Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller Volume 36 PDF

 

volume 36

UFO ORIGINAL MINI ATURES UNEARTHED!

AMT

ENTERPRISE ULTIMATE CONVERSION

MOEBIUS

COLONIAL ONE

 

Print editions can be obtained from:

www.scififantasymodeller.co.uk [email protected] 

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volume 36

 

Hot from the Mould—breaking news Upgrading Fujimi’s Deckard Sedan Antique Astronaut Hatched by Moebius—Deform Egg Viper Captain Jean-Marc 'Nemo' gets cabin fever! A trio of terror: resin busts Maurauding Martian mayhem Round 2’s Deep Space Nine trilogy Chris Foss in three dimensions Fit for a Presi sid den entt—M —Mo oebiu iuss Co Collon oniial On Onee Small bu but de deadly—Moebius 1: 1:72nd Viper Original UFO UFO miniatures ph photo-showcase Studio 2—Mobile build part 3 Kool Ko ol Ka Katt Ki Kit— t—Mo Moeb ebiu iuss Ne Newm wmar ar Ca Catw twom oman an Perfecting AMT’s 18" Enterprise

Editor-in-Chief/co-Publisher: Specials Editor: Art Editor/co-Publishe Editor/co-Publisher: r: Regular modelling team: This volume’s contributors:

6 8 17 22 28 36 41 50 59 67 71 76 87 89 92

Michael G. Reccia. Andy Pearson. David Openshaw. Iain Costall, Barry Ford, Andy Pearson, Marco Scheloske, Gary R. Welsh. Jean-Marc Deschamps, Jason C. Gares, Grant Louden, Derek Rushton, Michael Scarola, Jamie Smythe.

web: www.scififantasymodeller.co.uk  editorial email: [email protected]  Published by Happy Medium Press copyright © 2015 ISBN-13: 978-0-9930320-0-4 Printed in the United Kingdom by Pioneer Print Solutions. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the Publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced,, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any reproduced means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the Publisher. The views expressed by our contributors are not necessarily shared by Happy Medium Press. Every care is taken to ensure that the contents of Sci.fi & fantasy modeller are accurate, but the Publishers cannot accept responsibility

The publishers and author (contributors) take no responsibility for any harm or injury to the reader as a result of using the techniques described in this publication. Safety and common safe should always be foremost when using these techniques and materials. Read all instructions and warnings on tools, paint, glues, and all chemicals. Hobby knives are very sharp and serious injury can result from improper use. Your work area should be well ventilated at all times. Children should be supervised at all times by an adult familiar with hobby safety. Please note that all hints, tips and procedures in this publication are given in good faith and based on actual experience. However, However,

for errors. Responsibility for correct copyrighting of photographs, artwork and illustrations lies with the contributor contributor.. All copyrights are acknowledged. Reasonable care is taken when accepting advertising. However, However, the Publishers cannot accept any responsibility for any resulting unsatisfactory transactions or any inaccuracies contained within the ads themselves.

neither the publisher nor authors (contributors) can be responsible if  something goes wrong during construction.

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volume 36 EDITORIAL The universe is kind to editors...

on that first viewing.

Sometimes it takes a decade or two, but isn’t it amazing how good things actually do come to those who wait? You see, I’ve always loved the look of it, but,

Whether you’re a fan of the series or not, as a genre modeller I know you’ll appreciate being able to examine these classic, expertly crafted SF models in detail for the first time.

unfortunately, it was mostly filmed in nighttime scenes, so

Then, once you’ve had a lie down to recover, I hope you’ll

I’ve only ever caught glimpses of those futuristic lines –

be equally delighted and enthused by the scratchbuilds, studio

having to make educated guesses as to what the t he whole thing

scale wonders and ahead-of-release reviews crammed into

actually looked like, and never dreaming that one day I’d actually be able to study it up close from every angle,

what we feel is a very special issue. Our sincere thanks to our hard-working team for continually outdoing themselves in

courtesy of clear and detailed colour photographs.

terms of presentation, originality and skill.

Imagine my surprise and absolute delight, then, on first receiving copy and photographs for the

UFO

original miniatures article featured in this Volume. There it was: the Markers Universal Mobile Transporter from Gerry Anderson’s first live action series (to be more exact, the

Me? I’m hard at work with Dave on Volume 37. And, of  course, I’m considering how fantastic a replica of the Mobile

Transporter (weighing in at around five-feet long, including its trailer) would look on a shelf, complementing the studio scale

Studio 2 Mobile I’m building over multiple issues of this title.

tractor/cab unit from that miniature) ...alive, well, and looking in

I’m sure Jane would love one of those on the fireplace.

remarkably good shape for a forty-five year old FX model.

In the living room.

...And it had brought friends to the party, too, as you will discover from the remarkable photographs of other

UFO

original models, presented in these pages as an exclusive I hope will have you staring in wonderment as much as I did

Next to the telly. Dream on, Reccia. ...See you in ninety, and thank you, as always, for reading. Michael G. Reccia

Editor-In-Chief  Follow us on Facebook [ http://www http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scifi-fantasy-modeller/1 .facebook.com/pages/Scifi-fantasy-modeller/1100200 1002002908516 29085161 1] and Twitter [ http://twitter.com http://twitter.com/#!/SffModeller /#!/SffModeller ].

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HOT FROM THE MOULD ROUNDING UP WHAT’S NEW AND HAPPENING IN SF AND FANTASY MODELLING ROUND  2

Round 2‘s Jamie Hood reports: RECENT/UPCOMING RELEASES

The following should be on store shelves by the time you read this: • AMT764 STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine Cadet Series set featuring U.S.S. Defiant , U.S.S. Saratoga and Galor-class Cardassian ship (see review revie w this issue issue – Ed.). • MKA012 U.S.S. Reliant  Aztec decals (at long last!). • POL926 BTTF 3 Time Machine. • MPC816 Space: 1999 Eagle Deluxe Edition. AND IN JANUARY/FEBRUARY JANUARY/FEBRUARY... ...

• HL603 (Hawk) Vanguard Satellite. • POL933 1:32 Classic Batmobile in purple box packaging. Includes resin figures featuring accurate character likenesses. • AMT913 STAR TREK: TOS U.S.S. Enterprise Build2gether kit. Offers both glue and snap Enterprises in one box. NEWS ON DEVELOPMENTS...

• POL934 Romulan Bird-of-Prey: Mockup has been approved and tooling started. First test shots should be available early January. January . • POL912inALIEN XO Kane resin kit. We have finally given the Kane kit a release month of March. First test shots look great and expect to see an excellent build article in the next issue of SFFM that demonstrates the steps needed to build and light  the model. Preliminary packaging art is featured here. • HL604 (Lindberg ) Flintstones snaptogether car is scheduled for April. ALSO ANNOUNCED RECENTLY AT iHOBBY...

• Small display base 3-pack. Perfect for use with Cadet Series kits. Currently being tooled.U.S.S. Enterprise Cutaway. • AMT891 Some people love it, some people hate it, but we are putting our usual spin on it

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with a few improvements over previous issues of the kit. More info to come. • STAR TREK: Ships of the Line. Blistercarded model kits. More info soon. RELIANT DECALS UPDATE

 Jamie reports: We have heard all of the complaints about the decals that were included in our recent release of the 1/1000 U.S.S. Reliant. We admit that they were pretty terrible. It was a case of  working with a new factory. Once we were made aware of the problem we promised that when we ran a second production run that we would improve them... and we have. We have made an extra 1000 decal sheets that we will send out (free of charge in the US) to anyone that requests a replacement by submitting to the link on our website at the following URL: www.round2models.com/replacement/  Finally, and cryptically, from Jamie: Lastly, we’ve got a major (and possibly unexpected) kit development underway that may have rumours circulating soon. Though it might be shown on upcoming distributor price lists soon, I’m not going to talk about it or show anything until we have a mockup well underway, which I hope to have on display at Wonderfest . Lags in other kit development and cancellations of  other kits keeps me from saying anything more until I have a mockup in my hands. But, if you hear something new is coming, I have no comment— Jamie.

 

MOEBIUS

Adding to their 1/72 scale fleet, Moebius have just released New BSG MkVII Viper and Cylon Raider twin packs. The Dragonfly aircraft from the classic ‘60s’  Jonny Quest cartoon series should also be in stores now (full reviews next issue), and, finally, Moebius are set to release a kit of the Ranger spacecraft from Warner Bros.’ recent blockbuster SF movie Interstellar.

FANTASTIC  PLASTIC

Available soon from Fantastic Plastic Models is the XR XRV  V  (Experimental ReEntry Vehicle) from the 1969 motion picture Marooned. The 1:72 scale kit was designed in CAD by Chris Corke, then finished and cast by Dave Guertin of BLAP! Models. Decals are by  JBOT   JB OT . The all-resin kit has 17 pieces, including an adapter that allows you to put your finished XR XRV  V atop a 1:72 Titan II or Titan III booster. It can also function as a display stand. The finished model is 6 inches (15.24cm) XRV  V visit long the XR is priced at $85.00 plus shipping. For moreand information www.Fantastic-Plastic.com.

MODELS WILD HOUSE 

From the worlds of Wild House Models comes the MEC Medical Console: ‘An advanced equipment and monitoring tool for doctors and medical personnel, the unit is capable of monitoring 10 different Stasis Pods at once from a central control console. Three dynamic interface touch-screens can be adjusted by several predefined control options, the interface allowing doctors and nurses to maintain the stasis environments of 

Int erst ellar  T M &   ©   W  arner Bros. Ent ert ainm ent  Inc .

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PARAGRAFIX

Available now from Paragrafix is a precision photoetched triangular straight edge, featuring both metric and imperial measurements. Through holes sized for mechanical pencil leads are located every 1/16" and 2mm to make marking simple.

many different •personnel independently. ’ parts plus Scale—1:24 Q1 2015independently.’ release • 45 resin flexible tubing • 3 screen-printed clear acrylic touchscreen interface panels • 75mm Doctor figure included • Optional Screen designs for Alien or Human • Optional Custom LED control Board will provide lighting for kit and also control the MECS70B Stasis Pod • Optional Nurse 72mm figure available soon.

The large hole at the apex makes for a convenient hanger so the tool is always close at hand. Part Part:: PT PT-SET -SET-3 -3 MSRP: $6.95 www www.ParaGrafix.biz .ParaGrafix.biz

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Blade Runner’s runner

Iain Costall builds a Deckard Sedan diorama Part one of two, using Fujimi Deckard Sedan and ParaGrafix upgrade set WHEN   F UJIMI  UJIMI  ANNOUNCED A STYRENE KIT OF THE SPINNER FROM   BLADE   RUNNER there was an understandable buzz amongst sci-fi modellers everywhere. Kits of vehicles from the cult movie were few and all were expensive resin items, so the t he new kit really filled a gap in many people’s wish lists.

...essentially the same kit with different 27 ...essentially markings and configurations. I built the Police version straight from the box. However, just as I obtained the Sedan version, a brass upgrade set was released by ParaGrafix and so I set out to create a detailed and more accurate version of  Harrison Ford’s ride.

Hot on the heels of the Spinner came a double release of Deckard ’s ’s Sedan and Police Car

The box art (1), whilst very nice, features spurious markings and a police roof light which

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are based on the restored car in the Miami Police Museum. These details were discarded to more accurately portray the movie version, with only the license plate decal being used. A nice addition in the box is a small pre-painted replica of Deckard ’s ’s blaster which looks to be about 1/6th scale (2). The ParaGrafix set comes with a choice of labels but both sets are identical (4). Optional parts are

included to depict either the interior seen from within (which, if you look carefully in the movie, is actually the interior of the Spinner) or the simpler interior seen on the driveable prop car. Also included are printed acetate screens that can be backlit. The etched brass parts are designed to be lit using LEDs but can also be used unlit. Construction started with the dashboard and monitors (5). The prominent lip on the dash was removed (6) and the monitor screens cut away by

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chaindrilling then carving with a sharp blade (7, 10). Care was taken to leave a small lip to which I could attach the brass screens. The area behind the monitors on the dashboard was also removed (8) along with the locating post beneath (9). The brass panels on the transmission tunnel were test fitted (11) then the plastic beneath removed (12,   13). The door panels were also thinned and drilled out (14,  27 ,  28) .

A small section of styrene was fitted to the underside of the monitors, which were then assembled to the dashboard (15,  16) . This created a ‘lightbox’ which would contain three white LEDs to light the screens. Back onto the etch and the instructions said to remove the end panel of the raised portion of the centre console and replace this with styrene to allow a light to be inserted in the resulting hole... the hatched portion was simply bent back and

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forth till it snapped off (17). The part is then folded and attached to the main panel, before being clad in some truly tiny pieces (18, 19). It’s a similar story with the parts for the door panels (26). As with any lighting job it’s important to plan

bounce the light around inside so that it projects through the etch. A simple bulkhead was installed at the rear of the console and a hole drilled to take a 3mm white LED (20). A similar hole was drilled in the front end and a piece of styrene fabricated to seal the bottom of the transmission tunnel (21, 22).

ahead as to where the lights will be fitted and to ensure that the kit will still fit together following modification. I lined the centre console with aluminium tape to prevent light leaks and also to

The LEDs were then glued in place... having them light the box horizontally from either end provided a more even light, avoiding ‘hot spots’

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through any particular area of etch (23,  24 ,  25) . On the centre console a styrene replacement for the brass piece I removed was made over-height so it met the underside of the dash. The LED within was carefully sanded to allow it to slide into the narrow aperture... as long as you take care not to expose the ‘element’ it will still work fine (29,  30) . I also took the opportunity to add some styrene rod to the etch to give it an extra dimension (31).

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I scratched some additional instruments for the passenger side using Evergreen strip and a length of guitar string (32,  33) then test fitted everything in place (34). The upgrade set provides cutting guides to open up the two missing windows in the rear bulkhead. It’s a fiddly job and you need to take care not to put too much pressure on the rather delicate framework, but it’s well worth the effort (35,  36) .

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In every Sedan / Police Police Car 27  kit Fujimi kindly supply the etched fret that comes with the Spinner kit bearing the Spinner logos... presumably because Deckard ’s ’s car is supposed to be a grounded, earlier version of the Police fliers (37). There’s no evidence of this logo being used on the actual Sedan in the movie but I thought it might be fun to use it somewhere in the grounded version. I therefore cut some ribbed Evergreen sheet to fit the footwells, then applied the logos. After some painting and scraping back of the face of the logos I had some neat looking mats... just the thing to keep that acid rain from ruining your carpets – note the wear on the driver’s side (38, 42).

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navigator from a Tamiya rally car. car. I was also lucky to find a 1/24 head, just about the only one I had that wasn’t wearing a crash helmet (53). I carved away the racing harness on the torso and started out by adding a shirt collar and tie from thin

Meanwhile the interior etched pieces were first primed then painted matt black before being drybrushed with various shades of grey. The dashboard is a mixture of black and desert yellow (39, 40, 41). I filled the open holes that let the light through using Microscale Kristal Klear (PV PVA A or white glue works too) which dries transparent. These were then tinted using Tamiya clear colours (43). A lighting test was carried out (44, 45, 46) and any light leaks on the edges of the panels were easily fixed with some paint. rear Islides to the monitors, and for theI fitted main the screen chose the Spinner lifting off after Deckard  has explained who he is to the cops. The smaller screen has Pris answering Sebastian’s phone (47, 48).

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I added some fibre optics to the passenger side dash (49, 50) – the fibres being donated by a cheap Halloween toy – and simply drilled out the dash using a 0.5mm drill and fed them through. What I didn’t realise was that the CA glue I had used to secure them had reacted and actually melted the fibres! There was nothing for it but to remove the damage, redrill them and then secure this time using five-minute epoxy (51). After a trawl through my spares boxes I came across the remains of what I think was the

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styrene sheet applied with copious amounts of  Plastic Weld cement to soften it and make it conform. I then added some lapels and another collar to represent his suit jacket (55). My figure sculpting skills are not the best but I roughed out the trenchcoat in Milliput  and gave him some hair (56). I also gave gave him him a sort sort of i-Pad  made from a piece of styrene topped with an off-cut of one of  the spare slides from the upgrade set (57,  58) . The etched set also provides templates for cutting the bulkhead glazing out of transparent sheet (60). These were duly installed in the bulkhead along with the kit transparency and the whole assembly cemented in place (61).

