Klingon Bird of Prey Revisited (Part 5)

Since last time I've been adding detail to the whole area of the boarding ramp and lnading gear. Here's a view of the underside showing the new ramp.

Another view of the ramp. Maybe you can see the cool tread pattern. No?

How about now?

Okay, you can definitely see the tread pattern here! I did it by cutting Evergreen scribed sheet. Some has grooves with .025" spacing and some .020" spacing. The finer spaced sheet I cut on an angle so the ends of the grooves would line up with the wider spaced grooves of the center strip.

Klingon Bird of Prey Revisited (Part 4)

Just cleared the decks to get back to this project: the Round 2 reissue of the AMT Klingon Bird of Prey. It's optional, but there was no question about displaying this baby in the landed configuration. It's too cool! I had one bit of cleanup that had to get done first: I got carried away cutting one of the windows open and had to fix it. Just a bit of sheet styrene. Yikes, it's been a while since I worked on this. Last post was May 5--that was four months ago!

I'd been thinking about what to do with this kit--it needs a bit of extra detailing. One thing I'm sure ought to be in the area where that ramp comes down is the warp core. I'd expect it could be jettisoned through the bottom of the hull, and for that matter, out the opening where the ramp is. If there was an imminent warp core breech, they'd open the ramp or just jettison it and then blow that sucker before the matter and antimatter meet. The passageway where the ramp comes down is almost exactly 1/2 inch wide (14 feet in 1:350 scale). So if the warp core is there, it's probably about 14 feet wide. Sounds like a good size. Also, Klingon stuff is very angular with lots of triangles and hexagons. The base of the warp core is a hexagonal piece of Sculpey I formed inside a 15/32" socket. Makes a nice neat shape.

It needed some kind of dome, so I scavenged a piece off some old blinds. It's clear, so I can add lighting effects inside it. I also added Evergreen channel to the sides. It looks like rails that the warp core would slide in and out on for installation and removal. (Or emergency jettisoning! Whee!) There's a beveled edge in the passageway so I cut a little off the warp core so it can sit in place. I also cut slots in the side walls for the channel on the sides of the core to fit in. I forgot to take a picture of the warp core installed. Well, it fits and next time there will be a pic of that. Plus cleanup of the slots and a whole lot of detailing. Klingon warp cores must have enough plumbing all over them that they look like a plate of spaghetti. And the whole interior of the landing gear bay and entryway needs gobs of detail, too. Some of this will come next time.

Father-Daughter 1/24 TARDIS Scratchbuild, Part 3

Here's my daughter Sylvia and her friend Makenna (who is even more of a Whovian than Sylvia, if that is possible) painting Tardis parts. They finished up adding the trim molding to the walls and doors (strips of balsa attached with white glue) and proceeded to paint them with craft paint. Sylvia was also cutting some of the parts for the stepped boxes that form the top, and since last time, she and I had made a sort of paper model template of the hip roof top (a hip roof is like a pyramid, only in the case of a police box, it's a vertically challenged pyramid).

And here are the walls, doors, and cornerposts all painted up, ready for assembly, signage, windows, door hardware, and weathering, not all in that order. We have yet to build the roof of the Tardis, so that will have to wait till next time.

SRS Prototyping Ta-Opet Figure

I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Spicer of SRS Prototyping four weeks ago at JerseyFest, where he was one of the vendors as well as a contest judge. One of the items he had for sale was a 3 inch figure "Ta-Opet," which stuck me as very reminiscent of Frank Frazetta's "Egyptian Queen," one of my favorite paintings by one of my favorite artists. Figures are not my usual thing, but I couldn't resist buying one.

Here you see the finished figure at left, and a poor quality jpeg of the painting, in case you don't know what I'm referring to. The figure isn't directly sculpted from the painting--the pose isn't quite the same because the figure isn't leaning against a pillar--but the similarities are obvious, notably the shape of the metal brassiere thing.

In fact, I love this painting so much I once painted a copy.