Fralthi Attack Carrier
Long ago the Worldcon was overseas, the North American alternative NASFIC was in Atlanta and was a part of DragonCon. I'd just graduated from a Packard-Bell SX-25 computer to a Packard Bell 150 MHz, leaving behind "Wing Commander" with the old machine. I built several ships from the game that year, this, the enemy Fralthi cruiser, amongst them. It was, for the longest time, the only convention where I didn't sell all my ships, this ship again amongst them.
For many years it occupied an inordinately large space on a shelf, awaiting it's destiny. It's destiny was a "make-over". Gone is the colorful, but poorly-applied, paint-job. Gone, too, are the boxy wing-tip engines with their dragging winglets, replaced with guns. The rest of the ship could be subjected to paint removal, but since there are a couple of areas that are hard to reach, I'll just sand-down the paint a touch.
Sprayed the ship light gray where I later wanted Insignia Yellow panels. Huh. Kind of a German Winter Campaign look going on there. Then sprayed the yellow. Pity it didn't come out Insignia Yellow, but a bit greenish. Oh, well. Masked-off the yellow parts and sprayed the rest Rust. Wonderful alien writing custom decals arrived from JBot so I applied the True Blue ones and then masked some more panels, painting them to match the decals. Weathered with a wash of black oil paint thinned with turpenoid. Dry-brushed light-gray, lightening-up some of the brown and generally blending everything together.
Early in 2017 I was lurking on Facebook's Battlestar Galactica Shipyards group, followed some links to CGI Serenity/Firefly ships, then googled "Walden Ship" (the ship from "Out of Gas"), then to Foundation3D Forum, scrolled down - Look! "TCS Tiger Claw" from Wing Commander! You know, the usual where-does-the-time-go-on-the-internet - And discovered that this ship I built became somebody else's inspiration!
Nose edge
Port Top
Engine detail
Originals: Bottom
Another bottom
Nose bottom
Side
Top
