Near-Space Prowler Nassar
The Nassar is typical of the class of "Prowlers", near-space patrol ships. Crew complement is two officers, with cramped provision for up to six "guests". Weaponry was four kinetic-energy emitters.
This ship took a record one week to build. It was inspired by a picture of a "Miniature Gateway Station craft" that was one of 500 items in an E-bay auction. I didn't find out about the auction and see the picture until Karim Nassar posted a link to it in StarshipModeler's bulletinboard. Anyway, as soon as I saw it I had to have it. Well, not enough to spend two grand or so on it, but enough to build one like it. Like the gorgeous Battlestar Galactica miniatures, I imagine it was built in all of a day, a testament to the imagination and inspiration of a hardworking but nameless artist.
Mine uses the tail boom and most of the fuselage, in various places, of an old Matchbox 1/72 scale Westland Lynx. I first glued the booms and the top of a bubble-gum dispenser dome to a sheet of plasticard, cutting off the rest of the plasticard. Sure enough, later on I regretted not still having some of the plasticard on the front to make it easier to add parts. I glued a part of a plastic shot-glass to the front of the dome, and the nose of the chopper in front of it. The bottom of the ship is actually the top of the helicopter. See the "nudes" of the ship in progress to see how it was all arranged. When it came time to paint it I went with mostly light gray, just like the original, but I added several Blue Angel Blue sections to enhance the police-car look without actually putting a light-bar on top or "Police" decals all over it. "Prowler" (and "cruiser") is what police cars used to be called.
Eleven years after I first published this I noticed that there are a lot more picture of the original, seeing as how it resides in the Pacific Science Museum in Seattle, and even a long article on researching and replicating the original.
Pre-weathering - 48kb
Raw top - 34kb
Raw bottom - 35kb
