MOSPEADA HORIZONT in 1/350?

[CoryHolmes]

18 minutes ago, captain america said:

The plan and side diagrams of the Legioss/Tread in image 02 are reference drawings that the animators used: everything that was drawn for the anime/publicity art was based  on that standard. Even the toys and resin models reproduce that gap, so I'm not quite sure what you're referring to.

Oh, just some fanart I saw on the webz, I guess.  I thought the design was to be flush, but now that I look at my Masterpiece Toys they also have the gap.

[captain america]

Captain’s log: Thursday, August 26th.

Now that the fighter/booster is done, I can concentrate on the main ship. Since the various views of the ship don’t match-up, I opted to take the prettiest view and extrapolate the blueprints from that. Pic 11 shows the almost complete diagrams.

Pic 12: in anticipation of the build, I start by milling some blocks of modelling board to create perfectly square blocks which will be needed to create precise shapes.

Pic 13: the scrap block from pic 12, now perfectly squared and ready!

Pic 14: with paper templates now affixed to a variety of blocks, I can begin the initial construction by removing some of the excess material with the band saw.

Pic 15: the same part is now placed into my milling vise and more precise shaping is achieved with the mill. As with all parts, there will be a variety of operations needed to obtain the proper dimensions, with much backing-and-forthing.

Pic 16: I needed a change of scenery, so I put aside the modelling board and began cutting the initial components for the cargo containers. These will be made mostly from styrene sheets of various thickness. While seemingly simple in design, they actually have many awkward details. As such, they will be very tedious and time-consuming to build, so I might as well start on them sooner rather than later.

Pic 17: because of their hollow nature and hexagonal cross-section, I decided to make a crude jig for assembling all the hull components. This will ensure that the containers look precisely engineered, and not the result of some fly-by-night ham-fisted model-maker.

Pic 18: I had a few smaller blocks which I decided to merge into a larger block to minimize waste. The beauty of this material is that it can be bonded very quickly and safely with CA glue, and then machined as if it were a single piece.

Pic 19:… But before I do that, I decide to do some minor trimming with the band saw. Those smaller scrap pieces will be useful later on.

Pic 20: a little extra machining before I bond all the scraps together.

Pic 21: the block on the left was made from the scraps you saw in pic 18. You can still see a few seams here and there, but those will disappear as I begin to shape and refine the block.

Pic 22: some of the major hull components in crude form, awaiting further refinement. While the initial build photos probably aren’t very exciting, these steps are the foundation of any project, and lay-out some of the most critical steps in the evolution of a project. The time and effort spent carefully calculating, measuring and cutting will yield far more precise shapes than could ever be made by simply hand carving, so it’s time well spent.

You probably can’t tell, but at this rate, I will already have most of the structural parts fleshed-out by next week. Stay tuned!

 

[derex3592]

ALWAYS a pleasure to see a true master of his craft at work! 

[CoryHolmes]

Hey, Cap'n!  I've got a really dumb question for you, that you might be best suited to answer   Given your research and extrapolation of the shapes and sizes of the Horizont dropship, about what sort of volume do you think each container pod holds?  Back in the day, my friends and I always argued about how much stuff could be fit in one 😁

[captain america]

Captain’s log: September 2nd, 2021.

Construction continues unabated, and you will see a great leap forward in this installment, as we go from seemingly generic shapes to parts that actually look like a ship that is very Horizontal.

Pic 23: last week we saw some blocks with paper templates attached, and now we begin some basic cutting and parts shaping with the band saw to remove the excess. I could have gone straight to the mill, but chopping the excess is faster, and creates a whole bunch of smaller parts that can be useful for smaller parts. The mill would have just turned all that excess material into confetti.

Pic 24: now that parts have been crudely trimmed on the saw, I can start milling more precise dimensions. The paper templates act as eyeball guides and are useful so long as there’s enough flat real estate for the template to be stuck to.

Pic 25: after a multitude of smaller milling operations on the piece that will be the thruster housing, a very meticulous series of passes are made to hollow the part out. The hull outline was scribed with the jaws of my calipers, and roughly traced over with a pencil for better visibility.

Pic 26: these two parts will form the blue-grey aft section of the ship, and will be combined into one part shortly. The shapes were simply too complex to make as one single piece, so it’s quite common for me to break-down certain parts into several sub-assemblies and then combine them into something easier to mold.

