The Star Dwellers |
By Grant Louden |
The Star Dwellers is a fully licensed, hand-built replica of a Colin Hay illustration. It's featured in Volume 34 of Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller magazine. The Star Dwellers is an illustration by British SF artist Colin Hay. It was used on a cover for the James Blish novel of the same name, and also in the Stewart Cowley book 'Spacewreck', published in the late 70's. The Terran Trade Authority books by Cowley were where I first came across this and innumerable other fantastical craft, and have since a teenager longed to build replicas of these wild and wonderful machines. I contacted Colin, and other artists Tony Roberts, Chris Foss, and the late Peter Elson's sister, and agreed exclusive licenses to build and sell large scale, highly detailed replicas of some of their creations. The artists are credited for their originals, and receive a royalty upon sale of any of my recreations. The finished pieces are accompanied by a signed poster of the original, and a signed Certificate of Authenticity. Work on Star Dwellers began with converting the single view illustration into actual scale plans. First I sketched, then drafted side, top and front views of the main hull and larger fixtures and fittings. These were printed on paper card and small scale paper models made. It took three such models to get the complex angles and curves to match the illustration view. I sent photos of the paper models and plans to Colin, who kindly commented and advised, allowing me to pin down the master plans. Once agreed on overall shape I went into scaled plans - 56cm in length - and cut plastic card to form the basic hull. This was done in much the same way you might build a dinghy; making cross sections along a flat floor, then skinning over the top with thinner card to form the hull. The nose cone proved especially difficult, as it is a round nose integrating into the angular midships. I made the cone by again using oval cross sections from the plans, then filling the gaps with Isopon car filler and sanding to shape. This proved a very accurate way of matching the shape, as I was able to sand the grey filler down to reveal the white plastic cross sections and therefor know when I'd got the curves just right. I built a vacuum forming box from plywood and was able, after 5 attempts!, to produce a hollow plastic copy of the nose cone, from the same styrene sheet as the rest of the ship. |
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This made it perfect for mating it to the angular cockpit section. Parts of the hull have recessed panels and to replicate these I cut sheets of very thin 0.25mm plastic sheet and cut the panel holes in these, then laminated the sheets to the hull. The battle damaged wing panels were made using styrene plastic tubing, with thick copper wire inserted to give the assemblies rigidity. Thin styrene panels were glued between the tubular frames, the blown out holes matching those on the painting where possible. I did find some sections needed panels put back it otherwise it could have been far too fragile. The interior is obviously not visible in the original painting, so in discussions with Colin we found we'd both been thinking of WWII cockpits and midget submarines as a look and feel. So the sides of the interior were detailed with piping and cables, electrical boxes, and I suggested installing oxygen bottles behind the tall seat backs for each pilot. Most piping was simple copper wire of varying thicknesses, but I did buy some scale rubber hosing from a model car shop. The pilot figures had to be drawn up in front and profile view, and then sculpted in FIMO modelling clay. I made aluminium wire skeletons and modelled the FIMO around these to retain the right proportions. I found it too difficult to model each figure in full, as when working on the arms I couldn't help squashing the torso, and vica-versa. So I modelled the torso first, fired the FIMO in the oven to harden it, then attached the limbs and hands separately so as not to undo each previous step, and fired them again to make single solid pieces. The pilot helmets were made using the same approach as the nose cone. I drew side and front views, cut out cross sections and filled these with Isopon filler and sanded back to the white plastic ribs inside to accurately match the drawings. Pilot figures and one helmet were then made into silicone rubber moulds and cast in polyurethane resin. I also added micro balloons to the resin the make the resulting casts 50% lighter, as one of these had to be suspended above the ship somehow. The finished model was undercoated in grey Vallejo primer, then sprayed with Vallejo and Revell acrylic paints. I drew up the various markings on computer and printed out graphics onto laser decal paper. One set on clear background for dark colours, and another set on white paper for light colours, so the background colour would not show through. Weathering was added using many specialist paints and powders, to simulate dirt, engine oil, rust and general wear and tear. My philosophy for the finish was that this was an airborne shuttle craft, that had been blown into outer space during a battle. So operating in atmosphere it would feature rust and weathering from the elements. To finish it off, and with Colin's full agreement, I added seat harnesses which he wished he'd included in his original painting, and wiring looms and other very fine detail. For instance, the oxygen tanks behind the seats have long useage scratch marks, warning labels, dials showing they are empty, rubber hoses with number stamps along their length, and even a metal inspection tag on one of them. I sculpted leather seats from FIMO and gave them some good wear and tear, and bought a set of 1/12th scale Formula One seat harnesses for each cockpit. It's been a very long part time build, but immensely satisfying for myself, and for Colin too as he tells me, to transform this favourite spaceship from a painting into an actual three dimensional recreation. The only slight downside was that all the time I only had a large screen grab of the image to work from, which I only found out near completion was actually quite different in colour to the original painting. So my replica has come out with stronger colours than Colin's image, but this is how the picture was reproduced in the 'Spacewreck' book, and as I imagine most people will know of it from there, then I think I've got it pretty darn close. My next pieces will be a Tony Roberts and another Colin Hay ship, and progress on these can be followed at my website; www.grantlouden.com Image: Clamps Image: Figures Image: Hull Image: Nose Image: Plating Image: Wings Image: Cockpit Image: Details |
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