Sneak Peek of 16 yr old's Wonferfest Model...

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furqueron

Well-Known Member
Hi Guys,

I'm usually more a lurker than a poster :)

My oldest son (now 16) has been entering Wonderfest for several years now.

In the past, he's been a bit shy about posting his work...this year he acquiesced and said I could post a pic or two.

For this year, he wanted to do a "studio scale" model...ok, so this subject was never in movie...but it was a in a book series,...Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, is that close enought? He's building it (yes, its not done yet...cross fingers!!) based off of a couple of drawings he's found in the books and on the web. It's scaled to 1:22.5.

Hope ya'll don't mind me posting it here..there's probably another site or two more appropriate...but he's REALLY into building models..the kid just plain loves designing and building. If it shouldn't be on here...apologies ahead of time, and we won't post in future...

So, here's a sneak peek...mind you, its still in pieces and may show up at Wonderfest only in primer!

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Well, I've no idea how it is supposed to look as a finished piece, but it looks great so far! That's a lot of rivets..... :wacko
 
Its is a pretty niche subject!

Since its based off a few drawings, I think he is trying to figure it out as well :) Its called a "StormWalker" from Leviathan series by Scott Westerfield. Its a "steampunk-ish walking tank". More utilitarian than gothic style (his words, he's downloading stuff to his ipad before heading back out to the hobbyroom and I'm asking him questions). He's been using a lot of references from WW I tanks. The engines which aren't shown here, are based off a German D.IIIa aircraft engine. I know the latter two as I help with his research on them.

The model stands about 24" inches tall (we think, it hasn't been fully dry fitted yet) and about 20" wide by 16" deep.

Just asked him the number of rivets and bolt heads. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 rivets and 1200 bolt heads. Used inside and out, since its his first cut-away. The rivets are each handmade...he heats a styrene rod and presses into a "mold" I made for him (slight drill depression in mdf). Two different sizes of rivets are used. There's three different sizes of bolt heads (they're on the rectangular boxes). They're made by cutting hex rod.

The upper shell is vacuum formed (his first vacuum forming) using one of two sizes of homemade vacuum formers I made for him (I'm a woodworker...not a modeler).

He's been resin casting for several years now. Not many castings used on this one. There's about 8-10 different molds with about 30 resin parts on this model.

Here's one of the drawings I just searched and found online, its one of three pictures he has up on the door for reference:

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I'd say your son has the gift, certainly. Looks really good - and a cut-away too! Very impressive stuff. :thumbsup
 
I wish my stuff looked a fraction as good as this when i was 16. He should be proud of this one.
 
Yep...that's it...guess the other attachment didn't work..thanks for posting it.

- - - Updated - - -

scotthothpatrol said:
Great build, I wasn't doing that at 16. Will the model have movable parts to it like a stop-motion puppet ?
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that...he was just saying yesterday afternoon that he should make one that's moveable...e.g. robotic....alas this one is fixed in state...no movement.

I'll post an update of the interior momentarily...
 
The clock is against him...he's back in school tomorrow and homework load will be against him :-(

Anyways...here's some interior updates...I think he just epoxied the machine gun bases so I'll get a shot of those in a moment...I think one of the engine blocks is visible next to the lower left corner of the camo article...he's got to learn camo in the next few hours...he's never done that before....

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TymerDC said:
Nice work.....you should be very proud of him.
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I am VERY proud of him. Great engineering/design student, Eagle Scout, musician,he's got a great visual/balance sense...and he's an all around "good person"...just don't tell him I said so..he'll get the "big head" ;-) (Yes, he know's we're very proud him!).

He's got a little bro (12...we say they're our twins separate by 4 years) who is following quite the same path...I'll post some pics of his models in a bit...a portal gun (resin cast from foam masters he made), a 1/1000 Klingon D-7 and some Warhammer Space Marines that he'll be entering in Wonderfest as well. And we're just as proud of the little one as well. <doting parent button off>
 
furqueron said:
I am VERY proud of him. Great engineering/design student, Eagle Scout, musician,he's got a great visual/balance sense...and he's an all around "good person"...just don't tell him I said so..he'll get the "big head" ;-) (Yes, he know's we're very proud him!). ...
Click to expand...

Remember, the internet does not forget. And with all of his talents I am pretty sure that he learned to read at one point during being raised by you :p

Great project, and fantastic execution!
 
Very impressive. Where exactly are you?...city and state......I could point out a couple model builders clubs you could attend if your in the right area.. Many veterans and professionals attend these clubs get-togethers once a month or a few times a year and your sons could benefit knowledge-wise from meeting such people first hand plus he could show off his own work.....besides some of the already fantastic talent you'll find here on the RPF.
 
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TymerDC said:
Very impressive. Where exactly are you?...city and state......I could point out a couple model builders clubs you could attend if your in the right area.. Many veterans and professionals attend these clubs get-togethers once a month or a few times a year and your sons could benefit knowledge-wise from meeting such people first hand plus he could show off his own work.....besides some of the already fantastic talent you'll find here on the RPF.
Click to expand...

We're in Allen, Tx. There's two clubs they've been to locally. One based at a local brick-n-mortar retail hobby store and the other is a international organization. The first, is geared more towards WWII ships,armor, planes and of course cars...my youngest is into biplanes so not too bad. The latter..well, lets say its very "we're out to win" type of group...which is fine, but not what the boys were looking for. Between scouts, school and building...not much time left for clubs :)
 
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