by Joonas Helminen

Scale: Not stated

The modified merchant ship Betty is here seen under attack by pirates of the Yellow Brigade that had been hiding in a asteroid field. What the pirates didn't know and are already regretting is that Betty's crew had been warned of pirates in the area and were on their guard; the gunner got off a rapid salvo at the closest pirate, hitting its engines and sealing its fate. Betty's modifications include the rear engine pack for long range flights, reentry capability and VTOL thrusters. Extra armor plating has been added to the hull and protective shielding installed around the external equipment.

All the ships were built out of styrene sheet and rods, detailing (greeblies) was done with bits and pieces from various models, mostly from leftover warhammer 40,000 bits. The asteroids are made out of styrofoam covered in fine sand. The diorama was painted with Games Workshop paints; sunburst yellow as a base for the pirates and midnight blue for Betty. All the ship designs are mine, I've obviously taken ideas from various sources but designed the ships myself. Most work went into Betty, she took about three weeks to build. All in all I spent about a month on the diorama.

Betty has a wingspan of roughly 7 inches (17cm) and is 5.5 inches long (14cm). The pirate ships are roughly 1-1.5 inches in size. The base is 9.5 times near 4 inches (24x9cm).

Image: Betty, top/rear view

Image: Underneath

Image: Incoming!

Image: Pirate #1

Image: Pirate #2

Image: Pirate #3

Image: Target!

Image: Looking over the action