Thought you folks might like to see this?
I had a table at a local comic convention last Sunday, displaying my scratchbuilt hardware and original sculpts.
I also had a build challenge, in that i had from 11.00 till 3.00 to build a craft, paint it, decal and weather it, and then it'd go into the raffle.
Thought that'd be plenty of time - but never factored in that i'd have to stop what i was doing to explain to people the ins and outs of different craft.
Anyway, the main shape is provided by two hairdryers from Tescos:
Reason being, while we were in a hotel last month, i noticed the hairdryer hanging from the wall and thought "hmmm, with that curved main part and swept back handle, it looks like a Flash Gordon-style aircracft. If i put another handle on the other side, it'd look kind of neat."
So i'd remembered that, and bought the two, cut off and glued one handle to the other dryer and P38'd the join.
And that's what i had with me first thing:
But my initial idea of something very Flash Gordon, with a vibrant colour to match went out the window as i figured, what with not too mutch time for the build, i'd have to leave it in the very fast drying Halfords Grey Primer.
So, a grim and gritty ship then.
Here you can see i've added a rear area:
The main white bits are two sections from the Saturn V kit, there's a funnel for an engine bell at the end of them, some spare Fine Molds X-Wing engine cowls, the usual cable ties in places, the even more usual sticky gems for blobby detail - and a fin up top.
Part of why i like scratchbuilds so much is how a craft can evolve and change over the course of its construction.
Case in point here - the grill at the front was originally going to be a sort of weird cockpit window but, as i elongated the hull, it looked more and more to me like a submarine and the grill a sort of water inlet, as the craft sucks in water at the front and squishes out of the back, like a squid.
Its a submarine then thinks i, and plops an aircraft wing up top to sort of evoke a sharks fin kind of affair.
You can see things a bit better at the primer stage:
I was starting to panic when i took this shot as i had less than half an hour to go.
At 15 mins to go, i'd done the decaling and weathering and put on a coat of Matt Varnish.
At 5 mins to go i was just starting to put on rusty washes.
And i handed it over to the guy to put it in the raffle with it literally dripping brown paint.
Anway, here it is in the hands of girl who won it in the raffle: