Large Scale Visitor Squad ship
- Thread starter morrris99
- Start date
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Tim9d9, here are some pictures of the 1-piece casting from SMT. It has a whole separate group of issues as it was cast differently. You can see the green putty line across the ship front as the top and bottom appear to be off about 1 or 2mm. Not much, but it needs to be fixed. The wing side edges bowed in considerably, even worse than the 2 piece model I am using for the Squad ship. Anyways, I haven't decided which way I'm going with this one. Either in flight or landing gear down. But anyways, either model has issues if you get your hands on one.
ShockTrooper
Well-Known Member
Oh my god!!!!.Unbelieveable work.
I have wanted this ship since I was a child.I have been collecting V props for 11 years.
Thanks for keeping V alive.
I have wanted this ship since I was a child.I have been collecting V props for 11 years.
Thanks for keeping V alive.
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Okay, some more work here. I am working on the bottom sections of the pods. These are the zinc chromate-ish colored pieces on the bottoms that house the pod landing gear. I mentioned that this ship will be in flying mode, so I'm extrapolating the details there. Each piece is foam core board covered on both sides with styrene sheeting. The visible detail here requires that a circle be cut out, so the second pictures shows how I do it. I mount the sheet to a Dremel Mandrel, and my drill has a lock on the bottom to keep it running. Very carefully, I apply pressure with my knife tip and the circle practically cuts itself. Next, more putty to make all the seams disappear. When these bottoms are complete, I'll move on to the Skyfighter halves. LOTS of work needed on those puppies!:cry But just kidding, this is a labor of love.:love
Beechy McFly
Sr Member
Know how you feel.. I've got to do a lot of putty and sanding on my shuttle too.. Looks exactly like the one you have actually.. :lol First time using the stuff or doing anything like this so have been having fun..
morrris99
Well-Known Member
You know, I've had these two ships for a few years and all the work was really intimidating. I boxed them up and had them in the garage until I got the wild hair up my rear end and finally got started on them. Good luck, and post pics!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Okay, major construction done on the bottom detail pieces. More putty to eliminate the seams. These pieces on the bottom of the pods are a sort of light colored zinc chromate-ish green. Same color as the front landing gear foot pad and the inside of the gear doors. I always thought it was cool they did this, as well. Just like a lot of fighter aircraft in the past. Anyways, after these are sanded, I'll primer them and give them a few coats of the green. Thanks for looking!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Okay, sanding complete on these pieces and first coat of primer on. I found a few holes after the sanding so there's more putty. I have to sand and add more primer. These will be the light zinc-chromate color, I'm going to custom mix it as the regular zinc chromate does not seem light enough and my local hobby store doesn't have the right shade. Anyways, more to come soon!
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morrris99
Well-Known Member
Pieces painted green and they'll get a little more detail after this (some tubes, wiring). I'm working on the skyfighter front and back pieces, also. Lots to modify on those. I'm hollowing out the rear "air scoop" seen on all production models. These SMT castings and the current recast offerings on eBay all have the scoop filled in. Will update soon! Thanks!
Tim9d9
Well-Known Member
Damn, those look great morrris!! Hope you get this thing altogether soon!! The suspense is killing me!! It's gonna be EPIC.
Beechy McFly
Sr Member
As they all have said, coming along nicely.. I promise I will post images of it once it's complete and in my collection.. :love
morrris99
Well-Known Member
And I'll be posting a picture of the $2400 check from you, too!
love :lolThanks, everyone, for watching.
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Okay, I've been working on this concurrently with the other parts. What I've done here is hollowed out the air scoop at the top. NONE of the other reproductions of this model (that I've ever seen) have this feature except the screen used originals. I dremeled out quite a bit of resin and built a new shelf area. Then, I built the insert Isosceles Trapezoid-ish shape out of a balsa core sheeted with styrene. I filled the inside with resin to give it a smooth interior. The port side of the air scoop was low, so I had to raise it in increments to make it equal on both sides. I don't know if that's a fault on the original or a molding problem, but it needed to be fixed. Again, this feature on the rear skyfighter half has always been represented by a black decal or black paint on every single other reproduction model of this ship, except for the actual screen used vehicles. I even use a black decal on my 1/87 scale ships! Also, the first coat of primer on the front piece. I'll be primering the back soon. In any case, when I said accurate, that's what I'm shooting for. Enjoy, more to come soon...
Also, the first coat of primer on the front piece. I'll be primering the back soon. In any case, when I said accurate, that's what I'm shooting for. Enjoy, more to come soon...
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Okay, the back now has the first coat of primer. I needed to sand down the scoop part, it needs to be puttied and sanded again to be really smooth. Lots of work on the rear window section, too. There's a lot of mold problems on this, but from the instructions from SMT they show that they just molded the painted model with paint chips, damage, and all. Oh well. More primer, sanding, then I'll start the white coats. Thanks!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Got some time this weekend to spray a first coat of white on all parts of the ship. In the pictures it doesn't look too sparse but I didn't want to coat it too much and have drips, so this is just the first coat. I did get a few small drips, though, so I'll have to fix them when it dries. A bunch of discrepancies popped up with the white that I have to fill, also. I'll probably put on at least 3 coats, maybe more if I need it. I went through an entire can of Krylon (ecccch...I know..) Semi Gloss white. I know the ship models were off-white, but supposedly that was for filming. Every time you see a full size craft, they always look bright white and clean. Very little if any weathering that I could tell. That's another thing you never think about. The crews on the motherships that washed and space-waxed these babies every time they came in! :lol
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Over the last couple of days I got some of the piping detail underneath done. These are just hoses, probably hydraulic, I would guess. They might run the landing gear (sounds good, anyways!). The second picture shows the little greebling on the side of these green parts. I'll be doing that next with some styrene rods and small black electrical wire. I have another coat of white on, but it's been fairly windy here in Arizona, and there's a lot of little "things" floating around outside. I sanded the first coat with 400 grit, that seemed to smooth it out pretty well. But it's still didn't cover everything yet, so I can imagine I'll be needing another few coats anyways. Oh well. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...
Tim9d9
Well-Known Member
Love those details!!! This thing's looking better all the time. Also, that photo of the semi-glossed Skyfighter halves in the previous post looks phenomenal! Great work on that scoop. I've definitely NEVER seen that done before on any other models. Really makes this whole piece stand out even more! This has been an awesome build to watch, thanks for all the updates!!
