Monday, July 8, 2013

YV-666 Light Freighter

 I've always wanted to scratch-build the Hound's tooth, and after I saw the Clone Wars version I thought I'd give it a go. I have way too many tupperware tubs of little plastic bits so I'm going to try and do this without spending any money on it. The body was basically a box, so I won't tell you about how I made a box.

 To get the engine noxxles I filed down some marker caps and added some styrene detail. Not really clear why they point up, but it looks cool.


Here's a test fit of the rear section. I'm going to light this, so I had to build the engine around the LEDs. I couldn't get a decent grab of the engine so it is all from the land of imagination, which is always the most fun bit to build. The wings were pretty straight forward, just sand, sand, sand. The only way I could figure to build those bells where they attach on the other side was to sculpt them from sculpey. Not ideal, but they are barely visible. The tube and hemisphere is some leftovers from a Polar Lights Enterprise. I love how much extra crap comes with those kits.

Test fit of the cockpit. Another box. Doing the window (below) is going to be challenging. I think I might make a mold and cast it in clear resin rather than trying to build the window. The curved section at the rear of the main hull was exciting to get on. Even though it was heatformed I had to use most of a roll of tape and about a dozen clamps to hold it in place while drying. I should have taken a picture.


 A test fit of the whole build with the ferociously overwrought base in the background.

The other Nostromo shuttle

 This is a study for building the counterpart to the Narcissus, called the Salmacis in the blueprints. It's  based on Ron Cobb's concept sketch below. I still haven't decided on a front window or not. It feels more like an emergency escape pod without.