Titan Find Liberator from Blakes Seven

[Metaluna mutant]

I managed to get one of these from last run done of these beautiful kits of one of SFs most striking subjects. I'm stalled before final painting, decal and weathering as I'm working on another project right now, which is usual. However I'll post some pics I took of the build so far.

Parts layout. Decals & instructions not shown.



One of intake vanes was broken off, so I cut and trimmed off what I could and replace with spare sheet.



Rough idea of size

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Weapons pods with struts dry fitted


The strut had a brass rod for stiffness, but I decided to add another as a peg to keep it as stiff as possible in the body.



I drilled holes for the pegs in the hull.



I added a vertical rod to keep it stiff, but the strut is quites strog.


Spend time to make sure all 3 are equidistant. Use a scale and make sure it's right - it's the biggest feature on the model.

 

[MKWJTC]

Wow! I've only got to know the show last year, and loved it! Iam wery keen for this build. Are you going to light the model? To add some scale.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Wow! I've only got to know the show last year, and loved it! Iam wery keen for this build. Are you going to light the model? To add some scale.

Patience, my friend, patience.
The Weapons pod part one
The end caps, as molded, were too long and had to be filed down to fit flush on the back of the weapons pod.


The endcaps were solid, so I drilled cored out as much as possible to lighten the weight on the pods.

Here are the vanes for the weapon pod tips.



Two each



Now four



Six each. Make sure to keep them even


All even. the vanes are a bit uneven, so I had to trim tips and file ends to get them symmetrical.



Next step the weapons pods antennae

 

[jedimaster]

Looking good. Unfortunately I missed out on one of these. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Looking good. Unfortunately I missed out on one of these. Can't wait to see it finished.

If you see one on ebay, I'd advice getting it if possible, it's a great kit. It's more accurate than the old injection Comet kit, which, while slightly less accurate (proportions are a bit off) the Comet kit is just, well, too damn small.

Forgot to cover the Main hull vanes last post. They didn't fit well, so the normal trim and fill is necessary.



Weapons pods antennae

These are one of those things that have to be just right since they are so prominent on the model.



The tip has divots for the 7 antennae which I drilled out.

The kit supplies brass antennae which are pre-cut to the right lengths.



The are a bit off, but as they are brass, they bend to the right angles easily.

They came out at slightly irregular lengths as I drilled some holes a bit more deeply. When done, I will snip off the longer ends to make them all uniform.

This is one of the though parts of the models. Those antennae are begging for me to slip a finger or exacto and bend them out of shape.



I've tweaked them several times since I took this pic, so they are now much more parallel and uniform than this picture. They should all be parallel and it just takes some time to bend them slightly to shape.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Now for the engine. I used the Glotoob method mentioned in several places to light the engine. The glotoob has the exact green throb the engine had on the show. It's cylindrical so it will fit inside the hull. The trick is to rig it so it's removable.




The engine is entirely translucent green plastic. I'll mask off the "clear" part and paint the rest.



I've fitted a PVC sleeve over one half of the glotoob. That PVC sleeve will fit into the hull rear and the Glotoob will fit into that. The Light emitting part of the glotoob will stick out from the sleeve and the engine dome will fit over that and onto the PVC sleeve.



The PVC sleeve will also need some plastic or rubber strakes on its exterior to make the engine dome both fit snugly and be removable.

Here's a quick vid I took showing the pulsing light. Click to run.

 

[MKWJTC]

Knew it!
looks hypnotic.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Now on to painting.

I’ve given the whole shebang a medium grey primer. I really helps to give it that “chalky” white appearance the show model had.



The seams between the weapons pods and struts need attention - especially the forward part. It has a very ugly gap which needs multiple filling and sanding sessions.





Here's the engine with the first of multiple tamiya flat white coats. I'm aiming for a blotchy white/chalky appearance with some some shiny white panels, like the original model.



After this I’ve masked off nearly every raised panel as well as a pattern for the engine dome which is smooth and without any panel details.

