ByYourCommand.net

Thanks for the kind words and feedback everyone. I really appreciate it. I think I have the weathering done now to the level I want. It looks quite a bit darker and more weathered in person than in these pics. The darker areas had a bit too much contrast in the first pass so I went over the whole thing with a medium gray pastel pass that evened it all out. This also had the added benefit of toning down the blue-gray panels which seemed a bit too blue to me.

I'm really happy I got this kit - kudos to Mike, Sean, and Ryan for their efforts making this happen. It was a pleasure to put together and will be a great display piece.

A few notes here and there:

I wanted this one to have some rusted areas along the panel edges and greeblies and used the technique that REL posted a few months ago using powered pastels in thinner. It worked great but after the thinner dried the colors really popped-out and the rust was way too orange and too bright. I removed quite a bit of that and went over it with a browner rust pass which was still too dark and then toned that down further with the pastel work.


I love the blazing engine lights. The foil inserts in the engines really make this effect work. It's far better in the pics than in person but I guess that's what mattered for the filming models. These lights are 5watt, 12v halogen bulbs.


The internal armature and the stand I made really helped with working on this. Between the antenna on top and the landing gear it's really impossible to set this down without damaging it. The antenna were glued on after weathering but the landing gear had to go on first.


Even though as a display piece the exposed wiring seems a little out of place but I wanted to stay true to the studio model and make the electrical connections functional.


It always seems to have a frown....reminds me of a sad clown.








The foil inserts without the lights on. I glued the foil onto some stiff paper and then cut these into cones that would hold their shape a bit better inside the engine bells.


Thanks for looking.
-Doug

WOW

When you have the mount on the top, is there a cover plate for the hole on the lower hull?

I am impressed. I love it. Did you by chance get a photo of the rejected rust area you went back over. I'd love to see that regardless. Is it to late to go back and run the wires inside the support tube? I take the landing gear is to thin or just not able to support the weight of the shuttle. Time to make a wall mount tube (hidden) so it looks like it is flying. Great job Doug. Looks awesome.

Very Nice....

AWESOME work indeed!

Cylon-Knight wrote:WOW

When you have the mount on the top, is there a cover plate for the hole on the lower hull?

It doesn't have one. I don't have any reference showing what was used for this. In fact all of the reference for the bottom side is after it was painted for Buck Rogers or other peoples builds so I'm relying on that info. If information ever comes up I can add it later.

GoldCylon wrote:I am impressed. I love it. Did you by chance get a photo of the rejected rust area you went back over. I'd love to see that regardless. Is it to late to go back and run the wires inside the support tube? I take the landing gear is to thin or just not able to support the weight of the shuttle. Time to make a wall mount tube (hidden) so it looks like it is flying. Great job Doug. Looks awesome.

I do have some before photos of the rust and will post some. It is too late for the wires to go through the armature. I intentionally wanted to match the studio model so they'll be outside permanently. I can hook them up in the front too but the back is easier to do. The landing gear is held together by superglue and isn't structually stable at all. It would just pop off .... which they've done a few times when I've bumped it while working on it. It's a PITA to put them back on. Ideally I want to mount this on the wall permanently so the side mount will be perfect for this. It will look like it's flying all the time.

Thanks, guys.

Here's some progress shots showing the orange. I had already started rubbing it off and it's still way to orange. This part of the weathering is tough because it's hard to visualize how much to do at each stage and have it all work in the end.

It doesn't look to bad. Matter of fact if it was a shuttle that went to a mineral planet that color might be dead on.

I finally got around to doing some final photos of this one I finished last year.

Outstanding work Doug, outstanding.

WOW, I need to go find myself some clean shorts now.
It is perfect! A+ WORK.

Please be sure to let either Red Eye or myself know if it would be okay to add your photos to our Gallery.

PERFECT indeed!

We'd be honored to add your photos to the gallery...

Thanks for the comments, guys. Feel free to post them in the gallery... I'd be honored.

The photos are now part of our gallery.

Thanks again, dbhs!