The Small Blockade Runner
We probably all know the story of the original Pirate Ship having to be repurposed into the Princesses Ship, later known as the Blockade Runner. That model would have never been made in such a large scale if it hadn’t inherited the Pirate Ship assets, and there was then a problem on stage – the model was so large that the camera could not get the proper distance from it, physically, for that long now classic establishing shot. So, a smaller all metal miniature was machined, and detailed only from one angle, and it was this aluminum miniature that we see in that first shot! I spoke about this model with Jon Erland, and he explained that it was all metal as it needed to act as a heat sink for those hot lights in each engine tube, and of course only finished out for what was seen through the lens.
This build I have pushed into “original” territory, or the funnier moniker “Pseudio Scale”, as I modified it to a more finished state. The head, radar dish, and guns were redone to better reflect the design, plating effects were achieved solely through paint application, and all additional details (of which there were many) were pulled only from the pool of donor kits that were used on the original version. So this is a conjectural exercise on what could have been, and it was massive fun to do!
