I really don't know how I got to this channel but I'm glad I found it, because I think you're the only one who makes scale models of spaceships. Greetings from Mexico 👋🇲🇽
Awesome work! Forwarded this to my father who worked in the ILM model shop back in the day, suggestion he had: He said your body panel work is excellent but with greebles/mechanical stuff it’s best to think in overlapping layers. Hoses going on top of the tank wheels connecting things up. Panels covering greebles slightly. Things underneath vents. Small details on top of big details. A truck he said they’d do in the shop is recess panels like the rear of this ship an extra quarter inch or so and just put cut up sprue behind it so that you got a mechanical pipe texture that’s functionally flat in terms of gluing on top of it. Also paint, adding differentiated colors or exhaust marks etc. He said another layer of details and this would be able to move a tier closer to camera.
Yooo this is sick! I definitely want to work on adding more dimensionality to my builds. Balancing between structural stuff to hold it all together, and having the foresight to go "I should cut a hole here to add recessed details later" is one of the things I want to work on, skills-wise. Glad you and your dad liked the video!
Great stuff! While working with found stuff & greeblies is great fun, scratchbuilding from sheet material is true to the way most sci-fi movie props were build well into the 90s. The results speak for themselves! (from a pro toy developer, who was (a long time ago) working for a franchise from a galaxy far, far away...)
Yeeeeees. Finally found someone who builds spaceships in a style I like. This exact image is sitting in my Pinterest folder since two years ago and I'm always this close to start a scratchbuild.
Looks great! it could probably use some highlights on raised portions to break up the flatness, but everything else is phenomenal. I look forward to your channel prospering.
Perhaps consider investing in a vinyl cutter, it would make short work of all that cutting out by hand on thin styrene, upside, less masking too! :-) Saying that I do enjoy watching you do this all by hand
+++ on the build😁 Vinyl cutters work great for styrene sheet. We started using (and still use) a Silohuette Silver Bullet that we purchased back around 2014 or so. My son used it for among other things a engine block, designed it in Rhino, cross sectioned and cut on the Silver Bullet. Stacked and glued (was using Tenex way back then and this was also before we got into 3D printing the following year). The engine(s) were used in a 1:22.5 walker based on a design from the Leviathan book series. The build thread is out on TheRPF, search our last name. We found buying sheet styrene in 4’x8’-ish sheets the most economical. Nowdays we use Fusion 360 so we can send designs to CAM (CNC router), 3D printers and our good ol trusty Silohuette as needed for the part being made. The downside to cutting on the Silver Bullet is multiple passes are needed and there is a raised “V” edge that in many cases must be sanded down before the cut part is used. So even in ‘24 there still a place for vinyl cutters in the model shop 👍👍 On “hot glues” (such as MEK based) for styrene for those new to them 1) they evaporate very quickly, so would dispense into a smaller container and cover between brush dips (we reuse old Tenex glass bottles and cover the mouth w round wooden balls) because…2) generally speaking “hot glues” are not so great to be breathing in, make sure you have extremely good ventilation if you use them. Be careful and keep a brain cell or two intact 😁👍
Amazing work!! If ur ever looking for ideas. No mans sky has some really cool ships. The fighters in particular remind me of your builds. No pressure though. Thank u for the great videos 👌👌
Really awesome work! Two small suggestions I could make though; I think doing just the tiniest splash of neon green around the cockpit window could give it a more an "illuminated" appearance. That and a little staw brown + purple on the exhaust could give it the look of heat stress! Either way, good work!
i wanted to see a side by side of the concept art and your model at the end. that's the money shot! i think i was recommended your videos because i watch a lot of restoration videos on youtube. i had never watched a video of anybody building a model before. and i had never heard of kitbashing! really cool work. keep it up!
Just found your video's FANTASTIC!! A suggestion for greeblies. Check out any decent model railroad shop they should have detail parts ranging anywhere from a dollar to ten dollars. The diesel parts are great for spacecraft-air tanks of various sizes and brake systems and vents. I got this idea from the late Greg Jein, he said they are a little different looking than the tank parts everybody uses.
Awesome work, as usual! Love this stuff. For attaching the printed guides onto the styrene, have you tried using rubber cement as a temporary adhesive instead of tape? Dries quick and super secure yet it’s easy to remove the paper afterward. Additionally, any residual glue can be rubbed off without any marks. the stuff I magic I swear.
