Sorry, for me Photobucket and FFG do not seem to work. But the facility comes in three parts. It is 1' wide, long and almost 1' high. I have finished the card on Kuat Drive Yards website if you want to see the stats. I can only place 1 photo at a time..............still trying to figure out the problem??? But it is about 2 months worth of work , scrounging parts, assembling and painting. The base is a little rough , but can't afford a better printer when I am not working, but going to college. Hope you enjoy what I can put on this site, maybe it will inspire some more scratch builders.

Cheers

Shane

This is super rad!

What kind of items did you use for the different component parts? How did you go about picking those items?

I have tried my hand somewhat at scratch building for Armada and loved it, but found that my creative vision for how I could repurpose items was severely lacking.

That is awesome!!!!

What a piece of junk!!!

That's awesome!

The name suits it, and lo, 'twas glorious to behold! I've been thinking of trying to make up one of those deep space manufacturing facilities from Tie Fighter, but after seeing this, I think I better stick to buying premade platforms or that new dropzone kit. Not sure I could dream up something that cool from scratch.

Seriously seriously awesome stuff, mate

I am glad you guys like it, now for a little explanation. I am almost 51 years old( yes I am older than dirt). I became hooked on model building due to the original Star Wars.

I was building little models prior to Star Wars, but after seeing the movie in May 77, I was hooked on ship models, aircraft and finally around the 90's German and Russian WW2 armor. My first ship model was the WW2 carrier "Ënterprise" I built with my dad. But I really began to appreciate scratch building, starting with adding parts to existing model kits, then to building models like this one. I had a lot of total fails due to scale etc, but that is half the fun.

The "Beast" started as inspiration, surprisingly, due to two tear drop shaped game aids for the "Dust" game. After Dust "bit" the dust so to speak, I had a big collection of dust collectors. So pulling out my big bits and bobs parts box and rampaging through the Dust models I soon had a bigger collection of parts. The little housing units are old capacitors from an worn out organ my wife used to play, but was now little more than flat spot for junk. So I took it apart and scavenged electronic parts that would be useful as well.

It is very easy to get parts, search on sites like KIJIJI or get the el cheapo WW2 model ship kits. Another good place is model train shops for sheet styrene, plastic beams etc.

My son had some old Lego parts he gave me, and so I started creating.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you the scale, or give you a parts list or even a picture. My inspiration led me to the internet to research space stations and so it began. The base was easy to make, but the challenge was how to make it look like a space station, and make sense. A lot of time was spent just looking at space station shapes and uses.

One thing about science fiction is you have creative license to make a design work, so a little fudging of the design can be made.

I had no real plan just started building , and fitting in parts and ideas. So I can safely say I was definitely flying by the seat of my pants on this model. I just used artistic creativity, architectural ideas , some structural and engineering ideas. No math was used so now calculators were hurt in the making of this project, just ideas, time and a good parts collection.

Shane

That is pretty good mate. It's fun looking for pieces to see what we can identify, but I'd have never gotten the capacitors Electronic bits are usually a pretty great source, but creativity on the whole is just great. No plans, just an idea, that's how scratch building was meant to be! At least to me that is It has a very golden age look to it, but with its overall look it feels authoritative, like an Imperial Cloud City with a few fun neo-gothic elements in the spires and spinal clusters.

I've seriously considered buying some WW2 model ships just for the bits involved. No better place for properly scaled gun emplacements. Lego is surprisingly good for use as a strengthener and is easily cut and glued for that matter. I like using it too for any conversions. How heavy is it, by the by? just a curiosity.

I wouldn't worry about the birthdays of years past, I might be just a liiiiittle more than half your age but my sister is still older No worries mate, you ain't out of the woods and into the 'Home' yet!

Hi Vykes

With the base and model it weighs around 8 lbs, so it is not light by any means. I used a thick piece of plank for stability, so that adds weight. Another piece I use was an old computer hard drive for the plates in side of it.............they provide a dam good level base, and some cool bits as well.

As for the paint job...........I just sprayed it battleship gray, then washes of black acrylic paint,( around two washes), then a wash of brown to dirty it up, then dry brushing grey to white . So good old Imperial gray for that oppressive authoritarian look. And of course it has to be bloody big .................and almost gothic look as well.

I hope you try the process. Just settle on an idea , and have fun with it. Like I said science fiction allows creative license , and I really hope you try it. I can build, but painting leaves much to be desired, But you are a god with mini painting, just remember as you get older your eyesight gets worse. Invest in a good magnifying glass to save your eyes. I didn't until in my forties now after my third prescription of glasses I wish I had..

Shane

Looks like a Weyland Yutani industrial ore processing vessel. Careful when responding to alien distress beacons.

Looks like a Weyland Yutani industrial ore processing vessel. Careful when responding to alien distress beacons.

And sevastopol station as well

This is a picture of the bottom of the lowest level, so you can see the ventral turrets.

Looks like a Weyland Yutani industrial ore processing vessel. Careful when responding to alien distress beacons.

And sevastopol station as well

Currently retracing my steps in the SciMed tower after overloading the core. Stressed out every time I load up the game.