Saturday, January 25, 2014

The legs

The "legs" of the Tristan are interesting as they contain what look like 2 junction points: one of them at the "hip" or main body of the ship and the other one at the "knee". And the end of both legs look like 2 engine nozzles. BTW, the above screenshot comes from http://www.eohgames.com/labs/Ships/Tristan.


This would theoretically mean that the ship could do very sharp turns if it were to move the legs and fire the engines such as in the navigation of an asteroid field or it could have the equivalent of embedded afterburners if it were to point the legs towards the back.

Details are a bitch..... I sometimes wonder why I do it.... And when it's done, I notice all the mistakes. But it's all worth it because 1 week later, I do not remember the pain and I just see the final version with a lot of awesome details.
The weapon mount was a bit tricky. Usually when there are surface details, I can just emboss the cardboard with a knitting needle or a clay modelling tool. But in this case I needed a lot of sharp details, hence I ended up doing some cutting of the desired shape as seen in the right image.



Once all the pieces and details were finished, I added the mechanical parts to the upper leg segment. The mechanical apparatus contains 2 drive shafts. One  is used at the junction of the hip and the other one is used at the knee.
The internal mechanical parts are held in place with a mix of popsicle sticks, hot glue, tooth picks and luck.
I also passed in some wires so that I could get the legs navigation light to shine.

I then closed up the upper leg and sprayed it with KRYLON Crystal Clear Acrylic. This gives a nice shiny finish that looks a bit more metallic. Some other sections are brushed with a clear mate finish where it is not supposed to shine.


4 comments:

  1. Nice. I know I'm a bit late commenting but keep it up.

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  2. I just found your blog and all I have to say is "WOW". I'm new to Eve Online, but for years have been impressed by the ships and design. The Tristan being a favorite... Keep up the good work. I cant wait to see your next update. Oh, and if you get around to making a kit, or even a more basic printable version, I for one would gladly *cough* tip you for your effort... 😉

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