Mutarian Cruiser Gagnon
Starshipmodeler.com posted a submission to their Reader's Gallery from Norman "Don't just stand there, build something" Gagnon about a ship he'd just finished for the film, PleasureCraft ( Full Moon Home Video/Koch Distribution). The Mutarian Battle Cruiser was wonderfully alien, yet anthropomorphic. For a spaceship, it's one of the best examples of, "Wings make the ship." Norman didn't design it, but he spent a mere four and a half days making 28 inches of lovely alien ship, challenging me to attempt the feat myself.
All the above links are dead. You can see pictures here and here.
My copy is superior in that it features two-tone red paint with orange highlights, and that it is much more portable at 12 inches in length. (Some "superior"!) The nose of mine is a plastic (of course) serving spoon, sliced and separated so that I'd have room for some unique details. The main body is a large easter egg. Sundry shapes scattered about are aircraft model drop tanks and plastic doll-eyes (in various sizes). The shoulder thingies are quarter-inch plexiglas cut to shape. The main fuselage is mounted on 60 thousandth plasticard. The engines are plastic megaphones with fishing-float halves, one of my neater designs, if I may say so myself.
Now, imagine the ship without wings (or sticky-out bits). Pretty ho-hum common-place, huh? Add those wonderful wings, though... Their design is superb, evoking a mixture of alien yet familiarity, that makes this one of the best designs for an alien ship ever, to the degree that the entire rest of the ship could varied in appearence, and it wouldn't have mattered. Norman probably closely copied the wings and sticky-out bits and shoulders from the art director's illustrations, for the aforementioned excellent reason. Having done that, though, he (and I) were free to be expedient with the rest without compromising the look and impact of the ship. Keep it in mind when building your own...
See Norman here, and search for the best price for the DVD of the soft-porn movie at DVDPriceSeach.com. As always, google for "Norman Gagnon" or "PleasureCraft" for more information.
