Current Projects

malleman · Post by **malleman** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:18 am

I don't know about you guys, but I am looking forward to a little holiday break to get back into doing minatures. I am ordering some Hydrans, Andros, and ISC ships soon. It should not take me too long to prep them for painting. I also have some other little minature projects that hopefully I will make some progress on. If everything goes as planned I hope to have some new pictures in a couple of weeks.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:34 am

Me too. I am soooo looking forward to having some painting time again.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:43 am

Our company Christmas party begins at 11:00 a.m. on 12/23... after that's over I'll leave work around 1:00 p.m. - then I don't go back until 1/5/2009!!!!!

Since my wife is still working days during that time frame, I expect to get a lot of minis work done.
In case Steve is listening in... the Hydran Pegasus master will be completed first - most likely in time for Jean to hand deliver to him.
After that, it'll be the Juggernaut, the Fed LTT, and the new metal Federation DD engine...
Then, I've got about 30 Hydrans base coated, about 8 more WYN captured/purchased ships to complete, and a huge update to complete on my website... new photos, reorganizing what's there already, transferring everyting to a new host with more storage options...

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:22 am

Scoutdad wrote:After that, it'll be ..., the Fed LTT,...

I have one request on the LTT: Please make it a flush mount like Jessica Orisini's article in CL. Don't automatically give it a "neck" like the base tug. I thought the flush mount was a cool look.

(Just an aesthetics request from the peanut gallery ...)

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:48 am

The LTT adapter is nearly complete...and it's as flush as it can be...

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:27 am

Oh, you're breaking my heart guys.

After all that work I put into this guy...

Actually, I assume Jessica's is the "official" design, since it was published in a CapLog article (And it's in-keeping with the general "look" of the NCL). I just kinda liked the look of having a "neck".

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:26 pm

Will... PM inbound!

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:06 pm

Sorry Will. No insult intended ...

Rick Smith · Post by **Rick Smith** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:27 pm

Looks nice Will!

I'm hoping to get a chance to continue working on some scratch built CAs for the MÃ¦sron, Koligahr, and Vari. Hopefully have some pics soonish, but I suspect that will be postponed because my wife and I just bought a house and we're packing...

Post by **Steve Cole** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:52 pm

Would somebody make me some Omega ships that are castable?

John Schneder II · Post by **John Schneder II** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:59 pm

I don't even know what Omega ships look like:-)

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:16 pm

Mike West -

None offense taken - I was just being goofy (and a show off).

I'm looking forward to seeing what Mr. Thomas does with the LTT.

SVC -

I'm sure John, Tony, or I could do masters for Omega minis. I never buy Omega SFB stuff though, so I really don't know which would be priority to do first. I assume the CA's, but it looks like there are a lot of factions/empires and I couldn't tell you who the most important are (Note to Gary Carney: I'm asking SVC what he wants to see first in minis, not for a primer on Omega, thanks - ahead of time).

Rick Smith · Post by **Rick Smith** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:54 pm

Steve Cole wrote:Would somebody make me some Omega ships that are castable?

Hi Steve. What do you mean by castable? What prerequisites are there to the process other than just looking cool? I've never taking a scratch-build or conversion the whole way to a "finished product" so I'm curious as to the process that makes a ship castable or not. Do you do 3-ups first and then transfer that to the proper size?

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:38 pm

Rick Smith wrote:
Steve Cole wrote:Would somebody make me some Omega ships that are castable?
Hi Steve. What do you mean by castable? What prerequisites are there to the process other than just looking cool? I've never taking a scratch-build or conversion the whole way to a "finished product" so I'm curious as to the process that makes a ship castable or not. Do you do 3-ups first and then transfer that to the proper size?

Rick: for the ones that John and I do, 3-ups are definitely not an option. We create the master at 1:1 scale, using materials that survive the molding process.

That means no wood, no plastic, and no cyano-acrylates (super-glue). The molds are created using a combination of heat and pressure that destroys any of the items listed above.
Most of our masters are sculpted from a combination of brass stock and green stuff.
See here! for notes on my Hydran Gendarme...
and here! for more on the process used to create the Planetary Defense Monitor.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Rick Smith · Post by **Rick Smith** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:47 pm

Wow. I had no idea that ABS and styrene were off limits when making masters! Great info Scoutdad. Thanks for that!