How to Scratchbuild a Spaceship from Styrene

ETSY LINK TO BUILD YOUR OWN:
www.etsy.com/shop/SublightDrive
Materials I used:
1mm (.040 in) and .5mm (.020 in) Styrene sheets
Pre-textured Styrene sheets
Styrene rods
Kitbashed parts from model ships, an x-wing, tanks, etc.
A thread spool and a lip balm container
Cheap Jewelry Wire
Acrylic and Oil paints
Tools you'll need:
Masking tape
Drafting Triangle or Ruler
Hobby Knife & extra blades
Pencil
Tweezers
Superglue
Weld-on 3
Cheap brush
Small eyedropper and dish for the Weld-on
Sanding sticks and paper
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:58 Tools
2:56 Cutting
5:58 Steps 1 - 10
9:00 Steps 11 - 23
11:52 Greeblie Break
17:11 Steps 25 - 33
19:28 Kitbashing
23:25 Painting
25:23 Decals
26:10 Weathering & Washes
29:31 Outro

[@-webster3120]

I really liked your presentation style. Post edit narration. The camera never moves. Everything’s in focus. The music isn’t overpowering. The model is great, too. Original design, dynamic detailing. Well done!

[@SciFiCrafts]

I know the big ones take damn long, and you are getting tired of it just before its ready for paint, but when they are DONE....well worth all the time!

[@Sublight_Drive]

lol you're telling me, I made TWO of the damn things (4 if you count the prototypes). All worth it to see them finished though

[@SciFiCrafts]

@@Sublight_Drive Very worth it!

[@Phantasia_Workshop]

It's so refreshing to see someone build something by hand without resorting to 3D printing 👍

[@FelipeDiaz-yd2zt]

You are 500% right, my friend. That made the ship highly detailed and realistic. It's looking like updated Sulaco from Aliens but even much better.

[@jamesmaybrick2001]

I came to say that. I fear that this will be an art consigned to history with the advent of 3d printing. Im bad at scratch building, but im happy that people can do it well. As an old man its my right to yell at the clouds and bemoan modern fangled technology!

[@animaloverload7465]

Agreed, that's borderline cheating imo. Not everyone has a 3D printer.

[@MrShogunfish]

Casual flex of the clearly handmade Destiny sketchbook

[@StevoE26]

the U.N.S.C called, they want their frigate back. awesome ship design!

[@Sublight_Drive]

Hey I stole that frigate fair and square

[@arlequim235]

​@@Sublight_Drive as the crew of the Rocinante put it "it's a legitimate salvage"

[@MrSpartan99]

@@Sublight_Drive is this the ship the rebels stole from dry dock in Halo Reach?

[@digitaleva]

I actually like how the slightly darker bottom looks. It has always made very little sense to me to see Sci-Fi ships just blatantly nosediving into the atmosphere, so the darker bottom would indicated that they can enter the atmosphere in a way that puts a larger, flat area in the way, and tells a lot more about the flight profile of the vehicle. Love the design!

[@kevinmaloney2391]

I was just sitting here taping stencils to styrene for my Atlas when I found your new post. YOU HAVE OUTDONE YOURSELF!! THAT CRUISER IS A THING OF BEAUTY!! FANTASTIC JOB ON THE GREEBLIES!!. I think the idea of a space station would be a good project or even a drydock for the ships. VERY COOL YOU NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE!!

[@earlware4322]

Oh that would rock. A space dock (with or without a ship in it) sounds really fricken' cool!! I nominate this as a suggestion for your next large build.

[@earlware4322]

This was EPIC! I love scratchbuilt ships like this and you sir are a master of the styrene. Not only did you create and build this gorgeous spaceship, but you went to the trouble to prototype it and the make templates for your fans to build as well. Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@Iamvalcristvalentine]

Its always a good day for sublight drive. I would love to see you pick a starship theme and make 3 ships in the same "universe" but different scales. Like a cruiser, a frigate and a corvette ( or a tug maybe?) All in the same design concept. As always beautiful work.

