Team Mid/West

kalhen · Post by **kalhen** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:40 pm

im up for a fighter or capital ship

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 9:06 am

How's this thing looking so far M3? Just curious.

MillenniumFalsehood · Post by **MillenniumFalsehood** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:20 pm

I'm curious as well.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:43 am

Man we're a quiet group! You all are going to get tired of me when I get a hold of this thing. I plan to at least have weekly pics up if not every few days.[/i]

Loachnut · Post by **Loachnut** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 5:32 pm

Yep, the anticipation is driving me crazy.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 6:05 pm

Obi eme threa your our only hope! WE NEED PICS!!!

M3 · Post by M3 » Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:38 am

So, first an apology for not being in contact sooner. The one thing I forgot about when I took this on, back on the 13th, was that my semester was about to start.

This has been especially rough this semester, where I'm teaching FOUR classes rather than my usual two, and up to my neck in committee and research work besides.

Bottom line: I haven't had more than a minute to do anything these last few weeks. Should have realized that, but sometimes I can get stubborn.

But I do have an option that I hope will be win-win for everyone. (Hopefully.)

You see, to tell this story, let's climb into the WAYBAC Machine and return to those halcyon days of 2007...

IIRC (and it has been awhile, so YMMV), I was participating in the second Box-Of-Stuff Challenge. (The first went VERY successfully for me.) Unfortunately, when I divorced in 2008, I lost not just my work space, but my inspiration to work on things for awhile. I had just gotten to the point where the basic construction had taken place, and then it went into storage for the next few years, until I got my construction space (and mojo) back.

Now that I have a new life and a new place to build models, I have finally had the opportunity to pull this out of storage. This is one of those projects where it's always been a bit of unfinished business... and I'd like to give the rest of YOU the opportunity to FINALLY finish it, and bring some form of closure to this long adventure.

I've spent more time with this than I would have had we been doing this as originally planned, but there's still plenty of opportunity to turn this into an interesting model. I'd recommend that you try to work around the original parts as much as possible, and not be too hasty to replace or rebuild anything- it's more of a challenge, that way (and truer to the original Box-Of-Stuff theme).

Oh, and I'll let you be the one to take some pix of her current state, when she gets there- that way, it'll be more of a surprise.

Just so you know what you're getting into, here's some pix from the Dark Ages to give you a taste of where she is right now, and where she could go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5291.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5292.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5293.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5294.jpg

So, this was the fuselage I came up with. It's the bottom half of an X-Wing, married to the bottom of a Kazon Ship, with a Cardassian stand as Lucky Pierre, all covered in Aves and carefully smoothed with sandable primer.

And here's a couple of tape-ups I did, before she got shelved:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5295.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5303.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5301.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5298.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5300.jpg

Along with a few other possible orientations:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5290.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5288.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5287.jpg

And yes, right now the large yellow engines ARE glued on, along with a few other bobs and bits. Try and work around them. (Believe it or not, this build actually predates the movie WALL-E!):shock:

So, I'll send you the base build tomorrow, plus a few other bobs and bits (including a few that I think will be helpful along the way, that weren't in my original Box-Of-Stuff shipment.)

Good luck, and may the saints add preservatives to ya!

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:59 pm

YAAAAAY!!!!!

I can't wait to get my hands on it!!! i'm going to start searching through the eight parts boxes tonight to start the planning process.

kalhen · Post by **kalhen** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 7:45 pm

that was a very good idea I love it and can't wait to get a hold of it.

Loachnut · Post by **Loachnut** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:02 pm

That definitely looks like a workable design.

Can't wait to see what it will look like in the end.

M3 · Post by M3 » Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:36 pm

THE BIRD HAS FLOWN!

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:34 pm

I'll keep my eyes on the mailbox for it! Do we want it to be more of a one person ship like an x-wing? Or do we want to make it a much larger ship like the enterprise or star destroyer? I've got parts that can take it both ways. Just wondering what every one thinks.Didn't want to make that large of a decision without giving everyone a chance to weigh in. Or if everyone want me to decide I'll make up my mind once I get it and see what works better.

M3 · Post by M3 » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:13 am

This layout was going to be a heavy fighter/bomber, like a Y-Wing with actual wings:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/ ... G_5301.jpg

The cockpit was going to go where the gray trapezoidal piece is- which I forgot to include in the box- sorry!

I also figured the sub parts would go along the top and bottom of the primed gray piece, as easy details.