Pic 27: the same two parts now combined. Now will come the careful filling and sanding of the gaps.

Pic 28: the fuselage part just aft of the neck. This is in fact the main hub for the kit, as the neck, aft section, cargo mounts and cargo containers will all attach to it. Here I am doing some parts shaping with a diamond file.

Pic 29: the beginnings of the cargo containers. The parts are bonded with plastic cement and placed in the jig to solidify.

Pic 29B: the cockpit module still very crude. The main gull was originally much narrower, but as I began sculpting, I noticed that I’d have to widen it for it to look faithful to the line-art, hence the copious amounts of putty.

Pics 30-31: after much sanding and test-fitting, the parts are actually starting to look pretty good. While there are still lots of parts to fabricate, at least the main structure looks pleasing. Tune-in for more progress next week!

[captain america]

Captain’s log: September 9-10, 2021.

Getting there. In pic 32, I’m doing some much-neglected round parts on the lathe, namely thruster bells and a few other small details. That said, this project is much less lathe-intensive as the previous one.

Pic 33: some tiny, delicate parts being machined, which will become the landing gear/claws for the cargo modules.

Pic 34: I rarely ever bring parts this far along back into the jaws of the mill, but there were some small details I thought needed that machined touch, so here I am playing with fire! I had to secure the part tight enough without cracking it to avoid it shifting under the pressure of the bit and ruining it completely.

Pic 35: what a difference hours of shaping, putty, and sanding makes! The cockpit module has just received a fresh coat of primer and it looks great.  

Pic 36: some exceptionally infuriating small, complex parts being prepared, namely the container cargo hatch and landing claw. More obtuse, awkward and impractical parts are few and far between, but that’s what the line-art calls for, so I dutifully reproduce it in tiny scale.

Pic 37: the bulkhead for the inside of the cargo containers on the left, and on the right, two of the four « thingamabobs » that are used to connect the neck to the forward part of the main hull.

Pic 38: those same thingamabobs, being fitted to the neck module. While the ship itself is small, it features a number of dainty little details with odd geometries that are a bear to fabricate… But itll look right when it’s done!

Pic 39: the absolute kings of design clusterfrack: the cargo containers themselves! Wonky and awkward outer geometry, featuring even more frustrating inner detail. Many hours spent detailing such a small space that will rarely ever be seen properly, but for this scale, it’s quite decent.

Pics 40-41: finaly in the home stretch! Admittedly, it’s a nice looking ship and I’m quite pleased with how it  compares to the line-art. Next week’s update with be a lighter one, as I finalize the little details and markings to complete this baby! I’ll be showing-off some of the improvements I’ve made to the boarding ramp design: the style-sheets were seemingly drawn by someone with no understanding of proportionality or perspective, so of course it falls to me to unf*ck their design mess and make it (almost) functional. Stay tuned!

[tekering]

1 hour ago, captain america said:

Fabulous work, as always, but I'm particularly impressed by this interior detailing.

[varitechs]

I like so much 😄

[CoryHolmes]

That transport pod is so nice, I might have to built mine with one hatch open!

[captain america]

It is done.

Save for a few small details and markings, she's ready for mold-prep. I'll take a few pics of the mounting system for the containers, which fits rather snugly as-is, but you'll also have the option of mounting these with small (3-5mm) magnets, thanks to cleverly hidden housings.

CARGO CONTAINER: while I wasn't able to achieve a posable, hinged cargo container door, I opted for better scale realism and came up with something fairly nifty especially considering the scale. The line-art shows what looks like a one-piece retractable boarding ramp, but that would interfere with the already VERY cramped landing gear, so I replaced it wth a folding ramp that stows right behind the main door, so more realistic.

The fighter-booster also mounts nicely under the hull. You have the option to build the ship with the fighter/booster mounted, or with the cockpit mating box retracted and the fighter displayed separately.

Edited September 16, 2021 by captain america

[CoryHolmes]

I know I'm probably going to regret this, but how much would it cost to get some in-scale Battloid mode figures?  Even at a minimum of detail, I think it'd be a great sight for the interior of the cargo pod to be lined with Battloid Alphas 😁

[tekering]

Awesome.  I especially like the detailing behind those secondary engine bells. 

1 hour ago, CoryHolmes said:

I think it'd be a great sight for the interior of the cargo pod to be lined with Battloid Alphas 😁

Well, they weren't deployed that way... and it wouldn't make a lot of sense, would it?

