1/700 & 1/350 scale BH Cygnus builds

daverep - when Martyn says "relatively inexpensive," what he means is it might talley up to less than a grand. ;-)

Seriously though, I hope it won't go that high, but it seems that it will easily go over $500. Stay tuned and I will be able to give a more exact price as more pieces get finished.

And thanks for the compliments! I keep being amazed by how this is progressing.

Martyn: I've had orders remain "in production" until the supposed ship date, then overnighted to make the deadline. It's a bit frustrating, because most of the time they're really good about keeping you updated, but then they're not. And you have no way of knowing. I think if you made it this far you're probably okay. Fingers crossed!

PrimitiveDave said:

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daverep - when Martyn says "relatively inexpensive," what he means is it might talley up to less than a grand. ;-)

Seriously though, I hope it won't go that high, but it seems that it will easily go over $500. Stay tuned and I will be able to give a more exact price as more pieces get finished.

Too funny! How would that work...buy the pieces as a whole or purchase piece by piece? Very cool site...I have a project I want to work on and am trying to decide to go this way or do something more traditional. If I go this way, I'm going to have to force myself to learn Blender. I've used Lightwave years ago here at work, but it's been so long ago...

Thanks for the info! If you/they offer piece by piece, might be easier on the wallet!

Yes, the parts can be purchased individually. You can purchase only what you need/want, and do so over a period of time. The only factor that will affect the price is how many orders you make -- they charge a set rate for shipping each order. So more parts in a box means less postage.

There is also a flat handling fee per part, IINM. But it's small.

Yeah, 1/700 is a much less costly and more sensible way to go. I normally couldn't consider a build as expensive as the 1/350 one is shaping up to be, but something came up and it's my grail of grails and the hell with it! I wouldn't be at all surprised if the 1/700 comes in at well under a grand, which isn't too shocking for 40 inches of impossibly intricate model.

By contrast, the parts I've uploaded so far would already come in at over $1200 if I ordered a full set, and I'm probably still less than 50% done.

It will be one bloody big model though. Over 22 inches wide and 6.5' long.

And just where are you goin to put this??? Next to the 5 ft falcon, below the 42 inch blokade runner, next to the dalek behind the 3 cars I presume? Or was that next to the Horus mask, alongside the shelves, in the corner behind the 3 cars next to the bench?

Yes, Simon, I know that there are an awful lot of things I don't finish. I feel bad about it. I do not really particularly need anyone else helping me to feel bad about it. Thanks for understanding.

I'm sur you'll finish this one..... Just wonderin where it's gonna go.

Oh. Sorry. I may be slightly tired and emotional right now.

Yeah, pondering that myself. It's going to get the mahogany display case treatment, in fact I'm gonna give it the full builder's model treatment, make it a mock artifact from the movie's world. So...even *bigger*. Way too big for anywhere at my place, in fact.

I'll accept reasonable bids.

What the heck am I making now?

When you have a model at this stage it feels like you're throwing away days and days and all you have to show is a bundle of matchsticks. Look at this...three day's work. I suck SO HARD at this; I couldn't be slower if I was doing it on purpose.



And my Fuel Module B just got rejected by Shapeways again, bah humbug. It's an education, as Dave said. Oh well, plodding along, it's going to get done.

Dave - that area we were pondering - it's mesh again mate, I reckon. The corners of the 'square', that is. During the flyover you can see a difference - the stars visible through the observatory "tunnel" are unobstructed, but the ones you see through the corner of the square base - they look like there's mesh in there.

Yes, I watched it again tonight, and I came to the conclusion the whole bow section is open, with mesh inside the boxed in section. I noticed the same difference in density you mention during the flyover. I think the circular open section may be between the two outer rings around the observatory. What do you think? The only enclosed area may be the continuation of the central corridor. It looked like a straight shot down the corridor in some interior shots outside the reception area. Also, the observatory is resting on what I think is an extra section of the corridor in the shot you have of the partially constructed model. When I count the sections, it seems like there's one more than the central modules need to attach to. So that my be all that's behind the wall at the back of the docking platform...

Oh, sorry to hear your models were rejected! The bow section is looking good. Did you consider not making the mesh part of the, uh, mesh? Just make the frame, and attach window screen? Or I've seen finer metal mesh as well. I was initially thinking of having the levels laser cut and gluing mesh to them. The framing in-between would be rapid prototype parts. Does that make sense? I can't tell -- it's past my bedtime. ;-)

I'm cautious about that, but I have to watch the film itself again. Just going by FX screenshots isn't enough. The production pretty clearly was actually laying things out logically, or at least that was the battle plan! You may be right, or it may just be that the armature happened to have to match the corridor shape for light-box reasons and they just carried it on forwards and aft of the spine itself out of inertia.

Yes, I was setting myself up for disappointment with the mesh, I knew it. And for sure, I've got some photoetch that will do the job better, but I wondered if I could get an acceptable result with the bracing already printed in place. If I suck at rigging a biplane, I'm gonna suck at getting those all straight and tidy.

Oh hey, the amidships pipe junction spheres are transparent. Check the travel tube scene...

