Gil Brumana's USS Universal

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Gil Brumana's USS Universal
Gil Brumana's latest project is the U.S.S. Universal, a project that is being built for an actual prodcution. This is the U.S.S. Universal 7-2153, under construction. It is a project I am doing for an actual studio! They are making a safety video for their employees and the theme is kind of a take off of Buzz Lightyear. I can probably tell you more when the video is released. Any way, the producer and director needed a ship for the hero of the vid, so they contacted me. (I was so excited) Here are some pics of her in the early stages of construction.
	This is how it looked when I went to the initial meeting with the Producer & Director. They had contacted me two days before and this is what I was able to slap together for the meeting. The two main sections of the ship, the head and the engine section, are carved from Jelutong wood. Those details on the sides of the back section are Airfix Saturn V parts. They loved the look of this so much they OK'ed it on the spot.
	Plating over the wood with .040 sheet styrene. This was done for both front and back sections.
	This shows the brass tubing being used for the structural conection between the front and back. 2 inch Plastruct tubing is also used.
	Here, I am begining to fit the fins onto the model. I made the fins hollow by laminating several layers to make the area inside to run the wiring for the LED navigation lights. This was not required for the production, but the Director loved the lights when I sent him an update on the construction.
	Here is a close-up of the fins. You can see the hollows that were made for the wiring.The long fins are for the sides of the model, the short ones for the top.
	A simple circuit board with AAA battery power was screwed to the center piece of wood between the two back section pieces. The LEDs can be turned on or off with a pressure switch.

The fins complete and installed. Puttied along the edge to smooth them out.
	Kit bashing started for detailing. And a bridge added. I tried to make it an ode to the Battlestar Galactica. (Looks kinda like it doesn't it??)
	Detailing the neck area. Those will be cargo bays for the production.
	Detailing the engine section with kit bits and, ofcourse, the wiring for the LEDs. Next will be the final detailing and painting.

The red striping was done with automotive pinstriping. Panel Lines were drawn on the model with pencil.
The name, registry, and bay designation were printed out from my computer on blank decal paper.
The model was painted basic white, then shading began with pastels.
Here, the ship has been weathered. Emphasis has been put on the panel lines, to help bring them out.
The weathered engine section. A lot of the detail stands out now with the weathering.
A 3/4 front view of the weathered and ready to film Universal.

The windows were done with black automotive pinstriping, and reflective tape. (A necessity since the basic structure of the model was solid wood!!) These two shots show the windows. The light gray ones are the reflective tape, and light up when a light source is used from the point-of-view of the camera. The next pictures were taken on the stage while filming of the model was taking place!!!

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