N
noble
Guest
Heh Andy wouldn't it be nice if some one decided to build one in 1/48 or 1/32 scale including the APC.
scott
scott
B
Boldman
Guest
Well a 1:35 Dropship to match the Halcyon APC would be superb, however the APC kits are so rare and expensive now that its very unlikely! I would have thought it would be worth someone out there who owns the moulds for these kits to have a go at repopping them - there is still plenty of demand for the kits it seems!
Only progress to report from last night is the hole has been cut. The cut-out is being saved to make the roof of the APC bay. There is some complex bodging required at the front where other pieces will intrude into the APC bay, so a bit more cutting to come I think. No photos, more later I suspect
Only progress to report from last night is the hole has been cut. The cut-out is being saved to make the roof of the APC bay. There is some complex bodging required at the front where other pieces will intrude into the APC bay, so a bit more cutting to come I think. No photos, more later I suspect
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B
Boldman
Guest
Small update but a lot of building!
As I reported Thursday, cut open the base of the dropship for the APC bay. YesterdayI did a lot of measuring up to get the right sizes for the internal panels and cut these from a pasticard sheet I got from Evergreen labelled as "Metal Roofing" It has ridges cut into the sheet and comes with thin plastic ribs to slot into the ridges. It was frankly a bit of a rip off, much more expensive than I anticipated because it was only when I got it home I realised there was only ONE sheet in the packet! Anyway this was cut up and the ribs added along with some bits of old Spitfire from the spares box and voila...
It is of course upside down!
Here is anotehr vidcap of that view into the bay when they are getting ready early on in the movie
You will probably only be able to see the back wall of the dropship once its in the diaorama so concentrated on that area. The front bit will need trimming so that it fits under the forward body curves. Also had another look at the section of the movie where the alien gets into the dropship. You see Spunkmeyer blimb back into the APC bay and see the ribs and funnily enough it loosk like the internal colour of the bay is green, either olive drap/olive green or possibly even cockpit green considering how dark it is...
As I reported Thursday, cut open the base of the dropship for the APC bay. YesterdayI did a lot of measuring up to get the right sizes for the internal panels and cut these from a pasticard sheet I got from Evergreen labelled as "Metal Roofing" It has ridges cut into the sheet and comes with thin plastic ribs to slot into the ridges. It was frankly a bit of a rip off, much more expensive than I anticipated because it was only when I got it home I realised there was only ONE sheet in the packet! Anyway this was cut up and the ribs added along with some bits of old Spitfire from the spares box and voila...
It is of course upside down!
Here is anotehr vidcap of that view into the bay when they are getting ready early on in the movie
You will probably only be able to see the back wall of the dropship once its in the diaorama so concentrated on that area. The front bit will need trimming so that it fits under the forward body curves. Also had another look at the section of the movie where the alien gets into the dropship. You see Spunkmeyer blimb back into the APC bay and see the ribs and funnily enough it loosk like the internal colour of the bay is green, either olive drap/olive green or possibly even cockpit green considering how dark it is...
M
mobear
Guest
jeepers that is an amazing model,cool so far mate
mobear
mobear
C
CDW
Guest
Yeah that looks good, nice piece of scratch building there.
Played this part of the film over a few times the other night and i think it'll all come together well mate.
I'm of a mind about the green too being honest, though in secrtions of the film it looks grey/green with a further green cast from the lighting.
Played this part of the film over a few times the other night and i think it'll all come together well mate.
I'm of a mind about the green too being honest, though in secrtions of the film it looks grey/green with a further green cast from the lighting.
B
Boldman
Guest
and so it continues with the progress from yesterday.
Because of the APC bay, I've had to cut a hole in the piece that represents the forward slope of the dropship
so that it fits over the APC bay
Note how the front of the bay slopes down to try to fit. Sadly this still wasn't enough and I had to trim several mm off the bay to get it to fit comfortably
While sorting this out, I've been thinking ahead to fixing the missile pod arms and to this end I've added some reinforcing to the inside of the attachment point with some milliput
This will give me something to drill into to to make a solid anchor when the time comes.
Once this was settled I realised I'd missed off the walkways that run down either side of the APC bay. These are visible in the scenes with Spunkmeyer coming back into the dropship and discovering the alien slime. So its back to the trusty Meccano spares box for some more steel mesh:
You'll notice I've also give the internals a coat of primer.
