Cruiser NH104

As I said with FC342, the main body is most of a Czech fuel-tanker-turned-spaceship kit, glued on to a plasic box. The empty space between it and the nose is two Tick-Tac breathmint boxes. The nose is scratchbult to resemble a JE-12 Juno engine, as that's what I had when I was looking for noses, and the proportions seemed to be right. The engines are toothbrush-containers. The space beneath the tank and behind the box is two identical 1/72-scale tank hull decks, with a few parts added. The bottom ribbed part with the transverse red (actually orange) stripe is 1/3 of a bathroom shower knob - The other two thirds is part of FC342. As for the paint...

I wanted much the same style of decoration as FG829 and FP680, but different colours, as if it was part of the same universe, but a different organization. So, I chose orange instead of Insignia Red, and Testor's Intermediate Blue instead of a medium gray. The only clever part of the paint job was the hash marks on the top-side of the nose and on the back-bottom of the fuselage. The nose stripes were drafting tape masking for black paint. The stripes on the fuselage, like those on the side of the boxes beneath FC342, were from a sheet of train-engine nose-stripes. I bought those better than 10 years ago in the fabulous hobby store on Research Blvd. in Austin.