Star Wars Theme Group Build

blakeh1 said:
Yeah that is definitely the 5 ft rather than the 32" from ESB

On a side note, IIRC apparently that part is there because it was originally built to be able to rotate the cockpit, as well as providing cooling holes for the lights and motors.

In Sculpting a Galaxy, Lorne mentions this..

"At one time, the Falcon's cockpit was to be motorized so that it could be rotated 90 degrees. Lucas had the idea the ship would fly like a sunfish, landing flat, but at take off the body would rotate and the cockpit would remain in the same configuration. Though the end model did not include this feature, the cockpit module remained sleeved and could be rotated"

Of course, not letting it go to waste, they later wound up using the same design concept for the B-Wings
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To this point I really only look at the pictures and haven't read that. lol
 
First stage electronics. Wing and stabiliser lighting. For these, I'm using LED's from Light My Bricks. I had to dig channels in the plastic in order for the lights to sit correctly. I'll clean these up once assembled. These lights will pass through a flashing circuit which has a 2 stage switch so I can adjust the flashing speed. As I've mentioned earlier in the thread, this lighting kit is all plug and play and it's super simple to put together. I had to make adjustments to the "grappling claws" that hold the wings to the main hull but these are invisible when put together.

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blakeh1 said:
Also finished the other turret. Gave it a bit more time getting the various panel colors to match the set piece

and yes, I use my thumbnail to wipe excess paint off the brush before touching the brush to the model, or test if things are too runny, or check color, or need more thinning etc... :D

Not going to stress to much over neatness/crisp straight lines, since it only needs to look good from the front angle looking back instead of side on
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Great details, I love it. Pantherman
 
Pantherman said:
Great details, I love it. Pantherman
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thanks

Bandai really knocked it out of the park.

I find myself taking a lot of time during assembly looking over the pieces, recognizing some parts from the various WWI tanks and equipment, car parts ships parts as well as scratching my head how thy were able to get these parts cast with certain details
 
First ever attempt at working with fibre optics. I watched a few YT videos to see how other modellers achieved this and I thought I would try it myself. There was one particular video that was really helpful.

I pre-drilled 0.5mm holes in the cockpit panels while I waited for the 0.5mm filament to arrive from China. I ordered a couple of metres of it and I only just came away with enough. The average length of each filament was about 10cms. I wanted to give myself enough leeway for trimming and mistakes. After threading them through the holes, I flared the ends with a tea light candle then I divided the filaments roughly in two and passed each branch through some 5mm heat shrink tubing. I then used some Elmer's Glue to fix the heat shrink tubing in place. I then lined the underside of the nose with aluminium foil (bearing in mind I primed it as well with black) then I passed both branches into a final single piece of heat shrink tubing and fixed the LED to the other end, ensuring that there was no light bleed from the tube. Once it was all glued in place, I tested it and was surprised at just how successful it came out! Sandwiching the underside of the cockpit proved to be a bit of a challenge but I got there in the end and with a bit of putty and some touching up, I think it will look good. I'll also touch some transparent colours to some of the lights in the cockpit to give a little variation. You can see the 6 plug expansion board there which I've been using with a USB portable charger to test everything. Later on, all the lights will be plugged into a pair of 12 plug expansion boards which I'll mount inside the main hull.

Now, the reason I cut the cockpit door out of the back panel is answered here. I placed a red LED on the ceiling of the collar that connects the cockpit to the main hull. I'm hoping, when lit it will cast an appropriately ominous "Sith-like" glow on Darth Vader and you'll be able to see it when you peek through there.

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banistersmind said:
First ever attempt at working with fibre optics. I watched a few YT videos to see how other modellers achieved this and I thought I would try it myself. There was one particular video that was really helpful.

I pre-drilled 0.5mm holes in the cockpit panels while I waited for the 0.5mm filament to arrive from China. I ordered a couple of metres of it and I only just came away with enough. The average length of each filament was about 10cms. I wanted to give myself enough leeway for trimming and mistakes. After threading them through the holes, I flared the ends with a tea light candle then I divided the filaments roughly in two and passed each branch through some 5mm heat shrink tubing. I then used some Elmer's Glue to fix the heat shrink tubing in place. I then lined the underside of the nose with aluminium foil (bearing in mind I primed it as well with black) then I passed both branches into a final single piece of heat shrink tubing and fixed the LED to the other end, ensuring that there was no light bleed from the tube. Once it was all glued in place, I tested it and was surprised at just how successful it came out! Sandwiching the underside of the cockpit proved to be a bit of a challenge but I got there in the end and with a bit of putty and some touching up, I think it will look good. I'll also touch some transparent colours to some of the lights in the cockpit to give a little variation. You can see the 6 plug expansion board there which I've been using with a USB portable charger to test everything. Later on, all the lights will be plugged into a pair of 12 plug expansion boards which I'll mount inside the main hull.

Now, the reason I cut the cockpit door out of the back panel is answered here. I placed a red LED on the ceiling of the collar that connects the cockpit to the main hull. I'm hoping, when lit it will cast an appropriately ominous "Sith-like" glow on Darth Vader and you'll be able to see it when you peek through there.

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Love the lighting. Perfect levels of light
 
Pantherman said:
The amount of detail painting on this build is more than I expected although I am enjoying the work. It's just taking waaaaaaaay longer than I thought. Pantherman
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Yes it is very complex if you try to be screen actuate at all. So far the cockpit and Boba are looking awesome.

I think I finally got the paints I'm going to use sorted out after 2.5 days of looking at stuff and re looking. I'm finally ready to put the base coat on. The hull is looking like it will be five layers deep. I'm just glad it can all be airbrushed, except may some on the wings and back.
 

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