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I also painted in the lights using Tamiya Clear colours. I finally attached the dashboard to the interior tub and did the final wiring to leave just a single set of feeds. These are overlength and feed out through the bottom of the chassis behind the rear wheel... they’ll then feed through the base and on to the power supply in part two of this article. The whole interior assembly was then glued to the chassis (62,  63 ,  67 ,  68 ,  69) . I next added the various engine parts which had been pre-painted. These were then connected up using a mixture of the kit-supplied vinyl tubing, some slightly thicker black wire and some wirewound guitar string to simulate the cables seen in the real vehicle (64,  65 ,  66 ,  70) . The body colour is hard to define from movie stills and appears anything from a dark maroon to a metallic bronze. I settled for Halfords Rover Blaze, which seemed a good compromise. Aside from plate, the onlyonother decal the to apply the waslicense the red/white circle the roof: 77

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decals are by Cartograf  and respond well to Microsol  (71)  (71). Note the two pipes going into the ‘intake’ on the roof. These are closer in appearance to those on the real car and not how they are shown in the kit instructions (72). A light spirit wash was applied made up of  used thinners and MIG Starship Filth oil colour. The detail in Blade Runner is staggering. Ridley Scott went to the trouble of getting the art 78 department to create magazines to populate a news stand which is barely glimpsed in the final film. I thought it would be fun to have some of these on the passenger seat so found the images online and shrank them before printing them off. A typical US magazine size is 275mm x 210mm, which equates to 11.46mm x 8.75mm at 1/24 scale (73, 74). Finally the body shell was attached to the chassis and finishing touches added such as bumpers and wing mirrors. Ultra-fine strips of  black decal from a Microscale sheet were used to create the lines – presumably vents – seen on the

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pillars either side of the windscreen (79,  80 ,  81 , 82, 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87) . into a fine replica replica with very very Fujimi’s kit builds into little effort but the ParaGrafix upgrade raises it to a whole new level. I’m hoping that we may yet see other vehicles from Blade Runner in this scale, particularly a Metrokab and Sebastian’s Van. In part two the Sedan will be placed into a diorama using a resin building created by Randy Cooper (72).

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 ANCI  AN CIE ENT  ASTRONAUT by Andy Pearson I’ D

RATH ER FAN CIE D BU ILD ING A N AST RO N AU T

MODE MO DEL L FO FOR R SO SOME ME TI TIME ME, A DE DESI SIRE RE FU FULF LFIL ILLE LED D TO SO SOME ME

I WAS GI VE VEN AN   APOLLO   II  FIGURE KIT, later commandeered by a friend’s young son. Truth to tell, that whetted the appetite further rather than assuaging the urge so I turned to the prospect of a scratchbuild and one made more interesting by setting myself limits on the materials that I would use. EXTE EX TENT NT WH WHEN EN

I am not a figure modeller by any stretch of the imagination and, whilst I have sculpted a number of fantasy and sci-fi heads with varying degrees of  success, my attempts at figures have usually left something to be desired in terms of proportions. My usual solution is to use an existing figure kit or a jointed artist’s lay figure as the basis of the build. Longer ago than I care to remember I built a submariner figure based on a MiniArt  MiniArt medieval medieval knight and thought that I might use the same approach here. The slight reservation was that the MiniArt  knights, whilst presenting quite detailed figures, all adopt the same pose but, as the submariner had long ago been consigned to the depths of the spares box, (at least he was dressed for the occasion) this was of little consequence. I tracked down another figure, this time a 1:16 scale Burgundian Knight , assembled his body and limbs and then cut away much of the surface detail that represented his armour. In terms of the limitations I set myself, these were to use Evergreen polystyrene products for as much of the build as possible, which resolve lasted for what must have been twenty minutes or so. I began by cladding the legs in 3/64th inch (Evergreen seem to mix and match between imperial and metric measurements quite happily) round rod, cutting a section at a time and fixing each with tiny amounts of superglue. This passed the time wonderfully but, by day two, I began to consider alternative and, potentially, quicker and cheaper approaches. Those thoughts directed me to a local electrical retailer and the purchase of some plastic clad wire of similar diameter. I rather enjoy

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1: Upper legs covered with

the conversations that arise from this sort of retail experience in what is, perhaps, a perverse way.

Classic kits

One asks the specialist retailer if he or she stocks electrical wire and the answer is in the affirmative, followed by the question of what sort of voltage it should carry. When the answer to that is that it doesn’t matter as long as it is covered in white plastic and is about so thick, the clouds of doubt begin to form on the retailer’s brow as he or she wonders whether the silly old bugger making the enquiry if going to fry himself in some arcane amateur experiment.

Studio 2

from

Evergreen strip.

2: Beginning cladding of the basic figure with wire. 3: Legs completed. 4: Torso and legs. 5: Basic hand construction. 6: Completed hands and arms. 7: Close-up of hand. hand.

The cladding of arms and legs continued using completion with the wire (I’d actually bought two diameters) and, shoulder pads again, fixing it in place with superglue. For the added. knees and body I used shaped panels of thin plastic 9: Scratchbuilding sheet which was also used to clad the feet. I was the collar. originally going to use the knight’s hands from the 10: Collar in place. kit but these looked out of keeping with the 11: Test fit of  model. Using the originals as a size guide I cut the original head blank. palms of the hands from laminated thicknesses of  8: Close to

12: Plastic syringe bottles from which Mk II helme helmett will be made.

plastic and madeeasier the fingers from rod was acard somewhat exercise thanwhich I’d anticipated. Some further lengths of the thicker wire were run round sections of the body and this

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Models

Large scale: • SHADO mobile • SKY 1 • Skydiver • Stingray • Terror Fish Friendly service with superb after sales support. http://studio2models.webs.com/  email: studio2models@h [email protected]  otmail.co.uk  Tel: 07534 294 216

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13: Sculpted head. 14: Sub-assemblies. 15: Completed back pack... 16: ....in position. 17: Final step with helmet... 18: ...is to add air lines to rear.

was further clad with various bits and pieces from the spares box. Next came the helmet and I had intended to clad

I’m fortunate to have a large arts and craft superstore close to home so I thought I might indulge in a tour of this f acility and see if I could spot something that might provide inspiration. I

a wooden sphere with plastic card shapes to achieve this but the various experimental designs really weren’t working so it was again time to disconcert a local l ocal retailer. retailer.

usually enjoy twenty or so minutes of this random wandering before security concerns prompt a staff member to enquire if ‘Sir is looking for something specific?’ The ‘I’ll know

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the foam which helps it fit round curved shapes, it when I find such as the astronaut’s shoulders. it’ reply usually wins an e xtr a The backpack was made from rectangular box few minutes worth o f   section mounted onto a length of ‘I’ section plastic and this and the helmet were fitted with wandering. short sections of tube to accommodate the air hoses, these being more electrical wire. During the course of this Painting was simplicity itself. First the figure expedition I and (masked) helmet were given a coat of grey came across a small pack of  automotive primer topped with a further coat of  white primer, the latter being sprayed from plastic syringes above the figure to enhance the curve of the for dispensing wire cladding. paint and the like and these seemed This was a simple build intended to fill a few to be of about idle hours rather than push the boundaries of  the right size. model making and seemed to come together Back at base I cut quite well in terms of a somewhat retro the bottom and top off one of  spacesuit. The only slight disappointment was that the plastic tube used for the helmet wasn’t these and had even in thickness so that, viewed from the left something that would h e l m eserve t . asO af   course a helmet needs a head and here I went back to the MiniArt  knight kit. There was some work needed, using Milliput  to build up the back of  the head, and I added some short lengths of  plastic tube to represent ear pieces. Perhaps the most complex part of the build process was creating the joint between helmet and body and for this I used circles of vinyl foam surrounded with plastic coated wire. There’s a certain amount of flexibility in

and frontwhich it made the head withinaappear a little smaller, gives the figure definite best viewing side on the right.

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Super Deformed Colonial Viper build by Andy Pearson I LIKE REVIEW KITS, ESPECIALLY THOSE HOT (FIG FIGURA URATIV TIVEL ELY Y SPE SPEAKI AKING NG) FROM THE MOULD. It’s probably as close as someone of my vintage gets to that Christmas morning feeling when one is presented with a package, its contents still veiled in

kit was. Nothing new there then, I hear the regular reader exclaim. In fact the kit was Moebius Models’ take on the Viper MkII  from Battlestar Galactica, which would have been obvious even to me if this hadn’t

mystery, that you know is going to contain something exciting. The festive feel, despite the fact that this was early October, was added to by the fact that the handing over of said mystery package took place in the company of a group of friends. This was a rare gathering that included Mike Reccia and Dave Openshaw, our publishers, Dave’s wife and daughter and fellow contributor Mark Glassy (see Horror & Monster Modeller, available now) who had dropped in to see us on his way back from a conference in Paris to home in sunny California. As we sat and chatted Mike produced a

been their super deformed or ‘egg’ version. There were no instructions, other than a schedule of parts that Mike supplied by email, but there were images of the finished kit (illustrations, I suspect) on various websites and that was enough for me. There was, however, that old devil called deadline to be taken into account but that wasn’t pressing enough to cause too much concern. Having delivered Dr. Glassy back to his hotel later that evening without incident (should you have the pleasure of meeting him ask him about my navigational skills: Manchester International Airport to just north of the city, via Vladivostok) I retired to bed dreaming of eggs and vipers... not

1: Bits from the bag.

polythene bag (a sure sign of a something very new) containing several runners in pale plastic which I was allowed to examine for a few seconds before admitting that I didn’t have a clue what the

necessarily a happy combination. The logical first step seemed to be a dry fit of the parts to establish a running order for assembly and, with that completed, to clean the components

paint to upper engine.

2: Dry fit of main components. 3: Rear view of  dry fit. 4 & 5: Enhancement of panel detail on primed components prior to base coat. 6: Metallic paint to grilles and intakes. 7: Darker metallic

8: Main engine cluster.

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9: Mask to wing to provide positioning for orange stripes. 10: Masking for contrast paint. 11: Painted components prior to assembly. 12 & 13: Gloss black to cockpit. Note thumbprint! 14: Main fuselage assembly. 15: Filler to fuselage. 16: Some damage to paintwork incurred during assembly.

Opposite: Completed model prior to weathering.

using methylated spirit before priming everything, including much of my left hand, with white automotive primer. As this is a slightly tongue-in-cheek model the opportunities for wacky paint treatments were tempting but the suggestion of a pink and floral decor hippy microbus version was answered with a resounding silence from the powers that be, resulting in me taking a more traditional approach and using as ainguide. Moebius’s This presented theimage white with red Viper stripes as per the new BSG subject matter, but my nostalgic recollection of building a more traditional kit of the same subject some decades earlier in light grey with orange stripes led me to plump for this classic series colour scheme instead. I therefore set about painting everything prior to assembly. The basic grey was a 50/50 mix of  [sic ic]] and XF-2 Tamiya XF-80 Royal Light Gray [s White whilst, for the contrasting stripes, I used the same manufacturer’ manufacturer’ss X-6 Orange with some matt red added to deepen the colour. I seem to have pints of this orange in stock and I really can’t think what I could have bought it for unless it was the time I considered going to a fancy dress party as the Hideous Jaffa Creature. Excessive drinking is a terrible thing. It has long been my preference to paint as much as possible of a model before assembly but I’m aware that not all modellers follow this approach. I’m occasionally in awe of the military boys and girls who build really elaborate stuff and then mask and paint it. Such dedication. Such attention to detail. Such sobriety. If I had taken that approach I would have got the wing stripes in the correct position but, in the event, they’re not too far out and it is a deform kit. Before airbrushing the basic grey coat I had run some black inks into the panel lines in order to enhance them. For the forward grilles and intakes I used a mix of  metallic greys and, for the main engines, a base coat of Tamiya XF-84 Dark Iron to put some shading into the nooks and crannies (note the engineering terminology) with a darker mix of the metallic grey airbrushed in a thinned form on top of this. The cockpit presented some interesting possibilities. This is supplied as a one piece moulding but it would be very possible to replace the solid windows with clear plastic card inserts and scratchbuild a distorted interior and eggy pilot figure. If you’re thinking that I’m using the threat of 

25 |  

deadlines as an excuse for not pursuing that option you may have a point. In the event, the glazed areas were airbrushed in gloss black, topped with a clear varnish. In anticipation of handling the parts during assembly I adopted a trick I’ve often used in the past and that’s to give everything (other than the gloss areas) a coat of Games Workshop Satin Purity Seal . This offers some protection to the

I suppose a relevant question in terms of super distortion kits is ‘Why?’ The answer to that is probably that they’re great fun and this one is no exception. The final assembly was inserting the stand and this looked as though it was intended to be fitted before the hull halves come together. In this case I filed the locating tab down a little and fixed it in position after assembly with two narrow strips of 

underlying in terms of bumps minor scrapes butpaint is not completely idiotand proof as evidenced by one of the accompanying images. The only filler I used was on the upper forward fuselage where the seam was perhaps a little too prominent. Assembly was very straightforward but I might suggest reducing the diameter of the main locating pins very slightly with abrasive paper. This will be helpful when running test fits where you will want to separate parts again prior to final assembly. I’ve provided images of the model with its basic paint job and with some added light weathering carried out with grey pigment powders. As an

double sided first sprayed the stand withadhesive metallic tape, silver having car paint. I can’t tell you precisely which one as I threw the empty can in the recycling bin before making a note of the colour. At least that’s an improvement on the previous disposal method which was to take the empties to a friend’s house and shoot them with air rifles. Very stupid (his wife made us stop it) and not something to be encouraged. If this basic build is approved by Mike and Dave and time permits I’m thinking of doing a steampunk conversion [See opposite page. Ed.] as I have recently acquired some Archer Transfers resin rivets on decal film. At least they will give

overall build this benefits from Moebius’s generally high standards of quality and is one that would make a good starting point for someone new to the hobby.

our military modelling friends something to count. Review test shot kindly supplied by Moebius Models. www.moebiusmodels.com

 

   R    E AS

SUGG SU GGES ESTE TED D, THE ARRIVAL OF THE

RANSFER T RANSFER

INE ARCHER F INE

USA was th the starting point for this conversion; that and the fact that I was somewhat ahead of deadline on the review. The  product I’d ordered was the resin rivet starter set  which had arrived, via airmail, just four working days after placing the order. Now that’s service! These consisted of O scale 7/8" and 5/8" railcar rivets, alternate centre and tank car double row RESIN RIVETS FROM THE

rivets. The first task was to mask and re prime the model and then apply the rivets. These sat down beautifully and, with the help of some Microsol  setting solution, there was no trace of the decal film under the paint on the finished model. Should you use these decals (and I’ve already found one enthusiastic recruit) I strongly suggest watching the  brieff on-l  brie on-line ine tuto tutorial rial video as elem elements ents of the suggested methods of using the setting solution are somewhat counter-intuitive. With the rivets in place and dry, I sprayed the surface coat from a rattle can of Ford Highland 

   P    I    V    K    N    U    P    M    A    E    T    S

Green which I chose partly on the advice of the young lady on the checkout at Halfords who thought it had a

rather antique hue. Quite how she knew this remains a mystery as she appeared to be about twelve. By happy coincidence, this paint was an almost  perfect  perfe ct match match for Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green (UN) if a touch of flat white was added. This proved useful for  touching up the finished paint job, some of which came away with the masking tape. With the paint thoroughly dry I  began some limited experiments in  bringing up the rivet detail and eventually gave each one (this was not quite as time consuming as it sounds) a pin wash applied with a 0000 sable brush using Citadel  Shade Agrax Earthshade thinned with water. I then added some decals from the spares box as well as a few cogs to add to the steampunk feel, followed by some weathering using  pigmentt powder  Russian Earth  pigmen from the MIG range. I should think that any BG purists of a sensitive nature will have already been sufficiently offended  by the re-i re-inter nterpret pretatio ation n of thei their  r  iconic spacecraft so I won’t apologise for this further heresy other than to say it could have been worse; it could have been a hippy microbus.

Below left: rivet decals in place. Below right: top coat. Bottom left: decals and rivet detail. Bottom right: rivet detail to wings.

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Studio Scale Redefined! Jean-Marc ‘squid’ Deschamps creates Captain Nemo’s Private Quarters office in stunning 1:1 scale WHEN I

BEGAN THIS PROJECT TO RECREATE THE

PRIV PR IVA ATE QU QUAR ARTE TERS RS OF   CAPTAIN   N EMO EMO

as seen in

Sea , to be Walt Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, honest with you I did not know at the time if I would be able to complete it. Building miniatures, even big models, is very different from constructing an entire set, and involves a whole new set of techniques. The curious and proactive modeller will, however, discover that certain modelling skills can be adapted for the task. My passion for Jules Verne and all 19th. century fact and fantasy (including, of course, the works of  H. G. Wells) goes back to my childhood. I’ve always loved rivets and magnificent structures such as the Eiffel Tower and Brooklyn Bridge, plus the buildings created for the French and English Universal Expositions of that period, that have today become architectural and artistic standards. Among the fantasy vehicles of the time, the

mythical submarine of Captain Nemo is a firm favourite. More than three decades ago I tried to figure out what the Nautilus as described by Verne in his book would look like (obviously it’s a long cigar with conical ends...), but I must admit that if  we put aside the references in the t he book, thousands of Nautilus lovers prefer what Harper Goff did for Disney’s adaptation of 20,000 Leagues some sixty years ago in 1954. With that Nautilus we can talk about ‘design’, whereas Verne’s Verne’s vague descriptions lay only in the field of possibilities, simply pushing forward the technology available at the time (submarines existed before Verne and, of course, have existed ever since). Blending animal influences such as the shark, the alligator alli gator and fish, the genius of Goff gave birth to the most exciting Nautilus of all – and one that still thrills the world today, despite the decades that have passed since its creation.

