Firefly - Serenity

Sky Seeker

Sky Seeker

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Jun 1, 2015
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Everyone - a friend of mine some time ago asked me if I could build the Serenity for him and I said "yes".

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Little did I know what I would be in for..:headbange:

This is going to be one tough model, but they say that a journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step, so here goes.

Side engine nacelles.

This is the templates for the side engines.
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Top of the engine showing the compressor at the left and the engine on the right.
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Main nozzle to the right before assembly. Engine to the left. Note the bottom of the nozzle with an "8". Cut and fold the nozzle joining the ends together to form a cylinder THEN put in the piece labelled "8" inside of the cylinder as shown to the right. Then fold and glue the tabs as shown on the bottom.
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Engine nozzle assembled.
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The compressor section glues on top of the engine. Note that a marker has covered the white areas on the nozzle. Note the "C" shaped section on the the left of the engine. This portions joins to the wing.
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close up view of the compressor

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Engines assembled - Note the addition of the fins near the nozzle. The little triangular piece to the left is part of the strut assembly.
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Back view of the engine and nozzle.
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That's it for now.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 

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Here's the main body / cargo hold. I'm still trying to figure out where the main fuselage and the body are at relative to the rest of the ship. You'll see what I mean when the "cockpit" is assembled.

Cargo hold - Sides are folded and glued together then the top is folded down.
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When gluing the top down you have to squeeze the back edges then glue your way to the front.
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Recently I got a couple of metallic markers gold, silver, and copper. The sheet below is coated in silver. To the right the "bar" is colored in pencil. I tried to do a "flash" picture of this, but it was like a mirror. In real life it looks better than this - quite "shiny".
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That's it for now.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
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First WOW!!! Holy Sh*t!! I love that show and this ship

Second: You're off to an excellent start. Keep those seams tight like you are, and you will end up with one beautiful Serenity model, top tier. This will be one thread I follow very closely. Freakin' Great!! Excellent choice. :)
 
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This is looking awesome! You have another follower here. :)

The strange things you have already encountered may be the result of the fact that the model was created without a 3D computer model. There may be other "surprises" which are to be mastered. Because of this I think that this thread will become a very useful guide for other builders. ;)
 
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Wow!! Everyone I'm really blown away by the response and love for the show! I've been going back over the old episodes of Firefly "for research purposes". Ok it's just fun to watch.;)

I'll try to do right by y'all and my friend as well. I'll see what I can do to make it a little non-stock. I don't have a lot of time though to put into this version because my friend is about ready to get transferred, but I'll see what I can do.

In the mean time here are some more pics. I have actually been working on this model for a couple of months now. The work you see below took a little while to do over many weekends.

Templates for the side wings and side engine mounts.
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Sorry about the clearness of this shot I was trying to show the roll on the front edge of the wing. It's actually two pieces one comes from below and the other comes from the top. Maybe in future pics you'll be able to see it better.
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Side shot of the wing. As you can see on the right this is before the wing is assembled. The bottom portion is rolled up and glued and the top portion is about to be rolled down to over lap the bottom front edge.
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Wings assembled. Engines are being pre-positioned prior to gluing. At this point you have to decide the following - raised up for flight, lowered for landing, or tilted up (like a Marine Osprey - yes this model allows you to do that).

Note the triangular covers for the wing strut connectors. These were colored with the silver marker side to side first then up and down then a lighter left to right covering. This makes an even silver covering for some reason. It seems to blend in fairly well with the grey as well.
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Strut. This one you just have to remember that the top white strut is rolled about the longest length and the gray portion has to be rolled about the shortest width. The upper left one was done both ways and the paper was slighty mangled, but it turned out ok.
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This is the best shot I could get of the strut in position before gluing. This is needed to be done to figure out where the secondary strut connector is to be positioned. There is NO blank space on the engine to indicate this so a guess had to be done using the strut where it should visually go. The strut to the left was the mangled strut.
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Secondary strut connectors in final position with the struts glued in place. Overgluing was done to maintain the position of the struts. A trick that was used repeatedly on the Robinson ships. The struts as well can be varied according to the orientation of the engines, but have to be glued in place length wise once you have made your decision.
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Strut covers in place.
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That's it for now.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
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zathros said:
First WOW!!! Holy Sh*t!! I love that show and this ship

Second: You're off to an excellent start. Keep those seams tight like you are, and you will end up with one beautiful Serenity model, top tier. This will be one thread I follow very closely. Freakin' Great!! Excellent choice. :)
Click to expand...

Wow! Thanks Z.:) Thanks for your encouragement. I might do what Rhaven Black did with the Thunderfighter - e.g. do a "test" build (this one) then do the super greebled version or depending on time I could just greeble this one. Don't know for sure right now - will see.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
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Revell-Fan said:
This is looking awesome! You have another follower here. :)

The strange things you have already encountered may be the result of the fact that the model was created without a 3D computer model. There may be other "surprises" which are to be mastered. Because of this I think that this thread will become a very useful guide for other builders. ;)
Click to expand...

Hey RF!! Great to hear from you! Greetings back at you from the "States" across the 'ole pond.;) Yes I've encountered some portions that just don't fit quite well.:robot3: :Computer:

However, as builders we might encounter a round hole and all we've got is a square peg. Never fear you can always cut something down to size or make it bigger depends on what you want to do or you just fake it.:)

I just love paper for that reason. :)

I hope that I can be of some small assistance to others in this regard.:) If anyone has any questions or suggestions I'll always try to be receptive.

Have a great day!:animated:

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
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Cybergrinder said:
Going to be watching this thread! wow!
Click to expand...

Great to hear from you, our friend down from South Africa!:biggrin:

Is it winter down there or fall? This whole Northern / Southern Hemisphere thing messes with the mind!:drinksmile:

Please feel free to comment and ask questions along the way. :)

Have a GREAT day!:)

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
Sky Seeker said:
Hey Micah! Just decided to rewatch the entire series for "research purposes". Even better than the first time!

Thanks for stopping on by!

Sky Seeker
:tank:
Click to expand...

When I start a project, I always will rewatch the program that they ship or plane is from for the same reason. I have been known to take screenshots of the vehicle that I am doing the research on, so that I can zoom in on details so that I can greeble it properly.
 
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Rhaven Blaack said:
When I start a project, I always will rewatch the program that they ship or plane is from for the same reason. I have been known to take screenshots of the vehicle that I am doing the research on, so that I can zoom in on details so that I can greeble it properly.
Click to expand...

Yep that's why I'm doing it. Although the base model I'm working with has some deviations from the original. Still it gives something to build on. The top of the model is different from what is in the show. The engine is different as well. More to do that's for sure.

I also did that for the Vorchan for B5. Helps especially when you're trying to design something pretty close to the original. Still working on ideas for that, but hit a road block.

Hey, you wouldn't happen to know why this model was made into a sticky do you? I'm honored, but I just started on it. Just wondering.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
 
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Sky Seeker said:
Yep that's why I'm doing it. Although the base model I'm working with has some deviations from the original. Still it gives something to build on. The top of the model is different from what is in the show. The engine is different as well. More to do that's for sure.

I also did that for the Vorchan for B5. Helps especially when you're trying to design something pretty close to the original. Still working on ideas for that, but hit a road block.

Hey, you wouldn't happen to know why this model was made into a sticky do you? I'm honored, but I just started on it. Just wondering.

Sky Seeker
:tank:
Click to expand...
You deserve it. You are a FANTASTIC builder! There are not many threads on this particular ship. So you will be setting a high bar for the building of this model. Other builders can (and more than likely will) use this thread as a guide to build this model (I know that I, for one, will).
 
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