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.

More Star Wars

G'day all. Time for one of my sporadic updates. At this time I want to show you all how many little SW kits are on my bench approaching completion. Or at least done being assembled and are on the primer stage or at least close to it.
First up is the Z-95 Headhunter mastered by Michael"Lichtbringer"Hoffman and casted by JPG Productions. A damn near perfect kit. I might do this one as the black and gold version flown on Coruscant by Tycho Celchu.
I know the pre-shading looks a little heavy and messy but thats because I havnt picked up the airbrush in months and I found myself really out of practice. It took my hand several attempts to get back in the groove.




Next the McQuarrie concept X-wing, Mastered by Richard"REL"Long. I'm so glad he made this little gem because I always liked this version better than the on-screen one. A little tricky to do because you have to have the pilot and cockpit painted before you seal the two halves of the fuselage together. I removed some of the masking so that you can see in there before the final paint goes on. I will do it up as seen in the original painting.












Here we see the A-9 Vigilance I was scratching up. I still need to do the panel
lines on the wings and the gun turret underneath. Still not my favorite ship but I have never seen one built so I needed to do it. I originally meant to try to master it as a kit and built landing gear into the engine pods but like no one seemed interested in one as a kit so now its just something for me.















The final group of shots are of the TIE Predators kits from Scale Solutions. These are going to look so cool when painted and in formation. I need to re-apply the black as flat black doesnt work for the solar panels.





The TIE Defender from REL. I am still hoping to get a replacement set of wings from someone who scratched a better looking set(hear that clevischi?)










Then the Chiss Clawcraft, again another little jewel from REL. And lastly another Defender body that needs wings, The TIE raptor by clevischi and the perfect little A-wing by RB-26.

All of them have been assembled with very little modification as I'm finding that the more I try to customize a kit I build the less I get done. These are to be out of the box builds.
Basically I intend to get all these done over the Christmas holidays. Wish me luck and I'll post when theres something to show.
Later.

back on a Star Wars kick

Thanx to 3 kits arriving this week Im back in a full on SW kick.
Ist is the TIE raptor by Clevischi. More info on it is here:
http://swtime.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-sale-172-tie-raptor.html
Not my favorite subject but its a TIE variant, its 1/72 so I must have it.



2nd to arrive this week is the Retrokit Cloud Car, also in 1/72.
Im of 2 minds on this one. On the one hand very nicely detailed as you can see, but not very well engineered. And by that I mean look at the awful seam right thru the main detail of the engine pod. That could have been molded better. Also the way the engine pod attaches to the body pods is, well, laughable. Im apparently supposed to drill and pin it. Not impossible but its a pain and an unnecessary pain because a slot or some other idea could have been built into the master especially since the the body pods come in 2 pieces each(top and bottom) and have to be sandwiched together. Also a pain because there is no marker points to facilitate this so its easy to mis-align the body halves.
Anyway, Im still happy to have this kit because its a subject Ive always wanted.


Finally, the McQuarrie concept X-wing in 1/72 as mastered by REL. Beautiful on all counts. Great detail and very well casted. The usual flash but no bubbles and Im amazed that he was able to get the rod absolutly centered in the gun barrels. Thats talent.


Ive taken stock and it seems that I have about 10 or 12 SW in various stages right now. I think it is time for me to focus on the kits and get them done and on display before I buy any new kits.

Well shit guys, I cant believe how long its been since I posted last. I guess Im still not used to the idea of blogging on a regular basis.
Today Im just posting a few photos on something I cranked out over the last couple of weeks.
The Battlemech Sunder.
I was looking at the legs I had from my Hellbringer mech and thought Id do the Inner Sphere mod real quick like. I did the torso over a 2 night period and then spent a couple of days modding the legs just a bit. Also reshaped the feet.
Another mech ready for the paint pile.
Its sort of a blend between the MW3 style and MW4 version as you can see from the guns and other detail bits.
Last photo is with the light Locust mech.

Well a new box arrived today, from Ravenstar Studios, the Battletech Wolverine.
Another large chunk of resin with Chris' usual touch. You can read all about it here:
http://ravenstarstudios.blogspot.com/
What I like about this kit is he has designed it with the various options, different armament, different heads, or cockpit as it were, and ease of poseability. Certain joints will to be pinned for strength.
My only issue with it, and no offense intended here Chris, is proportions.
As you can see from this photo below, this 55 ton mech stands next to a Griffin. Another 55 ton mech, they should be the same height right? Or at least a little closer, I may shorten the legs by 3/8 of an inch just to satisfy my eye.
But this is just my initial impression and should not be a discouragement for you if you want to get one. On the whole this is a cool kit and Im so glad Chris made it.
As much as I want to dig in to this one and start building and modifying it , it will go on the shelf for now.
Now if only someone, other than Tim, Chris or myself would master a Battletech Mech, especially the unseen Battlemaster, life would be good.

Hello all, Ive been a little busier than usual with real life(dont you hate when life gets in the way of models?) but once again I sidestepped onto something else.
I was looking at the little Anigrand Nebulon B Frigate wondering why I hadnt put it together yet then I remembered. I wanted to pour some rubber on it and make a variant.
So here it is assembled, no paint yet. Sorry.
I recasted( dirty word I know but its only for my use, not for sale, so get the sand out of your vagina) the main body, removed the lower section and scratched a few new details and voila, a Nebulon B2.
Influenced heavily by this CG image I found. Of course, now that I look at it , it looks like a Humpback whale dont you think?
Nevertheless, it'll make a fine addition to my growing 1/2256 fleet.