Star Trek: Enterprise:- Sidewinder's Vas Hatham - micro build log

[linweseregon]

This version is one of D-Whale's repaints; two other versions are available. I converted the original pdf to a bmp and shrank it to around 25% - this way I can print multiple tiny designs one one A4 sheet.

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I started with the wings since all the pieces were close to each other on the 'sheet':-

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No tabs were used as they would make each section far too thick. Some of the thinner strips could actually be omitted at this scale - I retained them just to keep my hand in at working with ridiculously small pieces and because I don't have any pens or pencils in this shade of green for edging. It was easier to cut out all the remaining pieces as they were placed to save space rather than adjacent to the parts they would be joined to. Again, the thinnest strips could (and arguably should) be omitted at this scale.

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I never try to to glue an entire edge in one go, eg the edge of the hull was done in three stages starting at the front and letting the glue dry before moving to the next area. With the larger sections connected this left the smaller 'finishing touch' pieces like the tail fin.

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The result is one of my smallest builds, a Vas Hatham with a wingspan of exactly 1". I will build this again (probably one of the other paint jobs) with layers in place of the thinest edge strips.

 

[spaceagent-9]

i just love watching you build these tiny things!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

It looks like you are off to a really good start!!!

 

[D-WHALE]

nice choice, but my favorite is the aged version! also nice to see the little Suliban in your blog

 

[linweseregon]

And I managed to forget to upload the finished model photo - d'oh!

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Thanks for all the compliments guys . Marco, you know I had to build the Suliban ;-) . I thought I'd add some extra wee bits to the blog otherwise I might as well just write "Please refer to Zealot.com" - lol.
I've managed to run off Sidewinder's original design this evening. I'll get round to your aged repaint at some point Marco - promise! ;-)
Starting with the major structures my board looked like this:-

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I used triple layers for the wings, omitted the outer strip on the nacelles and retained the original parts for the main hull. For the bridge assembly I ended up using three layers for the larger piece and two for the smallest piece - the topmost section was too small to work with as it was smaller than this hyphen "-".

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I ran over all the white edges with a green overhead projector marker before connecting them and this meant I could omit all the tiny edging pieces. Single layers were sufficient for the remaining pieces (except the tail fin, of course), making this a more streamlined and much quicker build.

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The white in this photo is PVA which hasn't dried. The finished ship is just over 1" this time, although I could easily cheat and tilt the wings upwards a bit more ;-).

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

These little models that you build are FANTASTIC!!!

 

[D-WHALE]

cool builds!
forget pens, pencils or markers! there is a cheaper variant! buy a paint box with 12 or 24 watercolors! cost is less than 3 Euro! and it works fine!

 

[linweseregon]

Watercolours - of course! lol I have absolutely no common sense; and a failing memory - I'm sure I have a box in a drawer somewhere. I just need to remember where...

 

[D-WHALE]

some profis using aquarell pens from FABER, but then you really need the biggest box from Faber with 120 pens for 310 Euro

http://www.faber-castell.de/art-und-graphic/kuenstlerprodukte/albrecht-duerer-kuenstlerfarbstifte

 

[spaceagent-9]

amazing!!! you are really inspiring!!

 

[spaceagent-9]

I would ......love,......to see you set up all your micros with a borg cube, for a Wolf 359 battle diorama.
I know that might be bad taste on valentines day..........o well.

 

[linweseregon]

@D-WHALE Yikes! €310?!? I think I'll stick with the 99p box fur die kinder

@spaceagent-9 Your kind words keep my enthusiasm up . I have the patterns for most (if not all!) of the Wolf 359 ships waiting in a folder to be printed, although I reckon the Borg cube would still have to be pretty big - lol. Certainly bigger than the 4"x4"x4" that I already built... It's certainly worth considering and simulated phaser-fire should be easy enough to do. How would photon/quantum torpedoes be done though? Now that's got my old grey matter buzzing and it's great taste for Valentine's day . I can build some frazzled wrecks as well! I haven't built any of them since the Constellation. Balsa frame for a skyscape, wire mounts painted black... oh my! I'm going to do a bit of research on this one

 

[spaceagent-9]

a blinking led on a wire, that swings around on a mini servo?
or a mirror that turns, with a laser reflecting off it, so it moves thru space--?

 

[spaceagent-9]

got a couple of links to some sfx bling you could strip down for this stuff.

links deleted by me hours later, as it was advertising, I was absent minded and zealous about the immense enjoyment of a wolf 359 diorama so many would like to see. sorry that I didn't recognize this right away, and jfyi, you can contact the person and email them privately about things like this shopping preferences and referals. again I apologize to the forum and administrators for this careless error.
jim

 

[ThunderChild]

that is absolutely stunning work man!