Ian McQue: The Last Airborne

[joeydee]

Hi again,
I was asked to show my build of the "Last Airborne", which was started in May and finished in October last year.

This hovering dieselpunk ship is not from a movie or game, but designed by a famous artist, Ian McQue. It only exists as a painting:

In the background, there are two more ships of the same type, but with different numbers and varying details. So I decided to build another version of the series, not exactly the 1506 in the foregroud.

I found this kit of a harbor tug boat. According to scalemates, the molds are from 1956, and the sprues really look like that. But it seemed just to be right for the basic size.

Needs a new scratched outer hull and some engine details.

First priming and painting, because later the interior will be covered.

Plating with single parts of styrene sheet.



Typical decoration: holes, rivets, stripes, bars, pipes and so on, as if they once were parts of other vehicles or airplanes, now patchworked to form a new hull.

All the white parts are scratched from styrene sheet and profiles. Rivets are wood glue.

More to come ...

 

[Rats]

Oh wow! Loving this! Another masterclass in detailing. :thumbsup

 

[MonsieurTox]

Love it, Thanks for sharing !

 

[joeydee]

Detailing the upper parts, more wings and sheets and pipes.
By the way, scale of the kit is 1/108.

Planning the roofs with paper.

The upper decks and crossbars required proper planning to be removable until the end so they could be painted in every detail.


And more details...

one of the back wings, it will be mounted vertically.

Trying to get the right look of this organized chaos with "flying" sheets at different angles, heights and layers.

I call those sheets "flying" when mounted with a distance to the wall and when it's not clear to which wall they belong or where exacly they are mounted. This is essential for the whole look.

These pipes are for holes in the hull and at the engines.

The kit also contained some small figures. I added a backpack with antenna, that's what I see in the artwork.

At this stage, both Ian McQue and Michael Fichtenmayer (Industria Mechanika, with the licence to sell McQue Designs) saw this photo and were amazed

You did amazing work. Well done!
BTW, Ian McQue just emailed me about this. He loves what you did.

OMG, I had *no idea*!! That's amazing, thanks for the link! *falls off chair*

So it was no question I HAD to finish this project soon


To be continued with paint job stories in the next few days.

 

[mofo77]

fantastic work,lovin it:thumbsup

 

[moffeaton]

It's wonderful - I followed your build on FB too

 

[SofaKing01]

I've always been so taken with original builds like this. Stunning piece of artwork!

 

[joeydee]

These are all upper deck parts together. First part got a rust layer of differend red acrylics.

More rust...

Some of the pipes inside the hull.

Fully rusted except some joints.

First test for the color scheme. The rust layer was fixed, then a layer of hairspray, finally the green coat. Then chipping, marking, weathering, streaking,...

The deck walls get a slightly different look, starting with gray and some greenish washes, then rust streaks.

Roofs are in the more saturated scheme with yellow/black markings.

Tech details are rather dark/black.

I always try to avoid this "all-parts-same-base-color-look" of some airbrush paint jobs, it might be ok for camouflage, but not for other themes. Keeping parts separate and treating them and their sub-parts by their purpose, material and age is a better way.

Rust chipping details at the stern ...

... and at the bow. Weathering was the most funny part

Borg assimilated this ship ... muahahaha

The stern crane.

Mask for my individual number.

The coffee tasted a little strange this morning

Done.
There are some final hi res photos on my deviantart account: http://joeydee-artworks.deviantart.com/gallery/56520001/McQue-s-Last-Airborne

 

[Strode]

Absolutely-freakin'-astounding! What a piece of art! Great stuff man

 

[swgeek]

awesome build, beautiful!!

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Awesome build! I think you are my new favorite person on the RPF.

 

[alienbuilder]

sehr schön!

 

[CAPTAINCOX]

Amazing build! and what a cool theme for a Model, absolutely inspiring stuff.

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Amazing build! and what a cool theme for a Model, absolutely inspiring stuff.
You are not Fichtenfoo by any chance

 

[joeydee]

Thanks all

You are not Fichtenfoo by any chance

Haha, no I'm not. Biggest difference: my stuff is not kitable

 

[Bigturc]

Wow!!! That is an impressive model!!! Two thumbsup!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Vacformedhero]

Absolutely stunning work, I'd seen some shots of this on Pinterest and wanted to know more about the build, thanks for sharing

 

[towelkeeper]

Wow, beautiful work!
The weathering is amazing... Dat rust and chipped paint! :eek