Joe Brown’s Brakiri Heavy Cruiser

From 1999

Aside from the White Star, I thought that this was one of the neatest designs on  B-5: it was just a matter of time before I had to try building one.  The ship is completely built from blue foam (thank you, Dow-Corning!).  I discovered a number of illustrations of the ship from varied angles on the ‘net, and printed out the ones which would be helpful for a modeler.  I used coat hangers as very literal ‘underwire’ support for foam sections which join the bow of the ship to it’s wings.

It’s painted a gloss brown, because I still have problems finding acrylic paints which can be bought in spray cans…. I am slowly mastering my airbrush, and that will be a big help when I finally get the White Star ready for re-painting as well.  The windows are automotive pin-striping, cut to very small (1/16″) lengths.

The ship is 14″ length-wise,  11″ wide at the ‘wings’, and 18.5″ tall.  Fans of the show who have looked at it say that it looks in proportion to them, and it frew quite a few double-takes at The Secret City Annual Model Show in Oak Ridge in September.

Joe Brown