Griffworks
Well-Known Member
A couple of months back, Bob / Aptivaboy, completed the CAD work on his Argus-class frigate design. The gist of the design is that it's meant to serve the same purpose as a lot of modern day US Navy frigates - that of AWACS type fleet defense. The surface is covered in small nubs that represent AA gun emplacements. The head part alone is covered in over 150 of these turret emplacements, with even more being on the dorsal surface and sides. For more heavy defensive purposes, the Argus-class design has a total of 8 gun emplacements, of a design Bob came up with for his Mercury-class Pandora optional parts, 4 dorsal and 4 ventral. It also includes a fairly spacious landing bay on the ventral surface, as well as a large DRADIS dome on the dorsal and lots of different detail all over the hull.
Once the CAD work was completed, Bob uploaded the parts files to Shapeways, then started ordering parts. Eventually, he got them all and started on it last month. It is a sublime design and I decided I wanted one, too, so I ordered the two parts for the head, as well as one of the name boards (Argus) and the engine/dome piece. I only ordered that set of parts because the total cost to purchase all of them in one fell swoop, including shipping, runs a bit over $300. Bob, being the smart guy he is, set it up so that you could order it in parts sets, which makes it much more affordable for those on a budget.
BTW, Bob also has a bunch of really kewel, pretty affordable extra BSG stuff on his Shapeways Store Page, which includes a four-piece set of the Gemenon Traveler-type ship and several extra detailing and accurizing parts for the Moebius Models Galactica and Pegasus kits. Check it out!
When those got in, I fell in love! I had to have it - now! Even tho it blew me out of the water on my monthly model budget resolution - I wasn't going to spend more than $200 on models and/or supplies - , and I had already ordered a kit, some pieces/parts and purchased some supplies for this month, the exquisite detail of just the head parts made me have to go put on a pair of fresh drawers before I could order. This thing is DaBomb. At least to me it is.
Anyhow, having a highly addictive personality, I ordered the parts all at once, along with the Eris name boards. The total came to just shy of $200, shipping included, and without the head, Argus name boards and engine/dome set. Oh, yes! This would be mine!
Then there was a minor problem with Shapeways printing the danged thing - they didn't like the amidships parts for some reason and rejected them. Bob was on it, tho, and within a very short amount of time, he uploaded the original amidships set and I ordered it w/in minutes of his letting me know that. Having to order just the amidships set was actually a couple bucks cheaper, so bonus!
Once all of the parts arrived - in two separate shipments, 'cause Shapeways can't consolidate orders into one box - yesterday. I immediately gave them a quick double wash - in a small bath of acetone and scrubbed lightly with a toothbrush and then a 15 minute soak in warm degreasing dishwashing detergent. I allowed them to air dry, then started to work.
Highlights are:
* dry-fitted parts and found that I needed to use a pin-vise drill to slightly open up and deepen a few of the female alignment mounting points, as well as lightly sanded the male alignment points to make them slight shorter and thinner.
* put a very light coat of primer on the parts after the cleaning so I could make out detail a bit better.
* added two extra gun platforms to both the dorsal and the ventral surfaces, giving a total of 12 gun emplacements (originally 8, thus beefing up both her offensive and defensive capabilities).
* I backed the engine bells on the inside, as the way Bob has it set up has nothing there. He did this in case someone wanted to light their model. Thinking back on it, tho, I wish that I had stopped long enough to go thru my parts stash to look for something that I could have put inside of the larger engine bells.
* glued four small-ish pieces of styrene to the inside of the aft section of the amidships section to act as alignment tabs for the engine section.
* cleaned up the seams as best I could, as the parts fit wasn't 100% perfect - likely an artifact of the 3D printing process, as I've seen similar issues before with other items and I recall Bob saying something similar.
* primed it lightly a second time, then third, to fully cover the model w/o having to worry about covering too much of the detail.
And the pics, which is what most of you want to look at instead of read my blathering....
Initial receipt of the head and other parts. This is before they were fully cleaned.