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I wanted my bureau office to look like an interior set from Goff’s and Emile Kuri’s Nautilus, – not the engine room or the salon, but Nemo’s private quarters. Because of the low ceiling in my room, the quarters were the perfect choice to avoid the ‘cave’ aspect if I could paint the surfaces the brown everyone recalls when they think of that Nautilus. The salon is greyish, yes, but Nemo’s

They were cut in MDF  too using computer made drawings. The holes were not a problem, but the flat edges at the bottom had to be created by splitting lengths of wood into several layers, each of these being nailed and bonded in place to reconstruct the initial thickness. The fact is, one thick layer can’t be warped and I found in playing with the wood that the thickness split itself into

quarters is the only set that is painted, with its blue map wall and lilac arches creating a really cosy atmosphere. I had to work with the dimensions of  my room to configure two thirds of Nemo’s quarters as a study area and the remaining third as a ‘showroom’.

several fine layers which were then easy to reassemble. It was a long job but the result can be seen in the images.

Main structures

I’ll say it now: if I had to start again I would build  the furniture myself! At the time, however, I thought it would be better to use boat-style, shopbought furnishings (very pricey as they have to be strong enough to resist water). These fittings gave me the dimensions and the spacing for the arches, built in medium-density fibreboard or MDF . Note that the spacers are blocks of plaster plaster,, easy to cut to size and heavy enough to encase the furniture. The ‘brestsummers’ gave me headaches, believe me!

At first, I thought I’d mould all the rivets myself  before realising it would be impossible to produce thousands of them. It was Olly Klassen, a gentleman responsible for the Nautilus submarine website, who gave me an address from which I could purchase wooden half-balls of different diameters. I chose 20 and 25mm and almost 2000 rivets are bonded onto the walls, the ceiling, the skirting boards and around the door! I would be still bonding them now if I hadn’t had the idea of  making special templates with specific spacings, both in-line and diagonal. My method was fairly simple and fast: I placed the templates on the surfaces, sprayed paint through the holes, removed

29 |  

the templates and stuck the rivets onto the markings. Instead of days I spent just a few hours riveting the entire room. The door, resembling the one that Ned Land and Conseil  pass through, is

the document easily, having in mind not a perfect but a credible reproduction of the Earth. The edges are shadowed with black and brown paints using an airbrush and the lands and islands all textured

basically a real one dressed with MDF boards and rivets. The porthole is a very cheap plastic mirror support found on a second-hand-things for sale site. The desk and the brackets supporting the Nautilus in front of the map are entirely made by hand, with me finding inspiration in the couch and shelf featured in Ned Land ’s ’s room. The same goes for the various collectibles in the ‘showroom’, exhibited on specially created shelves and brackets.

with a sponge. The brass latitude lines are, on my map, represented in gold pen, and the illusion works just fine. The compass at the front of the map (the plans coming from nautilussubmarine.com forum) is made of MDF , plastic sheet and perspex, the knobs being various things from my big spares box. I am certain it will surprise you if I tell you that, among the various objects, some of the detailing comes from an old, Empire-style chandelier. I used the structures and various elements to produce antique assemblies, such as the brackets at the bottom of the little ‘scientific’ shelf.

Map wall I must admit that everyone who comes into the room is impressed by the map and the way it is lit. I began by applying blue paint onto the wall and drawing the continents by hand, using squared illustrations I’d created on my computer. I reproduced the squares on the wall and followed

Atomic electricity I didn’t want to see wires running here and there (film sets are usually lit by floodlights out of view of the camera), so I used remote controllers to

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| 32  

switch the lights, these being hidden behind the main tube running along the front of the arches and behind the Long/Lat dial device that includes a low tension transformer. The controllers are, of  course, hidden to give a more authentic look to the room. This way I can switch three sets of lights on and off – one for the main office, one for the map, one for the showroom (and one for the money, because no more wires and switches were bought!).

vintage heater stands I recreated a diving room by considering the heater as pressure bottles (don’t try to understand the artistic brain!). So, a decorative element, cut into a special material (a foam with aluminium claddings) inspired by the ‘bat symbol’ behind Nemo Nemo’s ’s air bottles, has been added in front of the heater and the alcove, painted in brown with rust effects. In this area I positioned a customised helmet built from a resin copy of an

Painting and decorative artifacts As stated earlier, Nemo Nemo’s ’s private quarters are the exception to the rule as they feature painted walls. I chose acrylic grey paint for the entire room (four to five times more quantity than would normally be used because of the rivets and structures…) that has been weathered with a brush and liquid (térébenthine) wiped off with a cotton cloth. It was hard work trying to paint around each detail… and don’t talk to me about the resulting odour, that had nothing to do with salted fresh air! But this painting method gave the room fantastic, deep contrasts, far removed from flat and synthetic

original japanese diving helmet, which, luckily, was used as the basis of the movie prop. My replica is not an example of perfect modelling work as it is mainly – please –  please purists, don’t read on  – foam cardboard covered with… Bondo Bondo!! As I didn’t want to waste time and money sawing dozens of real metal screws I decided to make my own using squares of a PVC material. Each square was transformed into a six-faced nut with a lapidary tool. It was then a matter of detailing, painting and weathering to transform that junk assembly into the special diving helmet of Captain Nemo.. And you know what? The illusion works! Nemo The helmet sits on a special welded support

surfaces that would have looked too artificial. The interior of the arches are painted lilac, strangely, and their edges shadowed, giving a warm ambiance among that pile of rivets. Where the

resembling the ones seen on the original set. The rifle, at the opposite end, is far better built (see article in SF&FM Vol. 33) and is exhibited on the wall, beside the helmet.

SCI.FI & FANTASY MODELLER BACK ISSUES STILL AVAILABLE FROM OUR SITE...

SUBS BSCR CRIB IBE E AN AND D SA SAVE VE NOW NEVER MISS A FUTURE ISSUE – SU Full details at:

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The pressure tube was a further challenge – not because it was difficult but because I wanted it very quickly. I felt it was time to move on to another project, so it took me about two t wo weekends to complete, working from early in the morning until nightfall… The astonishing bubble effect that surprises each visitor (Note to self: one day you must decide to charge for access to the office!) comes not from an air compressor (or via giant squid flatulence... surprisingly there are no sea animal specimens in Captain Nemo’s Nemo’s Nautilus Nautilus)) but from a rod of Plexiglas (Perspex Perspex)) with bubbles inside. I took a section and passed it though a tube of the same material to create a cheap but marvellous special effect. The vents at the bottom of the arches (and in

from MDF  MDF and and plastic rods. They are painted grey with a black centre, giving the illusion of a deep hole behind them. I created the same effect with the big vent at the bottom of the shelf supporting the Nautilus Nautilus,, which is made of MDF . What more can I add?   Well, Nemo’s Nemo’s private quarters claimed almost two years of my life, and cost me a surgical operation on my hand because I wasn’t paying sufficient attention to what I was doing. ...Would I do it all again? Of  course, folks! I took great pleasure in imagining and adapting and in doing for myself things I had never done before. It was a learning process, a philosophical treatment and a real psychological psychologic al study of myself all rolled into one ... a kind of introspective exercise. Not only do

other places) are resin castings from a master built

I own the private quarters of Captain Nemo... Nemo... I

| 34  

AM Captain Nemo! Nemo! Ah, hah, hah, Haaah! I am master of the seas, ready to rule the world! But wait... what is this car with the blinking lights and who are those guys dressed in white coming towards me? In all seriousness, I am

there are only two bureau offices like this one in the world, the other being inside the Nautilus attraction at Disneyland Paris! Paris ! Take a look at:

proud of the end result, bearing in mind that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVstxvF8aI

35 |  

Resin the Dead …and other appalling puns by Andy Pearson BRIAN WATTERS

IS A NAME NEW TO ME IN THE FIELD

OF SCU SCULPT LPTING ING but,

if there’s any justice in the world, he can look forward to well-deserved acclaim if  these three resin busts are anything to go by.

I’ve often struggled with irises (my dad was the

Truth to tell, we do have better painters of resin figures and faces on the staff but the prime choice has his arm in a sling at the moment and I work cheap so I was allowed to play with the paints and powders.

gardener in the family) but, on this occasion, had one of my rare ideas. I bought a hole punch, designed for leather and fabrics, from a local craft shop and used this to create holes in masking tape that I could then use as a stencil for airbrush or pencil. This worked quite well and the punch itself can produce holes ranging from 2 to 4.5mm so will come in for future projects in different scales.

First out of the figurative box was the zombie and, having given the bust a wash with soapy water,, I primed it with grey automotive primer and water then added a mist of white primer from a rattle

To align the irises on the eyeballs the use of a clear tape or masking film is advisable but, in this case, I thought a slight astigmatism might add something to the finish so used conventional

can. Acrylics (as I have found to my cost) are slightly transparent and it occurred to me that I could achieve some underlying shading and highlights by this use of two primers.

opaque tape.

Before commencing painting flesh areas I first wanted to paint the shirt and tie because I had, in the past, managed to ruin the finish of an already painted head due to an overspread mishap during preparation of clothing. I’d opted for a light beige and, for this, used a mix of Taima acrylics with some soft artist’s pastels to add shading and discolouration to the shirt and tie. By good fortune (mine, not the bird’s) a small nestling had ended its young life on a paved area of my garden a day or two earlier and its decaying body provided some interesting clues to the painting of my un-dead head. I ran a dark flesh colour into the various folds and creases of the zombie’s face and added some deep red to the areas where the peeling flesh exposed the tissues underneath. I also blocked in the eyes with offwhite and the teeth with an ivory shade enhanced by the slightest touch of yellow.

I next blocked in the hair which was moulded as a thin scalp covering intersected by various wounds and injuries, not unlike my own. This was given a base coat of mid-grey and then had a thin black wash run into it, topped with lighter grey dry brushing. For the face I used various shades of  soft pastels, transferred from the pastel stick to the t he surface of the bust via a square-tipped sable brush. This is a slow process but gives an immense amount of control in terms of pigment build-up. In using pastels, it’s necessary to fix them with a suitable clear sealant and I used Tamiya Matt  Varnish from a rattle can. With the paint and pigment powders almost completed, I once again consulted my dead bird for inspiration. This had been interfered with to some extent by the local insect population, despite the CIS-style chalk outline I had put round the corpse, and it may have been these mini-beasts that had induced a slight sli ght sheen to the tiny body. body. To duplicate this I took several coloured wax pencils in shades of yellow, orange and red and ran these

1 Raw resin zombie.

6 Shading to shirt and detail to teeth.

2 Zombie with grey primer.

7 Dark paint to subcutaneous flesh areas.

3 Mist coat of white primer.

8 Basic flesh paint being applied.

4 Under shading to shirt.

9 Making mask for eyes.

5 Base coat to shirt.

10 Further detail to eyes.

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

11 Base coat and wash to hair.

15 Initial wash.

12 Finished head.

16 Basic flesh paint.

13 Raw resin hunchback.

17 Further shading.

14 Primer coat.

18 Progressive paint and shading to finished head.

gently over the subcutaneous tissues of the zombie’s head to achieve a similar effect.

His face rings a bell The next sculpt up was the hunchback, which I assumed was based on the tragic character from the Victor Hugo classic. Here I would be dealing with more conventional flesh tones but proceeded very much in the same way I had with the zombie bust, although I used only a white primer. Once the primer was dry I ran Games Workshop Citadel  Shade Agrax Earthshade oil into the many creases and folds of the skin. This is a product that’s new to me and has superseded the inks that GW  GW used used to sell and, as a detail enhancer, it works very well straight from the bottle. Once again I blocked in the bust’s tunic, this time with an airbrushed mix of grey and olive drab acrylic and applied a basic flesh coat to the face

tints in the set applied wet and dry brushed. In terms of hair colour, the temptation was to go for black or a mid-brown but I thought it might be interesting to attempt something different and so tried for a blond going on red hair colour. Unlike the zombie, the moulding of the hair is quite soft but fully in keeping with the figure so, following a coat or two of airbrushed colour, I enhanced this using pastel powders for lowlights and highlights. For the enhancement of the flesh areas I bought some fresh pastels in European skin shades and used these to build up highlights and introduce some further shading. The eyeballs were brush painted in a very light grey and, again, I used my punched masking tape trick to draw in the irises. For the left eye I drew a fine pencil outline using the stencil and filled this in with a blue fine-tipped

using the Andrea Color Flesh Paint Set  acrylics. I then built up on this basic shade using the differing

pen with the pupil picked out with a black Rapidograph.. Rapidograph

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19

20

21

22

23

24

19 Raw resin alien.

22 Final wash to alien.

20 Alien with white primer.

23 Tamiya Smoke clear coat.

21 Applying wash to inverted alien head.

24 Astonishing levels of detail in the sculpt.

For the right, slightly more wayward, eye I rubbed a very light grey pastel powder through the stencil to give the impression of a cataract, as if the poor chap hadn’t got enough problems. As with the zombie, once the paints and powders were fixed with my matt spray, I gave the eyes a coat of  clear gloss varnish which was also used to enhance

her, or it) paint-wise. In truth, if I hadn’t been reviewing these three busts for this title I would have been tempted simply to prime them in grey and leave the finish at that, the better to show the remarkable detail of the sculpting. Now we all know that aliens are grey grey,, right? Was that going to be an excuse that would pass muster with the

the lips slightly slightly..

powers Probably not.but Once againstill it was out withthat thebe? white primer it was my intention to minimise the use of paint and, by

Loving the alien

The alien bust had been kept to the last as I was at something of a loss as to what to do with him (or

doing so, emphasise the detail. Once the primer was dry I brushed the entire bust with several

39 |  

coats of thinned Games Workshop Citadel Shade Drakenhof Nightshade, this being a blue tint. As I began to apply this with a broad brush it occurred to me that, with a light source coming from above, the deeper shading would be immediately under any folds and textures. With this in mind, I mounted the primed bust upside down and ran the ink wash over it in this position. My plan was to then airbrush the entire bust with Tamiya Smoke and use this as the only other pigment, apart from a dark iron for the eyes. I’d initially intended these to be enhanced with a clear layer using Microscale Kristal Klear to

give them a certain unearthly depth but changed my mind at the last moment. Whether this colour scheme has been successful I leave to your judgement in the light of accompanying photographs. To close, I would note that the supporting bases for each bust are similar, representing masonry pillars in the case of  the zombie and hunchback with a slightly more natural geological feel for the alien’s base. I’ve tried to give each a slightly different treatment. In the case of the alien I wonder if a slightly more mechanical base might not work equally well but the present arrangement does, at least, make all three look as though they are part of a set which, after all, they are. The busts are currently priced at UK £25.00 each and Brian can be contacted via email at: [email protected].

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This model kit from MPC  celebrates this fan-favorite Space:1999 episode “The Metamorph”. All-new resin parts have been added to MPC’s classic Eagle Transporter model kit to achieve the look of Eagle 4 as featured in the episode. A thorough assembly guide is included as well as water-slide water -slide decals to complete the model.

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Space 1999 © ITC Entertainment Group Limited. Limited. 1975 and 2014. Licensed by ITV Ventures Limited. Limited. All rights reserved. MPC is a registered trademark of Round 2, LLC. ©2014 Roun Roundd 2, LLC, South Bend, IN 46628 USA. All rights reserved.  

A Martian in Quarantine An otherworldly exercise in paint and colour Jason C. Gares, Video Workbench Owner and Host IN 1962 CH IL IL DR DR EN EN W ER ER E TR EA EAT ED ED T O TH E   MARS RA DI DI NG NG C AR AR D S ER ER IE IE S BY   T OPPS OPPS and as ATTACKS T RA fast as they discovered them, so did their parents. There was a huge outcry from parents demanding that Topps stop selling the 55-card set because they believed, at the time, there were too many scenes of Martian invasion that involved terrible acts of torture, implied sexual acts and gruesome mayhem done to both humans and animals alike. Topps eventually decided to stop production to please parents, thus making the cards highly sought after collectables demanding high prices at auction.

I was lucky enough to receive number 3 of only 20 unpainted versions and painted it the way I wanted so that it could stand out as a one-of-akind piece that reflected the war between the Martian invaders and the human race defending Earth from their onslaught. Let me take you into the Quarantine Zone so that you can see how I ‘fleshed out’ this highly detailed, unpainted gem and made it come alive with colour.

In the 1980s Topps released all kinds of  merchandise based on Mars Attacks and an expanded set of 100 cards was sold in 1994. Two years later Warner Brothers and director Tim Burton, along with five of the original 1962 card series collaborators, released the sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks motion picture. Around the same time, garage kit company Screamin’ Products produced mixed media kits – mostly vinyl – that were sold in hobby shops. In 2012 to celebrate

The first thing I noted upon receiving the statue was the box it was shipped in. There was printing on all sides with the Mars Attacks logo in front of a starfield. On the top flap the Earth was prominent with a faint image of a Martian looming over it and the planet Mars in the distance. On the back of the box there’s a pseudo comic page showing off the statue. Inside were three pieces; the Martian figure, base and acrylic dome, all protected for shipping by thick styrofoam. Most garage kit companies ship their kits in a plain brown box. If you’re lucky they will slap a sticker on, though most of the time that’s not the case. This

50th anniversary, teamed up Mars ToppsQuarantine with Attacks’ many companies including Studio to produce 200 pre-painted and 20

statue was norm welcome oneanat exception that. Time to andthe effort hadand beena put into the box design and inside packaging,

giving it a highly collectible look and feel. Remember, though, that this statue was first and

unpainted collectable statues.

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4

1

 

2

5

 

6   7

8

3

9

foremost advertised and sold as a prepainted collectible – one of the reasons for the well executed packing (1).

with the original cards, there shouldn’t be gaps in those places, as the suit should have the look of an airtight seal around the Martian (9).