[captain america]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

Awesome.  I especially like the detailing behind those secondary engine bells. 

Well, they weren't deployed that way... and it wouldn't make a lot of sense, would it?

I don't even think that the containers were designed to support the extra weight of fully armed fighters, to say nothing of the fact that they don't fit despite my oversizing them and the ship.

Edited September 16, 2021 by captain america

[CoryHolmes]

21 hours ago, tekering said:

 

Well, they weren't deployed that way... and it wouldn't make a lot of sense, would it?

I meant for transporting from place to place.  But I guess it doesn't make much sense, even if IT would be cool.

[CoryHolmes]

10 hours ago, captain america said:

I don't even think that the containers were designed to support the extra weight of fully armed fighters, to say nothing of the fact that they don't fit despite my oversizing them and the ship.

Phooey.  At this scale, about how big would a person be?

[Phyrox]

6 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

Phooey.  At this scale, about how big would a person be?

6' = 72"
72/350 = .2
so a six foot tall person would be 0.2 inches
So average person would be about 3/16th of an inch

[Podtastic]

 For those of us with 10 fingers, rather than 12, that's approximately 5 mm.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Podtastic

[tekering]

Oh, I have figures at that scale...

Bandai, naturally.

In order to paint them, I'll be borrowing an electron microscope from the university science laboratory.

[Podtastic]

Those would be in my scale range for scaling with Matchbox Armoured Zentraedi warriors.😆

[captain america]

Just a quick update for you guys: mold-prep is going well. I've already poured the first couple of molds, and from those I'll have the necessary duplicates to cast the rest.  As promised, I also included a pic of the magnetic interface for the containers. With this, you'll have the option of using some 3-5mm N52 disc magnets to mount/unmount the cargo pods. While I would have liked to do something similar for the main hatch, there just wasn't enough material thickness to pull it off: Anime-magic hinges have their limitations if you want to preserve a semblance of scale realism.

[CoryHolmes]

If I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'll never not be impressed with your ability to take wacky drawings, extrapolate them into 3D shapes, and then a bit of work here and a touch of stuff there and BAM physical parts in hand.  I work with people who do that on the reg and it always blows my mind.

[captain america]

Quick update: castings are looking excellent. Decals are done and on their way, so I should start shipping in the next 3 weeks.

[captain america]

For those who may have missed out on the initial run, I'm offering a potential re-issue. I'd need a dozen orders to make this happen.

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by captain america

[mechaninac]

That is looking glorious; I've always loved the utilitarian, no frills, look of this ship, and you've definitely done it justice.  I appreciate you taking on this project and bringing this all too ignored design to life, and makes me glad I sprang for a copy... and impressed -- even a little proud for having a miniscule input - at how my magnet option suggestion has been implemented.

I can't wait to get it in my hands.

Cheers!

[CoryHolmes]

On 10/7/2021 at 5:22 PM, mechaninac said:

That is looking glorious; I've always loved the utilitarian, no frills, look of this ship, and you've definitely done it justice.  I appreciate you taking on this project and bringing this all too ignored design to life, and makes me glad I sprang for a copy... and impressed -- even a little proud for having a miniscule input - at how my magnet option suggestion has been implemented.

I can't wait to get it in my hands.

Cheers!

Yeah, what he said!

[captain america]

Destructions are ready, and all kits have shipped. 

[captain america]

Part deux.

[CoryHolmes]

[captain america]

Bump! Y'all have until the end of the day on October 31 to make the Horizontal ship re-issue happen. 

[CoryHolmes]

It's here!  It's here!

 

After my experience with the BioLloyd, I knew it'd be in a billion pieces.  But these are teeny tiny little pieces!  But it looks like something my cudgel-like hands could work with 😁

[varitechs]

Because of an address error....return2kit->France->Return2kit->France.....  finally he landed this week 🙂

Thank you Captain and Return2kit !

[captain america]

Hey y'all. Looking to see if there's interest in a re-issue. 10 orders minimum to make it happen.

[captain america]

On 2/10/2023 at 2:00 PM, captain america said:

 

 

Looks like we have the 10 orders for the 1/350 Horizontal ship, so you can send in your payments starting now. I will wait until March 3rd at the latest to collect the payments for those 10 minimum orders. If by that time they haven't all been received, I will simply refund everyone who did pay and move on to another project.

 

[captain america]

Molds are thoroughly baked and done; castings are underway. ☺️