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Description

Ported to OBJ and given basic textures from the STL model recreation by Steven Munger. Based on the original design by Filmation Associates as seen in the Flash Gordon animated feature film and TV series from the early 1980s. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download this from the link below but be warned. This does not include textures because STL models are made for use with a 3D printer. If you want this textured then you'll have to texture it yourself. Anyway, here's the link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:6031…

Maestro, roll the opening!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKFYZT…

Flash Gordon was the first ever sci-fi franchise in Hollywood history. Created back in the 1930s, it was based on the classic sci-fi weekly comic strip by Alex Raymond which was wildly popular at the time. Decades later in the 1980s Filmation Associates got the animation rights to it and did their own take -- which many of us Flash Gordon fans believe is the best to day and the most faithful to the original story. It plays it straight, stays true to its source material, the visuals are simply fantastic, and it does an excellent job all around -- without any of the high camp or bad acting of the cult classic Dino de Laurentiis live action feature film that also came out around the same time. But I digress ....

This is the second most iconic spacecraft of Filmation's Flash Gordon. It's the staple vehicle for the space navy of Emperor Ming the Merciless, and is best described as a combination heavy fighter (more like a space gunboat, wink), assault craft, and general purpose transport. It's seen a lot in both the feature film and the series proper being used as a jack-of-all-trades vehicle (probably to keep animation costs down, wink). It is fitted with two synched heavy laser cannon as standard armament that are powerful enough to destroy even reinforced fortified positions with a single synched double blast. It also has a large hold normally used for the transport of several companies of Ming's robot army for assault operations, although this hold can be and is often used for transporting cargoes of other kinds. This hold can also be fitted with ordinance racks for bombing operations and other similar functions (space mine laying, et al). All in all a very versatile craft, the Ming Fighter, and it's no wonder that it enjoys his complete confidence in its proven abilities.

This model is better than the one I showed you of the Filmation version of Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship. There's an even better one out there by Steve Caldwell (artisteroi) but it comes segmented and I haven't found enough free time to sit down and work with it. This one was a quick port and wasn't too bad to texture, although I couldn't get the red starburst paint job on the nose right due to the way the model is built. Still, the general shape is right and Mr. Caldwell's model is begging for custom textures to make it more accurate, if any of you who specialize in making custom textures want to tackle it.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. Please credit the original creator of this 3D model if you use it in your own efforts. Thank you.

ASIDE - Ming's space navy has at least one more major ship type, the Ming Interceptor "flying pencil" (chuckle), but you only see them in the movie whenever they shoot down Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship as it gets close to Mongo. The only other times you see them after that is when that exact same footage is recycled for other uses in later episodes of the series. I haven't yet seen a free 3D model of the Ming Interceptor, but I'd be happy to add a piccy of your effort to Mandel's if you want to make your own 3D model and send a copy of your model to me.

TRIVIA - The color of the cockpit windows as seen from the outside switches back and forth from yellow to green and back again, depending on where you are in the movie or regular series and which scene it's in. Most of the sequences that were rotoscoped have the yellow windows, while the green windows turn up in the most of the hand dawn scenes. The same thing happens with Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship in the show. I went with yellow this time around partly to set it apart from Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship and partly because the yellow windows are what you see with the Ming Fighter most of the time on screen. LOTS of recycled animation, and Filmation was notorious for that in all of their efforts over the years (hey, it saved money!). Most fans find it best to simply ignore this animation discrepancy rather than try to explain it, and I recommend you do the same and enjoy the show (wink).

Description

Ported to OBJ and given basic textures from the STL model recreation by Steven Munger. Based on the original design by Filmation Associates as seen in the Flash Gordon animated feature film and TV series from the early 1980s. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download this from the link below but be warned. This does not include textures because STL models are made for use with a 3D printer. If you want this textured then you'll have to texture it yourself. Anyway, here's the link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:6031…

Maestro, roll the opening!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKFYZT…

Flash Gordon was the first ever sci-fi franchise in Hollywood history. Created back in the 1930s, it was based on the classic sci-fi weekly comic strip by Alex Raymond which was wildly popular at the time. Decades later in the 1980s Filmation Associates got the animation rights to it and did their own take -- which many of us Flash Gordon fans believe is the best to day and the most faithful to the original story. It plays it straight, stays true to its source material, the visuals are simply fantastic, and it does an excellent job all around -- without any of the high camp or bad acting of the cult classic Dino de Laurentiis live action feature film that also came out around the same time. But I digress ....

This is the second most iconic spacecraft of Filmation's Flash Gordon. It's the staple vehicle for the space navy of Emperor Ming the Merciless, and is best described as a combination heavy fighter (more like a space gunboat, wink), assault craft, and general purpose transport. It's seen a lot in both the feature film and the series proper being used as a jack-of-all-trades vehicle (probably to keep animation costs down, wink). It is fitted with two synched heavy laser cannon as standard armament that are powerful enough to destroy even reinforced fortified positions with a single synched double blast. It also has a large hold normally used for the transport of several companies of Ming's robot army for assault operations, although this hold can be and is often used for transporting cargoes of other kinds. This hold can also be fitted with ordinance racks for bombing operations and other similar functions (space mine laying, et al). All in all a very versatile craft, the Ming Fighter, and it's no wonder that it enjoys his complete confidence in its proven abilities.

This model is better than the one I showed you of the Filmation version of Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship. There's an even better one out there by Steve Caldwell (artisteroi) but it comes segmented and I haven't found enough free time to sit down and work with it. This one was a quick port and wasn't too bad to texture, although I couldn't get the red starburst paint job on the nose right due to the way the model is built. Still, the general shape is right and Mr. Caldwell's model is begging for custom textures to make it more accurate, if any of you who specialize in making custom textures want to tackle it.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. Please credit the original creator of this 3D model if you use it in your own efforts. Thank you.

ASIDE - Ming's space navy has at least one more major ship type, the Ming Interceptor "flying pencil" (chuckle), but you only see them in the movie whenever they shoot down Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship as it gets close to Mongo. The only other times you see them after that is when that exact same footage is recycled for other uses in later episodes of the series. I haven't yet seen a free 3D model of the Ming Interceptor, but I'd be happy to add a piccy of your effort to Mandel's if you want to make your own 3D model and send a copy of your model to me.

TRIVIA - The color of the cockpit windows as seen from the outside switches back and forth from yellow to green and back again, depending on where you are in the movie or regular series and which scene it's in. Most of the sequences that were rotoscoped have the yellow windows, while the green windows turn up in the most of the hand dawn scenes. The same thing happens with Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship in the show. I went with yellow this time around partly to set it apart from Dr. Zarkhov's rocketship and partly because the yellow windows are what you see with the Ming Fighter most of the time on screen. LOTS of recycled animation, and Filmation was notorious for that in all of their efforts over the years (hey, it saved money!). Most fans find it best to simply ignore this animation discrepancy rather than try to explain it, and I recommend you do the same and enjoy the show (wink).