As mentioned there are three pieces to this diorama: the Martian, base and dome (2). The highly detailed base stands 9½ inches tall, showing off the gory remains of a vapourised human male strung amongst the rubble. A corner section of  wall riddled with bullet holes, along with large pieces of wood beams and the Liberty Bell  are all that remain (3, 3A). Striding over the victim is the Martian, an impressive 12½ inches tall, highly detailed and modelled after the original collector card Martians, not the ones featured in the movie (4). Lastly, there’s the dome – sturdy, crystal clear and fitting into the collar section of the Martian’s environmental suit (5).

As the way things go during model building (and you know what I mean) while I was taking pictures of the Martian it toppled over on the bench, breaking an arm, finger and the centre of  the ray gun (8). I’d created more work for myself, but you know as well as I that not all builds go exactly to plan or by design. Luckily the parts broke clean without chipping, plus the statue and base are made of cold cast porcelain, a type of  resin that can be easily glued with any type of  superglue and easily sanded so seams aren’t noticeable. I glued the finger, the centre of the ray gun and the detache detached d hose back back on. Thank Thankfully fully there was thin wire in the centre of the gun, meaning the part hadn’t detached when the statue toppled over, making placement easier and more accurate for gluing.

Before I do anything, I look over the pieces. In my opinion it’s always good practice to look over all parts with whatever type of model you are working on as you need to see if there are any scratched, broken or missing pieces that might slow down construction, painting and finishing of  the subject. I noticed that one of two hoses wasn’t attached in the front (6). There was a gap between the neck and glue the suit with(7) a . big glop of  yellow epoxy that along stood out There were also gaps between both shoulders and the suit that

The next step was to fill the gaps around the shoulders and neck area. I wasn’t going to leave these, as to me they stuck out like a sore thumb. I have a mantra about not being lazy while building and painting model kits: If I can see certain things

II’m don’t or bother onsee a model kit Ithings, work on, surelike someone elseme will the same so I need to change or fix these. Mixing equal parts

3A

I thought were too big and needed to be filled in, both showing more yellow glue. From what I saw

A and B of Aves Apoxie Sculpt , (10) I mixed enough together to fill all the gaps. Once filled, I

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lightly brushed on Aves Safety Solvent  to smooth out the Apoxie Sculpt  and let this set overnight. The next day the Apoxie Sculpt was hard to the touch and rather smooth, so just a little wet sanding was needed. With all repairs done and all gaps filled, the statue was almost ready for paint (11). Before applying primer or paint, both the base and Martian needed a good bath. I always advise washing any model you’re working on, no matter if its plastic or resin, with washing up liquid and very hot water, which should eliminate any mould release that could still be on the parts, thus preventing primer and paint from adhering to the kit correctly. If you’re having problems after the soap and hot water bath, I suggest using mineral spirits. Depending on the severity of the problem, you may either have to soak the part or just lightly clean it with a lint-free rag or a paint brush.

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assemblies to work with, making the painting more challenging than usual. The only masking I needed to do was the pegs that fit into the base for stability and alignment. To make the Martian easier to paint I drilled two holes into a piece of  wood so that I could have it stand securely for airbrushing and so that I didn’t airbrush paint onto the pegs. I placed the statue on my homemade spinning paint stand and started applying three coats of primer (13).

I decided to airbrush on Testors Model Master Gray Primer instead of using a spray can (12) because of all the detail and tight areas I was going to have to cover. Using a can of the same primer just wouldn’t allow me to get into all the areas I needed to, plus I can’t adjust the width of the spray

Before receiving this statue I had already decided how I wanted it to look and what paints to use. I went with an original colour scheme that wasn’t bland. I had seen several build-ups of the newer Moebius plastic kit done with a very boring, flat, light green as the main colour. Don’t get me wrong, the kit is nice, as were the various paint jobs, but my mindset was to make the Martian’s space suit look like it came from another planet, made from different materials than those found on Earth. I wanted to separate my statue from all the other Mars Attacks kits already out there. Going with that way of thinking, I used Createx Colors Pearl Lime Green for the boots and gloves and Pearl Green for the overall spacesuit. It’s suggested to have either a black or white base colour down

like I can with an airbrush. Using an airbrush I’d be able to twist and turn my wrist in ways that were just not possible with a spray can. The major

before applying pearl colours. To test how each would look, I sprayed two pieces of scrap plastic with Createx Illustration Colors Black and

challenge of the statue and base was that they’d already been assembled, so there were no sub-

Createx Illustration Colors White. (14) I then applied several thin coats of Createx Pearl Lime

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Green and Pearl Green over half of both pieces (15). When dry, I sprayed both pieces with a protective coat of Model Master Gloss Lacquer. Lacquer . In the end I went with the white base colour as it makes the pearl colours stand out more and really ‘pop’. I felt it would draw the attention of the viewer in more with colours that are exciting and pleasing to look at (17). With the colour testing done, I could start airbrushing on basecoats to both the base and Martian.. I began with the base, applying several Martian thin layers of Createx Illustration Black (16), making sure to get into every nook, cranny and crevice. I continued by applying several coats of  Createx Illustration White over the entire Martian from head to toe (18) making sure I didn’t have any spots where the white was too thin, as that would affect the final true colour of the pearl paints when applied. Going back to the base I started ‘colour blocking’ major sections. I began with the sidewalk, as everything around it ends up on top of it. Using Iwata-Medea ComArt Steve Riojas Bone Flesh straight from the bottle (ComArt  (ComArt  paints don‘t need thinning), using the edge of a stencil to protect the rest of the base from overspray and to achieve a straight line by the street, I applied a few light coats. I continued the colour blocking by thinning Ceramcoat Rain Grey acrylic paint with Createx Colors Reducer (6 parts reducer to 1 part acrylic paint) and airbrushed it

A B

all over the concrete corner structure and scattered rubble. It was time to flesh out the splattered human victim by first applying Iwata-Medea ComArt  Steve Riojas Flesh as the base coat. (Inset A, B) I oversprayed in areas where bone and gore are

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C D

E

apparent because I wanted to achieve a transparent blood and gore effect later on when I began detail work. The eyes, exposed bones and teeth were airbrushed with Bone Flesh (Inset C) . Using ComArt Toluidine Red as the blood basecoat, I sprayed it

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mostly where I wanted to achieve a semitransparent blood effect, then continued by airbrushing in a deep red gore effect by applying Createx Colors Tim Gore’s Bloodline Red  in the torso and wherever there is torn up and exposed gore. I painted the eye using a 00 brush, adding a blue dot in the centre where the pupil is located. (Inset C). I didn’t want the blood and gore to be any brighter than what it is, so I lightly airbrushed on Createx Colors Illustration Black over all the bloodied, gore areas. I also added a burnt flesh effect around the torso and anywhere there is exposed gore. I went back to the eye and lightly misted Bone Flesh over it to give the effect of the eye having a dead cataract look to it . I felt the human victim was a little too pale, so I applied three thin coats of Iwata-Medea ComArt  Sunwashed Flesh. Flesh. Lastl Lastly y, I adde added d a ‘glowi ‘glowing’ ng’ effect from the gun the Martin used on the human victim, applying Createx Colors Pearl  Lime Green in random areas to break up the monotony of all the red gore. (Inset D, E). After some clean-up, touch-ups and re-colouring of  certain areas, the human victim was almost complete. More on that later… Getting back to the rest of the base, I mixed Iwata-Medea ComArt Opaque White and Black together to make a lighter hue of grey paint. I then dry brushed this on top of the darker paint I applied previously to the rubble and concrete corner structure. Dry brushing the lighter colour over the darker colour really brings out details that t hat

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otherwise would be overlooked (19) and is highly recommended for any kit that has a high amount of texture. It was time to paint the blasted away wood beams and debris scattered about the diorama. I airbrushed on Iwata-Medea ComArt Opaque Raw Umber for a base coat, brushed on a thick wash of Iwata-Medea ComArt Burnt Sienna, then dry brushed Ceramcoat Burnt Umber to darken the beams. Lastly, Ceramcoat Ivory was dry brushed all over the wood to bring out the texture and detail (20).

I then got back to all the wood that’s scattered about the base. I finished dry brushing Ceramcoat  Ivory on the rest of the wood and prepared to add scorching and burn marks to the wood and concrete. Looking at photos on how fire travels and figuring out how the wood beams might have been originally placed along with the concrete, I airbrushed Ceramcoat Black mixed with Createx Colors Reducer onto surfaces I felt got touched or ‘licked’ by fire. The dark scorching can‘t be too dark, so as to not take away from the painted detail underneath. Some of the larger beams received long, thick lines and smaller beams got more of a spotted look with thinner lines. The large concrete corner piece was airbrushed around the edges and the bullet holes airbrushed inside with just a light touch around the outside. ...Now back to painting

I stepped away from the base to let the paint dry and focussed my attention on the Martian . I find it’s a good idea to take a breather every now and again and step away from one part of a model and work on another, otherwise, in some instances, it seems like the model gets the better of you, making the hobby a little less joyful. Using Blue Painters Tape, I masked off around the top of the boots and at the end of the gloves. Mixed with Createx Colors Reducer, I airbrushed Createx Colors Pearl Lime Green on the boots and gloves and let it dry. I sealed the paint with three coats of Future Floor Wax left to

the Martian (22).

dry overnight. The next day, I mixed Model  Master Lacquer Thinner into Model Master

boots and air tank, covering them up with

With gloves and boots dry, I masked around the tops of these with Tamiya 6mm masking tape, then went over that with 3M Blue Painters Tape   (23). To make the masking process go faster, I cut up some paper towel strips and wrapped them around the gloves,

Gloss Clear Lacquer Finish and airbrushed on three light coats over the Future and let sit for a few days. (21) .

more Painters Tape. (24). I mixed Createx Colors Reducer with

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Createx Colors Pearlized Green and proceeded to airbrush the Martian’s entire suit (25).

bloodied, gory areas with Model Master Gloss Lacquer. The base was now complete (28).

Giving the paint time to dry, I went back to the base. It was time to paint the Liberty Bell . To do this I had to mask everything around it so the overspray from the airbrush wouldn’t get on what I’d already completed. Using Painters Tape and paper towels, I masked off all the wood beams as I had on the Martian ’s boots and gloves. I also put some tape on the elbow and arm of  the victim, as it lay directly on the edge of the Bell  (26). I put down a base colour of ComArt Dark Rust , following that with a layer of Model Master Gold, then FolkArt  Metallic Copper. I dry brushed the Gold  over that to bring out more detail and it looked way too bright (27). To darken the bell, I mixed FolkArt  Metallic Copper and Ceramcoat  Black Green

The pearl green paint was dry on the Martian , allowing me to move on to masking. I started around the tubes, chest plate and shoulders, and followed that up with the rest of the body along with the arms and legs (29). I airbrushed Createx Wicked Black on the tubes, chest plate, shoulders and head as a base for the next colour – Floquil  Steel Blue. After this has dried, I masked off all those areas leaving the double air tank exposed, ready for paint. I airbrush-applied Createx Wicked Black over the white base and followed with Model Master Silver over that. Once dry, dry, I applied Createx Wicked Red , then Wicked Pearl  Red to give the metal a ‘not of this world’ appearance (30, 31).

together. colour was now how I wantedThe it, but the Bell needed to look dirty and burned from being in a fire. I accomplished that by adding Ceramcoat  Black to the base colour I just applied. I airbrushed burn and dirt marks all over it to make it look like it had been through a disaster. I completed the Bell by painting the wood frame it’s connected to the same way I’d painted the beams. I took the masking off and applied more paint to clean up certain areas. Something was missing, though… Oh yes, the GORE! Using Tamiya Clear Red Acrylic and a traditional brush, I painted all the areas where there was gore. I also painted over all the lime green areas I’d airbrushed, as I personally didn‘t like how the effect turned out. I

With the suit and air tank painted, I went to what I consider the most challenging part to paint; the head. I airbrushed on a base colour of ComArt  Riojas Flesh over the entire head, following that up by painting the face ComArt Riojas Bone Flesh, the brain ComArt Opaque Deep Red  and ending with ComArt Riojas Purple Flesh on the face (32, 33). I dry brushed Ceramcoat Yellow over the red base coat on the brain, along with Ceramcoat  Ivory all over the face. I added ComArt Opaque Red  inside the mouth and between the teeth. I ended this stage with a light wash of ComArt 

added a few extra drops and streaks of blood in a few areas and finished the base by sealing most of  it with Model Master Flat Lacquer and all the

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Brown all over the face, which was then wiped away.. By adding the wash, more detail came out of  away the face, making the Martian look even more grotesque. I concluded painting the head and face by applying more Ivory to the teeth and eyes, along with red pupils. I lightly airbrushed Ceramcoat Violet , Yellow and Green on various areas to give a mixed look between the original cards and the movie. Detailing of the brain and face was now complete (34. 35). Looking at the invader’s suit I felt something was missing. It seemed to be lacking detail... it i t was there, but not showing. I put some ComArt  Transparent Black in a paint mixing pallet and with a brush started to add washes into the ribbed areas, gloves and boots. These really brought out the detail of the suit and also a dimension that would have been overlooked. I decided to airbrush a black base coat on the gun and let it dry (36). I wanted to give the look that the Martian had been fired on by various weapons and had walked through the fire of the building where the Liberty

It was time to attach the dome that goes over the invader’s head. As suggested in a sheet included with the statue, I warmed up the dome with a hair dryer so that it would be more flexible and easier to insert into the top of the suit. I could not get it to fit properly, however, and ending up rubbing some paint off an area of the brain. I repainted this and, using my motor tool, bored out around the inside of the suit in hopes of making the dome fit properly. In doing this I thinned out the front of  the suit too much... and went right through! I took some Aves Apoxie Sculpt , filled the hole and sanded and repainted the area. By trying to force the dome in, I had cracked it. I therefore went to one of my older Screamin’ Models Mars Attacks vinyl kits and took its dome... I’ll be able to replace that one without a problem (37). Getting back to the gun I airbrushed ComArt  and Transparent Ultramarine ComArt  Transparent Bright Red  over the silver and let dry. I went back to the new dome and test fitted it. I was able to flex it inside the suit by pressing down on top of it, making the bottom flare out.

housed had with destroyed it. Iknife, took Bell somewas black pastelwhen sticksitand, a hobby shaved a good amount off, dipped a flat fl at brush into this and dry brushed the black pastel all over the suit. Having given the Martian a dirtier look, I sealed the paint and pastels with Model Master Semi-Gloss Lacquer and let dry for 24 hours. I then added more black pastel to the air tank, to give the illusion that fire had wrapped around the back and air tanks of the invader. I applied Ceramcoat Ivory to the tips of the tentacles on the face, painted the ear pieces with Floquil Steel Blue and added a black wash in the centre ring. Lastly, I dirtied down the upper chest plate with both

Ithe added five minute the inside dome ‘seeds’ andepoxy held to it there until of thewhere glue hardened. Noticing gaps between dome and suit, I added Tulip Black Fabric Paint  all the way around and let dry for 24 hours. When dry, I painted over it with Floquil Steel Blue, shaded it with black pastel chalk and lightly airbrushed ComArt Opaque Black around the base of the dome. (38, 39).

ComArt Transparent Black and black pastel chalk, choosing Createx Wicked Red  for both lights.

together, placed them where I wanted the pack on the statue, ground out two sections on the back to

I felt I wanted to add more to the model, giving it an original trading card look. I therefore decided to make a battery pack for the gun. I took weights used for Pinewood Derby cars, glued them

With the black dry on the gun, I added a few light coats of silver and let dry.

make it fit, painted it the same colour as the suit and attached it with five minute epoxy. I touchedup the paint, added a strip of styrene on each side

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to hide the sections I cut out, and painted those along with adding a burnt shadow effect (40-42). The last thing I needed to do to was address small details. I wanted to give the gun a very worn, battered look, achieved by taking the pointed end of a nail and scraping the transparent paint away to reveal the silver underneath. Next, I drilled out a hole in the handle, attached a rubber hose at the end and connected it to the battery pack I’d scratchbuilt. Lastly, I photocopied several sheets of  a newspaper included with a Screamin’ Mars Attacks kit, burnt it around the edges and glued it under the foot of the Martian. (41). That’s it... the statue fully painted and looking completely different from the pre-painted version Quarantine Studio had released. Plus, I added a few other things to truly make this version a one-of-a-kind. Never be afraid to take away or add things to a model or statue. When you do this it makes it something unique that no one else has. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I had fun writing it. Hopefully you’ve learned a little something you will be able to use in your model building adventures. Thank you for the support and MODEL ON!

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EVERYONE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS THAT I LOVE DEEP SPACE NINE. Next to the original series it has everything: great characters and great story lines... it really is Gene Roddenberry’s pitch of a ‘Wagon ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’ made flesh (the series was created as a sci-fi version of the Western frontier town concept). I was therefore deeply happy that the latest addition to Round 2’s 2’s Cadet  series centres on Deep Space Nine at 1/2500th scale, and that a small box containing test shots of the releases arrived recently, courtesy of the company’ss Jamie Hood... company’ There are three kits in the set: a new mould, a revised mould and a re-issued mould, plus two decal sheets allowing the models to be finished to a really good standard without the use of a microscope and a 0000000-sized brush! The new mould is a Cardassian Cruiser Cruiser,, and a cracker it is, too! Nine parts in total make up this kit, which is based on the actual studio miniature rather than the later CGI model, this being easy to determine as there is no relief  sensor detail in the recess of the claw tail, which the CGI version has.

