Tomcat's 1/144 Rocinante (The Expanse)

[Tomcat64]

My entry for this year's Sci Fi build is the Rocinante from the TV/Prime series "The Expanse"

Intro

For those of you not familiar with the series here's a trailer off of YouTube


And a brief overview courtesy of our friends at Wiki with most spoilers removed.
Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has colonized the Solar System. The three largest powers are the United Nations of Earth and Luna, the Martian Congressional Republic on Mars, and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), a loose political confederation of colonies scattered across the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The United Nations is a militaristic, ultra-capitalist society with authoritarian undertones, while the Martians have evolved into a corporatist culture. Both ruthlessly exploit and oppress the "Belter" populations of the OPA to gain control of their valuable natural resources.

The Canterbury, an industrial ice-harvesting ship, and the Martian Navy flagship Donnager are destroyed by unknown stealth ships. The survivors of the Canterbury survive both attacks and escape in the Tachi, a Martian gunship. They rename the ship Rocinante, which becomes the main setting of the series.

The Rocinante is a fast light-attack frigate, and serves multiple roles including torpedo bomber and boarding craft. It is the MCRN's smallest ship and is powered by the "Epstein Drive".

Kit

I stumbled across this kit from Fantastic Plastic in the US when I spotted another of the ships from the series that had popped up randomly when I was searching for something else. It wasn't cheap but I decided to take the plunge and it was quickly shipped over.


Inside the box


This is a limited run style resin affair; and here are most of the parts - at this point I wasn't brave enough to break open the smaller bags


It does include what I will generously call "instructions" and two sets of identical decals


A typical view of a page in the "instructions"... I suspect this will be a voyage of discovery and trial and error

[Tomcat64]

Being a resin kit the first thing I did was wash, rinse and dry all the components.

Here are the larger parts


And the smaller ones - inside the box for safe keeping


Since our weekend plans went slightly awry I decided to make a start on the engine section


This involved a lot of sanding to tidy things up & also get the "spiky ring thing" to fit inside the engine bell where I thought it should go


I then added the outer components and lined up the braces on the hull section


But kept the bell dry fitted to ease handling & painting


That's all for this update thanks for checking in on the shipyard

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh wow, super cool
Not something I am familiar yet so will dive down the rabbit hole and watch some videos

[RangerNeil]

Following with interest!
The Expanse is a favourite show (although I'm quite a few episodes behind).

[digger303]

Very nice subject. I think I watched the series , but can't remember. I shall have to go back and refresh
Seems to be going together well which is great to see and you haven't got any small broken bits to contend with.

[Stokesy44]

That's a nice looking kit and good work on the engine bell

I've got Prime so you may have just hit the 'enabler' button (again)

[MrBowcat]

Looks to be a nice kit. I had read some of the books before watching the show, they did a good job of it.

[Tomcat64]

Oh wow, super cool
Not something I am familiar yet so will dive down the rabbit hole and watch some videos

Following with interest!
The Expanse is a favourite show (although I'm quite a few episodes behind).

Very nice subject. I think I watched the series , but can't remember. I shall have to go back and refresh
Seems to be going together well which is great to see and you haven't got any small broken bits to contend with.

That's a nice looking kit and good work on the engine bell

I've got Prime so you may have just hit the 'enabler' button (again)

Looks to be a nice kit. I had read some of the books before watching the show, they did a good job of it.

Thanks chaps

We were watching up to the end of season 3 on Blu-Ray but then Amazon got the rights and stopped releasing disks so we're going to start again now we've got Prime. I'll be honest and say there are a couple of characters that I find annoying but the overall story more than makes up for that and I love the spaceship visuals & effects.

[Tomcat64]

Before I start this update you might notice that I've got kitchen towel rather than my usual plain white backgrounds - this is due to the excessive amount of resin dust being generate. I had some idea of what I was getting into with a limited run resin kit but man there's a LOT of sanding & dust so I'm doing what I can to try and keep things as damp as possible to keep it under control.

Right... last time out I'd built the engine module, so next up is the rear body module... here's the blindingly clear instructions...


This comprised four sections to make an octagonal section - the key to getting things more or less lined up are these cutaways


Into which these shapes kind of fit...


After a lot of sanding & fettling we got a couple of the sections mostly lined up


Down the other end things don't look overly lined up but this actually fits inside the engine module so not too much of a problem


Additionally on the instructions it indicates the four "Control Thrusters"... after some head scratching I realised that there are two pairs and they're handed


And again with much tidying up and fettling they'll fit here


After a lot more sanding, cursing & trimming I got the octagonal section together


And more sanding resulted in it fitting into the engine module


But it will require some more attention after final assembly


Here's everything stacked up


But then I noticed the instructions mentioned 2 Landing Exhaust Fans, which are clearly indicated...


