Revell Eta-2 Actis starfighter

[roflmaoist]

Hi everyone (or whoever's interested in a noob's further attempts at lighting kits...),

I've pretty much finished my Viper Mk. II and now I've started a slightly simpler kit in order to practice my lighting skillz. I picked up the Revell snap tite Eta-2 actis obi wan starfighter which i'm going to repaint (possibly as Mace Windu's purple and grey fighter) and light. Although it's a lowly snap-together kit, it's actually really well detailed and makes a great quick build. It's also one of the most interesting starfighters from the new star wars movies (which isn't actually saying much, imho...).

I was inspired to build this after seeing Diego Quijano's blog: http://dqscaleworks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/obi-wans-starfighter-work-revell-124.html

He's done an amazing job including a scratch-built pilot. Cool stuff.

I might also try sculpting a pilot (the one that comes with the kit is an awful vinyl floppy monstrosity) but we'll see. That might be a bit out of my league.

I wanted to have the batteries and circuitry all contained in the model. THere's a nice little compartment in each wing which perfectly fit 3V coin batteries. I wanted to be able to access and replace the batteries so I cut out a panel from the upper hull and hinged it by soldering a wire across the gap to the positive contact which i stuck to the bottom of the cut away panel. I then built a cradle for the batteries from bits of sprue and a harvested copper contact plate. The upper panel lid is secured in place with small neodymium magnets. All the wiring fits neatly behind the cockpit tub, though it was a bit fiddly getting it all in. I found an 'on/off' circuit board in a cheap torch so that i could use a simple momentary or 'push button' switch to turn the lights on. I drilled a hole in the lower right hand wing to accommodate this.

I used superbright white leds which are powered by two 3V coin batteries. Each led has a 150Ohm resistor attached to it.

Here are some pics.

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[roflmaoist]

some more pics:

There will be fibre optics in the back of the pilot compartment as per the Episode III prop and some improvised coloured lighting in the control panels. I'll colour them with tamiya clear paints.

For the engines, i painted the led bulbs with tamiya clear blue. I stuck the leds at the back of each engine can and used rolled up printer paper to direct the light to the engine's aperture. Looks cool, i think.

More soon...

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[blakeh1]

very cool!!!

 

[roflmaoist]

 

[Grendels]

Looks good!

 

[Junkie]

Cool!

 

[Quaralane]

A lot of work, but it looks like it should pay off

 

[Glorfindel]

Looks sweet.

 

[roflmaoist]

Ach, sculpting a pilot for this is a NIGHTMARE! Anyone know of any good sculpting guides on the web? Or, come to that, any decent 1/24 pilots I could modify?

Thanks all!

 

[roflmaoist]

I've finished the lighting and almost stuck everything together. The canopy doesn't close properly and leaves big gaps that I'll have to fill later. I've just about managed to sculpt Mace Windu (from milliput and super sculpey). It's not exactly the best sculpt in history but it'll do. I'm hoping that he'll look better when he's painted. I'm going to add hands when he's fixed in place in the canopy because I want his hands to be gripping the joysticks.

More to come soon. This kit is proving to be an excellent way of procrastinating while I should be finishing my phd. Not good. Not good at all... :-\

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[Grendels]

That figure looks good. And it will look even better with paint. Nice lighting work as well.

 

[roflmaoist]

well, Mace Windu's finished. Not exactly great, but as a first foray into sculpting i'm not too displeased with it. Sculpting the face was very difficult and I've not figured out how to round and smooth super sculpy, which is why his face is all hard edged and crumbly. Still, live and learn, eh?




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[roflmaoist]

Oh, and thanks for the comment Grendels! I love lighting kits!

 

[Grendels]

There is a softener solution for Scuplty. Maybe that would help. I got some at the local Hobby Lobby.

 

[roflmaoist]

HELP!

I just tried to clean some paint off the canopy with airbrush reamer and it's really messed up the plastic. I think the plastic has melted slightly. What a stupid thing to do. I've tried putting some future multi-surface-wax on it but with no luck.

Pics included.

Can anyone help? Or is that it - nothing I can do?

:-[

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[spud]

sand it smooth with some fine sandpaper just keep using finer paper, im sure somone will tell you the propper way but thats what i would do

 

[roflmaoist]

Thanks buddy. Won't that make the plastic even more opaque though?

 

[Osquitz]

have you tried toothpaste?? that usually does the trick....
let me know, good luck !

 

[roflmaoist]

Toothpaste?? Wow! Will regular colgate do the trick? I've just tried spud's sanding suggestion - helped a bit. I'm waiting for a coat of future to dry to see if that helps... If not, I'll go for the toothpaste trick! Thanks for that!

 

[roflmaoist]

I'm amazed, the toothpaste actually helped! I rubbed the toothpaste in, rinsed it off and then dunked the canopy in future. It's still not quite transparent but it's better than it was. I'm going to repeat the process when the future's cured. Hopefully that'll do the trick.

As it is, it's just about acceptable. I won't be using airbrush reamer to clean canopies again. Thanks so much for the help guys! I'll post a photo when I've had another toothpaste session so you can see the improvement.

Cheers!