As you can no doubt tell, my usual photo setup is NOWHERE NEAR ideal for me to shoot large models. While not the tallest large model I've ever done, it's still definitely the longest. Regardless, I soldiered on with a rudimentary lighting setup and black sheet to bring you a Nebulon-B Frigate.
It's even longer than its sister ship, the Phoenix Home, but the Pelta-class is broader and masses more. Strangely enough, they both saw the same use in different eras; Peltas were medical transports during the Clone Wars, and of course, a Nebulon-B served as the Rebellion's hospital ship throughout the original three films (well, two of them).
Another Neb owner had the idea of putting the thing on two separate bases so it wouldn't just sweep massive amounts of models off the table, as well as to encourage people to fly through the spar area cinematically. A great idea that I adopted for this model. That front base? That is the same size as the large ship base you see on the Charger C70 in the previous pic. I double-layered the bases not only to add stability to the brass rods, but to keep the tall slender thing from tipping over and destroying its 3D printed self.
It is, of course, not at all screen accurate. The more you look between this and an actual production still, the more you'll see is wrong. There are places that are not long or short enough, there are details missing. There are windows where there shouldn't be. Quite frankly, I don't care. It's accurate enough for me. The price was right. The time was right, and the occasion (I got a new job! Whee!) was right.
The internal solidity of 3D printed models continues to vex and confound me. While drilling into the drive section, I discovered it was hollow past the initial outer shell and as a result, the rear rod had to be SUPER long compared to the bow section one.
Painting felt fast but took a while. This thing has more nooks and crannies than... well, than anything I've worked on to date. I may yet still paint those engines with glow-in-the-dark paint, as they're not as deep as the Pelta's and thus the paint could infuse with light. I'm also still of two minds about printing a small screen cap of Luke & co. for that port-side window. I could've embedded a magnet to mount a Falcon under the spar, but didn't want to compromise the structural integrity of the spar.
Happy Star Wars Day, folks!
2 comments:
you mentioned "the price was right" might I inquire as where you got it from?
eBay. A Russian guy was selling them. He’s still around, but under a different name. Just do a search.
Post a Comment