Ok I reckon it's 2 of these...


And then there was this clue...


AHA! They go in here then...


After more inevitable sanding


Ok time to deviate from the instructions as further down we're supposed to construct & install the weapons bays




Looks like the two-part bays have been replaced with single piece 3d printed parts


Needless to say they didn't fit in the available openings and I thought it'd be easier to fettle them in with the ship modules separate rather than trying to manipulate the whole thing once assembled... I started off with a sanding stick but then given the amount of thinning needed I broke out the dremel and made lots more dust

Anyway - they finally dropped in place


Right... onto the "Forward Module"


Here are the two main parts


I'll be honest & say although I know it's a limited run job I was expecting better casting than this for the price...




Another session of sanding and I managed to get the two main parts lined up; it's not mentioned in the instructions but you also have to chop out a section at the front to get the missile pods installed


Talking of the missile batteries the instructions say to install the bases and then the covers separately




Nope - not happening, I decided to build the pods up before installation


After they'd set they were installed and the whole thing was dry fitted to the rear module


Yep more fettling required later...


Once again I sanded down & installed the weapons bays and then stacked all the completed modules up


Just the command section to go but I'd decided I'd made enough dust for today so that'll happen next weekend


Overall it's starting to look the part although there'll be quite a lot more filling & fettling to go... I also need to work out some sort of "cradle" base for it as there's nothing included in the box

Thanks as always for looking

[RangerNeil]

Looking good - a testament to your expertise in "fettling"!!

[Stokesy44]

Looking good - a testament to your expertise in "fettling"!!

Fettling??? More like industrial grade remodelling! That resin was suffering from all kinds of the wrong warp factor!!!

[Stokesy44]

The end result is testament to your efforts mate. Great work.

[digger303]

Fettling until the end of the week by the looks. I know it will look great once done, just not envying the journey.
Your doing great and haven't lost your cool or the mojo

[Tomcat64]

Looking good - a testament to your expertise in "fettling"!!

The end result is testament to your efforts mate. Great work.

Fettling until the end of the week by the looks. I know it will look great once done, just not envying the journey.
Your doing great and haven't lost your cool or the mojo

Thanks chaps - methinks there's a little way to go on this one before she's ready for deep space...

Fettling??? More like industrial grade remodelling! That resin was suffering from all kinds of the wrong warp factor!!!

[Tomcat64]

Hello folks & welcome to this week's episode of "Sanding with Tomcat"

Today we tackled the command section... here are the superclear instructions


And here are some of the parts involved, in keeping with the rest of the kit the casting is... err... rough in places


But with the aid of my trusty sanding sticks and dremel (and copious amounts of swearage and muttering under my breath) it ended up looking a bit like this


Here's the underside - there was a bit of effort required (surprise!) to get everything to more or less fit and I sorted out the sensor arms and thruster thingies before nailing the main parts together... I've had to reprofile the back end of the section as fit was so out of whack but given it's a sci-fi ship I'm not overly bothered about reconfiguring her a little...


Much to my surprise this section fitted onto the mid-section fairly well... although it's a little loose and effectly just a butt joint so I might add some strengthening in there if I can


For those that are interested these three section have a top and bottom - with the bottom being identified by the location of the landing thrusters...


And finally here she is with all sections lined up...


Tomorrow I'll make a start on trying to tidy up some of the joints...

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

I'm looking , but where's the gun and turret

[Stokesy44]

I love the instructions with their arrows between the parts. Might as well just chuck part A at part B - that would be just as accurate!

Looking good though, still loving the modular shape of the ship

[Tomcat64]

I'm looking , but where's the gun and turret

Guns... turrets... stay tuned

I love the instructions with their arrows between the parts. Might as well just chuck part A at part B - that would be just as accurate!

Looking good though, still loving the modular shape of the ship

Cheers mate - yep this one is certainly making me work for it...

[Tomcat64]

I did a little bit of work last weekend and then picked up again today...

As mentioned at the end of the last episode I wasn't happy with how loose the fit was between the command section and the mid-section so I imrovised some girders


Which did the job; the join between the two sections was much firmer and hadn't knocked anything wildly further out of whack


but... then I looked at this


and thought


Having a trawl through the instructions for anything I might have missed showed up nothing until this clue in the painting "instructions"


And a rummage in the remaining parts turned up this


Which looked to fit here...


But with that in place the join between the two sections was now like this...


