Taiidan Fighter 369-4

I meant to enter this in Starshipmodeler.com's Ships not seen in movies or on TV contest, but I didn't finish it in time. As for where I got the idea for this... Well, thank Adrian Bruce for that. He did some spaceships that he said were reminiscient of Homeworld, the computer game. So I went there and was... Amazed. Delighted. Inspired.

The ships in the game look to be decorated, or at least inspired, by Chris Foss, one of the first illustrators to do ships not as sleek teardrops, but as boxey things painted in anything but regulation gray. Of course, Foss has been one of my idols since I saw my first book cover of his. And he may not have done the designs for the ships in Homeworld, but like his work, they are wonderful.

One of the best things about the online site is the Homeworld Unit Viewer. It rotates a ship so that you can look at all sides. You can also move the ship about and pause it. Best of all, you can adjust two of the colours of the ships. Imagine your ship, and use this thing to see what a combination of paints will look like together. Be sure and download it, and get the templates for the rest of the ships while you're there. Oh, and if you want to see a far superior reproduction of one of the game's best designs, check-out Nick's scratch-built Taiidan Scout : Fiirkan.