Large Scale Visitor Squad ship
- Thread starter morrris99
- Start date
ShockTrooper
Well-Known Member
This simply amazing!!!!!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
I'm always happy to see another update on one of my favorite ships
Thanks very much, guys! Here are the pods completed with 4 coats of the white. I wanted the individual layers to have enough time to cure inbetween coats. I did sand during the individual coats to help it smooth out really nicely and I'm very happy with it so far. I'll have the front and rear Skyfighter sections completely painted soon. I'm cleaning up a few minor issues on them right now to get them as nice as I can before their final layer. I think those are the most important pieces and could make or break this if they're not done right. This model won't be filming quality, but I don't think I'd be happy with it if there was something I could do to make it a little better. I also think whomever ends up with this should be proud to display it. As far as displaying goes, I have no idea what to do. I think an acrylic case or wooden style of base would be too bulky. Maybe some kind of camera tripod with some type of fingers? If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. Anyways, thanks for watching and more to come soon!
Hey Morrris99,
I've been following your amazing progress for a while now on your "V" Squad ship and each and everyday im amazed with your tallent.......... and from your last post, I've gone from being a silent admirer to a I must speak up now admirer especially since you wrote - "I also think whomever ends up with this should be proud to display it."
Now I must ask the question, will your Squad ship be on offer?
As I for one know exacutly how to display it and would extremely interested in acquiring your fantastic work.
Mike
I've been following your amazing progress for a while now on your "V" Squad ship and each and everyday im amazed with your tallent.......... and from your last post, I've gone from being a silent admirer to a I must speak up now admirer especially since you wrote - "I also think whomever ends up with this should be proud to display it."
Now I must ask the question, will your Squad ship be on offer?
As I for one know exacutly how to display it and would extremely interested in acquiring your fantastic work.
Mike
morrris99
Well-Known Member
mikmik,
It WILL be for sale when completed. Probably the auction site unless someone offers an amount that I accept. I don't have a number for that, yet. I'll probably make mention in the junkyard first and see if there is any interest. But back to the build!
Well Morrris99 you've just made me very happy and obviously very competative for your Squad ship, feel free to drop me a line and E-Mail me before it hits the junkyard, either way I'll keep an eye out for it and will bid with vengence.
But now I'll let you get back to finishing your magnificent masterpiece!
Cheers, Mike
But now I'll let you get back to finishing your magnificent masterpiece!
Cheers, Mike
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Another quick update tonight. The Skyfighter front and rear halves are completed with 4 coats of paint also. I went through 3 whole cans of Krylon Semi Gloss white to get all the pods and the halves done. I didn't think it would actually take that much to do this, but there you go. I am going to paint the lizard scale striping underneath next. I'm also redesigning the decals right now to be more "movie" accurate. There are small discrepancies with the decals supplied by SMT for the Skyfighter and what is (was :cry) acutally on a full size Squad Ship. The most prominent one is the Visitor Logo on the front of the ship. The models have the ends of the red parts sort of "squared" off, while on the full size ones they look like perfect semicircles. I like the rounded ends much better. I think that's the way I want to go with this, so that's how the decals will look. Also, the SMT decals (from JBOT, I believe) had some wrong Visitor characters where you see some writing, so I'm correcting that. This feels like a milestone at this point, as major constuction and painting is essentially finished. Now, it's just detail work to go!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Well, I'm actually masking off the scribed lines with scotch tape and spray painting them. One thing I've noticed so far is that the panel scribe lines are way too deep, I think. If you look at closeup shots of the studio models and full size pictures on the DVD, the panel lines are pretty small and don't even look recessed at all. Well, it is what it is, I suppose. Up next, pod windows!
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Pod windows finished...(laughing like a giddy little school girl)... I sprayed some decal paper with black spray and cut each window to fit. Most of them were very close in size, but since I'm not a machine I did have to custom fit each one. Whew. Doesn't seem like much but when you have to cut each one... Up next, Skyfighter windows on the front and back. Enjoy!
ShockTrooper
Well-Known Member
Hi David.Congratulations for this amazing work.If you accept a litlle tip,try to make the windows using gloss black acetate(don´t paint them),this is what I did with my skyfighter and the final result is cool.