At this point last Sunday I seriously considered having a dig in the stash for a proper kit, but ended up bailing out & having a beer and watching a movie instead...

So back to this weekend and a session with my old mate Sandy Schtick


I've obviously been a bit over-zealous in places but it'll do given the amount of "making good" I've still got to do elsewhere


Oh yeah - I also found this bit in the remaining parts... again no indication of where the hell it's supposed to go - who knows... I might find a home for it eventually


I then switched ends and did some work trying to get the mid & rear section join to align a bit better; I got so far and then committed to CA - these are now permanently joined


Although there's still some work that'll need doing - I'm planning on cutting styrene sheet to make shims for the worst of the joins


And started using Mr Dissolved putty to make a start on some of the other gaps... there'll be several rounds of filling methinks


Feeling the need to stick something together I decided to have a look at these...




Here are the parts for one turret...


Do they fit any better than the rest of the kit? Do they buffalo... the ammo boxes are handed and have dislocating lugs that are too big for the slots on the body, the gun barrel doesn't fit under the "odd" looking sticky out thing etc etc... but with some application of snippers & sanders here you go Digger two of the six turrets


That'll do it for this weekend - we're heading out tomorrow and frankly that's a very good thing!

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

I can't see that part anywhere.

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1724785 ... ch_click=1

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1441594 ... ch_click=1

[Tomcat64]

I can't see that part anywhere.

I found it lurking in another crap-res photo in the instructions...


Yup - it's in the same place I just did all that work to get the hatch to fit; turns out if you're building it as the Tachi you use the hatch and if it's the Rocinante you use this panel instead. So after some appropriate swearing I fitted it onto the nose section which looked ok


Although you'll notice that the sides don't exactly match the angles of the module like the photo... but that's nothing compared to when you try & fit the two modules together again...




Right... so this time I chain drilled the missile pod and hacked out a section, which looks a bit rough


But has pretty much done the trick


I might tidy the hacked out section a bit more and see if I can get things to settle a little tighter and then it'll be onto filling gaps...

Thanks for looking

[Twokidsnosleep]

Lots of mods to do
Gotta love lots of mods but it will look so much better

[Tomcat64]

Lots of mods to do
Gotta love lots of mods but it will look so much better

Mebbe... I'm starting to thing I might have been better off trying to carve the thing from a block of wood...

[Tomcat64]

Ok not the most exciting of updates but I did spend some time last week starting to "sort out" some of the gaps...

But before that I found out at some point that Rocinante was the name of Don Quixote's horse... tilting at windmills seems somehow appropriate


I'm working from the middle outwards and started packing the bigger gaps with styrene shims of varying thickness - there are also some bubbles to fix


I'll keep on at this and do some tidying up with additional filler and probably some more shims


I also replaced the broken panel surrounding one of the gun emplacements


Next up in this area will be tidying up the busted casting on the gun emplacements themselves


Down the front end there is still more work required to try & tidy up the nose


And I'm still not happy with the lower panels on the command section; I might look at reskinning these with some styrene sheet rather than keep hacking away with the sanders


At this point I decided I'd had enough for the day and went and pulled a Tamiya kit out of the stash for some light relief.

Hopefully I'll get a bit more time on this one this weekend.

[digger303]

The kit has some challenges for one that only has a dozen pieces to it.

[cor]

That kit looks like a nightmare

[RangerNeil]

When its finally finished you will be able to look at it and get that glow of pleasure from knowing you effectively turned a frog into a princess.

[Quax]

This just reminds me of why I don’t do sci-fi builds…

I commend your dedication!

Paul

[aur0ra145]

That's a lot of gaps. Have you looked into Green Stuff or Liquid Green Stuff? A lot of people use it for figure building and plugging gaps. It's sort of putty like, then cures hard.

[Tomcat64]

The kit has some challenges for one that only has a dozen pieces to it.

That kit looks like a nightmare

When its finally finished you will be able to look at it and get that glow of pleasure from knowing you effectively turned a frog into a princess.

This just reminds me of why I don’t do sci-fi builds…

I commend your dedication!

Paul

Thanks for the moral support guys - much appreciated

That's a lot of gaps. Have you looked into Green Stuff or Liquid Green Stuff? A lot of people use it for figure building and plugging gaps. It's sort of putty like, then cures hard.

