by John Douglass

I came as close as ever to copying the drawing by Joe Johnston in the "Star Wars Sketchbook". Note that although I can go to the trouble to panel a ship, my threshold for boredom does not extend into the realm of the third engine Johnston drew. The fins on the back are an homage to my favorite Star Wars ship, "Slave I" - I've always loved it for its sheer novelty of design and because it represents to me the lonely freedom of a one-man "Serenity".

The model started as a flatish box joined to an old coffee-maker drip cup "head" via a section of a hamster run - The yellow tube available at pet stores. On the other end I externally buttressed a fragile drinking cup on the bottom with a sheet of plastic common with the box, and on the top with the lower hull of an out-of-production Tamiya SCHWERER PANZERSPAHWAGEN 8(Rad) Sd.Kfz. 232 . The box atop the engines I always figured should be a Monogram Jagdpanzer IV L/70 Lang but I scratchbuilt this one. The flanking shapes are the upper hulls of a Leichter Panzerspahwagen Sd.Kfz. 223 . The engines are L'Eggs eggs and drinking glasses. The larger gun turrets are also eggs, but Easter.

There's four airlocks scattered about. One is atop the nose, one in the ventral position, and one either side of the front of the main hull.

Painting is frequently a tribulation. Modelmaster Light Gray enamel, red enamel, then an airbrushed wash of thinned black. Yuck! I mean, ok, sometimes a ship looks better when the disparate colors are somewhat blended together. But into shades of dark gray? On an ostensibly white ship? Used a big brush (huge by modeling standards, small by house-painting standards) to apply to a small area at a time a wash of mineral spirits and black oil paint. It and a little rubbing cleaned-off much of the previous wash and none of the intended paint - Hurrah! Followed-up with a drybrushing of light gray.

Building a large large-scale ship (it's all of 29 inches long) like this was fun - I enjoy the feeling of kinship with the initial Star Wars and Galactica model makers who used the same kits on their ships. On the other hand, this big boy needs to live somewhere else, somewhere roomy, like a Bus Station.

Image: Underneath

Image: Front of the edrive section

Image: Main turret

Image: Port side

Image: Above

Image: Beauty shot