Star Wars second pass

[Kelly]

I have started going back through my Clone Wars project to clean up any mistakes, and also make changes with the benefit of hindsight.  I spent the overwhelming majority of my time on the modeling side, and did not have a good plan on color choices; color matching to screen shots does not really work on this small of a scale, and focusing on what spot colors should be highlighted and what should be dropped was not a high priority.  The biggest color change so far was on the most egregious offenders, these freighters below, which I am taking from a light tan down several steps…



The more muted color group really works out better for these as they should be objective markers instead of players’ ships.

The other changes are on the modeling side.  Most of the ship silhouettes are recognizable, but there are a few that I have been reworking like the Bellator below from Expanded Universe.  The first attempt was early in the designing process, and the largest single piece I had printed up to that point, but looking back it is far too blocky and not very imposing for a ship three times the size of most others facing it on the table.  Nine months later, and with a better understanding of how to model for forced perspective, the second Bellator is only 10% taller but has a much more defined silhouette for an almost identical volume.



Surface detail is still an issue on this one, but balancing out flats and relief is the biggest challenge on the originals that only exist as renders… a lot of details are just texture mapped onto 3D models within games and picking out what can be physically represented and what cannot is difficult.

[Covertwalrus]

 Once again, superlative work on the models there.

[Kelly]

Thank you, I hope to have more updates soon.

[Kelly]

Here is an update on another model originally from April 2021, the Gladiator also from the Expanded Universe...


...again on this ship I took the main hull down a third, just like the Bellator, with a slightly increased bevel on the remainder and a realignment of the superstructure.  At only 3 mm for the new hull height, I lost most of the definition of the destroyer side trench but the overall Imperial knife-edge design is a lot sharper... [wait for applause] ...and it looks better in groups than the first design.

[Kelly]

For the last few months I have been lost in the doldrums, adrift, floating without direction…  I tried every point of the compass with different projects, but ran into problem after problem, with still no progress.


When facing a giant barrier to inspiration that cannot be moved over or moved around, try to find a way through, some kind of opening, or gap, or gate…


…like a shield gate!



This was not a particularly hard design, only 1 of the sections had to be reworked and reprinted, but it has been sitting on the table since January, mainly because I was dreading the priming and painting of the open spans.  We are almost out of outdoors weather though, so I took the plunge and found that the amount to be painted was not half as much as I expected due to the limited angles those interior spaces can be viewed from.



During the process, I realized this would be a good opportunity for an in-progress shot, since the gate is easily dividable in halves.  One with rough wash / base coat and the other with colors relined.



All in all, the shield gate is not my favorite piece, but it does stand out on the table and there are not that many options for terrain pieces in orbit.  Also, while finishing this, I came up with more reworking ideas for ease of printing / painting other models along with some new directions, so that gate has really opened up everything now. (pun intended)

[Easy E]

Not the project you wanted, but the one you needed.

Looks great too!

[Kelly]

Almost out of the ships from extended universe, the Praetor was a massive ship that continued to grow with each footnote that mentioned it throughout several sourcebooks, and the only depiction of it outside of the barest of concept art was in a comic book.  The various models of it appearing in Empire at War mods all have converged onto a silhouette that could match the comic but that is strikingly different from the other canon Imperial ships but still has some similarities.


If you cannot tell from my above praise, this was one of my favorite models to put together and if it turns out that it is the end of my Clone Wars project, it is a fitting one.*

*And by fitting, I mean that I designed it to be 2000m long at scale, not the 8000m it has currently ballooned to over the past few years.

[Ruckdog]

Lovely work as always! I'm really impressed with how crisp your black-lining is.

[Kelly]

I'm really impressed with how crisp your black-lining is.

Thank you, the secret is two thin coats...

...followed by 7 to 8 coats of various thicknesses.

[Easy E]

The Praetor looks great. 

I am curious how a galaxy a long time ago, and far, far away knows a reference to the Roman Republic though. 

[Kelly]

To try and impose some sort of order on my modeling, I now have three dates on the calendar that I have set as goals for themed models.  Too late (last weekend) I realized that the next date up, May the Fourth, was far too close for enough time to finish a Clone Wars design… and then inspiration struck!  If I could not finish a ship design, I could design an unfinished ship.


These Acclamators in progress are a first attempt at a ship-build, I started with the outlines of the original, subtracted a few spaces, and then added beams throughout and a reactor at approximately the right location, thank you SW Cross Sections.  Overall, I am pretty pleased at how these turned out given the time constraints, and hopefully will have a new project incorporating some of these that are larger than an inch soon.