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3DSTIII Merchantman
vfxart
962
PNWPosts: 207Member
Job hunt continues, pushing ships around and looking for portfolio pieces out of 'em.
Just started the block-in, a few hours in the AM into her, so a lot will move around before locking in the parts. Will likely model the kit pieces I have so far this week; looks to be about 16 kits as donor that I've IDed to this point... yikes.
At some point will likely do the 'bastard children' as well. A shame what happened to her over the years.
Not a lot of great ref on some angles (as usual with a few of the incidental but of course cooler ships, heh). Most of what is out there in blueprint as well as mesh and collector models is wrong, to be polite, and some just... no one bothers to know what they're looking at, blindly copying other crappy work. Un-effing-believable. ;-) If I knew who the current owner was I'd be reaching out, you bet.
One of my favorites of all of the Trek ships. As with the Surak, will be building a replica model of this as resources allow. But I need to find FT work first, sigh etc.
Hope everyone's doing great!
Post edited by vfxart on
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Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
^^^
Oooooooo now that's what I call thinking. ;-)
Yeah, exactly... got about 60 parts to do for this one to get started. (The Long Range Shuttle/Surak had nothing on this beast) Not a primary form, but this bit is pretty prominent so needed to hit it early. The original part is cut down; I modeled in full here to have it.
zzzzzzzzzzzz.....
This takes a bit longer when each part gets measured and drawn first, ay yi yi and words to that effect (you may substitute adult language, I sure as #!$*% do)
The Merchantman always looked like more of a Star Wars/Battlestar Galactica type of design to me.
Heh- if you ever want to insult a designer/builder, tell them that something looks like it's from Galactica; with only a couple of exceptions, the work for the show, yeah because it was so quickly knocked together without a lot of thought, isn't too highly thought of by folks who were there, esp the original concept artists. You can tell if something went through a design phase or not. This is a 'grab parts and apply', but there was some effort at organizing them and building interesting shapes with them. Being from the east coast, always loved the horseshoe crab vibe as well.
:-)
In regards to BSG, it was definitely a "ragtag" fleet.
ps for those who know the pain, ahem--- about 6 years ago I sold off my lot of 'replica' kit supply- had been out of work a while and needed the $$. When things went forward with Nike and I bought my house, I had been so focused on getting them shipped to their new owner that I sent them off thinking that I'd HAHAHAHAHA not need them again. So trying to look for parts I am far too beholden to online scans etc... it is a horrible slog ;-) Now it is the irony of needing them back when unemployed for the first time in 6 years. Pfft etc! (Bill the Cat moment here)
I sold about 400 kits, many I will not be able to afford replacing esp at the price that I sold/shipped them for. I think I have about 30 currently. Irony two- I need work to be able to afford my hobby that is aligned to where I want to be working at this stage of my career...
You couldn't make this stuff up ;-)
About 50-55 parts so far. Have started to build the large assemblies, but there are three layers to account for in a lot of areas, so until the relative depths are sorted etc..., ie it's all in bits in the correct Z location, needs some shuffling medial/lateral as more is added. Don't know if I'll ever nail the last 20 parts or so that would get this to about 90-95%. There's no ref, or what there is is either from the film (grainy, heavy shadows) or small. Looking through about 60 kits yesterday, no new parts found, one or two 'maybe', and a couple 'ah, that's where the rest of X goes'. I need a lot more kit ref as well, but it is very scarce.
Scale up or down.
Lots of times I had plastic bits that I wish I could have changed the size of.
Thanks. To me it's the only way to solve something like this, which I think a lot of folks here get. Parts have to be used to sort out scale and proportions, and then their relationships to each other all get fought over. What a pain! I love it. ;-) The internal geometry on this one is awkward, so tomorrow I'll be trying to work down to the skeleton and then back out. I know angles, but the depths and deep angle changes are hard to read. And the original builder doesn't remember enough of it. It's like figure drawing. Suss out the framework from the surface details; build down and in and then back out again.
After I'm employed again (zods I hope soon), I'll also use these as a basis for replica models. That means I've got a Surak, Spacedock Tug, and this wee beastie in my future too ;-) (The Surak and this each come in at or just over 30") Good thing that vacuformer is coming along!
I don't get away with changing the sizes, but it's great to have them for a lot of uses and sorting out builds.
Greeblies are fun in what they give you, but as you know, unless an object has been documented to death, the danger of misreading and revisiting (insert favorite term of extemporaneous public opining here)... argh. Or to quote Bugs Bunny, '#%$@!'. ;-) I rebuilt the primary hull is all, but when things continued to disagree with the underside, which can not be altered, had to hit the bridge section again, make some tweaks. Never trust old ref photos (lens distortion will tell you a thousand things are lined up where none are) Loving this. I fear at this point I won't ever have good ref for the entire forward section of the hull, and a lot of the portside engine deck/housing. Have looked at about everything that was used at ILM in VN and at KO, but no new finds in those.
/D
Thanks. She's got so far to go! (dramatic back of hand to forehead) ;-) But I'm liking a lot at this point. Back to her in a few, great times had by all ;-)
What's interesting is that as the ship comes together, you can read the progression of kits as the sprues were pulled, the order of tackling things.
https://forums.scifi-meshes.com/discussion/10001266/3d-modeling-apps-that-have-exceptional-perspective-or-camera-matching/p1?new=1
it's just an ao pass....
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/st-iii-merchantman-reference-and-kit-hunt.350706/#post-5416945
One idea… make a larger vessel of your own based on its design cues.