Stunning! Original!

Great idea!

What can be said, except for Brilliant!!

Mike T.

As I said in the other tread...FANTASTIC!

Thanks... feels good to be back at it!

A few days off for once, much more progress...

Got all twelve of the inner structures built. Started around the rest of the hole. Was scratching my head as to why the new alignment was off the more I added, then realized that I still had to cut the hole to final size. Got them tacked together and mostly aligned half way around... Also threw in a pic of the display area, as that is where I moved it to work on assembly easier. Kinda shows the massive size of this thing. More soon...

Let me say again, great idea and great job. Looking forward to seeing her finished!

Your Model room is very impressive!

I would love to see more of your sweet collection. Is that a split s-foil Z-95 I see on your desktop? (If yes, where can I get one?!)

Please keep up the great work!

Klik

Very cool!  I'm guessing you're using the 1/144 Falcon?

That IS cool!  But, how ya gonna get it through the door if you  have to move? Looks like it'll be a tight squeeze. 

Thanks.  Fun to be working on it again.

Got all 12 structures tacked in to see if it would connect up...  what a PITA.  Got a couple to reposition, putty, sand, prime... rinse, repeat..., but they all basically fit.  Only the tops are tacked in, so figured would get a pic before it falls in the hole, lol.  When I get it all positioned right, then have to flip it and glue up all of the bottom connections.  Math and guessing... it works pretty swell.  Trying to get the structures done this month, then finally, on to the surface.

The top comes off on positioning pins and will have handles built under it, just like the bottom.  The bottom just fits through the doors.  Yeah, almost forgot about that early on, but tested it out.  Plus it is upstairs... I'm more worried about the weight to carry it down... lol

Yes, it's built in 1/144.

Well, if you mean the McQuarrie Concept X-Wing, then yes... never was good with the technical ship names, lol .  The litte one and the big one just getting started were from Rich/REL at Sovereign Replicas.  You see them pop up from time to time.  Both are very nice kits.

Have been pouring through the Blu-ray for the surface details... thought this detail was funny - man did they cheat in a few spots to make the port align - at high-speed you dont notice it.  Man - mine had to at least look symmetrical and aligned at no-speed passes...  :P 
 

 Started laying out the general surface elements... some will need to be recessed into the surface.  Other parts are just placeholders... been looking for my stash of Death Star tiles... had one set under the bench.  Need to run to storage and see if I have them there.  Just "cleaned" recently so now I can't find them... LOL.  Also started design of the partial tower.  On vacation, so will be working on general surface layout and positioning over the next couple of days, then another round of materials gathering.

That is such an original idea for a scratch build.

And so well executed.

Inspiring.... .Inspiring!

Yeah great progress!

I can hear the TIE fighter sounds in my mind... WAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

You sir   have too much free time on your hands! Might I suggest you get a hobby or something:)     All kidding aside I think its cool! B.T.W.  what do you feed the imperial walker in the aquarium?

Aren't you done yet?

Haha.  I feed it little resin goldfish that I cast, and cast, and cast... lol

Done? lol - been working on this so long I'm soon going to fall under the "um, juristiction of the Empire"...

I'm still at a loss trying to find my box of DS surface tiles I had collected for this... that's what I get for cleaning up storage over vacation...  had a few at home, so...

Started layout and detail of the first section... needed a slightly rectangular grid with some height to it... found a gutter product that once turned inside out, was about exactly right.  One was out of the box in the store so I got lucky... you wouldn't notice the grid from the outside.  This general whole "area" of the layout will be sunk to the surface.  Did I mention how much I've been looking forward to doing the surface part...  :P

Man I love this part... (when I get to work on it)...

Threw together some more surface tiling (some scratched) and the small tower structure in the lower right quadrant...
 

Finally got around to fixing the "L"-shaped red structure... had originally prototyped it up wrong (too short and wrong cut-off).  Stripped the left half and added the extender... then laid out a full run of surface all the way up the side... and... suddenly...  [drum roll] SHAZAAM - it all lined up from the original planning!   Now THIS is where the fun begins!
 

New extended "L" painted up with better lighting in that area... lots of sanding, tweaking, and painting in the future once I get the whole surface laid out...

A little tweaking around the under-construction tower... and started laying out the upper middle.  Should get the top laid out this week.  Then onto the left, denser area that the Falcon flies over as it approaches the port... once it is all generally laid out, then will start on the tower and detailing up all the tiled areas...

Quite a project! Are you an architect?

Funny you ask... I actually wanted to be an architect at one time.  Have scratched a lot of model houses for fun over the years.  Always liked to do open/cut-away mockups.  This was right up my alley... :)

Had an afternoon to work on it again...  got the larger red structure on the left side mostly done.  Working on the back gray grid structure next...

Was finally home on the weekend once... got more laid out and more grid structures roughed out on the left side and top.  Hopefully the weather will stay warm soon and stop raining so I can finally paint the whole red middle port section...

Getting there with the surface layout...  next back to the corner with the partial tower and three surrounding red structures.  Woo, finally get to build the tower.

Another cold rainy weekend, so lots of progress (for once)...

Got the core structures for the tower area laid out as well as the frame and shell for the partial tower.  This phase is so much fun!

Lots of clean-up and sanding of all the surface parts, then onto superdetailing and painting of all the surface elements...

Finally found somebody local to make acrylic cases and cut large styrene/ABS... spec'd out the large ABS surface piece with the "official" hole that will be clad to the MDF.  In the meantime, getting cold out, so time to paint the port (since I had to remove it anyways).  Forgot I had only tacked the inside structures in the corners... was hanging that way all summer, but didn't fall into the hole!  I remembered when I tried to pick it up and they started falling inside the port... lol.  All is good... built a quick temporary cardboard carrier so I can get at most angles of it.  First time all the port sections were fully attached and painted.  A few sand and putty spots, but actually not too bad overall for first crack at it... will work on that until the surface cladding is done.