Trust me, the more that comes out of the Shapeways machine, the better my model will look! I'm not sure at this point what I'm gonna do about the mesh-only areas.

Thinking about the corridor/reception area more. There's a scene where the characters come out of reception and come upon a curved ledge. If I'm remembering correctly, they can look down the whole central corridor. I don't expect that the miniature would have matched the live action sets that completely, but I think it might be a clue as to the intent. That curved ledge most likely would've been meant to match the front edge of the observatory platform. So a big open space that the corridor comes off of. I'm just trying to get my head around the internal volume. Obviously the engineering of the model would differ since they wouldn't be shooting inside of it! :-) As I watched the movie, I was struck by how I could recognize interior sets matching exterior areas of the model. They really made an effort to match things up, so maybe it can help us visualize areas that aren't that clearly documented. Or am I wandering too far off course? ;-)

I was dreaming about how the sections of the bow fit together last night, so it's quite possible I'm over thinking again!

No, sounds about right. One or two of the full-ship Disney drawings have handwritten plot notes all over them. Numbers with callouts to scenes, that kind of thing. Poor copy, hard to make out, but they were definitely trying to keep it logical. If only they'd thought as hard about the ending.

That area is not just curved, it's circular, I think. The other side is a bank of work stations by the look of it, clearly also curved, and yes, it views directly onto the end of the main corridor. The size of the area is pretty big. Could very well be intended to be the 'footprint' area of the observatories, in fact I can't imagine it isn't.

Got a big boost last night just at bedtime. My most recent order (small) had already shipped, while three others were in production of which a couple were overdue. One of these was placed in April and was really looking like it might have fallen over, but it and the second-newest one piled up and shipped together last night. I should be getting eight or nine parts in one hit, woo hoo. This is going to include (all being well) some critical proof of concept type parts that I need to see in the flesh before I can hit 'print' on a bunch of other similar stuff.

Fingers crossed!!

Definitely a circular area behind reception. I went and looked again last night. Also, in the flyover it looks like there is a short boxed in area behind the rear docking area wall. I think that might correspond to the actual reception area. The open gap is definitely between the two outer rings around the observatory. So the majority of the bow is open space, backed with mesh. Is that what you think?

Yes, the sphere on the power module is clear. I think it might be a solid acrylic ball; it looks like it's refracting the light around it, and I didn't see any inner surface as you'd expect from a hollow sphere. Also, did you notice that there's an unexplained antenna mast to the right of the travel tube at the beginning of the ride?

Have a part order that's supposed to ship today. They notified me that the leg broke off of my revised observatory piece and gave me the choice of as-is or coupon. I had them send it so I can see what happened. That piece is going to be difficult! Hopefully the rest will be good...

Looking forward to your parts bonanza!

Dave, sorry, missed your last. Hmmm, solid, really? You can see the ends of the pipes that are let into it; I almost had the impression it had another smaller sphere inside it but that's likely a lighting effect. I do suspect there may be more pipes leading into it than the three I've identified so far.

Also, I realised I have two versions of one of the annotated drawings. The one I've been working off seems to be either a grayscale version of the same scan, or an actual photocopy of the original. For some reason on my work PC I have a better, colour one, which has the annotations in the actual blue ink. Much clearer. Anyway, yes, the reception area is that area right behind the dock. The travel tube station is on a curving corridor which leads around the perimeter of that large circle, to a point on the port side. I haven't spotted the 'funny' antenna, will take a look, doesn't surprise me as there were many kludges!

Still freaking out over these parts. Total kid at Christmas feeling. I knew these things would look spindlier in real life than they do in my renders, but not by this much. They're just supernatural, I hope my camera can capture them adequately. I feel the urgent need to throw paint on 'em! Mind = blown, thoroughly. Thank you Shapeways, and thank you profoundly, Dave. I still wasn't really a believer until now!

First lot of pics. These are:

* the clear domes and framing sections for the "control modules" which mount underneath six of the main hull modules
* the main antennas for the captain's tower
* the old (13% oversize) version of the Power Centre alongside the new one (which has new shutter detail, and a lower cap)
* the Fuel Module A tanks

I am pretty happy with all of these, but they're not what had me wetting myself, haven't taken those pics yet.

OMG Martyn -- those are amazing! You never can imagine what the parts are going to look like in person. You spend however many hours staring at them on the screen, and then you open the box and magic! I can't believe the detail on the brush antennas; the whole control tower looks stellar! And the framing on the power center at 1/350! Wow! It's really exciting -- I'm running out of adjectives!

Oh and yeah, get some paint on them asap -- you think they look good now, wait 'til you see them painted and weathered!

Thanks, Dave! It's true, you expect the renders to give you a rough handle on it but they just don't. The parts you've agonised over 'compromising' to meet the printable parameters just look briliant and it becomes difficult to even call to mind the fact that they're not perfectly to scale. Everything seems so much more delicate in the flesh!

Nwerke-
Man that is going to be one HUGE ship! Those parts are awesome!! How long do you guys think it'll take to get all of the parts? It's amazing the detail that you're putting in to those models. Excellent work, gentlemen!