Sunday 2 April 2017

"Yes, but will it fly Jim?"

Strange title, but bear with me :)

About a year ago my son handed me one of his toy guns and asked me to fix it."Of course I will my son, what else am I here for?" I said :P

So, after stripping it down and having good look at it I soon realised that it was too far gone. All the internals were worn out from all the pretend combat that it had seen. Time for the bin I thought? But wait, hang on a minute! On closer inspection, with my miserly kitbashing goggles firmly fixed in place, I spied a "space-shippy" kinda thing hidden within the shape of the gun.

And this is where my journey began, almost a year ago. I've been plugging away at this, on and off, while completing other projects. Want to know more? Read on.......



Ooooooh, I can see a spaceship in there, I just know it.

With a bit of hamfisted photo editing magic, this is what I came up with.

So, out came the butchering modelling tools and I set to work.

These sections were going to be used as the landing gear hatches.

I wanted the body of the ship to be much wider than the engine pod.

So, I spaced all the screws holes out with plastic tube. And installed longer screws to compensate.

The top handle for the gun got transformed into a window, ala cardboard backed up with plastic for proper alignment.

Next up was the engine pod. I fixed a plastic tube along the entire length of it.

Then I added a plastic shower rail section into the body of the Spaceship. This had the exact I.D. of the engine pods pipe O.D. 

Starting to make sense now? The engine pod fucks the spaceship but good!

After that mechanical sexual encounter was over, this is what the Spaceship looks like.

Next up was the landing gear. the trickiest part of the build I must say. Trying to find something that would have the right
geometry, as well as the required strength, was quite a task.

In the end, I opted for a set of quad-copter landing legs. Cheap, strong,
cheap, having the right geometry.......and cheap. 

Here's the ugly fuckers in place.

And here's me trying to figure out the correct angles for the entry hatch.

Getting there.


It was at this point that I took another look at the silhouette of the ship. It wasn't really "doing it" for me. The engine pod was looking too long, basically not bad arse enough for my liking. So, after all that work, getting it to mate up perfectly to the ship, I decided to go back to the drawing board.

I wanted something a little more subtle. A smaller, more rudimentary engine arrangement.

So I dug out these old toy bongo drums and set to work.

And I came up with this. Nothing too flashy, just an engine way too big to be technically feasible.....my sort of RT :) 

Coat hangers, speaker wire and toy bits were sacrificed at the kitbashing alter.

A yo-yo, plastic cup and a pen lid channel the thrust of this engine.....pretend like.

This is how I joined the wire together to fill in the empty spaces in the engine compartment. Hot glue to the rescue! 

I filled in the spaces between the two halves of the ship with old public transport cards, as you do.

Then I used body filler to fill in the spaces to the correct height.

Another tough part of the build, bulking out the legs. Their not finished yet, but you get the general idea :)

Remember the hatch angles I was playing with before? Well, this is the hatch at the moment. Gunna magnetise it I think.

So, this is the "used to be a gun, but now a spaceship" project as it stands today.


Next up is the landing gear bay doors, entry hatch, front window, a couple of turrets and a few other bits and bobs.

Stay frosty :)

22 comments:

  1. Amazing! I can't believe the transformation on that. I can't wait to see it painted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Andrew :)

      I couldn't help but notice the ship inside of the gun. It was just screaming at me to release it from it's prison :D

      Cheers.

      Delete
  2. Wow - you're either a genius or bonkers mate, or possibly both. How the heck did you see a spaceship in that lot? It's all looking rather spiffing so far mate - I am now eying up all the tat that my own younglings have stashed away!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I have a confession to make.....there's no genius who lives here, I'm just plain old batshit crazy :D

      I think I noticed the potential of the gun when I looked down the length of it. The front sort of reminded me of a Star Wars transport? I like those sort of ships with a slanted rake for a bridge. The rest just flowed on from there really, like a bad case of diarrhea.

      Kids are a great source for modelling material, no doubt.

      Cheers Leady :)

      Delete
  3. I have been throwing insults to the screen out loud all along the post :O :O :O :D :D :D
    You crazy genius, I fucking love what you just did here, you have all my admiration!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm humbled by your insult throwing Suber :)

      Glad your getting a kick out of my creation so far.

