maquette

The Mon Calamari Cruiser Liberty is recognizible by its two wings. They are distributed on both side of the hull… as usual you may say…

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Well if you intend to be unpleasant like that, no thanks !

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Where did I left off before being rusely interrupted by myself ? Oh yes : anyway, it’s weird for a non-atmospheric ship to have wings like a plane. So there. These wings are even the most important difference between the Liberty and her big brother the Home One, the flagship of the rebel fleet, more fusiform. So, try to put the word “fusiform” in a website instead of being annoying with your negative attitudes !

Fixing a model failings : the mastic usefulness

This Mon Calamari cruiser model is a quite good-quality resin kit . Of course you’ll have to use a lot of mastic to adjust the pieces together, as always with garage kits. In fact, the only real failing of this kit are panel-lines engraved onto the hull. They are totally unrealistic at this scale and I decided to fill them back in. Hard decision since I had to cover the all kit with mastic. Again and again.

Structure reinforcement

I had to screw two attachment flanges on the junction. This technic is quite usual on big models, it’s a “roding” variant.

Mon Calamari cruiser detailing

The hangars are made using plastic cards, enliven with tiny 3D printed fighters. On the picture, they don’t look very well painted but you have to remind the scale : 1/2256. At this scale, a X-Wing is only 5mm long ! Watching them at a 10 or 20 cm distance is totally convincing.

Back to preschool : stencil painting

It’s a variant of the usual masking technic using masking tape but it’s way faster. Covering such an area would have taken months if I used this technic.

Mon Calamari Liberty cruiser exhibitions

This model is the last part of a complete rebel fleet I exposed only two times :

• Migennes Collector 2016
• Swiss Fantasy Show 2016

You may click here to see the Sullust rebel fleet

This model of the Blockade Runner (called “Rebel Runner” by Bluemoon for licensing reasons) is a collection of resin blocks hard to assemble. It’s a garage kit pretty hard to find nowadays and at very high prices, making the price of the new i-phone 43X-27 ridiculous. Like the GR-75 Medium Transport or the Stardestroyer, you may ask why big brands like Bandaï or Revell didn’t produce it already. Maybe too big and too complicated. Unfortunately the hobby modeling market targets children with easier models. No glue, no painting… We are condamned to find garage kits on the asian market for serious stuff.

Not 9, not 10 but 11 thrusters

Knowing that, you can imagine why ILM designers wanted a speed feeling (Kessel Run, 12 parsecs and all that stuff…).

This feature is a huge challenge to the model maker : how to perfectly align those 11 thrusters ? No specific technics, it’s a question of feeling. You use epoxy glue which is very… gluing and long to polymerize. Then you have time enough to make the alignement right.

The Blockade Runner, a christmas tree

This point is essential to light-up each thruster with the same light-intensity. This quite complicated circuit requires a pre-test on an electronic plate.

A metalic structure

Exhibition of the Blockade Runner

This ship is now a part of a large diorama of the Sullust rebel fleet.

It has been shown during three conventions :

• Migennes Collector 2015
• Migennes Collector 2016
• Cusset Generations Star Wars 2016

Click here to see the complete Sullust diorama of the rebel fleet.

The kit representing the GR-75 Medium Transport is a garage kit from Anigrand which is no more sold nowadays. It’s too bad. Since 2002, this brand from Hong Kong produces original kits that are inexplicably neglected by the “big ones” like Bandaï or Revell. For example we owe them an amazing imperial stardestroyer. Unfortunatly, it seems that Angirand forgot to sign one or two papers (including checks) about Star Wars exploitation rights… So those kits became extremly rare.

The Gr-75 Medium Transport : a simple although efficient concept

The concept reminds us Space 1999 Eagle Transporters . The crates are loaded using elevators in the base and then the cargo ships can take off without assistance.

Model maker’s worst nightmare

Usually, detailing a model using scratch or kitbash method is not a problem. But it’s working only if model proportions are already proper. And this is not the case here. The ship is too short, too “stocky”. When you find out a badly proportionned kit like that, you pass threw the 5 mourning stages :

• The denial. “No, no, this shape is very accurate…”
• The negociation. “Ok, it’s not very good but that will do anyway”
• The anger. “F*ck, I spent 500 bucks on this kit (true), if I catch the designer, I will make him eat it !”
• The acceptance. “All right, all right, I’ll have to deal with it, no choice , I’m not going to sell this kit back, my ebay profile is totally rotten”
• The reconstruction. “So people, let’s do it… Get some plastic card, a scalpel and the glue, we’ll see what can be done”

Hundreds of crates

Exhibitions

This model was exposed with A Wing, B-Wing , X-Wings and Y-Wing in a rebel fleet diorama during 5 conventions :

• Migennes Collector 2014
• Cusset Generations Star Wars 2014
• Migennes Collector 2015
• Migennes Collector 2016
• Cusset Generations Star Wars 2016

It’s the first capital ship I made for the fleet.

You may click here to see the complete rebel fleet.

In the Star Wars saga, the BTL- Y-Wing alliance fighter serves as a stooge to cast a favorable light on the X-Wing. It is the loser of the story. Its clumsy design, its “visible guts” make it even more old and worn out. This thankless role seduced me and I absolutely wanted to have it in my personal collection. I chose to represant a Y-Wing from the Grey Squadron. I guess it’s Grey Leader but I’m not sure of the decoration pattern. The references on filming modeles from the Return of the Jedi are very rare.

Hundreds of gribblies

This design is very interesting for a model maker, far from the smooth surfaces quite boring of many other models. The explanation is that rebel technicians got bored with removing hull panels again and again for maintenance and decided to throw them away.

The BTL-A4 Y-Wing fighter, a model made for light-up

The extended thrusters and other hull parts make the LED integration very easy. No complication at all. I chose a bright red to contrast with the purple used on the X-Wings. I always try to give each ship a “light signature”. Indeed, this model will be inserted in a huge rebel fleet diorama. It will be lost among dozens of rebel ships, it’s important you can distinguish it.

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Inexplicably, Finemolds failed totally in making the steering foils at the rear of the ship as you can see in the first picture. So I had to re-scratch the parts using plastic card (second picture). It’s the only fail of this model. Compared with other manufacturers, it’s very few but it’s very surprising when you know the Finemolds standards.

Expositions

Like the A-Wing, the B-Wing and the X-Wing, this model has been showed during 5 conventions :

• Migennes Collector 2014
• Cusset Generations Star Wars 2014
• Migennes Collector 2015
• Migennes Collector 2016
• Cusset Generations Star Wars 2016

The rebel fighters collection is now complete in my Sullust diorama.

You may click here to see the rebel fleet diorama “Sullust”