White Tiger

Back in August one of the denizens of the Starshipmodeler boards, "puddingwrestler", built a very attractive space-going tractor-trailer. When I first saw it only the tractor part was built, but I was immediately drawn to it as it was an Awtoe - A spaceship made from a car model. I found the inspiration irresistable.

But I wanted mine to be a little more difficult, so I started with a 1/48th scale F-14. In particular, the rear third, flanked by the air-intakes, and the whole thing flipped upside-down and backwards. The last major component was a triangular cross-section... "Shape", one of many parts I got from an estate sale. I used it because it had the same angle as the remaining fins on the rest of the engines. Because I was trying to work quickly I super-glued it on, then realised that one corner was farther forward than the other. Had it not been thus uneven I would have quit right there, but now I had to add more parts to the top to disguise the flaw.

Pudding Wrestler's trailer was two sections of plumbing pipe, glued together and the joint plated-over. I used a Canon toner cartridge, one of several plastic parts given me by my best friends over the years. Before even thinking about detailing the tractor I had to build the interface between the tractor and the trailer. At this point something bothered me about the proportions - For a cargoe-pod-hauler, the tractor was too big for the trailer. I ignored my misgivings and modeled-on, a mistake when trying to work intuitively. When I was all but finished with both tractor and trailer I decided I really didn't like the two together, so the tractor became a fighter and the trailer got a new tractor. And this became a ground fighter.

Well. Now we have to add some guns. Lotsa guns. And blank areas in the back and the bottom, leftover from when it was going to be a tug. Again, like the Stinger, too much left no room for chunks of a solid color. Darn. With a universe of colors, I hate doing two ships in the same color in the same year. Still, it's a millitary ship, so it calls for green or tan, and I've already got a bunch of green ships. So I did the whole thing in Desert Tan, and compared it to the Stinger. Whew - Completely different!

Despite being a military ship, I wanted some color on it. Which means either bright letters or bright camouflage, so I went for camouflage - Rust-colored splotches. I took it and several other ships to Career Day at D. McRea Elementary School. The fifth-graders there got a big kick out of contemplating a world where red splotches on dark tan is camouflage.

All in all, I like how it came out, though I may tone-down that dry-brushed grey. (And I did.) I also noticed that my barely-dark wash got darker the jar after just a couple of months. Need to remember to add more Future Floor Wax to the mix next time.