Every book I release has a cover that is produced by myself and my graphic designer brother, Byron. Since we are working in the Sci-Fi, Space Opera genre and in one particular universe, we try and have starships on the… Read More »Cover Art Evolution – K’nat Trap
This is the principle vehicle of the novel I’m currently writing – Corvette. It is a 1/350 scale model with multiple mount points. (For scale reference, it’s a few inches over a foot long.) It’s the first model I’ve built with… Read More »SS Weippe
I don’t normally just build random spaceship models these days. I have a plan, as the Cylons would say. That plan is closely related to the cover art of my novels. All the cover art for the first six books… Read More »Upcoming Model Builds for 2016
The cover of my novella The Blood Empress features a dual KIV-3 starfighter. This is actually a 1/48 scale plastic model scratch built specifically for this cover art. In addition to being a writer, I’m also a model builder. All… Read More »Cover Model – The Blood Empress
My second favorite part of modelling is weathering. After the details have been finalized and the base coat of primer and paint applied the final step is giving the model a history. That’s what I think of when I weather… Read More »Weathering the Terrox Model, Part 1
Sometimes I have an idea for a starfighter model but it’s not completely fleshed out on paper and I don’t know if the actual design will work. Or I may be working from a twenty year old semi-orthographic drawing, as… Read More »Mock-Up Models
Sometimes when you build a really cool model in one scale, you start to look around at your collection of junk and realize that you could probably make this model in another scale. You only need this or that greebly… Read More »Dual KIV-3 Model Build Part 1
The model has moved forward quite a bit in the past few weeks. I’ve completed covering the fuselage, at least what shows for the camera shoot. I’ve worked on one wing details and added a nose cone. Finally, the cockpit… Read More »KIV-3 Cover Shot Build Part 4
This time I get to finish construction of both wings and I begin to wrap up the fuselage. Both wings were built up in unblemished fashion. I’ll be adding battle damage to the top or starboard wing at a later… Read More »KIV-3 Cover Shot Build Part 3
After taking the summer off to write, I’m back to the model bench in the fall. This time I tweak some of the details and take my first stab at a wing. We’ll start with our unfortunate Votainion pilot. I… Read More »KIV-3 Cover Shot Build Part 2