Normandy SR2 Build

Hello all,

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a while. I have decent experience papercrafting, and am almost finished with a life-size Link from the Zelda series. However, I feel like putting that on pause for a bit, and dabble in scratch building with balsa, paper, and other materials. I figured I would post here so everyone can follow my progress.

After finishing the Mass Effect trilogy over the summer, I realized it would be awesome to have a large-scale model of the wonderfully designed Normandy SR2. Im applying to medical school currently, and *hopefully* entering next fall. I figured I might not have a chance to work on something like this ever again.


It looks sleek, functions as home base for most of the video games, and is quite eye-catching. I turned to papercrafting for making one, but there surprisingly arent a lot of options for a large scale version. People have been working on versions throughout the years, but links either got deleted or progress stopped. I found one small scale papercraft version provided by ThunderChildFTC and decided to use that as the base and work from there. I upscaled the plans to about 4x, so that the final length of the ship will be a little less than 3 feet.

I don't have any experience scratch building and don't enter showcases or competitions, so I hope I can inspire some people to spend time with a hobby they might enjoy. I have a general idea of how I want to start, but there will be a lot of problem-solving and learning on the fly, Im sure. I want to be as true to detail as possible, and hope to add LED lights to the inside (for the windows) and to the engines to make them glow. Nope, I have no idea how to do it, but Ill cross those bridges once I get there!

For now, its printing the upscaled PDF and starting with the balsa wood frame!

:eek Great !
I have also finished the mass effect games this summer (my third playthrough... love this games) AND also decided to scratch build the Normandy SR-2.
Started last week with it.

Looking forward to see more of your build !

I had a lot of downtime the last couple days so I was able to get quite a lot done! My first step was to build a full size mock-up out of paper, so I could start measuring dimensions for the balsa frame. I don't have much experience with Autodesk and couldn't find any useable wiremesh models, so I feel like this is the next best thing. I glued every other segment, then measured the height and width of the front and back of each segment. This gave me about 12 half-oval vertical supports. With the base, I just taped up all the base pieces and traced it onto the wood.


Here is the base, cut out:

And next to the paper mock-up:

I didn't really get pictures of the next couple steps, but I cut out each of the "ribs" using my measured dimensions. For the spine of the Normandy, I was able to use the heights I had already measured, and used the distances between the spines to approximate the shape. One thing I aimed for was the characteristic bend of the SR2's long fuselage.

Using this picture, I made the bend downwards, creating the drooping spine. I cut slots into both the ribs and the spine to intersect the pieces. I wasn't sure whether to glue the ribs and the spine since the slots were pretty secure, but I glued them just in case. I sprayed the base with water, which allowed it to bend easier and become flush with the spine, which I then glued together. This is why I like working with balsa!

Here you can see the somewhat subtle bend of the body. (front is on the left)

Some parts are a little rough so I'm working on sanding them down where needed. I ordered some blue mini-LEDs for the interior, and purple ones for the engines. My next plan is to figure out how to cover the frame, my thoughts are to simply cover it with black cardstock, after which I can incorporate details such as the white armor plating. I also wonder if the cardstock will block out enough of the LED glow from the inside, I dont want the whole ship glowing, but rather have light only come through the windows. Looks like I'm learning on the fly!

I got both the LED units, one in blue and one in purple. I initially cut out notches for the wires to run through, but I had a hard time gluing them into the notches and they wouldn't stay put.


What I did instead was make a single horizontal slice. The cut was tight enough to insert the wire and have it stay put without glue. Here you can see the vertical cut I made on the spine as the wire crosses over. The unused notch is on the left.



So most of it is wired up, now I can progress on getting the hull covered. Does anyone know how to splice the LEDs though? The purple ones run off three AA batteries, and the other string of blue LEDs run off another pack of three AA batteries. Is there any way to splice so that all the LEDs can run off a single pack of AAs?