side
side again
inspiration
nude bottom
nude top
nose starboard
I just woke up one day wanting to do another Interdictor O'Connor - A novel shape all but completely hidden beneath a lot of panels and details. And I had an ex-electric shaver body laying around that I thought held some potential. The initial component arrangement ended-up being almost completely different from the finished ship, but that's ok.
I normally select a couple of pieces to be the main components then add more main parts to finish the overall shape, finally adding lots of detail parts to blend them all together. In this case, it was starting to look like a pretty boring ship until I grabbed an F-18 canopy mount. It seemed to fit right on the front, but then it needed an excuse to be there. Ah - It can hold a cylinder, like a stubby flashlight or something. The ship suddenly had some character. And a cockpit.
I wanted to use some car bodies because the fenders have interesting shapes. So I chopped some up, part becoming the chin, part becoming the upper engine flanges (the red triple-stripe decal). Still more became wings, which then demanded missile mounts, and missiles. Although I usually hate using missiles, they're not so bad when I can make them fairly unusual. In this case, not as novel as The Pig's, but still unique.
Painting was a basecoat of black, airbrushed then brushed into the nooks and crannies the airbrush missed. Since this ship was also inspired by SF3D I dry-brushed military tan. When dabbed with a large, stiff-bristled brush, the surface takes on a caste-iron texture, like that of a WWII Sherman tank. The caveat to that surface is that it doesn't take decals very well. So I used pinecar racer dry transfers, like I did with the Dragonfire. Had I left the main hull - The razor part - much less surface-detailed, I would have added some color to the ship by painting much of it reddish-orange. Instead, I had to use more dry transfers. Missiles, in this case, are an opportunity for more color.
Weathering was an airbrushed coat of Future floor wax mixed with a little black ink (Thank you, Terry). I dry-brushed a little very light tan to bring-out the details, and sealed it with Krylon Clear Flat.
In all, a good experience, quickly accomplished, and just in time to for Supercon 2007.
