As promised, we’re going to be accelerating the pace of updates at the Ship Works to try and keep pace with Serenity’s sculptor, who seems to have entered some type of advanced Zen waking dream state where he requires no rest or food, just the occassional spritz with one of those plant watering sprayers, to keep going. All he does is produce amazing new parts. For example – the main engine intake.
The main engines are Serenity’s primary source of thrust – both in space and atmo – and have a lot of articulation to support the Series 3 Firefly’s terrific maneuverability. Despite appearances, the reactor in the back doesn’t not produce much, if any, thrust (the so-called “Firefly Effect” is simply a trail of radiation Serenity leaves behind when she goes to hard burn).
The intake is the dome-like structure on the front of the engine which is used to move air through the engine when in atmo and in transition to space, where the engines operate like a pre-cooled (LACE) turbojet. As noted in previous articles, the main engines underwent a major redesign between the series and the movie, and the intakes were not exempted from that redesign, as you can see below:
The Main Engine Intake – Firefly
The Main Engine Intake – Serenity
Because the scale of the Artisan Replica is only 1/180 (18 inches overall), capturing all the little details is a time-consuming, but ultimately rewarding, process. Note the rivets:
And just to give you a better sense of just how tiny those details are, here’s the intake with a ruler:
The level of detail on this thing never ceases to amaze me. I’m also impressed with how quickly it’s going.
I agree with you Michael! Everything we have seen so far is really pointing toward an incredible ship. After seeing the Blockade Runner from FX and all of it’s fine details, I’m sure nothing will be missed here. And my “Serenity Fund” is growing nicely at home so the more detail the better!
Thanks again for the extra update Andy.
jim
Will there be an optional scale figure of Crow that can be tossed into the intake? *grin*
Hmmm… sounds like a great opportunity for a fan-made add-on
Inches? Yikes. Why no centimeters?
Lookin’ great though!
Steve – it’s 7cm
Thanks, Admin. But that’s not quite what I meant. Even me, as an American in America (disclosure: and a member of the US Metric Association), find fractions of an inch confusing, as the ruler above displays. In general, feet and inches are fine by me, but fractions of an inch are just clumsy, in my opinion. Mils, being 1/1000 of an inch, are nice, but in most applications are impracticable (including the Serenity replica I’m sure).
Akin, that was my first thought, too.
Love the detailing with the rivets. I foresee conversations like this popping up in my future:
-Hey, man, you wanna do something?
-Can’t. Busy.
-Doing what?
-Looking at Serenity.
- :hangs up:
-Bye.
This looks to be adding up to a total ship size of around a foot long. How far off is my guess?
My bad, I see the 18″ comment now, sorry. Anxious to see this in production. I’ll starting figuring out where she’ll be displayed.
My husband has a scale model of a Gulfstream 550 jet, and it is currently parked on top of the TV. I think it is going to have to find a new home when Serentiy arrives! But then I may have to put the Firefly on my dresser, so I can see it just before I go to sleep, and right when I wake up!
I love that ship, and I want to thank all the folks working on this amazing project for their gifts of artistry and their dedication to detail.
I can see future trivia games with questions like, “How many rivets are on the main engine intake?”