Greetings everyone! I kept on hearing Imperialshipyards this, Imperialshipyards that.. and kept seeing it in Jule's youtube videos, so when it was time to start building some custom vehicles, I thought what better place than a custom site that not only has a name that fits, but also a custom section for just that...
Anyway, without boring you with too much text, most of you guys probably have seen my name here and there on various custom sites... I mainly wanted to find a site that had a good section for custom vehicles to help me out on a couple projects I'm working on for a friend's diorama. I'm hoping I chose the right place... ;D
With that said, lets dive in... basically my friend's diorama is going to be a Smuggler's den/hangar hidden in an asteroid(There have been a couple like this in recent books)... I'm trying to help him populate the "hangar" part with some random smuggler/Bounty Hunter transports/starfighter/cargo ships... nothing too big(like Bessie Mk2) but nothing too small like a Jedi Starfighter.
My goal is to have 2-3 medium to large ships that have a look where someone can get up and walk around in... granted the ships wont open up for this to actually happen, but just the general look of a ship that size.
The first one up I started with a GI Joe tank and added another GI Joe Cobra cockpit. I dont have the area set up right now to take a good picture with my ghetto camera/lighting in the basement(where I work).. so for now, I hope my digital mockup will help get the idea across until I can get real pictures taken.
I started out with this tank:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/713a50e1.jpg)
It's funny, cause as I was checking around the site.. I remember seeing someone mention this very tank(the jungle camo one) for another project, lol.. It was one of the only junk larger Joe vehicles I had, so I figured, why not?
Anyway, I unscrewed all the 4,000 screws this thing had, took it apart, took off the turret and the treads, and then put it back together. I then went and added a HISS tank cockpit that I had(it was broken and missing parts, so don't worry) to the top for the main cabin/cockpit area...
Here's my digital mock-up I did with two images I found on the net to give you an idea of what it looks like right now...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/73bb1c16.jpg)
This is where I am right now. I'm hoping to get some gray primer or something on the parts to help take away from the mixmatch color, but our lovely Chicago weather's been rainy the last week or so, so maybe it'll clear up soon and I can do that.. if not, I might have to do it by my ghetto-rigged air vent window fan...
So, my main reason for posting this, is to A. get ideas from people to make the ship more Star Warsey... things to add, wings, gun emplacements, radar dishes, etc... and also B. to find out other ideas for the next couple of ships. Can't wait to see what kind of input you guys have... I spent about 2.5 hours on here just looking through everyone's thread, seeing the talent and hope you guys can help me out... Thanks again, and see you guys around...
-Joe
Thanks for the welcomes...
I was able to use some of my cousin's gear to take some pics, though I'm not a pro at the camera, so sorry if they're "yellowish"... anyway, I wanted to get some actual pics before the holiday took up my free time, so here's a pic of where I was at when I started the thread...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/66516008.jpg)
I attached the front of the HISS Tank canopy to the tank with a little bead of hot glue just so it would stop falling on me when I moved it around... I also went over it with a base coat of a chrome color I had, to get rid of the mix-matched color... Don't worry, it's not the color of the ship, if anything, it'll be the color of some battle damaged parts.. ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/9c9f30d4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/cc71aa3c.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/d4f8385d.jpg)
The last pic kinda shows how low it sits... and I want this to be a sort of transport, so I want to raise it up a tad... Nothing too high, but I was thinking maybe an inch or two.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/JoeRhyno/Star%20Wars/GyreDiorama/ccff3f78.jpg)
I think even just that little amount makes it look a lot better, something someone could actually walk around in, instead of hunched over all the time.
As for adding to it, like some have said, I think I'll pass on some wings, it'll take away from the transport look, I do have a Sebulba's Pod Racer, so I'm really thinking of hacking up the engine part, and adding it towards the back... maybe using the height of the "L" shape part of the engine to determine the end height of the added part of the ship and then build onto if from there... but I dunno. I guess I'll have to wait till I see the pod engines next to this.
Anyway, let me know what you think so far. I do have a question... What type of filler do you guys recommend to fill in the gaps. I'm mainly planning on using foamcore to cover most of the gaps, and styrene, then I was thinking of just using fixit sculpt to putty it all up and sand it smooth... anyone else have any better ideas on putty to use? Anyone ever use bondo they use on cars? Just wondering if there's an alternative, all I really have is Fixit sculpt on me.
Thanks again...
-Joe