The fit is very good indeed, with no filler being required anywhere. A comprehensive Round 2 wrap-around decal sheet (see image) will be included just for this kit and really brings the model to life. Unfortunately this was not available at the time of receiving our review test shot. The level of detail, however, is outstanding! I built the model into six sub-assemblies, making it easier for the painting to come, and mounted these onto small blocks of wood.

A trio from Terok Nor Gary R.Welsh builds Round 2’s new DS9 release

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General view of the sprues contained in the kit. The Galor Cruiser and Saratoga are moulded in their final colours. One hopes

that the Defiant is also as she will appear in the final kit.

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Sprue layout for the Cardassian Galor Class Cruiser . A completely

new tooling with superb detail and moulded in an authentic base colour.

3:

Close-up detail shot highlighting the detail.

Exquisite! 4: The completed Galor sub-assemblies ready for paint. As a note of interest the wooden blocks the parts are attached to are only 25 - 30mm in length. 5: Sprue layout for the Saratoga . The roll bar parts for the original Reliant issue are not needed although included - nice . 6: Close-up of the additional Saratoga  parts. These are accurate and well detailed for 1/2500th scale. 7: 9:

Minor filling and sanding is required at the rear of the model. Nothing untoward. 8: Saratoga sub-assemblies ready for paint. Defiant  in cloak mode! Aside from a few tweaks the fit is very good. 10: The models primed ready for detail painting and

decals.

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a guide.

The Cardassian Cruiser parts sprayed with the initial colour coat - custom-mixed using the Drex Files five-views  as

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Hand painting is carried out. The bridge colour matched again to the CGI views.

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Initial shading of terracotta mix, carefully applied with an airbrush. 14: Weathering mix is applied, again using an airbrush.

Detail painting almost complete. The five-view CGI plans really helped here - note the black area on the bottom of the hull in the views is actually on the CGI miniature, it’s not a mistake (something, however, I didn’t add to my model). 16: Close-up 15:

of the main hull parts. Copper and Blue accentuate the recessed areas. The Cardassian Union logos are all all hand painted painted – stiff  drink, glasses and small brush required! 17: Close-up of the side hull recess areas with added paint detail. 18: Top hull detail ready to be added to the model. 19: Close-up of the bridge section. 20: Deflector /phaser emitter. Base colour of Vermillion then detail painting with Dark Grey before misting, again with Vermillion to blend it all together. 21: Saratoga with the movie decal set (kindly supplied by Round 2 ).). The DS9   Cadet  set decals are actually more detailed than this set. 22 & 23: Decals applied. The original registry numbers have been cut out and replaced with numerals from the 1/1000th Movie  Enterprise supplementary decal set. 24: Unfortunately the decals supplied with the DS9 station kit only supply registry detail.

Oh dear, my poor old eyes! 25, 26 & 27: Decals applied and the spares box well and truly raided. Ready for detail painting to be added. 28:   Liquitex Orange  is added to the Galor Cruiser . This brings the warp engines  to life. 29:  Saratoga ’s ’s

rear detail and bridge  are detailed with paint. 30 & 31:  Defiant ’s ’s detail painting is added, very slowly and carefully,, using a small brush. carefully

The revised mould is the U.S.S. Saratoga, and now we know what the gaps seen in the original Cadet Reliant  moulds were for. The Saratoga was only seen in the pilot episode Emissary, being gloriously destroyed by the Borg  at the battle of  Wolf 359 – a reuse of the original Reliant 

make a happy addition to any 1/2500th spares box.

miniature, again stripped of her roll bar, but with

scale, but lack the finesse of the original studio

The new parts include warp pylons with integrated sensor supports and the sensors/lasers themselves, which are adequate in detail for this

some nifty side sensor/lasers added. The kit has fifteen parts, including four for the roll bar that are not needed and which, therefore,

model (hope springs eternal for a 1/1000th and larger 1/542 scale Saratoga reissue at some point).

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Wrap-around decals (see image) will be included, which are very nice and somewhat more detailed than the Reliant  decals in the movie set, but again these were not available at the time our test shot sample was sent. The fit is good, although a touch of filler is required around the rear (an easy fix). The third kit is the U.S.S. Defiant , a straight reissue of the additional kit that was included with the re-issued Deep Space Nine station back in 2010. The original DS9 version is moulded in clear styrene and so is our review sample. However, when eventually released the DS9 set model may well be moulded in grey (but hopefully not). This time wrap-around decals will be included (again, see image), making the Defiant  into a superb model, and, if the Club 1701 lighting harness is added, into a stunner! Let’s therefore hope the actual release will be moulded in clear plastic.

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hull parts fit perfectly. Detail is fairly good at this scale, but I was not looking forward to the eyestraining painting exercise awaiting me as decals – you guessed it – were still in pre-production at the time we received our review sample.

Six parts make up the Defiant , the fit being good but requiring some trimming and sanding of the warp nacelle inserts to make the upper and lower

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With the majority of the painting done and the window

showing the propellor detail. Unfortunately a 1/1200th

detail added the Galor Cruiser  has been built up minus the

version is not available - thank goodness!

bridge  and phaser  emitter.

assemblies built up ready for final details to be added.

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Ever wondered what those

35:  Saratoga  sub-

strange details are on the original Galor Class Cruiser 

36 & 37:

Defiant  with the majority of its detail added. Only

miniature? They are actually photo-etched propellor detail

the warp engine  detail is needed to complete her.

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The

from a 1/350th Gold Medal  brass detail set. Thankfully a

Galor  model almost complete. Just the emitter to add.

1/700th set is also available. I have one for the eventual re-

39 & 40:

release of the larger AMT /Ertl  kit - or the two I have tucked

her off nicely.

away in the loft!

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Close-up of the photo-etch, clearly

Saratoga completed. Weathering and shading finish 41 & 42:

The completed Defiant  - at last!

Shots of the completed models.

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Painting the fleet Painting began by giving everything a solid coat of  Matt Black Primer – in this case Alclad Matt Black Primer Prim er and Microfi Microfiller ller. The Saratoga and Defiant  were then coated with Halfords’ Daewoo Casa Ca sabl blan anca ca Wh Whit itee and set aside for decal application. I next turned my attention to the Cardassian Cruiser, deciding it was best to try and paint this model as the digital version rather than the original studio miniature. I therefore pulled up the excellent CGI five-view used in the episode What  You Leave Behind, originally available from Doug Drexler’s much missed Drex Files, although now available via Bernard Schneider’s Schneider’s equally awesome ex-astris-scientia.org.

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and Flat Earth, before very carefully shading using the edge of a small Post-it  note with a custom terracotta mix of Cavalry Brown and Flat Earth. My standard weathering wash mix of Black Grey, Black Green and Flat Earth was then airbrushed across the model to enhance recessed areas. Small templates were cut into Post-it  notes and sprayed across the model using the terracotta, Flat  Earth and base mixes before I donned my glasses and added Blue and Copper details in the recessed areas and across the body.

I mixed up a base colour using a combination of  Vallejo Acrylic White, Brown and Golden Yellow, and this was sprayed over the model in thin coats,

Following another round of shading the Cardassian Union insignia were very carefully hand applied, finishing off the main painting. Finally the front emitter was sprayed in Vermillion before details were added using Dark Grey via a small brush, the emitter then being shaded with a further thin coat of Vermillion. I then put the model aside and moved my attention to the

allowing the black to create natural shadow in the

Federation ships.

recessed areas. I hand-painted the Flat Brown details across the model and the bridge, this being mixed from Purple

Decals and details Luckily Jamie Hood from Round 2 had also sent me a decal sheet for the 1/2500th Movie Cadet set

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(featuring Reliant decals) that, along with the 1/1000th Enterprise set, he had provided for the 1/1000th Reliant review (see Volume 34), meaning that a reasonable Saratoga would be easy to achieve. I added the decals but carefully cut away the registry numbers, replacing them with numerals from the Enterprise set, to make up

collectors. I also added window detail using an artist’s fine-tipped pen and running lights with Liquitex Titanium White.

Saratoga’s registry. I didn’t, however, change anything else, as replacing the name with the name Saratoga would be a very, very time consuming task and deadlines were looming! The decals went on superbly, as you would expect, and settled down very well with a few judicious scalpel cuts and three or four applications of Micro Sol .

Humbrol  enamels, and then varnished with Liquitex Matte. The warp engine bussard  collectors were then picked out with a fine-tipped permanent artist’s pen.

The Defiant, however, was more of a challenge as the DS9 Station decals only account for registry numbers and letters. I therefore raided the spares box and came up with some red coachlines and Starfleet  flashes, courtesy of 1/1000th Enterprise-B and 1/2500th Enterprise-E sets. Once the decals were on both ships I sealed them in with Future / Kleer Kleer and

Reliant’s top surface recess areas were carefully picked out with a brush, as were the bridge details and the underside sensor areas, using various

Defiant took a bit longer. OK... a lot  longer. Once the contrasting panels had been painted freehand with a brush (I recommend regular tea/coffee breaks and good sense of humour) I sealed these in with a coat of Matte. I then highlighted them using an HB pencil sharpened to a point. Other details were then picked out with the fine-tipped artist’s pen. Next, both the Reliant  and Defiant  were

settled down for some detail brush painting...

Liquitex Orange was painted onto the Cardassian Cruiser to highlight the Bussard 

carefully shaded using my weathering mix before being resealed with Matte. Warp and impulse engines were picked out with Vallejo Vermillion and Andrea Blue.

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are imperative in making the Saratoga and the Defiant  look the part at this size and I would be lying if I said that either was easy to finish convincingly in such a small scale. At the end of the day you pay your money and take your choice...

These areas on the Saratoga and Defiant , along with the emitter and bussard collectors on the Cardassian Cruiser, were painted with Humbrol  Gloss Varnish prior to the various sub-assemblies being brought together, completing the models.

Debriefing Well – how to sum up this set? I have to admit that I adored making these models and even think that the Cardassian Cruiser is worth painting instead of  using the kit-supplied decals. The decals, however, however,

If you own the rest of the Cadet  sets then this will represent a must-have purchase for you, but the set also comes very highly recommended by this reviewer as an impulse buy if the price is right (Does this mean that the original AMT   / Ertl Ertl Card Cardassia assian n Cruiser Cruiser is now on the cards for a re-issue, by the way? I, for one, sincerely hope so!).

Thanks to Jamie Hood for the review sample and additional materials. www.round2models.com

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Norman Conquest 2066 Never judge a ship by its cover Grant Louden recreates the legendary Chris Foss in three dimensions SECOND BOOK COVER SPACESHI P RECREATION

show. On first study the overall shape, though

COMES (See Volume 34 forMIND Grant’s first ship. Ed.) FROM FR OM THE UN UNIQ IQUE UE MI ND AND UN UNMI MIST STAK AKA ABL BLE E HA HAND ND

CHRIS FOSS. I first came came across across it it in his book book 21st Century Foss and it’s one of a long short-list of his ships I’ve always wanted to build. It incorporates several classic Foss features: bold colours and stripes, angular shapes, that sense of  immense scale and industrial design. And like many other Foss works it seems inspired by the natural world, looking like a Great White shark with its gaping jaw, rounded nose and fins. Another reason for my choice was the upcoming LonCon3,, the 72nd World Sci-Fi Convention, LonCon3 Convention, being held in London in August, 2014. Mr. Foss

quirky quirky, seemed to to be a fairly straightforward one to, recreate in me three dimensions, and therefore well within my time budget. I should have known better… I had first met Mr. Foss back in July, 2011 at a book signing for his new retrospective, Hardware Hardware.. I showed him a bunch of visuals I’d made depicting some of his ships as large scale sculptures (image 1), which were met with great enthusiasm. After a ten minute chat I went away with his blessing to build some ships after I had completed my then current projects. Then somehow life got in the way and it wasn’t until March, 2014 that I revisited the Foss models.

was to be a guest of honour, and in discussions with his daughter Imogene it was agreed I would try Norman Conquest  as a display piece for the

As with my previous ship, Colin Hay’s The Star Dwellers, the process followed a familiar pattern: Dwellers, plan drawings, paper models, full size model and

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Planning Step one was extracting plan

Construction The plans were scaled up to 42cm in length and marked out on various thicknesses of plastic sheet main internal internal structure structure I used used (image 12). For the main black 2mm styrene to give it rigidity, and also fitted a 30mm ABS tube as a support to mount the ship on (image 13). This was set set at an angle so so that the ship would rest tilting up at the pitch it is on

drawings from the single 3/4 view in the original painting. Starting with the paperback cover as reference I made a few sketches (image 2), and in Photoshop cut the ship from its background and drew clean outlines to get a handle on the shapes (image 3). I made some side, front and top views in Adobe Illustrator (image 4) and from these built a very

the book cover. cover. Before going too far I clad the t he hull in paper card to check the overall shapes were working (image 14). Then I fitted fitted extra extra suppo support rt around the areas where panel edges would join so I had good strong intersections to fix the hull cladding to (image 15). As I’ve alluded to above, what at first glance seems a fairly straightforward structure soon hit upon its first snag. In the illustration the gaping air intake beneath the nose looks like a square box cut back at a 45 degree angle at the front. But when I tried to recreate this in real life, I found the angles just didn’t meet up that way. As if it had been drawn by MC Escher rather than C. Foss, the air

rough paper card model, photographed in front of the original origin al image. image. I had printe printed d the hull shapes without the black markings so that on the assembled blank hull I could draw the stripes and rectangles in the correct angles and positions (image 5). This first model I cut apart and flattened out (image 6), scanned into the Mac and drew clean outlines and panel

intake box would only work if I tapered it down from top to bottom (image 16). The prob problem lem was was that the triangular lower side panels that joined the mouth of the box to the midships would have to twist to meet both these edges, resulting in either a crease or a curved panel, which it clearly is not in the painting. So either I had to make a curving side panel or a tapered air intake, and went for the latter. You will also see that in this photo the inside walls of the intake I’ve made curved to add some interest, but I later changed them to flat walls to better match the original. The final part of the internal structure was adding mounting slots for the four wings. I wanted

markings that I knew would be in the right positions and orientations (image 7). Th Thes esee refined drawings were printed onto yellow card (image 8) and the first of two increasingly fine-tuned paper models were produced (image 9). I photographed these yellow models and made notes over prints which were sent to Mr. Foss for comments and suggestions very helpfull helpfully y (image 10). He very

these to be removable for shipping (image 17). Then the cladding began, one panel at a time. Using thin white plastic card these were cut to shape, glued and sanded back along edges so the next panel could be butted up to make nice, sharp join lines (image 18). Wher Wheree the upper upper and and lower front side panels meet there is a curved edge, which was made using Milliput  filler and running wooden dowelling along it to produce a nice, uniform concave curve (image 19). The hull panels are completely flat surfaces with no customary panel lines or other physical details. On studying a high resolution image of the picture it confirmed that there were no discernible panel joins or hints

intricate paint work. The contrast this time was a deceptively simple looking ship that proved to be anything but.

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sent back some sketches and observations which were a great insight into some of the hidden areas of the craft (image 11).

of plating, just the hundreds of tiny black and white windows across its surface. The model maker in me would have nagged that I add some scribed plating joins or the odd recessed or protruding panel to break up the surface and give

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Bridge building After the confusion of the shape of that air inlet, my next mild headache came with the bulging black bridge dome on top of the craft. It was difficult enough guestimating the height and

not visible at all in the picture, so this became guesswork combined with a ‘what would Foss do’ attitude. I figured he might add some detail to break up the surface, but not all over it. Imagining a raised

shape, and this changed with each paper model I had made. On the full scale ship I went ahead and completed it pretty much by eye as I went along. As with the main body, I made a skeletal frame (image 20) and then bent and glued down thin plastic card to form the overall shape (image 21). This resulted in some unexpectedly pleasing curves around the rear section of the structure where it curves down to meet the top deck (image 22). However, the more I studied it the more it just didn’t seem right. Too tall and too blocky blocky,, so I was eventually to make three versions until I was happy with it. The nose frame was cut from 2mm plastic and a

‘backbone’ of small structures down its centre line, I added superstructures from battleships and more abstract shapes from manga kits to try and suggest some vast scale (image 30). It’s difficult to gauge from the illustration, but I worked on the assumption it’s somewhere between a cargo ship and supertanker in scale, if all those tiny black squares around the hull are windows.

slot introduced down the centre to hold the large nose fin (image 23). It was while while working working on this part that I kept looking at the bridge shown here and thinking, ‘too tall, must try again’. So, in between panelling the nose I had two more attempts at the bridge, with all three results shown here (image 24). Having finally settled on a bridge shape I added some detail, all largely by guess work. I could just make out some small bulges on top, and made two small protruding structures from plastic card, and cut down an iPhone charging cradle to make the very uppermost piece (image 25). The nex nextt photo photo (image 26) shows details in the back recess of the

The rear section too had to be built from imagination. Looking at the exhaust trail in the picture I could imagine either one large engine exhaust, or a cluster of  smaller ones. I opted for both and put in a main central engine and three smaller satellites (image 31). Not shown in this photo is the central rocket nozzle, made from a sports drink cap and some tank wheels.

bridge, from some old manga model kits, and the finished wings and fins alongside. These have some quite interesting little details. The main wings and fins are 2mm plastic with 0.5mm white plastic laminated over each side and sanded back to add rounded leading edges and tapered trailing edges. They also feature intricate flaps on the leading edges, which were thinner plastic attached with thin copper wire supports. It’s not a job for the shaky-handed to drill a 0.7mm hole in a 1.5mm thickness of plastic, some 35 times (image wing surfaces surfaces I scribed scribed a few few panel panel 27)! On the wing lines and flap joins, and to the fin tips added antennae with copper and brass tubing (image 28).

