Sci-fi kitbash

[PaulinKendal]

I’ve woken up far too early...

No you haven't, Tim, because the clocks have gone forward. Your timing is impeccable, as ever.

[Tim Marlow]

No you haven't, Tim, because the clocks have gone forward. Your timing is impeccable, as ever.

Er, doesn’t that mean I should’ve woken up later?

[Gern]

Er, doesn’t that mean I should’ve woken up later?

No. It just means it gets later earlier.

[Tim Marlow]

No. It just means it gets later earlier.

Yes, but in “old time” I woke up at old five thirty, which was really six thirty. Shouldn’t I have woken up at old six thirty (my usual time), which was really seven thirty??? I blame lack of gainful employment because I rarely know what day it is without checking first

[Gern]

The wear on this is totally believable to me. I know this is totally fictitious but bear with me…..this is how I see it, and yes, I’ve woken up far too early and have nothing better to do. None of this is supposed to detract from what I think is a cracking build full of ingenuity and genuine skill, it’s just the random musing of an overactive mind

The area of operations of a craft like this would probably be planetary orbit or local space (think of carrier warfare in space). It’s not suited to deep space flight on its own, simply because the crew don’t have enough room to move around much. In addition to which any spacecraft moving between star systems would be incredibly unlucky to encounter another craft simply because of the unimaginable distances involved. The areas in which it will operate will therefore have debris fields, especially in a warfare situation.

A developed planet, like our own already does, will have a debris field of space junk surrounding it. This junk comes from big things like life expired satellites right down to small things discarded bolts and even paint flakes. Basically flying through this field will be like moving through a hail of machine gun bullets that are moving around twenty times faster than those fired by a gun. Combat will just make this worse because damage and destruction of the combatants causes more bits of junk to fly off and add to this field. Even a near space battlefield, such as between planetary systems, will briefly be a debris field until the debris disperses.

Flying through this debris field will therefore cause impact damage and wear on surfaces exactly like that shown by Andy. So, great job Andy :thumb2::thumb2:

Agree. They've got to operate in a gravity field or they can't turn corners.

[The Smythe Meister]

I made a basic stand from bits of sprue and some textured black paint:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1221479[/ATTACH]

After much thought about the colour I decided on red, similar to the image I'm using for inspiration. I want to go for heavily chipped and beaten up so went overboard with the shading & highlights, knowing they'd be toned down by later stages.

I used AK acrylics, working through various shades: Black Red, Dirty Red, Carmine, Blood Red.

I've also used several different metallics, some out of the bottle, some mixed by me, but it's still early stages with plenty of work left to do.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1221485[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1221486[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1221487[/ATTACH]

Just caught up with this one Andy,as the guys have said, it's looking superb,top stuff mate :thumb2:

[Guest]

They've got to operate in a gravity field or they can't turn corners.

How do you figure that? In a vacuum, such as space, a craft needs thrusters to change the direction it’s pointing in because there is nothing it can push against like an aircraft in atmosphere does. Gravity doesn’t come into making turns unless you’re trying to “slingshot” around a moon or a planet.

[Andy T]

Well this has taken an unexpected turn. I feel like I have to justify why my imaginary lump of plastic looks the way it does, after being thrown together from bits & bobs in the style of an AI generated image.

Wow. Just wow.

[Gern]

How do you figure that? :smiling3: In a vacuum, such as space, a craft needs thrusters to change the direction it’s pointing in because there is nothing it can push against like an aircraft in atmosphere does. Gravity doesn’t come into making turns unless you’re trying to “slingshot” around a moon or a planet.

I should have said some sort of force field that the space ship thrusters could 'push' against. A gravity field was the first one I thought of.

Let's say your ship is travelling due North and you want to travel East. You put your side thrusters on and start to move Eastwards. But you are still travelling North at your original speed so the actual direction you'd be travelling would be something like Northeast. To complete the turn to the East, you have to face your thrusters North to slow your speed Northwards to zero.

I think! :upside:

[Gern]

Well this has taken an unexpected turn. I feel like I have to justify why my imaginary lump of plastic looks the way it does, after being thrown together from bits & bobs in the style of an AI generated image.

Wow. Just wow.

Don't worry about it Andy. If it looks good enough for Star Wars, which it surely does, it's good enough for us!

[Neil Merryweather]

Well this has taken an unexpected turn. I feel like I have to justify why my imaginary lump of plastic looks the way it does, after being thrown together from bits & bobs in the style of an AI generated image.

Wow. Just wow.

You have to take that as big compliment!

[Tim Marlow]

Well this has taken an unexpected turn. I feel like I have to justify why my imaginary lump of plastic looks the way it does, after being thrown together from bits & bobs in the style of an AI generated image.

Wow. Just wow.

Certainly not my intention. I was just saying why I thought the wear looked right and added to the build. No justification required for me. I think it looks great. I just wish I had that amount of skill and imagination Andy.

[minitnkr]

Well, I stand corrected. Great job Andy.

[Guest]

I should have said some sort of force field that the space ship thrusters could 'push' against. A gravity field was the first one I thought of.

Ah, OK

Let's say your ship is travelling due North and you want to travel East. You put your side thrusters on and start to move Eastwards. But you are still travelling North at your original speed so the actual direction you'd be travelling would be something like Northeast. To complete the turn to the East, you have to face your thrusters North to slow your speed Northwards to zero.

Yep, pretty much. This is what most SF movies etc. fail to take into account at all, and have spaceships move as if they’re aircraft in atmosphere. Much of this is thanks to George Lucas, BTW, whose main inspiration for the space-fights in Star Wars was dogfight footage from old war movies

If you’re after TV or movie science-fiction that has a much more realistic take on spaceflight and combat, probably the best is The Expanse:

[Guest]

I feel like I have to justify why my imaginary lump of plastic looks the way it does

Not at all, as far as I’m concerned — just philosophising a bit about how spaceships work, inspired by your model