1/64th Scale Aegis P5G Gladius 

A long time ago, in the year of 2017, a young RiceMaiden was asked to provide an Aegis Gladius model for a friend's birthday present. Through various circumstances the Gladius model was never finished and that friend went present-less. Vowing to right the wrongs of his broken promises, the RiceMaiden proceeded to not work on it... 

Even though my website doesn't properly show it, my backlog of half finishes Star Citizen ships is approaching 10 units deep. I've vowed to slowly right this wrong by digging in the archives and finishing out projects I've left out in the rain to rust. Finishing the Gladius dug out a file I haven't looked at in over a year.

The Gladius was a fun ship to finish. The curves weren't hard to handle and the overall shape shows well with wood. I used a slightly higher percentage of 3D printed material since at my usual scale some of the key components like guns, nozzles and intakes would be way too small.

While I didn't go for all the weapons, the iconic gattling gun on the nose was a must. I ended up having to freehand it since I had accidentally deleted it from my reference last year.

Using a variety of techniques, angled wings come way easier. Back when I was doing ships like the Buccaneer I was freehand placing the wing angles, which was tedious and time consuming.

The large intakes ended being 3D printed as I stated earlier. The fins and complex back curve really couldn't have been done justice in wood. The intakes are used to firmly affix a number of components, including the wings, tailfins and nozzles.

The nozzles ended up being a separate piece from the rest of the intake. I worried that printing the nozzle at the same orientation as the intakes would produce some janky looking parts.

The winglets were also a last minute design change. I originally had them being made in wood, but I worried they would not contrast the design enough to look good. 

The underside "rocket box" as I like to call it was fun to print. It's curved belly wouldn't sit flat on the 3D printer no matter what orientation I set it at.

Tucked in the back between the engines is a heatsink shaped thing that probably nobody will ever notice.

I'm glad the design is done as I am really looking forward to my next model. Digging out the Hoplite should yield my largest model to date!