Reminiscing on my days at South Station

Stickframe · 29 January 2023 03:53

Hello model builders,

I started this project in mid 2021, a Covid lockdown was being enforced where I live, and work was fairly slow. What better time to build an admittedly weird project? I glued the last figures down last night and took pictures this morning!

I have long been a fan of Ian McQue’s conceptual art - it brings nautical/industrial imagery to an alternative future - I don’t know why this future is, or if there is any intended message to go along. My sense is that it is not violent or apocalyptic (and this project is not a Mad Max zombie, fallout or violent scenario) - but it’s clearly not what is going on today. Many of the craft are anti-gravity - that is, they float in air! All of this is conveyed with a distinctive graphic style that I like - it brings a professional tightness - with a whimsical attitude, but not cartoon like - there you go - perfect.

As I am more of land based guy, I decided my McQue inspired project would be largely land based, but, not completely - South Station would be the home to 2 McQue designed Wasps - small anti gravity aircraft. The place would be populated with some pilots, mechanics, deck and recovery crews, and a group of others who manage the vast area the Wasps patrol. I’m guessing they would all live nearby, and the station essentially a home base - with communications and shops. It includes a mobile station and a remanent build from whoever was there beofre.

I kept a few self imposed rules in place, first being not to let my thinking get too uptight and keep in mind the “spirit” of McQue’s work, and - no new kits - all from the stash, or whatever I might have salvaged from other dios before I tossed them. I did allow myself to buy lots of evergreen. Ok, here we go:

And here we have what’s going on - in this alt future, a remote post -

A mobile station, an abandoned building - and support crew.

And plenty going on - the boss, shop, welders, recovery crew, pilots, and flight deck:

These are resin models of the McQue designed Wasp - anti gravity of course!! And the station has a flight deck for them!

As you can see - plenty of kitbashing and scratch building going on -

And - clearly it was trying to concoct McQue inspired vehicles! I did some serious damage to the stash!

And there you have it - done! It’s funny, I saw another post on Kitmaker last night about how to deal with getting burned out - lol - I have certainly felt that, and this project was suffering that fate! I’m glad I finished it, as it was a lot of fun to build!

Cheers
Nick

Dioramartin · 29 January 2023 04:17

Dog

Half an hour’s gone by & I’m still looking…whatever you’re on, can you send me a couple of crates of it please? How?..what?..where?..brain meltdown, so many questions…whatever, beyond brilliant

Colder · 29 January 2023 05:04

WOW.

'nough said.

MoramarthT · 29 January 2023 06:38

Seconded…

M

SableLiger · 29 January 2023 06:53

Agreed. WOW.

Tank_1812 · 29 January 2023 11:04

A tracked (M1070?) and Turtle….crazy……

What is the wheeled crane?

Tim is right, pass the good stuff around.

Karl187 · 29 January 2023 11:38

That is one interesting dio and the original concept you took it from is fascinating too. Reminds me a little of a video game called ‘Cyberpunk 2077’- some desert type areas had nomad sort of folks in workshops and camp areas not unlike the one you’ve created here- all sort of thrown together from odds and ends with weird vehicles both working and non-working and people milling about the place wearing all sorts of odds and ends like your figures. There is so much to see as well- just scrolling down I can spot new things each time I look like the pick-up with the roof rack, the nice verticality of the buildings with bits and bobs like the satellite mounted on them, the yellow pipework and an old BMW hiding in the corner!

You’ve created something really unique there Nick- bravo!

Johnnych01 · 29 January 2023 13:31

There are not enough WOW’s, wtfs , this is bat Sh*#e crazy to go around.

This at the next level of brilliant. I can only dream of doing something as extraordinary as this build

MoramarthT · 29 January 2023 14:15

I’m with you there, if you’ve not already come across him check out Alejandro Burdisio, a.k.a Burda.
The only thing I have reservations about is fixed structures dangling below hulls. Small firms have to be parsimonious, I was acquainted with a chap who had a few small tugs which he would moor to navigation buoys in the roadstead to avoid harbour fees. Similarly, I’ve seen maintenance being done by running a small vessel onto a suitable sandy beach rather than incurring the cost of having it hoisted out of the water. Economics imperatives don’t change so I expect the ability to “take the ground” would be just as desirable in the McQue universe: I would expect all the “dangley bits” to be capable of folding up or being retracted.

I’m a big fan of recycling (others may prefer “scrounging”) plastic leftovers and cheap glueable styrene from “El Cheapo” shops.

A worthy sacrifice.

It must have been an epic build, if I was younger I would be tempted to try something similar but it is beyond me now. But it is still so inspirational that I am re-thinking what I can achieve. There is a group build “Railroad Structures Campaign” over on the RailRoad Modelling section and I have some stuff I collected for the previous campaign which in the end I didn’t participate in. I had been thinking “McQue goes steampunk” in 1:76th scale, but I’m now considering dropping the “Steampunk” aspect and going for a lineside vignette.

