Starcraft Terran Battle Cruiser

  So, before I toddle over to Amazon and B&N to publish Diplomacy, I thought I'd slip this project in to the blog.

  In between books I try to do various projects to unwind. (Don't get me started on the R2, or do, I stalled again) Anyway, this was the project I chose to do after Diplomacy.

  I 3D printed a free version, sliced up on Thingiverse. I was going to buy the Gambody.com version but paying that much ($45) for a file to then 3D print seemed excessive. That and the scale! Yee gods! 3 feet long??? I don't have the room! (I needed a bucket for the drool though)

  Anyway, I compromised with this, it is about a foot or so long. I couldn't really get all of the print lines out because of the details. I made my own turrets since it lacked them.
I drilled holes for windows all over the thing, and added little dots of blue, pearl, and glow paint as well. I added wiring and 14 LEDs, they worked... for 2 days. Tuesday night was the last time they worked. It was cool in the dark!
  Last night after some touch up and this morning, nothing. I think when I was trying to fix the hammerhead something got crimped or a wire shorted. (I did tape everything carefully but I can't tell for sure without tearing it all apart)

  Getting it together was a royal pain. The hammerhead and rear just didn't want to go together. Parts kept popping off. I ended up using hot glue and clamps. I had designed the rear to come off so I could access the battery pack and switch. Ooof, nope. The magnets wouldn't hold. Live and learn.
  With the batteries out all the weight shifted and it tilted forward. I don't want to glue the model to the base since I may come back to it someday.

  When I couldn't get the lights to work again I pulled the batteries out and just hot glued the rear end on. After these pictures were taken I put it in the curio cabinet... where the rear end sagged off. It is annoying but it is what it is. I'll fiddle with it some other day.
It feels like one of those saggy bottom people who can't wear pants that fit and such. Honestly.

So, it looked cool for about a minute and in these pics.

The other project I have on deck is Ruth and Jaxom. I just tried the first 'shadow coat' with a 25% mix of White, Pearl White, Khaki, and water over high gloss black. It is too early to tell if I mucked things up or not. Looks that way but it is supposed to be thin. Fun.

So, I'm off to publish and then get back to Inferno...