Star Wars Quadjumper Ship (group build)

[fhvn4d]

John, how do you do it??? With your work schedule, I assume you are all over the place and I have to assume you must NOT have children that require constant attention .... LOL..... Fantastic work my man!

[Leon]

Awesome idea for the base John! Looking forward to seeing more progress.

[John Everett]

Jun 10, 2016 20:32:10 GMT -5 fhvn4d said:

John, how do you do it??? With your work schedule, I assume you are all over the place and I have to assume you must NOT have children that require constant attention.

Thanks for following, gents!

The work provides me a lot of hotel time. I've found that figure sculpting and painting lends itself to a quiet, well-lit room. The kids are old enough to be independant. It required years of constant neglect to get them there, but I managed! (The kids will often goof around in the workshop with me so long as they can watch Netflix. They like Star Trek T.N.G.)

So....Landscaping! (There's an awful lot of blue-foam dust just now.)

A neat trick for those who use foam: Home Depot paint samples! These are color samples which customers have returned to Home Depot for whatever reason. They cost $0.50 each. Earthtones seem to be widely available.

Latex sealant is also "foam friendly" and inexpensive.


Latex paint helps me see and fix any undesired terrain features. Some of these will be filled in, some accentuated.



Rock castings from plaster and resin are glued down.


The landing deck is proving more time consuming than I had planned. But the materials are gathered locally and offer a nice excuse to take the kids down to the creek.





Build-up of rock formations continues.




Working out heights and placements.



I've decided to keep the straight pins in place. I think the final, well weathered deck will do a good job of hiding their origins.



A few days away and then back at it. I need to get more wooden sticks!

[wbill76]

Sounds like your foraging expeditions are paying off! Looking good John.

[jpc1968]

love the terrain. I expect to see a womprat in there somewhere.

[kaytermarram]

John should sculpt a Bantha and a tusken raider! Should fit in, from the scale too, without problems!

Frank

[John Everett]

Jun 14, 2016 14:33:35 GMT -5 jpc1968 said:

love the terrain. I expect to see a womprat in there somewhere.

If you do see a womprat, it wont be "much bigger than about 2 meters"

More work on the base.

One of of the nice things about Colorado is that I get to collect my building materials in places like this. 


Colors!
















Doing my best to match the resin and plaster rock castings to the actual color of the stones. 




Acrylic sealan is easier to work with some water application.

[Leon]

Nice progress John! The base is coming along nicely.

[jpc1968]

 If you do see a womprat, it wont be "much bigger than about 2 meters"

you know, Luke used to bullseye them in his T-16 back home

[wbill76]

Can't beat mother nature for her supply closet! Looking good John.

[John Everett]

Painty-painty!



Despite the hours of work put into the wooden landing pad, I've decided not to use it. It will obscure too much of what I hope will shape up into a spectacular land form.

I've gone with a "steel" deck instead.

[wbill76]

Good call on the steel platform! Has a more 'Star Wars' feel to it IMHO.

[k1w1]

Like your  base very much.

[John Everett]

A few days away to collect nice red soil and get some plastic cut in a hotel room.


I began work on the first of two "Heat radiator" plates which mount above each engine.








This is the produt I've been using for water. It's basically a slow motion formula of the 30 minute epoxy with which we're all familiar. The set time is 12 hours. But it hardens to an extremely clear, smooth layer.



First layer is tinted (4 drops blue. 1 drop green) the most strongly and is applied to the deepest potholes.


I mixed this with a handful of the red soil and over-watered it to the point of being a loose slurry. The slurry was allowed to find its own level and given 4 days to dry.










The deck was painted as well.







3 or 4 more layers of "water" and I'll have a go at securing the deck to its pilings.

Thanks for your interest!

[John Everett]

Last update for a while here. But there were some big steps completed.

I'm calling the water, "done". I had planned to build up several more layers of thickness. But after looking at the result of the second pour, I decided to keep it with some areas of bare, dry sandbar exposed. It was purely and artistic decision, a case of, "less is more".


Was able to place the 6 deck support pillars.




