by Kristopher Kern

My “wreck” is a Zentraedi Flagship (technically, a Nupetiet Vergnitzs Class Flagship) from the 1984 Japanese animated series Macross, brought to the U.S. as part of Robotech. As the story goes, in 1999 a giant spaceship crash-landed in the south Pacific. Humanity rebuilt the crashed ship, and on its launch day, the Zentraedi showed up to claim the ship. After a year of warfare, the main Zentraedi fleet arrived in Earthspace and bombarded the planet, leaving the surface a wasteland. The SDF-1 and Zentraedi loyal to Earth fought a huge battle against the Grand Fleet, and were finally victorious. After the battle, many damaged Zentraedi ships crashed to Earth, littering the wasteland with monuments to the destruction that took place in the skies above. As humanity began to rebuild, they quickly discovered these hulks were a perfect source of raw materials for new cities and new industry. As a result, these derelicts became centers of reconstruction.

Construction

Construction was pretty straightforward. I assembled the ship as per the instructions, smoothed out the straight edges with a knife, and sanded everything until it was clean. Then I sawed it in half. I carved and sanded some more to get rid of the boxy lines and edges built into this kit. After a white undercoat, the ship was sprayed with SAC Bomber Green, and the bottom half was painted with a light blue acrylic. A gloss coat, black lining, and washes were the first step of weathering. The rust effect was achieved by using Rustall, which is a fantastic product that I used for the first time on this project. Finally, a dullcote finished the ship until it was ready to be attached to the base.

The Base

I chose a round slotted base, with a glass covering, hoping that it will protect my creation against dust. First, I built the crater out of sheet styrene and, of all things, spackle. (Spackle is a great, cheap, water-based filler that I use often. It is a bit grainy, but takes acrylics really well and smoothes out easily) I then painted the crater gray and the base of the water different shades of blue.

Using plain white glue, I glued green turf to the crater, and began construction of the city. The city is a mish-mash of sheet styrene, photo-etch leftovers, and small pieces from the kitbash box.

Combining the Pieces

Finally, I installed a brass support rod on the base, and glued the ship down to the center of the crater. I then mixed and poured clear resin into the crater. After it dried, I painted the indication of waves and the bridge across to the ship directly onto the resin.

I had a great time making this entry and learned a lot of new techniques. Enjoy!

Image: Above and ..... let's say "right"

Image: Looking down

Image: Behind -ish

Image: Left

Image: Closer

Image: Domed

Image: Inspiration