Corellian Cruiser Resilient

mung · Jan 3, 2020

I think I have completed the detailing of the sides.
In order to conveniently work on the side surfaces I built a cradle to support the model at an appropriate angle from some scrap plywood and pine.
The cradle allowed me to arrange the major detail parts without them sliding about and falling off.
Once the layout of the parts formed a pleasing composition I was then able to commit to gluing them in place.

The angled front and rear side sections on the main hull are for the most part symmetrical whereas the two sides are different from each other.
You can only make symmetrical sides if you have enough parts that have a mirror image twin.
I find mirrored parts are usually less common in my stash so where possible I will make non symetrical detail and in the case of the left and right sides where they can never be seen at the same time it really doesn't matter and its more fun to do.

Most of the pipework was my usual single core Pvc sheathed electrical wire with the largest diameter piping using Hobby King solid ABS rod heat bent to shape with a hot air gun. A lot of the big detail chunks were from the hoard of broken Transformer toys I was given.
The rest of the detail is the usual mix of kit parts, various thicknesses of styrene sheet and evergreen strips and textured sheet.

There is just the hammer head section to go along with a small amount to add to the engines and that should should bring the construction phase to an end.
I wont know for sure until the primer goes on and reveals if any further work is required.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

seeadler · Jan 3, 2020

mung said:
I flipped the model over and resumed working on the top again.
I have been trying to finish the communications tower and I think it's done.
I sprayed some grey primer just to make sure.
The whole communication tower assembly has been made removable for safer transport in the future.
It has a number of small and fragile antenna arrays.
It is held onto the model with a strong magnet near the front and a small lip that mates with a tab at the rear.

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Thanks for looking.
More soon...

I find your work very inspiring! I'd love to know which kit did u use for the antennas array

mung · Jan 3, 2020

I'd love to know which kit did u use for the antennas array

Seeadler, I do not know precisely where every part came from because when I get a kit these days I cut them from the sprues and store them in categorised boxes for easy access and a more efficient use of storage space, throwing the kit boxes into the recycling.
However referring back to the pictures of the unpainted antennae array on page 2 of this thread, to the best of my knowledge the antennae consists of the following.

The yellow base is from a transformers toy from a boxfull of broken transformer toys I was given which I disassembled into their constituent parts.

The tower continues with a Tamiya 1/350 battleship central island superstructure piece from either a New Jersey or possibly a Yamato. I had both these kits but not being a military buff I couldn't tell you which one it came from they are very similar.
The small grey oblong parabolic dish at the rear top of the tower and the rear mid way antennae thingy are also from either of these battleship kits.

The main dish is from a battery powered push light I get from the hardware store. They come in two sizes, this is the smaller one. They are made of hard styrene and I cut the edges away leaving the dish shape.

Above is the large size still in its packaging, below shows the the two sizes together the smaller being the one used here.
The larger is about 115mm across the dome not including the rim and the smaller 80mm.

You can see from the picture below that once dissembled the dish part has sides that need to be cut away.
The outer rim can also be used.
In fact the circular shape in front of the Antennae array on the top of the Resilient model uses the large sized rim from one of these push lights.

They are a lot cheaper than the equivalent EMA hemispherical vessel head part and one of the main criteria for my model making is cost. I am always on the lookout for economical solutions.
I have come across nasty even cheaper ones made from polypropylene which is the soft waxy plastic that is unable to be glued painted or sanded so is of no use to the model maker.
The central ribbed cone in the dish is I think a part from the Pilgrim Observer model kit.
The stalk is a bit of brass tube with some helicopter swash plate parts probably from a Heller Super Frelon 1/35 kit which was the basis for a previous kit bash project which can be found here on the RPF.

The chrome plated side dishes and the rear mini dishes are also from the Pilgrim Observer. There are a lot of interesting shapes for kit bashing in this kit. The chrome plated flat rectangular antennae on the top was also from this kit. It has since however broken off. I knew this would happen, it was an act of extreme optimism to put it there in the first place. Its not going to return.

The arms that hold the small side dishes (sounds like a buffet) are made from styrene sheet and covered with random small parts. The arms are attached to a black part again from an unknown transformer toy.

The two dark grey square shaped vents at the rear of the yellow base are from the Wave U-Vernier parts. You can find a bunch of relatively cheap useful detail parts made for superdetailing Gunpla mech kits from Wave, Kotobukiya and Bandai. I get them from a specialist Gunpla hobby store and when they are having a sale, online from Hobby Link Japan.

That's about all I can usefully offer as the rest is just Evergreen strips and random parts from a small kit part stash amassed over many years. I hope that helps.
By the way I love answering questions about my process so thanks for asking.

seeadler · Jan 4, 2020

Wow Thank you very much! The idea of using battery powered push light pieces for the dish is real gold. And the hint on the Heller Super Frelon 1/35 is also much appreciated

mung · Feb 8, 2020

The construction phase on the Resilient Corellian Cruiser project is now complete.
The model is in grey primer from head to toe and the painting phase is about to commence.

It shouldn't be 5 months before I finish the paint job on this like it was for the Moebius-1 project.
I have already done a colour rough in photoshop for the paint scheme.
I am planning to finish this model before I start on the next.
It will be gratifying to have two newly finished projects early in the year, ready for Wasmex and SupaNova.
I dont think I finished anything in 2019 so 2020 is starting out well.