[@Squidmaster2470]

Fantastic build. My suggestion for future builds is space pirates or raiders. The paint job with teeth felt like a good step into that sort of aesthetic.

[@russellpoland6637]

I just happened upon Your Channel, IMPRESSIVE! Your work reminded Me of the time spent with a very good friend w-a-a-y back in time, Sam Tauser, I wonder what he is doing now?? This ship is much like what he enjoyed working on. Well We did our building on paper. I am very pleased to have watched this AND that You have offered it fo building, I will be looking into this. Thank You for reminding Me of some great times and looking forward to more. I have subscribed. Looking forward to more videos. Take Care, Be Safe, God Bless, Later

[@PitstainHobbies]

This was one of the greatest modelling videos I have ever seen! The ship came out amazing!

[@FelipeDiaz-yd2zt]

Yep. You're 110%. It's looks much better than the spaceships from many movies.

[@lordraven1991]

It would have been awesome to have seen a side by side of this ship and your Atlas ones. Going forward, if you do build any more ships that are from the same lore base, it would be nice to see them all together to show of the scale.

[@Sublight_Drive]

I’ll have to do that! I haven’t taken a family photo of all of them together, but I ought to now that you mention it.

[@CM-ARM]

Ok, i do have to say that was really cool

[@wimhertogen5979]

Very very nice again. I love you're ability to make realistic sci-fi paneling for space ships.

[@scaleffect]

Outstanding as usual, expected nothing less. Looks very "universe" appropriate. Thanks for sharing your hard work and talents again!

[@thedefector6153]

You have no idea how much I needed to see this

[@johnhanley5546]

That takes me back a bit - loved the design build and paint- High Yield Nostalgia Warhead!

[@robturpin]

This is fantastic fella. Really cool design - I'm a big fan of the twin prow too.

[@herpenderper]

The ship also reminds me a lot of the USS Sulaco from Aliens. Keep up the awesome work!

[@eclectipunk]

Awesome! 🔥🔥🔥 Now you just need a big old space station for your ships to dock at!

[@OnyxIdol]

gorgeous build 👍 Like a star destroyer and the Sulaco had a baby.

[@kevinnazario1015]

Your videos have been incredibly helpful for me. Thanks to them I was able to build and finished An E- wing following your example . Plus a large world devastator and a custom space gunship. Thanks so much for your hard work.

[@cerisekappes580]

I’m always blown away by your creations!!!!! Looks amazing 😊😊😊

[@alessiodecarolis]

Outstanding as your others projects, doing such a big starship, expecialliy the paneling & detailing, is an arrowing job !

[@user-jk2gi1cv5p]

I have just found your channel and it awesome. Thank you creating this channel.

[@babbybailey2534]

Great job. Anyone could attempt this and wind up with interesting results. Nice build and paint work!

[@Dylan-er9ji]

One of my favourite channels. Gonna be buying this guide and gonna be building this bad boy soon

[@andrewszemis9399]

With all these awesome spaceship builds. You need to pick up A Billion Suns!

[@Trashbash_Creations]

Great Build, Your panels and detailing is fantastic.Great job!

[@SawABirdOnce]

Not sure if you’ve seen much of Jake Parker’s work, but I think it could be right up your alley!

[@Sublight_Drive]

I have! His stuff could be fun to kitbash, I think.

[@FelipeDiaz-yd2zt]

What a quite beautiful and impressive spaceship, a masterpiece. It's looks much better than the spaceships from many movies. I love it. I want to see it in a movie. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[@douggoins2960]

I've been working on my scratch building skills. This video gives me inspiration to keep at it. I have a diorama in the planning stages for my gunpla. I want to make a space colony. I'd love to see your take on a space colony

[@scapegt174]

I love the Festival of Lost notebook!

[@Sublight_Drive]

I actually made it couple few years ago to have as a fun prop (and not intending it to be a sketchbook), and when I realized that I needed a place to draw in it was right there waiting for me

[@Terran123rd]

RE aztecing: hue shifting might help there in the future. Assuming an individual project allows for it, a cool grey paired with a warm grey would really boost the contrast.

