Thursday, September 14, 2017

I've begun scratch building the anti-gravity engine of my Sci-Fi project

After a bit of a delay, I have started scratch building the engine of my science-fiction scale model diorama. I had two or three weeks between finishing the seascape base and starting the actual ship where I just couldn't get stuck in. Partly it was due to a visit from my Father-in-Law who came to stay with us for the first week of September (it's hard to excuse yourself to go off and build models when you have guests staying with you...) and partly it was that I was slightly daunted by the idea of starting the scratch build.


Scratch building is a little daunting. You look at a mess of bits and pieces, plastic bottles and chunks from old printers, and you think to yourself "Now how the hell do I make this into something?"

All I can offer as advice is: just do it. Get stuck in. You can over-think it for weeks and months, always looking for one more piece to add, or you can just start it and adapt as you go. Once you start, the inertia-killing big-picture boogieman of "How do I do this?" is slain and you'll find yourself thinking more about the fun details: "How do I make that one little piece?" or "What would look convincing attached to the bit I just built?"

Here is where I am at as of tonight.

This is the basic engine, as seen from below.

Scratch building an engine on a scale model 

Scratch building an engine on a scale model
Lots and lots of pipes and details still to be added.

And here is the engine, mounted inside the hull.

Scratch building an engine on a scale model

I must say, I'm enjoying working with a transparent hull. It's making it so much easier to see how large assemblies will fit inside the main frame. I wish all aircraft fuselages came as transparent plastic, it would make fettling the bits inside so much easier!

The jet thruster bit made out of a leftover 1/32 radial engine was an adaptation, it wasn't in my original plans.


Original plans from November 2016.


But I decided on the fly that it needed it, otherwise all the detailed engine-y goodness would be visible only at the very bottom, and hard to see once its mounted to the base. Adapting, thinking and creating as you go - that's the essence of scratch building, that's the fun of it. I love it.

Anyway, it's good to have made a start, I'm enjoying thinking about what bit to add next. Stay tuned, more updates to come as it progresses.

Cheers,

Dave


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