Monday, January 12, 2009

The Dirty Mynock (SoroSuub Light Freighter)

This project is entirely fan-fic. I got an idea in my head and just ran with it.

Parts: Battlefield Earth Psychlo Battlecraft, various other accessories.

Supplies: X-acto knife, super glue, emery board or file, butane lighter, brushes, Testors paints and Testors Dull-Cote.

Reference: None.

First, I carefully removed the decals and saved them for later use. Then, I took the whole thing apart and dremeled out the mechanism that allowed the wings to move when the engines rotated. Now the engines can rotate 90 degrees for a verticle take-off without the wing levers moving. I did this because I didn't want to keep the wings and I couldn't have the silly little levers sticking out with no wings attached. At this point, I put the ship back together (except for the clear plastic windscreen). The landing struts were made by cutting the ends off the discarded wings. They were attached with super glue. The entire ship (except for the engines) was painted light aircraft grey. Some of the edges were drybrushed with aluminum-colored paint to show where paint had been chipped off. The cockpit was painted a very dark grey. I used a two-seat cockpit piece from an unidentified G.I. Joe plane to provide seating in the cockpit. The pilot's and gunner's seats were painted an very dark grey. The frame for the two seats was painted steel and aluminum. The individual controls were carefully painted red, yellow, orange, green and blue. The entire cockpit was given an overhaul, adding more controls, wires and conduit. I think the finished cockpit is pretty darn good considering that there weren't even seats to begin with. The decals were re-applied at this point. The vents on the underside were then painted aluminum and the mechanical hoses were painted rubber. The front of each engine nacelle was painted yellow and the exhaust area was painted grey/black. All of the missiles were painted white with yellow tips. The laser cannons were painted black and steel. A butane lighter was used to make scorch marks at various points aroundon the ship. A lot of small items were added to outfit the exterior. I attached a small rader dish to the right side of the cockpit and an antenna to the rear of it. The left side of the cockpit has a swivelling red searchlight that was taken from a Space Force vehicle. The light still works and it swivels in a good range of motion. The holes where the wings are supposed to attach were plugged using the tips of some re-painted Voltron missiles. The entire ship was given several washes of very thinned out black paint to show oil leaks and general wear and tear. Testor's Dull-Cote was then applied liberally to every part of the ship, except the cockpit windscreen. After completing the ship, I liked it so much that I decided to create a crew for it. Lissa Karan is the Captain and pilot. Zurnat is her gunner.

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