After having seen this and other video about modeling I've started making my own model. Five days ago. Now I've almost completed the construction phase of my personal Conestoga-class troop transport from Alien universe. Its made out of cardboard and scraps, but its way more precise and detailed than what I've expected before starting. Almost 1 meter long (I still have to add the antenna array) and almost complete. Once I will add styrene on external surfaces of the ship I'll start paint the model. And that's my great issue. I have no experience of modeling (this is my first attempt) and I never painted something like that. I'm a bit worried about the result. 😅
Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the game Star Citizen. This ship design bears more than a passing resemblance to a ship from that game known as the Anvil Carrack.
Hey Sublight Drive! first off just wanted to say very cool build! one small suggestion/request, i'd love it if you did voice over instead of (or at least in addition to) text on screen. As a dyslexic individual i find i have to pause things to read them which obviously breaks the intended flow of the video, or i just have to ignore them and watch the ship be built. I understand that not everyone wants to do VO but I will say it would go a long way to helping me and others like me to find your videos as more accessible rather than watching them in spite of the text being a bit of a slog. Again, great build, can't wait to watch more in the future!
also side note: i'd love to see you tackle a ship from the game FTL, seems only right considering your name! in particular i'd love to see the Lanius Cruiser, but there are a number of amazing ships in the game!
Thanks for this feedback! I didn't really have plans to do voice-over stuff (mainly because I don't have the equipment- I did a few tests with the stuff I have and the audio quality was REALLY crappy) but I hadn't considered that it could be an accessibility issue. I'll look a little more seriously at picking up a good microphone and with any luck I'll feature in future videos.
@@Sublight_Drive 100% i understand equipment issues! please don't spend extra money just on my account, but if you think it would add to your overall product I know i will personally very much appreciate it. You have a fan regardless!
Is there a specific bristle material that works best for the IPS Weld-On 3, and are you able to recover the brush after use, or is it a throw away item?
Wish I knew. The ones I use are dirt cheap, so I imagine they’re synthetic, but the weld on doesn’t melt them. I can usually use a brush until the metal ferrule starts to corrode, which the weld on tends to do to metals.
There is some, but it doesn't come through very well. I used a color too close to the base coat, and it doesn't come through on camera at all (though you can see it ok in real life). I didn't include any video of it because it just looks like me sponging the white with nothing lol
I have a question - - if you're going to clean off pencil marks oils from your hands, then why didn't you wear gloves during the cleaning and painting it?
I handle the plastic a LOT during construction. Way more than I bother to film even, and it can get pretty grimy. Any skin oil that gets on it during cleaning/painting is a relatively tiny amount in comparison, so I’m not too worried about it. Plus I don’t like how gloves feel on my hands 🤷
Guides were done in Affinity Designer, and I basically just did the shapes by eye. The adhesive isn’t really adhesive, it’s IPS weld-on 3, which melts and re-bonds the styrene.
I’ve never tried it myself, but I’ve seen it done before for scoring surface details. Idk how deep a vinyl cutter is capable of cutting, but I bet it’d work if you used a thin piece of styrene.
With my Silouette Cameo 3 I can cut 0.25mm styrene easily and 0.5mm with more passes. But I only score and snap the parts. Works like a dream. You can get astonishingly precise cuts/scores with these machines (around 0.2 - 0.3mm precision on the slowest cutting speed). You can also layer two sheets with slightly different outlines to get more detail. I also make greebles with this layering technique.
Wow, really nice! The aesthetic is pure 'HomeWorld', I can practically hear fleet command: "Mothership quantum waveform dissipating, launching scouts"
I had the same thought! I immediately pictured some Homeworld concept art.
Definitely screams Homeworld ngl.
According to Wartman's IG account, it IS a Homeworld concept ship.
I really don't know how I got to this channel but I'm glad I found it, because I think you're the only one who makes scale models of spaceships. Greetings from Mexico 👋🇲🇽
Awesome work! Forwarded this to my father who worked in the ILM model shop back in the day, suggestion he had:
He said your body panel work is excellent but with greebles/mechanical stuff it’s best to think in overlapping layers. Hoses going on top of the tank wheels connecting things up. Panels covering greebles slightly. Things underneath vents. Small details on top of big details. A truck he said they’d do in the shop is recess panels like the rear of this ship an extra quarter inch or so and just put cut up sprue behind it so that you got a mechanical pipe texture that’s functionally flat in terms of gluing on top of it. Also paint, adding differentiated colors or exhaust marks etc. He said another layer of details and this would be able to move a tier closer to camera.
