BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PART 2

I have reevaluated my approach to building this Epic Huge Ship. I feel that all of the components will be better with the addition of some new materials and parts. My plan is not much different from what I had in mind last year, but now with the addition of new materials and a updated construction plan this model will look even better and last indefinitely.

I recently purchased some cutting board sheets. After thinking about it I decided that this sturdy material (which is designed to flex), is a better way to make the rounded front hull. I have to thank Bulldog UK for this little revelation, after seeing how he made his awesome MARK II.

If I had continued with my original plan to use vinyl to make one large covering for the front hull, sort of like a canoe skin, there may of been some boiling over time. Humidity can take it's toll from porous materials. I was being a bit to clever with this particular design.
It will be much better for this model to do the round hull in sections with the flexible cutting mat material.
I have further updated the building materials with some nice parts from the large version of the Republic Attack Shuttle kit which will serve for the main rear section of the fuselage and the secondary wings.

I am currently sorting and cleaning the main component parts,there are about a hundred say. I will go into great detail about these wonderful little goodies once I start the actual build in Part 3 of this series.

More to come...

PART 1

Rebel Boss out!

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PART 1

I think it is about time for me to get back to work on my beloved Alliance MARK III Assault Frigate! Eleven months was a long wait to see what Fantasy Flight Games was going to do with X-WING EPIC. My buddies in the industry had mentioned some things to me, and so I thought it was smart to wait for a bit. Well for as much as I love FFG, this has been a drag.

I am done with wondering and speculating endlessly on forums. Waiting and messing around has achieved nothing. I actually want to play some bad ass STAR WARS EPIC without waiting another year!

We know more or less how FFG will move forward with their Star Wars Miniatures products now that GEN CON 2014 has happened.
We are going to get the popular Capitol Ships in STAR WARS ARMADA. I am fine with that actually, in fact I love that they made Armada and I will buy all of the goodies for this new game.

I am still pretty sure that at some point FFG will make a few more Huge Ships for Epic, nevertheless I am equally certain that nothing I really want, except perhaps the Gozanti, will ever be produced. It just cost to much... I get it, but I do not have to like it. One new FFG Huge ship a year is okay, if it happens, but I want more and I want it sooner rather than later.

The B6*R7 Flyers know that I have had the MARK III in my head for a long time, but that is not good enough. It is one thing to imagine how a model will be and another thing entirely to actually build it. I needed to sit down and make a decent visual design for this ship, like I did for my BORG Destroyer. Now that I have a reasonably accurate point to build from I can move forward with this project. The next step is to make a few printable templates, which I will do later this week.

I made my MARK III design image this week... a few days after the GEN CON no show of Epic-Imp-huge-babies sank in.
I decided it would be fun to work from the brand new Armada MARK II model, which I like very much, of course.
I am pleased with how my picture has turned out after only a few hours of fun and simple work in GIMP. What I have here now is close to what I intend to actually make. I might work on this picture some more and turn it into a little piece of finished card art.

The MARK II is very well known to serious Star Wars gamers. The speculative concept design for the MARK I... not so much. I like them both.

What I am doing for my MARK III incorporates the elements that I like from these previous versions of the class. My concept brings a smaller faster frigate to the fleet, which still boast much of the durability and offensive power of it's larger predecessors. This version is basically a frigate-destroyer whereas the I and II are huge frigate-battleships.

The MARK III will be the the largest of my Huge Ship in all of my Epic Fleets. I am undecided as to what to do about a Nebulon B Frigate or the rest of my EPIC Huge Ship Collection, but for now getting back to work on this baby is good enough.

Time to get busy!

PROJECT OVERVIEW

PROJECT PREVIEW

Boss out!

SIMPLE ALTERNATIVES TO LARGE MODEL LIGHTING.

Cool lighting can be a fun additional element of large models, or it can be a real drag.

These days I feel that I can get a nice lighting effect without all of the extra parts and effort. Another problem that can ruin a lighted model is if the buried components fail. Now you suddenly have an unlighted model that will be very difficult if not impossible to restore to illumined glory.
There are tiny hard core Fiber Optics and LED that will probably last for years sure, but I am not going that way.

