Freighter part deux

To begin with, the sensor dish. It was suggested I try this style and I think it works.
















I also added some cutouts to the top and front of the hull, greeblies will be added later.
Im not sure I need any cutouts on the back deck but that may change later on.

















At the moment Im playing with this idea for the engine vents. I tried a few other shapes but this
seemed to be the one that I didnt hate.













Now we see the docking ring. Several people chimed in and it was suggested that the overall shape should be octagonal to continue the theme but keep the round ring inside. This give the impression that ring is a universal docking system.
I used the part from the old crappy MPC Falcon kit and I plan to add some more piping after I cast a set.





















And lastly for this update a look at the bottom and the landing gear idea Im playing with.
I dont usually build my kits with landing gear just cause I like to build my stuff in-flight, but for this it would seem a little short sighted if I didnt at least give myself the option. So at least they are removable. Before I glued them in place(to actually hold up the ship,) I tested them and they did fold up, or retract if you prefer, quite nicely.

































Thanx for looking.

Ive always wanted to build a Correlian freighter like the Millennium Falcon, Outrider or Otana.
Problem is Ive never been able to come up with a design that worked for me. Well the impending arrival of the Fine Molds MF i find myself itching to do one.
The problem is how to do one that doesn't seem derivative or a flat out rip-off of others work.
Others have come up with designs that just seem to fit with the YT flavour.
Like Hackcore's awesome YT-2010:
http://s474.photobucket.com/albums/rr104/HACKCORE-/YT-2010/?action=view&current=CIMG2095.jpg
This one I kinda liked:
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/contest9/scratch_21.htm
A little weak but I can see it as the budget version.
Another good try:
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/contest11/scratch_22.htm
The Howling Barrel I thought also fits very nicely in the Correlian freighter line.
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/gallery12/bs_092207_howlingbarrel.htm





But like I said, I wanted to go my own path but remain in the same vein.
A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night and drew this.
All day at work I couldnt stop thinking about it, running it thru my mind and when I got home I started cutting.
As you can see, I went with a more angled, faceted design. Im not sure how to classify it. Not a stealth freighter. In a galaxy of cloaking devices, a faceted hull would make little difference right?
To me it feels more like a fast courier ship made for punching thru blockades.
Light blockade runner maybe?
I also borrowed a little detail from the Otana with the long Hall (for lack of a better term) splitting the back deck.
All the details arent there but they need to to fleshed out. What kind of guns? What shape for the engine vents? The docking rings, should the be round like the Falcons or can I do something different?
And greeblies? how much to do? Openings in the hull? Sensor dish?
This is going to be fun.

A-9 Vigilance Interceptor

The A-9 in 1/72(of course). Its an EU ship first seen in the Dark Horse comic Dark Empire. Along with the E-wing starfighter, they were designed by artist Cam Kennedy and have been received with mixed reactions. Some like the designs, others find them uninspired. Whatever your opinion, they are now part of the SW universe and I need a model of one.
So here is mine, I started it as a quick weekend build like 5 months ago (may or june) but like all things I start, i ended up putting it aside for another build.
I deviated a little from established art, the engine pods are always shown as straight tubes but I did that with my old E-wing and was always a little ticked that I didnt take a more dramatic design.
So these pods have some extra detail to them. Also, I never found any images of the rear of the ship so again creative liscence was taken by adding extra greeblies.
That alone give it a more Star Wars feel.
I moved the engines back a bit from the line art position and moved the mounting points to the middle of the wings.
After the painting was all done, I find myself wanting to build another but better, with a good cockpit and meant for casting.
I'll post again as I go with this new one. Any thoughts and opinions are welcome as always.

Well its a new year......
and about a month since I last came here and posted some shots of what I was working on. I think Ive only kinda finished 3 models in that time. What can I say? Holiday season work was busy. But I did have like 6 days off during Christmas and this is what I did.
First the RB26 A-wing in standard screen colours. Really, its impossible to mess this kit up, well unless you're a crappy painter or if you drop tha damn thing like I did. Cracked the left engine off and after gluing it back on you can tell. Oh well.. Here some shots with my other A that I painted in the black and green scheme made by the Action Fleet toy.

Next up is the Z-95 by Michael Hoffman, aka. Lichtbringer. Another damn nice kit.
I wanted to try to go for the Black and gold one that Tycho Celchu flew during the Coruscant liberation mission. BUT, i didnt want gloss black and shiny gold plate or something so its now a dark gray with muted yellow. It feels more Star Warsy to me now.


And now the REL kit of the Mcquarrie concept X-wing. I was think about a custom colour thingy but ended up going with the version seen in the painting. It just looks so damn goood like that.


Also this ended up on my doorstep a couple of days ago. The Cloakshape fighter from Alfred Wong in 1/72. This is the first kit he is selling himself, not thru another source. There are a few left so it you want one go here:
http://www.alfredsmind.ca/productspg.html
Its worth it. it went together so easily but I messed up the vacuform canopy (as always) so I decided to just frame one in. I dont need to enclose it with clear plastic, the frame is fine with me.
Im thinking some kind of wing art. Any suggestions?

Later all.