Heavy Fighter

The ship was supposed to be a study using one technique for creating an overall curved surface with overlapping flat plates. After that part of it was done, I thought, what the heck, let's just use it as a testbed for some other stuff while were at it. So it became a study in how to slap an Armageddon station section onto the bottom to make an engine. And how to use stripes a la Betty from Alien: Resurrection.

I'd used stripes before, but then I was trying to be subtle. Now I wanted a garish ship, one who's pilot dared the opposition to shoot it down. I painted it the red, then used 1/2 inch Scotch tape to mask the parts I wanted to stay red. First mistake, not just because one should always start with the lighter color to insure thorough coverage, but because after all the striping I had to go back and mask-off most of the upper surfaces so I could make the undersides and rear deck the darker color. Another case of live and learn.

The problem with a red and orange ship is, what do you paint on it for contrast? I should have used more gray, but I wimped-out. I did add some black via the cockpit taken from a Hasegawa "Egg" plane. And, while I was adding parts, I used a pair of Ravenstar WP-08 turrets. Prefab parts are so cool!