      Delete
  4. I feel as though I have been scooped! Since I'm also working on spacecraft. (Several, really. Possibly as many as five.) And yours is . . . well . . . better than mine. Any of them so far. Ought to bring da boyz to da yard quite satisfactorily. (Though it does look more imperial in spite of the color.) Well done, sir! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to get despondent, looking at other peoples infinitely better paint jobs compared to mine. But I stopped, coz it just got me down. I decided to just do the best that I can do with my painting ability and be happy that I've created something.....no matter how "bad" it looks in comparison.

      I'm not sure on the ships "allegiance" yet, could be a pirate ship? Or a stolen Imperial one? Not sure yet.....gotta finish building the bastard yet :)

      Thanks for the praise Composer, keep creating....no matter what!

      Cheers :)

      Delete
    2. Oh, fear not. I am confident in my kitbashing skillz. You may have one-upped me a few times, but I know that I can do solid work. ;-) Just need to do . . . more. :D

      Delete
  5. Just so long as you promise to do something with the original engine pod too ;P Loving it so far, and wise words saying just do what makes you happy. Weird, I wanna make a spaceship too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'll probably turn that into a wrecked engine terrain piece I think.

      Regarding the "just do it" advice; I almost gave up painting a few years ago, because of all of the incredibly fantastic miniatures I was seeing plastered everywhere across the net & blogosphere. Made me feel very ordinary, without a chance of coming anywhere near their standard. But then I realised that for a great many of those guys that pump out top notch work, this was either their job or they were professional artists.....or both? They're not simply wargamers who slapped a bit of colour on their minis for fun.

      Once I realised that I just stopped caring what I see on the net, as far as comparisons go, and just painted my minis at my own pace and skill level.

      You should make a spaceship for sure, the more the merrier.....or something like that?

      Cheers Ragsta :)

      Delete
  6. Great work! That engine is amazing (and you still have another in reserve!)

    Are you going to arm this beast? Those round bits on the side look like they would be a perfect place to mount a couple of lascannon...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lasgun, I like the bongo engine much better than my original choice.

      As far as arming goes, I'm planning on fitting it with quite minimal armament i.e. chin turret and possibly another hard point up top. I don't want this thing to be an assault ship, kinda just an beefed up transport ala Millennium falcon. I considered using the eye looking things as hard points, but decided that they would look better as surface detail.

      Cheers :)

      Delete
  7. That's fantastic. It's going to look like a cross between an ork fighta and the Sulaco. In particular the detailing on the engine is great. I would never have thought of using a toy gun. Top stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome! You can see the Sulaco in there too! That's what I first saw in the gun to tell you the truth. I'm pretty happy with how the second version of the engine turned out too :)

      Cheers Toby.

      Delete
    2. This post inspired me to buy a £5 nerf gun and turn it into a space shuttle. It came out great (for me). Thanks for the inspiration!

      Delete
    3. That's really humbling Toby :) It's a nice feeling knowing that my little project has inspired someone out there in internet land to have a crack too. Any pics of your build? Sadly, mine hasn't had anymore work done to it since this post. Lazy bugger that I am :D

      Delete
    4. I can't put a picture up here, but here's the blog: http://inaworldofpaint.blogspot.co.uk/

      I wouldn't worry about the laziness - I've got stuff that I started years ago. I will get round to finishing it, honest!

      Delete
    5. Hey Toby,

      I hadn't realised that you have your own blog. Blogger, for some unknown reason, hides your followers blog information. They just show which ones they follow :(

      Anyway, I had a quick flick through your blog last night, it's cool man! I'll be going through your posts over the coming days and leaving comments...there's so much to take in.

      Just a small tip though, could you add a "follower button" to your blog? It'd help to stay up to date with your posts.

      Your spaceship looks great too!

      Cheers Toby :)

      Delete
    6. Thanks! I didn't know that it didn't have one! I'll have to (try to) remedy that.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  8. You have a real vision for these kind of mega scratch builds. Love the work to date. Do you have plans to detail a cockpit at the front end?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Axiom :)

      The cockpit will just be a thin, possibly 1-2cm, wrap around "glass" affair....nothing too fancy. I've left the front open for ease of build purposes actually. If I drop anything inside, like some swarf or dust, while I'm building the rest of the beast then I can get it out. There's nothing quite as annoying as hearing something rattling around the inside of a toy :(

      Once I get my arse into gear I'll finish this beast off. There's not a whole lot left to do actually. Just fix the landing gear in place, figure out the main hatch, fit some guns, cockpit and a few other details and she'll be done, ready for paint.

      Glad you like it so far mate :)

      Delete