Serenity scratchbuild...

[JOATRASH FX]

Ok, so I saw Serenity a while back without having seen the show. (Yeah, yeah bad move.) "Cool scifi" was my initial reaction. Thought nothing more of it besides "I should see the show sometime". A couple of weeks ago, I started watching... and got hooked (of course). I saw Serenity again the other night and it was a WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE. I would like to meet the people responsible for cancelling this show, I really would. I think the new Galactica is THE best show to come around in many years, but Firefly is right up there sharing the #1 spot. Naturally, I go a little prop-crazy. I got the resin Mal's pistol, a Jayne LeMat on the way and one of these days I'm gonna get 'round to making one of his tees.

Today I started this. I'm gonna try to scratch-build the Serenity. Not sure if I've gone insane or not. My last build was a MK2 Viper (you may have seen it in the studio scale section) and that took almost a year to get done and by the time it was finished, Moe's & Frank's kit was readily available. We'll see how long this takes. I'm betting the new kit of Serenity being done will be out before I'm done. I'll try to update this space a regularly as I can.

First pic. You can all see where I'm going with this. It's a cut up plastic soda bottle top covered in putty. I don't know the scale yet. I'm letting the ease and availability of suitable building blocks dictate it's size.

/Joe F

 

[SmilingOtter]

Go, man, go.

 

[jddurst]

How is this project progressing?

 

[JOATRASH FX]

I'm almost done with the "rear cone". I'll post a pic as soon as I have time to snap it.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Here is an update. I'm coming along nicely on the aft section. I know it should be a little more curved to be 100% accurate, but I had a hell of a time curving the styrene (it has to bend in two directions) and getting the details to look good, so I'm prepared to live with it. Note that I couldn't find any accurate netting for the middle section so I ended up cutting out each little triangle with a scalpel (yeah, it took a while).

Well... back to work.

/Joe F

Image graciously hosted by the mighty, powerful Wackychimp.

 

[Zaphod]

I've seen netting like that somewhere. It was brass. It's a 70's decorative pattern.

Wish I could be more helpful.

Good work so far.

I actually liked that movie, and hadn't seen the show.

 

[Less than Super Ostrich]

good stuff.... keep us updated.

 

[jddurst]

Shiny. Thank you for posting the pic. It's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see more as it progresses.

<div class='quotetop'>(Zaphod @ Jun 23 2006, 07:25 AM) [snapback]1266616[/snapback]</div>

I actually liked that movie, and hadn't seen the show.
[/b]

Go out and buy a set of the DVDs, you will be happy you did. Today is Joss's Birthday and there is a campaign to purchase Serenity and Firefly DVDs today (June 23). I'm thinking I need a second set because I keep loaning out my Firefly discs out and then I can't watch them.

 

[spidey2]

Great Show.. why they dumped it ill nerver know :cry :angry ,I thought the ship was way cool as well as the other props and ships. B)

 

[OhioAstromech]

You can tell that the ship was based off of the Stewart Cowley Terran Trade Authority Books.
Or at least the books influenced the design.
I always like scratch building progress threads.
I'd like to see more of a step by step / how too format but that takes hundreds of photos and is time consuming.

Great work thought, can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Mike J.]

That's what I was thinking, with the swan neck.

Don't know how many people have those books, though


-Mike

 

[OhioAstromech]

It's a must have set for any Sci-Fi fan.
I'd like to see someone scratch build a ship from any of those books.

 

[Patattack]

Any updates? I'm hankerin' to see what you do with this one.

 

[Raffles]

Yeah, an interesting project the ssm kit I saw was just too small to get any real detail on.
Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Hi guys, sorry for not updating this. I'm currently moving to a house, so the whole apartment is in chaos and most of my projects and tools are packed in boxes. (Also, my Vader ROTJ cutaway saber sort of got stuck in between as well.) I should be able to get back to this in a couple of weeks or so. (Hey, I did say that Thomas will probably release his kit before I'm done with this... so I'm right on track.) Hang in there.

For those interested, my calculations indicate that my finished model will be about 17.6 inches (about 43.4cm) long. (no idea what scale that makes it) There are quite a few challenges ahead that I really haven't figured out yet.

/Joe F

 

[Smiling Demon]

That looks great. A fine start I must say..

The talent on this board is so fricking amazing...