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KIV-3 Starfighter Part 2

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

The first part of this series showed the roughing out of the basic KIV-3 shape. I used poster board for the main wings and the ribs of the fuselage. In this second part of the series I cover the fuselage with poster board and begin to add surface details to the fuselage. This is my favorite stage of building a spaceship model from scratch. Improvising the design and making go from cool to bad-ass.

KIV-3

After covering the fuselage, it looked like the shape was off and the poster board was wrinkled. The nose cone was made from index card stock and it turned out off center. Not perfectly cone shaped. But I decided to let it stay and just go with the flaw. When I started covering parts of the fuselage with poster board it looked uneven. I made some matte board slats along the wing on the top and bottom and that visually corrected the shape of the fuselage.

KIV-3 top

The above picture shows another attempt to cover flaws in the back of the fuselage. I constructed a vent or intake scoop and suddenly, the clean lines of the fuselage are gone, but the awesomeness of the design increased. I love it when that happens.

Bottom View

This shot of the bottom shows the poster board rectangles that will represent the landing skids. Two in the rear and one up front for tricycle gear. I won’t build the gear, but now I know where it would be located. This picture and the next show the pointed rakes or mini-wings on the bottom of the fuselage.

Side Showing Bottom Rakes

The basic design of the KIV-3 was first sketched by me when I was 14 years old. To see it come to life as a model in my late forties is just too cool for words. Oh, the fighter in the background is a Second Generation Western Alliance starfighter. I rebuilt the nose of that model.

1 thought on “KIV-3 Starfighter Part 2”

  1. Pingback: KIV-3 Starfighter Part 3 | KEN-McCONNELL.com

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