Initial primer job after assembly of the Gator Head. My primer was spurting and I didn't realize it, so had to go back after these pics and strip it, then primer again.
The parts after I pulled them out of the package! I had to go change my drawers before I could continue on....
The dorsal surfaces after initial construction and addition of the DRADIS dome and the Eris name plate, as well as two extra gun pads. Some "in Universe" thinking is that the four rectangles on the dorsal surface - the same section w/the two gun pads - are Raptor elevators. They're too small for shuttles, but are just about perfect for a Raptor, as far as I've been able to figure. If I decide to take that ball and run with it, I'll prolly put warning stripes around the openings.
I didn't put any primer on the very aft section of the engine housing, as you can see, tho the styrene sheet used to back the openings is apparent.
The Ventral surface. I hadn't shot any primer on the extra armor plates for the landing bay, obviously. Also, you can see where I added the two additional gun pads.
Obligatory beauty shot!
I'm not sure what to do with the landing bay configuration, tho. I'm thinking that I'll add maybe three shuttles on the sides of the landing bay interior, as tho docked, and possibly put one in the middle of the bay. A "Real world" thinking for me is that there's a small hangar above, with a hatch that opens in the ceiling of the landing bay and enough internal storage for maybe four shuttles and half a dozen Raptor's, with an additional two docked as standby alert craft inside of the landing bay.
Since the above pics were taken, I've put two more light coats of primer on her. I plan to go back and do some light clean up in a few areas where I didn't quite get all of the putty for the seams, as well as areas that hairs landed on. I'll then put one more light coat on and consider my options for the base coat. Likely Tamiya rattlecan AS-7, Neutral Gray (USAAF).
I'll be putting a JBOT Decals small custom Colonial Fleet Phoenix emblem on the small dome section on the Gator Head. I've thought about putting one on the DRADIS dome, too, tho that would have to be at an angle as I didn't realize there are four lines running thru the dome surface, which are ****** at an angle. I'm also considering adding some .010" sheet styrene to the center flight deck floor, mostly to hide the seam that runs down the middle of the deck. I don't want to add too much to it, tho, as the bay, while not exactly tight, isn't exactly spacious for the moving about of shuttles in there if they're manually operated and the pilot(s) under stress of combat. I'll also likely cut up pieces of one of the Moebius Pegasus kits decal sheets for the landing bays to use on this build.
That's it for now. More in a day or two, I hope.
Once the CAD work was completed, Bob uploaded the parts files to Shapeways, then started ordering parts. Eventually, he got them all and started on it last month. It is a sublime design and I decided I wanted one, too, so I ordered the two parts for the head, as well as one of the name boards (Argus) and the engine/dome piece. I only ordered that set of parts because the total cost to purchase all of them in one fell swoop, including shipping, runs a bit over $300. Bob, being the smart guy he is, set it up so that you could order it in parts sets, which makes it much more affordable for those on a budget.
BTW, Bob also has a bunch of really kewel, pretty affordable extra BSG stuff on his Shapeways Store Page, which includes a four-piece set of the Gemenon Traveler-type ship and several extra detailing and accurizing parts for the Moebius Models Galactica and Pegasus kits. Check it out!
When those got in, I fell in love! I had to have it - now! Even tho it blew me out of the water on my monthly model budget resolution - I wasn't going to spend more than $200 on models and/or supplies - , and I had already ordered a kit, some pieces/parts and purchased some supplies for this month, the exquisite detail of just the head parts made me have to go put on a pair of fresh drawers before I could order. This thing is DaBomb. At least to me it is.
Anyhow, having a highly addictive personality, I ordered the parts all at once, along with the Eris name boards. The total came to just shy of $200, shipping included, and without the head, Argus name boards and engine/dome set. Oh, yes! This would be mine!
Then there was a minor problem with Shapeways printing the danged thing - they didn't like the amidships parts for some reason and rejected them. Bob was on it, tho, and within a very short amount of time, he uploaded the original amidships set and I ordered it w/in minutes of his letting me know that. Having to order just the amidships set was actually a couple bucks cheaper, so bonus!
