Well, I've completed this project to the point that I feel ready to show my progress on it. I want to get it done in time for a model contest in a couple of weeks, so hopefully it'll be done pretty soon.

The model will be fully lit, with a couple dozen spotlights and internal lights for the windows. The windows will all have small rooms behind them (and naturally I'll be limiting their number because of this) and some crew, as well as a full-size bridge which will sit under the ship. The lower hull will contain a battery for the power source and will attach to the model via permanent super magnets.

First, here's the blueprint I'm using for the model:

I modified it slightly by changing the angle of the hull to a much shallower one. It feels more "Imperial" to me this way.

Here's the main hull:

And the "sail":

The sail served as a sort of test bed for the level of detail I wanted to attain, and yes that is a tiny brass ladder on the side. They gotta get up there to perform maintenance somehow, right?

I'm also putting in tiny rooms behind a select number of windows, starting with the Boarding Operations bridge:

I'm also putting in turbolaser turrets which will be able to rotate and elevate. I'm short one of the elevation mechanism greebles, but I'm hoping some modeling buddies of mine will be able to find one for me in their spares:

Here are the main engines. I'm waiting for a part to come in the mail so I can finish the third engine, but you can see the parts breakdown here. The engine bell is actually from the Imperial Star Destroyer kit, which is fitting as this ship is supposed to function as a sort of mini-Star Destroyer in the roleplaying game.

And here are the two finished engines lit up:

I'll be blocking in the lower hull tonight and hopefully will get it finished before the week is out. Then I can concentrate on greebling it, and finally applying paint and weathering.

UPDATE (5/16/15): The ship is finished! Final beauty shots on page six.

Now that is the business!

Excellent work! This is great inspiration for a project I am working on at the moment... quite similar in fact.

Edit: Could you give a size comparison shot with a couple of the X wing models?

Oh Yeah.... looking forward to watching this one.

There you go!

Love it! Can't wait to see your progress!

One of my favorite ships from WEG. Looks great!

looks great! awesome work so far, keep it up!

That's purdy righ' thar!

Awesome. Keep posting updates. I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

Well, I've got some more work done on the Imperial Customs Corvette. Most of the work done was on the lower hull, but I managed to get the engine cluster built as well, though the center engine is still not finished (that part still hasn't come in the mail yet . . . ). The little room that I had created is also installed behind a large window in the middle of the fork, and even though it's a bit hard to tell in the photos it looks really good from my end. I probably would have worked through the night but for two things: I need to sleep so I can wake up for calculus class in the morning and I have a headache which feels like a railroad spike being driven through my skull.

Anyway, here are the pics:

These pics of the control room are at half brightness. Normally the room is more brightly lit, but it was washing out when I tried to photograph it.

The way people build this stuff is just amazing.

ARGH! I WANT TO DO STUFF LIKE THIIIIS!

Dude you're really good at this stuff. I'm dying to see more.

WOW! Like it, so far so good. I wish to see pics also of the constest, good luck!

Awesome!

tbh, I'm jealous of your bits box. That you have all these things lying around. I have a fairly extensive bits room but I don't do scale modeling, just wargame modeling so I'm lacking all the neat 1/300 men and details.

Incredible! Can't wait to see more.

Thanks for all the compliments, you guys. I had an unbelievably cruddy day yesterday (with school, as Sheldon put it, I'm up a river of excrement without a means of propulsion), and it's nice to come online and read the nice things you are all saying.

An inspiration

Incredible, wish I had half of your skills!

Very cool. I wish I had this kind of skill.

I think what makes a miniature look great is detail and your build has an amazing amount already.

Looking forward to seeing more updates.

Not a huge improvement, but I feel like I got quite a bit done nonetheless. Today I got the bridge deck basically built. I still need to detail the back wall of the bridge, but that can wait till tomorrow. I looked through The Empire Strikes Back till I found some good interior shots of the Executor, which I used for inspiration for this area (the other little room actually used the Death Star). The ceiling will not be visible from outside the ship, so I'm just going to put in a couple of LEDs in the bulkhead that the bridge assembly attaches to for interior illumination. I'll be painting this bad boy tomorrow, then start populating it with a crew. I'm thinking about 15-20 crewmembers will make it look sufficiently populated. I just dread having to paint that many tiny people.

Here are a couple of shots of the interior:

And here's how it fits in the bridge deck:

This is how it will look from outside the ship:

I still need to build up the armor sections where the engines attach to the hull and put in a bunch of plumbing and greebles around the reactor core, but the main sections are nearing completion.

Impressive... most impressive.

That looks like it's going well,what are you using for the curves are you vacuum forming or just finding something that is about right?