MyLittle Ship

[zeawolves77]

a very interesting design and build :D

[Plumdragon]

Hello again, Friends This will be a quick fly-by; it's 2am here and I really should be getting some shut-eye! Thank you all for you kind words and, Mr Blaack, I will catch up with your pm tomorrow
For now, here is the latest from the workbench....
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

which is because I haven't yet figured out if there's a way to upload more than 5 pics at a time My pics seem to arrive in even numbers. Anyway, this is all for the moment; now time for bed.
Plumdragon

[elliott]

This is turning out to be an interesting little creature(?). Staying tuned for the next installment.

[Rhaven Blaack]

This is REALLY coming together BEAUTIFULLY!!!
I REALLY LIKE the ATTENTION to detail that you are paying to the design of this model!!!

[Plumdragon]

Hello Friends These pics were meant to be posted last night, but as 'last night' rapidly became 'too early this morning' here they are now! Whenever I build a model (mine or anyone else's), I tend to make a lot of the 'fiddly' bits first, so that they're waiting around in a little box for when the time comes to fit them - hence, the thermodump panels were one of the first things I assembled, and the ship came together rapidly....
Next will be the colouring and some texturing - I can see in my mind's eye what I want, but creating that in PS will be interesting. At the moment, I'm favouring hand colouring another printout, as it seems to be the only way (so far) that I can capture what it is I'm after, but I have a large 'stock' of textures I can cut and paste to use, so a trawl through the archives is in order.
Anyway, here's the more or less finished Ship, in it's pure 'white' form
Plumdragon

[Rhaven Blaack]

WOW!!!
It looks VERY ORGANIC (Which is a good thing)!!!
Even "as-is", I like the look of it! I am looking forward to seeing it in "COLOUR".
Looking at the "open panels", it would not be that difficult to make them "functional".

[elliott]

Nicely done! Looking forward to seeing it textured and colored.

[Revell-Fan]

Sorry for tuning in so late but this is really cool! I agree with RB, it looks very organic. Paper is an elegant medium if treated right. I'm not familiar with the ship or the mythology behind it (it looks a bit like the Firefly / Serenity shuttle) but the construction process is most interesting. Thank you for the detailed step-by-step pictures, they are very informative and could be used for a scratch-building tutorial. Do you go through the trial-and-error process when you make the single parts or do you use some maths and / or a CG modeling program?

I'm looking forwad to seeing the texturing process.

[Plumdragon]

Hello there Revell-Fan :-) Many thanks for your comments, and no apology is necessary; it's fashionable to be late, you know! If my ship looks like anything else, that's sheer coincidence, as this came out of my head. Although with 40 years of Science Fiction appreciation behind it (and as there's nothing new under the sun!) it's bound to look like something :-)
I wanted to make this because it's something fresh for me - the only other Sci-Fi based models I recall making were based on matchboxes and toothpaste tube caps, when I was about age 7, although I've been drawing space hardware all the years since then.
I'm happy you're finding the information useful. I don't have any CG programs and the maths is all in my head. I would design most things in a similar way; a good example is an airplane, particularly if the machine is very 'curvy', like a Spitfire. It would have it's plan and profile and major dimensions drawn out in Photoshop, and I would build an accurate fuselage 'carcass' to skin with templates. Some things are just boxes and cones and tubes fitted together, of course, and they're a lot easier....
I am very fortunately blessed with an ability to look at a three dimensional object and 'unfold' it in my head, so although the method could be classed as 'trial and error' I'm lucky that the errors are not too many. I also have to thank a good grounding in Art and Technical Drawing at school from age 12-16 as well! But, I do recall making about 7 or 8 cockpit canopies for my Lancaster bomber until I was satisfied with it, so my judgement is not always reliable :-)
Anything else you'd like to know, feel free to ask!
Plumdragon