modelerdave
Well-Known Member
I don't play video games but my son is a huge fan of the game Star Citizen, and his favorite ship in the game is the Mercury Star Runner, so I decided as a learning project to get one designed and printed for him (there are no commercially available kits).
I used the services of Jediguy on this forum to design and print the kit in resin, which I then assembled, lit, and painted. I also built a custom base for it. I used a trick I saw from Boyd at TrekWorks to use brass connectors on the landing pad feet and corresponding ones on the base for positive and negative leads so the model can be removed from the base. It's working really well.
The lighting on the base is four flashing red LEDs I bought from Evans Designs. I asked for them all to be synced and they did a great job.
I don't have many build photos because there weren't many parts. Doing this again, I would have specified that I wanted the model to be printed in smaller sub-assemblies, but I made it work.
The basic pieces. I have to chop away some large chunks of the interior to make the landing bay lights work, and of course I had to drill out everything for the engine lights.
A bit of detail in the cockpit that is now completely invisible with the smoked canopy in place.
The finished model with the CGI model I used as a design template in the background.
The plain Jane base. You can see the rectangular brass connectors where the landing gear goes to close the circuit.
I only did some light weathering. Decals were ordered from Bedlam Creations.
The lit landing gear bays.
Engines...
and engines fired up.
Here's a link to a short video showing the lights in action and how it can be removed from the stand. Sorry, I only have my iPhone as a video camera and was in low light to make the lighting on the ship more visible.
I used the services of Jediguy on this forum to design and print the kit in resin, which I then assembled, lit, and painted. I also built a custom base for it. I used a trick I saw from Boyd at TrekWorks to use brass connectors on the landing pad feet and corresponding ones on the base for positive and negative leads so the model can be removed from the base. It's working really well.
The lighting on the base is four flashing red LEDs I bought from Evans Designs. I asked for them all to be synced and they did a great job.
I don't have many build photos because there weren't many parts. Doing this again, I would have specified that I wanted the model to be printed in smaller sub-assemblies, but I made it work.
The basic pieces. I have to chop away some large chunks of the interior to make the landing bay lights work, and of course I had to drill out everything for the engine lights.
A bit of detail in the cockpit that is now completely invisible with the smoked canopy in place.
The finished model with the CGI model I used as a design template in the background.
The plain Jane base. You can see the rectangular brass connectors where the landing gear goes to close the circuit.
I only did some light weathering. Decals were ordered from Bedlam Creations.
The lit landing gear bays.
Engines...
and engines fired up.
Here's a link to a short video showing the lights in action and how it can be removed from the stand. Sorry, I only have my iPhone as a video camera and was in low light to make the lighting on the ship more visible.
