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.