Once all of the parts arrived - in two separate shipments, 'cause Shapeways can't consolidate orders into one box - yesterday. I immediately gave them a quick double wash - in a small bath of acetone and scrubbed lightly with a toothbrush and then a 15 minute soak in warm degreasing dishwashing detergent. I allowed them to air dry, then started to work.
Highlights are:
* dry-fitted parts and found that I needed to use a pin-vise drill to slightly open up and deepen a few of the female alignment mounting points, as well as lightly sanded the male alignment points to make them slight shorter and thinner.
* put a very light coat of primer on the parts after the cleaning so I could make out detail a bit better.
* added two extra gun platforms to both the dorsal and the ventral surfaces, giving a total of 12 gun emplacements (originally 8, thus beefing up both her offensive and defensive capabilities).
* I backed the engine bells on the inside, as the way Bob has it set up has nothing there. He did this in case someone wanted to light their model. Thinking back on it, tho, I wish that I had stopped long enough to go thru my parts stash to look for something that I could have put inside of the larger engine bells.
* glued four small-ish pieces of styrene to the inside of the aft section of the amidships section to act as alignment tabs for the engine section.
* cleaned up the seams as best I could, as the parts fit wasn't 100% perfect - likely an artifact of the 3D printing process, as I've seen similar issues before with other items and I recall Bob saying something similar.
* primed it lightly a second time, then third, to fully cover the model w/o having to worry about covering too much of the detail.
And the pics, which is what most of you want to look at instead of read my blathering....
Initial receipt of the head and other parts. This is before they were fully cleaned.
Initial primer job after assembly of the Gator Head. My primer was spurting and I didn't realize it, so had to go back after these pics and strip it, then primer again.
The parts after I pulled them out of the package! I had to go change my drawers before I could continue on....
The dorsal surfaces after initial construction and addition of the DRADIS dome and the Eris name plate, as well as two extra gun pads. Some "in Universe" thinking is that the four rectangles on the dorsal surface - the same section w/the two gun pads - are Raptor elevators. They're too small for shuttles, but are just about perfect for a Raptor, as far as I've been able to figure. If I decide to take that ball and run with it, I'll prolly put warning stripes around the openings.
I didn't put any primer on the very aft section of the engine housing, as you can see, tho the styrene sheet used to back the openings is apparent.
The Ventral surface. I hadn't shot any primer on the extra armor plates for the landing bay, obviously. Also, you can see where I added the two additional gun pads.
Obligatory beauty shot!
I'm not sure what to do with the landing bay configuration, tho. I'm thinking that I'll add maybe three shuttles on the sides of the landing bay interior, as tho docked, and possibly put one in the middle of the bay. A "Real world" thinking for me is that there's a small hangar above, with a hatch that opens in the ceiling of the landing bay and enough internal storage for maybe four shuttles and half a dozen Raptor's, with an additional two docked as standby alert craft inside of the landing bay.
Since the above pics were taken, I've put two more light coats of primer on her. I plan to go back and do some light clean up in a few areas where I didn't quite get all of the putty for the seams, as well as areas that hairs landed on. I'll then put one more light coat on and consider my options for the base coat. Likely Tamiya rattlecan AS-7, Neutral Gray (USAAF).
I'll be putting a JBOT Decals small custom Colonial Fleet Phoenix emblem on the small dome section on the Gator Head. I've thought about putting one on the DRADIS dome, too, tho that would have to be at an angle as I didn't realize there are four lines running thru the dome surface, which are ****** at an angle. I'm also considering adding some .010" sheet styrene to the center flight deck floor, mostly to hide the seam that runs down the middle of the deck. I don't want to add too much to it, tho, as the bay, while not exactly tight, isn't exactly spacious for the moving about of shuttles in there if they're manually operated and the pilot(s) under stress of combat. I'll also likely cut up pieces of one of the Moebius Pegasus kits decal sheets for the landing bays to use on this build.
That's it for now. More in a day or two, I hope.
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