Of course, if you have a Star Wars Phantom Menace tank model handy, you could put the turret from that at the pointy end and turn it into an early Bird of Prey...

Or, you could turn it around, put the fins on the pointy end, and have an Aerial H-K variant from The Terminator...

Gundamhead · Post by **Gundamhead** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:10 pm

raser13 wrote:I'll keep my eyes on the mailbox for it! Do we want it to be more of a one person ship like an x-wing? Or do we want to make it a much larger ship like the enterprise or star destroyer? I've got parts that can take it both ways. Just wondering what every one thinks.Didn't want to make that large of a decision without giving everyone a chance to weigh in. Or if everyone want me to decide I'll make up my mind once I get it and see what works better.

The point of the build is to do what inspires you with the design when you receive it. It's not a build to a consensus of a design, (unless that design IS your inspiration) it's a build from something you see that others might not have. At the end, the models design is evolved by each person's creativity. It's that evolution that becomes interesting, each set of hands and eyes becomes a signature.

M3 · Post by M3 » Thu Feb 05, 2015 3:01 pm

Gundamhead wrote:The point of the build is to do what inspires you with the design when you receive it. It's not a build to a consensus of a design, (unless that design IS your inspiration) it's a build from something you see that others might not have. At the end, the models design is evolved by each person's creativity. It's that evolution that becomes interesting, each set of hands and eyes becomes a signature.

Of course, if you want to continue down the track the original builder had in mind, nothing wrong with that, either.

Gundamhead · Post by **Gundamhead** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 6:28 pm

M3 wrote:
Gundamhead wrote:The point of the build is to do what inspires you with the design when you receive it. It's not a build to a consensus of a design, (unless that design IS your inspiration) it's a build from something you see that others might not have. At the end, the models design is evolved by each person's creativity. It's that evolution that becomes interesting, each set of hands and eyes becomes a signature.
Of course, if you want to continue down the track the original builder had in mind, nothing wrong with that, either.

It's the part of these builds I enjoy. There is no possible wrong way.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:11 pm

Just seeing what others parts might more easily accommodate. It arrived today!!! And as soon as I figure out how to load pics from my wife's phone i'll post pics of what I got and some of my thoughts on where this might go. Right now I'm sifting through the parts boxes and letting the parts speak to me. Unfortunately the parts are calling me like five different ways.

but I'm going to narrow it down tonight and tomarrow I'll start off in great earnest.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 12:51 am

all right now that i have pics loaded up the time for the walk through is upon us!!!!!

lets start off with what i received:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... 1423195057

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0575.jpg

the second one is the ship with a few mods that i couldn't wait for my wife to get home with the phone. only camera we have right now. i added the white and the orange tip on the one end. and the f-15 intakes originally had evergreen vent type material. i removed it for now. and added a macross part.

http://s1015.photobucket.com/user/raser ... ort=3&o=21

now let's move on to my thought process of where this is going.

here's the back end additions. well back end until i or someone else decides this is front

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... 1423197186

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0578.jpg

and today

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0592.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0593.jpg

these i know are going to go here.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0579.jpg

this was one of my options to do for the pod.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0580.jpg

it was a real contender up against about ten other ideas. but in the end a part of an air freshener that i had in my truck caught my eye and won out. i would show a pic of that but i found it while my wife was at work, decided on it, and got it into the latex so i can copy it and use it. it's made out of icantglueitium, just like the new falcon.

next up is the area that i'm going to call the cockpit area for lack of a better term. and that's still what it might become. i have a few ideas for this one. most all of them involve the bat-mobile cover. what goes under it is yet to be determined and will kind of set the scale of this thing. first up is: i love the details that are already there and would feel bad of i took them off! so i was thinking that this could be a large control bridge like the one on vaders star destroyer. the trick is finding some guys that small to use to pull it off:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0585.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0583.jpg

next is a two seater ship mor on par with amidalas chrome ship that her and anni go cruising around the galaxy with. this would utilize the parts from the bat cockpit.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0586.jpg

and last is a one seat set up more like the x-wing this resembles. as a mater of fact the cockpit is from a transformer version of the obi one tie fighter from ep. 3 as are the wings we will see later.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0587.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0588.jpg

this will go behind the cover to bridge the gap from the cover to the ship. and depending which way i go it will either be fused with the cover or have the seam for an open cockpit design.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0584.jpg

i've also been blending the bottom detail into the body of the ship and i added a bottom half of the hms bismark:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0594.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0589.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0590.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0595.jpg

