Cold War Galactica

scooter · December 20, 2013, 09:12:16 AM

Quote from: Weaver on December 20, 2013, 09:08:56 AM
You should do a "Red Dwarf" ; leave a small section unpainted and have a tiny spaceman with a roller and a paint tray standing on a platform next to it.......

Weaver, I think you just won the Internet today. Just make sure its a red spacesuit.

Librarian · December 20, 2013, 01:55:40 PM

Quote from: Weaver on December 20, 2013, 09:08:56 AM
You should do a "Red Dwarf" ; leave a small section unpainted and have a tiny spaceman with a roller and a paint tray standing on a platform next to it.......

Oh YES please

.

seadude · December 20, 2013, 04:03:57 PM

Quote from: Weaver on December 20, 2013, 09:08:56 AM
You should do a "Red Dwarf" ; leave a small section unpainted and have a tiny spaceman with a roller and a paint tray standing on a platform next to it.......

I don't think that'll work. The scale for this thing is such, that any tiny photoetch figures would be impossible to see with the naked eye without the use of a really, really strong magnifying glass.

Weaver · December 20, 2013, 06:03:40 PM

Quote from: seadude on December 20, 2013, 04:03:57 PM
Quote from: Weaver on December 20, 2013, 09:08:56 AM
You should do a "Red Dwarf" ; leave a small section unpainted and have a tiny spaceman with a roller and a paint tray standing on a platform next to it.......

I don't think that'll work. The scale for this thing is such, that any tiny photoetch figures would be impossible to see with the naked eye without the use of a really, really strong magnifying glass.

Okay, oversize painting robot then. It needs to look like a painter of course: something like the animated workmen from Dire Straits' Money For Nothing video....

seadude · December 21, 2013, 08:59:59 PM

A few more pics for tonight. The Galactica model is 90% done so far. I'll explain more tomorrow if I can. Right now, I'm off to bed as I have the flu.

seadude · December 22, 2013, 12:11:08 PM

The results of this build did not turn out as I had hoped.

For starters, if you look at the third pic in my post above, you may notice that the "head and neck" of the Galactica model appear a slight shade of different grey from the rest of the model. Suffice to say, I used the same color (TAMIYA Royal Light Grey XF-80) for the entire model. But why the head and neck appear differently is beyond me? All the small gun armament all over the ship is painted in a slightly darker shade of grey to make it slightly more visible against the main hull color. I've got guns all over the place. I like lots of guns.

And I've got a few tiny 1/700 scale RAM missile launchers too. The red circles on the top of the hull are where the large anti-spacecraft missile launchers are. But if red looks weird, I can change it to something else. There is also a 16" gun turret on the bottom of the Galactica head too in the last pic.
I'll try to take some better pics tonight or later this week to show things in better detail.
What emblems, hull numbers, or names should I put on this ship? Should I name it after a Navy carrier or an IOWA class battleship?

seadude · December 22, 2013, 07:31:20 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/icyhusky/Cold%20War%20Galactica/DSC04869.jpg

scooter · December 22, 2013, 08:39:45 PM

Quote from: seadude on December 22, 2013, 07:31:20 PMOnly thing I could find was Arizona. If you don't like it, sue me.

I call it appropriately fitting.

seadude · December 23, 2013, 06:39:21 PM

Actually, I could use a bit of help for the Basestar. The two pics below show rough estimates on where I'll have armament on the Basestar when the Basestar gets built into a Soviet battlestation/carrier.
* The blue dots represent medium calibre gun emplacements.
* The green dots represent lighter AA gun emplacements.
* The yellow rectangles represent possible locations for anti-spacecraft missile launchers which I might modify from 1/700 scale Navy Tomahawk Armored Box Launchers (Similar to what was used on IOWA class battleships in the 80's/90's)
* The large red dots represent the big calibre anti-spacecraft/etc. gun turrets. 5 on top of the Basestar. 5 on the bottom. One in each "pie section" so to speak.

As you can see in the second pic, I'm using main gun turrets from a 1/700 scale German Bismarck battleship. Well, I have 3 Bismarcks to use armament from.

My problem is that everything on the Basestar is angled/sloped. The gun turrets need to sit on a flat level surface. So I need to figure out how to build some sort of support structure for them to sit on. Any suggestions?

zenrat · December 24, 2013, 02:34:19 AM

You are thinking in terms of "up and down". In space there is no up and down so why do the turrets have to be mounted on the same flat plane? Why not mount them on those flat D shaped parts in front of the yellow boxes?

IMO every large space ship is improved by the addition of a big ar5e rail gun. You could build one into that trench like area pointing directly at the camera on the 2nd pic above.

Is the reason ships in sci fi movies are painted light grey so that they stand out against the black background? IRL would the military follow Hotblack Desiato's lead and paint theirs black?

seadude · December 24, 2013, 02:32:39 PM

QuoteYou are thinking in terms of "up and down". In space there is no up and down so why do the turrets have to be mounted on the same flat plane? Why not mount them on those flat D shaped parts in front of the yellow boxes?

I need them level. I WANT them level. When's the last time you saw gun turrets on a spacecraft sitting at an angle?

QuoteIMO every large space ship is improved by the addition of a big ar5e rail gun. You could build one into that trench like area pointing directly at the camera on the 2nd pic above.

Those "trenches" you speak of are for the takeoff/landing of space fighters.

QuoteIs the reason ships in sci fi movies are painted light grey so that they stand out against the black background?

Yes, pretty much.

QuoteIRL would the military follow Hotblack Desiato's lead and paint theirs black?

Who? What?

scooter · December 24, 2013, 03:51:50 PM

Quote from: seadude on December 24, 2013, 02:32:39 PM
QuoteIRL would the military follow Hotblack Desiato's lead and paint theirs black?

Who? What?

Quote from: http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_DesiatoHotblack Desiato is a humanoid and front man for the band Disaster Area. He was incredibly rich, occasionally buying star systems, and once spent a year dead for tax reasons. He was also a long-time acquaintance of Ford Prefect.

A minor character from the book Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Why not do a stylized Flanker scheme instead of grey

And for leveling your main batteries, what about building plasticard dormers?

seadude · December 24, 2013, 05:38:19 PM

QuoteAnd for leveling your main batteries, what about building plasticard dormers?

Huh? What do you mean?

scooter · December 25, 2013, 03:11:28 AM

Quote from: seadude on December 24, 2013, 05:38:19 PM
QuoteAnd for leveling your main batteries, what about building plasticard dormers?

Huh? What do you mean?

Take four pieces of sheet plastic. One large enough for the turret placed horizontally, two pieces cut to the correct angle to make a flush mount with the hull, and the fourth to close it off. Something like below-

zenrat · December 31, 2013, 09:03:50 PM

Hotblack Desiato's band Disaster Area had a black stunt ship which they flew into a sun as the climax of a gig (obviously you have to time it precisely so the light from the exploding sun reached the audience just at the crescendo of the last song - I believe Mr Adams expands on this in detail in his fine book which I must re-read).
Either Arthur Dent or Zaphod Beeblebrox (or maybe both) find themselves on board this ship but cannot abort because every time they push a black button labelled in black on a black background a black light lights up black to tell them what they have done.

I respect your desire to have level turrets. Can I humbly suggest you make sure the guns can be depressed enough to ensure there isn't an area beneath them into which rebel scum could infiltrate.
You seem to have a sufficiancy of "trenches" so could you not sacrifice one to a rail gun? Please? Pretty Please with knobs on & sprinkles? Go on, you know you want to...