Monday 2 August 2010

B7 Hairdryer Ship - off we go




So i've two hairdryers stuck together and no real idea what to do next.
Thought i'd start by trying to work out just how big some of the detail was, figuring if i knew that then it might help me figure out what they were.
First pic shows the start of that - just roughly pencilling in where the flat plate goes and roughly where some of the stand alone parts go.
That plate by the way was a good example of why i like doing projects like these - you get to understand why things were made a certain way. In this case, the plate was that size and in that place to hide the raised "Morphy Richards" lettering.
Next up was the long horizontal tubular shape at the top (which is actually the rear by the way). Mat said it was EMA tubing at either 1", 1.25" or 1.5". Drawing tubular shapes on card and offering it up to the hairdryers, i worked out that it was actually 1.25". Now, didn't want to order a pricey, far too long length of tube from EMA when a trip to B&Q can get me a 2 metre long length for less than 2 quid. Did that then, cut it to size and attached it. That proves difficult as the drainage pipe doesn't accept glue. Got round that by pinning it to the hairdryers, with P38 between the two shapes and more of the stuff smeared along the edge.
So i had a start but, although some of the parts looked real familiar, the only one's i could indentify were the Space Shuttle cowl things that sit half way down on the hairdryer handles.
With any sort of problem with kit part identification i always turn first to the excellent Eagle Transporter Forum:

http://www.eagletransporter.com/forum/

The folk there sure know their stuff and really friendly too. Fast as well - it wasn't long before answers to kit parts started coming in. And VERY unexpected too was a whole bunch of large, clear photos of the original, kindly put up by "Exterminator" - a very talented, very knowledgable bloke and the person who actually got me back into B7 modelling after seeing his awesome Liberator scratchbuild.
Cheers Mr Ex, i owe you many pints should we meet.
Here's one of his pics, which goes to show: (A) How crappy my screen shots are, (B) How involved some of the detail actually is. Those two rounded shapes either side of the plate i had down as being basic domes, but its clear they're more than that. It also shows that there's a lot of detail that had gone missing by the time Mat was filmed for the DVD, especially at the front. And the rear isn't a plain tube at all. It actually has some ribbing detail to it. There was some discussion as to whether the tube was in fact a kit part from some rocket, but general opinion was that its plain tube with some ribbed Plasticard wrapped round it. You can also see on the rear that there's a lot more detail here than i thought there'd be.
Oh well, just makes it more of a challenge right?

2 comments:

Niel Bushnell said...

Are the domes R2D2 heads?

Mangamax said...

Yep, sure are. And sure are expensive 8/