Votainion Warship Build Part 6

In this post I finish detailing the bottom of the model and begin prepping for painting. Below we see the major detail pieces in place for the main body of the model. The clear area to the right is where the flight deck will go. In this model, I have opted to show the normally open deck in the closed position.

Below we see the larger pieces in place under the engines. Some of the details are from a tank and one of them is space bar from a computer keyboard. There are lots of pieces from computers on this model, especially on the bottom.

The bottom of the neck is mostly straight pieces of plastic

Here is an overall look at the whole bottom of the model. All the details are in place save the launch bay and the bottoms of the wings and canards.

The bay area is now tackled using strips of plastic and lots of tiny details culled from tank models.

 

After completing the details on the bottom of the wings and canards, the model is given a light gray coat of paint so I can see if the details are working.

These images were taken against my wooden floors for greater contrast. The next primer coat will be flat black.

A look at the side of the model after all detailing is over.

More shots of the model with light gray primer.

Another area I took care to detail was the stern where the engines will go. You can see some of the new pieces as they are white.

One final pass in attack mode. I’m liking this angle for the ship.

The engine area is airbrushed with flat black Tamiya paint.

Then the painted engines are put in place to get an idea what they will look like.

The base coat of flat black on the engines really makes them look sinister. I used Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black on the engines.

All the tools I need to paint finally arrived this week and this image shows them.

The engines are detailed further with plastic strips. The goal was to make it look like each engine had panels removed for maintenance during a long space voyage. So each engine is slightly different and one has the exhaust funnel removed.

Here is an engine getting some strip plastic detailing. The work is a bit tedious as it has to be done to all four engines.

The engines are installed for a quick look to make sure we are on track.

The engines are lined up to see if they still fit after the extra details are added.

The final base color will be Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown. I may add some flat red to this to ensure more of a barn red color. We’ll have to wait until the final post to see how that went.

Votainion Warship Build, Part 5

In Part 5 I start going to town on the greeblies and do some panel lines. I round out the post with a light gray dusting from an airbrush to see what the basic shape will look like as a whole. This is necessary because there are too many colored parts to get a feel for what the ship will look like painted.

I’ve purchased three plastic model kits to use for detailing on this model the rest of the greeblies come from my parts bins. Many parts are from old computers and servers and a whole bunch of purchased, plastic strips of various sizes.

Above and below we see the progression of parts on one side of the neck. In later pictures you’ll notice that I add more pipes and smaller details to finish it off.

Above I’ve added some heat bent plastic tubes around that red piece. Which, by the way, is a dollar store greeblie that was a kid’s party flute.

Above, we see the other side. The dark gray piece is from a hard drive mounting bracket in a server.

Above, I’ve started detailing the top of the neck area. I wanted long, narrow lines here and used greeblies sparingly.

This is a CU of one of the main sensor arrays. Most of the details are finished in this area.

The head got some attention with a layer of tiny details and more strips of plastic. You can also see the front canard details in this shot which includes a forward facing canon. Each canon has a sensor array which is a key from an old kid’s computer. The canon itself is a combination of tank wheels.

The back of the canards needed some work and these two pics above and below show that progress.

And now for something completely different. Engraving panel lines. These are the tools I used. A ruler and pencil to draw the lines onto a thin plastic panel. A metal scribe to cut into the lines and a toothbrush to clean out eraser dust after I erase the pencil lines.

The next step is to add some smaller panels for relief. I sanded it lightly with super-fine steel wool.

Below we see the panel attached to the side of a canard. The final step is adding some tiny details from the tank kits.

Below is the other canard with slightly different panels and details to make it more interesting.

The bottom of the head got another pass with smaller details and some panel lines. Anyone recognize the long gray part?

Hint: Think original Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, a smaller version of the same part used on that classic model. Ya gots to have an homage on the model somewhere.

Below is the model after a light dusting from the airbrush. I very quickly went through an entire bottle of Testors lt gray paint.

Here she is coming at you! The top of the model was not painted yet. I need more paint!

Here’s a beauty pass.

Going the other direction. You can see I still need to do the panel lines on the main wing around the “V”.

Here’s the little air compressor I purchased for my airbrush. Next I’ll need to find a real airbrush as I only have a cheap Testors one at the moment.

 

One last look at why we do a light primer coat before calling it quits on the detailing. Here’s the side without primer.

Here’s the side with a primer coat. Some of the details blend in better when painted and look more natural. The whole model will get a good, solid coating of flat light gray before I start in with the final color – brick red.

Before I go, I thought I’d throw this parts list out there for fun. It’s always interesting for other modelers to know what parts went into your build.

That’s all for now. Next time I’ll be detailing the bottom and hopefully adding the engines.

Votainion Warship Build, Part 3

 Gun Pods

I broke down and purchased two tank model kits so that I could build these gun pods. The main guns are 1/35 scale M-48 wheels and the smaller tank wheels are 1/72 T-90 tank wheels. The rest of the parts consist of keys from an old kid’s computer and zip ties. The white plastic pieces above and below each gun is a plastic keyboard spring cut in half. Everything else is strip polystyrene from the hobby store. I built the first one and made sure that I had enough parts for the second pod. They had to be build in reverse of each other due to being on opposite sides of the model.

 

Below shows the gun pods being glued onto the side of the model.

 

New Layered Armor

I’m experimenting with a new layered armor technique to cover this model with. It involves using strips of plastic of varying sizes and just building up layers as I go. This is inspired by the reactive armor found on modern tanks. Also, I don’t have enough random model kits to kit bash from and cover the entire model. So large areas will have this style of armor plating.

 

Scanner Pods

The scanner pods are made from PC drive mounting brackets of various sizes. I had a bunch of them in my greebly drawers. I then added strips of plastic and some plastic tubes of various diameters. There are also some various other parts from the dollar store toys such as hair rollers and some kind of square puzzle thing. I collect all manner of little plastic bits that I find and sooner or later they wind up on my models.

Again, I had to make sure that I had enough parts for two of these pods. They will be attached at the tips of the main wings of the warship.

 

 

Top Deck Details

For the top deck I decided to use some old six pack packaging I had to replicate the tops of the star drive engines. I’m still in the process of adding details to this deck. Once again, I’ve had to get creative with my parts as you can see. Hopefully by the time it’s all done and painted, most of the details will be unrecognizable.

Below, more PC mounting rails, this time used on the top deck.