Yup I've got a bottle of Liquid Green Stuff on the bench along with a whole range of fillers - most of which have been deployed

Most of them are ok for minor gaps but the chasms I'm working with on this one required something a bit more substantial - if only squadron putty still existing

[Tomcat64]

It's been a 3-day weekend over here and having spent the first couple of days doing other stuff I bravely ventured into the den today

And waded in with the filling - I had to buy a new pack of Milliput White as the old pack had gone off; anyways the bigger gaps were stuffed with shims & milliput and then followed up with Vallejo putty - the advantage of the latter is that it has a fairly long/thin nozzle on the tube so can be aimed in the general direction of where it's needed and then followed up with other tools to pack it in


With that festering away to itself I started on fixing the gun turret bay surrounds with some 0.13mm sheet cut into strips


I'd strategically placed the worst of the lot on the underside so most of this bodgework won't be seen - additional tidying up was done after I took the photo


Switching to a different chunk the drive section was probably the best cast piece of the whole kit but not without some minor filling required - here it is in progress


Once that was more or less sorted I took the plunge and CA'd this to the mid-section I'd previously been working on and then waded in with more shims & filler to try and get that join under way as well


There's obviously more work to be done back there but for now I'll leave it a few days to allow all the various types of putty to either cure or spontaneously combust; for now here is how the stack looks


Next time I'm going to have to bite the bullet & make a start on that damn nose section I guess

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

Have you thought about using some UV resin for those gaps. It's manipulated levelled with a brush then you give it a burst of UV light to harden it. It should cut down on the clean up time. You clean it up before you harden it is the way I understand it is used. I've ordered some to try it.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... ry_from%3A

[Twokidsnosleep]

She is putting up a fight but coming along nicely
Totally missed the Don Quixote reference

[Stokesy44]

Have you thought about using some UV resin for those gaps. It's manipulated levelled with a brush then you give it a burst of UV light to harden it. It should cut down on the clean up time. You clean it up before you harden it is the way I understand it is used. I've ordered some to try it.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... ry_from%3A

You know the gaps are considerable when talk of new ways to fill them becomes the main topic on the thread!

[Tomcat64]

She is putting up a fight but coming along nicely
Totally missed the Don Quixote reference

Thanks mate - yep this has gotten unexpectedly epic in terms of fettling

Have you thought about using some UV resin for those gaps. It's manipulated levelled with a brush then you give it a burst of UV light to harden it. It should cut down on the clean up time. You clean it up before you harden it is the way I understand it is used. I've ordered some to try it.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... ry_from%3A

I hadn't thought about it & it's probably a bit late for this one but will definitely be investigating as it looks like that might be really useful for sorting stuff out on diorama/figure bases as well as filling gaps

You know the gaps are considerable when talk of new ways to fill them becomes the main topic on the thread!

Ain't that the truth!

[Tomcat64]

Well I steered clear of this one for a couple of weeks as I could hear it growling at me from the bench every time I wandered near to the den doorway pondering what to do with it...

Sooo last Sunday I dived back in and started off by attaching the nose section with lashings of CA

As expected this left me with asymmetrical amounts of bodging to do on either side




Instead of trying to sand & fill & sand (rinse & repeat) I decided to add an unofficial new panel to cover the gaps and run onto the nose section in an attempt to make it look less obvious as a filler (sorry about the crap focus on this one)




Fillets & filler were also deployed to complete the job




Down the back end I laid down some grey primer to see how things were going & also to highlight where somewhat inevitably there was more work to do


I think it's finally getting there


I've also drilled out a couple of holes on the underside to take some brass rod into a base - but for the moment here it is up on clamps


I've decided to take the approach of adding additional "plating" from 0.13mm styrene sheet to cover some of the more irritating gaps back there too.

I've got a couple of days off this week so all being well I'll be able to at least get a final coat of primer down to see if there's anything else that needs extra attention.

Thanks as always for tuning in

[digger303]

A nice neat solution.

[RangerNeil]

Looking good!! I like the idea of the infill panels to save on the filling.

[Stokesy44]

This kit manufacturer must be taking backhanders from Milliput, or maybe Polycell has kidnapped their kids!

Great work mate, you continue to prove yourself far braver than I.

[Tomcat64]

A nice neat solution.

Looking good!! I like the idea of the infill panels to save on the filling.

This kit manufacturer must be taking backhanders from Milliput, or maybe Polycell has kidnapped their kids!

Great work mate, you continue to prove yourself far braver than I.

Thanks chaps

[Tomcat64]

OK just a short update from today's session at the bench...

After adding some additional unoffical panels (that I forgot to photograph in their raw state) I started laying down some Ultimate black primer to get a uniform layer

This was done in three sessions due to the problems I have in finding some way to hold/support the thing; there were a couple of minor runs where I've gone in a bit heavy but that'll be sorted with some quick sanding back & repriming

Since I had the airbrush & primer out I took the opportunity to give the engine bell a first coat - in this case Vallejo Exhaust Manifold; I'll be putting at least one more layer down and may well mist a lighter shade of metallic over the top to give a bit of depth


And what was I doing between coats of primer? Finalising the assembly of the point defence system guns - needless to say nothing really fit the way it should and there was a lot of sanding/trimming & drilling - on the drilling bit some of the 3d printed items don't like to be drilled and have a tendency to shatter instead... what fun!


