The "Other" Babaylon 5 Starfury: Sheridan's "Tigermeet" fighter

[Guest]

and we're back!

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After a sojourn building Mustangs and almost ruining a poor girl in a chainmail bikini, we return to Babylon 5 and to the wiring up of the lights... second set of lights now installed, almost ready to close up the engines on the lower wing...

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[Guest]

Lots of progress but its all small bits which don't photograph very well!

The 4 main engine exhausts have been painted and the blue inserts added so that when they are lit it looks like this:

and in the dark even better!

After this, all 4 lighting setups have been installed in the engine pods and the upper wing closed up. An exercise of cautious soldering attached the wires for the lower wing to the circuit board which has now been installed in the main body. The circuit board is held in place with PVA glue.

All the other exhaust ports have been drilled and painted. The whole body has been given its main coat of paint, the resin guns have been cleaned up and scrubbed adn this weekend will get drilled out a bit more then painted up. The canopy has had its coat of Klear and masked up.

The main bit of work the latter part of this week has been the cockpit. This is the transparent resin replacement. The bits that were to remain transparent to allow the lights to shine thorugh were masked up and two coats of matt black were painted on the rest. Then the cockpit colours were added. Using some photos off the net of the actual cockpit set, I could match the colours. Funnily enough it looked like the main part of the interior was cockpit green!

Then the decals went on and the pilot painted up. I tried to put the faceplate decal on but it was just too thick and wouldn't settle down even with lots of micro sol and set, so I cleaned it off and painted it gloss black.

Then here it is as a test fit (ignore the wonky upper wings, that just coz its only sitting on the top)

and here it is backlit with orange and white

This weekend I'm going to try to source a couple of 6v batteries I can put in series to get a portable 12v power supply. The mains power is an old Hornby train controller that came from my Meccano collection, but it that might not always be possible to use that, eg Farnborough IPMS has all the models on tables in the middle of the room so to get power to it I'd have to stretch a lead across the floor and I'm certain SOMEONE will trip over it and CRASH!!!

Today Koshism: "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

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[Guest]

I forgot last night but here is also the back plate which has had some work done on it such as drilling out the various protrusions and a lick of paint...

You can also see the exhaust covers for the lesser exhausts there.

[Guest]

Hmm, I seem to be talking to myself in here, guess that must mean nobody is interested in this build anymore...

[Guest]

Still plugging away trying to make this thing progress but I'm finding it hard work for some reason

Painted the guns now and they look pretty nifty

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Been having trouble getting the top and bottom wings to fit so that the back panel lines up properly. This sort of rings a bell from the one I built years ago. The back panel doesn't fit very well at all and with the altertered constrcution order I've had to employ to fit the lighting in, getting a good finish on that is going to be hard work!

You can see in the background the leading edges have been painted a darker grey and unseen the vanes that attach to the engines have been painted and the indented panels highlighted. My target now is to complete for Monday week, which is the IPMS Farnborough meeting, so I'd best get cracking!

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[papa 695]

Hi Andrew just caught up on this, the modifications and lights are looking very good indeed, keep up the good work ( your not alone )

[Guest]

Glad that someone is looking, was beginning to feel as though I was talking to myself in here

[Guest]

This shows how badly fitting the rear plate is

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However you can finally see the build coming together. The smaller exhaust ports have all been added, the top wing joined which allowed the last wires to be connected for the lighting and the cockpit has been added which was a bit tricky - you can see the filler along the edges.

Since these were taken, the upper guns have been added which required a certain amount of jiggery-pokery and the removal of the original fixing tabs.

The vanes have been added to the rear exhaust ports and will be tidied up this evening. Next will be the lower guns and some weathering... yes I know the idea of weathering in outer space does sound strange, but there is dust and gas in space and the original had weathering as can be see in this link (not posting it here as its a copyright image)

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[Guest]

i say ur nutz but the effect is bloody amazing m8 keep going its awsome so far

[Dave W]

The Starfury's looking really good.Makes me want to get the DVD boxed sets out and watch the series again!.

[Guest]

looks boss that mate, i am interested in adding some lighting to my dioramas soon so will be posting some questions soon and you may be able to help.keep up the great work

[Guest]

Been busy this evening as well.

First was filling the gaps on the back plate and some sanding. That got left so that the filler cures so will re-commence tomorrow. next I started looking seriously at attaching the lower cannons. i was able to find a set of photos on Starship Modeller that are of the original CGI model and one in particular was very instructive:

Notice the pair of pipes/conduits and how the lower section blends in. Here is an enlargement

So now we begin some work... first lets get rid of the plastic that is in that area to give me a clear run at the whole thing. This produces a hole in the side so I've stuffed it with some filler which will get properly shaped when its dry

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and then here is some scratch built bits that will form the conduits and that funny shape at the back

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What have I just done to myself!!! Sigh, and so it goes on.. (and on... and on...)

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[Guest]

and now of course I've noticed the dark band across the rear exhaust vanes... oh boy some more masking and painting to do lol!

[Guest]

So we start on the weathering...

Dust streaks on the panel lines, exhaust vanes dirtied up.

All guns fixed, but more work needed on the lower ones. You can see the conduits have been bent to shape over a candle and will get fitted and painted later.

Lots of sanding and filling to make the back plate fit nicely

I'm pleased to say that since I've got on with it the mojo has returned. Amazing how when you see progress it makes you want to progress further, but when things are sticky, it just puts you off! So I reckon there is a good chance this will be completed for Farnborough next Monday!

[papa 695]

Looking very good Andrew and i hope you get it ready in time. The hard work youv'e put in as payed off