PS Fae Mk II

[Scotaidh]

More of the Plates In Space Challenge - my second supporting craft.  Since I had two bowls, I kinda had to make two craft, yes?  In the backgrounds of the pictures you will see lots of bits and pieces.  I array them to stimulate my imagination and to keep the question "Where can I use this?" in the forefront of my thoughts.  I may never use the bits - but this way they have a sporting chance, so to speak.


These are the geneses of the PS Fae Mk I and Mk II. I obtained them from a party supply store, about a week before the Super Bowl. I believe their intended purpose was to hold finger-foods for a party - nuts, chocolates, M&Ms, and so on. I think the usual fate of these things, once the party is over, is to be tossed into the trash - job done. I have elevated them to a new existence, a new state of being, if you will. They will now live in the glorious company of other scratch-builds and kit-bashes in my display case, haloed by the built-in lighting - a source of pleasurable memories and nostalgia.


The hover/anti-grav system is a bit of a different arrangement from that of the Mk I version. This was actually my second try at putting the hexagons on straight - somehow my so-called centre line wasn't - leading to catastrophic results. I had to pry them all off and start again.  This time I aligned all the hexes on upside-down cellotape - it worked much better. The landing gear is also different - this set was robbed from a Huey model.


Side view, and better view of the propulsion system. That's a dollar-store salt shaker with a ear-examiner cone stuck through the end - more details on that in later pics.


There were three small holes in the shaker lid, and I was going to leave them, but the hole for the cone ate into the wee holes.


Inside is the support structure for the engine/propulsor/mekitgo - it's the cut-off handle of one of those (also dollar-store) Chinese soup-spoons - the bowl of the spoon is currently part of the PFT Phaeton. Now to add a fire-wall and some creative paint-work - and then we'll see.


I have added entry ports, installed the engine, and the sensor package on the roof


In the background are the completed anti-boarding turrets for the Phaeton. I'd thought of adding them to the Fae, but Muggins 'ere made them too big. Some alternate form of armament will be obtained - when I think it up. :-)


As you can see, the engine area is a little plain - I'll look for some gubbins to add there.


The Fae seemed a little bare, so I've added some 'wings'.


The touch-up paint is from the same tin (or so I believe) as the original coat - but, it's darker ... puzzlin' that, very.  Also, the orange thing-a-ma-bobs aren't really doing it for me ...
At this point, I felt I needed a new direction - the subsequent pictures kinda document that.  I also decided that one green Fae was enough - this one will be more desert-scheme.
Warning - there's a gap in the picture stream.  If you feel you really need to see them, they can be found on the SSM site, in the Plates In Space thread.


This is my take on a weapons' pylon. It's a large Plastruct I-beam, with - as you can see - chunks of angle iron attached to make it vaguely aerodynamic. (OK, I know they don't, but I think it looks better than just a flat front.)      I have loaded the pylon with some ordnance of my own devising ...


I was trying for a SNEB/Matra rocket type of pod inboard. Outboard is something I whipped up from the greebly box. It seems to be a bunker-buster type of rocket. On the end of the pylon is a double missile mount - more on those later.


Head-on ... I guess it would be a bit fuzzy/out of focus if one were on the receiving end of this lot. (Sorry for the picture quality - this truly is the best of the three I did of this aspect.) BTW, parts. The rocket pod body is a hex-piece from a mini-blind control rod, with a conical Lego on the front, with putty filling the hole. The bunker buster is a hypo-needle cover, with a pen's push-top at the back, with two small O-rings separated by some tubing pieces to add body to the missile.


Another rocket pod - does anyone have any ideas on how to make the holes for the rockets, short of a machine shop set-up? The outboard thing is either an anti-radiation missile or a sensor pod - I haven't decided yet.


You already know the constituent pieces of the rocket pod. The anti-radiation missile central (ribbed) part is a Lego that I drilled out to accept the Warp engine from a very small Enterprise. I cut the engine in two and added a tube on the back. I've been thinking I need to paint the forward end red ... Why, no - nothing is sacred; why do you ask?


The missiles in the background will go on the pylon-end rails - they're Red Tops from a Lightning kit, but I'm calling them "Sandstorms". The gatlings are from a toy (from a thrift-store) and are planned to go inboard of the rocket pods. The orange things are lancets I swiped from ... somewhere. (I've super-glued them into immobility, so no-one will get hurt. ) I haven't decided if they will be used - perhaps in an over-pylon mount, as sensor pods.


