Works.

Yeah, thats the way: create link and use that to create a direct link with generator. Bit of extra work but in the end the result is clean. For me the links still work if the files are renamed. So thats a big plus.

About four pages have been updated with new image links, though considering the amount of pictures I have decided to not update every link. I kinda underestimated just how many pictures I had uploaded over the years and how much work this would entail.

Anyway, here is another completed model, Hera Syndulla's A-wing. It is mostly the same as the first one I painted though with a slightly brighter main hull colour and a better engine glow.

Happily though you didn't have to do anything to your site , right?

Good to see you're back by the way.

Here's another ship, an 'improved' Ghost. It has NOT been repainted, very important to remember that. Instead it has has been fully weathered with dirt, oil streaks, blaster burns, dents, scratches, the lot. Some of it is really subtle, like discoloration and filled in panel lines, stuff that really contribute to the overall look, but your mind either gloss over or fill in automatically.

It has also been given a modification in the form of a shuttle docking bay. The removed part was then used to build a separate ship.

Double post today, because here's better pictures of the shuttle.

The shuttle should ideally have been equipped with folding wings, but I couldn't find any hinges small enough for the job. Instead I built it with permanently folded wings. It also has been 'improved' in the same manner as its parent ship.

I want to know what you guys think about an idea of mine. No matter how much I try to update this thread with new image links, there will always be a bunch of dead links due to other peoples comments. Should I just start a new thread and post every project I've finished there instead? It would certainly save me some work and it would look so much better!

19 minutes ago, MacrossVF1 said:

I want to know what you guys think about an idea of mine. No matter how much I try to update this thread with new image links, there will always be a bunch of dead links due to other peoples comments. Should I just start a new thread and post every project I've finished there instead? It would certainly save me some work and it would look so much better!

Nah, a bunch of it is the comments and thought process along the way. If you're just posting pictures, then you might as well just shoot a link to your (new) imgur gallery.

1 hour ago, MacrossVF1 said:

I want to know what you guys think about an idea of mine. No matter how much I try to update this thread with new image links, there will always be a bunch of dead links due to other peoples comments. Should I just start a new thread and post every project I've finished there instead? It would certainly save me some work and it would look so much better!

Whatever you need to do to continue sharing your work and maintaining your sanity.

If it's going to cause you anxiety or discomfort to have all of the dead links, then I'd say go ahead and start a new thread.

Man that A-Wing is clean. Top work! As for the thread, I think I'd rather stick with this one. But that's me. Totally up to you.

Hmm... you could have a link to your album both in your very first as well as in your last post with a brief explanation that you're starting a new thread.

We'll follow you over there too, I'm sure.

On 2017-07-24 at 9:34 PM, Khyros said:

Nah, a bunch of it is the comments and thought process along the way. If you're just posting pictures, then you might as well just shoot a link to your (new) imgur gallery.

This! This is the most compelling reason to keep this thread. Thank you Khyros for helping making my decision easy.

Anyway, the link updating continues. Three additional pages completed.

Hi Ken, Good to see your Back !

I have just been going through some of my threads,

Just finished my Main one on the forum and now starting some others.

And yes you do get a few dead images from the reply's.

but this doesn't affect my thread so much............yours on the other hand.

well you have sooooo much more !

Hard choice, But if i was in your shoes, I would start again.

that's what I did when we got back the paint forum with a few of my threads including my main one.

What a pa lava, all down to greed and a stupid business decision by holding everyone to Ransom.

Good luck with what ever decision you choose.

We will all look forward to Viewing your work again soon

All the best Ken.

Barry.

12 pages updated with new links, though sometimes they don't seem to load correctly. Usually all that is needed is a refresh of the page, but sometimes it takes several tries. I wonder if there are just too many pictures for the site to handle?

Anyway, here is a closer look at how I did the VCX-100 docking bay.

The basic mod is very much similar to what most people do. Remove the shuttle part and make room for a docking bay. The only real difference was that I needed to cut away more stuff than what i usually needed. As you can see there is quite a lot of stuff that needs to be removed and it's not easy unless you have the right tools.

To remove the excess material I used a Dremel type rotary tool with a high speed cutter bit. This is always a tricky procedure as it is far to easy to remove more than intended. Just to be clear, the picture below doesn't show the full extent of the 'destruction', I needed to do more work after the picture was taken.

When I was happy with the newly created cavity I started measuring up some plasticard pieces in order to build the actual bay. First was the back plate, then the 'floor' of the docking bay. After that is was really just a matter of detailing the rest of the bay.