Yooo this is sick! I definitely want to work on adding more dimensionality to my builds. Balancing between structural stuff to hold it all together, and having the foresight to go "I should cut a hole here to add recessed details later" is one of the things I want to work on, skills-wise. Glad you and your dad liked the video!
a beautiful spaceship for sure!
Great stuff! While working with found stuff & greeblies is great fun, scratchbuilding from sheet material is true to the way most sci-fi movie props were build well into the 90s. The results speak for themselves! (from a pro toy developer, who was (a long time ago) working for a franchise from a galaxy far, far away...)
Savage quality build!
I'd love to see a video of your entire fleet at some point!
super underrated channel, we gotta get more people seeing this
Great work!!
Getting some serious Wing Commander vibes from this and I love it.
I get more like Homeworld vibes, looks like a corvette class ship.
Your videos are satisfying to watch, scratchbuilding looks fun!
Great job turned out spectacular 👏
Yeeeeees. Finally found someone who builds spaceships in a style I like. This exact image is sitting in my Pinterest folder since two years ago and I'm always this close to start a scratchbuild.
impressive work
Awesome spaceship, and might I say, that is a good looking logo at the start of the video
Thanks I grew it myself
Man you really got my creative juices going, amazing works. Very fun to watch and informative. Keep it up.
Awesome build an a cute nice spaceship.
I'd love to see you do a space goose design
Looks great! it could probably use some highlights on raised portions to break up the flatness, but everything else is phenomenal. I look forward to your channel prospering.
Perhaps consider investing in a vinyl cutter, it would make short work of all that cutting out by hand on thin styrene, upside, less masking too! :-) Saying that I do enjoy watching you do this all by hand
+++ on the build😁
Vinyl cutters work great for styrene sheet. We started using (and still use) a Silohuette Silver Bullet that we purchased back around 2014 or so. My son used it for among other things a engine block, designed it in Rhino, cross sectioned and cut on the Silver Bullet. Stacked and glued (was using Tenex way back then and this was also before we got into 3D printing the following year). The engine(s) were used in a 1:22.5 walker based on a design from the Leviathan book series. The build thread is out on TheRPF, search our last name. We found buying sheet styrene in 4’x8’-ish sheets the most economical. Nowdays we use Fusion 360 so we can send designs to CAM (CNC router), 3D printers and our good ol trusty Silohuette as needed for the part being made. The downside to cutting on the Silver Bullet is multiple passes are needed and there is a raised “V” edge that in many cases must be sanded down before the cut part is used. So even in ‘24 there still a place for vinyl cutters in the model shop 👍👍
On “hot glues” (such as MEK based) for styrene for those new to them 1) they evaporate very quickly, so would dispense into a smaller container and cover between brush dips (we reuse old Tenex glass bottles and cover the mouth w round wooden balls) because…2) generally speaking “hot glues” are not so great to be breathing in, make sure you have extremely good ventilation if you use them. Be careful and keep a brain cell or two intact 😁👍
Really, reeeally nice! Keep it up buddy
Binge watching now! Fantastic stuff. 🍁👍
this is fantastic! Liked and subscribed
Hola me gusto tu proyecto podrías pasarme las platillaa para intentar armar el mio
You've inspired me 🙂👍
Amazing work!!
If ur ever looking for ideas. No mans sky has some really cool ships. The fighters in particular remind me of your builds. No pressure though. Thank u for the great videos 👌👌
Very well done! The paint looks great and the weathering adds to the model. Thanks for sharing this.
Brilliant 👍❤️🖊📐
Nice work🚀
Great build!! Thank you for sharing your techniques!
You do great work! Thanks for the inspiration.
Wait dude you only have 1k subs? You’re criminally underrated your videos are awesome
Хорошая работа, сейчас не каждый может придумать и свои мысли воплотить в модель или артобъект, таких как мы всё меньше
Very good.👍😎🥁🥁
Eu amo esse tipo de trabalho, me inscrevi no seu canal.
