Hello guys,
Here is the first picture of this project. No kit. Just spare parts. Destination Rubbish Bin City !
My wish is to use all the unused spare parts left after kit. My ''boîte à rabiot'' is full off so what can I do ?
The answer is LULUBELLE.
The main part is a clear plastic bubble sold in gift shop for Christmas or Easter. This is made with two hemispheric parts and the shape can be round or oval.
I like the Tim Burton's world and Mars Attacks is a good start.
So let's go to Arkania in the Orion Constellation.
Georges.
Well this sounds intriguing...and looks like its off to a good start.
Fun project!
Thank you guys for following.
Tha main idea is to build a flying UFO, a kind of tripod with three legs, a cockpit, two reactors, two wings with rudders and a spoiler on the back. The spirit of the 50' UFOs !!!
The hull is made with an oval ball. I start with the upper part by drilling the hole for the cockpit. This one will be round and the canopy will be round as well. The diameter of the hull is about 15 cm (5,90 inches).
Three hooks are already glued into the hull as maintenance hooks. The ladder on the left side allows the pilot to climb easily to access to the cockpit. This is made with Evergreen rods.
The hull is drilled on both sides to fix two round beams. On these beams will be mounted the wings and the rudders.
The reactors are ''stuff'' to make necklace and have the good size for this. They are hardly glued with epoxy on an inside frame for a hard rigidity. A spoiler will take place on in a while.
For the lower part, I start to make the engine grill and the frame for the two back legs. All the extra parts are made with Evergreen.
Lot of engraving on the hull and new extra parts on the lower side of Lulubelle.
Georges.
Are you making this up as you go along? If so, most impressive. -- Russ
Sometimes I envy those Sci-Fi modellers. Must be a lot of fun!
When I looked at your clear plastic parts the first thing that sprang to mind was something completely different -and that would be a challenge too :-)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi240.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fff181%2FPeter_T1958%2Fwww%2Fabyss1_zpse9b61167.jpg&hash=9f03459bd55ea9fe79c6c409c7235307b2e28913) (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/Peter_T1958/media/www/abyss1_zpse9b61167.jpg.html)
The Abyss
Seriously, really good work. Congrats!
Peter
Thanks for comments. This picture looks like the Chris Foss' pictures and I feel closed to what he did. That's true that Sci-fi world is very funny and creative.
No plan, no drawing for Lulubelle. Just an instant inspiration.
Georges.
Some really lovely and clean styrene fabrication on those vents and odd shaped parts.
Thank you for following.
Here are some shots of the upper part of the hull. The cockpit takes place on the middle of the ship and a clear glass canopy will be added at the end.
Same job as on the lower part with different shapes of panels and details. The two reactors are strongly glued because of their heavy weight.
Georges.
Looking good, very good!
very cool. really captures that retro feel/look.
M
That's both "wacky cool" and really nice fabrication work! -- Dallas
Thank you.
The main oval hull is about 9,5 cm diameter (3,74 inches). When finished, the measures will be 13 cm (large with wings / 5,11 inches), 8 cm (height / 3,15 inches) and 14 cm (long from the light to the spoiler / 5,51 inches).
Last part of building concerns the inside cockpit. I've been looking for a while for a conic dashboard. And I find this cooking stuff ! This is used to seperate the white from the yellow when you break an egg to cook a cake ! I could be used to make a aircraft roof by the way.
I just keep the conic round part and this needs to be ajust. That part is shaped with my Unimat lathe. No difficuty for that except to ajust the size to the hull. The hole is about 2,5 cm / 0,98 inche diameter. The bottom side is made with an aspirin tube. I just need an headache as well to finish the tube ...
All the plastic parts are ajusted and glued with epoxy glue. Several round screens and joysticks are added to control Lulubelle.
Next step : legs.
All the holes for the air cooling system are drilled on the back side of the ship.
Georges.
The Invaders: Alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: The Earth. Their purpose: To make it their world. Georges has seen them...
For him it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a short-cut that he never found!
It began with a closed deserted diner and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy.
Now, Georges knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun... :D :D :D ;D ;D
Nice job Georges! ;)
Franck
This could be the beginning of a new book ...
Maybe I'm already an alien as I saw this morning in the mirror that my blue eyes have turned to red since yesterday ! And even my dog is growling at me ....
Thanks Franck for your sense of humour !
Aaaarrrgggghhhh !!! My skin is getting green ... Help !
Georges.
Really funny and entertaining! Not to mention really well done and scratchbuilt too!
I love the 50's 60's retrofuture look!
Some more work on the beast. There will be three legs and the two rear legs are the same. The back leg is made with Evergreen and will be mounted on a spring as a shock absorber. The spring is taken from a ball pen.
The end of the pen will be used as the front light as a Vespa scooter style !!!
The rear legs need hydraulic shock absorbers as the engine is just over. The hydraulic tanks are made with electronic parts and all the legs are Evergreen.
The ball joints on the lower part are made with glass head needles. Every part is glued with epoxy glue.
Three skates will be needed for landing on Arkania. These are in metal with a ski shape and studs are fitted under the skates to prevent from any slippery conditions.
Hmmm, I'm sure that it could rain on Arkania ... Only dry red dust !
Georges.
Great imaginative re-use and adaptation of parts.
Thanks Marc.
Quick look on the wings and rudders. Still made with Evergreen. The wings are built with two sheets of plastic and I fit two pieces of brass to work as hinges between the wings and the rudders.
