by John Cook

Here's my superdetailed SeaWitch Starfury that survived the Shadow War. She's a sturdy craft, as evidenced by the near-miss burn marks, minor dings and scratch marks and the replaced panel on the upper wing where an internal explosion blew off a panel and access cover. You can see the bolt holes for the missing hatch, they were too mangled for the crews to replace the cover. Peek inside and you can see cabling and plumbing exposed in that hatch. The crews did an admirable job keeping SeaWitch going, all engines work well and her major systems have survived combat duty despite loosing a few panels and getting bumped around alot. Look close and you can see a few missing bolts where the crews were rushed to get her "riding fire" again.

This ship lights up completely. All engines are lit, cockpit and instrument panel light up as well. Thanks to Don's Light and Majic for the clear parts, the electronics are all my own. She features accurate replacement cannons and accurate SeaWitch ALPS decal from Starship Modeler. The "near-miss" burn marks were done by painting on aluminum metalizer, applying a salt slush, and airbrushing over the whole bit with flat black. (Let dry after each step.) Then I washed away the salt, exposing the metalizer and leaving a nice, rough edge that looks like burnt paint. The "weathering" effect was done with Parafilm masking film, by placing a bit along a panel line, using the panel line as a cutting guide, and very gently airbrushing at a steep angle to dirty up one side of a panel line. The missing access panel had its bolts drilled out with a #80 drill before I scraped it away and filed it smooth. I opened up the hole and then excavated the back side until I could fit a #28 and #30 wire in the groove as "plumbing". Several other access hatches are missing bolts in a few places.

I re-scribed all the panel lines on this one, using Dymo label tape and a #10 Xacto blade. It took quite a while but the results are well worth it.

My "guide" for scribing the lines were the original raised panel lines themselves. Stick a lenth of tape along a line to guide the blade, scrape away the original, scribe in the new. Sometimes I had to use the line itself as a guide, scribing in a new line right next to the original.

The SeaWitch ALPS decal from Starship Modeler is the crown jewel. I applied two coats of diluted Future to the model and a coat of Microscale decal solution to the decal itself to strengthen it before applying it. With a nice, smooth surface and strengthened decal, I slipped it on carefully and got it mostly right. I had to lance a few air pockets later and add "scrape marks" to hide some minor mistakes but the final result is very good.

Image: Cockpit

Image: Cockpit closeup, without canopy

Image: Lights!

Image: Event the instrument panel is lit

Image: Starboard side

Image: Wing art

Image: Repairs