.
Maybe its because, in this super-clean world now, he's not been exposed to maggots?
So, he's enjoying it a lot - but hasn't got to the Fly at the end yet...
The DVD is recommended, not only for the story, but the great extra that shows you how to a make a full-size maggot.

Shield Ship - advancement

Here we go with more added to the rear section - mainly the engines from the Games Workshop Tau Hammerhead which, as you can see by the paint, i'd already started on.
I've also put another pic of the shield as the grey primer i've sprayed on the inside gives a clearer idea of what the outside is going to look like.

Klingon Bird Of Prey - all done

Been finished for a while but something about the colour/finish has made every shot in daylight flare out like made. So here she is lit by my reading lamp.

Shield Ship - shield nearly done

Couple more pics for you today.
The dome is pretty much done. I've capped it with a circular piece from the Airfix B-29 piece and put some clamp things around it. I've stopped there as, if it is a shield against whatnot, there wouldn't be much in the way of delicate machinery.
I've added to the rear scetion as you can see. The brightly coloured rods are a steal of an idea from Martin Bower - the sticks from "Ker-Plunk". This section is getting so busy that i figure there's gonna be little place for the crew, so will probably add the section slung underneath.

Shield Ship - starting on the rear section

I want the rear to be a contrast to the curves and rounded shapes and had in mind something similar to the busy, angular work going on behind the domes of the Valley Forge in "Silent Running".
So you can see here i've made up a blocky section out of Plasticard to which i'll be adding stuff.
First part is a hotch-potch of bits that i'd put together to form a gantry for my old Mega City 1 scene and am now re-using.

Shield Ship - more of an idea what i'm up to

Here's the back section Blu Tac'd in place. Its the usual affair of B&Q piping wrapped in Plasticard so there's something to glue onto. I'm going to add to that a crew compartment and a bunch of fuel tanks and an engine bell at rear.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - picking out the details

Getting started here putting down various greys on various panels. When i'm done with that i'll outline them in pencil. I've put a red stripe as a nod to how the colour was going to be.

Shield Ship

A REALLY good source of scratcbuild parts are childern. They have great, bulky toys that break frequently and can offer up all manner of bits and shapes.
Case in point, this spinning top dome. I've had it ages and always wanted to do something with it.
Had another 14 hour shift at work by myself on Sunday so figured i'd take something to model. Most of my projects are at the far too delicate stage so plumped for this, and here you can see what i've come up with.
Its hard to tell, what with it being clear, but so far its just a matter of Go Fasta stripes for panelling, some ribbed Plasticard, a couple of circular things from a Tamiya tank and the top hatch to a Fine Molds TIE Fighter.
Design-wise, i've been inspired by the ships in the excellent "Sunshine", that is, big dome at the front and living quarters behind it. Mine'll be much thinner though - imagine the proportions of a drawing pin and you're getting there. Figure the shield would be a barrier for getting though asteroids, or radiation, or whatever. So its going to be a real beat-up paintjob.
As i say, kids toys are great. This dome is big and injection plastic - how much'd that cost from EMA?

U.S.S. Glazebrook - almost there

Going to stop with the probes soon as i don't want the front too spindly and take away from the blocky "face" it has.
You can see here i've solved the problem of the biggest probe dropping below the bottom of the ship by making it a bit thicker. The main part is a plastic basket thingy i got from gawd knows where, with the lovely Baco bricks to bulk it out a bit.

Lunar Dweller - change of plan

There's two elements for this build - the Airfix Lunar Module and a sculpted beastie that lives beneath the surface of the Moon.
Having a bit of trouble with the LM - lost one of the handrails at the top of the ladder, its incredibly delicate with bits pinging off quite regularly but, worst of all, the kits inaccurate in that its menat to have gold foil on its lower sections - something Airfix never suppied.
Really can't be bothered with sourcing something to replicate it so have come up with a cunning plan which'd mean i don't need it. Means a change to the actual set-up of how the scene'll look, but the ideas still the same.
Expect pics Mon/Tues when i've got the clay.

