Who ordered the "Big Mac"...?

Tonight's edition, (and the three yet to follow...), will concern the construction and back story of the various ships either moored or circling the Tofu Tower.  In total, six ships were built for this project, but one just didn't work out no matter how I tried to save it, so it went to another breaker's yard.

The "Malcolm-Victor", or the Big Mac as it is called by the crew, is a heavy lift ship which cruises around doing various construction and salvage jobs.  It was the second to last model in the queue, and by this time the greebly supply was getting rather sparse, so more time was spent than usual in trying to find that elusive part. 

The core of the ship is actually the housing of another dead Dremel.  Many an evening was spent searching and placing parts, then ripping them off and trying again.  Eventually the main hull was formed using the (3 part) hull of a sailboat toy from a large Kinder Surprise egg.  The cabin is an HO diesel cab, and the basic crane is from a dollar store construction toy.  Many other parts from car, plane, tank, and even architectural kits found there way onto the ship.

Once satisfied with the end product, it was off to the spray booth for some quality primer time!

This being the most complex and largest of the ships (8" in length which translates to a 100' long ship at 1/148), I knew this was going to take just as long to paint and weather it.  A Rustoleum camo green was used as the base coat, then various other paint brands with similar greens were used as accents and shade.  to finalize many shades and types of rust, siennas, reds and oranges were used for weathering.  Dry brushed, washes and pastels of course!

The crane can rotate 360 degrees, but the hook is static.  Unfortunately no lighting was included in this model.

Rather than use plastic tarps, I tried something else to give them more realism, both in colour and texture.  The tarps were made by rolling strips of latex gloves (which are everywhere these days!), and then tying them with some fine wire.  A bit of pastel was then added to give it some depth and a used look.

Hard to make out but there is cargo on the rear deck.  The Dremel shell is really not too visible except in rear shots.  Kind of a waste of a good shape now that I think of it....

The ship is named after my father, Malcolm, who passed away in 2014.  His nick name was "Big Mac", as well.  Although he was conscripted into the RAF, his dream was to serve in the Royal Navy, so I hope he appreciates this homage to his memory.  In an upcoming post, I hope to showcase his modelling skills and talents.

Unfortunately, shore leave is over, so "Big Mac" sails off into the sunset for more heavy lifting.  Next time, "Hiya"!

Shape Spotting #5 - "Good dental hygiene..."

For tonights re-purposed shapes we have "Dr. Bob's Oracare Toothbrush Covers!"  Used to protect the tooth brush when travelling, these nice little shapes are available only at Dollarama in this area.  (There are similar covers available at other dollar stores but this one is the most durable.  It comes in a two pack in several colours; I prefer the clear ones when I can get them....  The dimensions are 1.75" x 1" x .75".

The covers have a hinged lid but I have removed them for both times I incorporated the shapes into a model.  I first used 5 covers in the "Tortoise", a 1/35 mech I did two years ago:

Four for the thruster units, and the other was made to be a missle pod.  Although it is some kind of vinyl I believe, a little sanding to remove the gloss and I have no trouble glueing or painting them with standard off the shelf products.  There is also a small hole at the narrow end, I guess for ventilation...  More recently I used 6 more on the Gibraltar:

A little difficult to see under all the other greeblies and nurnies!  They made nice modules and again I had no trouble in glueing them to other materials.  I have future plans to use them as cargo pods in larger numbers on ships or maybe railroad cars.  To look at them as pictured above, you could easily ad a handle, two little wheels, and a city logo.  Now you have a garbage or recycling cart!  Always look beyond the items intended purpose!

Shape Spotting #3: "Dead Dremel Dilemma"

My dayjob is real modelling, and in the workshop we eat Dremels for breakfast.  It is one of our staple tools; used, re-used, and abused.  It is no wonder that the poor things will eventually wear out, through motor faliure, bent shafts and other misc fates. The unsaveable end up in the bin; this is where I come in!

The primary model used is the Dremel 200.  It is durable and basic without the newer model flash contours and colours, plus the ergonomic hand grips.  Once you take the guts out, you are left with a nice sturdy housing already with vents and other access points.  The labels are easy to remove and if you look closely at the black plastic shell, there is a bonus texture pattern!  I have only used this shape twice in previous projects:

I used the first as the main gun on the Martian tank "Herbert George" (see post from March 16, 2014 for the full back story).

And more recently as the secondary hull on the "Gibraltar", although it is difficult to see through all the greeblies.  Again the vents add to the texture of the shape, plus there is a half-inch diameter hole through the tool housing which was perfect for the mounting rod.

This of course applies to all tools, not just a Dremel.  Everyone at some point has had broken tools which end up in the rubbish.  I say remove the innards and keep the shell.  At this time, I am now down to only one shell remaining in the shapes box, so guys, let's start breaking some more tools!