I then began looking at what to do with the missile pods. I think I'm going to have to scratch build the internals of the pods and add missiles made form cocktail sticks as these seem to be the right diameter. So to this end I started cutting up plastic card to line the inside of the slot to take the missiles. I also removed the larger missiles for the forward pylons off the sprues, cleaned them up and drilled out the rear to represent the exhaust port.
The last thing I did last night was to glue the front section to the main body. This is the bit that contains the slot for the lower part of the cockpit and (take note) the headlights. So I glued that on and added some filler to the bottom seam and left it overnight.
This morning, I realised I had not done anything with the holes for the headlamps!!! Dammit! So the scalpel had to come out and undo the gluing that was done last night. Thankfully no damage was done to the pieces, but its bloody annoying all the same! Today will be sorting out something to put behind the headlights - I won't be lighting the model, so it will me something reflective only.
Because of the APC bay, I've had to cut a hole in the piece that represents the forward slope of the dropship
so that it fits over the APC bay
Note how the front of the bay slopes down to try to fit. Sadly this still wasn't enough and I had to trim several mm off the bay to get it to fit comfortably
While sorting this out, I've been thinking ahead to fixing the missile pod arms and to this end I've added some reinforcing to the inside of the attachment point with some milliput
This will give me something to drill into to to make a solid anchor when the time comes.
Once this was settled I realised I'd missed off the walkways that run down either side of the APC bay. These are visible in the scenes with Spunkmeyer coming back into the dropship and discovering the alien slime. So its back to the trusty Meccano spares box for some more steel mesh:
You'll notice I've also give the internals a coat of primer.
I then began looking at what to do with the missile pods. I think I'm going to have to scratch build the internals of the pods and add missiles made form cocktail sticks as these seem to be the right diameter. So to this end I started cutting up plastic card to line the inside of the slot to take the missiles. I also removed the larger missiles for the forward pylons off the sprues, cleaned them up and drilled out the rear to represent the exhaust port.
The last thing I did last night was to glue the front section to the main body. This is the bit that contains the slot for the lower part of the cockpit and (take note) the headlights. So I glued that on and added some filler to the bottom seam and left it overnight.
This morning, I realised I had not done anything with the holes for the headlamps!!! Dammit! So the scalpel had to come out and undo the gluing that was done last night. Thankfully no damage was done to the pieces, but its bloody annoying all the same! Today will be sorting out something to put behind the headlights - I won't be lighting the model, so it will me something reflective only.
B
Boldman
Guest
Well this was a turn up for the books! I went out to the garage this afternoon to get the lawnmower out to cut the grass (in March - jeeze!!!!) and next to the house connecting the house to the garage we've got a shed/lean-to thingy and when I opened the door I almost tripped over a stack of boxes that the postman must have delivered a couple of days ago and never bothered telling me. Most of these were things my GF had ordered for the upcoming birthday party for the little one, but one package was the ejection seats and cockpit PE I had ordered last week:
I've put the crew figures there as well. This is why I don't usually do 1:72 stuff - its all frigging tiny!!! Definitely not going to be able to show Cpl Ferro in all her glory! Well maybe it won't be noticed - those fatigues are very baggy!!
"Spunkmeyer? Goddammit! Well where the fu..."
I've put the crew figures there as well. This is why I don't usually do 1:72 stuff - its all frigging tiny!!! Definitely not going to be able to show Cpl Ferro in all her glory! Well maybe it won't be noticed - those fatigues are very baggy!!
"Spunkmeyer? Goddammit! Well where the fu..."
M
mobear
Guest
wow you have one almighty job there,and you are doing great
mobear
mobear
B
Boldman
Guest
Well that fortuitous discovery this afternoon changed my plans for the building today - with so much lovely resin and etch details I couldn't resist having a go at the cockpit! The two bang seats are marvels of tiny cast detail. How I'm going to paint them I'll never know - I think I might need a more powerful magnifying lens in my visor!
I had to move the front seat back quite a distance to fit a pilot in along with the console. There is an instrument console to the pilots left which is built up from scaps of plastic card and etch and the rear seat's console is built up on another couple of plastic scraps with etch details stuck on. The figures had to loose their feet and the pilot had to have his lower legs amputated to fit under the console but this won't be visible. In fact truth be told most of this won't be visible, but I'll know its there
A couple of etch pieces have been attached to the sidewalls of the cockpit body itslef. It all fits together into a very cramped cockpit
But that seems appropriate from what you see in the movie. So now to add some paint to this lot! I must admit this was huge fun - building something that only had to conform to a vague layout snatched from very brief glimpses allowed space for creativity and just fun!
