Adam Savage Builds a Starfield Spaceship
Take a moment to pause Starfield and check out Adam Savage's replica of the Frontier.
Adam Savage is, of course, best known for the iconic Mythbusters TV show. But in the years since Mythbusters went off the air, Savage has grown his Tested YouTube channel that focuses on the kinds of maker projects that we feature around here. As you would expect given his background as a model maker for film production, Savage likes to build props and replicas. For his newest project, he put those skills to work to build this miniature Frontier spaceship replica from the Starfield video game.
For those of you who were camping off-grid the last few days: Starfield is the "it" game right now. It is a massive RPG from Bethesda Studios set in space, with hundreds of planets the player can explore. To get from one planet to the next, the player needs a spaceship. The first spaceship the player can access is the Frontier, which is what Savage replicated here with some help from Bethesda Studios. The model is extremely accurate and intricate, with interior details and working lights.
As is typical for the Tested channel, Savage walks viewers through every step of the build and there are several hours of content. This required a variety of fabrication methods, from 3D printing to handcrafting EVA foam. Savage and his team painted the model by hand, putting an impressive amount of effort in weathering and nailing every detail.
To polish this model off, Savage and his team added functioning lights. Using in-game footage and information from Bethesda Studios as a reference, they replicated both the interior and exterior lighting. Most of the lighting comes from tiny LEDs, with an Adafruit Feather M4 development board controlling the various zones through MOSFETs. One MOSFET might, for example, control the engine lights and another might control the terminal panel backlighting inside the ship.
Savage built this model just like he would for film production, so it is entirely possible that Bethesda Studios will use it in some kind of promotional video. There are far too many details for us to cover here, so be sure to watch the whole video series on YouTube for all the information — and a whole bunch of useful tips for your own projects.