Flattop Ship

Just in time to get in one more post before 2016 ends....  Let me introduce the HMCSS Gibraltar:

Had to build another spaceship.  This time it was influence from several sources, mostly from the original "Battlestar Galactica".  In the rag tag fleet was a background ship known as the "flattop" used in many group shots and repurposed from time to time.  It was later when I started to read "Heavy Metal" that I noticed the similarity with a ship in the Moebius short "It's a Small Universe", and I knew then I would have to build something like this in the future.  35 years later....

There are some references to the building of the filming miniature out there on the web; I will let you research if you so desire...   This is by far not a replica.  I do not have the time, patience, or funds to build a duplicate.  (Besides I build other people's concepts everyday;  why do that at home...?)

The only "original" part was the upper deck.  To keep some degree of authenticity I traced out the deck and some details from an underlay of the Moebius art in AutoCAD.  Then lazer cut some quarter inch perspex, along with some engraved panel lines.  The deck is now 17" long and 8" wide, with a primary 1/4" plate and a secondary (slightly offset) 1/8" plate.

So using the basic concept I started scrounging for all the shapes, greeblies and nurnies I had in stock.  I don't have the luxury like the big shops do with having access to mulitple parts and kits; have to make the best of it with what I have.  I did not want to buy any extra parts or kits for this project, just paint.  Many an evening was spent arranging then deconstructing the underside of the plate.  Lots of leftover lazer cut parts, the omnipresent Kinder Eggs, the new Zaini Eggs (more on those another time...), many dollar store shapes, and parts from assorted armour, aircraft, and other various kits.  The "fuselage" is actually yet another old Dremel housing.  (An interesting fact is the rotary tool case already had a convenient 1/2" hole, perfect for the support rod!).

I wanted the upper deck to be almost smooth and opposite from the underside  with only minimal relief.  I went totally "Foss" with graphics!  Along with painting the panels several colours; I used alot of railroad transfers, assorted decals and tapes.

A painting accident set me back several evenings during this phase.  A spray paint I planned to use on the deck actually acted more like a paint remover than paint!  It bubbled and puckered and totally ruined the finish.  I had to scrape all of the paint off (along with smaller panels and other shapes) as well as try to remove the paint which had clogged the panel lines.  Luckily it was salvaged with only minor (repairable) damage.  I will never mix brands again!

So you have a flat top, now what?  Rather than it just sitting on a stand looking pretty I had to come up with a back story and purpose.  I thought about making it another BG background ship (Leonid of course!), or integrating it into the Alien universe with Weyland-Yutani logos on it.  I decided to make it part of my fake sci-fi "Space: 2019" series, and make it the guest model in one of the "episodes".

HMCSS Gibraltar (Her Majesty's Commercial Space Ship) is a Foss Class Survey Ship, the only one of it's kind.  425' long (130m), this vessel cruises around the solar system cataloguing asteroids and other potential resources for mining.  (I based the dimensions on a scale of 1/300).  The ship has pop-up sensor arrays (located from the original drawing) which are only deployed when needed, otherwise they are kept safely under the deck.

I had been hoarding old contact lens cases for years; now it was time to use them!  The lens holders work nicely with already hinged connections and make convincing arrays, and the plastic cases were also used on the underside and fuselage.  Other bits and pieces were then used to finalize the sensor clusters.  (Normally I would have a photo or two of the unpainted model; I will do a separate posting on further construction another time...)

So back to the fake series.  Season One, Episode 13, "Collision Course".  The Gibraltar is out surveying; pet rock hunting as it where.  It stumbles upon a rogue asteroid heading for Earth.  The rest of the story is of course how to stop it.  I chose to use BP as the company who owned the vessel.  I figured they would venture out at some point looking for more resources, and growing up I had many Matchbox vehicles all nicely painted green and yellow!  (I realize the logo has changed; I like this one better!).  One more fake reference to the episode:

The last model of 2016.  Check back soon for further details about construction in a segment I call "Shape-Spotting".  All the best for 2017!

Get Your @## to MARS!

As all modelers know, even when your deep into a project, there is always something else in the back of your mind.  While building the "Regina", I had many other ideas along the way.  This next model is the result. It has been cobbled together from mostly three main components:  a recycled Dorvack armour, a Sherman tank base, and the housing from a burnt-out Dremel.  All other bits and pieces were scrounged from the parts boxes, plus the inclusion of the traditional Kinder Egg.  After I was finished with the building, here was the result:

It was now time for painting and the inevitable weathering.  As this was a tank on another planet, I decided not to have it built from any iron-based metals.  I figured there would be enough opportunities to use reds for the weathering since it was on Mars anyway.  A basic military green is the base colour, which had steels and metallics dry-brushed on for wear and tear.

The 1/35 figures from Tamiya were modified for the Martian environment (breathers, goggles, etc.).  I had just seen "Iron Sky" so that influenced me considerably!  For the base I used some sands, gravels, and lava rock.  Finally everything was dusted down with various shades of reds and browns to simulate the Martian ecosystem.

The Heavy Tank "Herbert George" is now complete.  I don't have any back-story for the model, but the name itself should conjure up a few ideas...  It's payback time!