This project had little time and little budget, which all adds up to a bit of pressure, but I still had fun with it. I was give plenty of room for imagination, with only two photos to use as a guide. The images were of two small table top war gaming miniatures;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The given requirements were, they had to be between 18″and 20″ in length, able to dock with each other and sit flat on a surface for filming. All of the models’ movement and lighting would be done in post production, no need for filming stands. That made things much easier, not having to deal with filming stands, internal support armatures and lighting. The larger of the designs, the delta wing, would be the exploration vessel, the thin design would be a space tug/rescue vehicle.

I started things off by looking around the shop for basic supplies and made a trip to the dollar store’s toy section. Using water guns, dart guns, ‘nerf’ guns, salt & pepper shakers, I quickly put together rough mock-ups of the two vehicles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A larger cockpit for the exploration vessel was requested to give it a larger ‘feel’ of scale…

This new cockpit was approved and I could really start moving forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here forward it was a lot of gluin’ and screwin’ of details onto the PVC pipe & foam sub-strucktures.

The exploration ship ‘Argo’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit of primer to unify all of the various toy and utensil parts……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for some weathering and black windows…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ‘Solita’ went as the Argo did, a rough assembly for approval, and forward to finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the over-all design is approved, a little primer to better see how its looking..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting, weathering and the finish…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although not show on film, both ships had a rear escape hatch for docking purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This  is how the ships docked together for rescue and towing purposes;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The film, ‘Solita’ was directed by Steven Fine, produced by Christian Esten and executive produced by Richard Fine. Some screen captures from the film;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The producers matched the shoulder patch to my final ship design, a nice touch of detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both vessels docked and under way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!