Scratchbuilding a destroyer from Wing Commander III

I’ve never seen a model of a Wing Commander ship, and I figured that if I were to build one, it should be a destroyer, as they have almost no curved surfaces and are relatively simple.

Coventry Class Destroyer

I’m planning on making cross-section pieces out of relatively thick styrene sheet, and attaching the ‘skin’ over the cross-section pieces.

Before I begin construction, I was hoping that you guys might have some suggestions as to whether this is a good plan of attack, or if you have any other ideas.

Dan,
Depending on how big your ship will be, an internal skelaton would help support the weight. I have seen everything from pvc pipe to steel pipe being used. If you finished model is small enough, this step isn’t necessary.
Good luck,

Cool ship! I’d really like to see you bring it to life.
It sounds like you have a good game plan. How long will it be?

I’m thinking 1/2100 scale, so the Coventry would be about nine and a quarter inches.

I’m not sure how I should handle the glowing engines and the small turrets.

If this build goes alright, I’m hoping to build a model of a Tallahassee cruiser.

Tallahassee Cruiser [:D]

Hiya. I do a lot of ships in this style etc. I would reccommend a couple of approaches which might work for you.

At that relatively small build size (around 9 inches) you can probably forego the spine if you want, although a piece of square section plastruct or similar would help you keep everything aligned correctly.

It looks like those designs would break down into modular components. You could build each section and then bond them all together. Whataver you do you should definately think about using the cross section idea. if you use a central beam you need to anticipate this on your digarmas before cutting your sections so the hole is always central.

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Kind of like that if you catch my drift.

Hope this helps.

Paul M.