Introduction: Scratch Building a Star Ship

About: I love to create sci-fi models, paint figures and generally stay a kid at heart.

Here is a starship I created out of RENFoam 40 lb. polyurethane foam board, and plastic stock and model kit parts. I used Citadel White spray can primer, and Acrylic paints to add colour to the ship. Cyanoacrylate glue was used throughout the assembly. I used Testor's liguid cement on plastic to plastic bonds.

Step 1: Building the Star Ship

The first step was figuring out what the ship would look like. I band sawed out blocks of foam and double backed into stacks of 2 for left and right hand sides. The center structure consisted of a trapezoidal trunk, forward cabin/nose, and 2 engine housings. The wings were attached with a pylon on each side. To beef up the assembly, I drilled 1/8" dia. x 1/2" deep holes to each mating surface, where I bonded brass rod into with Cyanoacrylate glue.

Then the fun begins. In the second photo, you can see some of the model kit parts and plastic stock being CA glued on to different sections of the model.

Step 2: Upper Center Section Progress

This photo show the upper center section basically complete with a light coat of primer. It also shows the holes and troughs dug out of the wing sections. Tons of hours were put in just to get it to this point!

Step 3: Lower Section Progress

As with the last step, a coat of primer makes a more homogenous view of what the ship will look like when finished. Alot of holes and slots were worked into the wings to add depth and detail

Step 4: Left Wing Completed

Plastic sheeting and stringers were added to the left wing and primed.

Step 5: Right Wing Completed and Primed.

Ship is completed at this stage and has been primed. This took 2 months of patience and perseverance, cutting and gluing hundreds of pieces of plastic until late hours. Breaking it up into sectional builds, the nose, trunk, engine pods, wings and wing pylons helped speed up the entire process.

Step 6: Final Finish

The painting took one day to complete this build. I took Citadel acrylics and thinned them out to apply subtle washes on different areas of the model. I used a thinned black wash to simulate deeper recessed areas. A chunk of 40 lb. foam was carved to look like cliff rock, and lightly dry brushed with acrylics. A solid 3/16" dia. brass rod was drilled/bonded into the base and model to simulate it flying. Tufted cotton balls were attached to the brass rod to conceal it and to simulate mist/clouds. One thing I would love to do is figure out a lighting system for these builds. I am looking at LED lighting on this site and would like to have this accomplished with the next build. Wish me luck!