Pylon in place, gatlings added. The engines/gubbins aloft have been giving me fits, trying to find greeblies that 'work' and don't look dumb.


Rear view of the engines/gubbins aloft. I may add more there later - depends on what I can find, and what 'fits'. That said, I really feel that the aft end of the pylon needs more ... 'cowbell', to quote someone or other. I'll have to see what sacrificial wing panels I have lurking about.


I found my 'cowbell'! :-) I found some plastic angles, intended to reinforce soft edges under strapping, as used in industry to hold stuff to pallets. With some judicious surgery, they have become my flappy things - <koff> elevons<koff> - on the trailing edge of the ESP - external stores pylon. I'm going to say their purpose is to allow precise control of the craft's angle of attack during stores delivery runs.


As you can see, I need to do a little touching up - the final camouflage colours chosen and applied, the rocket exhausts to be metalized or blackened, depending on if multiple use (rocket pods) or not (missiles). Speaking of which, I'm still trying to decide if I need the AA missiles - they almost seem a bit much, at this stage. What do you think? Your opinions are welcome.


Also trying to decide if I need more greeblies up top - there's a fine line between "done" and "too much". OTOH, Uncle Dimitry says that if it's worth breaking, it's worth breaking a lot. Maybe some antennae ... hmmmm.




Leopard-spot desert camouflage seemed "right" to me for this craft. I went with a square doodad between the primary intakes.


For those interested, the base coat is Humbrol's Mid Stone; the spots are Dark Earth and Brown Bess. I decided against the anti-air missiles - they seemed too much, given the current ordnance load-out. I know it's Sci-Fi, but we do try to 'keep it real' ... don't we?
The pylon-end tubes thus have a new job - reaction jets for attitude/yaw control, allowing ultra-fine point-control for gunnery purposes.
Anyway - I'm calling this model officially "Done".

[zenrat]

 

Fantastic.  I have a couple of boxes of greebles but never seem to do anything with them.

[Old Wombat]

Got a really good cartoon/comic book vibe going on here!

I have a couple of boxes of greebles but never seem to do anything with them.

I have a couple of storage bins, some boxes & a few drawers full of 'em waiting for my "pure" Sci Fi mojo to kick in.

It has, unfortunately, been dormant for a good six or seven years, now.

[NARSES2]

One just has to  to the ingenuity of it all 

[Scotaidh]

 Thank-you, all.  The Fae were a distraction - a mental rest - from my main Plates In Space build, the PS Phaeton.  That one is still in progress, but the deadline is September, so it'll be done soon (I hope).

I have totes of greeblies (literally) - I get "beggered for choice," as my sister likes to say.  I pick up plastic as I go about my day.  Some of my most important finds were the tilt-swivels that used to be under those large CRT computer monitors - remember those?  The plastic is very model-glue friendly; the shapes lend themselves to chassis, etc.  These days my most important greebly source is the cafeteria at work - they have black plastic flatware.  The spoons are are a gold-mine. 

One of my most important greebly sources was the Iron Modeler thing at Wonderfest.  I'd volunteer to clean up afterwards, and take home more greeblies than I brought! Best of all, they weren't the ones I brought - they were brand-new-to-me greeblies.   

(Pontification Alert!  Iron Modeler - a timed team build of "something sci-fi" using a mystery part unveiled at the start of the time.  Teams are two-three people.  Price of admission is a copier-paper box full of greeblies.  There must be a back-story.  Winner is by applause.    The boxes of greeblies are dumped on a central table for common use.  Those greeblies, the Mystery Piece, and, of course, glue & paint, are all that the teams are permitted to use in their build.  It's a fun, frantic four hours, for those of you who haven't done it.  Frankly, it is the main reason I go to Wonderfest.)

I always seem to end up with bowls of possible parts scattered around my work-bench, which is its own disaster area ...  Glues, paint tins/bottles, the tools I used last, emery boards, files, are all intermixed with oddly-shaped plastic bits and bobs.  I guess it's a system, of sorts.   

[Old Wombat]

Sounds like my workspace under normal conditions!