1/72 Cobra Mk III

[MartG]

Last of my recent SF builds

Last September I started working on a 1/72 Cobra Mk III from the PC game Elite Dangerous. The model was intended to be my son't Christmas present, but it took a bit longer than expected to make, and it was after Easter before he finally got his hands on it

For those unfamiliar with the game, here's a couple of screenshots of the Cobra





A few pics of the finished model







Welcome mat in airlock






Did I mention it lights up ? Six individually switched lighting circuits









The proud owner


Yes, those engines are quite bright - 12x high power LEDs in each


Pics of it being built below

[Old Wombat]

Ni-ice!

[Captain Canada]

Very cool ! Love the paint and markings. Can we get a better look at the squid ? The cockpit looks great and super cool when she's all lit up. The new owner sure seems happy !

[MartG]

How it started - cardboard mockup of the upper hull, based on screenshots and online blueprint pictures



Aft bulkhead


Engine lightbox


Upper hull


Inside upper hull, with cockpit box

[MartG]

Can we get a better look at the squid ?

It was some clipart my son found online

[MartG]

Cockpit





Primarily homemade decals - includes a couple of 'easter eggs' - the 'video screens' are photos of my son and his partner Samantha ( who the model is named after )

[MartG]

After using simple flashing LEDs on a previous model, I decided to try something a bit more complex on this one. Real strobes have a brief flash followed by a longer dark period, whereas flashing LEDs have equal on and off times. I therefore built my own flasher units ( two, so upper and lower strobes would flash at different rates ) using 555 timer chips.

[MartG]

I did mention six independent lighting circuits didn't I...

Electric spaghetti !



At left is the lower hull, with battery box built into it ( 4x D cells ) and the block of 6 switches

Where the circuits all come together

[Steel Penguin]

whew that's impressive looking spaghetti 
nice job on the Cobra, I can here the blue Danube starting up in my head already 

[Mossie]

Wow very impressive!!!

I've had a thought to do a Krait from the earlier games,  one of several ideas for the forthcoming Sci-Fi GB.  This might just help kick the Krait a few rungs higher, not sure about lighting though!

whew that's impressive looking spaghetti 
nice job on the Cobra, I can here the blue Danube starting up in my head already 

Frontier player too???   I've got Baba Yaga going around in mine!

[NARSES2]

Some fantastic work there 

[Steel Penguin]

nope used to play Elite on the BBC micro when it was 1st out, haven't played much since then, so I still have problems of ships not in wire frame graphics 
I may look at the latest version, but I need another MMO to suck my time away like I need an extra hole in the head, the one I play ( guild wars 2 ) takes enough time as is.

[Snowtrooper]

Darn. I'm this close to reinstalling Oolite (open-source clone of the original Elite with modern graphics and endless amount of community-made expansions) because of this.

Somehow, I always imagined Cobra Mk3 to be smaller, but then again, it is an interstellar starship with a cargo capacity of 18 tons, so yeah, it has to be at least that big.

[Captain Canada]

Wow ! Thanks for the build pics, that's amazing work ! Looks like something fun to try, a big Star Wars ship hanging from my ceiling all lit up would be wicked.