gt350pony66
Master Member
hey Mark,
I completely agree with you on the element of John Williams. He was here a few years back at the PHX symphony, surprise guest, Mr. Spielberg no less. A friend of mine who is also a SW fan, flew in from Maui to go with. The gal I was seeing at the time had no interest, hence the extra ticket. Anyway, got the autographed 2 CD set and it's in the player in either vehicle more than anything else.
I get what you're saying about the cockpit, and thank you for the explanation by the way. I have seen plenty of shots, particularly the shots from above, where the MPC cockpit and tube look close to right. it's those side shots from the cockpit side where it's looks so much bigger on screen. I'm not one of those that's trying to get 100% screen accurate, just want it to look good and generally proportionate. After reading your reply here, I think maybe to quench my own visual satisfaction, I might attempt a second layer of armor plating with an appropriately thicker sheet of styrene, stagger the panel gaps and tape it on, and see how that looks. should be fairly easy and quick and certainly doesn't require any surgery to the upper hull piece. And if it doesn't look right, easily reversed.
I had considered at one point, to do the DeAugustino or whatever it's called, but I eventually concluded that it would be a money pit and likely have things about it I didn't like as well. Not to mention, as you said...where would I put it? Wall mount I'd suppose. Anyway, I have fun doing the MPC's, needless to say I no longer need the instructions. I bought a Revell/FM but probably won't touch it for some time. I only got it cause the price was right and I was curious to see one first hand.
Well sir, I can't thank you enough for the explanation you were good enough to take the time with. Most kind. Sure like to see some of your work if you care to share.
Thanks again Mark
I completely agree with you on the element of John Williams. He was here a few years back at the PHX symphony, surprise guest, Mr. Spielberg no less. A friend of mine who is also a SW fan, flew in from Maui to go with. The gal I was seeing at the time had no interest, hence the extra ticket. Anyway, got the autographed 2 CD set and it's in the player in either vehicle more than anything else.
I get what you're saying about the cockpit, and thank you for the explanation by the way. I have seen plenty of shots, particularly the shots from above, where the MPC cockpit and tube look close to right. it's those side shots from the cockpit side where it's looks so much bigger on screen. I'm not one of those that's trying to get 100% screen accurate, just want it to look good and generally proportionate. After reading your reply here, I think maybe to quench my own visual satisfaction, I might attempt a second layer of armor plating with an appropriately thicker sheet of styrene, stagger the panel gaps and tape it on, and see how that looks. should be fairly easy and quick and certainly doesn't require any surgery to the upper hull piece. And if it doesn't look right, easily reversed.
I had considered at one point, to do the DeAugustino or whatever it's called, but I eventually concluded that it would be a money pit and likely have things about it I didn't like as well. Not to mention, as you said...where would I put it? Wall mount I'd suppose. Anyway, I have fun doing the MPC's, needless to say I no longer need the instructions. I bought a Revell/FM but probably won't touch it for some time. I only got it cause the price was right and I was curious to see one first hand.
Well sir, I can't thank you enough for the explanation you were good enough to take the time with. Most kind. Sure like to see some of your work if you care to share.
Thanks again Mark
Weeellll, I’m still a bit older than you. I was in engineering college when I first saw Star Wars. Effects-wise, there really wasn’t anything out there that compared to it on such a grand scale. Add John Williams’ music to it and the whole is greater than sum of the parts.
Regarding the cockpit, your instincts do you credit (but they could be made to serve the emperor (sorry, I couldn’t resist)): it is complicated. The first issue is the model kit top and bottom are based largely on old photos of ”5-footer” of its top and bottom shot square on (as much as they tried) that we the public now have access to…perspective errors and all. This is why, for example that the antenna dish appears way too big compared to the cockpit, making the cockpit look too small. If you look at a top view photograph, you will see this. The second issue is the kit mandibles are too big for some reason, also giving rise to the “illusion” that the cockpit is too small. I say “illusion” (in quotes) because depending on the level of the horizontal plane one wishes to correct the kit to could make the cockpit larger or smaller, which really goes back to the first issue. Many other greeblies would also be of an incorrect size depending where they lie radially on the saucer surface, the curvature of which places each item in differing planes with respect to the camera, compounding the effort to correct the kit. So these items are out of whack with respect to one another making the kit truly nightmarish to make accurate.
Assuming one cares not for one’s sanity, the best thing to do is to scale the ”5-footer” dimensions down to approximately kit size, tweaking the scaling so as to minimize the errors, or at least minimize the hardest things to correct for. This was the mad path down which I was going until I was convinced to scratch a model in 1 to 1 scale with the ”5-footer”. The advantages of this approach are 1) not having to scale down each and every greebly and 2) it would be easier to scratch an interior with some degree of accuracy. The disadvantage is where to put it in my house, and the weight.
Mark