Painting Several light coats of pale grey primer formed the undercoat, lightly sanded and left to harden properly for 24 hours before applying top coats (image 32). The yellow base coat is from a tin of  Humbrol  aerosol model paint. Several light coats and some light sanding again. Unfortunately my work bench and spray bench are

it some scale, but the perfectionist in me overruled and said if it ain’t there don’t put it in !

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With all main construction complete it was time for a test fit of the fins and wings, and a last check on the shapes and angles (image 29). Then followed a lot of filling and sanding to make all the joins clean and smooth. The upper section is

side by side and dust on wet paint has been a bit of an issue, so careful checking and polishing can be required (image 33). I hadn’t decided

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custom-designed waterslide decals. These I used on my previous ship to great effect, but again the volume of  graphics and the prospect of cutting out and applying literally hundreds of  individual decals was instantly rejected. The only option I could see to apply countless dozens of tiny, pin sharp squares and numbers all over the smooth surface, was with Letraset -style -style rub down transfers (image 36). Shown here are the black and white sheets of  markings I drew up in Illustrator. Using a to-scale print out of the image I traced some graphics and then step repeated row upon row of differing window shapes. I was able to draw up the alien lettering on the nose and dozens of  small ID numbers in black and white. I sent the files off to a bureau in London who custom print rub down decals, mainly for use in design

by this stage what colour to do the engine bay inside the rear, so the whole ship got a good coating of yellow (image 34). Masking the black markings was another task not eagerly undertaken. Again this ended up being as much by eye as going off the scale plan drawings, which whi ch did have the markings laid out on them. The bottom, centre and top lines of the ship all converge towards the rear, rear, and it could get difficult working out exactly where straight up and down was (image 35)! As you can also see in the photo, masking tape and base colour were almost identical, making lining up the black shapes even more difficult. The rear hull of the ship goes from perpendicular to about 45 degrees, and in some cases I cut out black paper and taped it over the surfaces to see where the stripes would go, and where they would end up on the other side!

Markings After a hard fought but successful campaign to paint the black markings, it came time to address the graphics and tiny black windows seen all over the surface. They couldn’t be painted on, either by

companies for producing product and packaging mock-ups. The results were very impressive. The graphics are pin sharp and the colour solid. The white applies over black with no show through, and by grouping panels of the ship together I could apply a whole panel’s worth of graphics in one go, with everything lining up along the different angles of  the ship (image 37). In all it probably took around 40 minutes to cover the whole ship in markings. But it did come at a cost. Waterslide decals can be made for as little as £2 per A4 sheet. This set of  rub downs, one black A4 and a white A5, cost £120! Not something the casual model maker could justify, but in terms of hours of labour saved, and results, it could be considered a bargain for this build. Image 38 shows the clean painted spaceship, this left side close-up showing off the intricate decals and numbers. I was very happy with the results – sharp, accurate and clean. But rather too clean. The ship was depicted blasting out of a launch pad amidst clouds of dust and smoke and it surely needed weathering to knock back the ‘just off the assembly line’ finish.

Weathering It was another daunting task to weather the

hand or by masking. Not only were there many identification numbers and pieces of lettering littered about, but the shear number of individual windows made that approach an instant nonstarter. Ordinarily I would have thought of 

finished ship. Very mindful of the expense and fragility of the rub down decals, I thought carefully about what should be applied and how much, and whether acrylic or enamel paints and washes might dislodge the decals. I did spray a couple of coats of 

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satin varnish to seal them to the surface. Because no panel lines are shown on the hull of the original, I dithered over whether to add some subtle shaded panels just to break up the surface. I did try spraying some cut out squares of varnish to try and introduce some suggestion of panels, but these don’t really show in photography. In the end I decided to stick with the smooth, unpanelled finish

were knocked back with a thin solution of black to make them look well worn, and to differentiate them from the bright white ‘illuminated’ window squares that appear elsewhere. I also added a steel grille to the air inlet box under the nose, at the suggestion of Chris Foss when I showed him the pre-weathered ship at LonCon3 in London. He seemed delighted with

of the illustration, but I felt it needed something to show it is a hard working piece of industrial machinery and not a cruise liner. The weathered version of the left side close up (below left) shows the difference after some dirtying down. I figured most dirt and grime would accumulate when it’s stationary in dry dock, and rain is washing dust over the surfaces and oil and fluids have the time to vent and leave stains. When it’s in flight these things might be blown or washed off before they get the chance to settle on the surface. So with gravity as a guide the sepia washes of dirt were applied according to how they would run over and down the hull. This

the results overall. He had a different vision of  what the upper deck detail might look like, but did at least say I got pretty close on my own! So enthused was he about the idea of replicas of his ships that we even discussed the possibility of  collaborating on a Mk II version of this one, which I would build and detail under his direction and he would do the final weathering himself. But the other ultimate test of any replica I make is compositing a photo of it over the original painting and seeing how close I got (see full page comparison overleaf). In the case of Norman Conquest  it’s very nearly there, but being so intimate with it I tend to see only the trees and not

was also run around the structures of the t he top deck where water might settle. Some AK Interactive engine oil paint was applied gathering in recesses or dripping from small outlet ports on the hull. This enamel solution did start to lift some decals so it was applied very carefully. I also darkened the rear section where exhaust smoke might swirl around the hull, and the whole engine bay was painted smoke black in the end, as it is not easily viewed when displayed anyway. Some paint rubbing was applied to the black bridge structure, to pick out the interesting shapes and lines. And the stark white markings on the fins

the wood. I’d have another go at that air intake, and make the nose more rounded, the main wings a bit chubbier and that large black circle graphic a tad higher up. But these are my personal nit-picks, just as any model maker will be distracted by the tiny details that glare out at them but not to the casual observer. It has left me with the appetite to make another Foss ship, the only dilemma being which one! They say that genius is the art of making the impossible look simple. I think in some steps along this deceptively simple build, that has rung true for the genius of Chris Foss. www.ChrisFossArt.com

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L    e  f    t   :   C  h  r  i    s 

F    o  s   s   o r  i    g i   n  a  l    p  a  i   n  t   i   n  g . R  i    g h   t   :   o v   e  r  l    a   y   o f    G  r   a  n  t   ’    s  m  o  e   d  l   .

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Governing the fleet Iain Costall builds a test shot of Moebius Models’ New Battlestar Galactica: Colonial One MOEBIUS MODELS

HAVE HA VE BE BEEN EN ST STEA EADIL DILY EX EXP PAN ANDI DING NG

based on the hardware of  both incarnations of Battlestar Galactica. The next release – due out soon – is Colonial One, a starliner converted for use as the seat of  government for the President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol . It’s no coincidence that the colour scheme echoes that of Air Force One. THEIR RANGE OF KITS

The kit here is a factory test shot and arrived without finished box, decals or instructions, although two exploded CAD views were

On first examination I found the parts to be very well moulded with fine raised and etched details reminiscent of the kind found on Tamiya warship kits. There was no flash on any of the parts and mould part lines were minimal (1, 2, 3). A standard Moebius stand was included (4) along with two tiny window parts (5) . The majority of the windows on the hull are moulded in solid styrene which probably suits a kit at this scale. For anyone wishing to light the ship it’s a relatively simple task to drill out some of the window areas as required.

included to help me identify the parts. The deadline for the build was pretty tight so I set about it straight away, with no intentions of adding detail or lighting.

Construction begins with the main hull and the fit of parts is excellent with no gaps at all – simply run some liquid cement into the joints and you’re done (6, 7, 8).

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The rest of the main parts mainly concern the engines and these are cleverly keyed so that they will only fit one way and to their correct counterpart (9).

me three sheets of ink-jet printed ones based on the design files (10). As anyone who has used homemade decals will know, they can be problematic as they tend to be

The various sub-assemblies were primed then given an overall coat of gloss white. I then began thinking about the best way to tackle the colour scheme. An email to Moebius HQ put me in touch with Bob Plant. He told me that the decals were still in production... however, he generously sent

translucent. After experimenting with the blue stripes I decided to use them as templates instead. I drew the shapes on using a fine pencil then masked them off with Tamiya tape before hand painting them with two coats of Humbrol 25 Blue (11, 12).

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The rear engine section was then given a base coat of Revell 09 Anthracite before drybrushing with Aluminium whilst the underside was painted a blue grey (13).

in the recesses and panel lines (16) . The main colour areas were then drybrushed with various shades and the windows picked out with an ultrafine-tipped black permanent marker

It was then time to weather the ship. For this I used Pro-Modeller Dark Dirt  wash (14) which is water-based and is simply painted over the entire model and left to dry (15). Once fully dried it is polished off again using a piece of kitchen towel and the pigment is left

pen (17, 18, 19). The spare sheet of decals was given a coat of  clear lacquer (20), and then the Intersun logos and various details were added. Final assembly was very quick and had no issues at all.

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Moebius provides two sets of engine flaps but these only give the option of either closed or fully open at 90 degrees to the hull. I slightly modified the open set as most pictures I’ve seen depict them at 45 degrees when the ship has landed. These were fitted along with the landing gear and the build was complete. Overall the kit was an enjoyable build. When the production release arrives the decals will obviously make the colour scheme a lot simpler to achieve. Had time not been against me I would have added the gold pinstriping as well. In conclusion I think this is another winner for Moebius and adds to an already impressive range of BSG kits.

Test-shot kindly supplied by Moebius Models. www.moebiusmodels.com

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SMALLER IN SCALE, NOT IN QUALITY  GARYY R. WELSH HAS FUN BUILDING THE NEW MOEBIUS 1/72 VIPER GAR Presidential order

With three weeks to copy deadline, I received a communique from Fleet Commander Reccia: ‘1/72nd Colonial Viper Mk II twin set. Stop. Test shot on way. Stop. Needed by 15th November. Stop. Please confirm. Stop. And start. Stop.’

...I like a challenge, and within a couple of days a box containing a selection of Moebius test shots and including the Viper arrived at Cromer Squadron Dispersal. Consisting of thirty-two beautifully moulded parts, Moebius’s new 1/72nd. scale Viper Mk II  is not an exact scaled-down version of the original 1/32nd., although breakdown of parts is similar. The model can be built in gear-up or landing configurations and alternative parts are included to allow these options. The pilot figure is not cast

stage in development, but one can imagine that these will provide markings allowing multiple Viper squadrons to be built up. Instructions – although supplied via a PDF – were not of the best quality and unreadable, so I simply dived straight in using the logical method of assembly that sprang to mind. Mission status

I began with the cockpit, which comprises of four parts, these fitting together well. They were sandwiched between the fuselage halves and clamped in place until dry. While this was happening I built up the engines, removing the location pins that hold the completed assembly into the main fuselage as this would aid painting later. With the fuselage join now hard, the lower fuselage and wings were attached. The wings were

in resin (as per the 1/32nd. kit), but offered as a two-part injection moulded version. Two complete kits will be included in the box when released. However, our review sample contained only enough parts to make a single Viper. Alas, decals were not available at this early

left loose until the upper fuselage and tailplane had been fixed into place and then set in position. EMA Plasticweld  was used throughout, providing strong joints in double quick time – I was, after all, on a time limit. Fit is, on the whole, very good, with a few small

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Parts layout for one of the two models that will be included in the set when released.

be built undercart up or down.

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clean join with little to clean up.

Alternative parts are included so the model can

Although the fit is good, clamping the fuselage halves together around the cockpit tub is advisable for a 4:

The fuselage underside is attached with the wings captured. When the tailplane and engine covers are

added they will be set with glue at the correct dihedral. 6:

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After a small amount of filling and sanding, some re-scibing is necessary.

Construction complete, the parts are now ready for some paint.

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Canopy masked and sub-assemblies primed with Alclad Matt Black 

Microfiller and Primer . 8: Light Grey is used to paint the canopy interior. Very little else is needed if the canopy is to be modelled in the closed

position. 9: Close-up shot of the engine assembly, painted in Light Grey - not metallic as it is too much at this scale and doesn’t match the CGI files used in the show.

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The pilot figure. Although in 1/72nd. the detail by today’s standards is a little soft. Here he has been painted

in Antique Brass and dusted with Light Grey , matching CGI files. 11: The completed cockpit ready for the canopy to be attached. 12: Painting the canopy framing in Light Grey  so the colour will match the cockpit when the model is complete.

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13: Wingtip laser also painted Light Grey . The detail is excellent, despite the diminutive size. 14: Base colours on. The subtleness of the finish

using White and Off-White is unfortunately lost in the camera at this point. 15: After some very careful masking the red identification stripes are added. 16: The recessed areas are painted in Light Grey as per the engines. 17: With all the masking removed, a light waft of White brings it all together. 18: The first stage of weathering is to shade with a standard wash of Black Grey , Black , Brown and Black Green. 19: A spattering of White , Off-White and Light Grey is augmented with a few chips added with a brush. 20: Successive thin mottles of White , OffWhite and Light Grey  really bring it all together. 21: Rubbing with P400 wet’n’dry  adds some extreme wear and tear before black is used to

deepen recessed areas and engine exhausts. 22: Removing the canopy masking is the last job, completing the model. Below and opposite: Shots of the completed model on its stand.

gaps here and there which needed to be filled. When the filler was dry these were taken care of  with wet’n’dry then any eliminated panel lines rescribed using my handy Squadron Bare Metal  scriber. The pilot was removed from the gates and the arm (complete with joystick) attached. The wingtip lasers were removed from their runners and the canopy cleaned up and test-fitted (the fit was perfect, by the way). A two-part stand just clicked together, finishing off construction, all this taking just a single day.

Battle colours The canopy was masked and the remaining parts mounted on cocktail sticks and wooden blocks. These were then primed with a few wafts of Alclad  Matt Black Micro Filler and Primer and set aside to harden while I looked for some reference to help with painting. Being a CGI ship primarily, it felt right to paint the Viper to match the CGI style and not to use standard modelling finishing techniques that, in my opinion, detract from many Viper models I’ve seen built up. Kurt Khun’s amazing Modellers Miniatures and 

Light Grey – at this scale this is more than enough as black would add too much depth. The engine assembly and wingtip lasers were also sprayed in this colour. The pilot figure was painted in Humbrol  Antique Brass, misted with Light Grey so that it matched the reference. Both pilot and cockpit were washed with my usual weathering mix and the helmet visor was picked out in Vallejo Sky Blue. The pilot was then glued into position and the canopy added, prior to it being painted with Light  Grey (so the framing is the same internal colour when viewed from inside on the finished model). The whole sub-assembly, with the canopy in place and masked, was then re-sprayed with Alclad Matt 

Magic:

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art 

(modelermagic.com) website, plethora of  high quality images direct fromhas thea visual effects files for Mark II , Mark VII Vi Vipers pers and the Cylon Raider. I used these files as my bible while finishing. I began by spraying the cockpit interior Vallejo

Black to blank the canvas, so to speak, in readiness for the main colours.

