1/2200 Zentraedi Cruiser Salan Scout

[MechTech]

It's coming along great! - MT

[tplayer]

I had some time after work to turn a cone out of Apoxie Sculpt. It machines well. The pictures show the part in the lathe, a test fit with one of the engines and the part next to the engines. I think I can just use the cone with a coat of Vaseline instead of making a silicone version of the cone when filling in the engines. My next step is to clean the lathe.

[NZEOD]

Mount a vacuum cleaner nozzle on the bench next to the lathe with a Quick Clamp. Halves the mess.

[ARK 3]

love the update.

[tplayer]

This update covers the steps I took to correct the gaps when the two hull halves are joined. I bought 1/8" steel ball bearings for guides pins. I cleaned out the guide pin holes on both hulls. The ball bearings were glued in on one of the hulls and Vaseline was applied along the hull edge including the bearings. Apoxie putty was placed along the areas where the gaps are located in the front and back. The hull halves were joined and pressure was applied until the center was together. Excess putty was cut away from the outside of the hull. Once the putty was almost cured, I pried open the hulls and cleaned up the new joint since it is easier to cut away the excess putty when it is almost cured. Once the putty is fully cured, I will be able to finish the clean up of the new joints. The next post will cover the filling of the engines.

[MechTech]

Cool! - MT

[tplayer]

This update covers creating the center hole of the engine. The front of the engine was covered with putty.. I went ahead and cleaned up the front while the putty was curing. I noticed I could trim about 1/4" from the cone length to increase the diameter of the hole. Once this was done, I had to trim away some putty from the inside of one of the engines to allow the cone to hit the front. The engine was filled with dental stone and tapped gentle to make the sure the engine was full. The cone was inserted into the engine. The pushed out stone was removed while the stone sets. Once the stone is almost set, close to compact wet sand, the cone was given a slight twist and pulled out. The holes are not perfect but it should be easy to smooth out. The right engine needs additional stone/putty to fill in the remaining portion of the engine since I didn't make sure the engine was full before inserting the cone. My next step is to complete the hull and engines shaping.

[tplayer]

This update covers the shaping of the hull and top engines. I started with Bondo and it peeled easily off the hull. It was either I didn't clean the surface well enough or it does not adhere to Apoxie Sculpt. I tried two different glazing putties and both adhere to Apoxie Sculpt. I continued on with the two part glazing putty. Two issues with this putty: 1) It would, at times, break off. 2) I placed the putty on to thick and I just end up with a lot of work sanding the excess to get to the shape. I was concerned with the breakage so I tried Apoxie Sculpt and found I could strategically apply and work the putty to shape. So I switched over to Apoxie Sculpt to finish up the shaping of the hull and engines. The first set of pictures show the applied and peeling Bondo. The next picture shows some progress with the glazing putty and the remaining pictures show the progress I made with Apoxie Sculpt. More sculpting, primer, sculpt and/or apply glazing putty until the shape is just right. I still need to fill in the huge gap between the hull and engines. The next update will cover my progress with shaping.

[MechTech]

It's looking good! - MT

[tplayer]

This update shows the start of adding the front pods. The small alignment pins for the smaller front pods were lost during the putty application and sanding. The upper pod alignment pins were still intact so I joined the lower pod base with the upper pod base with a small tab. The tab will be removed once the glue sets. The next stage is to get the lower scoop designed, lazed, assembled and filled-in before the pods are sculpted just in case I might need to re-adjust the pod outlines. The plan for the big gap between the engines and the hull is to fill it in and a hole will be drilled in the casting to allow the wires to get to the engines.

[tplayer]

I managed to have some time to build a rough draft of the scoop. I wanted to see if I was in the ball park in profile and size before continued on with the scoop. It looks about right. It will be a day or two before I can get back to the model so lets see how I feel about it then. I might have to file down the alignment pins a bit to maintain the scoop profile and the bottom pod will need to be redone.

[MechTech]

It's coming along great! - MT

[ARK 3]

lov the creative up date ,,

dealing with a few things be for I get back to my hobbies.

ill be back to read more

[tplayer]

It's been awhile since my last post! I had other projects that needed to get finished before I could get back to the Scout. I figured the best starting point was to sculpt the front top pods. I used green stuff as the medium. The sculpting tools used were the silicone tip brushes from Colour Shaper. I won't know how well I did on proportion until I can hit them with some primer. The extra putty was used to start filling in the gaps around the side pods . The top pods will help me re-position the bottom pods in relation with the scoop. I'm thinking I might need to make the scoop a tad bit wider to make it fit the hull better.

[edstuff]

Wow man. You are good at this

[tplayer]

This update covers the effort made on the lower scoop. I went ahead and used the frame I made earlier and shaped it with Apoxie Sculpt just above the portion that will mate with the hull. Once this cured, I applied a release agent to the hull (Vaseline) where the scoop will meet the hull. I applied a small amount of putty to each end of the scoop and pressed it against the hull. The putty will capture the alignment pins, as well as the hull shape. Once this cures, I will separate it from the hull and continue sculpting and shaping. The next part is to create the little scoop pod and then make mold of it. I think I will need to make about 8 of them for the scoop. Also, once I feel I have the scoop at the right portion, I will concentrate on the lower hull pods just in front of the scoop.

I would like to thank everybody for the encouragement. This project has been quite the adventure in pushing my modeling skills beyond what I have done before. Hopefully by sharing my experience, I can empower someone to make something!

TP

[MechTech]

Looking good! - MT

[CID_VII]

Awesome!