I had to move the front seat back quite a distance to fit a pilot in along with the console. There is an instrument console to the pilots left which is built up from scaps of plastic card and etch and the rear seat's console is built up on another couple of plastic scraps with etch details stuck on. The figures had to loose their feet and the pilot had to have his lower legs amputated to fit under the console but this won't be visible. In fact truth be told most of this won't be visible, but I'll know its there
A couple of etch pieces have been attached to the sidewalls of the cockpit body itslef. It all fits together into a very cramped cockpit
But that seems appropriate from what you see in the movie. So now to add some paint to this lot! I must admit this was huge fun - building something that only had to conform to a vague layout snatched from very brief glimpses allowed space for creativity and just fun!
M
mobear
Guest
whoa nice cockpit mate
mobear
mobear
B
Boldman
Guest
Bit of painting tonight, that cockpit needed finishing off...
and this is why I don't do 1:72 anymore - this looked okay with eyes and magnifier, but zooming in with the camera and it doesn't look half as good
Pilots getting some paint too
and you can see the ejecrot seat handles in yellow as well. There was another but it just disappeared somewhere! If it more than 5mm wide I'll be surprised.
Finally in this update, the canopy. If you look closely in the last pic on the previous post you'll see the canopy. It has some scratches on the surface meant to denote the canopy frame.Well I don't think thats good enough so having masked it all up, I'm layering some Mr surfacer 1000 to represent the canopy frame.
Dunno if it'll work but I'll never know unless I try! Oh and I almost forgot, the APC bay got its Olive Green paint and some dark wash.
I am trying to sort out the headlights as well, but I keep getting distracted with the cockpit. Missiles soon... oh boy!
"Hot as hell in here"
"Yeah man, but it's a dry heat!"
and this is why I don't do 1:72 anymore - this looked okay with eyes and magnifier, but zooming in with the camera and it doesn't look half as good
Pilots getting some paint too
and you can see the ejecrot seat handles in yellow as well. There was another but it just disappeared somewhere! If it more than 5mm wide I'll be surprised.
Finally in this update, the canopy. If you look closely in the last pic on the previous post you'll see the canopy. It has some scratches on the surface meant to denote the canopy frame.Well I don't think thats good enough so having masked it all up, I'm layering some Mr surfacer 1000 to represent the canopy frame.
Dunno if it'll work but I'll never know unless I try! Oh and I almost forgot, the APC bay got its Olive Green paint and some dark wash.
I am trying to sort out the headlights as well, but I keep getting distracted with the cockpit. Missiles soon... oh boy!
"Hot as hell in here"
"Yeah man, but it's a dry heat!"
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C
CDW
Guest
All looking good so far mate, the bay looks well tidy
As far as you thinking the cockpit isn't up to scratch ....... "Drake, check your camera. There seems to be a malfunction"........ looks ok from this end and it'll look fine when it's in situ and you've got that canopy sorted.
As far as you thinking the cockpit isn't up to scratch ....... "Drake, check your camera. There seems to be a malfunction"........ looks ok from this end and it'll look fine when it's in situ and you've got that canopy sorted.
B
Boldman
Guest
Of course now I've just relaised that the back of the APC bay is too dark! You can see in this screencap that its a sort of grey colour
Now whether that is just the lighting form inside the bay (which I don't have) or whether its the real colour of that "face" bit in the wall I don't know. All I know is that mine will look too dark, so might have to change that to make it look similar...
Now whether that is just the lighting form inside the bay (which I don't have) or whether its the real colour of that "face" bit in the wall I don't know. All I know is that mine will look too dark, so might have to change that to make it look similar...
M
mobear
Guest
its getting better and better cool
mobear
mobear
C
CDW
Guest
I think it's the tube lighting each side of the bay thats giving it the lighter grey look in the still Andrew, if you're not going to push further and go for some form of interior lighting then maybe re-painting it will be the best option.
shame to have to redo it but it'll be the best thing as it'll probably bug you if it's not right eh
shame to have to redo it but it'll be the best thing as it'll probably bug you if it's not right eh