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Rocketship XM


Roktman

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I looked thru the kits that I haven't seen in a while and rediscovered Fantastic Plastic's Rocketship XM from the movie of the same name. This looks to be a super simple build being only 8 parts, the base, plus the decal.

On to the kit. It's a super simple build. It took only a few minutes to rid the side fins of little pour stubs and a tiny amount of flash. Then it was already time to start gluing the parts together - -

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In the top image the top fin is overlapping by a little bit. I thought I filed that down *before* taking the pic. In any event that all nice and smooth now. You can also see that the Vallejo Plastic Putty made short work of the gaps between the fins and fuselage. I love that stuff now! ;)

This isn't a chewed up burger. It's the Martian base. Looking at it in person I didn't notice it being that bright. I'll have a fresh look at it and maybe tone it down with a dusting coat of tan or beige - -

 

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The gap there is where the title card decal goes. Sadly it's not in the box. I have no idea where it went or when I lost it. I may try to make my own decal (a first) or write to Allen at FP to see about buying a new one.
Lastly the call out for paint for the rocket says Titanium. That's one of the colors I didn't buy when I picked up a bunch of the new Vallejo Metallics. Hmmm, should I just order it or use what I have...

 

I tried twice to do the decal. It prints out "ok" , but putting it down....sheesh! The first one I ruined for being dumb. The second one, I think I needed another clear coat on it.

 

I'm gong to give the home made decal route one more shot before ordering a real one from Fantastic Plastic.

But I moved on to painting the ship itself. I had previous given it a coat of V's black gloss primer. Then today, not having the Titanium color that is called for in the directions, and Vallejo not having that in their inventory, I decided to use the color DurAluminum. It's darker than Aluminum, but not as dark as the Steel appears to be.

Here's the almost final image. I'll be back with just a finished image when I get the decal sorted out. Thanks for lookin' - -

 

IMG_3896.jpg

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Hi, Kevin,

 

It looks like you faced the same challenges I had with the Luna and the Space Ark. You had to paint everything bare metal from all directions. I like the look so far. Those old sci-fi movies had some great looking rocketships. You absolutely need some kind of base with a bit of color to set off the bare metal. It's too bad the Cosmostrator kit has no Venus landscape base for the all-chrome ship.

 

Ed

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Hi, Kevin,

 

It looks like you faced the same challenges I had with the Luna and the Space Ark. You had to paint everything bare metal from all directions. I like the look so far. Those old sci-fi movies had some great looking rocketships. You absolutely need some kind of base with a bit of color to set off the bare metal. It's too bad the Cosmostrator kit has no Venus landscape base for the all-chrome ship.

 

Ed

Hi,

Yes, thankfully I had a little lazy susan that came with my Paint booth. I also set the rocket on the lazy susan, very close to the edge of my work table and was able to shoot the whole thing, from all directions, in one go round.

I really like Vallejo's new line of metallic paints as it is very easy to work with, and appears to dry on the spot. I'm still debating on whether or not to put a little wash around the few details on the exterior to make it stand out a little more.

 

I agree tht a colorful, or overly detailed base is need to counter the single color of the ships. I haven't seen the Cosmostrator in person yet, but think I would have a good time trying to recreate Venus. I would be torn as to make it how it really looks or how it was supposed to look previous to our unmanned visits. LOL :smiley2:

 

I agree that the old time space ships had a lot better looks. At a not so recent IPMS Nats, UK SFX artist Mat Irvine gave a talk entitle something like Space: How It Should Have Been. He went on to show and describe the the imaginative ships before thre was a space program.

Thats why I'm looking to complete my collection of Golden Age of Imaginary Spaceships. :D

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This time will be a short post, The only thing that had to be completed was the decal. I ruined two of them but the third time was the charm.

This time I started with the same image, but instead of just changing the color of the text from gray to an orange color, I also made the blacker - blacker.

After printing I let dry and gave it two coats of Krylon Crystal Clear Gloss allowing 24 hrs drying between each coat.

I had no problems this time. Here it is -

 

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The decal looks a little wavy especially on top, but somehow that's an optical illusion. It's perfectly flat. Thanks for lookin'.

 

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