Overlord's Dropship

[Silent Invader]

Lovely design on that landing gear 

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Thanks for the feedback.  

A bit more progress has been made.  I spent quite a while sorting out the landing gear and ended up with something a bit more complicated than I had intended, but happy with how it has turned out.

The orange bits are cut down covers from inkjet cartridges:


Everything else is plastic card/tubing and brass rod for strength:

Each foot has 3 'jointed' supports, but its hard to show it clearly from a single angle.  The brass rod will fit into mounting points drilled in the bottom of the hull.  

Hopefully I can crack on with the rest of the build now.  I didn't want to complete the main body until I knew if the landing gear would work and how it would fit into the underside.  I have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the model will come together.  Up until now I have been rather making it up as I went along, which makes for an imperfect design.  I have however rather enjoyed working with plastic card on a larger build.

Great work on those legs and ingenious use of materials.

Well done.

Tony

[Hammers]

A bit of a slow start for me.  Currently painting unrelated stuff, so need to finish that to give me the space to build.  Hopefully in the next couple of days. 

I have however been giving the build some thought.  My initial idea was to go for something fairly simple; a single seat (1 'arm' instead of 2) recce craft based on the Harkonnen 'thopter from the film.

Dodgy mock-up:

However its not very original and, compared to the other builds already underway, rather underwhelming.

Having re-read some of the original book for descriptions, 'thopters read as more bird-like in flight than the insectoid designs that I was initially tending towards, and whilst finishing off some Christmas chocs an idea occurred....



(Unpainted Sid the Sardaukar for scale)

The mock-up is a bit too bird-like currently, but I hope to make the model a bit more tech/sci-fi looking (especially the tail and wings) and more straight-lined.  Its larger than I was intending, but will represent a Harkonnen/Imperial style Assault 'Thopter.  Hence the forward facing ramp, so that the Sardaukar can run headlong into combat as soon as it touches down.  A Chinook style rear ramp just didn't seem right and this 'sit-up' design continues a bird of prey look that follows the avian theme.  I also became increasingly aware than it shares much with the dropship from Aliens, but that wasn't a conscious decision on my part.

The model will be in plastic card (and foamed PVC?) and bigger than anything I have built previously with this media. 

Love your mock ups.

[AKULA]

Genius.

Love the landing gear

 

[McMordain]

Love those landing gears. Nice job! 

[uti long smile]

Wow - they look great!

[Mason]

Ingenious modelling Paul. I am in awe of people who can model with such precision 

I am with the Captain on this one.
Cracking landing gear.
I am definitely more from the Bodgit and Scarper School of Construction.
 

[Braz]

  You could win with just the landing gear - quite smashing

[mikedemana]

Man, those landing gear just LOOK like they flex. Awesome work...! 

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Andym]

Genius.

Love the landing gear

 

Agreed! An entry full of win!

[Vanvlak]

You should put those landing gear parts in production 

[Malamute]

Ingenious modelling Paul. I am in awe of people who can model with such precision 

What he said. Amazing so far.

[Dr Mathias]

Interesting design, the landing gear is certainly "a nice set of legs"

[Bergil]

Those landing gears alone are enough to get my vote everytime.

[Overlord]

Ingenious modelling Paul. I am in awe of people who can model with such precision 

Thank you (and all the other kind comments).  We each have our strengths; I wish I could paint like you!  The great thing about the forum is that we all get to display our varied abilities and be encouraged along the way.  This BSC contest is a great example of that.

Cracking landing gear.
I am definitely more from the Bodgit and Scarper School of Construction.

I tend to "see it in my head" most of the time.  This time the Ornithopter vibe just wasn't happening so I went for something that seemed a bit more suitable to what I had started.  However, the landing gear was a bit complex to do ad hoc so I actually laid out the design (and to ensure repeatability for multiple components)



I have now done some detailing on the underside of the main body (the gear is loosely placed, so apologies if it appears slightly wonky):