in the last shot you can also see one of the ideas i'm tinkering with involving the wings off of the tie transformer i mentioned earlier. here's my other though using it as a base to build up a more klingon style fron command center.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0596.jpg

next up is the back of the engines/ nacelles? i cut off the binocular lens parts because they just didn't look right to me. in their place went two rims off of some Mc Donalds sci fi car. in the second pic you can see a wider distance shot.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0591.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0592.jpg

the engines have kind of a klingon bop cooler/defiant nacelles vibe to me so that's where i'm going to pull inspirations for these. i still want to build out past them but haven't decided how. i do know i want to stay away from plane style wings, unless i go for the one or two man craft. man i wish they were about 1/3 to 1/2 the size that they are. it would have made decisions so much easier.

once i get the parts pulled from the molds on sun. i'll have more progress shots to share. i'm out of town on sat. so no work to be done then. so let me know what you think so far. both comments and critiques. who knows one of your ideas good/bad might trigger and idea that leads to greatness.

Loachnut · Post by **Loachnut** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 11:26 am

The way things are going, it could turn out to be a large scale fighter of some type.....or a small scale star destroyer type. Neat!!

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 1:56 pm

that's kind of my conundrum. it really all depends on what i end up doing with the cockpit area. i have a bunch of parts that would let me work it both ways. i've just started sketches of what i could do either way and i'll think that will help me decide what to do by tomorrow. this is what i love about scratching. the parts can go together in infinite combinations to make all kinds of ships out of the same parts.

ooo, that could be a great challenge for the future. give the modelers the exact same parts and let them build. just to see haw many different ideas come from the same parts!

M3 · Post by M3 » Sat Feb 07, 2015 8:51 pm

Very nice! Looks great so far!

NX-17000 · Post by **NX-17000** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 10:01 pm

Cool! I like the idea of the larger crewed cockpit, sorta reminds me of Degra's Ship from Ent.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:43 pm

weellll,l so i haven't been able to update near as much as i wanted to. our camera's down and i have to get my wives phone and transfer the pics to my computer. prying that thing from her hand is like taking a rednecks gun away. but anyhow, the ship has changed just a bit since the last time i posted. and it has gotten a little larger. to start off i sliced the top of the nose to flatten it out a little bit for one of the sub parts. and extended the nose just a bit to accommodate it as well.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0597.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0601.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0605.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0607.jpg

i then glued the cut off section to the bottom to round things off. i had to remove some parts that i had already attached.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0618.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0603.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... AG0604.jpg

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:46 pm

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:54 pm

oh, i almost forgot i also got one of those wooden rings that you use for needle point. i;m going to add it where the two large engines are. making this into a ring ship.

M3 · Post by M3 » Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:50 am

Looks good so far!

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 7:41 pm

no pics today.

i'll get a set up sun. afternoon. i haven't been able to do much to it this week but this weekend we're supposed to get dumped on by snow. so i'll be a shut in.

so i'll do all the finishing touches that i want to get done to her and then start boxing her up on sun to get her on her voyage to millennium falsehood.

i'll get pics right before she enters the box so everyone knows where she stands. i'm going to build up the ring ship engines but i'm not going to attache them. they would probably get broke off during shipping and then the others down the line can also decide weather to use them or not.

my wife did bring up an interesting question. who gets to keep her once she's done and makes the wonderfest appearance?? does the last person get her or do we talk amungst ourselves? just wondering.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:47 am

sorry millennium it hasn't been sent yet i should have it out in the mail tomorrow.

i went to my brothers last weekend and the clutch in my cj-5 blew out so i've been stuck here for a week on his couch so i could take the tranny apart and replace it. my wife has got it boxed up for me and as soon as i get home tomorrow i'll get it to the post office. if i don't get there in time tomorrow i'll get it expedited to you on tues. again sorry everyone for mucking this up and delaying things. i'll shoot a pm as soon as i have a tracking #

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:39 pm

millennium falsehood, it's on it's way to you! should arrive on thurs. usps tracking # 9505 5110 2124 5062 5714 03

let me know when it arrives. i put a bunch of extra parts in the box for you so if you want to swap out some of the engine parts you can. i didn't get the ring part built up because of being stuck working on my jeep but i put the wood rings in there incase some one wants to build them up and add it to the model. good luck and can't wait to see where this goes from here.

raser13 · Post by **raser13** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 9:06 pm

.millennium it should be in your mailbox ! 😁