Scarab

[Weaver]

Okay, ROUGH diorama mockup:



Here's the plot. The Scarab crew (pilot, two scientists and a biffo (bodyguard)) are surveying for minerals. On this planet, there are large snail-like grazing animals (the green "shells" in the middle) which follow trails of particular vegetation, burning it off and digesting it with acids, which leaves trails of bare soil in their wake. Glittering mineral deposits can be seen in these trails, so the crew are following a pair of Shells to what they hope is the motherlode.

However, the Shells have led them to a ruined artifact. On a grassy bank (it WILL be a bank, not the vertical you see here) stand two wrecked gun turrets, obviously set up to defend the circular stone structure in the middle. There are signs that the slope is part artifical, part natural, indicating that it's been fortified. Behind the turrets are two clear towers, which might have contained sensors. One turret and tower are more-or-less intact, but the other has been heavily damaged by a weapon which has caved in the slope and caused the tower to lean. This tower is also badly cracked and has plants growing right through it. There is a crater in the forground with garishly coloured plants growing in it, and one of the Shells has taken a swerve around it, the track revealing that soil beneath the non-favoured vegetation is a different colour.

All the hardwear is heavily corroded and overgrown, except the stone ring, which is pristine and has a ring or dead grass around it. Looking down into it, all that can be seen is eldritch, swirling blackness......

In case you're wondering, the turrets are milk-bottle caps, the gun barrels are Maped-brand retractable stick-erasers, the transparent towers are a giant pen sold with other pens inside it, the Shells (which I might replace with pure Milliput sculptures) are Maped pencil sharpeners, and the stone ring comes from the Burger King toy which I vandalised to get the figures for the Panther-Pink Panther Plane:



Now I really need to crack on with the Scarab, so that at least one element of this has a chance of being finished for the deadline......

[Ed S]

Looking good.  I'm looking forward to more of this one.

Ed

[Mossie]

Don't why, but I'm getting a 'Logan's run' feel to this.  Looks good so far Weave, looking forward to more!

[nev]

I'm getting more of a Mass Effect opening level vibe.  Either way this looks 7 kinds of awesome and you've officially got my intrest!

[Brian da Basher]

What an incredible project! The diorama looks like it has the potential to be a real show-stopper!

I really like your uncanny ability to find just the right part from such a variety of objects.

Brian da Basher

[Weaver]

What an incredible project! The diorama looks like it has the potential to be a real show-stopper!

I really like your uncanny ability to find just the right part from such a variety of objects.

Brian da Basher

Cheers Brian, but you give me too much credit. Actually, I assembled a collection of likely-looking objects (not a quarter of which I'm actually using in this one) and then concocted a scenario that used a few of them. For instance, the gun-turrets wern't in the plan at all until after I found the milk-bottle keepers. If I'd found, oh I don't know, a calculator that looked like a tank, say, the diorama would be very different.

[Weaver]

Made a little progress on the interior, but still painfully slow. However I did get a bunch of new materials today, including Humbrol Metallic Midnight Blue paint, which looks perfect for the shell colour, and some bits from Sainsbury's which include a promising dome:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,26614.new.html#new

I've also found a sprue of Minitanks windscreens which will make nice "floating" computer displays instead of solid screens. They just need a thin bar at one edge to obscure the moulded-in windscreen wiper (there is ALWAYS a catch.... )

[Eddie M.]

Very intriguing! Looking forward to your progress.

[Jschmus]

I'm getting more of a Mass Effect opening level vibe.

Thanks, Nev!  Now I'm getting flashbacks of Eden Prime.   

[Weaver]

Very intriguing! Looking forward to your progress.

Cheers - so am I.........

Slight progress on the interior, including a decision to use one of the stamper spheres complete as a cockpit "bubble": totally impractical but very retro-cool and in keeping with the spherical consoles (push pins) to either side of it.

[Weaver]

Real world problems continue to make progress painfully slow on this, compounded by the resulting demoralisation (vicious circle). I strongly suspect that it won't be done for the revised deadline, and that annoys me no end.

Anyway, here's the progress, such as it is, so far:





The interior looks more spacious than it really is here, because some of the features are attached to the upper shell. The console chairs to either side of the pilot bubble swivel, as does the clear table, and the seat next to it slides along a pivoting arm (not clever enough to make it swivel as well though). The idea is that it swings forward and locks during "rough going" but then unlocks and swings/swivels to let a scientist work at the clear table and bench on the curved section in front of the engine bulkhead.




Roof detail. The pillar hanging down from the droid socket will have a microscope-style viewer that hovers over the clear table and a clear viewscreen, both on arms. Currently debating whether or not to make them swivel.







Buttoned up and hard to photograph. Another thing I'm still debating whether to use the full pilot globe or just the upper half with an elevating seat. The former looks cool, but it eats a hell of a lot of space. Either way, the pilot will have floating clear touch-screens rather than a sold dash. These and the spherical pods will have decals to represent their controls. bear in mind that the standing figure is on a fairly thick base, so overhead clearance would be slightly greater than it seems here.

Interior colour will probably be light stone, with orange seat foam and white details. If I go with the globe, the bottom half will be black on the inside, the implication being that an image of the outside world can be projected onto it, thus making the ship "invisible" to the pilot.

A paint test for the outside colour didn't go so well - more thought required.......

[Eddie M.]

Thank looks outstanding!! Regardless of when it's done, it's still gonna be super cool!! I wish I had that type of spatial design ability.

[Weaver]

Thank looks outstanding!! Regardless of when it's done, it's still gonna be super cool!! I wish I had that type of spatial design ability.

Cheers Eddie! I'd love to be able to take credit for "spatial design ability", but to be honest, I'm just making it up as I go along. The pillars for the pod-consoles were already there, as was the one for the table, and the droid socket. The cutout in the floor is the shape it is "'cos it looked cool", but it causes all sorts of problems with access to globe and around the sides, where the walkway space is just a bit too narrow....

[nev]

What Eddie says.  This is too awesome to be rushed.  Take your time and pick up a whiffie in 2010

[Ed S]

This is looking good.  Lots of great ideas in this.  Although I do wonder about the glob of blue goo holding the pilot's seat.  Is that some sort of organic moveable seat mount?   



Ed