Ion Cannon Frigate Jack Nobles
That I love the game Homeworld has been no secret, having inspired the Ion Cannon Frigate Feng Zhu and Taiidan Fighter 369-4. As for an Ion Cannon Frigate, there's just something about a ship built around a gun, like Alfred Wong's TIE/Obliterator, that appeals to my competitive nature.
The frigate started as a now dated toilet-paper dispenser. I took the cover off and attached it to the end of the cover, running a plexiglas tube through it to a large disk at the end to make it look like the barrel ran from a chamber at the rear of the ship all the way to the front. The disk at the end was a dog-toy rattle witha a 1/72 tank turret bottom and a 1/35 tank wheel. Since I hate doing panel lines I added Evergreen strips to the side to help break-up the huge expanse of smoothness. Each engine is the mouthpiece of a whistle bought as a Halloween give-away, with a 1/35 scale Panzer III bogey and a WAVE rocket motor bell.
I wanted a contrasting paint scheme that helped emphasize the ship-built-around-a-gun look but which still coordinated more than contrasted so I chose Floquil Panzer Red Brown and USN Blue Gray. Unlike modern air forces, I think markings should contrast and stand out, and they should be allowed to fill whatever otherwise featureless area is avaliable. So it remains a mystery to me why I stuck with the coordinate-not-contrast scheme and used green alien writing decals from JBot. It worked ok on the brown, but was lost on the blue. Live and learn. Coincidently, I used the same letters on the Fralthi Battleship earlier this year.
The real Jack Nobles is my nephew and a lot of fun on vacation. Quite a trooper, he is.
Dimensions: 9x3x3 inches.
aft nude - 31KB
comp - 35KB
front nude - 27KB
mockup - 60KB