A small magnet was inserted in the middle of the docking bay in order to hold the shuttle in place and then it was off to the painting corner! The bay was painted to match the surrounding area, mainly the engines. A 1:2:4 mix of VGC Cold Grey, VMC German Grey and VGC Charred Brown proved to be an almost perfect match to the original paint job.

So good!

And here I just buy the Shapeways insert for $10 and call it a day Looks great!

5 hours ago, Khyros said:

And here I just buy the Shapeways insert for $10 and call it a day Looks great!

Oh yes, I'm quite well aware of that. However it wasn't really an option this time. On another note, only about 3 pages left to update.

I've updated all pages so let's celebrate by showing you guys how I built the Phantom shuttle with folded wings.

The original idea was to give the shuttle folding wings. I know this can be done as I've seen videos of it. However, that still leaves the question of how the wings fold. My guess would be some type of hinge but those hinges has to be almost microscopically small, and certainly not something you can find in any normal store. If any of you know where such hinges might be found, please do tell. Anyway, instead of spending too much time and brainpower finding items I might never ever come across, I chose another route.

The shuttle part that needs to be removed in order to make room for the docking bay is rather detailed and is tantalizingly close to a complete ship. More importantly, it is molded with the wings folded. So instead of making the wings movable, I decided to do the next best thing; use the removed part to build an additional ship, with the wings permanently folded.

To start the build I used the normal Phantom model to make some simple molds of the details I would have trouble replicating. Then I mixed up some milliput and pressed the putty directly into the molds. This is not a perfect method and the result is not 100% accurate, but for something like this it certainly is good enough.

The two molded pieces were trimmed down and fitted together into an L-shape. The shuttle part was modified a bit further and the 'L' was then glued into place.

Some additional plasticard was required to complete the model and with that I could start detailing the ship. My aim was to make the ship look as close as possible to a hypothetical official Phantom model with folded wings. This even meant creating some details for mold lines and seams between parts.

As this was not a complete repaint, I had to match the areas that I painted to the factory paint job. As with the VCX-100, the ship was also 'improved' with blaster burns, dirt, oil and scratches. The final bit of modification was the mounting point. A magnet was inserted into the corresponding spot to the magnet in the docking bay and two mounting pins were modified to have a magnet as well.

Too cool.

Great work, you never disappoint.

You and I are going to have to have a talk one of these days about how to do molds...

About those molds...are those molds-are they made of hot glue?

It looks like it's Instant Mold / Oyumaru very similar to Blue Stuff .

21 hours ago, ZealuxMyr said:

About those molds...are those molds-are they made of hot glue?

2 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

It looks like it's Instant Mold / Oyumaru very similar to Blue Stuff .

Yup, that's pretty much it. Not sure my stuff is called exactly that but it's the same thing. Though to be honest it does looks quite similar to hot glue.

Huh... Alright, so I can get me some of that stuff - what do you use then to cast the part now that you've made the mold? I'm specifically looking for something clear. My vision is that for things like the CR-90 engines it would be easier to cast a clear replacement and paint the exterior, leaving the engine part transparent for the LEDs to shine through... Instead of hollowing out and cleaning up in between each and every fin like I currently am required to do.

1 hour ago, Khyros said:

Huh... Alright, so I can get me some of that stuff - what do you use then to cast the part now that you've made the mold? I'm specifically looking for something clear. My vision is that for things like the CR-90 engines it would be easier to cast a clear replacement and paint the exterior, leaving the engine part transparent for the LEDs to shine through... Instead of hollowing out and cleaning up in between each and every fin like I currently am required to do.

I did a similar thing to what you're describing for my Shaddowcaster that I converted to look like a federation starship (red bassard collectors and blue engine nacelles). In that case I cut the parts off that I wanted to make casts of, hot glued them into a cardstock paper box I made, poured in a liquid-rubber to cure into a mold, and then cut open the paper box to take the mold out. [Hot gluing the plastic parts down kept them in place so the liquid-rubber wouldn't move them around.] Afterwards I just poured in a clear mold resin (sold at most craft stores for jewelry purposes) and mounted the clear casts onto the ship model.

Having done the above process for this ship I am somewhat appalled with myself for having, months later, done my VCX-100 the hard way: drilling out the space around the fins as opposed to thinking of making clear casts of the engine bits... Just goes to show that none of us are as smart as all of us.