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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Cardboard Spaceship for Stargrave part 1

While Stargrave is still months from being released, there has been some info that's made it out into the wilds, and one bit is that there will be a scenario that takes place in a hanger bay of some sort, and requires 4 ships/shuttles. 


Now, I've been watching a lot of Star Wars lately, from Clone Wars to Rebels to The Mandalorian, and got this crazy idea to scratch build a small cargo ship. I even dreamed about it. So, after work one evening I got to it. 

I started with a sketch and some basic dimensions.

Then got cutting. Mostly the ship is made from regular cardboard, glued together with hot glue.
Here I've got the basic structure coming together.
And then the overall ship shape.

The basic construction took about 2 hours tops. I was really pleased, overall with how it was coming along.... but then I got more into it and... 

When I got the second engine on... I realized that they weren't quite the same size. I did a bunch of fiddling trying to get it to work.
Then ignored it, and added more structure to the top of the ship.
This is the top of that little 3 legged thing that comes with pizza to keep the box from squishing the pizza. Loved the shape, and figured that'd be great detailing for the ship.
Then I cut off the engines and replaced them with these cylinders made from tissue box and a pair of Reaper bases.

You can also sort of see the pencil sketching on the hull where I thought different bits of plating should go. 

And speaking of, I got started on it. Here you can see the hatch on the port side. The paneling was done with the same tissue box card applied with wood glue.

 The paneling was a bit too busy, and I'm not real thrilled with how it looks here. Maybe it'll be better when painted.

Up top, I'm wishing I'd been more symmetrical with the panels.
I went with a cleaner, less busy look for the starboard side.
And here you can see the aft main hatch.
Adding detail to the prow and the front of the engines. Still not sure how I'll detail the rear of the engines.
Working on some landing gear. They're made from GW 20mm bases, kabab skewers, and the inner tube of a roll of dog poop bags.
Given how tall it is, I added some washers for weight to the bottom of the hull.
And here I'm adding the clear plastic to the cockpit. I want the smooth surface for when I paint it up. 

Then I built out the cockpit cladding and here you can see the fins added to the engines...

And the detail added to the back of the engines. 


Then it was primer time!! It's gonna need a second coat, and then onto painting, but that's for another post. 

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