[@earlware4322]

Also, when painting two very similar colors close to one another like here I have found adding a drop or three of a contrasting color, like light blue, bright white or even a light sand really helps distinguish the colors.

[@anthony14rmg]

Really cool build. I can't wait to tackle one of these for myself.

[@lylewyant3356]

I'm a wannabe scratch builder. I have some Evergreen odds and ends. May just have to get a pack of sheets too...

[@chuckhomolka]

Thank you very much for doing this. I bought the plans and look forward to building it

[@Jechidat_Oketz]

Awesome. Thx for the Templates i must buy one 😛

[@isfj1009]

Solid sci-fi build, bruh!!

[@Deliverygrot]

I like the one with a shark face it looks like a pirate crew steal and modify it

[@cynicalmamc]

Excellent build sir, very UNSC, I can totally see that arriving at Reach just in time to see it get glassed 👍

[@wazigeralph]

What a nice creation. Well done awesome.

[@manzplainer]

This is badass. Learnt a lot!

[@stardude2006]

Nicely done ! 😎

[@Phaser1x]

Reminds me of the SULACO. Nice.

[@bentsprockettech]

Super detailed! Thanks for sharing this one with us.

[@ultraparadiso]

lovely build and great instruction. really nice work!

[@legionnaire5947]

Dude. I've wanted to try styrene sheet building and here you are. Easiest sub ever.

[@Sublight_Drive]

Sweet! It’s a great hobby, I’m always glad to see more people picking it up.

[@hauntedhobbies]

Brilliant work!

[@steveengstrom7336]

always enjoy watching you work! Love your designs! not sure how to show you my work here!

[@xXBocephusXx]

Excellent work as always. This one is super cool though! It would be cool to see your take on the ship on the cover of the book A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. It’s a sort of stingray shape and I’ve always loved it. Keep up the good work!

[@Sublight_Drive]

That thing is wild, I might have to give it a try one of these days. All the more reason to finally get a vacuforming rig lol

[@Daniel-Strain]

Excellent details!

[@agrayday7816]

Awesome Build!

[@deedevil63]

this is cool as hell man. amazing work

[@volatilesky]

Great method, I just tend to...wing it, mostly. But one thing I learned, even if you just cut shapes and stick odd shaped boxes together, is to have an initial drawing or reference you're going for on hand, and make a VERY rough paper mockup. Even a box that's roughly the shape and size you're going for. Least I'm really bad for scale creep, and things get oversized WAY beyond what I was intending. Which is why/how I have a super heavy landing shuttle for my 40k inquisition army, and not a slightly larger tank.

[@BPCustomCreations]

Really great as usual!

[@Latvian3Dman]

I absolutely admire your work, passion, skillz.

[@armandverhoef993]

George Lucas would have been proud of you. Amazing build...

[@KensToyz]

Excellent work!

[@reikofujiko991]

Finally!😊

[@mayhemmodz]

really impressive!!

[@THROTTLEPOWER]

Very cool, great vid!!!!!!!

[@pezi1]

Very impressive work. Instant subscribe

[@edutaimentcartoys]

amazing

[@Lunatic4ever.]

Oeh...very nice, like it!

[@typezero66]

I would align all my straight parts against each other. This means you have to cut one line less per panel. As well as waste material. Also if you make you templates more compact you will use way less styrene as well as paper

[@neiljvoice1603]

A beautifully designed and made ship.

[@blacktv5130]

This is awesome

[@samthompson2980]

Very nice ❤ impressive work 🎉

[@philippegobbo4393]

Bonjour merci pour cette vidéo. Un travail magnifique. Cordialement. Pg

[@grindsaur]

Nice!

[@Kitbash.Carnage]

Hi love your videos ❤ KitbashCarnage hear at the age of 31 iv recently got back into the warhammer/kitbashing community agen after taking 15year brake to pay bills and so on . I have taken the leap head on and started a youtube channel along with Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. It's hard with this algorithm thing is somthing to get used to along with editing and so on but my love and the flame for my lost passion has been reignited more then ever and dont plan on stopping soon . Along with having lots of content plans and already in the pipeline and also a Revamp to all social media with new header picture and profile picture from a digital contractor I sorced I hope to just gain more traction to the community iv came back to 🔥 Regards KitbashCarnage

[@diyfireking]

You did an amazing job. Everything is perfect ✨✨

[@DarthP00P00]

Reminds me of a Dindrenzi Federation Scuta-class frigate from the old wargame Firestorm Armada by Spartan Games. Game has long been out of print but those ship designs are amazing.

