Buck Rogers Land Rover

Revell-Fan

Revell-Fan

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Hi fans! :)

Since Rhaven and I are revisiting the Landram (which you might know started my paper model designing "career" ;) ) I have found a project which I began a few years back: The Land Rover from Buck Rogers.

I collected many screenshots of the show and pics of the Mego toy but somehow the project got lost in the queue. Today I gave it a shot and was able to flesh out the main shape in a couple of hours. Practically it is the Landram in disguise. ;) I will use the same undercarriage and track system for it so you will see some familiar parts.

landram22b.jpg

There were three versions of the Rover: The version from the pilot movie which made it into a toy, a revamped and recoloured version which was featured in the episode "Escape from Wedded Bliss" and an EDD version in the episode "Flight of the War Witch". I'm starting with the simplest version from "War Witch" and will "work my way up", so-to-speak. Next will be the recoloured Draconian Rover featuring the turret and last but not least the toy version with the visible track system.

Seen through the paper modeler's eyes it was extremely fortunate that Universal Hartland had limited time and resources to make Buck Rogers props because that forced them to keep things simple. Hence it should not be very difficult to replicate the Rover in paper.

And here is the first WIP pic. Enjoy and stay tuned! :)

rover1.jpg
 
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You are welcome! :)

And please don't think the other two "BSG machines" have been abandoned. I'm counting on finishing them this year. ;)

The CG model is almost finished. I have put it on the Landram mesh to see how it compares.

rover2.jpg

If you look closely to the window frame you will see that both models are aligned.

rover3.jpg

A view from below. Not too bad, it seems. Please take in mind that they used different tracks on the Rover; they were slimmer than the ones from the Landram. I have adapted them accordingly and it looks good to me.

The bottom view made me think of the possibility to skip the whole undercarriage and add "fake" tracks because everything is hidden by the armour plating. Building complete wheels does not seem to be much efficient here because you won't see any of them on the finished model. That means less parts and faster fun. ;)

rover4.jpg

I think I can keep it this way. :)
 
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To quote the immortal words of Twiki: BeedeeBeedeeBeedeeBeedee. You'r the BEST, BUCK!!!

This is going to be a fun build! I am looking forward to it!!!
 
GyverX said:
Is that SketchUp? If so, What version and is it the free one? Also, Do you use any special plugins?

Thanks For the answers the the cup of awesome-ness
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You are welcome! :)

Yes, it is SketchUp. I use version 8 for sculpting and version 6 for exporting the mesh into *.kmz(4) format which can be understood by Pepakura. Both versions are free but no longer available on the Trimble main page (you will have to look somewhere else for them). I have several backups of the programs just to be safe because I don't know how to operate other 3D programs. I will check out the latest free version (SU2015) soon.

This model is very easy to build (OK, the moving turret may be a bit trickier, but not much ;) ) and the textures will be plain and simple, so the most logical way is to turn it into a vector graphic. To do so I have installed the SketchUp unfold plugin. The mesh is unfolded manually within SketchUp, exported to *.svg and loaded in CorelDRAW for further processing (colour, decals, tabs, layout). In Corel I start with a letter-size canvas to ensure that everyone in the world may print the pattern correctly (I can't thank @sjsquirrel enough for that idea :) ). When everything's ready I change the canvas to A4 format and export the project as *.pdf. You may look up some of my previous build and design threads to see more of my work flow, especially the "Launch when ready!" and Andrew Probert concept Vipers threads. :)

Rhaven Blaack said:
To quote the immortal words of Twiki: BeedeeBeedeeBeedeeBeedee. You'r the BEST, BUCK!!!

This is going to be a fun build! I am looking forward to it!!!
Click to expand...

Thank you! :) Wasn't it
BeedeeBeedeeBeedeeBeedee. You're my kinda guy, BUCK!!!
? ;)

ASC Mclaren said:
Ohhhhhhhhhhh! Very cool! I do have most of one of the mego tanks, if that helps.
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GREAT! I may PM you on occasion because I have noticed that the Mego version differs from the real one in certain respects. CU! ;)
 
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The only area which is complete guesswork is the top. There are absolutely NO shots of the original vehicle showing it. And the screenshots from the pilot are so dark that you can't see anything, so I can't tell if there is a place for a gunner or not on the first version. :( Since the turret fired without a gunner I suppose that the roof was flat as seen on the toy. Well, once the plans are released you are free to modify the model according to your wishes and add a recess for the gunner. ;)
 
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Thank you, Big J! :)

The pics will be helpful when I start texturing. As for the motorization: It sure looks like that; I read that it featured a roving sound. ;)

In for a test build, RB? ;)
 
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You guys are really a blast! This brings back so many memories of that show, and how fun it was. Thanks again for bring these models to life for us:)
 
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