Model Specifications:
Scale = 1/24
Length = 62 cm
Width = 28 cm
Height = ?? cm
Of
all the ships of the Babylon-5 universe, the Minbari are the
most appealing to me. The fighter is a very interesting design and has an organic squid-like appearance.
Having decided to build it, reference material was needed. The
Babylon-5 Technical Manual was a start, and various sites from
the B-5 Web Ring were invaluable.
Much of the information on scale was contradictory but I made a
final choice
after reading the rather well done work on Babtech
on the Net.
I decided to build in 1/24 scale to match my other fighters. From studying the pics and references I decided on a
length of 14.9 m (the actual length for the "real" ship) using a 1/24 scale figure and eyeballing the cockpit pictures. As they
said on B-tech " it is still the size of a bus" ! This gives an overall length of 24.5"
(62 cm). The width is approximately 11" (28 cm). It scales well with the Starfury
and, perhaps most important, it "looks" right.
Because the ship has so few flat
lines, vaccuforming was the only way to get the shapes needed. Each "wing" is a structure
that tapers from front to back.
A central triangle was formed and each "wing' was glued on to form the basis of the ship.
All filling is plastic dissolved in glue to form a
same-substance "filler".
The
basecoat is automotive Gray Primer from a spray can. The light
blue is a Ford automotive color again from a spray can. The blue
and blue/black are Tamiya transparent paints sprayed on with a
Badger single-action airbrush. The thruster and weapons openings
are picked out in Testors Flat Black with a brush.