Thanks for looking.
More soon...

gedmac66 · Feb 8, 2020

Absolutely stunning !

SofaKing01 · Feb 10, 2020

MMMMMMMM Primer!

Jaitea · Feb 10, 2020

I love it,...so much to look at

J

Analyzer · Feb 11, 2020

I love all the odds and end source objects you used for parts

Amazing build all around and the primer really brings it all together

Carnet · Feb 11, 2020

Now that's a star wars ship! What a great model!

Talaris · Feb 11, 2020

Looking really nice, I’ll remember to keep checking in!

Constantine · Feb 13, 2020

Fantastic work and so greebelicious!

Howard Day · Feb 13, 2020

Oh, man - I love it! Just great work, and I love watching the models go from patchwork parts to cohesive whole. Excellent. Can't wait to see more!

jake88 · Feb 13, 2020

Amazing detail! I freakin love it!

Attirex · Feb 14, 2020

One of the few prequel ships I like--can't wait to see final painting/weathering! Keep going!

mung · Mar 7, 2020

This has been the most time spent on a paint job for any of my models ever.

I think I spent six full days on it over the past month.
This is down to my attempt to improve my paint finishes while adopting a new (for me) technique.
My old technique mostly relied on using car primer and where anything other than grey or white was required car paint acrylic lacquer spray cans.
The weathering consisted of a liberal wash of Tamiya flat black diluted with methylated spirits (alcohol) which I always called poo juice. When dry this was wiped off with a rag dabbed with methylated spirit cleaning off the high spots and leaving the crevices dark. This was then followed up with a dry brush pass of white students acrylic paint and that was it.
It was a pretty rapid process developed during the very short period of my VFX model making days when stuff had to be done quick and look good for the camera ending up on film. The old rule of thumb was that the camera would only see what you can if you really scrunch up your eyes and squint at the model, which essentially means a lot of detail is lost and the weathering has to be really exaggerated to show up at all.

Times have moved on. Models if used at all in filmaking these days would be photographed digitally and not on film and my models are now occasionally exhibited and therefore may be seen by the naked human eye.

I wanted to be able to paint panels in varying shades of a similar hue so I decided to try out acrylic hobby paints with an oil paint based weathering system.
I started dabbling in this process in the previous project, the Moebius-1 but in this this project I took it a bit further.
Starting with the primer grey and masking off a few areas I wanted to keep light grey, I sprayed the base colour, red oxide car primer from a spray can. I got the underside done and then after starting on the top side the can valve started playing up with paint coming up from under the nozzle. I kept having to wrap bits of rag around under the nozzle to prevent the paint from splashing about all over the place. It progressively got worse and worse and with much frustration and copious swearing I eventually had to spray the left over paint into an airbrush jar and attempt to finish it with my airbrush.
It was a total nightmare and I had lots of primer drying in the air and causing a furry surface. After dry I had to try and retrieve the poor paint surface on the top of the model. I used a scotch brite dish scourer to remove all the fuzz which had the result of making a very faded and weathered looking finish where the underlying grey primer started to peak through. I followed this up with some plastic polish to try and get some of the colour saturation back in the red oxide primer.
In the end I managed to repair the situation and proceed with the panel colour variations.

Ive been watching a number of tank and figure painting tutorials to get some idea of how you use these hobby acrylics and came across the wet palette concept to prevent the paints drying out so fast.
I made one from a sealed sandwich box and some paper towel and baking paper. It works extremely well and I could sit outside all day painting the 3 different panel colours which were made up from a MIG Ammo rust set, mixing the desired colour shifts on the wet palette.
I started applying these shades by masking and airbrushing but then tried to see if I could do it by brushing which would be quicker. Brushing seemed to work fine over the small panels, gave more modulation in the tone than airbrushing and was considerably faster.

Once the acrylic colours were down and dry I mixed up a mix of burnt and raw umber oil paint with odourless thinners and made a wash. It was applied as a pin wash with a fine brush around all the raised detail. This drys in a pleasing dirty but warm colour staying in all the crevices and grooves and works particularly well with the red oxide colour of the panels.
In the grey areas I found although it had a pleasing warm tone it wasn't dark enough. I am used to my Tamiya wash (poo juice) which stains the grey primer a darker colour where as the oil paint does not. Eventually I added some Tamiya wash over the grey ares to darken them up a shade which was what I was originally hoping for.

The other thing I discovered about my old technique is that the white drybrushing only works on grey It didn't really work on the mainly red colouration. I ended up adding a hand painted orange scratchy edge around every panel to simulate wear and tear. After spending nearly 2 days on this it dawned on me that maybe I could drybrush orange students acrylic on the red oxide bits. I actually had a tube of some and tried it out and it worked a treat to tie it all together.

So it has been an interesting exercise and I have learnt a lot about paint finishes and weathering and hopefully have improved my work just that little bit.

I am relieved that it is now done and ready for the model shows coming up this year.
This model was commenced in a somewhat different form in 1999 just after I had seen Star Wars Episode One.
Here we are in 2020, 21 years later and it is finally done.