[tplayer]

The rear portion of the engines have been challenging for me as I just couldn't think of a meaningful way of making them symmetric and hollow until now. This update covers the approach. The first step was to make both engines nacelles joined as a single piece. This was done for the remaining of engine profiles except for the last one due to the step angle. All the profiles were notched were they will separate from each other. Cutting were the notch is will make the process of separate the engine halves a lot easier. The step was to create a jig to hold the profiles in place so I can glue them to the center spare. Once the glue cured, I applied a thin layer of putty to the top halves making sure I didn't cover the notches.

I am still waiting for the first layer of putty to cure. I might add another layer of putty before I detach the top portions of the engines. I will post as I work on this, So far, it is working as planned.

Edited September 17, 2016 by tplayer

[tplayer]

Over the weekend , I have been concentrating on three portions of the scout. The last post covered the effort being made on the rear portion of the engines. The other ones are the continuation of the scoop and filling in the gap between the hull and the engines.

The effort in filling in the gap involved drilling and gluing a 3/16" ball bearing to the front of each engine. The engines were lightly glued on to the hull so I don't have to hold them in place while filling the gap. A release agent (Vaseline) was applied liberally on the front of the engines so I can remove them later. Putty was placed into the gap and slightly over the engines. The hulls were opened and the inside gap was filled in and smoothed out.

I made the scoop wider to match the scaled width. It still didn't look right. So referring back to pictures and CAD, the portion where the scoop mates with the hull is too high. The black line is about where it should be. So the next effort is to remove portion of the scoop above the line. The alignment pins might need to be removed and new ones created to match the new location.

[MechTech]

Nice!!! It's coming along great! - MT

[VF-1A Grunt]

This is a fantastic way to achieve the "organic" look of these alien spacecraft. I love the updates on your progress. Thanks for sharing!

[tplayer]

Well it's been a year since I have been working on the Salan Scout. Just before Xmas vacation, I got a 3d printer. I was originally planning on designing and printing the lower engine, engine fins and the rear engines. But then I thought I should push myself out of my comfort zone of 3d modeling and make a fully detailed 3d model of the scout which then can be printed. So over the break, I upgraded to ViaCAD10 Pro from ViaCAD 9 so I can get access to the advance mesh/solid tools. Also, I needed away to digitally sculpt the hull like clay. Before sinking lots of cash into ZBrush, I started using their free version, Sculptris. The pictures below are from Sculptris showing my current progress with the ship. The hull, the side pod and lower engine models are exported from ViaCad and then imported into Sculptris. This is a quick way for me to assemble the ship to get a since of portion and shape. The next step is to add more details to the rear pod launcher and begin the process of hollowing out the top engines and adding the exhaust fins.

[MechTech]

That looks great!  I'm going to have to do the same for my stuff.  Get with the technology and go 3D. - MT

[tplayer]

This update is the first full scale print of the scout with a basic paint job. I purposely left out the lower engine and the details of the back since I wanted to see what the front looked like. The scoop needs to be longer but I think the front upper and lower pods are the right size. Modeling the channel near the front of the ship that loops under to the other side has been giving me a hard time. I decided to press forward with the rest of the ship with the hope of getting done later. Plan B is to do it manually. Learning 3d modeling has been steep for me but I know in the end of all this madness it is going to be rewarding! The last picture is a half scale of the whole ship before adding the front pods and scoop.

[wmkjr]

I like how you did it both old and new school. Love all these Macross Makers doing their thing! I know there's more of them out there working on their own special projects. Which printer do you have?

[tplayer]

I have a Monoprice Select Mini. It has worked well for me as a starter printer. At some point, I will need to get or build another printer in order to print larger pieces especially when I start working on the Zentraedi Destroyer.

[MechTech]

Your print turned out great!  You can use the rough texture of the Zentraedi ships to your advantage.  I'd use a textured paint to give it depth and cover the print alias.-  MT

[tplayer]

Wow! Time flies! I'm one less project so I will have more time for the Scout. This post covers the completion of the side channels meeting at the front of the ship and the lower "scoop".  I just printed the front half of the ship to save time and plastic. I feel I captured the essences of both from the drawings. So I am now moving top side of the ship to work on the center pod, the paneling, and the engine notches. I'm getting more productive with the CAD software so hopefully the next post won't take 6 months!

[MechTech]

It's great to see you haven't given up on this yet. - MT

[tplayer]

I am glad I didn't give up either. I did have to take a break from the model and then life and other projects kicked in. My CAD skills are slowly improving which is making it easier to get the modeling done. So this post covers what I was able to get done over the weekend: The front engine panels, the top pod,  the two major panels, and the "winged" panel between the engines. I will need to indent the front engine panels more to make them more pronounced. Overall, I think I can move onto to the back part of the engines and mainly concentrate on the ribbing that goes along the circumference of the engines and back fins.

[tplayer]

This update shows my progress with the rear of the ship: the notches encompassing the engines, initial shaping of the fins and the engine exhaust. Some of the delay for this post was due to issues with my 3d printer. I managed to get it printing again, but you can see I still have minor issues to resolve. My initial thoughts are I will need to bring out the exhaust vanes, redo how the top and bottom fins attach to the engines, and probably adjust their size as well. From there, I will be concentrating on the rear pod launcher.

[latheboy]

Awesome, well done.... When you have finished this you need to move on to the rest of the fleet

CAD and 3D printers are pretty cool, if you can think it you can build it.

[carlosap]

So amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here is what I am working on. hopefully I can get it done this weekend. we should exchange models so we can build our Zentradi fleet

[tplayer]

Awesome! Another Zentraedi ship build! What scale is your ship? 1/5000? When I get done with the scout, I would definitely do a model swap! Do you have a build log? I would like to see how you approached building your ship. 

My goal is to build the entire fleet so the next one on the horizon is the destroyer. I'm building a rather large scale so I was thinking of building two scales in parallel: 1/2200 and 1/5000.