Biog Mothership

I've mentioned tons of times that, when 2000AD first came out, my favourite strip was Dane Dare. And that was solely due to the stunning art by Belardinelli. The guy was a genius in my opinion with his design work on the Biogs being the ultimate for me.
What i've here in my mitts is a little maquette of the Biogs Mothership i've knocked up quickly out of Das Pronto. Done it as i'm thinking of making a decent sized version out of proper clay and i want to see how how the 2D version works out in 3D and what to do colour-wise

Mega City One

Was having a look through my folders, came across this and thought you might like to take a look.
I made it yonks ago and it was mainly to showcase the Foundry minatures of Dredd and Johnny Alpha. Wanted to have them facing off in the street and where better than on the streets of the Big Meg?
As you'll be able to see, its a basic foamboard shape, bulked out with kitbits, toy bits, pens, razor cases and other junk.

Terminator Salvation Official Companion

Bought this this morning and just had a flick through over a coffee. Looking REAL good and happy to say they're not only using full-size puppets for the Endoskeletons, but there's a fair amount of modelwork to augment the CGI (the way it should be in my opinion. The only niggle i ahve from just a brief skim is that doesn't seem to be any difference between the T-600's, T-800's etc - the heads seem to be the same and there's just a change in body shape. Was expecting something far cruder in the 600's, to match the crudeness of its skinjob. Its just a niggle though, am really looking forward to the film and hopefully we'll get some nice kits released - the Harvester especially.
As an aside, thought you might like to see my Naked Terminator which i made years ago and seems much more relevant now.

Space 1999 Hawk

Again, apologies for the quality of the pics today, but the sun coming in through the window is really upsetting the camera.
Anyway, thought you might like to see this - its the Aifix version of the craft that i've modifed slightly to make it more accurate. I say slightly as i could've done more but, at this scale, a lot of it would've been a lot of effort for little real reward.
So here i've added more tubing to the underisde, cut off the hemispheres at the rear and put on proper balls and added more in the way of detail. As is say, at this scale it'd be real tricky to get anything like the right detail, but i'm happy that what i've done is in keeping with what's on the studion model and is an improvement of just building it out of the box.

Gateway Shuttle - the underside

As projects either come to end or need more parts, i've turned back to this craft and, specifically, what am i going to do for the underside?
As far as i can tell, there doesn't seem to be any shots of the bottom of the studio model, so guess i've got a free hand to do what i like.

7th Voyage Of Sinbad - Cyclops

After reading Andrew Glazebrooks - quite rightly - praise of the film over on his Blog, thought i'd show you my version of the big boy. Made it years ago and i'm still happy with it, especially the eye. Excuse the glaring white on the right side by the way, its just the sun's pretty bright coming through the window today, more than the camera can handle.

Lunar Dweller - scrapping the head

Forget the last post - just realised i need the Super Sculpy for another project, so this fella'll be made out of Das Pronto (when i get some) now.

Lunar Dweller - starting the head

VERY rough here, but i've started with the face of the Dweller. As this Bog started out as a 2000AD-themed modelling page i thought it'd be nice to do a riff on a creature from the comic.
So, can you tell what it is yet?

Lunar Dweller - progress

Thought i'd better do something as the competition has a deadline of the July 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon.
The Lunar Module is nearly complete but is taking time as i've found it a real chore and dull thing to put together and paint.
Much more interesting to me is the second part of the project. The remit of the competition is to do anything you like as long as its moon themed and here you can see my VERY rough scribble of what i have in mind.
Figure i'll make a box shape to house everything in and have it like a wall hanging.
So, i've started on the alien dwelling in the depths and here i can do what i like (always better that way).
Have taken a shot of the rough sculpt of the head but the batteries have gone in the camera so alas no pic today.

The Ball ship

Wanted to get started properly on this but the trouble i've got is that the plastic doesn't take to any glue at all.
Trying to get round it by putting this band of Plasticard wrapped round it and glued to itself. Onto that i've glued a thicker piece to it to be a platform on which i hope to build the bulky stuff.