Romulan Proto-Warbird WITHDRAWN

[el gato]

As some of you know, I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a year or so to build a TOS version of a Warbird. I've had the parts for a while but haven't acted on it at all. To recap, here is the head I had 3D printed. If it looks familiar, it's because it's based on the "Hecho en Mexico" logo (I'm not of Mexican descent in case you're wondering):



And here is what the pieces would look like. I'm using to RBOPs from the "Space Ship Set," the head and the tail, also 3D printed:











For the bird motif, I'm thinking of armor plates in the shape of a bird's body. I've already started doodling how they would look. Finally, I am forming ideas in my head how I'm going to scratch the nacelles.

[el gato]

Started doodling the plates. This is what I have. The top two are the dorsal patterns and the bottom three are the ventral. I think I've selected the "winners:" The one on the right for dorsal and the middle one for the ventral.

I had to reduce the size, so hopefully it still looks OK

Plates copy.jpg

[Burke]

Those are the two I would pick

The parts are from the set that's like 1/1600 right?

[asmcelhinney]

Nice graphics. Definitely going to be all be one colour, or do you think you'll throw some variation in?

[SingleMind]

the graphics look real neat.

[el gato]

The parts are from the set that's like 1/1600 right?

I believe so. At least that's the scale I understand them to be. My concept will be 2500, though. I explained my reasoning in this thread from back in the day

Nice graphics. Definitely going to be all be one colour, or do you think you'll throw some variation in?

the graphics look real neat.

Thanks, but these were originally created as proof of concept and am now being used as templates. My idea was to create the bird motif as a series of armor plates. The only decals that I'll use will be for the windows and the Rommie logo.

Thanks to y'all, though, I think I'll keep them in case I need bird-like decal

Just as an update, I cut off the front of the RBOPs so that the head now slides in. I also added the armor plates on the dorsal sides. I'm thinking of simplifying the ventral design.

[el gato]

The plates on the dorsal sides are in. I also simplified the ventral design:

Plates copy.jpg

[cannon fodder]

Thats awesome my friend. Keep up the good work.

[el gato]

Thanks cannon fodder!

This is long overdue for an update. I have been away , busy with other matters, but have been working on this since May. I don't know if I'll finish by the deadline, but I'll give it my best. To ensure the pieces lined up, I taped the halves together and drilled two holes through each of the nacelles that were touching. I then glued pegs sized to those holes. This ensures the two halves will always align and retain their structural integrity. This photo shows where I marked the center of each hull and where I need to cut to accommodate the head:




This shows how well the 3D printed tail piece aligned with the sub bridge decks of the RBOP:



The parts once I cut out the front of the RBOP hulls:



She's looking good (obviously, I really did need those pegs!):







Armor plates were added to the dorsal and ventral sides of the hull:



I added bondo to the 3D printed parts to smooth them out, the bottom picture showing that they really needed it:





Glued and puttied the tail piece to the ventral hull:





And the two hulls are coming together:





Except that despite my measuring the gap between the hulls and relentlessly dry fitting the pieces to ensure I was fine, the gap where the head was supposed to fit was too narrow once the hulls were glued together. GRRR. So I pried the ventral pieces off and added a little shim to the front of the tail piece (over the center section) to increase the gap and allowing the attachment of the head:





The accidentally cool thing is that this correction gave the ship to have a more pleasing (and realistic) profile. Er, ahem, I mean, I planned this all along. Yeah, that's the ticket:



Satisfied, the pieces were glued, reinforced and puttied:



Next up is sanding everything smooth and adding the dorsal and ventral sides of the hull. Thanks for looking!

[TrekMD]

Really cool idea!