 

[MKWJTC]

Grey looks grim, but the antennas are awsome. At this stage, it looks more like a ship of it's original builders. White ship is like white hat in old westerns.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

I’ve given it several light coats of Tamiya flat white. I want the grey primer underneath to show through in spots, giving it a blotchy appearance.




I’ve removed the dozen or so tiny masks on the raised panels and shot them with flat white as well to make the contrast more subtle.





Masking tape took off paint in a few spots, but a few more paint passes will correct it.

 

[blipper]

Very cool, very envious, looking forward to seeing more

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Last post for a while. I'm working on something else right now, so the Liberator is on the back burner for now.

I've done a light pattern on the engine.



Weapons pods.



The panels surrounding the engine pods are a bear. There is a slight gap between all panels, and you have to keep the spaces roughly equal.



I've painted the front hull and the weapons pods fronts with Krylon Gloss white which has a nice whitish grey shine and contrasts well with the Tamiya flat white over the rest of the model.



I've also started a light gloss coat for the decals which are the next step.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Well it's time to get restarted on the Liberator.

All that's left is painting, detailing and weathering. I need to add more shaded panel work to break up all that white.



I worked out a little mask with cardboard that would fit over the weapon pods. I then used it to cut out 12 dupes with my xacto on painting tape.



These fit around the weapons pods fronts. I then whipped up a little white/blue-grey and airbrushed it on.


Finished panels



While the pics dont show it, I think the color is too blue. I'm going to overshoot it with some flat white to lighten it up.

Next step is detailing the rear of each weapons pod.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Still working on the weapons pods. I wanted the rear of the weapon pod "cone" to also have the same panel as the front.
Again, more masks.



Also masked off the front of the pods to touch those up as well.



I also touched up the front of the pod to lighten up the shade of the front panels i painted earlier




It looks much better now, and much more subtle.



The rear panels as painted are much lighter, Don't know if I like it, I may dust a slightly darker grey on these rear panels to make them pop a bit more






Now - weathering.



I've started using my trusty .3mm pencil to fill in the various grooved lines, especially on the "plates" surrounding each weapons pod. The graphite also smudges just the way I want it to - to give the hull the streaky-dirty look of the filming model. I will clean up spots where I went outside the lines, but the overall hull should be streaky and dirty like the space ship flew through a smoke-cloud.

All areas where those grooved lines are should be white-grey with streaks/smudges and I'll Dullcote will seal it later.

Next step will be the nose section. The hull cone is much more smooth, plain white but I'll still work out some paneling effect or weathering effect to tone down all that featureless white.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Just a few updates on this build

I painted the solar panel/plates around the center section but am unhappy with them. It really looks nothing like the Liberator model and is the only flaw in this otherwise great kit.


They should really be 12 flat brass panels surrounding the middle, like the Comet Models DSV and the original onscreen model. They should be rectangular brass panels with 8 "rough etched" sections on each panel. Another modeler used gold foil, which looked better, but doesn't address the problem that the panels should be flat against the hull. I could do 12 equal shaped thin flat sheet panels, painted & shiny as possible, but they wouldn't have those 8 "window panels" on each.


I'll decide something later.

I did touch up the engine section to lighten up the panel work. It's much subtler now.

 

[Metaluna mutant]

Next: Streaking!

I lightened the model with another dusting of flat white to mute those panels a bit more. Then I got out my trusty Tamiya smoke and started some horizonal "streaks" on the hull.

Down the Hull



The original model had distinct "streaks" on the hull as though the ship passed through burning rubber tire smoke. Scientifically accurate? Who cares, it gave some detail to all that white on the hull.



I may add a bit more. I did not want to overdo it, just keep it subtle.

Down the nosecone, hull and rear weapon pods. I've kept the "front" of the weapon pods clean, but may add a bit of steak for some detail. It's 3 prominent sections of the model, but they are large, smooth flat white areas that look awkwardly plain.

 

[Spacejunk]

Awesome build of one of my most favorite sci-fi shows of the 70's. Well done, look forward to the finished product.

 

[E=MC2]

Love it. :cheers

 

[cosmic_x]

great work