Squadron leader Vallejo White was now applied in thin coats across the model, this being augmented with blotches of  Off-White sprayed one layer at a time (mainly in

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the recessed areas) until a good density of colour was achieved that still maintained some shadow in recesses. The red markings were then very carefully masked (this took a couple of hours to do properly) and sprayed with the same colour I had used for the 1/32nd. Revell X-wing  identification markings (see Volume 32). The entire subassembly was then misted in White to give a bit of  scale. Now for the contentious part... On all Viper models I have seen the engines and recessed fuselage parts are always painted in metallic shades. On the original CGI files, however, these are light grey; the metallic sheen is added as separate renderings once the shot layout has been completed. I could, therefore, have painted my areas metallic, but light grey matches the reference I have, and at such a small scale (the 1/72nd. Viper is a shade longer in length than a Tiger Moth biplane) I felt it would look closer to the original screen version. The inserts were therefore masked and sprayed in Vallejo Light Grey. The masking was removed and the engine assembly (pre-painted also in Light  Grey), was glued into place, along with the wingtip lasers. My weathering mix was then used to create a bit of depth around the recessed areas. Next up was to very carefully mottle areas of the model with White followed by Off-White. Chips were then carefully added with a brush using Off-White and more weathering mix was applied via an airbrush. I then

and splatter-painted the model with White, OffWhite and Grey. I repeated the mottling with White, Off-White and Light Grey before applying more weathering mix, then rubbed the model over with a small piece of P400 wet’n’dry to suggest severe wear and tear. All CGI subjects look good when finished with a bit of black. Usually I don’t do this, but most CGI models lose a bit of reality when they are more subtlety finished in dark grey. A thin mix of  black was therefore applied as the finishing weathering mix. Red tips were added to the wings using Cavalry Brown, with medium and finetipped black permanent pens being used to add specific details called out on the reference files. After a quick sealing coat of Liquitex Matte Varnish, the canopy masking was removed and the model was placed on its stand. Finished . Mission debrief 

Another excellent model from Moebius adding yet another classic to the superb range of new and classic Galactica subjects. In scaling down this subject Moebius have taken the trouble to amend some of the fit issues on the larger MK II , a very welcome move. The only minor criticism I have is that the figure is not exactly the best, its detail being a little too soft. However, this is not really a major issue, as at this scale with the canopy closed the detail is adequate. Hopefully an aftermarket company will come to the rescue with a more crisply defined replacement. All in all an excellent model that is very, very highly recommended.

dialled down the pressure

Thanks to Moebius for the review samples. www.moebiusmodels.com

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CLOSE-UP! Forty-five years on, we take an exclusive look at the surviving studio miniatures of Gerry Anderson’s UFO Derek Rushton and Jamie Smythe of the Prop Gallery UFO IS,

OF CO COUR URSE SE, THE

1969-70 SC SCIEN IENCE CE FIC FICTIO TION N TELE TE LEVI VISI SION ON SE SERI RIES ES CR CREA EATE TED D BY GER ERR RY AN AND D SYLVIA ANDERSON, and was the final production of  Century 21, formally AP Films, who had previously been responsible for other hit shows such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.. UFO was the Andersons’ first live Mysterons action series, financed by the Incorporated  Television Company (ITC) of media mogul Lew Grade, who, having bankrolled the previous puppet series from Stingray onwards, liked what he saw in the Anderson-produced live action SF film Doppelganger,, and commissioned a series featuring Doppelganger

harvesting aliens and operates from the cover of  the Harlington-Straker film studios. Starring Ed Bishop as Commander Straker, much of the series was filmed at the MGM British Studios, later known as Elstree, which doubled as the Straker Studio in a clever, money saving move. While the series may have lacked puppets, it did feature Anderson’s other trademark, stunning model miniature effects sequences realised by longtime collaborator Derek Meddings, who would go on to become an Academy Award  winner and one of  the most highly regarded effects talents ever to work in the industry.

real actors, aimed at a more adult demographic than the earlier marionette-based marionette-based work. The series follows a secret military organisation known as SHADO, an acronym for Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation, which defends the Earth from body and body-part

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In early 1969 Century 21 set about realising the requirements for filming from their studios in Slough and work began on developing the various SHADO vehicles. Instrumental in this process were Derek Meddings and prolific designer Mike Trim, who created concepts which were to bring

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yet another Anderson world to life. Miniatures were built in various scales by the talented Century 21 model makers, the old puppet stages used on previous shows being transformed into fully fledged visual effects stages to handle the larger model sets now required, and filming began in April 1969 under the supervision of Meddings. The results did not disappoint, with the effects team creating some of the most visually stunning and groundbreaking model effects work that has ever graced our television screens. Over forty years later surviving, original, studio-used models are few and far between, many having been destroyed following the closure of Century 21 or cannibalised for use in other productions. What follows represents a significant portion of the original studio models known to still be in existence today. Original UFO filming miniature

The series’ macguffin and titular vehicle, surprisingly, was the end product of much discussion and not as straightforward in its design as one would think. It was ultimately decided to stick with what had become the classic image of a flying saucer, however, in a design finalised by Derek Meddings in March, 1969. Meddings envisaged the UFOs having an unclear and fuzzy appearance to match what he had seen in photographs of unidentified flying objects and decided that the models should spin and also reflect light as they did so, this effect ef fect proving much more difficult to achieve practically than t han in theory. theory.

The top dome of theand miniature is constructed in heat-formed Perspex is attached to a central column housing a small motor which would spin the lower part of the model around while the top remained static. The motor was powered through two of the wires which were used to suspend the miniature during filming, resulting in a hovering, spinning saucer. The top dome features small holes where small pyrotechnic charges would have been placed, while the lower body of the miniature is dressed with a number of paddles which are covered in a highly reflective material in order to catch the light as it spun around, creating

While there were constant issues during the filming of the miniatures, notably their wobbliness and inability to fly in anything other than a straight line without the revolving action stopping, the UFO filming miniatures are undoubtedly a classic Meddings creation and a great example of  his ingenuity in transforming a simple design into a complex and revolutionary miniature effect. Original Moonbase Interceptor filming miniature

Arguably one of the most memorable elements of  the series is the Moonbase Interceptor, which provided the first line of defence against alien invasion. It was Mike Trim who was assigned to design the craft and, drawing influence from f rom script notes and real NASA spacecraft, he created a concept for the Interceptor featuring only one missile and landing skis. This initial design was subsequently adjusted by Meddings, who added his futuristic touch while retaining many of the features conceptualised by Trim, his final design bearing notes stating that there were to be just three Interceptors, these being housed in natural Moon craters around the base. It is believed that Interceptor miniatures were created for production in just two scales, measuring approximately 13" and 25" respectively. Of these only two original screenused filming miniatures are known to exist today, one in each scale. This represents the smaller of the two miniatures, constructed in slush-cast resin with metal landing skis and detachable missile. The model is detailed with hand-applied decals and even a pilot to the cockpit interior. The design washas immortalised forever when the Dinky Toys 351 UFO Interceptor release of 1971 hit the shelves. Interestingly we owe it to Dinky that this very miniature survives today as it was given to them by Century 21 in an attempt to ensure the accuracy of the model... to this day we are not quite sure what went wrong. Regardless of various criticisms on their functionality and use, such as only having one missile, the Interceptor remains a fantastic piece of  design and an iconic and instantly recognisable

the desired ethereal and otherworldly appearance.

element of the series.

This particular model was used on screen in various episodes including the series opener Identified and is believed to be one of Meddings’ earlier examples of a UFO miniature, representing one of only two studioused UFO models known to exist today.

Original SID front section

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ntruder Detector , SID, or Space I ntruder  , is an unmanned satellite controlled by an onboard computer which detects approaching UFOs and can communicate with SHADO’s  Moonbase to warn of incoming

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attack. SID was designed by Mike Trim on clear instruction from Derek Meddings, who envisaged an insect-like design which he realised beautifully, creating yet another memorable and important element of the series. For filming requirements SID was created in two scales, a large miniature used for close-up shots and a smaller, less detailed, model for longer shots. This smaller version can clearly be seen in the famous shot of Derek Meddings and Ken Holt in the Century 21 model store. This front section is from that smaller miniature and is believed to be all that survives of the model. It is constructed from a ping pong ball and carved jelutong wood and the piece is hand detailed with pen. The fate of  the larger SID filming miniature remains unknown, presumed destroyed, making this a rare artefact and very possibly the last surviving part of  the studio-used SID miniatures.

Original SID 2 shuttle filming miniature

The SID 2 shuttle was featured in The Man Who Came Back episode, carrying Commander Straker and the brainwashed Collins to SID to carry out repair work. The shuttle was designed once again by Mike Trim Trim and was based on a real NASA lifting body of the period. This filming miniature is the only one made by Century 21 for the production. Measuring approximately 14" long it was filmed alongside the large scale SID miniature. Constructed from carved wood with a cockpit to the t he front and a rear fin the body has been decorated with various reflective materials. With the rear of the miniature featuring in close-up on screen it is heavily detailed with a number of kit parts, intricate wire work and hand-applied decals, and is an excellent example of the attention to detail which made Century 21’s model effects so spectacular. Original Markers Universal Transporter tractor unit

The Markers Universal Transporter is a large, lorry-like vehicle which is used to transport the

which Straker almost collides, this time towing a low loader style trailer with two identical vehicles as its cargo. These vehicles were actually the hovertruck miniatures which were used extensively in previous Anderson series  Joe 90, featuring in several episodes. The vehicle was also used in the episode E.S.P. in its former Square Triangle configuration, towing the Markers Universal  livery trailer containing a SHADO Mobile. Once again designed by Mike Trim, the Markers Transporters were built in miniature by the talented Century 21 model team in large scale for use on the massive model sets required to generate such realism. It is believed that three complete transporters were created for filming. With the tractor unit measuring approximately 19" in length the complete transporters with trailers must have been quite a spectacle, each approaching five feet long! The model is constructed in carved wood built upon a suspension system used on many Century 21 filming miniatures of the period that was devised by Derek Meddings, this incorporating foam under the axles to allow the model to bounce slightly, resulting in very realistic movement on screen. Such is the detail on this miniature that the rear axle suspension is springloaded, resulting in the rear of the tractor unit standing slightly higher than the front. This would have been counteracted by the t he weight of the trailer, trailer, again providing great realism on screen. The miniature features a cab fabricated in wood and heat-formed acrylic with residue to the interior where the driver once sat, with the back of the model dressed with an exhaust and various detailing and a locating hole where the trailers could be attached. The front of the model features two hooks that would have been used for towing the vehicle during filming and three headlights which are wired to light and remain operational to to this day; these being controlled by a switch which can be seen next to the spare wheel to the side of  the cab. Various decals, side grills and a dirtied down weathered paint job finish this incredibly detailed, large-scale filming miniature which represents the only example known to survive

SHADO Mobiles to their destinations. The Transporter first appeared in The Square Triangle

today.

episode, in some of the series’ most beautifully shot miniature effects sequences and favourites of  Derek Meddings, who enjoyed the challenge of  creating the realism required for the series’ Earthbased model shots. The tractor unit makes its next appearance in Court Martial  as the truck with

Original SHADO ambulance filming miniature

The SHADO ambulance was used in two episodes, firstly in series opener Identified , where it is used to transport the alien to SHADO HQ, and again in Flight Path. The futuristic design, a

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trademark of the Anderson productions, is once again that of prolific designer Mike Trim, and was beautifully realised in miniature by the skilled Century 21 model makers. This filming miniature is presumed to be the only one created for production. Built in large scale it measures approximately 23" in length and 9" wide. The incredibly detailed model is created from mixed materials with the main body constructed from a combination of jelutong wood and heat-formed acrylic. The model is once again built upon the Meddings-designed suspension system and features front, rear and top lights all wired to light with this wiring still complete and visible from the underside. Other features include rubber tyres as seen on a number of Anderson vehicles, in addition to grills and even wipers to the front screen and door hinges on the nonworking rear doors, once again a testament to the incredible build quality and detail of Century 21’s creations. Original Harlington Straker Studios van

This Harlington Straker Studios van was first used in the series opener Identified where it can be seen parked behind the studios sign. This became an insert shot which was used in other episodes of the series. The van was originally built by Century 21 for Anderson’s Anderson’s previous series The Secret Service where it was used in the episode Last Train to Bufflers Halt  as a getaway vehicle. The large 18" miniature is constructed from mixed materials and is entirely hand made, with the main structure of the model being wood and the cab section heat-formed acrylic atop the classic sprung suspension system. This incredibly detailed model has grills to the front with metal headlamps, bumpers and even a fuel cap. To the rear a piece of  vinyl creates the impression of a door and the van also sports a number plate with the suffix letter being ‘E’, dating the van to 1967, once again a testament to the quality and accuracy of Anderson miniatures. An H.S. STUDIOS graphic is applied, making this instantly identifiable as a UFO

Earth-based original studio-used miniatures known to survive today.

filming

As with previous Anderson series the model effects work proved stunning, with the incredible creations of Derek Meddings and prolific designer Mike Trim beautifully brought to life by the talented Century 21 model team, who made a number of significant innovations in the field of  miniature effects. UFO was to be the final production for a team that had created some of the most iconic visions of the 1960s, and one that even today, some forty-five years after its initial broadcast, remains a stunning visual treat and has proved tremendously influential in the industry. Several of the Century 21 crew subsequently became well known FX specialists, going on to become successful in their own right... notably Brian Johnson, who was already working on significant Hollywood pictures while UFO was in production, and went on to produce classic visual effects on Awards, Space: 1999 way to two and,on ofhis course, thewinning late, great, Academy Derek Meddings, who later worked on Superman Superman,, Batman,, winning an Academy  James Bond  and Batman Award  and becoming one of the most highly regarded individuals ever to work in special effects, whose innovations and body of work will never be forgotten. Throughout the 1960s Century 21 miniature effects contributed to some of the most influential and ground-breaking shows ever to grace our television screens. What is perhaps most impressive of all is that such effects have stood the test of time and remain highly regarded to this day day..

Century 21, we salute you.

miniature, the graphic appearing on one side only, often a feature of Century 21 models which were only intended to be shot from a specific angle. This represents a unique vehicle from the series and one of only three

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PROJECT MOBILE Part T hree   –   No w  we're trundling!

(somehow ‘motoring’ didn’t sound Mobile-ish enough) Mike Reccia builds the new Studio 2 kit ORTUNATELY , F ORTUNATELY 

AFTE AF TER R AL ALL L TH THE E EX EXTE TENS NSIV IVE E PL PLAN ANNI NING NG

AND AN D TWE WEAK AKIN ING G CE CENT NTRE RED D ON TH THE E CA CAB B SEC ECTI TION ON LA LAS ST

(necessary to satisfy my obsession with getting this Mobile build as ‘right’ as I possibly could) things could finally move on at a more constructive pace for this issue’s installment. Unfortunately, and due to giving this volume’s drool-inducing UFO original props photo-feature the space it deserves, I was left with just two pages in which to bring you up to date on the build this time round. Therefore, and with apologies, I’m left ISSUE

‘box’ that originally would have held the batteries for the R/C gear, enabling the body to sit at the right height when positioned over this. • An additional softwood lower ‘grill strut’ (arrowed in photo) was created to replicate a previously unnoticed second one I discovered when carefully studying my top view blow-up of  the studio original. This was glued in position inside the lip of the front intake, just below its lower edge. • The body and cab were sprayed in several coats

with no choice but to briefly bullet-point my progress since last issue, and to promise you a far

of high-build grey primer/filler and any scribed-in lines obliterated due to necessary filling were re-

more detailed part four, coming in Volume 37. Here goes: • The upper and lower body halves were stuck together and any gaps filled and sanded. • A support frame was cut from softwood strip, glued together then glued to the top of the internal

scribed. • The raised strips seen on the sides, rear rear,, front and top of the original were replicated by applying lengths of adhesive silver car pinstriping. • Ninety percent of the kit bits found on the body and supplied either as sourced plastic pieces or

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from Bill Oram’s excellent detailing set, were positioned and two-part epoxied in place. The

enough room to tell you that much more of the build has been completed since I signed off on the

remaining parts would have to wait until the windows were shaped and in position, and until the back lower detail piece and an underside front plate had been created. • A coat of standard grey primer was sprayed over the body and cab sections. ...And that’s that’s about all the info I can shoehorn into this truncated third part, leaving me just

above and that all will be revealed in Volume 37 of  this title. Hope you’ll join me then. Mobile

kit details: studio2models.webs.com

Details of the detailing set can be had by emailing: [email protected]

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Feline Frolics Mike Reccia gets to grips with Catwoman (lucky devil!) AS ANY FEMALE IN HISTORY EVER FILLED A SKIN

H TIGHT

CATSUIT QUITE LIKE  JULIE NEWMAR? Herportrayal of Catwoman in the ’60s’ Batman series was suggestive, pneumatic and quirky, and viewing footage today I’m amazed that the show’s producers succeeded in slipping such a figurehugging suit past the censors and onto primetime television in those prim and proper times.  Julie’ss depictio  Julie’ depiction n of Catwoman (Eartha Kitt also took on the role during the course of  the series, of course, plus Lee Meriwether in the spinoff movie) is the subject of the second in Moebius’ superb new ’60s’ Batman figure kit series, and I couldn’t

wait to get my claws into the test shot that recently arrived at these offices.

More than one way to build a cat Moulded in black, Bats’ skewed love interest is presented here as a simple to assemble yet crisply realised subject which builds into a choice of catfigurations. She can be put together as the cato’-nine-tails lashing version of the ‘odious, abhorrent, and insegrievious’ villainess (Batman’s terminology, not mine), or as a twogun, cat-pistol packing kitten, courtesy of a choice of  left arms (one to hold the separately

this being a glue-on part, making masked or unmasked a permanent decision for the modeller unless the tiniest bit of Blu-Tak is used. Front and rear belt sections complete the figure, and a rocky base is provided, plus two free-standing cat statues to stand on this, the base butting up against the base of the Batman kit to form a part of what will finally be revealed, once all seven subjects are released and placed together, as the Bat symbol  when the ensemble is viewed from above.

Near-purrfect alignment The body comes together quickly and easily from torso, arm and leg halves. I selected the whip arm option and therefore didn’t open up the locating hole in the belt front for the cat pistol part that hangs from this if the other arm is chosen. With torso, arms and legs together little seam filling was required (just the leg to hip juncture on the right side and the underside of the left arm to torso line) and the very slight join lines were lightly sanded to eliminate them. The head is cleverly provided as a face piece that sits into a depression in the front of the separate two-part hair section, thus allowing the features to be painted neatly before adding them to the head.

