Original Spaceship Design...Freestyle Scratchbuild/Kitbash

This isn't the first time I've done a project like this, but it is the first one I'm documenting on a forum.

This is a design strictly from my own imagination, but done in (or at least inspired by) the style of ILM models from 30 years ago.

I have a pantry full of various random model kits and I'm making a spaceship up out of parts. This thing is made out of (so far) the hull of the battleship Missouri, an Easter egg, a laundry detergent cap, a Pepsi can, a Yoplait yogurt cup, and two Apache helicopters. I spread out a bunch of potential donor kits on my couch and have spotted likely parts from all of them.

Really, I've just been playing around with configuration. Lots of tape in this phase.

Please pardon the poor cell-phone photography.






Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a bit more to show.

Thanks for looking!

--Alex

Looking pretty neat so far. Windows for the flight deck give a vague sense of scale, which is nice. Maybe put some containers along the sides of the main hull with superstructure/arms?

A man after my own heart

You just gotta love a scratch build

Nice start

Gag

Thanks for the kind words, guys! TheNylonGag, your work has been inspiring. If my project ends up half as cool as yours then I'll be insufferably pleased with myself.

Okay! So I got a bit more done today. (Again, I apologize for my crappy camera set-up.)

Here's a picture of the details on the aft end.



Next is the flight deck. I decided to put something together to be seen through the opened up windows. The figures are some very affordable HO scale figures... So I guess I'm nailing down a scale at this point. The console is the dashboard from a 1950's Chevy truck, and the other details are picked out of some battleship and tank models. Part of me wants to figure out a way to light the interior at least a little... I have an idea that I'm trying to figure out how to make it work... I think I can do it...



Here's the flight deck windows, opened up. Also here's the RCS thrusters, inspired by those on the space shuttle. The yellow lower part is an Easter egg. A bunch of epoxy putty and some styrene strips hold it on to the Missouri hull.



And here's the top of the ship... various engine components. The keen observer will notice a flayed out Apache helicopter, some guns from the Arizona, the exhaust from one of the car models (things are so shuffled, I forget which), a smokestack from the Missouri and some panels from a 1:72 Tiger II.



Did a couple other things too, but didn't bother to photograph it. You'll see it next time, don't worry.

In all reality, though, I doubt I'll get back to this before next weekend.

Thanks for looking!

--Alex

Love scratch builds - cant wait to see this finished.

Any electrics going in it?

Hi,

So, I don't know much anything about electronics. I might light a bit of the interior with some el cheapo reading lights from the Dollar Tree... They're easy enough to strip down and make use of, but I have to figure out how (or even if) the batteries will be accessible, and where to put the switch. Might be easy enough to conceal amongst some greeblies... something to think about at this point.

--Alex

Hey! So, I'm gonna have to work on a different project for the next couple weeks, but I thought I'd show a bit of progress here:



This is going to be the lower hull. The yogurt cup is a weird bendy plastic and the Pepsi can is, well, an aluminum can. Neither wants to be very durable or respond well to ordinary adhesives in my experience. So I superglued a layer of .020 styrene over the surfaces to make them stronger. Also, if I want to glue parts or extra panels or whatnot, the styrene will lend itself better to that. In order to make the sheet hold form better, I boiled them in a curve that was a bit tighter radius than the objects to be covered to they would tend to hold on by themselves and the glue just needs to tack it, really.

Also, you can see I built a little burlier frame on the top of the can to hold in a length of brass square section tube stock to accept a display stand when all is said and done.

Well, I'm looking forward to the other project I'm gonna work on, but I'm also very eager to get back to this.

Later!

--Alex

Always love scratch builds, especially "in the style of...". Gives a nice guide to your design.

Love this. Cant wait to see more.

Looks cool, these type of projects are neat. I have one like this planned with different odds and ends lol. Still gathering parts. Goodwill store is a good place for greeblies.