AKULA's BS 2017 Entry - Rogue One Scariff Shield Gate pg16 few more photos

[Billchuck]

For now, I'll think of them as greeblie shield pylons.

Maybe they are greeblie shield _anchor_ pylons, to keep the station in place and aligned with the shield so the gate works properly.

[AKULA]

Ok, so to the build......

The basic shape is essentially a series of circles at different heights, so I'm going to use a framework, and add the rest of the structure onto it.

The frame will consist of a handful of wooden hoops, taken from some sort of upholstery set that one of my daughters had for textiles at school.....haven't seen it used lately, so they've now found their way into my games room 

Before I started the actual build, the first step was to build a temporary cradle for the framework to sit upon. For now I've glued the hoops to the cradle to fix them in place, but it will be easy to remove later on, once the whole structure is more rigid.





The outer hoop is 18" diameter, the middle 14" and the inner "brackets" are from a 10" hoop....I think there might be a larger one somewhere, so if I find it, it will also mysteriously vanish from the house, and reappear in my games room.

[Silent Invader]

Very nifty solution.  

And I wholeheartedly approve of stealing from the kids.  

[LordOdo]

  Poor daughter

It looks promising though...

[tomrommel1]

good start

[AKULA]

In order to make the various bits of foam board fit the frame, I'll be scoring the underside to give them a bit more flexibility to fit what is a curved structure.




It took a couple of trial and error attempts to get something that felt right for the hangar bays....I'm building something as a gaming piece, rather than a diorama, so it needs to be practical with the models I'm using it with. The top flat level is a gallery for what will be anti-ship weapons - I will need to fill in the stepped level, to give a smoother, angled surface, or face it all up with card to give a sloped surface.




The scored quarter circle of foamboard is secured to the cradle with pins, while the glue drys, and then can be trimmed to fit the curved shape of the station.  It probably all looks a bit untidy at the moment - it's all about the basic structure and shape at this stage, the rest can be trimmed to size, or hidden once I get to layering the exterior surface.  Likewise I need to tidy up some of the curves...a lot to do....




The cradle is coming into its own now, as the floor of the hangar bay is secured  directly to it. As the cradle is foamboard, I can carve away at it, as necessary.

[OSHIROmodels]

And he's off 

cheers

James

[AKULA]

And he's off 

cheers

James

Got a bit carried away this afternoon. 

[Silent Invader]

Got a bit carried away this afternoon. 

  It's only day 1!!!

Seriously though, excellent progress. Looks like very neat/precise cutting. 

[AKULA]

A quick lighting test on the hangar bays.  Should sort out the light leakage once I've added some layering to the structure, and sealed everything. It also helps point out defects for the "tidy up" list.



Red alert!!!!!!



Blue alert!!!!!!




 

[Elk101]

Bloody hell! 
That's looking a bit good already.

[Bergil]

Reminds me of a Red Dwarf gag. 

[tomrommel1]

 

[AKULA]

A small update.

Made some turbolaser towers




Now that the glue has dried, I've trimmed the sloped sections to fit the curve if the central "brackets".  The two roof sections for the hangars aren't attached, they are just loosely placed to give a better idea of the shape.  I've also popped half a dozen of the turbolasers (primed grey) onto the left hand side of the model, to show the approximate position of where the anti-ship turrets would go....I actually like the turbolasers so I may well stick with them, haven't made my mind up yet.




To give an idea of scale, I've included a couple of 1/2256 craft in this photo (they aren't part of the build, just here to show the size of the hangars).  As you can see the x-wing (balanced in the centre of the "brackets") is tiny in comparison to the size of the gate.  Also, as mentioned previously, my model is meant to be a gaming piece, so I've made the sloped section from the hangars down to the bracket, less steep that originally planned, as I want to be able to rest fighter bases on it (otherwise it's ungameable).

[tomrommel1]

that looks awesome!!! Have you thought about building the props for Disney?