For the front light, I use a remaining part of PE from the Kastor kit to realize a cap on the light.
All parts are almost ready for painting.
The last picture shows all the parts before the final assembly. Two hydraulic hoses made with putty will join the legs to the hull.
Georges.
Ah, yes ... the seldom-modeled "alien egg separator" ... well played, sir! 8) -- Dallas
More nice work!
I love projects like this, where the imagination can run free!
Thanks guys.
A quick fitting before the primer paint. These shots will show the particular sexy shape of Lulubelle ...
Georges.
Sweet!
Good enough to make me smile. -- Russ
Thanks Ray and Russ.
It's time for primer.
I'm still amazed how this first coat of gray panzer paint works. Really love that step !
Some pictures of the aircraft. Lulubelle is getting her dress ...
After let it dry for a night, I airspray several thin coats of Worn Effects / AK before a coat of metalic gray.
Georges.
Hairspray and chipping process. For an experimental test, the metalic gray is not the best color for that effect but it works!
Next step : gray paint.
Georges
It's time for the final paint and I choose an acrylic light gray for Lulubelle. By the way, a post-shading painting will complete the process.
This step will give some more contrast between all the panels and doors. Variations in tones is easy to create with the airbrush.
I airbrush a very light coat of Worn Effects fluid from AK on the hull before paint.
Gray is quite easy to apply and the color is shortly achieved
The lower part of the hull is darker than the upper part. This step is the last one for the painting process.
Georges.
Thank you for following.
The paint is removed gently with warm water and a brush. As the layer of HS has been very light, the effects are very small and it appears like a skin with just little spots and not chipping effects. It looks lile a arkanian lizard skin ...
Next step : decals.
Almost looks like heat blistering.
-Mj
Nice effect!
Wow...that is cool. Very wild.
Thanks guys for commenting.
Lots of decals on that side. For the whole flying saucer, I use around 90 decals from a modern plane decals sheet and from Industria Mechanika. This has taken a long time but it gives a colorful variation with the dark gray.
All the decals are sealed with satin varnish and a coat of matt varnish for the final result. This final step will protect this work before starting the weathering process with oil washes.
Ready to go. Georges
Not bad. -- Russ
More decals on the bottom side. I add some clear lights and those are painted with green / red / orange / blue / yellow clear from Tamiya.
Georges.
Next step : painting the pilot. The pilot is from Christophe Desse's aviators / Industria Mecanika. He will suit with Lulubelle's cockpit.
I use acrylic paints from Citadel and a brush.
Georges.
That must have been a delicate, time consuming job .... -- Russ
Thanks Russ. Well, this needs time and various works as modelling, painting and weathering. Still need to work on painting figures ... I work on !
I want to represent Lulubelle having a round over the arkanian rocky soil.
The base is a square piece of wood and Lulubelle will be fitted on a brass axle.
Gravels and sand are glued on the upper face while the sides are protected from paint with paper. The different layers are applied with airbrush and some additionnal details are painted with a brush.
I use several red / brown / orange paints to give an overall look of an arkanian ground. Rocky, sandy, raw, ... Simply arkanian !
A brass rod is glued around the middle to fit Lulubelle up the ground.
Georges
Really nice work on the pilot painting, and like where the groundwork is going.
Very cool modeling, well done. When I first saw the title of this thread I thought you were making this Lulubelle from Sahara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_%281943_film%29):
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg304%2Fphxtoad%2FSV650%2FM3Lulubelle-1.jpg&hash=10064bc99f79cdeeb6a45eff1ab64214c30d5bbf)(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Ff%2Ffb%2FSahara_-_1943_-_-poster.png&hash=c93f4c49c3adce4b817bd578431c65c385599493)
After seeing the finished setting for your model, I could not help but think of this Twilight Zone:
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.cult-labs.com%2Ftwilight-zone%2Ffiles%2F2011%2F07%2Finvaders-2.jpg&hash=333881dc3282d2002fdc519002a2aed2960ecc75)(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSHbfoH53Vw_BbkbCX1gK2HHTwwO_B68joYypZLnOxJo5kjsveYjg&hash=b1fa4ab28b1c15582ac262d559e9eb39c87b8387)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi245.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg76%2FGadflyRage%2Ftwilight%2520zone%2Finvaders%2Finvaders01.jpg&hash=155ad2319b2d7586ee695c7ea59975351773738b)(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi245.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg76%2FGadflyRage%2Ftwilight%2520zone%2Finvaders%2Finvaders05.jpg&hash=c165fb92d14bf0c89ed4fae897b5f5669e710142)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-FsBj9PT-Z14%2FTVSvs6qfTnI%2FAAAAAAAAWgA%2FNAKn0MEmdTg%2Fs1600%2FPDVD_072.BMP&hash=73f490425c35f36a920ce1c26e194b61072fcf0c)(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.notarealdomain.com%2Fblog002%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2008%2F04%2Fold_woman_hatchets_saucer-300x230.png&hash=6c7770a6854e93a608bad6c2fa5e6179f543ad9b)
Thanks guys. I like these old stuff you show.
So this is the end for this project. Maybe I will add some more pictures as soon as I can build my new booth.
Cheap project, easy minded build, lot of fun. Nice project to do.
Thanks for following.
Georges.
Really love the overall atmosphere and finish of the scene.
Well done!
Where is the cow catcher? -- ssuR