"What Shall I Do With These Two Bodies???" Topic

These mini shuttle bodies here, basically identical except one has a tapered nose:

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This is what they are made of:

Each shuttle uses two thin laminated paper gas station gift cards (not as thick and rigid as actual credit cards), that measure about 54mm by 86mm by < 1mm thick.

So far they work as a proof-of-concept, that you can use your thin laminated gift cards to make little shuttle bodies. Each shuttle is 70mm long, 54mm wide and 25mm tall.

They are NOT flimsy like plain paper or thin cardstock. They are nice and strong, and the laminate coating helps in taking spray or brush paint well.

Other than what I've done so far, I'm clueless.

Dan
PS. By the way, that's a 15mm Adventurer in the pictures (from Rebel Minis). And the bunch of gift cards were given to me by a friend who cleans out the gas station machines and knows I use all kinds of junk for minis.

Kewel idea!

Well, I think some side pieces will help.

If you keep going with the trash theme, a couple of engines made out of stacked bottlecaps might look nice.

Skids would probably also help – coffee stir sticks, maybe?

Do you have a template or diagram with measurements for the cuts on the cards?

Etotheipi: "Do you have a template or diagram with measurements for the cuts on the cards?"

Ha! I knew I was forgetting something. Thanks. I'll post those in a little bit. They won't be pretty though, but I hope they communicate the general idea.

Dan

Good work. What should you do? Give em sides and paint them. Finished.

I see these as urban pods, like Jimmy-cabs. Put a lot on the streets. Some can be police pods, taxis, or florist delivery cars.

Apologies for the very crude diagrams . . .

Here's the wide-nosed one:

And the narrow-nosed one:

The top halves have a 5mm flap in the front that bends down. The bottom halves have a 5mm flap in the back that bends up, and the section right before it bends up 45 degrees.

A drop of super glue on each flap and done.

Thanks,

Dan

If you use Super Glue Caps or Crazy Glue Tubes for the engines you can put more on the frame. Keep going with the good work.

Should I add uprights (using styrene rods) before trying to glue on any side panels?

I imagine that will keep the panels from going to far in, right?

Dan

I like the one with the more tapered nose the best, due to its more streamlined shape.

Perhaps add some swept wings at the top, glued to the existing triangular piece sticking out from there.

Fill with foam, and/or cut more of the cards to shape to make the sides.

Some little engine pods under, or over the wings, or both would look good.

Foam! I really like that idea for blown up shuttles or exploded "urban pods".

Dan

When I saw the topic, I was worried we'd have to start talking about types of acid and/or effective methods of disposing of the bones.

I think they look great!

I would use uprights, then add the sides. After adding the sides I would add detail.

NOTE:

Now, as I try to do the sides, I realize how troublesome the lower "wings" will be, if cut as per the diagrams I posted above.

I think the bottom "wing tips" should be positioned back about 10mm, so they don't stick out too far in front of the upper ones.

But, then again, I guess a shuttle doesn't really need prominent wings to look cool:

TMP link
TMP link

Malleman: "After adding the sides I would add detail."

Alas. If only I could get my detail work to look 1/10th as nice as this stuff here:

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I just hope my wide-nosed one doesn't end up looking like the Logan's Run tv show hover car:

Dan

Should I add uprights (using styrene rods) before trying to glue on any side panels?

I imagine that will keep the panels from going to far in, right?

More to the point, the material is so springy, these would give rigidity to the shape.

From the first piccie, I knew what they were from; didn't stop a head-hits-hand moment, mind you.

Well done on an original concept!

Doug

Ok. I've gone ahead and used the wider-nosed one as my test piece and added sides to the craft.

I'll be home in an hour or so and will take pics of what it looks like now.

I've never built a shuttle or spaceship of any kind before so I'm not quite sure how to fill in the small gaps it has where the sides join the initial frame. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dan

As I mentioned above, I decided to try my hand on the wide-nosed one first.

Ok. Here we go . . .

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QUESTIONS:

1) I stopped adding styrene after I got to this stage. Give it to me straight. How bad is it? Have I simply ruined the whole look? In other words, has my attempt at putting on some panels failed, utterly and irreparably? If so, no need to move on to the next question.

2) What would work best for filling in all those small spaces where the panels didn't quite fit?

Thanks guys,

Dan

That looks really good Dan! I can't tell where the panels don't fit from the pics. I want to see it painted up to get a better view of it. It reminds me of the paper blow cars we would make when we were kids.

How many are you planning on making and how long did it take you? It would be cool if there was a step by step guide.

Please keep me posted on this project.

P.S. For what it is worth I always liked the Logan's Run car as well as the Tom Petty one:)

Malleman,

You're too kind, my friend.

I felt like I had really messed it up. Please understand I've never, ever tried making a spaceship of any kind in all my life, much less one from scratch.

I was quite excited when I came up with the tops and bottoms. But, after I added the basic side panels, I felt it had turned into just a block, instead of the sleek shuttle I had in mind (something somewhat "inspired by" the diamond-shaped Defiant and other ST vessels, but much smaller and compact, of course).

As for the "greeblies", I had no clue where to put what. I decided to wing it and felt I fell short once again. To top it off, I now have no idea where to put the thrusters/engines and door(s).

Thanks for the encouragement. I was about to scrap the whole project, but I'll try a bit more and see if I can still turn it into something usable.

Dan

Geeze, Dan, I know massive fails, and you couldn't handle massive fails! ;->=

Is it perfect? No. Were you planning on casting and selling? I hope not! Would I be happy to see the final product in a game? Yes.

For engines, just some paper punch circles glued to the back should do, though stacked of different sizes would be better. Maybe some more greebles across the front where the red lines are to leave a gap indicating windshield.

Almost all bashes look like merde until the paint's on.

And, never forget, green stuff is your friend.

Doug

LOL

In future attempts, I'll try to make my "shuttles" more like this little "work bee", but with much smaller windows to make it fit more with 15mm:

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Dan

Guys,

Check out version 2.0 of my gift card shuttles:

TMP link

Dan