I found some easy to use Tea Light options for my large models that will look awesome when I am done. With these easily replaceable lights you only have to set up a very accessible magnet male to female plug system that you can simply make with plastic telescoping tube.

Now if a lighted model fails me for what ever reason, I can just switch out a Tea Light that cost all of $2 (at most) and in about a minute I have full lighting again...1-2-3-simple and affordable. If you want to go this route, I recommend that you do spend the tiny bit of extra cash and get Submersible Tea Lights because they are water proof, which means that they are split paint and running glue proof too. Ha!

There are all sorts of LED Tea Lights available, try a quick search at Amazon, and find a set you like. Have fun with your projects and remember the K.I.S.S. approach my friends.

Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT PREVIEW

I have most of the materials gathered now to build The Mark III.

Components for this HUGE Ship are varied, as they should be. The Mark III will be made just as the original ships from the Original Trilogy.

I am ordering one more batch of supplies next week, mainly plastic rod and a lot of glue. When these raw construction materials are in hand I can get serious about building this mighty ship...

This is going to be a lot of very fun work!

PART ONE

Boss out.
 

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE STRATEGIC COMMAND POST PROJECT PREVIEW

I have collected most of the components to start the actual model work on this project. This post is a preview of the base materials some of which have been dry fitted, so that my friends here can see what a large modeling project like this entails from start to finish.

This is going to be a very challenging and fun model to build...

Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE STRATEGIC COMMAND POST AND 1/300 SCALE FIGURES PROJECT OVERVIEW

I am going to build an even half dozen Space Stations and Satellites for my X-WING Terrain. I have decided to start with one of the large station models, this will allow me to quickly incorporate a nice objective into my story centric battles,  as my fleets grow.

I would love to build a large space station to scale, but that would take up my entire storage area, i can however build a very nice station that will be large enough to look good on the table.

My approach to making these large stations is to build the important components then arrange them to taste, based on game scenarios.

1: Command Center & Sensory Array
2: Ship Bays & Crew Barracks
3: Supply Depot & Tankers

To compliment my Space Stations I am going to make some Alliance and Imperial Pilots and Zero-G Troopers. With these models I can take my Epic Battles and Scenario Games to a whole new level of strategic diversity.

The models are going to be very close to true scale with the FFG Ships, which means that I
am going to have to really work at making them look good, but it will be cool to have these in my collection, and worth the effort I think.

I am basing the Zero-G sculptures on Rebel Commandos and and a newer version of the Zero-G Stormtroopers.

Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT OVERVIEW

I have been wanting to make several large models for X-WING. I have spent the last two months thinking about it and I have chosen my first trio of large scale projects. One Capitol Ship for The Alliance, and The Empire and the first of many Space Stations and Satellites, an Alliance Space Station.

I wanted to build a Nebulon B Frigate, of course, for my first Alliance ship, but I do not trust our friends at Fantasy Flight Games. They are in love with X-WING, just like we are. Due to FFG's enthusiasm and their recent Fleet Preview, I am about 90% positive that an official Neb B model will be previewed or released at some point in 2014. They made the Blockade Runner after all and a NebBie is not that much larger, so they are very likely going to make it too. With that stated, I feel equally certain that FFG will NOT make an Alliance Assault Frigate, which is a huge Capital Ship.

I am allowing myself almost complete freedom with these special large projects. I have a good storage system set up now and I mean to make the most of it, this is all in fun after all. Right? RIGHT!

I love the look of The Mark II. My build of this excellent design will not be exact, but rather an inspired design that I am calling a MARK III Assault Frigate. I will not be making this model to scale for obvious reasons, but I can make it large enough to look awesome on my 4x6' table.

Cheers to BullDogUK who posted his work at the FFG X-WING Forum, and in part has inspired me to get my modeling tools and plasticard hot again.

ALLIANCE ASSAULT FRIGATE images via Google.

In my next related article, I will layout the major components, and general plans for this project. I have some cool model parts and specific modeling materials on order now from several online merchants, all of which should be delivered to me in the next two weeks...

PART ONE

Boss out!