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3DSTIII Merchantman

vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
edited March 13 in Work in Progress #1
8wu9u0udqqgj.jpg


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!



brdzjrhr6xmn.jpg

Post edited by vfxart on
StarCruiserRekkertevil_genius_180Lizzy777caveat_imperatorBolianAdmiraltrekkiwibbleMustang13Camaro68
Tagged:

Posts

  • TallguyTallguy292 Posts: 449Member
    #2
    If you can make it match what's in the scant reference you have and then for the rest of it go nuts then you're golden! If someone can prove you wrong then they have to provide more reference than what you have. =)
    vfxart
    Bill "Tallguy" Thomas All I ask is a tall ship...
    Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    #3
    Tallguy wrote: »
    If you can make it match what's in the scant reference you have and then for the rest of it go nuts then you're golden! If someone can prove you wrong then they have to provide more reference than what you have. =)

    ^^^
    Oooooooo now that's what I call thinking. ;-)
  • Admiral156Admiral15666 Posts: 30Member
    #4
    Forgive me if you have these already, but they go back to 1986, hope they help: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/merchantman-federation-class-j.php
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    #5
    I do have that set yeah, thank you. They aren't accurate.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1802813 Posts: 10,406Member
    #6
    Nice start. Good luck with the job hunt and the build. This was always such a cool model and one of the most widely used and modified. It's no surprise that there aren't a lot of references and that the blueprints are inaccurate. I find that's the case with a lot of the models with scant references.
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    edited March 8 #7
    Getting back to this now that the shingles fun is mainly over and two other projects (Shuttle and Spacedock Tug) are done. Have reworked most of the above and yesterday, this beastie...

    bve4f0v0vcqh.jpg
    Post edited by vfxart on
    Rekkertevil_genius_180trekkiwibbleLizzy777
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1802813 Posts: 10,406Member
    #8
    Is that a race car body? That's what it looks like.
    vfxart
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    #9
    evil_genius_180 wrote: »
    Is that a race car body? That's what it looks like.

    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.

    evil_genius_180
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    edited March 13 #10
    Hm, yeah I think that it should be taken as a sign when you inadvertently kill a layer that held a couple of up-res'd bits. Not a massive loss, just annoying to have to re-build. Sunday, you're done. This represents most parts from four of the dozen or so kits that I know for certain... the remainder that I don't know will be... interesting. The ship's original builder was doing a blind grab for a lot of parts, not really from full kits, boxes, etc. Hoo boy ;-)

    6box59bp7k05.jpg


    Post edited by vfxart on
    ashleytingerevil_genius_180Lizzy777StarCruiserwibble
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    edited March 15 #11
    The flux capacitor bone's connected to the horizontal booster bone; the horizontal booster bone's connected to the illudium q-36 explosive space modulator bone; the illudiu
    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)


    e66fal935wsi.jpg
    Post edited by vfxart on
    StarCruiserLizzy777wibbleevil_genius_180
  • StarCruiserStarCruiser338 Posts: 16Member
    #12
    Yep - typical ILM kitbashed construction ala Star Wars.

    The Merchantman always looked like more of a Star Wars/Battlestar Galactica type of design to me.
    caveat_imperator
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    edited March 15 #13
    StarCruiser wrote: »
    Yep - typical ILM kitbashed construction ala Star Wars.

    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.

    :-)
    Post edited by vfxart on
    StarCruiser
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1802813 Posts: 10,406Member
    #14
    Looking good.

    In regards to BSG, it was definitely a "ragtag" fleet. :lol:
    vfxart
  • vfxartvfxart557 PNWPosts: 108Member
    edited March 15 #15
    Fuuuuu---- getting 'that headache' a bit early today, in that the parts hunt has not been fruitful, so might be back to modeling a couple of the larger remaining pieces and bringing her together as I can. I had really wanted today and tomorrow to be more about the second-level shapes etc, but effing 'ell... not a happy camper. ;-) Onward!

    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 ;-)
    Post edited by vfxart on
    evil_genius_180StarCruiser
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