a little more done to the MO. It kinda looks like Buck Rodgers LOL.

Gam, here are the VATE (Vectored Atmospheric Thrust Engine) engines.

Or Flash Gordan! 

And awesome, saw those before and figured they were some sort of vents. Very cool!!! 

Hi,

Here are a couple in process images of my armored car.  I'm still playing around with ideas to make the gun look more like a "death ray".

Pat

How about a radar dish, or if you can find something close. Drill a hole in the middle and slide it down the barrel. 

Started on the superstructure and guns. The guns are not glued yet and I want to do a lot more to the super.

Pat: Ohhhhh, that looks cool! 

Steve: She's coming along great! 

Hey guys great work going on here!  

I finally got off my duff and started on my project last night.  Since I have no 3-views or "official" dimensions, I started sketching out the Veltro, then made simple cardstock cutouts of the wings, tails, and fuselage.  BUT!  I forgot my phone at work so no photos.    I went through two iterations on the fuselage and wings, and mocked them up.  The wings still look too narrow in chord, so one more pass and it will be time to start planning actual part fabrication.  To me, the trick in modeling a small plane in 1/72 is that tiny dimensional changes can have a significant impact on the final appearance of the model.  I also want to maintain a high level of detail, at least comparable to a Hasewaga kit, so solid block modeling will be limited.  I have most of the little details figured out already, but the "skyhook" mechanism concept eludes me - there are no clear illustrations of this part.

I really do want to make a section of that launch bay!

I PROMISE to post photos of mock up V1.0 and possibly mock up V2.0 tomorrow.

modelcrazy

Started on the superstructure and guns. The guns are not glued yet and I want to do a lot more to the super.

 

BK

Thanks BK,

G, looking forward to the pics.

Oops, got home late from work and fell asleep on the floor with the cat last night, so no progress.    But I did snap two pics of the V2.0 mock up of the Veltro fighter:

As you can see, the wing chord needs work.  Aside from that, I think the stabilizers will be shortened just a smidge.  I am satisfied with the landing gear position/wing break, wing gun locations, control surface sizes and general fuselage shape.  Overall dimensions work out to a suitable WW II proportion of 38 ft span, 33 ft fuselage length.  Hopefully Ver3.0 will be the pattern for the actual build.

G: That looks cool! 

Gamera

G: That looks cool! 

 

Some more work on the MO last night. I decided to make the forward blisters nutron pulse guns and the bow barrel a sonic wave gun. Of course sanding and filling is in order.

Well, after some more work, I think I'm finally done adding and buttoned her up. Guns on, as well as the antennas. I think I'm going to paint her black and red with the black having a star field. The "camo" will be a MS 32 18D pattern like North Carolina using the black and red. I'm not sure I'll paint any red on the superstructure but I'll see how dark it is. Anyway, her she is just finished, then with the black.

That looks awesome! 

I'd be tempted to paint a shark mouth on the bow... would that be too much??? 

Not sure, I may be able to find one in the decal box to check.

Steve, you are blasting right along!    No brass or bonze colored areas?

I refined the Veltro's proportions and am satisfied with them.

The earlier iteration had racier looking wings, but the broader wings with less sweep better captures the look of the illustrations.  Things will shape up when I flesh out the fuselage.

I am considering options for fabricating components, as I want to keep weight down and need the model to balance on its C.G., since I am planning to suspend it from the mother ship's launch arm like in the illustration.

Okay, so I am about to get off my duff and start the Veltro in earnest!  I pulled out a 25 year old build (my first scratchbuilt airplane) to assess fabrication process for the fuselage and wings.

The little rocket plane is a Berezniak-Isaev BI-1, an early WW II Soviet experimental fighter.  When I built the model, I had scant information on the plane.  I just had a three view and a few bad black & white photos.  But the skis intrigued me, so that is what prompted the build.  Anyway, to stay OT, the fuselage was vac-formed from 0.030" sheet plastic over a solid buck made from sheet plastic profiles and a few formers filled in with Milliput epoxy putty.  The buck proved strong, surviving two test pulls and one final pull.  It still exists somewhere in my closet of doom.  The wings were laminated sheet plastic, but came out too thin due to a miscalculation on my part when scaling up the drawings.

Gotta remember to NOT use scrap blister packaging for the windscreen!

Based on reviewing the BI-1, I figure the Veltro's fuselage will be made the same way, as it worked well.  I am thinking of vac-forming the wings to get a thicker profile and to keep that all-important weight down.  I'll use at least one or two spars to keep the wings from "squishing" during the scribing/detailing process.  I was thinking about how to integrate the wings to the fuselage, and remembered a process in a modeling book I read 40 years ago!  Stay tuned.

Ohhhhhh, that BI-1 looks cool! Neat concept and she came out really well!!! 

Really looking forward to how the Veltro works out. 

That Bl-1 loos supurb, excelect scratch building 

Really looking forward to what you do with the Veltro.

Real G

Steve, you are blasting right along!    No brass or bonze colored areas?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking. 

I added the starfield to the black. I may paint the side vents brass or bronze, Maybe even th antenna or wing pods??? It's going to need something else besides black and red.

Ohhh she looks cool in black Steve- almost like a Space Pirate! 

Maybe do the wing pods in bright red??? 

BTW: I think I finally have an idea. Forget the time machine... 

It's SPACESHARK!!!

Hold on, more details to come... 

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/44/t/153425.aspx

Blast from the past. My steampunk rv

Sorry Brassbow, Photobucket. 

Spaceshark....  Intrested.

Here the MO is with some red on her. Now that it's on I like it so I'll add some more.

Gam, I was thinking of copper for the wing pods, engines nozzels, antennas and hull vents.

Oh cool... I was thinking of red on the rocket pods on the tail fins etc. Still in case that looks friggin' awesome! The copper will give a cool steam-punk feel to her. 

Really looking forward to how she comes out! 

SPACESHARK tm is currently on it's way to me from Amazon. More details when he gets here... 

Steve - I’m liking that black/red paint job!  Definitely work some brass/copper/bronze color in there.  Steam punk space pirate ship!!!   Break out a casket of space rum and fetch me a space wench!  Arrrrgh!!!

Gamera - Space Shark?  Now you got me curious.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_vs._Zigra#/media/File%3AGamera_vs_zigra_poster.gif

Oh Real G, Zigra was formidable but SPACESHARK is far more frightning. 

I'm a little afraid the mods might have a problem with me posting something so horrible and monsterous on a family friendly site. We'll have to see... 

modelcrazy

I did some sanding and more filling.

 

Looking at all that filler is bringing on a seizure  

Mongoose, it gave me a chance to try diffrent fillers 

The plastic great white shark for the SPACESHARK conversion got here Friday. Been too busy to get the rest of the stuff ordered for the conversion though. Hopefully; I'll have something to post soonish.