I'll try and tidy the paintwork up this week if I get chance in the evenings and then start laying down the actual grey to get this starting to look like the finished item.

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

Another positive step forward.

[Stokesy44]

Wow that looks like a completely different beast with the primer laid down. Shows all that hard work has paid off. She is looking SWEEEEET.

The guns look pretty cool too.

[hakkikt]

Just found this thread in a random search for references and registered on the forum to congratulate you on your Roci so far. I have had very similar experience with mine - almost nothing really fits, some ugly mold defects and a broken engine bell. I am as far as you were in early September: still filling, no paint yet. Watching this thread with much interest and wish you the best of success!

[Tomcat64]

Another positive step forward.

Wow that looks like a completely different beast with the primer laid down. Shows all that hard work has paid off. She is looking SWEEEEET.

The guns look pretty cool too.

Thanks chaps

Just found this thread in a random search for references and registered on the forum to congratulate you on your Roci so far. I have had very similar experience with mine - almost nothing really fits, some ugly mold defects and a broken engine bell. I am as far as you were in early September: still filling, no paint yet. Watching this thread with much interest and wish you the best of success!

to the forum & thanks for taking the time to post on the thread

Sorry to hear that you've hit the same kind of problems that I did - I was kind of hoping that mine was just a rogue casting but it looks like it's they way they churn them out. Needless to say I won't be picking up anything else from Fantastic (!) Plastic again.

If you get chance I'd love to see how yours turns out so we can compare notes

[Tomcat64]

I must admit I thought I'd already posted some of what's about to come... but anyways...

Sooo after a couple of coats of primer I painted the PDC bays with Anthracite grey as I wanted a contrast to the lighter grey of the outer hull (sorry about the additional sanding dust!)


Then I tried to test fit one of the weapon turrets to see how bad the fit was... the fit was inevitably bad but in addition I managed to shove one of the bays into the interior...




After some appropriate Klingon expletives I finally managed to fish the damn thing out... battered a bit but out... needed fixing... again


With that bay refettled it was shoved back in with a gallon or two of CA and then the whole thing was reprimed & given a base coat of Light Ghost Grey


Which revealed some foul-ups that I hadn't attended to properly




That oversight was bodged back into shape and then repainted.

At some point I'd picked up a set of Green Stuff World flexible digital camo masks and tried them out on a scrap of styrene that I keep around for just these eventualities


Ok that seemed to work ok so I tried it on the engine section


I'm using Dark Gull Grey as the camo colour and aside from a few problems keeping the masks still & straight I think it'll do the job


I'll keep working my way around the panels and see how it looks; in the meantime the gun turrets have been based in the same Anthracite grey used on the bays and once I've fixed the broken leg on one of them I'll start picking out details.

That's all for now - thanks for looking

[Stokesy44]

Seeing what happened with pushing the bay into the kit I was reminded of a phrase voiced by our hero, Lord Edmund Blackadder.

"The path of my life is strewn with cow pats from the devil's own satanic herd!"

Its like when you push in a window on a WW2 bomber and its like the fekkin world has ended.

Great save though and I love the use of the digital camo, it immediately removes the 'plastic' look so you're on your way with a great base coat to work with

[Tomcat64]

Seeing what happened with pushing the bay into the kit I was reminded of a phrase voiced by our hero, Lord Edmund Blackadder.

"The path of my life is strewn with cow pats from the devil's own satanic herd!"

Yup that sums up this build entirely

Its like when you push in a window on a WW2 bomber and its like the fekkin world has ended.

Great save though and I love the use of the digital camo, it immediately removes the 'plastic' look so you're on your way with a great base coat to work with

Thanks mate - making slow progress but getting there....

[Tomcat64]

Just the one photo for this update although it actually covers a lot of work as the digi-camo is going down and (I think) heading in the right direction


I'm basically masking off & spraying one or two panels at a time which is obviously time consuming but for the most part preventing overspray.

I've had to redo a few panels where I hadn't held the mask properly... and in one case where the cat handed me the anthracite grey instead of the gull grey

I'll keep plodding away but I'm finally happy with where this is heading

Thanks as always for looking

[Steve64]

Hey Tomcat,

That's a great choice of subject and wonderful build so far. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Steve.