Hi again. The latest starship off my cutting mat shipyards is this Tibana gas heavy transport. A ship I've had sitting around unpainted for a while since it caught my eye while I was shopping new anime figures.

It's meant to be some weird rocket booster ship for a Gundam but something about the shape appealed to me especially after I saw the big fuel tanks that clip underneath. I thought they'd look cool on top instead. Of course I had no idea at all how big the ship would be so it was a bit of a gamble.

So as you can see I was working on this big guy while I was doing the armored YT-1300. It got the same treatment for surface detail. Lots of scribing in lines where I could fit a ruler to scribe against then lots of random plastic sheet bits and rod and bits of tubing. Also I had to make a round mounting socket for an acrylic base.

Today I got to painting the beast. Lots of airbrushing, then lots of drybrushing then a bit of washes and detailing.

And now somewhere between Bespin and the Core worlds...

OH NO REBEL SCUM ATTACK!!!

The Rebellion makes off with that valuable Tibana gas

I'm a bit undecided if it also needs some brand labelling in Aurabesh on the tanks. Anyone have a good idea for a logo to put on it?

Also thinking of how to use it in a game. Capturing the ship is obviously an idea I have for it. Also waiting for the Rebel transport rules for other ways it could be used.

Nice! Especially the paint jobs. Do you have any zoomed in images of the custom B and Y-wings?

Duuuuh, just saw the link in your signature...

Very nice! I find it awesome you grabbed a 1/144 gunpla kit in order to use!

Awesome!!

I really like that the "mesh" next to the fuel tanks picks up so much of the TIE Fighter design. Particularly after the paint job, it looks perfectly at home with its TIE Escort.

Also, it's the wrong thread, but the armored YT-1300 is really eye-catching. The detail is perfect, the paint scheme picks up just the right notes, and... yeah. One of the few custom jobs I've seen that I would pay to own.

Really awesome work!

I'm a bit undecided if it also needs some brand labelling in Aurabesh on the tanks. Anyone have a good idea for a logo to put on it?

Well, *obviously* it needs Aurabesh lettering on it!

Obvious choices include:

• Planet Express
• Weyland-Yutani Corporation
• Liandri Mining Corporation
• OmniConsumer Products

Can you post more pics of that republic shuttle?

Jewel of Yavin for EotE should be available soon. It takes place on Bespin. You might get some ideas from that if you can flip through it at the store.

It does look a little like it came out of a Gary Anderson production. How did you get the greebling on, with tweezers?

The only criticims I'd have here are that the engine bells don't look like they're projecting thrust, they're just orange, and that the tank looks too new. I probably would have chosen a pallet closer to the YT color schemes to make it look more like a run-down freighter since the blues make it look like an Imperial transport. You going to do another one?

But everything else looks spectacular. Really loving the nose detailing and how crisp to the colors are across the flanking sides.

Great stuff, it really looks the part specially with the TIE's added in the scenic shots. Thanks for sharing!

Gorgeous work.

Well, *obviously* it needs Aurabesh lettering on it!

Obvious choices include:

• Planet Express
• Weyland-Yutani Corporation
• Liandri Mining Corporation
• OmniConsumer Products

Hmm all will have too what those look like in Aurabesh. Was hoping for something more in universe like Czerka or Sienna just can't think of any names that didn't just make blasters or ships.

It does look a little like it came out of a Gary Anderson production. How did you get the greebling on, with tweezers?

The only criticims I'd have here are that the engine bells don't look like they're projecting thrust, they're just orange, and that the tank looks too new. I probably would have chosen a pallet closer to the YT color schemes to make it look more like a run-down freighter since the blues make it look like an Imperial transport. You going to do another one?

But everything else looks spectacular. Really loving the nose detailing and how crisp to the colors are across the flanking sides.

Yep tweezers is the way to go.

Fair point about the engines, I forgot I was going to spray some yellow and maybe white in the center as well. The hassle of going from dark to light means having to wash out the airbrush between colours.

