Tanker

This was my first ship to get lights. Being new to lighting I thought the idea of LEDs that automatically alternated colors would make wiring far simpler. And it did! It also meant no two lights blinked at the same rate, let alone at the same time. Fortunately, there's so many lights the timing issue can be overlooked.

This is also the first ship to get a cockpit - With people! Rather than wire-up a control panel that would be hard to see, and put in chairs that take up a lot of space, and find sitting figures, I made one guy stand over with the other guy.

This ship also evolved more than usual. It wasn't supposed to be a tanker, but a freighter, and then a tanker with small tanks. Instead, the big tank is removable, held-in with a pin towards the end of the mount.

The tank weathering was supposed to have been in the hairspray method - Basecoat; Hairspray; Topcat and decals; Wipe with a water-wet cloth to lift the paint down to the hairspray. Apparently adding a coat of Future to help the decals adhere makes the hairspray sorta permanent so I went with the Blue Tape method, where I use the stickier-that-usual 3M tape to lift the paint in an alarmingly distinctive pattern. The good news is that it catches the decals, too.

The engines are the ubiquitous Number 7 Lab engines with 4 flickering LEDs in each. What makes the N7L look so cool is that the plastic is translucent between the inner and outer rings.

This ship won Best 3D Art and brought-in a record price for spaceships.

Awtoe Tanker