This past weekend I managed to finish up a small scratch-build project; a TOS Shuttlecraft I did up to help out a friend with a project of his own on another prop board. I made a quick stop over at the hobby shop here in town and procured the base materials I'd need for this scratch-build (PVC foam board, styrene rod) and immediately got to work on drafting a set of schematics based on the dimensions he gave me.
Based on just a few screen caps, and some reference pics of the original full-scale filming model (after it had been left to decay in an old RV dispoal lot), this is what I drafted:
TOS Shuttlecraft -- Concept Sketch
The blacked-out areas on the sketch in the top-right corner are there just to give everyone a better idea of how this l'il piece will look with the lip on top and the recessed underside at the rear.
After closer examination of those reference pics I used, I realized I'd have to add a couple more angled sections at the back where the main engine is located, so that was one detail area that had to be "tweaked" a bit:
TOS Shuttlecraft -- Revisions
Aside from the two additional angled areas at the rear, there's also a little bit of a lip on the underside of the shuttle. I was able to simply cut/carve that out of the PVC foam board. Not at all hard, either.
Having pretty much eye-balled it, I think I have it pretty much down in terms of proportions and details, with just a little tweaking here and there. This is pretty much in scale to the five-foot Enterprise filming model that was used during production of the series.
I have to say this was by far the most complex small-scale scratch-build I've done to date (the custom Commbadges and Cortical Stimulator I'd previously done up were simple by comparison), but even so I enjoyed the challenge. Gave me a good chance to brush up on my skills, lol.
Not only that, but before packing it to go to my friend I compared it directly to the schematics I'd drafted and was pleased to see I'd managed to build it to exacting standards of what I'd drawn up. Understandably, I take pride in making each of my scratch-builds that precise to the actual conceptual sketches I draft for these pieces.
Sadly, I don't have any pics of the actual piece I built to post here yet, as I didn't have the use of a digitial camera, but once he receives it in the mail for molding/casting he'll take a bunch of pics of it and send me a set via e-mail. Then I'll be able to show it to all of you and get your feedback on it...
Based on just a few screen caps, and some reference pics of the original full-scale filming model (after it had been left to decay in an old RV dispoal lot), this is what I drafted:
TOS Shuttlecraft -- Concept Sketch
The blacked-out areas on the sketch in the top-right corner are there just to give everyone a better idea of how this l'il piece will look with the lip on top and the recessed underside at the rear.
After closer examination of those reference pics I used, I realized I'd have to add a couple more angled sections at the back where the main engine is located, so that was one detail area that had to be "tweaked" a bit:
TOS Shuttlecraft -- Revisions
Aside from the two additional angled areas at the rear, there's also a little bit of a lip on the underside of the shuttle. I was able to simply cut/carve that out of the PVC foam board. Not at all hard, either.
Having pretty much eye-balled it, I think I have it pretty much down in terms of proportions and details, with just a little tweaking here and there. This is pretty much in scale to the five-foot Enterprise filming model that was used during production of the series.
I have to say this was by far the most complex small-scale scratch-build I've done to date (the custom Commbadges and Cortical Stimulator I'd previously done up were simple by comparison), but even so I enjoyed the challenge. Gave me a good chance to brush up on my skills, lol.
Not only that, but before packing it to go to my friend I compared it directly to the schematics I'd drafted and was pleased to see I'd managed to build it to exacting standards of what I'd drawn up. Understandably, I take pride in making each of my scratch-builds that precise to the actual conceptual sketches I draft for these pieces.
Sadly, I don't have any pics of the actual piece I built to post here yet, as I didn't have the use of a digitial camera, but once he receives it in the mail for molding/casting he'll take a bunch of pics of it and send me a set via e-mail. Then I'll be able to show it to all of you and get your feedback on it...