Making kitty pretty At this stage, and before tackling the face, I gave some thought to the

moulded whip, the other pointing an integral pistol). An

finish of the cat suit. Yes, I know it s black, but in series footage it sparkles and scintillates as though

additional pistol piece is included to hang from her belt if the guntoting option is chosen. She can also be displayed with or without her mask,

it has silver particles embedded in it. I wanted to reproduce this effect to scale and, as a first (ineffective) move, having primed the body I sprayed it in matt black then lightly dusted it with silver paint, both

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colours coming from rattle cans.* The result, and please forgive the pun, was lacklustre, so I oversprayed again in matt black then pulled my thinking cap from the back of i ts dusty drawer. drawer. Some time ago I’d invested in a pearlescent white RC car paint spray spray,, but had found t his to be of little use as the spray consistency was too

paint with a few drops of  grey added to it, and the mascara and pupils achieved courtesy of a black fineline pen. A red and black powder mix was applied to the inside

light to test-sprayed get a solidthis colour of of it. plastic A -ha! Having over out a piece I’d first painted with matt black I applied the aforementioned weak spray to Catwoman’s body, resulting in an overspraying of sparkly, reflective particles that, despite this being white pearlescent paint, registered as silver on the suit. Perfect! Catwoman ’s gloves and boots, whilst shiny, do not feature the silvery bits, so I overbrushed these areas in matt black before applying several coats of gloss lacquer car paint to the body to seal it and give a lustrous depth to the finish. Finally, the front and rear belt pieces were primed, sprayed

of the out mouth, the paint teeth picked in white with darker powder lines being ‘drawn’ over them once this was dry to delineate the slightly shadowed areas between them (the teeth are moulded as a solid strip with no indents) and the lips traced in an appropriate red. When I was as happy as I could be with the face (I really

gold and glued to the body and Catwoman ’s necklace was picked out in gold with a small brush, completing the sub-assembly.

Still not yet owning a working airbrush* I was forced to tackle the face by unconventional means. I’m by no means a figure painter, and so the task seemed a daunting one. Initially, having primed the piece, I attempted to brush-apply washes of  various flesh tones using thinned Tamiya model paints, only to find that the contrasts between the various tones were too jarring and the washes difficult to feather together. I then reprimed the

get that must  compressor*) I sprayed the face with Citadel  Satin Purity Seal to blend everything together, then overpainted the eye areas in gloss varnish with a small brush having first added white highlight dots to the pupils.  Julie Newmar appears to have auburn hair, and I sought to replicate this by, having first primed

piece and discovered to my horror that the Tamiya paints were bleeding through in certain areas and, worse, had not dried properly. Using very fine sand paper I took the paint and primer back as near as I could to the original plastic, re-primed the piece and rethought my approach, adding a couple of very slight furrows to the forehead along the way due to my prior bungling – sorry, Julie! My next approach, having first sprayed the face from a rattle can in a suitable flesh tone, was to ‘paint’ MIG Pigments powders onto it with a

the hair sub-assembly and then painted on shadows and highlights, brushing MIG Pigments Martian Dust  over the base colours to mimic the effect of light highlighting the red tones. Having sprayed the hair section in Purity Seal I pic picke ked d out out he herr

Apologies, Julie

small brush to highlight shadows and bone structure and to gently trace in those furry eyebrows. The eyes were then picked out in white

ears in matt black over which a brush application of the car

*If you’ve been following my non-airbrush painting saga over the last few issues and are wondering why I’m still not using the compressor and airbrush I absolutely, irrevocably, one hundred percent promised to buy myself while making the Moeb Moebius ius Batma Batman n kit, all I can say is it’s a long story. I can tell you, however, that one is, finally, on the cards.

Promise. ...What do you mean: Yeah. Right?

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statues were primed and then sprayed in gold, their eyes picked out in Tamiya clear green and their collars brushed in a contrasting gold. Verdict? A fabulous second entry to this series. I must admit, despite deadlines and a fumbling, village idiot approach to faces, I’m having a ball building these kits. They’re great fun, and I felt, in making this one, like the cat that had got the cream (Sorry... but, be honest – there’s no way I could write a Catwoman kit article without lacing it with some excruciatingly bad puns, now is there?).

lacquer was applied then glued the face in place and positioned the completed head on the figure.

Finishing touches Catwoman’s ‘claws’ were brush painted in gold and the completed figure glued to its

Review test shot kindly supplied by Moebius Models. www.moebiusmodels.com

base, which had been painted and MIG Pigments shadowed to match the base of the Moebius

Batman figure I’d built for a previous issue. Each of the two, two-part cat statues was glued together and the seams (rather more prominent on these than on the figure) sanded back. The

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 An Enterprising Enterprising Endeavour… Endeavour…

Modifying the old AMT 18” TOS starship Michael Scarola

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AS

I’ VE BEEN WATCHING STAR TREK. As a young child I was instantly hooked on the action, great stories, technology, and especially the characters. The one character that really stood out for me was the old girl herself, the Enterprise Enterprise.. With her sleek lines and interesting shapes the Enterprise was one design I

Round 2 LLC, LLC, as well as a few resin replacement parts. The 2008 release features 1966 packaging and original box art... however the parts inside are the newer 1970s’ tooling, also known as the small box kit, due to its smaller-sized packaging. As I examined the kit’s ki t’s contents there were some surprises and a few disappointments. While it

would never forget. After being away from model building for two decades I decided to build the one kit I’d never owned, the AMT  18-inch Starship Enterprise. Enterprise. In my stash of models I had the 2008 release from

represents the Enterprise it isn’t really accurate to the studio model used in the production of the TV series. However, this latest release from Round 2 has a smooth saucer and an excellent set of decals (17). The awful, raised grid on the top of the saucer featured in all previous incarnations of this kit was removed for this release. This change to the saucer and the new decals are big improvements, making this a much better kit and certainly worth the price of admission. Despite its shortcomings this kit is still a classic and has been around

FAR B ACK AS

I

C AN AN R EM EM EM EM BE BE R

since the beginning of Star Trek but, as stated above, is unfortunately not at all accurate to the 11-foot long studio model used on the original TV show. For this build I started to really research the Enterprise and came across a nice set of blueprints from Charles Casimiro. I re-sized these to match the diameter of the AMT Enterprise’s Enterprise’s saucer and it turns out the profile of the neck (dorsal) matched the blueprints. The secondary hull  needed to be lengthened approximately 1.5mm and the length of the nacelles was also very close. I was quite surprised and really I felt I had something to work with. If I could fix the shape of the saucer and secondary hull  maybe this build would resemble the studio model a bit more. It was certainly worth a try.

So it began… My initial intent was to fix the more

glaring problems and at this point I had no idea how or if I would add any of the missing taper to the nacelles – after all, even built out of  the box it still nicely represents the Enterprise and the earlier, long box kit tooling had actually appeared in episodes of Star Trek. That being said, I was anxious to get going with

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this project so I pressed on. I started working on the saucer by cutting the B/C decks and bridge

cut the front off of a spare Bussard  dome from a Polar Lights 1/1000 TOS Enterprise kit (24). The

structure off. This area is one of the most glaring inaccuracies of the kit and a great starting point. I had purchased a resin replacement B/C deck from Don’s Light and Magic (DLM) which seemed to look the part, although it needed to be lengthened by approximately 4mm. I accomplished this by cutting the rear off and adding pieces of sheet styrene in between the two halves followed by some putty and sanding (1). For the bridge dome I

linear accelerator, accelerator, or the long part that was used to cover where the bolts held the saucer onto the studio model, was another problem area. I cut the raised detail off, replaced it with more accurate detailing and slimmed it down a bit ( 13, 26). Since this version of the kit didn’t have the raised grid, with these two modifications made it was starting to feel like the Enterprise I’d come to love. The bottom of the saucer proved to be a bit

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outer edge contour (26). The cone on the bottom of the saucer also needed some re-shaping. There are raised lines and three mysterious dimples in the bottom of  the saucer that shouldn’t be there. The dimples may have been used as ejector pins for removing the part from the moulds but their exact purpose still remains a mystery. I filled them with styrene bits and liquid cement and sanded off the three raised circular lines, which were later replaced with scribed lines in the correct positions using a compass cutter (12). After a couple of pieces of sheet styrene had been glued inside the bottom of the cone I proceeded to file it down until I was satisfied it matched the blueprints and allowed the  JT 

Graphics resin planetary sensor to fit properly. Now came the hard part: sanding the saucer’s bottom contour and removing the sharp ridge where the concave section starts. The bottom of  the studio model’s saucer has a nice, smooth flow from the outer edge through the concave area and up onto the cone. I sanded for what felt like weeks until I achieved the look of the studio model. The trick was to get the contour to appear even all around so there was a lot of trial and

more problematic. The edge contour is too square, so I proceeded to glue strips of 1.5mm styrene

error involved. I was glad when this part was finally done (12, 14). With the saucer now complete I moved onto the secondary hull . I lengthened the hull by cutting it in two between the neck and the nacelle pylons. 1.5mm was added to the length and I could see it starting to take shape (3, 4). I fattened up the front with a couple of applications of putty, leaving the recesses on the sides and bottom ( 8).

inside to give me something to work with. wit h. I used a compass to scribe a line around the perimeter approximately where the bottom should start angling up towards the top edge. A sanding stick, a razor saw and many hours were spent making sure the new edge was even and at the correct angle (6). Fortunately the resin impulse deck I purchased from Federation Models had the correct angle and fit right onto the saucer’s re-shaped

The side recesses received some missing details as well. In order to modify the deflector housing I combined the kit’s part and the front half of a resin housing from  JT Graphics. The resin deflector housing is made as a direct replacement and matches the kit’s over-sized deflector forks so it needed to be modified. The deflector forks on the styrene housing were narrowed and putty was applied around the housing’s perimeter, after the

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resin part had been attached to the front half, to give it the correct angle (5, 8). Moving right along I focused on the hanger bay

great! If it didn’t, the nacelles would essentially be ruined but I had to give it a go. Here’s the method I applied to each of the

area in the rear of the secondary hull . The kit’s hangerr doors aren’t as rounded as the studio hange model’s, and the sides of the hull itself surrounding the doors angle up too abruptly. For the hanger doors I simply cut one of the kit’s nacelle domes in half and scribed the door sections. This did the trick and looks much better bett er than the kit’s supplied hanger doors. Some sheet styrene was used to reshape the hull’s curves and a small styrene tube was added to the top of the doors for the hanger

nacelle halves: I first cut the circular ribs off  the fronts ( 10 ) since I would be using a set of  resin Bussard Collectors from  JT Gra Graphi phi cs ( 11, 37 ) that already had the circular ribs accurately portrayed. For each half I needed to make a long triangular cut from front to rear. This started at each front half’s corner and ended with a 2.5 mm width at the rear – essentially a long, skinny triangle. Each half  was cut on the same side in order to keep the

bay light (2, 9). As I was satisfied with the results so far I turned my attention to the nacelles. This is the area of the kit that required the most thought. I really wanted to attempt to add more taper to the nacelles but I still had to come up with a plan of attack in order for this to work. So, after obsessing over this for a few days – well maybe weeks – I ran several options through my head and finally came up with something I thought might work. If it worked,

inner trenches straight. The nacelle halves were heated with a hair dryer and rolled on a flat surface to keep them round while creating the needed taper. These were glued together, which was followed by sanding and the application of putty to make sure everything was straight. straight. For the end caps I used resin replacements from Federation Models that are the correct size ( 11 ). The vents in the rears are also resin parts from Federation Models that I

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slimmed down so they sit closer to the nacelles’’ surface (10 nacelles ( 10). ). The  pylons that connect the nacelles to the secondary hull  were also narrowed and strip styrene and brass rods glued inside for strength (15, 16). 16). I installed them with epoxy using a template made from the blueprints to ensure I had

I began with the infamous Walm almart art Con Concre crete te colour chip that Richard Datin chose as a close match to the studio model’s hull colour. In addition I acquired a paint sample matched to a Master Replicas TOS Enterprise and had access to one of Gary Kerr’s hull colour chips that he created for the release of the Polar Lights 1/350

the correct angle. During this stage the ship was placed upside down while attaching the nacelles to keep it all in alignment. Now came the easier part of this build: making the navigation lights and beacons. These were made by shaping ends of sprue to create the small hemispheres. I added a smaller styrene rod to the back of the spheres so they could be plugged into the hull like pegs after the painting was completed. This helped simplify things quite a bit. Some of the smaller navigation lights were simply made with 1.2 and 1.6mm styrene rods glued in before the painting. After the ship was painted I used a small brush on these (18 (18). ).

TOS Enterprise Enterprise.. Using these colour samples I started mixing some paint. After a few failed attempts I came upon a mix that’s easy to make and looks very close to the three colour chips using Tamiya acrylics. Tami amiya ya XF-1 XF-12 2 J.N J.N.. Grey Grey has become a popular colour for a TOS Enterprise Enterprise.. However, I feel it still looks a bit too green but would still prove to be a great base to work from. What I came up with is a custom mix using Tamiya acrylics. This consists of three parts XF-12  J.N. Grey Grey,, one part XF-19 Sky Grey and four parts XF-2 Flat White. White. It appears neutral in daylight and exhibits a slight green colour shift under different lighting, which is very close to

With the build well underway I still had to decide on what colour(s) to paint all this. The funny thing is on television the Enterprise appears white, light grey, light blue, silver and just about any other colour in the spectrum. The visual effects back in the 1960s weren’t as advanced as they are today and unfortunately it shows. Another thing I took into consideration is the actual colour of the studio model.

Gary Kerr’s and the Walmart  colour chips, only slightly more neutral, which is better for this small scale. For painting the various details I used Testors Model Master Acryl Neutral Gray, Gray, Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver and Tamiya XF-6 Copper. Copper. The areas under the fronts of the nacelles are painted with a darker version of the hull colour as well as the two triangular shapes on the bottom of the saucer (34, 35). 35). The navigation lights are painted with Testors Acryl Clear Red , Clear Green and white. Tamiya X-6 Clear Orange was sprayed inside the Bussard  Bussard domes domes with Testors Acryl Flat  Clear on the outside to diffuse them. I also sprayed

My next obsession… The hull colour… The Original Series Enterprise studio model hull colour has been a big topic of debate among Star Trek modellers for quite some time. However, in more recent years it has been determined that the hull was painted a light grey colour with a hint of  green. I really wanted to come up with a suitable approximation for the hull colour using acrylic hobby paints, so I started my own research.

some Clear Red  and white on the inner Bussard  domes to make the effect more interesting.

Those pesky grid lines… Yes, the studio model does have grid lines on the saucer.. However, they were drawn on with a pencil saucer and didn’t appear all that obvious, especially on the television sets of the 1960s. For this smaller scale Enterprise project I wanted the saucer saucer’s ’s grid to appear very subtle so that the ship as a whole

would look in balance. I felt the weathering should take centre stage on the saucer and not the grid lines. To get started I pencilled the grid on the saucer using the saucer from the Polar Lights 1/350 and the blueprints as reference. In order to place each grid line properly I made paper templates from the blueprints. A thin piece of sheet styrene was used for the radial lines and a compass for the circular lines (28, (28, 29). 29). After this was done I pre-shaded

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most of the lines with a darker Tamiya grey shade I mixed up followed by several light coats of the hull colour on top to tone them down. The effect is quite subtle with a hint of panel lines when viewed up close and disappears from a distance. This effect on the saucer seems to blend nicely with the rest of  the ship, which has no grid lines (30, 31, 32, 33).

Weathering… Most of the weathering was done before the decals were applied. I didn’t want any weathering over the windows or other markings since it never appeared that way on the studio model. The rust ring on the top of the saucer was masked off and rust-coloured pastel chalk was applied lightly with a brush (36). The rest of the weathering is mostly dark grey pastels with just a hint of some green and rust thrown in. While the studio model did have quite a bit of green weathering it seemed to show on screen as shades of grey so I went in that direction. I feel shades of grey look more realistic. The green weathering of the studio model was most likely tailored to the film stock used in the production in order to appear as grey on screen so that’s how I approached this.

Decals… The decal sheet provided with the kit is very accurate with a few small exceptions. The main decal for the top of the saucer combines the ship’s name (U.S.S. (U.S.S. Enterprise) Enterprise) and registry (NCC-1701 (NCC-1701)) as well as two of the rectangular white lights. I decided to cut all these out and apply them as separate decals since the spacing of the ship’s name and registry on the decal appeared to be set too close together. I cut out the larger letters and numbers (i.e. U.S.S. Enterprise and NCC-1701 NCC-1701)) as separate decals as this allowed me to position them more precisely over the grid and eliminate most of  the clear film (38). I followed suit and cut most of  the ship’s decals out as separate elements with the exception of the small windows. After the decals had been applied a few light coats of Testors CreateFX acrylic flat clear, with some satin added, was sprayed over to seal it all in.

covering it as I sprayed primer on the ship. What I ended up with was a mist of the white primer all over the dome. My wife thought I had painted a star field and suggested I leave it alone. I listened to her and looked at it as a ‘happy accident’. She was right about the base and I’m happier I kept the star field since it doesn’t detract from the look of  the model. To finish it off I used paint masks from HDA Modelworx to paint on the yellow U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 and STAR TREK logos (21, 22, 23). I feel it sort of emulates the look of the opening credits of the TV show and complements the model nicely nicely..

It’s finally complete… I attached the navigation lights and Bussard  Bussard domes domes and I was finally done with this project. This was a fun conversion to work on and an overall learning experience. As much as I loved the Enterprise before, I’ve really come to appreciate the design and thought that went into i nto it. It’s a true sci-fi icon and I’m sure it won’t be the last Enterprise I ever build.

The display base… I wanted this build to have a simple stand so the ship would be the centre of attention. The smaller Round 2 dome base is almost the same, proportionally, to this model as the base that’s included in the Polar Lights 1/350 kit so it seemed appropriate to use. My plan was to paint it to look like one of the planets seen in the weekly series so I didn’t bother

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