Breath of Vengeance Build

Admiral Fife's command ship, the "Breath of Vengeance", plays a large part in my books. It was inevitable that I would have to build a model of the ship at some point, to use on my book covers...

Before commencing on the model build, I started with a Lego version of the BOV, purely for inspiration.

I also had these early designs from when I was a student.

I don't have any pictures of the early stages of the build. By this point the main construction was done. The rotating life pods are polystyrene eggs from a craft shop. The main hull is made from cardboard tubes, spherical sweet tins and cable ducting. The engine cowl is a Pot Noodle container. The whole ship is covered with gunk (PVA, paint and Artex) and has been sprayed with primer.

Here, I'm adding details using thick card and washers.

This is the finished model after a coat of grey primer, before colour was added.

I sprayed the whole ship satin black, then used silver and blue metallic spray from one angle to give a shaded effect. Then I worked into the shadows with a brush.

The pockmarked craters on the hull were made with Milliput and are meant to give the impression of a vast spacecraft which has been blasted by space debris.

When Photoshopped into a scene, the finished model is quite effective. Above: The "Breath of Vengeance" emerges from W-Space. Below: The ship is on manoeuvres with it's escort of Wolverines.