[@Sublight_Drive]

Firestorm Armada does have some rad ships

[@roelantverhoeven371]

i'd classify this one as a light cruiser, the proportions suggest it's large but not dreadnought sized. but maybe i'm thinking too much in SW terms ;p nice build!

[@CosmicQuestHobbies]

Awesome build!! This video provides a ton of inspiration🙂

[@Sublight_Drive]

Thank you! I always want to inspire others to make cool stuff.

[@alanbarker5232]

Ahhhh.... so that's what happens when a Star Destroyer breeds with the USS Sulaco! 😊

[@graefx]

I should get one of those machinist scribes

[@mrwoodandmrtin]

Beautifull work. dig this. It Evokes some of my favorite shapes. The Robocop gun. The Cantwell Millenium Falcon version. The Twin guns from the Black Hole. The ILM Stardestroyer... and so much more.

[@Sublight_Drive]

those are all good shapes

[@ThatVideoGuyTom]

Ok this is cool

[@snorkherder]

Excellent :)

[@kevinfinn6853]

If you stretch it out and add gun turrets. Then a double bridge.

[@ExiledPiasa]

Great job! How about a mix of ST and SW?

[@Lyagro]

Oh that's cool. Wish my hands were steady enough lol

[@stormlands]

it look like the automated destroyer from stellaris. :D

[@Beuwen_The_Dragon]

Fantastic work mate. I would ask to maybe write or link the tracks you use in the videos. The music is great vibes.

[@spectrumstudios4848]

It’s bow section is shockingly similar to the Charon class frigate from Halo.

[@RobertSE6]

Fantastic! Just got a couple of the templates and looking forward to start building :-) Have you thought about building something Chris Foss style? Or painting one of your own designs in that way?

[@tethys17]

I noticed you used a sharpie in an earlier build, you probably already know this but Gundam have an official range of paint pens that you might find useful.

[@iangreen4572]

Reminds me of the Sulacco from Aliens

[@deltazeta5506]

first! love your content buddy keep up the good work

[@hyperguyver2]

If you want a real challenge recreate one of your ships at studio filming scale and light it.

[@Sublight_Drive]

That would actually be a fun challenge. The biggest thing I’ve made so far is ~18 inches long, It’d be fun to see what new stuff I’d have to learn making a full studio scale model.

[@camer5371]

have you had a try of 2 things micro sol and micro set being the first they are a way to make decals like the ones you are using look more painted on rather than stuck on (warhammer hobbists are really good for stuff similar to this) and then the second being filling the internals of the ship with some expanding foam to keep the weight down but if you were to knock it or drop it minimise the damage done to the ship because the weight of the blow would be evenly distributed between the foam rather than solely on the joints of glue also it means it'll be a little less floaty which makes it easier to move and control

[@TaskForce577]

It would be cool if you made a discord server for everyone to share project and ideas.

[@marcoscaba3846]

Suggestion: Martian Tripod.

[@Tallacus]

Now it's ready to take on the covies

[@lanceanthony198]

Awesome. There’s way too few of these high-quality scratch styrene ship builds on KZbin. Do you really just free hand every single cut with an exacto and a ruler? I’m trying to get into styrene builds but manually cutting styrene by hand is always an abysmal process for me

[@Sublight_Drive]

Yup. I mean it's not really freehanding cause I'm using a ruler, but yeah I cut everything by hand. I've heard you can do it with a cricut but I've not tried it myself.

[@CloneCommanderCrater1102]

Very cool, totally not Forward Unto Dawn, ship. The little details are really well done. Are the front "prongs" a MAC cannon like they are on the UNSC frigates?

[@DrWhom]

It might be cool to build some ships by Chris Foss