Really awesome work! Two small suggestions I could make though;
I think doing just the tiniest splash of neon green around the cockpit window could give it a more an "illuminated" appearance.
That and a little staw brown + purple on the exhaust could give it the look of heat stress!
Either way, good work!
Wow! So inspiring! Thanks so much for sharing
looks really good! xoxo
i wanted to see a side by side of the concept art and your model at the end. that's the money shot!
i think i was recommended your videos because i watch a lot of restoration videos on youtube. i had never watched a video of anybody building a model before. and i had never heard of kitbashing! really cool work. keep it up!
Impresionante trabajo!!
I love your scratch builds. Thwy look SO professional!
Just found your video's FANTASTIC!! A suggestion for greeblies. Check out any decent model railroad shop they should have detail parts ranging anywhere from a dollar to ten dollars. The diesel parts are great for spacecraft-air tanks of various sizes and brake systems and vents. I got this idea from the late Greg Jein, he said they are a little different looking than the tank parts everybody uses.
omg i worked with Peter Wartman
great job!
Love your work!!
Really enjoyed this vid. Almost all of these technics are also used in architectural modeling as well.
Nice work! I like the editing style and captions, aside from the obvious great content of course.
I always enoy your little text comments throughout the build :) this was super chill and enjoyable to watch!
Awesome work, as usual! Love this stuff.
For attaching the printed guides onto the styrene, have you tried using rubber cement as a temporary adhesive instead of tape? Dries quick and super secure yet it’s easy to remove the paper afterward. Additionally, any residual glue can be rubbed off without any marks. the stuff I magic I swear.
A REALLY nice model, on line there are so many paper models that could be used as templates for similar scratchbuilding.👍
u work are amazing
Nice! My kinda channel. Keep up the good work 👍
damn dude you make some cool spaceships. thanks for the inspiration this seems really easy to get into. Just gotta get some styrene!
Great looking space craft , reminiscent of some of tye great Sci Fi artists of the time like Chris's Foss , or Peter Ellison
Nice work, the ship reminds me of something from HomeWorld!
What a fun way to build from scratch, neat and simple, btw what kind of glue r u using?
A warm hello from Malaysia
Yooo!!!! You are popping off !!! 🍾 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Would be cool to know how long in actual time this took to build.
How do you make those cutting guides so perfect? Looks like they are a lot of help getting things done quickly.
Love the end product.
Now you need some burnt marks from the engines or the environments.
After having seen this and other video about modeling I've started making my own model.
Five days ago.
Now I've almost completed the construction phase of my personal Conestoga-class troop transport from Alien universe.
Its made out of cardboard and scraps, but its way more precise and detailed than what I've expected before starting.
Almost 1 meter long (I still have to add the antenna array) and almost complete.
Once I will add styrene on external surfaces of the ship I'll start paint the model.
And that's my great issue.
I have no experience of modeling (this is my first attempt) and I never painted something like that.
I'm a bit worried about the result. 😅
The logo on the ship reminds me of the Psygnosis work for Wipeout. You could make some amazing models from that game.
Very nice model. It looks like it came from the game Home World.
Love this, but would be better with just silence and the sound of the materials being worked without music.
Looks great. Now try something Chris Foss-ish :D
Looks like something from that game called Homeworld or something.
Good job. Questione. What type of glue were you applying with the brush?
At first I thought "why would you spoil clean look of the ship" but at the end it looked so much more realistic
Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the game Star Citizen. This ship design bears more than a passing resemblance to a ship from that game known as the Anvil Carrack.
Wonderful work. Styrene Thickness?
What is the plastic your using and the solvent im guessing your using as glue for the plastic?
Whoo thats so cool What kind of glue did you use? You really inspired me to build something similar
I'd love to start doing this. How long did it take you to get up to your level of skill?
Hey Sublight Drive! first off just wanted to say very cool build! one small suggestion/request, i'd love it if you did voice over instead of (or at least in addition to) text on screen. As a dyslexic individual i find i have to pause things to read them which obviously breaks the intended flow of the video, or i just have to ignore them and watch the ship be built. I understand that not everyone wants to do VO but I will say it would go a long way to helping me and others like me to find your videos as more accessible rather than watching them in spite of the text being a bit of a slog. Again, great build, can't wait to watch more in the future!
also side note: i'd love to see you tackle a ship from the game FTL, seems only right considering your name! in particular i'd love to see the Lanius Cruiser, but there are a number of amazing ships in the game!
