I just finished another model, and I thought I’d share it with you guys.
I’ve always thought the Star Wars AT-AT and other walkers looked kind of clunky, and this started off as an attempt to build a more graceful walking machine. In fact, its working title was “Giant walkie thingie”; it was only very late in the process that it became a Perambulothopter. It’s supposed to be able to either fly or walk, depending.
I started with the legs, which are actually airfoils, with a brass tube down the leading edge to route wiring through:
Then a pelvis and spine (chassis frame):
Some cardstock mocking-up:
A cabin interior and a Mercedes aircraft engine stolen from the Red Baron show car:
…And the final result. Although I bought bits and pieces from here and there, almost all of it is scratchbuilt from plastic sheet and strip. The wiring is disguised as hydraulic hoses. Theoretically, when flying the spine is horizontal; the cabin hinges down so the floor is level, and the tail bends down horizontally at the ball joint. But I’m not gonna be too dogmatic about that.
Fantastic! I really, really like this one! It needs a larger terrain to be posed on, like 2 or 3 square feet; that would help show-off the (scale relative) huge size.
What are your thoughts on acquiring a 3D printer for your modeling? You could just print out those chairs, for example.
I usually like small bases; first, I kinda feel that you ought to be able to tell a story in a very small space if you’re halfway competent (newbies to building dioramas tend to build huge ones), and secondly, I don’t have any place to put a model on a large base. My Spaceliner Aventine Passing Phobos, which is a very tall model on quite a large base, got exiled to a showcase in the basement because of its size.
Those chairs are actually 3D printed; i bought them from Shapeways ;). (On an earlier model, I used similar chairs cast in resin, which I had to assemble–but the Shapeways ones were one piece, saving me time and aggravation.) As far as doing my own 3D printing, I doubt I’ll get into it. For one thing, my work career involved trying to accomplish things on a computer using half-assed software, and I’d rather spend my time, now that it’s my own, on building physical things using physical processes. And for another, it sounds like it takes a lot of time and money to get a rig that can print in model-friendly (rigid, detailed, glueable, paintable) materials; basically it’s another whole hobby, which I don’t have time, energy, or money to master.
Thanks! It was a fun project and went pretty smoothly and quickly.
The club is carrying on. Right now, we’re meeting at a local library which has a very nice meeting room. However, you can only reserve it 90 days in advance, so I have to haunt the library website and make a reservation whenever our Thursday opens up.
In fact, today is meeting day. We’re going to have a presentation on Sculpey, and then a discussion of what the Challenge Build for next September is going to be.
Another spectacular piece of art and I only have one quibble with it… The fuel tank is very small so I’m guessing the range is going to be pretty small as well…
