A personal Page of Science Fiction and Orange
"Defending Her Honor!"
Ordnance
I decided to scratchbuild/office supply bash my own ordnance. I recently was trying to figure out which missiles to use, even taking polls, but I think I can fit 6 missiles, two of each type. The long thin missile, which may just undergo a massive transformation, is brass tube, a 1/32nd sidewinder tip and a ERTL B-Wing engine bell. It's supposed to be an ugly armor piercing missiles used against capital ships when their shields go down, burrowing deep and then detonating their anti-matter warheads. I am toying with removing the bell and mounting tube all around the diameter of the end of the missile to represent rockets. I also plan to add fins to most of the missiles even tho fins would mean nothing in space. The other two missiles are two varieties of general purpose missiles, anti-matter or fusion warheads designed to affect large areas for multiple soft targets or draining the shields of larger capital ships. The one is various diameters pf brass tube with a warhead from a mechanical pencil, tail from the same mechanical pencil and an engine from another of those medical necessities forced upon me recently. The second is the same lacking the brass tube and replacing it with more of the pencil body. The first picture also shows the German'esque modifications to a Hasegawa ground crew figure to make a Kurita ground crewperson for the spray painter.
The Missiles primed.
Other ordnance carried down from the space station to the planet lacking in supplies are bombs (more medical supply doo dads) and smaller, anti fighter missiles, lighter and faster since fighters are too small to have shields and are quick to catch. The anti-fighter missile is a 1/48th rocket from a P-51D kit with half tube added at the end for multiple rockets. In space combat, I envision missiles to be solid fuel propelled, with the fuel packed in a tube or inside the missile, with an igniter. After locking on and firing, the guidance systems burns the solid fuel from whichever aperture is needed to maneuver the missile to the target.
I wanted a Hover Missile Cart for the crew to use to offload the weapons the Shrike brought along so I set to bashing/scratching one. The cart is made from some pieces from a 1/48th brass F-5 update set and some sheet and rod styrene to fill in the shape. The antigrav coils are 'housed' inside two 1/32 Wildcat tires with a lot of Aves in between. The handlebar and hydraulics on the missile support arms are steel wire (in my ritual of adding my own blood to everything I make, I drove a piece of steel wire through my thumb cutting it to length), and strip and rod control panels adorns the handlebar with control grips from an Airfix LEM. Bomb bay components of the original Shrike kit make the missile support arms, with styrene half tubes to come later as cradles. The final touch is a grid like piece of plastic for a step on the rear of the cart for the driver to stand. Here is the evolution of the cart.
I know it looks a bit like a Federation Starship. Note the one arm, the left one I think (I'm dyslexic), is crooked cuz its not glued yet. I need to see the final height of the shrike before I can position that arm under a missile on her belly.