N7 Eagle (Mass Effect) (bunch of pics)

My second build was the N7 Eagle, again from Punished Prop's drawings. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but there was a marked improvement over my Carnifex build... the biggest being the quality of my cuts... straight lines being straight and smooth curves.

Center layer on this build was 1/2", instead of 3/4" of the Carnifex, as I wanted it to be thinner, lighter feeling than the Carnifex. I kind of had to guesstimate thicknesses on this build, as the drawings were side-view only (whereas the Carnifex had side-, front- and top-view). The next, and final, "main" layer was 1/4". On this build I cut a groove into the main body and mounted the PVC barrel into the body by a couple inches, as opposed to the Carnifex, which was simply inset into a a routed placement of about 1/4" deep. This allowed the barrel to actually be hollow somewhat deep into the body, giving it a more effective appearance.


On this build, I learned from my mistake on the Carnifex :cool , and notch-mounted the trigger. No one will be breaking it off by attempting to pull it!


After the central and secondary layers, all the rest of the build was done with a lot of little fiddly bits. Most of these were cut from my go-to thin wood... 1/8" wooden clipboard. But I wanted to have a little variety in the thicknesses of the different panels, and wanted to experiment with some new materials, and so ordered up a couple sheets of 2mm Sintra (I think that's the thickness). It gave the final build a little more visual and tactile flavor than doing them all with 1/8". Also used a little Apoxie Sculpt here to fill in the body around the top of the barrel.


I was very surprised at how nicely and easily Sintra shapes (with the Dremel) and sands down to finish. And even though it sands easily, it also seems to hold a very nice crisp edge. The detailing in the inset area in the sides of the body was a little tricky, but patience and a Dremel made quick work of it. I was especially happy with how the round, rod bit came out. It was simply a wooden dowel, with the back sanded down a bit for gluing in place, the back end sanded to a nice round finish, and a small inset carved into the side of it with the Dremel.


And there is the basically finished constructed piece next to it's older sibling. :D Next to them you can see the acrylic rod which I used for the light thing on the side of the Eagle. I'm not quite up to the point of working actual wiring and lighting into my pieces ... yet. ;)


After a nice base/primer coat of flat black, I used Rustoleum's hammered metallic finish spray on the grip. You don't wind up seeing too much of the hammered texture (a little bit on the larger flat areas, but that's it)... but it still effectively gives it a little visual interest, and also had a somewhat soft, satiny, very comfortable texture in the hand. The grey main color was pretty straight-forward, though it required quite a bit of intricate masking around the grip, fore-grip area and inset.


For the lettering, I cut stencils out of masking tape which I then positioned. The white was simply sprayed on, the red was brushed on red Testor's model enamel. The band on the lower guard, I first taped off the wide white band, sprayed it, then taped off the red band over it and painted that in with the same Testor's. You can see the cocker in the inset area, for which I simply screwed in a medium diameter socket-cap screw.


Here is the acrylic "light" rod mounted in place. I was hoping it would catch a little more light in the ends, fiber-optic style, and sort of "self-light". Unfortunately this didnt work QUITE as well as expected... it will occasionally, but only if the light hits it at JUUUUUST the right angle.


And some beauty shots. :cool The final, finished piece, next to the Carnifex. And then my first attempt at making a "scenic" shot... just used a foam mattress topper as a backdrop to give it a little more interesting setting.

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