parts
nude bottom
nude side
nude top
cockpit side
cockpit top
engines bottom
engines top
bottom right
parts
nude bottom
nude side
nude top
cockpit side
cockpit top
engines bottom
engines top
bottom right
Had so much fun with the Starliner - Again, inspired by SRadler - But lacking a really huge hull to build from, I opted to wimp-out with a 1/72 B-17 fusalage. It's longer than not, and has a sharp tail that would make a pointy nose when flipped upside-down and backwards. British bombers would have been unsuitable because of their corrogated aft fuselage and rounded tail, and a 1/48th scale B-29 is just too regular. And I'd already used a B-52. Too bad I didn't have a 1/48 scale B-17! Then, again, at least I didn't have to sand the fuselage free of rivets. Not the case with the snap-together B-26 engines whose virtues were simple design and molded-open wheel well doors, so lipstick containers fit right in.
The down side of the B-17 was the main wing roots. Had to cut them out, leaving only a little of the leading and trailing edges, suitably integrated with some detail parts. A large plastic cylinder took-up the resulting space because I figured it would be easier to detail than having to build-in a box and detail that.
Mounting the engines was easy - Just glued them on to a cylinder stuck up the stern. The gap on the top of the engines, resulting from the wing-shaped scallops not snugging-down to the cylinder, was easily hidden beneath the cut-out hull sections, upon which the B-17's vertical stabilizer neatly formed wings. After all the detailing was done the top aft just sloped down a bit too much, so I threw on top some nice, slick Arado 234 engines.
What started as another starliner became a mini-starliner. Because I lacked any liner-ly decals and the hull was too small for large paint effects, I had to go with fancier markings, making this ship a yacht. So - How to make this obviously a yacht? Let's see, now... A rich-boy toy, a pride and joy, a statement, a symbol of braggadocio... Oh, I've got those markings, courtesy of a pinecar racer decoration set! And I knew they were perfect because the wings neatly embraced the more-or-less cockpit.
Having selected the markings I could now choose the color. It couldn't be red, yellow, or black because those colors painted were bound to look different than those colors in the markings. I should have chosen a much lighter blue or even gray. Well, maybe not gray, it's not fancy enough. The dark blue made the black that outlined the markings all but disappear. Oh, well. Still, rich blue is masculine yet over-the-top, which makes it pretty close to perfect. And by building a yacht I satisfied another fun requirement of a rag tag fleet ship - It's civilian, not military, which sometimes means different design requirements, and always means a difference in decoration.
