First Commission Job

I've put work on my build of Serenity on hold for a while.  I recently started work on my first commission job. I've always just built for myself, so it's an interesting challenge. My client is building a fleet of 1/4222 scale ships, and has sent me two subjects in that scale to work on.  The first is the Star Wars Action Fleet Acclamator.  I have already converted this toy for my own collection, but this time I'm really going to go all out on the detailing.

This toy is very reasonably detailed for a toy and just happens to be in the right scale, but it needs a little help.  It has massive landing gear that hangs on the bottom, and the back two don't retract. Step one, remove them with the Dremel and cover with styrene.

New Styrene covers:

 I also needed to cut off the front screw hold, and cover up the front landing gear as well:

 I added two small guns to the bottom to cover up the holes for the plastic ties the help the toy to the packaging, I also sanded off the "made in China" and LFL copyright writing.

 I am adding small styrene strip over the armor panels on the top to add some detail, this is a slow task and a pain, but it looks great in the end.

 Detailed up the troop doors:

 A before and after shot of the side trenches, adding lots of detail here as well:

 More plastic bits! I'm also going to add more wire and detail to the engines.

The second kit I'm working on is the 1/4222 .jpg Drednaught. It's a small but great little kit. I didn't like the detail on the radar dishes, so I made my own.

This kit is hollow cast, which is very nice if you add lights to your kits.

 A comparison of the kit radar dishes and my new ones.

Finished build the Dreadnaught really quick, just need to get some paint on it now!

I still have a good bit of work to go, but this is shaping up to be a fun project.  More to come!

Serenity: 1/288 Firefly

Firefly was one of the best, and tragically short lived science fiction shows ever made. Serenity, a Firefly class transport, is the main ship of the series and while she may never win a beauty contest, is non-the-less one of the coolest ships ever.  Serenity also had a cameo in the new Battlestar Galactica series

This is my build up the the 1/288 Stargazer kit.  It's mostly resin but does include some thin wire and styrene for pipes and some sheet styrene for the solar panels. At a first glance this model is very good, at seems very accurate to the CG model used on the show.

What you get:

 I had a few issues with my casting of this kit, nothing serious and should all be very easy to fix. There are a few air bubbles on the main engine part:

 And some thick resin pour stubs:

 Here it looks like maybe the mold is going out, on both sides there is resin that will need to be drilled out for the wings to fit:

 One of the cool features on this kit, removable shuttles:

 They don't quite fit flush, but a little sanding work should fix that nicely:

 These are parts for the landing gear and wing details. I don't like how these were cast as one "part". I will have to sand them down to remove the excess thickness, and then cut them out of the resin chunk they were cast in.

I found a website with some amazing renders of Serenity. Painting this used, beat-up ship is going to be a real challenge. At this point I'm not really sure where I'm going to start, but my airbrush is going to get a workout.

1/72 XJ X-Wing: Finished

Here is the last of the WIP pics of the XJ. You can see the scratch built cannons, resin cast parts for the lower cannons, and all the added styrene detail bits.

Finished pics:

View of all three Proton Torpedo launchers:

XJ class next to "Red 5" X-Wing

Expanded universe fighters:

1/72 Snowspeeder: Finished

 Finally got around to finished my 1/72 scale RetroKit Snowspeeder.  Not much to say really, fantastic kit. It's got a lot of great detail, just a giant pain to get cleaned up and ready to put together. I used the standard Rouge Squadron paint job from the Battle of Hoth, and added clear plastic to the canopy for windows.  Enjoy!

Just a quick comparison shot with the old Fantastic Plastic kit. Both are said to be 1/72 scale, but I think the RetroKit Snowspeeder is closer.

1/72 XJ X-Wing

The XJ X-Wing was a fighter introduced in the book "Vector Prime".  The idea behind it was that the New Republic fighters loved the old X-Wing fighter, but at 30 + years of service it could no longer perform against newer fighters.  The "XJ" was an upgraded version of the venerable fighter, that kept many of the same design aesthetics, but with updated tech.  

I'm building my XJ for a group build over at Keeper of the Force.  There has never been an official picture of the XJ class, but the books offer a vague description that includes a third proton torpedo launcher, and upgraded engines and intakes. I am basing my build of a 1/48 model built by Alfred Wong. This build is starting with a 1/72 Fine Molds X-Wing, some 1/72 F 16 intakes, the Cosmos Models upgrade set and some plain sheet styrene.

Cosmos Upgrade set:

I had to sand the kit sides flat for the new intakes:

 Cut the wing boxes off and replaces with styrene:

  

Notched the intakes and detailed:

 

The Cosmos droid strip replacement, I added the R2 unit from the FM kit:

 

 New proton torpedo launchers:

 

 

New Profile:

 

 

Still need to detail the wings, finish the other side and work something for the new engines. More to come.