Tim9d9
Well-Known Member
:eek AHHHH!!! Holy mackerel!!! Those windows look un-freakin-believable!! That makes a HUGE difference to the model. Scribe lines are looking sharp, too. Can't believe this thing's just about finished! Finally! I hope this isn't the only one you're making!! Seems like there's a few people here that might want it, myself included :love
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Sorry, Tim9d9, there can be only one. :rolleyes
Nice model, Shocktrooper. Thanks for sharing. I'd love to see other people's models of the Skyfighter from the SMT molds. Post em if you got em!
Ahhh. Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. When I make the window decals, I spray black paint onto blank Papilio PAS/2 Aqua slide paper made for the ALPS printers. The unique feature of the Papilio paper is that you print in reverse, and when you release the decal in water you place it with the protective clear side up and the reversed image down. This gives it a nice natural smooth (and almost scratch-proof) surface. You need to use decal setting solution (I do) because the adhesive on the decal completely goes away, plus it's on the wrong side. Fun stuff! Anyways, I've been holding these in my hands and playing with them for a while now because the windows just look so amazing in person. Hopefully, I'll be putting on the rest of the decals on these tomorrow (insignias, and all the little print everywhere). Getting closer...
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Well, I finished the logo decals and the other miscellaneous stuff on the front and back pieces. I printed these with my ALPS printer in a few different shades of red and a few different styles. I decided to cut out the logo pieces individually instead of one big decal. It looks much better this way, but it was more work to get each little piece just right. There are decals on the bottom main landing gear door supplied by with the SMT kit that are the wrong style for the Squad ship. If you watch the DVD closely, you can see that these particular gear door decals are green, and much smaller than what came with the kit. But for the Skyfighter version, the supplied decals are closer to accurate. Also, the red box decal on the sides of the rear part had some incorrect lettering that I fixed. The rear of the skyfighter under the main windows also has a black box detail with red lettering that is only clearly seen once on the DVD's. This rear box area actually houses the rear laser cannon on Skyfighters, and you can see the gun sticking out at the end of the original miniseries when Donovan is escaping with Sancho and Robin to the camp in the hills. He's being chased by another 2 Skyfighters and Sancho is manning the rear gun. Hard to see on screen, but it's there. So far, everything looks really nice and I really like how it's turned out. I have to put the doors and misc decal stuff on the pods next. So close now...:wacko
morrris99
Well-Known Member
Ahhhh. Got the pod decals done. All the black trim around the 4 front and rear alignment pieces, and the spaces between the pods. Door trim and door decals also. Whew.
I am going to assemble the ship using threaded rods and wingnuts. The center hole on the pod has one long rod that holds only the pods together. I will have large washers and wingnuts at each end. You can see this in the picture I posted where the 3 pods are painted with Primer. The side holes are for the front and rear skyfighter pieces. I will make the final connection in the center pod on the bottom. I have actually left that piece off for now as I will use it to access the ends of the rods and put the final wingnuts on the rods from each half. Kind of confusing, but that's how I engineered this one. The two Skyfighter ends also have alignment tabs that will fit in the holes and prevent them from sliding around. They will be glued with copious amounts of super glue and RTV silicone beads. This ship will not come apart without being destroyed first!
I have to clearcoat the pods, then assemble everything. I guess there's only 1 more photo to post. Yay!
I am going to assemble the ship using threaded rods and wingnuts. The center hole on the pod has one long rod that holds only the pods together. I will have large washers and wingnuts at each end. You can see this in the picture I posted where the 3 pods are painted with Primer. The side holes are for the front and rear skyfighter pieces. I will make the final connection in the center pod on the bottom. I have actually left that piece off for now as I will use it to access the ends of the rods and put the final wingnuts on the rods from each half. Kind of confusing, but that's how I engineered this one. The two Skyfighter ends also have alignment tabs that will fit in the holes and prevent them from sliding around. They will be glued with copious amounts of super glue and RTV silicone beads. This ship will not come apart without being destroyed first!
I have to clearcoat the pods, then assemble everything. I guess there's only 1 more photo to post. Yay!
