The Nefarious Machinations of The Nefarious Doktor Nefarious, Part Two: A Bit of Bovva Wiv a Hovva

Hi, All!

The SHC Nefarious 1, bringing terror to the Lost Continent.

I really must try harder not to get distracted by side projects...

This one was supposed to be a quicky. Just a little thing to work on for a few days, then get back to the main project.

Five weeks later...

The hull takes shape quickly from thick card. I glued this with super-duper superglue for speed.

As I stated in my last post, I had an idea regarding building a Weapon of Mass Delusion from computer fans. As a matter of fact, I had intended this to be some sort of skyship, but part way into the design, I decided to do a hovercraft. I'm glad I did.

The front cabin is constructed from plastic board. Lots of fiddly angles!

Two deck guns I made ages ago from irrigation parts, plastic rod, guitar string and press-studs.

The chimney evolves from a bearing, a welding tool and the lid of a deodorant.

These bits and pieces had been lying around in the back of my mind for over a year, and they were bugging me. Computer fans, pieces of a welding tool, a couple of guns I made from irrigation joints and never used... All of a sudden, they all fell into place.

I created the 'Nefarious' logo (which will henceforth be used in other projects) from plastic board and greenstuff. Two of these are mounted on the hull.

The main propellor, in place and with rivets...

The main gun was constructed from a reflector, various bits and bobs, beads, cogs, and a strange curved piece of plastic from a printer cartridge tray.

For much of the time that I was building this, I honestly thought it wasn't going to work. Was I wasting my time? I didn't want to give up, but I didn't want to present something here which was below my usual standards. As it turns out, I am happy with the end result - proof yet again that you just never know until it's finished.

The details go on... lots of plastic strips and rivets, wooden (red) beads, washers and tubes. Sometimes you just have to keep piling stuff on until it looks right. The rear section of this vessel was such a time.

A conjoined pair of fans creates the rear drive section of the vessel. I added two huge rudders from plastic board for steerage. And rivets, of course.

There wasn't really a plan with this one - just a rough idea. I wanted to work fast and show you a finished item. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than I thought and now I don't have the space for the eighty photographs I took!

The vessel is undercoated and highlighted. I painted everything the same and later added colour to certain parts.

The rear section, undercoated. At this stage, I started to feel confident that this was going to be a good one.

Such is the way with a slightly disorganised imagination...

With the propellor painted, I started to add uprights for the oh-so-necessary haindrail!

Handrail in place. You wouldn't want to fall into those blades, after all...

Deck gun, finished. I honestly couldn't be happier with these!

I undercoated the entire model in a dark grey, and liked the effect so much that I stuck with it. I think the very austere look is a nice departure from the brighter schemes of my other inventions, and makes the SHC Nefarious 1 look rather intimidating.

A bridge is constructed from plastic board (and wire mesh) in the same manner as the walkways in my big walker project.

With the bridge in place, handrails are made from single pieces of brass rod. Getting these right took ages!

The main gun, finished. (The copper wire areound the barrel is a spring from inside a pen, painted.)

A nice feature of the model is that the wight is all in the centre, due to the steel chimney. This meant that I could mount the vessel on a base directly under the chimney, making the whole vehicle look like it is really floating.

The rear section. I added rigging made from twisted metallic thread, stained with rust ink.

The finished vessel.

And of course, I counted the rivets...

This being a small project (sigh...) the Rivet Count is:

1,950 !

I'm going to stick to very small side projects from now on, or Lord Smudgington Smythely-Smythe's Hydraulically Motorvated Sextupedal Land-Traversing Vacational Domicile will never be finished!

A hydrothermicopter's-eye view.

The Nefarious Doktor Nefarious himself takes a proud look around the vessel...

Anyway, there you go. Plenty of pretty pictures, and now I'm ready to get back to work!

More soon.

The Nefarious Doktor Nefarious aboard the SHC Nefarious 1, escorted by a pair of deadly Giant Clockwork Tortoise Suicide Land Mines... Nefarious indeed!

All the Best!