Minbari Whitestar (Babylon 5)

[vulcan8630]

You are most welcome!!!

Thank you for asking, but being a "newbie" and viewing all these wonderous builds out of simple paper products is still keeping me in a state of shock and fear. I come from the world of plastic. As a teen dabbled in "scratch builds" in wood later applied to the plastic models I constructed to add realism etc.
Currently I volunteer my spare time in doing community service. I sometimes deal with troubled teens and being a teen once fell back on a hobby of mine "plastic modeling". Plastic models are good to build self esteem, pride and a sense off accomplishment but they are getting very expensive. I wanted to teach them a hobby they could get into that was skillful yet inexpensive (some of my kids come from disadvantaged homes)
Ever since I wandered into my first paper model site "Free Paper Models at SS2.com" I was "hooked"....The variety, quality and builds have interested me right from the start.
I am hoping to learn from all of you and pass these tips and techniques to the kids I work with. You are all truly helpful. Thank you for the build offering but right now I'm just observing.

[Retired_for_now]

Vulcan - try the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center for some quick and easy builds to wet your toes (and they make good builds for the kids). Take a look at the simple, easy, or kids models first. Designation just means few, simple parts - end result is determined by the graphics so will still look great. You might also try the stomp rocket ARES and launcher in the sci-fi and real space downloads (page 5) here. You (or the kids) get a model and get something that goes zooom!

Then, give something like the Whitestar a try. Work slowly, cut carefully, glue sparingly, follow along with cmags and you will surprise yourself.

Yogi (the easy way is the only way)

[cMags]

Excellent. This is a great hobby for kids. In fact I got into it as a kid myself and recently rediscovered the hobby. The internet has done amazing things for this hobby over the past 10-15 years. I remember PaperParadise (Fiddlers Green) being pretty much the only digital download models available on an English website.

Let us know if you are looking for any models of a particular skill level/genre. I've been collecting models for nearly that long so I've amassed quite a few gigabytes of files, and have the links to most of them still. Thanks for watching, and don't be afraid to try it out! Worst thing that happens is you have to print out another one and try again!

[vulcan8630]

Thank you so much!

Retired_for-now and cmags! I certainly will be checking out your suggestions for easy models R_F_N! CMAGS thanks for the support! I will definitely let y'all know when I start this with the kids!

[cMags]

Getting some of the details done. Got the upper/lower hull pylon done, rear of hull, and the upper forward hull and guns. Coming together with minimal difficulty, just taking some patience to get the curves to hold properly.






Ran into one small snag, where the wingtips wrap around the wing guns - doesn't quite reach. Could be my build or the wrong shape - wasn't too sure here. I was able to stretch it and get it to hold in the end (not pictured yet), and it doesn't look too bad.



All that's left is the port guns, wing tip trailing edges, aft hull stabilizers (?), and bridge module. Shouldn't be long now... :D

[Paragon]

I'm pretty sure the "aft hull stabilizers" are actually Minbari style engines, which, if I recall correctly, are usually "fin" shaped and have no real exhaust. The evidence I'm using for this is "Points of Departure" when the Trigati is trying to open a jump point, and is prevented from entering it by a beam that slices the large "fin" on the back.

Just a quick note too, the guns weren't really intended to be that thick, there was just extra to allow for mistakes.

[cMags]

Originally Posted by Paragon

Just a quick note too, the guns weren't really intended to be that thick, there was just extra to allow for mistakes.

Ah well now that makes sense. Owell, I've painstakingly rolled and glued all of them to their unintended designed size, so I'll make do. I don't think I could have rolled them much smaller anyway.

[cMags]

Well, having not updated this thread in a while means I didn't lose any posts in the crash. Works for me. I did finish, but my own server went down for a while with my pictures. So now we're all back up and running, and here's the finished Whitestar! :D





And here she is on display on my SciFi shelf. She's very well balanced.

[mchale]

that looks awsome cmags

[cMags]

Thanks Mike! Kudos as well to Paragon for such a great design.