Tanker Pakajak

While building the RTF I thought about a more traditional Rag-Tag Fleet ship, one that was fairly long, much wider than tall, and made with a higher content of Tamiya armor kits. Great plan, anyway. What I actually built was a tanker made from a Panzer VI anti-tank platform flanked by tanks made from Shuttle main fuel tanks laminated to an X-31 tilt-rotor-esque plane. A future RTF ship will be made from a ship hull, who's least-usable section is the bow, so I lopped it off and made it the neck of this ship. A styrene tube provided some draft visible below the tanks. Tipping the throat is a pair of speeder-bike nacelles.

I built it and got it mostly detailed when I showed it to some friends asking them, "What part to I need to fix?" Obvious to all, it was the bird beak. It was fine before I let myself put two eyes in it, and again after I hooded them. Goes to show you can't always go with your first impressions.

Finally finished construction. If I squint just right I can almost see the ship, but it's suddenly easier with a primer coat. But what color will it become?

Green, of course! I love green. Why, some of my best friends are... No, I guess they're not. Anyway, I added purple stripes as background for the largest of the last of my JTGraphics decals. The red just takes-up some of the wide expanse of green. After all that garishness the weathering is actually some of my most delicate. Just a little black-ink-in-Future along some of the seams and where I imagine seams would be. Dry-brushing. A little smoke on some leading edges and engines. A whole can of Testor's Dullcoat - The $3.99 can at Hobby Lobby, not the $4.69 one. Finally, done.