Cardboard Spaceship #2 for #Stargrave part 2

 It seems I neglected to actually post about painting my little ship...

Again, I started with my house paint, making sure that everything was covered. 

Then I used some craft black, and some Reaper Gory Red for the body.

I added some white on the front, and drybrushed some metal tone airbrush paint over it

And picked out a few panels to highlight with off shades from the rest.

And here they are together!

Cardboard Starship for #StarGrave #3 The Cargo Hauler

Work has begin on my next ship, a short range cargo hauler with cargo pod. I spent a couple hours late last night working on mocking it up. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but wasn't really sure how exactly I wanted to get there.

 

 

 

 Figuring out sizes and shapes and cutting things in half...

  

 Cargo pod mock up in progress. I have enough of the egg cartons to make 4 of them, so I'll probably build them all up to make additional scatter terrain.

  

The underside showing how the shampoo bottle will be the engine. 

  

 I decided toward the end of the build that I like the cream cheese container right side up better.

Like I said at the beginning, this is just a mock up. I've decided to try doing the cargo pod out of 1" pink foam, rather than building a box. I should be able to get a much more square shape that way, and I don't need it to be hollow. The flatbed will probably be made of 1/2" pink foam. I'd use foam core if I had any, but I don't. I could use cardboard, and still might, but we'll see.

As with my previous ships, the underside will have minimal detailing, as no one is going to see it. I'm hoping to have most of the construction done by the end of the week now that I have a plan!

Cardboard Spaceship #2 for #Stargrave

 Unlike the Lana Emirp, this little ship design doesn't have a single piece of cardboard in its construction. It's actually made largely from the sides of a box of clementines. 

The wings were measured out, with my (half painted) Sgt. Forscale handy, and the corner supports of the box placed to serve as the engines.

Because the supports were 1.5" wide, and I only wanted them to be 1" I had to trim them down. Now having any power tools meant a lot of cutting and sawing by hand. It wasn't as exact as I'd have liked, but it got the job done.

And here you can see how bit it is as compared to my first ship.

I used some cast off insulation foam to form the cockpit. I also beveled the edges of the wings. Again, doing it by hand means that it's not as smooth or even as I'd like. Really should buy some sandpaper at least.

I also used foam to make the lower half of the cockpit, and some side supports. Because the ship is so small the underside won't be seen, so I wasn't worried about making some fancy looking landing gear. This'll all probably be black to further hide the fact that it's just foam blocks.

Here I'm cladding the wood and foam with note card paper.

Using one of those fake credit cards that sometimes show up in junk mail to make the grills for the engine exhaust.

I glued a couple pieces together to serve as spacers to try to keep the spacing as even as I could. 

And I added... well... shelves to sit the exhaust ports on.

Then I attached the exhausts... and realized the one on the left is just a tad too big due to the slope of the engine. Ooops. That's what you get when you don't get a clean cut. Ah well.

Onto paneling and greebling. Mostly this is more 3x5 note card, but there's a bit of plastic scrap too. The black bits are the sprue from a GW square base. The circular bits are the tube from a shampoo bottle pump sliced thin.

That little green x is the tip of a broken post from the poop bag dispenser and that silvery bit is a bead that I had kicking around in my bits box.

And here it is, all cladded up. Time to get to painting!

Cardboard Spaceship for #StarGrave part 2

In my first post on this project, I ended with the first coat of primer applied. It took a while for both the weather and my free time to coincide. This past weekend, that happened. After letting the ship collect dust for a bit, I finally got back outside and added a second coat of primer. I then took the family on a long walk in the park. When we got back, and had dinner... well... what else was there to do but work on my ship!

I started with a very rough overbrush of a tan paint that I had mixed up at the local home improvement store for a project some year back. We still had more than half the can, and well... I'm a little lacking in craft paints. 

I thought I got pics of that, but apparently not. 

After that, I mixed in some Ultramarine Blue, and then brushed over the tan with that.

Then I used Metal Tone on the engine bits and the hatch on top. 

After that I added in some variety using Redstone, Cavalier Orange, and more of the Ultramarine Blue. Then, using a sponge and some black craft paint, I added more weathering, and using Filagree Silver, some highlights to the exposed metal.

I also added some spots of what I think of as blaster scorch marks. 

Overall I'm very pleased with my first attempt at making a cardboard model. it's a little rough, but will still look great on a table covered with sci-fi terrain. 

That isn't to say I would make my next one exactly the same way. For one thing, I didn't measure nearly well enough, and while I started with a plan, I was winging it way more than I should have. I was inconsistent in how I did the paneling. I should have figured that out before I started gluing. I also made the top structure way more complex a shape than I should have. Yes, card bends. That doesn't mean you should be making curved surfaces. I should have put in some detail under the top hatch. 

However, now that this is done, it's time to start thinking about the next ship I'll build. Something a little smaller I think.