Nostromo Airlock part 6

Update. I've got the ceiling and the beginnings of some lighting. Cheap strip LEDs via Ebay. I went for warm white (70's film stock vibes) rather than cool, which tend to have a blueish cast.

Got everything wired in series.

They're bright as Hell. I also bought a dimmer from the same seller, but I hadn't installed it at the time of this writing.

Here everything is just balancing , no glue.

I found a sheet of frosted plastic film that will make a nice diffuser, but have not installed it yet.

Nostromo Airlock part 5

Home from work with my car in the repair shop, I turned my attention to the floor grate. This one cost me 2D6 sanity points, but I'm really happy how it turned out. Rather than take the easy way out I decided to try and replicate the grate from Ron Cobbs drawing seen above.

To cut these to the same length with a 45 chamfer at each end, I modified an Xacto mitre box by adding a stop and a small clamp to hold the piece being cut.

Then it was a matter of cutting them with a razor saw and cleaning up any burrs. These were glued to a thin strip to make each 'rail' of the grate. 

I cut some grooves in a piece of MDF at the correct spacing and glued some styrene strips at either end. 

I continued this border completely around the rails.

Behind this, I glued a sheet of styrene with slots machined into it.

This was surrounded by a second outer frame built from thicker styrene. Here is the result:

All in all, I'm quite happy with the results. 

Nostromo Airlock part 4

A few updates since last time:

There are now two completed wall sections. As I was doing a test assembly, I found out that I needed to lengthen the walls. Hopefully, it won't be too noticeable once they're painted.

The doors have been assembled and primed. I still have to make the hydraulic latches that are seen in the rectangular cutouts.

The padding around the door has also been glued in place and primed.

A quick fit check.

I got a base coat of yellow oxide down on the pads.

The pads for the ceiling have also been started. These will now have to be lengthened to match the new wall length.

Nostromo Airlock part 3

I cut out and glued up the wall sections that make up the two sides of the room. These were cut from different thickness of plastic sheet and laminated together.

These were designed to fit into a simple frame that holds the panels at 45 deg.

I found a photo of the airlock set that showed some details that are hard to see in the film. I tried to bring some of these details into the model, specifically the row vents above the padding and the six cylindrical shapes behind the racks.

I had some 1:72 wheel hubs from a Zvezda Topol kit on hand that were pretty close.

I printed the vent structures and glued in some styrene spacers. I didn't sand these and let the layer lines provide some texture.

Here's one wall section completely clad.

To be continued...

Ian McQue Inspired Flying rig part 3

I finally found a suitable 1:35 pilot. I painted him up and installed him in the cab. 

I tried to make him look a little less "modern armour" and a bit more "guy from the future."  

The windows were glued in and the cab was sealed up. Unfortunately, while taping up the windows,

The drivers side window came loose and fell into the sealed cabin (!)

I was able to fish it out after much effort. I'll try to repair it, but if I can't, it will make masking interesting.

Next, I started to add some more surface details. These were mostly kit parts, but I also cut some square holes and fit some square Evergreen tubes. I'm not sure what they're supposed to be, but there were some details in the original drawing that were suggestive of these. I think they'll look cool with some rusty stains running from them. 

I also tried scribing some flame cut marks on the edge of the "steel" plates that make up the bottom of the ship. A stippled coat of Tamiya putty will hopefully look like a rolled steel texture.

For the details on the rear of the ship, I glued up an arrangement of kit parts. I'm trying to keep a heavy industrial look throughout. The smooth hoses are 20 gauge wire. The convoluted hose is a styrene kit part, formed with a heat gun. 

The round radar shroud was made from two fenders glued together from a Flakvierling 38.

More soon...

Airship part 5

Sub-assemblies have been base coated with Vallejo acrylics. The orange sprayed very transparent and took a ridiculous number of coats to achieve a saturated, opaque hue.

The pilot was brush painted with acrylics and given a quick wash to bring out some of the details.

The orange suit and yellow helmet is a nod to Space:1999.

I carefully masked any color breaks with Tamiya brand tape. It's expensive, but it's the only tape I'll trust to not lift paint. At this point, the model has a very toy-like appearance.  I let the base coats dry for a few days, before beginning weathering.

To break up the monotone orange finish, I applied small dabs of red, white, yellow, and brown oil paints and blended them with a touch of thinner. The transparent oil paint layers helps create a subtly mottled appearance. Some streaks and grime were also added using oils.