U.S.S Cygnus 1/700 scale… a study in insanity

[mrchester]

Okay, let’s address the Probe Ship first. The lower picture is a screen grab from the movie. There is a mystery block that is part of the last cross travel tube section. It’s not part of my model or the AMPC abomination.The telescoping walkway goes out to the Probe Ship. It looks good in the movie… details in the outer parts of the scenes look somewhat correct. However, Disney did play loose with some of the ship shots… I’m looking at you, Palomino fly under scene. For my model, the Probe Ship sits way higher than the travel tube structure. The landing medallion is not flush with the surrounding lattices and maybe there is a discrepancy in the height of the travel tubes. The Probe Ship’s size does work with the scale of the model except for the docking hatch placement. Maybe the landing medallion acts like the docking elevator but due to production costs it wasn’t fleshed out more. Wow, I’m overthinking. Probe Ship will be landed but I’ll pass on the walkway.

 

[mrchester]

Here’s a shot from the beginning of the Palomino fly under scene. I know that the shooting models were modular and there were changes made to them during shooting. The Cygnus got two lower stern Antenna boxes that were never seen again. Now , I know that it was to have an interesting shot but also allow the A.C.E.S. camera to pass close under the ship. This somewhat applies to the Probe Ship landing scene. It was done in larger scale (like the Palomino crash scene). It gets the landing image established but doesn’t work with the scale of the shooting model. I’m running with theat.

 

[mrchester]

Now to address the Palomino. I got some grief at Modelpalooza for not having it for my model. Now that I’ve got the Palomino, I can complete my Cygnus. Now, I’ll have to modify the elevator pad to where it sits at the bottom of the vertical rails. Also, the vertical rails are too thick. Now, I know that there is only so much that can be done with the minimum thickness for printed parts. Here’s what I’m going on about. When the Palomino lands, the thruster pods are in line with the elevator rails. This puts the lower hatch in line with the telescoping walkway. The print model doesn’t fit and needs to be slightly turned. The light blue box is the hatch and the drill bit in the last picture indicates the shightly altered walkway path.

 

[mrchester]

Okay, the closeup photos really show the ‘texture’ of this 3D printed model. I’m currently clear coating the Palomino to help smooth things out. I had it and the Probe Ship printed with resin. I got several copies of each. These guys are fragile as hell. Got to work on a tiny American flag and PALOMINO decal.

 

[mrchester]

Okay, I found my workaround for the docking elevator rails versus the Palomino’s thrusters. Fortunately, I have a spare docking section that I purchased way back when this part was first available. Also fortunate, it was a subpar print. Perfect candidate for test bedding. A while back I creatively removed the elevator pad and made plans to attach it to the bottom of the rail frames. About an hour ago, a thought hit me. Creatively cut the rails from the dock and close the existing gap. This would give room for the Palomino to sit as it landed in the film and I can line up the lower docking hatch with the ‘window’ on the reception area section. Doing surgery on the finished model will be tricky. More practice on the spare first.

 

[mrchester]

Using a piece of 1/4” acrylic rod and the spacing tool for my mill, I machined an eight sided access tube. Just need to hi light the corners. Getting real close to surgery time.

 

[mrchester]

Well, it done. I’ve cut out the Docking Elevator pad. I took the spare Docking Frame an a damaged Palomino with me to work this morning. I had forgotten that two of the elevator rails were stuck in the frame and I lost them. I liked having spares but surgery went well and I can work with I got. I milled an eight sided telescopic gangway from 1/4” acrylic rod. Took less time than to get one printed. There is a flange that covers one of the eight windows in the Reception area. Early light tests shown the gangway will be lit, too. Waiting for UV resin to come in today. Sorry for some duplication, I forgot I posted at work this morning.

 

[mrchester]

Okay, there was a lot of trial and error involved with getting the Docking Elevator and Gangway placed. I cut a small square of clear plastic to fit in the proper square of the Reception area. I would use clear UV resin to attach the Gangway to the upper corner of the square… makes installing a bit easier. The elevator pad had the three contact points built up with thin styrene. It would be attached to the bottom of the original lifts. When set (had to use medium CA with kicker), the Palomino with the upper docking port just below the upper deck in the docking area. I was going to reattach the lift rails that I cut out in a wider spread, but the prints were a bit coarse. I opted for half round styrene instead. It gives a smoother look. This is my one real deviation from the ship’s design.

 

[mrchester]

Had to make a spacer ring from styrene tube to represent the soft seal for the gangway. It will be painted black.

 

[mrchester]

Okay, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on the Palomino. I had these printed in resin because the print lines are less obvious. However, this sucker is delicate… good thing I got several. I had to fight with one of the angle struts on the ship’s power deck, not fun at all. The little array on the top that is shaped like an asterisk is missing one of its points. Going to be a delicate fix. I have done most of the secondary colors and have even found a thin red decal to run around the top of the capsule. Currently waiting on 1/16” letter decals for the ‘Palomino’ name. Planning to take Cygnus to a model show in the Villages this weekend.

 

[drusselmeyer]

If you get yourself some printing resin, and a UV light, you can save some problems when making repairs.

I recently shattered a large figure print I had just gotten. I used a similar resin and it cleaned up almost invisibly.

 

[mrchester]

Well, I decided to jump on the grenade and put some more accurate details to the Command Tower and Observation Domes spires. I decided to keep the beads that I used to add interest to the spires that I had. Not having the files nor were they in the old Shapeways library, I had bought 1/72 and 1/48 scale B58 Hustler nose probe (wind piercer) as the main spires. The extra antenna rods were made from 0.020” styrene rod. I used white glue to attach the new parts to the spires. I free handed the top spokes to the Command Tower spire first. I did make some jigs for the spokes that are at 90 degrees to each other and the main post. There was a lot of ‘eyeballing’ here.

 

[mrchester]

Between modifying the Tower spires and the Observation Domes spires, I accidentally found the flash on my phone. Here’s a few different shots of Cygnus.

 

[mrchester]

Upper Observation Dome antenna is done , still working on the Lower.

 

[mrchester]

This past weekend, The Villages IPMS club had their first model show. Turnout was good (380 people came through the door, 180 models, and 30 vendors). Being near Mount Dora, I decided to enter Cygnus. Judging was Gold, Silver, and Bronze for worthy models and the best in show was audience vote. I had several long chats with Villages show staff including one who latched on to me about a half hour before the awards ceremony. I am horrible with names and I can’t recall who he was ( he has an Excelsior model that he’s working on now). I found out that his eagerness to talk was because he judged my group. Needless to say, Cygnus won gold. Cygnus also won Best in Show, too. I know that this model is an attention getter mainly because of the difficulty of producing a decent representation of Cygnus. MPC didn’t do the subject any favors back in 1979, either. Let’s hope the reissue might do it justice. If all goes well, the Round 2 folks will get to see this model (must be vague on details).