Well with the sides reminding me and others of TIE wings it had to be an Imperial ship so the blueish colours and lack of rust and dirt compared to my YTs. I did actually pick up another one of the kit, haven't decided yet what to do with it.

I'm a bit undecided if it also needs some brand labelling in Aurabesh on the tanks. Anyone have a good idea for a logo to put on it?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tendrando_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BlasTech_Industries

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Golan_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rendili_StarDrive

Or hunt about on wookieepedia for other arms manufacturers maybe?

Can you post more pics of that republic shuttle?

Ask and you shall receive (well I took photos of the Republic Cruiser anyway)

It's the Micromachines Action Fleet version of the Republic Cruiser from Episode One. You can still find them pretty often on ebay, I got this one a couple months back. I know I have one from when the toys 1st came out but it was easier to buy a new one than find my old one I haven't done anything to the ship just file the top of the acryllic rod to fit the hexagonal hole under the ship used for it's original base. I am very tempted to swap out the rubbery sensor dish array it has with one left over from my YT conversions. Then I'd probably start adding gribblies and have to repaint the whole thing.

Despite being massively under scale it just kinda fits in with the other X-wing ships. I'd love to get the 1/350 resin kit version though.

Label the tanks Colt 45

I'm a bit undecided if it also needs some brand labelling in Aurabesh on the tanks. Anyone have a good idea for a logo to put on it?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tendrando_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BlasTech_Industries

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Golan_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rendili_StarDrive

Or hunt about on wookieepedia for other arms manufacturers maybe?

I'm more after a mining or shipping company name. I've already gone through entries about Bespin and Tibana but despite many entries about how it's mined, extracted and used in weapons and hyperdrives it skips over any companies involved.

Also thinking of how to use it in a game. Capturing the ship is obviously an idea I have for it. Also waiting for the Rebel transport rules for other ways it could be used.

You could use it as an objective in a campaign which would unlock more ships (either as hyperspace fuel or weapons powering), as that is what tibanna gas was used for. Rogue Squadron had some missions concerning Tibanna gas. You could adapt for instance:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_above_Taloraan

Or the inevitable counter attack in http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Attack_on_Thyferra

There are other missions from the games you might look to:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ison_Corridor_ambush

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_TIE_Fighter & http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-wing have too many missions where transports are objectives to fully list them all

Your ship easily doubles as http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BFF-1_bulk_freighter

I'm a bit undecided if it also needs some brand labelling in Aurabesh on the tanks. Anyone have a good idea for a logo to put on it?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tendrando_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BlasTech_Industries

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Golan_Arms

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rendili_StarDrive

Or hunt about on wookieepedia for other arms manufacturers maybe?

I'm more after a mining or shipping company name. I've already gone through entries about Bespin and Tibana but despite many entries about how it's mined, extracted and used in weapons and hyperdrives it skips over any companies involved.

Yeah, you'd probably have to delve deep into the RPG books for that I guess.

And another purchase made!

Lots of availability on Ebay.

It does look a little like it came out of a Gary Anderson production. How did you get the greebling on, with tweezers?

The only criticims I'd have here are that the engine bells don't look like they're projecting thrust, they're just orange, and that the tank looks too new. I probably would have chosen a pallet closer to the YT color schemes to make it look more like a run-down freighter since the blues make it look like an Imperial transport. You going to do another one?

But everything else looks spectacular. Really loving the nose detailing and how crisp to the colors are across the flanking sides.

Yep tweezers is the way to go.

Fair point about the engines, I forgot I was going to spray some yellow and maybe white in the center as well. The hassle of going from dark to light means having to wash out the airbrush between colours.

Well with the sides reminding me and others of TIE wings it had to be an Imperial ship so the blueish colours and lack of rust and dirt compared to my YTs. I did actually pick up another one of the kit, haven't decided yet what to do with it.

For the greebling - do you custom cut each piece? Styrene bits?

Yep custom cut bits of sheet Evergreen Plastic using a few different thicknesses of sheet. I just cut long strips off the sheet then cut that into smaller bits.