Rey's staff

Our eldest daughter wants to be Rey at a convention next month.
The outfits no problem, we got that from the Disney Store and its brilliantly accurate.
But, no quarterstaff.
With less than a month to make one, that's a problem.
Another problem is that some of the parts on it seem to be Lightsaber handles (leading to much fan speculation as to whther she really is carting around the weapons of Mace Windu and Darth Maul).
Folk have made their have been using the "build your own lightsaber" construction toy, but that's pretty rare now and therefore pricy - minimum of 35 quid at the moment.
No time to wait for one cheaper, plus i don't have that sort of dosh right now, so i'm going my own way and making our daughter a "in the spirit of the original" one, and a trip to our local hardware store has got me these plumbing pieces to start with.

The Moebius - working on the lower section.

So i've Hot Glued Plasticard to the top and bottom of the conditioner bottle (no other glue will touch the rubbery plastic), filled the joins, added panels to the underside as per the drawing that Moebius did, then added a strip of Plasticard plus rod all along the side to disguise the join.

Greedo

I got this Greedo mask off of a fellow 501st member dirt cheap.
I've always liked the character, so would have got it anyway, but thought it would be a nice project to paint it and replace the odd eyes that come with it for something more suitable.
Had a surprise when it arrived - its not unpainted latex as i thought, but a quite subtle airbrushing over a teal basecoat (much brigher than it appears here).
So that opens up some options:
Do i stick with this colour, or repaint brighter?
Do i replace the eyes with solid colour hemispheres and have the mask displayed on a wig stand?
Or do i do them in a transparent black, so the mask can be wearable?
And, if i do that, do i make the rest of the outfit?

Cursed Earth shoulder pad

Got far too much foam matting laying around at the moment, so i've knocked myself up a quick Cursed Earth-style shoulder pad, with a upper layer of some neat holely cardboard and a couple of wheels parts from a kit.
Once the white glue/water i've put on as as sealer has dried, then i'll be painting and i'm thinking a red for a bit of difference.

The Moebius - starting on the cockpit

I need to get some Plasticard before i can continue on the lower section of the Moebius, so i've made a start on the cockpit seat.
Eyeballing it, to be true to the illustrations i figure i'd need the ship to be 1/48th scale but:
(A) i've not much money this close to the finish of Christmas to source a suitable kit,
(B) 1/48th would make it a quite small craft and the interior would be VERY cramped,
(C) i've plenty of 1/72nd cockpits to use,
(D) it would make for a more decent size ship,
(E) i'm more likely to find suitable figures to stand on top.
So here's what i've done - started with a cockpit seat from a modern fighter kit and built around it with Plasticard and detailed up with kitbits.
It was tricky cutting the Plasticard to match the curve of the inside of the clear ball i'm using, but got there in the end.

The Moebius.

The start of a new year, so starting with three new resolutions:
build more,
build them with a view to selling, so take that into account for the displaying and sturdiness,
get out to more Cons to get my stuff out there.
And starting a brand new build on this first day of a brand new year.
I mentioned a while back that i had it in mind to make my version of this nifty ship design by the brilliant French artist Moebius, that he did for a comic strip back in the 70's.
I've been waiting for the conditioner bottle to be all used up as i see it as a good match as a donor for the lower section that houses the crew area and, once empty, i washed it out and cut the top off.
As i say, i'm making things now with a view to not only being sturdy enough for transport, but also how to display - too often i make something just for myself and never think about what to do with it when done.
With the Moebius (which i'll call it) i know i want it on a nice stand, supported by a clear rod.
But, looking at the illustration, this lower section will be taking all the weight of the ship above, and the conditioner bottle is VERY flimsy.
So you can see i've filled it with Plaster Of Paris, which has made it lovely and heavy, and i've capped the end with Plasticard that has a hole cut out to allow for the bubble canopy.

The art of Star Wars The Force Awakens book

Picked up the Art Of book for The Force Awakens yesterday and i highly recommend it - beautifully produced, large format and with some stunning artwork.
Unlike the Prequels and Lord Of The Rings art of books, there's barely any case of "awww, that early version is MUCH better than the one they finally used", but there's plenty of insperational designs and themes to latch on to.
Go buy it!

Star Wars The Force Awakens

Spoiler free this, so don't worry - its just i saw The Force Awakens yesterday and the reason i mention it here is, though the effects are excellent i was a bit miffed that JJ Abrahms chose to do what he did in the two Star Trek's with the ships and craft - shoot them at unusual angles.
That's fine when you're shooting the Enterprise, everyone knows what that looks like, but here the model maker in me is screaming inside "let me see, pull back, let me see the whole of the bloody ship!".
Tad annoying i have to go online to see them in their entirety.

The USS Austin - done

Started in 1977, finished in 2015, the USS Austin is DONE!

A potential War Of The Worlds project

I've been having another look at the Alvim Correa illustrations he did for the 1906 French edition he did for "War Of The Worlds", in particular this one of a ruined Handling Machine.
I really like the angle of how its fallen, the debris and Red Weed its amongst and the circling birds.
Then it struck me that its not too difficult a design to build a version of - just find a container that has a suitable top to diamteter ratio, the "articulated claws" should be easy enough to sculpt, and i don't have to worry about the symmetry of its legs if its broken.
So, a potential upcoming project methinks.

