I was very exited to be commissioned to create this model for Rick Cantu! I knew I would have a lot of fun with it. I began with some concept sketches. These were reviewed by Rick and some changes were made and after about two rounds of sketches, I could proceed with the model. I first started with a clay half-hull to be sure that I translated into a three dimensional exactly what Rick wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the approved sketches and copied them to card stock and used them to trace the out lines onto the backing plate. I built the clay up in different layers, conforming to the various form the hull has. Once the clay was approved I could then move onto hard material for the master pattern. The blue card stock stands in for the fins and the movable weapons pod.

The client was not sure he wished to kit this model or not, but requested that I create the model as a master pattern for molding. Keeping that in mind, I broke up the body into sub-assemblies that could be hollowed out, to reduce material cost for production, and could be joined easily back together as kit components. It took a lot of hand work to get these parts to fit and forms you see below. There is still a lot of detailing that will be added to these parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE  most challenging part of the build was creating the folding wings that hold the large side pods in the open position as shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first marked on the rear of the front hull the area that would be removed to accommodate the new pods. They were not made as separate parts in the beginning to make it easier to create the over-all hull shape and keep them aligned. Now it was time to create those pods and that meant removing that material on the hull. I scribed around the tail section and machined material away up to those lines. It was a lot of work but worth it in the end.

Image below shows the pencil lines indicating the pod details. This area will be removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following image shows the area now milled down and blended with the tail section, to the right, and also the large flat area on top the accommodate the folding wings that hold the weapons pods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pods in place………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weapons pods….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The assembled pattern showing the different pod positions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The completed master…….