Mad Mike's Studio City Nostromo!

jtparker

Here is one my Nostromo kit a great modeler is doing, it looks like he is using some of Phase pistols reference pics. He is not an rpf'r, actually he is on a 2-year contract for a major sci-fi production that will be happening in the near future, and he does this in his spare time.
He sent me pictured today of the Kit I shipped him.. His will be done faster than mine, he just got the model a few days ago! pretty cool stuff here he is doing with the hull!

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Knightjar

Wow. You wait thirty years for a kit and then three come along at once!

(edit) Sorry, just read your post again - I thought he was producing his own kit.

jtparker

Got some more pictures from Mike today, and WOW he is already doing up the landing Struts...man they are going to be detailed, he is even going to have miniature chains up in the gear bays!!!!

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phase pistol

It seems that Mike is, indeed... "mad".

But usefully so!

jtparker

The Amazing thing about this is how fast he is doing it~! and the intricacy of the parts. I work on mine when I get time, I havent even gotten near the landing gear yet . My Nostromo I think will be a 4 month project for me... He will probably have his completed in just 30 days of spare time!

blipper

great stuff jtparker, I may have missed it but was a scale worked out for this Nostromo model? Be interesting to see some correctly scaled model people by it.

jtparker

1/600 scale

blipper

thanks

jtparker

Here is a pic I just got in, a finished landing strut...Im jealous..he is moving along so fast and it looks awesome!

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phase pistol

You don't suppose he'll have tiny little astronauts the size of grains of dust, do ya....

jtparker

Its possible, if so I will need to ask him if I can cast them and include them in the kits. maybe accessorize them as well.

phase pistol

1/600 scale human figures would be kinda small, (I think the smallest figures I've seen are about 1/350), but you could fudge 'em a little.

jtparker

..its the winch and for sure getting the name tags correct, Im glad accessable nano-technology is right around the corner...

Knightjar

I reckon it's do-able. I suppose they'd be about 3mm. Could maybe get away with a little more given the bulky suits. I might give it a try while I'm getting the funds together to buy my kit from JT.

phase pistol

You could rig up some grains of rice with fiber optic light pipes for the head lamps.

jtparker

I wonder if there is some lost Chinese art involving carving grains of rice into people, I could take up....

theprofessor

Yes, Bandai actually makes a 1/350 Space Battleship Yamato kit that includes figures the size of "grains of rice" which I happen to own. They are injection plastic and you would need a really good magnifying glass to paint them. I haven't tried painting them yet though I did get the ship assembled and painted. I guess you could take these tiny, tiny figures and attempt to sculpt over them to create Dallas, Kane and Lambert in their spacesuits. But you'd have to have mad skills baby! Of course, with the people on this board that could be done!

phase pistol

With the advent of the 1:350 USS Enterprise from MR and the silmiarly scaled Polar Lights model kit of the Refit I had looked for human figures in that scale... there is a photoetch set that includes tiny Starfleet figures for use with the PL kit. Figures for this Nostromo would be about half this size!



And you can buy little sets of plastic scale crewmen for ship models such as the Titanic and aircraft carriers and so on.

If you did find crewmen that small, you might could cut off the head and replace it with the round head of a pin... spray it bronze and call it a day.

jtparker

:l ol :thum bsup

jtparker

here are 1/600 scale figures I found

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phase pistol

Well there you go.

Actually photo etching Nostromo astronauts is entirely possible... I could draw up a quick silhouette if somebody has access to making the etch.

for that matter it may be worth it just to make detail parts for the Nostromo itself! What say you Parker, are there areas on the Nostromo that could benefit from being done as photoetch?

- k

jtparker

you know, that is a very good question.. A guy I shipped out a kit to a few days ago In Louisiana is going to photo-etch his entire kit. I am not real familier with this process, but it sounds very cool. The bottom hull could surely be photo etched. it would save a ton of labor, but increase the price a bit for the kit. It would be something to look into i think!

phase pistol

Well basically a line drawing is made... a photo of that is used to chemically mask off a sheet of brass so that certain areas are burned away with acid, and others remain... what you're left with, looks like that pic I posted, basically a sprue, with little parts you can detach.

It's really easy using this method to make flat plates with regular geometric detail, such as you'd want for the Nostromo hull. Vents and raised patterns and so on. The inserts inside the VTOL engines would be real nice as photoetch. The little frames on the Bridge windows and some of the antennas could probably also be etch.

phase pistol

BTW my rough calculation shows that a 1:600 scale spacesuited figure, would be around about 3.3 millimeters tall. Tiny but visible.

jtparker

wow, That would be slick. I remember him saying it would be metallic, This sounds very interesting... it sounds like the way I used to make P.C.B. prototypes .... how thick is the actual etch? can you do it heavier or thinner?