Sneak peek at a future project

Though i'm busy finishing things up on some projects, i'm always looking to the next.
I'd stumbled on a little piece on one of the background ships in Battlestar Galactica, which apparently was based on a craft in a comic strip by the brilliant Moebius.
I really like the quirkiness of the design so thought i'd have a go at my own riff on the design too.
At first i'd considered using some of my spare Saturn V parts for the lower section but changed my mind as (A) it'd be far too big, (B) the tubular part isn't really a tube, more a squashed one.
So i had a look around the house and realised that a conditioner bottle, if i cut it down, is pretty close.
So, getting a large piece of paper i drew 'round the bottle then roughly sketched out the rest of it.
That gave me a size for the cockpit ball, so off i went to the shops - Christmas time is great for picking up plastic balls and the like - and found this one which had the advantage of being able to open (its to put a photo into), so i can easily put the cockpit into it.
That's what i'll be turning to soon - just waiting for the conditioner to be all used up!

The return of the Plump ship.

Was having a sort out in the attic and came across my Plump Ship, a craft that i started a few years back initially as my original design Pod Racer, which then mutated into a 70's SF paperback cover ship, with its odd shape and garish colour scheme.
I realised i'd never put up a finished shot, so here's one now, along with a shot of it in mid build, showing its donor origins:


Salad container for the main shape,
some nozzles from who knows where for the engine bells,
they're joined to a Bionicles lid, which is attached to the main shape,
into the top hole of that i've stuck a tupperware pot, which fitted just right,
and on to that, a clear hempisphere.
Over it all is a bunch of kit bits, Plasticard, Go-Fasta stripes and sticky jewels. The silver sticky jewels at the very front i was going to remove after painting, figuring the now bare clear plastic could be cockpit windows. But, with a coat of primer on i quite liked it as is - a sort of studded detail.
So that's what i did, going with a green with yellow detailing as a nod to Thunderbird 2, as the small wings facing forward reminded me a lot of that ship.

Blake's bounty hunter gun - all done

With the chrome and black tape applied, this gun is done :)
Had a great time putting this together and i've got even more respect now for Bill Pearson, who not only had just a day to come up with the original, but also had to put in the explosive charge plus buttons in the grip to fire it, as you can see in the top pic.
Respect!

The USS Austin - ready for weathering

So that's the USS Austin all basecoated, decaled and ready for weathering.
I've kept to a black/orange/white colour scheme, partly in homage to the Space:1999 Hawks, and the odd bit of gunmetals.
Looking forward to the next bit :)

Blake's bounty hunter gun - nearly there now

That's Blake's bounty hunter gun primed.
Or should that be "Gauda Primed"? (Ho ho)

Blake's bounty hunter gun - ready for priming

With the "pixie hat" shapes on, last thing to do is sort out the very end of the barrel.
The gun has two distinct things going on with that - there's how it appears in the forest scenes, with a closed off end and a small spigot thing going on.
When Blake is inside the base though, the ends been cut off to allow for the explosive charge to be fitted, making a large bore barrel affair.
I decided to go with the first version as it meant i didn't have to go to the trouble of cutting the end off.
But what to use for the spigot?
Thanks to top bloke Phil Stevens i now know its a shape that was inside the rear tube of the gun that held the D batteries in place.
Trouble is, the newer release of the gun, which i have, diesn't use D batteries in the main part but one 9 volt one in the grip.
So, no shape.
Instead, i've gone for an approximation, cutting down one of our daughters felt tip pins, which looks to be about the right diameter, and has a bit of detail at the end.

Blake's bounty hunter gun - almost there

Adding the strips of square rod to the rear of Blake's bounty hunter gun is where i slavishly follow what Bill Pearson did and move into conjecture as to just what was used.
First case in point, what's been called the "pixie hat" that sits in the blank area just above the trigger. Its called that for want of a better name as no-one has ever been able to figure out what was used - doorbell buttons, "Frustration" playing pieces have been put forward, but been discounted.
I've got some plumbing piping that was the correct 14mm diameter, so cut two pieces the correct 9mm height, filled them with P38, sanded the tops flat then glued both to washers to give the rim around the bottom.

Blake's bounty hunter gun - bits added

With Blake's bounty hunter gun assembled, its time to add the details.
Photo 2 is i'm guessing part of the sight mount and is made from EMA's "Structural Flange".
Photo 3 is the ribbed detail on the underside, made from four of EMA's "Beam Splices" laid in a row.
Photo 4 is the rear of the gun, made from a disc of ABS. This is the first time working with the material, and i found it a bit of a bind - very tough to cut and shape, but pretty easy to sand. Its detailed with a couple of EMA's "Ladder Supports" cut down.
Photo 5 - Directly in front of the rear disc is a row of square rods, ended by a curved shape just above the rigger. That has to be the 3.3mm of the square rod and the rear disc.
So i cut out one from the ABS and then tried to heat it to make it bend to match the curve of the gun.
Nope, wasn't having it.
So then i tried multiple layers of Plasticard until i got my 3.3mm, heated up and bent.
Nope, wasn't having it.
But then i realised the off-cut of 40mm piping i was using as a former to bend the shapes on looked to be about the thickness i was after. So crudely cut a bit off and, sure enough, it lay on the gun no rpobs.
So off i go to B&Q to buy a 40mm joing pice for the price of £1.08 and cut me a ring from it 2cm wide.
Photo 6 is the cut down ring now attached.

Blake's bounty hunter gun - assembled

With the EMA parts landing on my doorstep this morning, its time to get Blake's bounty hunter gun ready for them.
So, with all the lettering sanded off, the open area where the scope mount was covered up, the last thing to do was stick what was formerly the rear end on the front to make the barrel.

SF Plague Doctor

There we go, a Plague Doctor mask done in a Cursed Earth style