Interdictor Robert Robbins
At a time when Earth's shipbuilding facilities are engaged in new construction, turning out state-of-the-art capital ships, ship-killers, and shuttles, smaller facilities throughout the solar system were hard at work converting older spaceworthy craft into long-range patrol craft. Such ships were relegated to the far-off reaches of planetary space for long, boring voyages with little hope of contact, and a pronounced preference for running instead of fighting when there is.
This one started as an Albatross-Class light transport, the Robert Robbins. The interior space and much of the exterior replaced with sensor equipment, and one long-range weapon was added more for the psychological health of the crew than any expectation of usefullness. The engines were also replaced with modern, if custom-made, oversized units to give the vessel the power it needs to quickly investigate spacial anomalies which, all to often, signal the arrival of enemy vessels.
I had so much fun with the O'Connor (which itself was a rendition of Harugoro's Griffon 2) that I decided to build another. Where a good ship to accompany Big Blue would have to be a matching blue, and I had no way to mix-up a matching batch, painting this ship the same way I did the O'Connor would allow the color to vary slightly and still make the ships look like they belong together. Well, that was the plan, anyway.
This scout started off as an amphibious Albatross, one of those ancient Monogram kits that was proud of all the rivets, yet which contained a decent amount of inset panel lines. Go figure. Anyway, I lopped-off the ends and stuck the top of the wing into the slot where the cockpit windows had been, turning the whole model upside down and backwards, too, of course. I wanted the engines to be forward-projecting tubes, yet the wings had [now rearward-facing] engine fairings. What to do... So I made a shape-interface of layered custom-shaped disks - A grill! Have to remember that trick. After that was the fun part - Adding a bunch of stuff to be sensor packages, guns, etc.
This ship is named after the father of a friend of mine. My friend, the librarian who supplied the staple boxes used on Big Blue and L'Barii Fighter, as well as kinda supplying the weapons for the JDINER, gave me several model kits, the Albatross among them, that her father had bought but never got around to building while he was alive. For me, Robert Robbins' greatest legacy is my friend, and the love she lavishes on friends and family.
Bare structure - 50kb
Basecoat - 28kb
Basecoat - 65kb
