Rocket Fighter (Last Exile - Fam, the Silver Wing)

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Just reference pictures for now I've taken from the trailer.
Measurements provided by the wiki don't seem to fit. The aircraft must be much longer than what is written there, except you exclude the 50mm gun and the skid.

So this will need some eyeballing again.
The colour reminds me a bit of the green used on U.S. tanks during the WWII.
For the gun I already bought a 50mm 1:72 scale that should be used on a Wehrmacht Puma but it looks like it is too small.
Maybe I'll try a 75mm from a Panzer IV and see how that'll look.

Torsten
Very exciting, I follow with great interest 👍

Alec K
Cool project! Taking a seat.

S M
Following!

Neil
👀! Me too...

JD
✋

John Thomas
Very cool

Robin (WhiteGlint)
A warm welcome everyone. 🙂
I couldn't wait and already started this one too. (Too many projects! 😄)
Because I had to start somewhere I began with the gun.

For said gun I had to sacrifice my 1:72 Königstiger, but he will resurrect in 1:35 scale some time in the future. 🙂
I also used some brass tubes and vinyl tape and polystyrene double-T profiles.

S M
Good start! 😃👍

Ben M
Really cool project, and off to a good start.

Matt Smurfmm
And here I was pining for a Hasegawa Vanship and Glint goes off and builds something cooler.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thanks guys. 👍
Matt, first I need to finish this somehow. I hope I don't trash it.
Another Vanship is always welcome, so you should go for it. 🙂

Right now I am more "sculpting" than glueing to get the shape of the fuselage right. Working with different epoxy putties. I tried some Green Stuff as well as Milliput. Green stuff is not so easy to get into shape but it stays the way you formed it. It is also harder to sand.
Most time until now was spent sculpting and sanding.

I noticed that I made some errors and hope to fix them somehow. I don't think I am skilled enough yet to get an accurate copy of this craft. But let's see how close I get.
It also pains me a bit to butcher my Mi-28 as it is such a cool helicopter.
But its shapes, cockpit and parts of the fuselage are very close to the the design and it probably was inspiration for the designers as well.

I am not sure how I am going to build "Claudia Engine" of this Vanship, especially the ring between engine and box wing is a problem I don't know how to solve.

Will upload some pictures of my progress soon.
Thanks for all your interest mates. 👍

Dash Rendar
Oh, very interesting subject, looking great already!

Motatim Stanislaw
I look at everything and think how unusual the prototype is. It seems to me that the conversion from this set Havoc Mil-28 (Italeri 176, 1:72) would look very good, because it does not look very similar to a real helicopter, but it fits well with the prototype from the anime
I will follow this interesting project 😁😉

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Welcome guys, nice to you have onboard. 🙂

Yeah, this kit could have worked too as a base for the Rocket Fighter. Its fuselage is a bit more rounded.
Thanks for sharing, mate 👍 🙂
I believe some company also had a very unique looking prototype of the Ka-50 helicopter.

Currently I am still sanding and fixing the fuselage.
I never should have used Greenstuff, it is a pain to sand...
Otherwise I think it is great for sculpting.

The radiator thingy on top of the fuselage is a bit wrong and I still need to scratchuild lots of parts. But first I need to figure out the stuff I do not know how to do yet. 😄
There's still two more radiators, engine, exhaust, box wings and skids to build.

No new photos yet.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Some progress pictures uploaded.
To be honest I am struggling quite a bit but I am not giving up.
Sanding this stuff is not exactly fun and this project is pretty much a jump in unknown waters.
The fuselage is far from finished but I am slowly getting there. I'll try to work on other parts of the Vanship from time to time. Gives me some progress without the need to sand all the time, though that still needs to be done. Skids and diamond shaped "shields" are next.

Torsten
Very exciting and impressive, looks like a challenge, I'm happy to watch and learn 👍

S M
Nice progress! I'm also struggling with continuous sanding and puttying, but it will end eventually.

Dmitri Kouterguine
Great project. Looking forward to see how it comes together.

Nathan Dempsey
Very cool project. Looks like it is coming along great.

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Cool 😎

Robin (WhiteGlint)
I appreciate your interest mates. Thank you very much. 👍
If only there was a kit of this aircraft, would spare me hours of sanding. 😄

With Easter Holidays approaching I hope to make some serious progress over the long weekend.

Spanjaard
very interesting project 🙂

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Little bit of progress, which is far less than I hoped for, given the long weekend.
But time with my familiy is a bit more important. 😉
Currently I am working on the radial part of the Claudia Engine and the box wing.
The substance called "Claudia" is the fuel in Last Exile, which powers all Vanships and probably even more machines.

I will pause the construction for a bit and wait for the Artbook to arrive. There's lot of drawings and 3d renders of the Vanships and I hope to see some more details of the Rocket Fighter, which I can not see in paused frames of the Anime or pictures available online.

Villiers de Vos
Very creative.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Artbook arrived and work continued. 🙂
"Radiator" thingies on the sides of the fuselage are almost done.
I'll use epoxy putty to create the rounded shape of that part. Glueing it to the Vanships body will need to wait a bit. The areas where I used putty already are still too rough and uneven.

The one above the cockpit needs some rework.
The shape is not correct and I need to cut it.