JKRANK Interceptor
Surprised by the threat of an alien invasion, for a while Earth's first line of defence was a fleet of civilian ships converted to Interdictors. Another race simliarly threatened, the JKRANKs (pronounced "jay crank"), elected instead to build a screen of small, one-man interceptors. Similar in size to the Nevermann, these interceptors carried a rotatable sensor pod that made them the functional equal to the much larger Earth interdictors, such as the O'Connor and Robert Robbins. In combat the interceptors could use the single anti-ship gun with the same effectiveness as their Earth counterparts, but much of their success was due to the attached pod of small missiles tipped with grains of anti-matter.
This ship was a lot of fun to build. Everything from the Flonase cover for a command module to the plastic testtube on a Ravenstar WP-08 Turret for a sensor pod, everything just sorta fell together. Of course, it helped that I relaxed any requirement for symmetry (not balance!), and that John Lester had recently created a fabulous sheet of alien writing. Also making it fun was the use of Solder for pipes instead of elastic giftwrap for conduit. The technique for straightening the solder I learned from Jochen Ortmann, whose fabulous Defence inspired my Shark. He told me how to lay a bit of a length of solder on a table near the edge, and roll it under a board. Feed an inch or two at a time under the board, and in seconds - Straight pipe! Still, the best thing about the JKRANK is that it was commissioned by a very good friend as a gift for someone I admire, the best ambassador to Bulgaria we could have...
The real JKRANK
Jeff K. Rank is a film production manager working in Sophia, Bulgaria. He shares some of his experiences with the crew and visiting cast on his Blog. Jeff is also the best ambassador we could have ever sent.
He daily demonstrates that Americans are friendly and generous, and not just by spreading a little cash around. By his example of American values he has a daily positive influence on the people of an ex-Soviet culture, and has done more to show them the good things about America and being American than most any amount of US Aid could.
Left, Pod retracted - 24kb
Bottom - 36kb
Front - 52kb
Right - 28kb
Pre-drybrushing - 36kb
At home - 122kb
On Display - 195kb