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Author Topic: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge  (Read 3056 times)

Offline Vanvlak

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BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« on: December 28, 2019, 03:42:08 PM »
Haven't been around since at least May, when a fateful trip to the Harz resulted in my getting badly sidetracked by model railways. Thought I'd look in, found the BSC, and couldn't resist.

Long long ago in a galaxy - well, same galaxy, really - I had started a modular board project. I had, true to nature, started (let's see) at least 8 1' x 1' boards, and have finished exactly zero.
One of these was supposed to be a crash site for a drop pod. I had even found the main component, the pod structure, and was thinking of a pod in a desert - with two droids trundling or walking away from it.

I have dragged the dusty board and the 'main component' (all will be revealed) down, am rethinking the design, and will (try to) start all over with a different setting and design for BSC2020.
I will be hampered by travel in one week of January, and the usual work stuff, but as I chose a simple model I should make it. IF I keep it simple.

STOP PRESS: I seem to remember I had posted an image of this (in its original concept form) - if so, I will change the subject of my entry to something completely different, to stick to regs.

LATER: couldn't find anything related to it. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 07:53:12 AM by Vanvlak »

Offline ichwillauch

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak Escape Pod crash site (MAYBE!)
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2019, 04:43:22 PM »
sounds good, looking forward for it.

Offline Braz

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak Escape Pod crash site (MAYBE!)
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2019, 04:48:57 PM »
Always useful those escape pods. Also looking forward to it.

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak Derelict Escape Pod
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2019, 06:57:25 AM »
Thanks guys.

I'm changing the concept slightly, from a crashed pod wreck to a derelict one.
This has a few advantages:
1) less fretting about the size and shape crater which an escape pod crash would make
2) 'crashed pod' sounds (to me) less interesting than derelict pod
3) it's different from the project I am uncertain whether i had started off or not on LAF (and which I cannot find, so maybe it never actually took off!)



Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak derelict escape pod
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2019, 05:05:20 PM »
Darn - I just realised Skrapwelder is doing an escape pod too (I hadn't read his thread, and didn't realise what it would be from the title).
Since his placeholder came well ahead of mine, I'll change my theme. I don't think I have to, but it's not really fair - and anyway, I'm convinced his interpretation would be better than mine!
Back to the drawing board...

... and I think I have it, by George! A naval gunnery towed target, something like this (just the target, not the ship!):


from Wikipedia (By US Navy photo from DANFS - http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/64/64024.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8975201)

This will be useful for my marshes gaming surface (a long-time work in progress).

« Last Edit: December 31, 2019, 05:31:31 PM by Vanvlak »

Offline von Lucky

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak towed target
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2019, 09:52:00 PM »
I like that barge.

I suspect there will will be a few variations on the same theme by everyone, so don't stress too much if you change your mind.
- Karsten

"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Blog: Donner und Blitzen

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak towed target
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2020, 07:35:16 AM »
I like that barge.

I suspect there will will be a few variations on the same theme by everyone, so don't stress too much if you change your mind.
And since yesterday, I came up with a slightly different idea - see the new heading!
But as I don't want to disappoint von Lucky, now, do I? Fortunately I have a brilliant plan  :D

Whilst doodling, I also ran into another couple of problems:
1) As I want this for 28 mm, it has to be quite big. How do I make a detailed enough (and not bland) hull in a short time? And where do I store it when done?
2) Although the size of the thing (for 28 mm) makes it big enough to be a base, the rules require a base for the model. Do I have time to make such a huge watery base?
3) How do I make this more useful as part of a game?

I think I solved all three of the problems - not to mention the above-mentioned brilliant plan, which I will now call the von Lucky gambit. Not giving away anything yet  >:D


Except that the idea came from here:



The alien will not be organic, and I am NOT building a 28 scale aircraft or assault carrier.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 07:54:11 AM by Vanvlak »

Offline von Lucky

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2020, 09:02:20 AM »
I am NOT building a 28 scale aircraft or assault carrier.

Booo! (That's the Vanvlak gambit :D)

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2020, 09:06:23 AM »



Booo! (That's the Vanvlak gambit :D)

 lol
I call it the 'get out of jail free gambit'. This will be more evident when you see my solution to one of my problems >:D

if I did build that, I'd have to make it folding.... and would also need to resign from work to have any remote hope of completing it. It would look good floating in the pond at the Uni quadrangle, mind you....


Offline AKULA

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2020, 09:12:46 AM »
Nothing wrong with building an aircraft carrier in 28mm  :D

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2020, 09:46:53 AM »
Nothing wrong with building an aircraft carrier in 28mm  :D
True.
But the theme for BSC is wreck and ruin, and it WOULD be a shame to build one and then wreck it - I just couldn't do that. Sigh. I'll just have to settle for the alien engine remains and their transport instead.  ;D

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2020, 05:38:40 PM »
I seem to have finally settled down, and have pinned down the idea  :D




Offline Hammers

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2020, 08:50:56 PM »
Looking forward to this. You always make interesting builds.

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2020, 06:41:21 AM »
Looking forward to this. You always make interesting builds.
Thank you.
Best of all, if I make a mess of it I can always say it's a train wreck of a model  :D

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: BSC2020 Vanvlak alien engine remains on transport barge
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2020, 11:43:41 AM »
Scarce progress, but pics available.

Reason why there is little progress:


This little pile of pine is a much larger project I am working on. If it goes wrong, I can enter IT as my wreck and ruin build. The longest section is a little over a metre long.

Sketches showing evolution of the original plan (the escape pod):




These evolved from (1) a huge crater (impractical, unless in 1:300 or smaller) to (2) a classic pod (nice, but I wanted something different), (3) a pod which landed safely but is now derelict to (4) a pod which is derelict, has fallen apart except for a skeletal structure - what it would look like if it were an undead escape pod.

Then came my quandaries on whether I had posted an earlier version (which had not progressed at all), and the change to the target barge, until I settled on a hybrid, a barge carrying the 'skeleton' and other bits too. Here's a rough idea of what it might look like from above.



There will be changes - hopefully for the better.

The base will remain a mystery for now  :D
At least unless anyone guesses my dodge to avoid having a huge sea area (or a sea 'frame' around the barge) (actually, not a bad idea, this last one, but I think my cunning plan is more interesting).

The barge surface consists of 9 plastic aquarium filter panel thingies - someone had mentioned these for sci-fi platforms in a thread I cannot find, so this is not an original idea. This last pic shows two of the things (they clip together) with a tape measure for size - or it would have been useful if the scale were legible; at least the inches are....
The ones shown in the earlier pic were sprayed white - their biggest defect is that not all spray adheres well to the plastic.



So all I have done so far are four useless sketches, a fifth more useful one I have not photographed yet, and a collection of bits. I have also scratched my head about the hull itself, which I think I have decided on.