The Galaxy Exiles sci-fi model club challenge for next September is to build a rocket- or jet-powered land or sea vehicle. I’ve had a couple ideas and am very close to wrapping up the first.
In the greatest science-fiction series ever to appear on ABC Family Channel, The Middleman, Middleman apprentice Wendy Watson is given a little red Smart car for business use. One afternoon, her boss shows her what the red key does: A big jet engine sprouts out of the roof, significantly improving the car’s performance.
Great idea for a model car. Revell put out a snap kit of a Smart car a while ago; I found one (assembled) on eBay for a reasonable price. Since it was a snap kit, I was able to dismantle it pretty easily, and I was ready to go!
The jet engine doesn’t seem to have a real-world equivalent, so I figured I’s have to scratchbuild one. I bought some acrylic rod* and spent a happy morning turning the basic shape on my little lathe. I then got out my MicroMark Home Photoetching Kit and made a couple ID plates for the sides, then built some other accessories out of bits and pieces of styrene.
…And as of tonight, it’s all painted and ready to assemble once the paint gets dry. It’s not completely 100% accurate, but it’s been a fun, quick little project. I’ll post another pic once it’s done.
Cute story: I’m never quite sure when Mrs R is listening to me. We were out in the garage, and she picked up my piece of acrylic rod. “What’s this?” she asked, so I told her what it was, and what I planned to do with it. Fast forward three days; we’re attending a performance of A Christmas Carol. Christmas Past comes on stage, carrying a lighted staff. Mrs R elbows me, and whispers, “Look! Acrylic rod!”
A propos real-world equivalents, these guys plan to get to 1000 mph this coming year. Their secret seems to be bolting together a jet engine AND a rocket.
Dang, man. I bet if you could work up som engineering drawings for that jet engine, you could get Revell interested in buying them. Or the producers of The Middlemen. Maybe you could get them into a bidding war.
Of course, then it wouldn’t be a Rocketeer one-of-a-kind any more, so I can see the argument for not.
The Hruck Bugbear was, of course, a Yugo, probably a Yugo 45, the only model exported to the USA; the only models available are 1/43 scale diecasts. That’s a scale I don’t usually mess with, but all I’d really need to do would be to paint it flat black (and rust, probably), and set it in a green pool of radiator coolant. (I’m starting to get more enthused as I type this, so thanks for the suggestion.)
The Middleman, despite being absolutely great in every way, didn’t quite make a full season. It ran for 12 of 13 planned episodes, and the last episode was eventually released as a comic book, which I went out and bought, and which sits on the shelf next to my series DVD.
In a just world, it would have run for seven seasons, and Natalie Morales would be our first female President.
I think they bailed on episode 13 to spend more money on the two-parter.
Figures they’d use a Yugo to stand-in for a, “poor-man’s Yugo.” Where are they going to find something crappier than a Yugo? If you could get a model with a hood that lifts, you could use cotton batting and a hidden LED to recreate radiator steam, in honor of its final appearance in episode 3.
I built the entire jet engine. The fan blades are little triangles of sheet styrene. While I was at it, I used my lathe to build a little nut to repair my lathe (Mrs R gets a kick out of the recursiveness of that )
I’ve built a Hruck Bugbear! Mrs R got me a Yugo in 1/43 scale for my birthday, figuring I ought to build a Bugbear. Didn’t take much; just took it apart and repainted it, made some license plates, deleted the wipers, dirtied it up a little. Here are a couple pics. Remember, in 1/43, the model is only a bit larger than a Hot Wheels car.
It’s not the most complex thing I’ve ever built, but at least it completes my Middleman efforts (unless I decide to build the Middlemobile)(but that way lies madness).