Regards,

M

KoSprueone · 29 January 2023 16:38

Love this! A couple of my favorites for now: 6X6 maintenance fitter mule and that modified Škoda Turtle

I’m sure I’ll find more. Perfect timing to view these photos over morning coffee…

RonW · 29 January 2023 16:46

That…is…AWESOME!!!

Biggles50 · 29 January 2023 16:51

Hmm…shades of “Mad Max”!

SSGToms · 29 January 2023 16:55

Incredible…epic work.

Dinocamo · 29 January 2023 17:02

Master craft!
It looks even better than some videogames pre-render.

The_Snowman · 29 January 2023 17:13

Ingenious creativty, a phenomenal creation. Well done!!

creading · 29 January 2023 19:02

Yeah, all the above ! Great concept and execution. It’s a fascinating diorama to study after reading the narrative. A+

Cheers,
C.

justsendit · 30 January 2023 02:43

Hi Nick,
Yowza!!! Each time I zoom in, my jaw suffers another blow from hitting the floor!

—mike

pod3105 · 30 January 2023 09:09

That is on another level
Absoloutely amazing .

Stickframe · 30 January 2023 19:07

Hello gents,

Thanks! I appreciate your comments. I went out on a bit of limb with this idea That said, I was really interested in seeing if I could get the McQue inspired look in a credible way

@Dioramartin , Tim? huh? what are you talking about? nothing weird to see over here… thanks! Yeah - well, yeah…

@Colder thanks!

@MoramarthT thanks!

@SableLiger and thanks!

@Tank_1812 yep, you nailed it - that’s an M1070, with the chassis cut down and cab changed to look generally like the HET Global A1 version, plus the tracks. If you look at McQue’s drawings, they are influenced by industry, so, a modern halftrack - why not? I looked at lots of images of modern tracked farm tractors - turns out some of them run on two pairs of track rails with isolated bogeys (front and rear axles, with final drives and idlers on each), so made up a set like that. The final drive, idlers and metal tracks are from the Orochi Bradley kit!

And yes, a Takom Turtle! a perfect subject for this build - with some cutting, new suspension, tires, wheels, paint!

The wheeled crane is a lot of parts - the basic chassis is from an old PerfectScale Modelbrau resin gamma goat kit (naturally - haha) with various Kinetic MRAP parts, and tries and wheels from who knows what - the crane and bed is scratch built, with many junk box sprue parts used as needed.

@Karl187 Hi Karl thanks and glad you like it! I’m not familiar with the video game, but over the years, I have steadily visited art sites with illustrations of alternative futures, and have now looked at enough of them to see what concepts I like and others less so - McQue’s work is really clean - he seems to somehow balance whatever the main subject is with clutter - which is what I went for - like, (good eye!) that old BMW on the flatbed - you can see it there, but it doesn’t draw too much attention!

@Johnnych01 ha! thanks! “wtfs, this is bat sh#e crazy*” well stated sir! appreciated words and I fully agree!

@MoramarthT well sir, thank you for your comments, they are appreciated! This project took a while to wrap up. It went from a spark of interest, to full on thinking about and model building to - “forget this - I need to do the dishes, or my taxes, or anything else…”. This at untouched for a while. I only finished last Friday after not touching it for at least 6 months. Go for your project - have fun with it!

@KoSprueone hello KSO, thanks! hope it goes well with the coffee!

@RonW thanks!

Cheers and happy model building!

Nick

Stickframe · 30 January 2023 19:09

Well guys - I just discovered there is a limit to how you reply! and I have relies to others!

@Biggles50 funny you’d say that, I went about trying to keep this a “lighter shade” of Mad Max The McQue style backs off from the rawness (for lack of a better term) of Mad Max - it doesn’t seem to evoke the same “edge” and I tried to stay on the McQue side This was something of a constant challenge, as it was tempting to fortify/up armor/etc along the way - and yet, not do it.

@SSGToms thank you sir!

@Dinocamo You’re the second to mention video game artwork. While I don’t play them, I do look at concept art - it’s pretty remarkable - old school Syd Meade, or now, McQue - really different ways to look at things and the latter was a clear influence to this project - thanks!

@The_Snowman thank you!

@creading thanks! I thought I had to provide the narrative - while I have been pondering this for a while and “get” the point - well - others might not! nor should they - it’s a bit of an out there project I’m glad to hear you get it!

@justsendit Hey Mike - thanks! lift that jaw back up and keep building stuff!

@pod3105 thanks very much!

Ok - on we go -

Cheers
Nick