The concept for the earth spaceship came during a trip to our local Goodwill where we were looking for miscellaneous junk that I could cannibalize for props for the movie.  I saw a battery-powered tie rack (I had know idea what it was at the time).  I loved its shape and knew immediately that it would be the perfect design (after a few alterations) for my earth ship.

(The earth ship in its final incarnation)

When I first started making miniature ships, I would simply find interesting shapes and start altering them and adding things to them. Not knowing what I was doing, I didn’t worry about things like scale or think about important technical aspects such as how I was going to mount and/or suspend the model for filming.  In other words, I was basically making homemade toys that I could hold in my hand and make whoosh-ing sounds as I pretended it was soaring through space.  The first version of the earth ship was no exception.

(The first version of the ship: made from an automated tie rack and a few cannibalized model parts)

I soon realized that I needed to build these from the ground up.

(I began by screwing plastic serving bowls onto the ends of a piece of plywood.)

(I also drilled a hole into the bowls on the back end to insert a mounting tube)

(The tube is mounted to the board. On the side edges of the plywood I mounted plastic cable/cord channels, into which I also drilled holes for more brass tubing.)

(These brass tubes will allow me to suspend the ship via metal rods attached to support stands.)

(I then began to build up the bottom of the ship using foam board.)

(I covered the foam board with craft foam)

(For the top half, I used foam board to create the walls for the center walkway and the fore and aft sections.)

(More strips of foam board to create the basic shape of the hull)

(At this point I gave the structure a coat of primer before starting work on the interior of the engine room.)

(Using the same design I used for the interior sets, I laid down the floor grates for the engine room.)

(Some of the equipment found in the engine room: made from a container insert for chocolate covered Queen Anne’s cherries, model parts, and paint.)

(The engine room: made with various pieces of trash and junk, including an old printer cartridge.)

(So why create an engine room and then cover it up?  There is a scene in which the ship receives damage to the hull, revealing part of the engine room.  By building this into the model, I should be able to pull that scene off mostly in-camera with a lot less post-production VFX headaches.)

(I began layering the top hull with craft foam)

(Using a straight edge, I made indents into the craft foam to create individual panels.  Then, a layer of black paint)

(I masked off the areas I wanted to keep black and began layering on the gold paint.)

(The basic structure is complete... Now for the details.)

(For the walkway, I used another piece of foam board and made some stickers which read “Warning: Gravity plating ends here.”)

(Using various model parts, I then began creating the hatchways and airlocks.)

(Painted and mounted: the hatch to the main crew area)

(On the opposite wall: the hatch to the engine room.)

(I continued to add miscellaneous parts)

(I added a canopy over the walkway)

(hmmm... What can I make using parts of a helicopter, a tank and the Millennium Falcon?)

(Assembled into the deflector array)

(continued adding scrap parts with the first round of detailed painting)

(I try to waste nothing. Including empty cans of spray paint)

(With a foam board insert for mounting, the cap becomes the main engine)

(For the auxiliary engines, I used some of those party favor whistles and some tires from a model)

(On the sides, I used parts from automated tie racks... yes, I bought a couple more of them just so I could use them for parts)

(On the front, I added more parts -- including a battery cover and some model tires to cover the screws that mount the serving bowl to that original piece of plywood)

(On the bottom, I added part of the original ship that I had made from that first tie rack. Victoria then began working her magic to give the whole model a detailed paint job to give it that distressed look that I was wanting)

(Victoria’s paint job makes all the difference in the world)

(I also took advantage of all those left over water-slide decals that I had from the models.)

(the top of the model: finished and ready for filming)

While I’m fairly happy with the look of the final ship, it does have one serious drawback...  It is far too big for me to hold in my hand while I make whoosh-ing sounds.

NEXT WEEK:  ???