Ministry of Space - Britannia

Kingmob · Oct 10, 2018

I recently reread the great, three issue series by Warren Ellis: Ministry of Space.

As I read, I started to think about building the spaceplane from the cover. I noticed that it has a lot of similarities to a de Havilland Vampire, particularly the intakes.
And as luck would have it, Airfix just came out with a nice, new cheap kit.
So with a bit of cutting and chopping and putty, I'm going to try and convert it.

I changed the cockpit to a single seater, but otherwise the kit started as intended.

Next I started shortening and thinning the wings. The gaps are for the booms and they will have to get filled in later.

The next step is changing the back section up a bit.

mofo77 · Oct 12, 2018

looks good

Kingmob · Oct 14, 2018

Small update over a busy weekend.

Took off the end of the body and made the replacement out of a tube.

Next, rocket nozzles.

Kingmob · Oct 15, 2018

Filled in the gaps in the wings with some scrap styrene and finished out the internals of the engine. I just to get some rocket nozzles of the right size.

Kingmob · Oct 17, 2018

Rocket Engines installed.

Next up, blending it into the rest of the body.

Kingmob · Oct 22, 2018

Blended the gaps in the wings and the engine section in. There's just a few spots I need to take care of.

Next up, the stabilizers and the tail.

Kingmob · Oct 24, 2018

Stabilisers done.
To get the points on the sticky out parts I had to stick some styrene rod in my dremel and reverse lathe it.

Next up is the tails.

Analyzer · Oct 25, 2018

Interesting subject, I wasn't familiar with either, Had to look up de Havilland Vampire

Looks like your doing a great job in the conversion!

Kingmob · Oct 26, 2018

Re-did the stabilisers. They were standing up too tall for my tastes.

Made the tails and added the canard thing behind the cockpit.
Now I just have to place the tails and the elevator, and construction is pretty much done.