Beyond The Sprues

Current and Finished Projects => Physical Models => Scifi and Fantasy => Topic started by: Frank3k on September 08, 2013, 03:54:19 AM

Title: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Frank3k on September 08, 2013, 03:54:19 AM
I had an old Monogram "Passenger Rocket" kit sitting around, unfinished. Years ago, I sanded off all of the many, many rivets and started gluing it together but just lost interest. Recently, I wanted to build a SF ship, try out some lighting ideas and use up some of the kit carcasses I had laying about. So with nacelles from a 1/1000 Enterprise and some 1mm extruded foam, I got to work.

I didn't have much of a plan for the model; it was going to be more of a "hack" to hold some of my experiments. This is what I started with  (some parts in progress):

(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc16.jpg)

First project was to design and print out (on paper) a 1/350 scale starship bridge. I had a small keychain flashlight that I got from Digital Computers back in the 90s. It was shaped like one of their mice and the upper part (with the button) looked perfect for the bridge, so I scaled everything to fit the part.

I imagined this to be a small ship with a crew of 10; sort of a space tramp steamer. The captain's and chief mate's quarters would be right off the bridge:

(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc19.jpg)

The figures are long out of production resin sailors from Gofy. They appear to be copies or modified versions of Preiser's pricey 1/350 sailors.

(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc20.jpg)

Everything except the figures and the railings are printed. thick paper glued to a 1mm thick foam base.
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc21.jpg)

The long "hallway" was to allow two fiber optic fibers to pick off light from the rear LED; they blocked too much light, so they were removed.

I also added a cargo bay. Iain M. Banks died around the time I started this project, so I used his birth date as the ship's registry number. GCU is "General Cargo Unit", but in Bank's "Culture" series, they are General Contact Units - much larger ships. "Cargo Cult" is also the name of an AI/ship in one of the books.
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc17.jpg)

I also made a small shuttle from parts. It's not yet finished:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc18.jpg)

Finished bridge. I used the LED flashlight's button to heat smash clear plastic for the bridge dome. It worked well. The crud around the edge is dried masking fluid that has to be removed:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc10.jpg)

(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc9.jpg)

The cargo bay. Obviously a force field is keeping the atmosphere in! The docking port and the impulse engines are mecha model add-on parts:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc12.jpg)

Finished ship:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc1.jpg)
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc2.jpg)
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc3.jpg)
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc6.jpg)
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc4.jpg)
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc5.jpg)

The base is from the Glencoe/Strombecker Atomic space station. It has two tea light LED bases (minus the LEDs) and a voltage regulator I designed:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc14.jpg)

I miscalculated the resistor values for the flickering tea light LEDs in the nacelles, so they're very dim. The blue area in the front is the deflector, powered by a blue LED:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc7.jpg)

Leaving orbit:
(http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/Images/cargocult/cc15.jpg)

I used six white LEDs (three in the cargo hold, two in the bridge, one in the body, for the colored nav lights), four flickering amber LEDs (one in each nacelle) and one bright blue LED for the deflector.

It was a fun project! Thanks for reading this far.

Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Weaver on September 08, 2013, 07:13:48 AM
That's a splendid piece of work - nice one! :) The lights are great and the icing on the cake is that there are probably kit collectors gnashing their teeth in outrage as we speak.... ;D

At first I was going to suggest that the nacelle arms are too short, but then it struck me that a starship this small probably uses some shuttlecraft design principles, so since they have close-fitting warp nacelles, it's okay. You could actually say it's the ancestor of DS-9's runabouts.
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Camthalion on September 08, 2013, 08:27:02 AM
that looks really great.  Nice work
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: ed s on September 08, 2013, 08:55:40 AM
WOW! Great idea and some excellent kit bashing.

Ed
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Jeffry Fontaine on September 08, 2013, 08:57:32 AM
Very nice build Frank.  I am sure Gene Roddenberry would be proud :)
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: The Big Gimper on September 08, 2013, 09:27:24 AM
Did you put enough red shirts on board so that main cast don't get killed off in the 1st 5 minutes of the show?

(http://www.trekp.com/posters/gw014-redshirts.jpg)

+1 on the excellent build. 
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Old Wombat on September 08, 2013, 12:37:11 PM
That is great! One of the few ST builds I've seen in recent years that has really impressed me! 8)

:)

Guy
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Jacques Deguerre on September 08, 2013, 10:37:49 PM
Very nice work, Frank! I have one of the passenger rockets in the stash from Monogram's big re-release back in the '90s. I look at every once in a while and ponder building it before moving on to the next project. Glad to see that your's was put to a better use.
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: GTX_Admin on September 09, 2013, 12:57:38 AM
Outstanding! :)
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: elmayerle on September 09, 2013, 01:32:37 AM
Simply gorgeous piece of work.  That looks like it'd fit right in to a ST:TOS episode or some of the more colorful novelizations.
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: deathjester on September 09, 2013, 04:52:09 AM
A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!

What a great little ship - and I love those beautiful little internal sections...sheer genius in my book!!
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Buzzbomb on September 09, 2013, 07:40:28 AM
Really nice.. and the lights just set it off.

Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Dr. YoKai on September 09, 2013, 08:31:02 AM
 Ayrie! Disa mon wot unnastan de luure...de luure of Cargo...

 (No idea what that means - heard a fellow say it in New Guinea, once. )

 Nifty little build, Frank - I'm going to try and get back into doing some lighting this fall when it cools off in the lab a bit - way too
 many projects that I've sidelined because I'm too impatient to solder....  :-[
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: taiidantomcat on September 09, 2013, 10:12:03 AM
That is awesome.  :-* Brilliant looking ship
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Goonie on September 09, 2013, 08:57:55 PM
My trekkie part of soul just loves it. Well, the rest also ;)
It resembles me some old TOS bulky constructions but still looks really great.
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Frank3k on September 09, 2013, 11:36:34 PM
Thanks for all the comments!

Weaver & Jacques - The "Passenger Rocket" was from a 1990s SSP re-release. It's not a very good kit; I spent a LONG time sanding off all the rivets. The rocket engines are cool, though.

The Big Gimper - I had a full crew complement of 10. One of the crew members flew off the tweezers and into space while I was trying to paint him. He was a red shirt. My cat assistant found him later, but it was too late (and he was missing appendages) to add him to the ship. The Gofy figures were cast in red, green, yellow and blue resin, so they were "Star Trek ready"

Craig - The original SSC version of this ship was using some of your resin bits. They looked great, but unfortunately the ship didn't look good with Leif Ericson style engine shrouds. I didn't want a big external power supply. The two coin batteries last about 20 minutes before their voltage drops below the regulator's minimum input voltage and everything shuts down. Good enough for Federation work!
Title: Re: "Cargo Cult", a 1/350 Star Trek TOS Cargo ship
Post by: Brian da Basher on September 11, 2013, 03:11:57 AM
I always enjoy your work, Frank, but this one completely bowled me over!

You achieve a level of detail that's simply astonishing!

You could fool a lot of folks into believing this was from a "lost" TOS episode (Revenge of the Tribbles, maybe?).

And yes, Red Shirts always get knocked off!

Brian da Basher