A Star Wars Whif: The "I.C.S. Ventura" (privatized Venator Class Star Destroyer)

Dizzyfugu · August 14, 2012, 01:23:37 AM

This is the result of a group build of the German SF modeling forum of www.phoxim.de. It is a long-term project which I joined in Oct. 2011 with a perspective to have the model kit ready in August 2012 for the next "Space Days" in Darmstadt, Germany, one of the major European SF genre conventions (<a href="http://www.spacedays.de" rel="nofollow">www.spacedays.de</a>). Actually, that's next weekend...

All GB participants will build a Venator class model kit (or a vague interpretation of it!), and the (mass of) results will be displayed at the convention. The basis for everyone was the Revell SnapFit kit - my project is a conversion of an ex-Republican Star Destroyer into a privately-owned leisure cruising ship, late Republican/late Clone Wars era or even a bit later, when the military Venator class ships were replaced by more modern Imperial ships (e .g. ISDs). This is plausible, since official sources claim that this actually happened in the SW timeline. Who knows, somewhere in the Outer Rim...?

I am not much into SW, so the kit is rather a fantasy product - I normally do not build spae ships, and the size of this thing was a challenge in itself for me!
I was inspired by Oceanliners and the luxury they offer. Many detail ideas were incorporated and much more things improvised, e. g. the light with an LED book shelf light element, visitor ships from a tabletop game, a tennis court (to 1:2256 scale!) under a clear cookie blister, etc.

WiP took several months, and I will just post (some) beauty pics of the finished thing.
More pics and a vast WiP (more than 100 pics with comments) can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dizzyfugu/sets/72157627871172215/

Enjoy and discover:

1:2256 "I.C.S. Ventura" - phoxim.de's Star Wars Venator Group Build (Beauty pic) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:2256 "I.C.S. Ventura" - phoxim.de's Star Wars Venator Group Build (WIP) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:2256 "I.C.S. Ventura" - phoxim.de's Star Wars Venator Group Build (Beauty pic) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:2256 "I.C.S. Ventura" - phoxim.de's Star Wars Venator Group Build (Beauty pic) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

May the glue be with you!

And, finally, until Friday, August 19th, you might also take part in the project's voting for a winner (German only)

:

http://www.phoxim.de/forum/index.php?topic=5171.0

NARSES2 · August 14, 2012, 02:47:29 AM

My gob is well and truely smacked - stunning build

The Rat · August 14, 2012, 03:17:58 AM

Way cool! The detail is fantastic, and the idea is great. I've got plans to do something similar with an aircraft carrier, but it won't be able to house as much as yours!

Old Wombat · August 14, 2012, 09:33:15 PM

That is great!

Looks like a ship of some sort (a cruise liner, probably) was sacrificed to form part of the superstructure, too.

Very, very good build!

Guy

Dizzyfugu · August 15, 2012, 12:17:22 AM

Yes... there's a Queen Mary 2 and pieces of a smaller cruising ship (an AIDA derivate) in 1:1200 incorporated in the thing, plus lots of little scratch pieces and profiles.

Many thanks!

Geoff · August 15, 2012, 01:03:57 AM

That is excellent!

Sticky Fingers · August 15, 2012, 02:05:04 AM

Still waiting for the admin on that forum to genehmig my Benutzerkonto, hope he/she does it before the closing date of the poll. If it's not in time, you still have my vote, but only here

I've checked all the other finished Destroyers, but your's is a winner

Loving the little park, by the way!

Mossie · August 15, 2012, 03:49:38 AM

Like that very much!

Dizzyfugu · August 15, 2012, 07:41:53 AM

Many thanks to you all. It was an unusual project for me, in many ways, but fun because I had a rather "free" mind concerning SW as background. Sometimes this seems to help a lot

I am looking forward to pics from the convention next weekend. I won't be there personallym but a very nice forum member from phoxim.de will take the kit there - and I hope that some more Venator projects get finished on last notice, so that from the initial 20+ project at least 10 get to the hardware stage and on-site?

Let's hop the best...

Gondor · August 15, 2012, 09:39:12 AM

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on August 15, 2012, 12:17:22 AM
Yes... there's a Queen Mary 2 and pieces of a smaller cruising ship (an AIDA derivate) in 1:1200 incorporated in the thing, plus lots of little scratch pieces and profiles.

Many thanks!

And there I was thinking QE II as I was looking at the pictures. One very neat build.

Gondor

Weaver · August 15, 2012, 09:39:20 AM

Wow - that's an excellent piece of work: hope you do well in the competition because you certainly deserve to!

Nice to see an upside-down ship hull used to such good effect too, because I've looked at them and scratched my chin for years, but never got around to actually doing anything.....

philp · August 15, 2012, 10:45:10 AM

Another awesome build. Love it.

kerick · August 15, 2012, 04:09:47 PM

Another case of "why didn't I think of that!" Great job

Dizzyfugu · August 17, 2012, 02:55:17 AM

Quote from: Weaver on August 15, 2012, 09:39:20 AM
Wow - that's an excellent piece of work: hope you do well in the competition because you certainly deserve to!

Nice to see an upside-down ship hull used to such good effect too, because I've looked at them and scratched my chin for years, but never got around to actually doing anything.....

3rd place - it cannot compete in the finish sector with other submissions, but that's secondary. At least, I got that thing ready in time... the ship hull idea was spontaneaous. I had the idea of building a kind of Oceanliner, and initially I just wanted to use the QMII's deck buildings - but that was not "enough". Then, just playing with pieces, I put the hull on the Venator fuselage, and I had the vision of what the model would become...

1:2256 "I.C.S. Ventura" - phoxim.de's Star Wars Venator Group Build (WIP) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

BTW: it took a lonng time and many discussion to finally get rid of the "phallic" water displacer

Finally, it was replaced by a bridge from a 1:1200 battle ship (Bismarck, I guess)... just to avoid discussions

Again, many thanks for the positive feedback!

dumaniac · August 20, 2012, 02:45:23 AM

Very impressive