Because this starship was going to be white, I used gray primer on it. This was done with common, everyday car primer from a spray can. Nothing fancy. I use a drop cloth on my driveway and wear a mask when spraying. This is when a pile of glued together, miss-matched pieces of plastic, starts to look like a model of something real.

Below you see the model back on the work bench, ready to be weathered or aged.

Below, the top and front of the model have already been wet brushed with India Ink. It’s a slow process, but the results are often fantastic. Especially if you’re going for that used machinery look made so popular by Star Wars and ILM.

Here is the bottom of the model during one of the many passes of the black wash.

All the details of the back of the model really pop when they are high lighted by the black wash.

Here’s the finished model, after it was dry brushed with black pastels. Again, to me anyways, this is very influenced by Star Trek TOS, as well as Star Wars.

Below we see the Ostrov Warship on the C-stand, being photographed for the book covers. Another job well done.

At some point I decided that I really needed a way to mount this model, if it was going to be used for a book cover. So I had to cut a block of RenShape and fit it inside the model after it had been built. Not the way I normally do business. The hull of this ship was built for some other purpose, and I didn’t want to take it apart, so that dictated the order of things a bit.

The model could be mounted from behind, going all the way through it with a metal rod or from underneath with same rod.

The head of this ship was from a teleconferencing unit and after putting them together I realized it looked like a frog. Oh, well. I actually retrofitted that description into the novellas.

The engines were to be mounted to pylons similar to Star Trek ships. Here I am gluing the pylon mounts and shields.

The stern section gets details. All of the details on this model were taken from the garbage bins where I work. So parts of computers and other electronic equipment. I’ve trained some of the guys I work with to look for interesting plastic parts and every day I get offerings on my desk. This helped immensely and I’d like to shout out a big THANK YOU to Johnathon and the other bin divers!

Here’s the model with the pylons attached to the main body. I use Gorilla glue for this kind of job. Also, I’ve filled gaps on the head with car Bondo and sanded.

Here’s the frog on the examination table. Heh! The engine tubes are on, just PVC pipes in 1/2 inch. Again, all details are either sheet plastic or bits of computers. No model parts were used on this ship.

Here she is right side up on the bench and ready for primer. Next post is all about painting and ageing the model.

 

Just as I’m crazy enough to write an entire trilogy at once, I’m building two book cover models at the same time. This one being the Sultran Warship from the Destroyer Trilogy. The Ostrov system is where our heroes are stranded, looking for the pirate ship Black Star and it’s captain – Trin Lestor. Ostrov is the largest populated planet in a system of seven planets.

I started with this old attempt at some kind of ship that I found in my parts bins. I started fitting various parts to it and before you know it, I had the makings of a ship that didn’t look anything like the usual designs of the Star Saga.

I had to match the panels on one side of the triangle body. Then I just started adding more greeblies to the back side.

The head was taken from a common meeting room microphone system. If you work in corporate America, you may even recognize it. The plan is to glue some engine nacelles onto the sides and then start adding smaller details and panel lines. I expect this will be a quick build and might even be finished before the Sultran warship seen in the background.

I actually took the time to include Vynn’s four winged starfighter as it would have looked after he rammed the bridge of the Black Star in chapter one of the novella. I build it from strip styrene stock and stuck it into the bridge windows. At least I know it’s there.

I also added a hand painted flaming skull that marks it as a pirate ship in this universe. At this point the model was done and I had nothing to do but photograph her for the book cover.

Here she is with the Weippe.

Took this one with my phone so you could see the set up in my garage. I used the sun as my single key light.

The Black Star made regular trips to my office for show and tell. Below is the final book cover after a decent Photoshoping by my brother, Byron.

Byron improved the flaming skull and composed the elements into a pretty cool scene from the book. Done.

The base color of the Black Star is flat black. The best way to cover these large models is with a rattle can. Ain’t nobody got the funds to pay for model paint via an airbrush. So I used flat black spray paint and went to town.

There’s a dumbbell holding the base down and covered with the drop cloth.

Looks good.

Looks like some kind of massive laser rifle.

Back on the C-stand and ready for weathering.

Not sure why I started here, but I did. I mixed black and white artist chalks with a dry brush and rubbed it in good. This gives the black a more slate gray or charcoal black color that I was after. It’s a slow process.

Soft focus but you can see the whole ship has been dusted with the chalk.

Next up was a pass with brown for rust coloring. Just to add interest and age the ship.

This side’s looking pretty sweet.

Because the model would be photographed in “space” I was a bid concerned you would loose detail. So I dry brushed silver over the details to help make them pop and add another layer of age to the model.

It looks a bit too rust colored here. But trust me, on the cover, it will look smashing. Like the decals and the scribbling graffiti?

Remember last time when I said there would be trouble with the frame? Yeah, well there was trouble. Primarily because there was no backbone for the length of the ship. It turns out yogurt cups can’t hold all those cargo pods together. So I improvised like a Jazz musician and stuck a bracket through the center and bolted it to the RenShape block.

Retro-fitting a frame is not recommended. Prior thought would have been easier.

The model has held together nicely after the aluminum frame was installed. Here it is on the C-stand above the bench.

Here’s the Star and the Weippe in formation.

One last shot showing it next to a yardstick. Yeah, now that’s a starship. Easily the biggest one I’ve built.

Back to the cargo pods and detailing. Mmmm, detailing.

Starting to look like a ship. Pass the model parts, there are some flat spaces in there that need details. Note the clean desktop. It happens.

Something missing on the last section. Oh yeah, details! Better get busy.

For some reason, I started on the bottom first. Check out that bad-ass looking piece on the engine. I think that’s a military tractor or something. Love it.

Then I impaled it with the mount pole and it finally died.

Fast forward to the drive section’s side. More delicious details. I only detailed one side due to reasons. Mainly because I knew I would be photographing it from only one side, so to save time and parts, I only built three sides.

Detailing these models is an art form in and of itself. You can’t just slap parts on there and paint ’em. Things have to look like they have a purpose. It’s my absolutely favorite part of scratch building starships.

It’s okay to recognize parts at this stage, but after it’s done, I don’t want you be able to do that. At least not quickly.

This area is starting to look pretty cool.

Back to the front and some nice neck details behind the bridge section. One of the parts in there is a AT-AT Walker foot from a Star Wars toy.

Bridge windows were created from styrene strips. I with I had a store display of Evergreen plastic. I’d use it all in just a year.

Damn. She’s looking pretty fierce for a transporter.

That’s it for the detailing phase. Next up is paint. Not my favorite part, but paint makes the model.