Star Wars GR-75 Transport Conversion (FINISHED January 2019)

[Coronasan]

The whole ship looks great! Very nice work with the engines, among other stuff.

Thanks, I have had some fun putting this together.

Have you thought about adding a missile rack or two for the ship? If yes, I have the missile racks from GW's Taurox kit, happy to send them if those suit your plans?

I have a few ideas for external gubbins, missiles are always good.

[Coronasan]

I am having a go at making some doors to go on the upper hull level.



The first set I made looked far to big when held in place. I had to trim them down a bit.



I tend to make most bits in multiples of 5mm. As my cutting mat is marked in a 5mm grid, this makes life a lot easier.

[ballistic_bro]

Wow, cracking build. Very inspirational.

[orc]

  Horgerous!! Great project!!

[Coronasan]

Got the doors in place...


...and added a few rivets.

[vodkafan]

So happy to see this build going again.

[Duke Donald]

Nice! Can't wait to seeing it finished.

[tomrommel1]

nice

[Coronasan]

This is a truly fantastic project.
I'm more than a little envious.

Thank you, I have enjoyed making this.

What are you going to do about the outside? There's a lot of effort on the inside but my only concern is that from the outside it will still look like a kid's toy of the rebel transport ship.
I know you've added some engines and landing gear, but will that be enough?
I suppose it will be. And I don't suppose there's much more that can be done.
And I also reckon a decent paint job will probably do the job.

Have you thought about the outside at all?

The outside does indeed present a challenge. In the end, it will still very much look like a Star Wars transport from the outside, I just hope a multi-colour grey paint job will help.

I have several turret options which will at least add something to the outside. The latest option is a radar dish.



Pocoloco very kindly mailed me (thank you once again!) a GW missile rack which will be another option and most likely look much better than most of the others.

Anything else that gets added to the outside needs to fit in with the hull paneling otherwise it may look well out of place. I have an idea for a couple of bits to add, but I will fit them with blu-tac first to see how they look. LaF feedback may well be required!

The finished model will mainly be used as terrain I think, so most of the time, the top will be off to allow model access.

[pocoloco]

The doors look fab! 

Great to see project advancing at steady pace, good that you have variety of options and plans for the outside as well.

[Coronasan]

The inside of the ship is nearly finished, I think.

I tried making one piece to cover the of the bridge, but is was a really difficult shape to cut. I decided to panel it in the end and this was much easier and still looks okay.



Each panel was cut to shape and then stuck onto a foam board support.



I could then add more detail to the walls of the ship.



Basically I added plastic control panels to any available empty wall space.



Any spaces left will have computer displays added when the painting is done.



I may still add some more rivets but the trick is knowing when to STOP.

[zemjw]

I may still add some more rivets but the trick is knowing when to STOP.

From personal experience, the very second the word "rivets" enters your mind is the correct time to stop

Been following this for a while, and it's looking really good. I'm curious to see how easily it paints up, as some of those areas look quite tricky to get into.

[Coronasan]

I'm curious to see how easily it paints up, as some of those areas look quite tricky to get into.

I think you may well be right...

[Coronasan]

Have you thought about adding a missile rack or two for the ship? If yes, I have the missile racks from GW's Taurox kit, happy to send them if those suit your plans?

Thanks Pocoloco, it was very kind of you to send the missile rack to me. It works really well, it is nice and low profile, so I think this will be the hull weapon of choice!



The hole in the top of the hull takes a 40mm base perfectly, so it just a case of fixing the weapon to the base.

[Coronasan]

I have added the last of the engines to the rear of the ship now (spot the cat).



I am thinking about adding four landing engines to the hull.

I was going to use some plastic lids, but as commented on in another post, the plastic does not take glue very well.



So I am making some tubular shapes from 0.6mm plastic card.

The first was a pain in the ass, so the construction technique evolved for each one until the last one had some tabs added and I scored the plastic so the glue may stick better.



...and then lots of clamps were used to hold the shape until the glue set.



Once the tube is set, a base used on the top and bottom will hold it in place. I now have four of these and they should be much better than the lids I was going to use.



I still need to work out how I will add detail and hide all the glue and fingerprints.