Thanks for this feedback! I didn't really have plans to do voice-over stuff (mainly because I don't have the equipment- I did a few tests with the stuff I have and the audio quality was REALLY crappy) but I hadn't considered that it could be an accessibility issue. I'll look a little more seriously at picking up a good microphone and with any luck I'll feature in future videos.
@@Sublight_Drive 100% i understand equipment issues! please don't spend extra money just on my account, but if you think it would add to your overall product I know i will personally very much appreciate it. You have a fan regardless!
this is awesome! how about the Archangel from Gundam Seed?
Is there a specific bristle material that works best for the IPS Weld-On 3, and are you able to recover the brush after use, or is it a throw away item?
Wish I knew. The ones I use are dirt cheap, so I imagine they’re synthetic, but the weld on doesn’t melt them. I can usually use a brush until the metal ferrule starts to corrode, which the weld on tends to do to metals.
This is Slick. but am i dumb? why not as much chipping on the white? its paint too no?
There is some, but it doesn't come through very well. I used a color too close to the base coat, and it doesn't come through on camera at all (though you can see it ok in real life). I didn't include any video of it because it just looks like me sponging the white with nothing lol
you should look into using some gunpla photo etch parts
wow so beautiful you do awesome work I love it would you ever consider selling this?
What thickness is the styrene you're using? Looks 0.5mm
Was everything in the assembly stage built using different thicknesses of styrene sheets, and nothing else?
Yup. Some of my other builds include plastic junk or other kits in the structural stage, but this one was just styrene.
Great job what Brand of paint and Brushes you
Do you ever use Milliput or something like that
Kharak is burning....
Yep. Hiigaran interceptor from Homeworld 2
I have a question - - if you're going to clean off pencil marks oils from your hands, then why didn't you wear gloves during the cleaning and painting it?
I handle the plastic a LOT during construction. Way more than I bother to film even, and it can get pretty grimy. Any skin oil that gets on it during cleaning/painting is a relatively tiny amount in comparison, so I’m not too worried about it. Plus I don’t like how gloves feel on my hands 🤷
How did you do the rough guide printouts? What materials and adhesive is that?
Guides were done in Affinity Designer, and I basically just did the shapes by eye. The adhesive isn’t really adhesive, it’s IPS weld-on 3, which melts and re-bonds the styrene.
Hi, I would like to make a model like this, but I don't know what kind of glue you are using, could you tell me what glue you used?
I use weld-on 3 as my plastic solvent for all my projects, though I often also have regular CA glue on hand as well.
I'm wondering if i could run styrene through my vinyl cutter to score the parts
I’ve never tried it myself, but I’ve seen it done before for scoring surface details. Idk how deep a vinyl cutter is capable of cutting, but I bet it’d work if you used a thin piece of styrene.
With my Silouette Cameo 3 I can cut 0.25mm styrene easily and 0.5mm with more passes. But I only score and snap the parts. Works like a dream. You can get astonishingly precise cuts/scores with these machines (around 0.2 - 0.3mm precision on the slowest cutting speed). You can also layer two sheets with slightly different outlines to get more detail. I also make greebles with this layering technique.
What kind of glue is it, MEK?
Not glue, IPS Weld-On 3. Actually melts and re-bonds the styrene so it’s a single piece of plastic after it dries.
Do you ever make your own Sculpting Tools
Hawt!
you think you can give the template, or at least the middle plate would love to attempt to model this in fusion 360
Its 3am i have a uni assessment due soon and i am siting here watching a man fix his tiny spaceship, someone help me
you are going to get a good grade in Spaceship which is a normal thing to want and possible to achieve
what was the design software used
I use Affinity Designer for all my templates, I highly recommend their suite of applications
@@Sublight_Drive thanks
do you plan to sell the templates for this Model?
Unfortunately no. I currently have no plans to sell any templates for models that are not fully my own design.
@@Sublight_Drive Thank you, I understand that.👍
what super impresses me is that youre not wearing gloves. I would have so much superglue stuck to my fingers its not funny
If you're able to do this stuff how come you're not making movies ?
Because then it’d be my job and I do this for fun
@@Sublight_Drive Got it.
Your claim to not be my dad has made discussions with my mother very awkward
We are gonna have a long discussion when I get home mr