Could go with deeper water. But I think it looks just fine here.



This is a little anal retentive and silly. But stupid stuff like this is important to me.

"John, I don't think that the landing deck is straight. It doesn't look level."
"I can absolutely-fking-guarantee you that it is."



Also getting a final placement for the figures.

[wbill76]

Looks good from here! And I can totally relate to the level question.

[k1w1]

It doesnt look level - Apparently talking to yourself is OK. Answering yourself is OK also. However if you start asking yourself to repeat what you just said, then it is time to seek help. It is always good to know the warning signs.
And while I am giving you helpful advice ............. Sanding styrene or plaster is possibly not a wise thing to do in a hotel room. People get an little uncomfortable seeing large quantities of white powder in the room the pilot stayed in. 


Really like your new metal deck. Good choice.

[kaytermarram]

Replacing the deck was a very good idea, it looks far better and more "believable". The base is mindblowing, water even cooler. Great at all! And now I cannot wait for the Hopper!

Frank

[Leon]

The base just keeps looking better and better John! The water and new deck look great.

[chris0423]

Jun 23, 2016 19:22:44 GMT -5 John Everett said:

Last update for a while here. But there were some big steps completed.

I'm calling the water, "done". I had planned to build up several more layers of thickness. But after looking at the result of the second pour, I decided to keep it with some areas of bare, dry sandbar exposed. It was purely and artistic decision, a case of, "less is more".


Was able to place the 6 deck support pillars.




Could go with deeper water. But I think it looks just fine here.



This is a little anal retentive and silly. But stupid stuff like this is important to me.

"John, I don't think that the landing deck is straight. It doesn't look level."
"I can absolutely-fking-guarantee you that it is."



Also getting a final placement for the figures.

A man after my own heart, I know exactly what you mean John. The writing on the side of the barges lifting arm runs off by 0.5mm from one end to the other and its really winding me up !! (too late now though).

But here the base is looking fantastic, real cool and the 'metal' deck is far better than the 'timber' deck, sure the landing thrusters would have set it on fire anyway!

Chris

[deafpanzer]

Loving the base already!!!

[flmlm]

That is very cool project. Well done!

Regards
Mike

[dennis]

Brilliant as usual John, I love your use of diverse materials I am glad I am not the only one who collects rocks, dust and odd looking twigs from the great outdoors " what's that man doing mommy?". Glad I dropped by.
Dennis

[John Everett]

After much thought, study and hand-wringing, I've decided to get to work on the center section and interior of the ship. The cutting of plastic has become pretty easy at this point due to my experience in the scratchbuilt, Sci-Fi genre. I'm finding the planning of lighting to be the most challenging aspect. I have a general idea of what I want, but I'm not sure where to hide the wires, resistors and bus strips.

Long hotel stays provide a good place for distraction free work.



Star Wars ships and Applebee's restaurants: Two places with too much silly crap stuck on the walls.



Turns out this drawing is a bit like sketches done by M.C. Escher, there are things here that can't exist in 3 dimensions. (I only figured this out when actually trying to build the interior bunk. Some modifications from the drawing will be needed.)


I need a pilot's seat to match the drawing. Waste not, want not. I've found that common plastic items like these are marvelous for Sci-Fi ships.






The bunk pads are from Dragon's Sherman track sprue which no sane person would ever attempt to actually assemble.








Roof plate can only be glued on after the interior is complete and the lights installed.



That's all for this week. I'll continue to try to get this thread updated at least once each 7 days.

Thanks for watching!

John

[Leon]

Nice progress John! The hull,seat and bunk look great!

[kaytermarram]

Crazy!!!!

Frank

[dierk]

Jul 3, 2016 12:11:50 GMT -5 kaytermarram said:

Crazy!!!!

Frank

Doing fine for a man who cannot write at the moment

[kaytermarram]

Grrr!

Frank, rofl

[wbill76]

Pretty cool! Can't blame those concept artists for taking a little license...after all it still fits in the book or on the page! Nice work-around for the bunk though, that's pretty cool.

[John Everett]

Small update.

Interior of cockpit: