mslz22

Big set of decals for this has arrived. I am done molding the probe droid kit and i am actively casting that now, so in between casting rounds I will finish up the last little bits on this and get cracking on the test build. thanks mike

Thanks, couple more, could not resist playing with the arms, and top cannon..... mike

Thanks guys, I know this is a complete mess, but i could not resist the urge to do a quick mock up with a combo of some cast parts and some of the pattern. Some of the pattern parts have damage from molding but I just really wanted to see this thing stand up for a couple of minutes...it's massive! thanks mike

Got few minutes to put together a foot...the foot alone is bigger than the body for the Capt's 1/72 body... thanks mike

Hey guys, quick update I am about 95% done with the molds, just a few small parts to go. However, I have been pulled away on another casting project for a few weeks, so this will slow to a crawl while I work on that. I won't make it to WF this year anyway, life is just too busy with the kids and my wife's job, I hope to make it next year. I do hope to at least get a test cast done sometime this week to show off. thanks mike

There should be decals in there, look for a folded up piece of cardboard, at the top of the box. I thought i marked it as decals but maybe not, let me know if you don't find them. thanks mike

Hey guys, little delayed after being home with a sick kid for a few days but back at it today, got the rotocaster spinning for the main body engine and main arm cannon, nice and light castings. Body detailing is done, need to mold that soon, handful of other molds are already done. Couple more weeks to go with my other work load but getting there... Pardon the messy work bench, always gets the worst right before the end of a project. thanks mike

Big cannon, closing in on the fine tuning on the body. I am starting some molding today, the big arm cannon is already in rubber... thanks mike

Leg standing up with a little help from a 1/48 friendly. I am hoping to make it to WF with this but things are up in the air a bit right now. I hope to have some molding going on this mid-week next week. thanks mike

Terrific observation, I had that right next to me building the pattern. I always liked the slightly fuller "face" of that art compared to some of the other depictions of it that has a more "caved in" or "i just ate a lemon" look. I, like many of us here, fell in love with so much of the original box art all those years ago, I have most of my boxes displayed on shelves above me where i work, for inspiration. They fueled my imagination and model building for a long time now... thanks mike

Close to done, spent a late night putting on the decals, nice quiet work after the kids go to sleep....still some tweaking to do but getting there... thanks mike

I've been spread between doing the 1/24 build up (should have an update this week), casting the other pods and working on this a bit, so thought it might be nice to share a bit of progress. Right now i have almost all the major parts at least "roughed in" with some detailing started on some of the parts. I still have the usual stuff to refine, scratches, small changes, more detailing etc. as well as some scratch work to do on various smaller parts. Main body thruster is a casting. I am hoping to have this done for display at WF contest tables, but not sure if that will happen. More as it comes. Soda can and drill for scale, this thing is HUGE! thanks mike

Decals just showed up, can't wait to put them on! If any of you guys with the 1/60 need decals I can get you in touch with JT graphics for a set. thanks mike

If you are going with a metallic look you could use Tamiya gunmetal in a spray can, it's easy and Tamiya is a quality paint. Just be sure to shake the heck out of the can before spraying. Tamiya has always shown good adhesion for me so it should be good for the resin, use multiple light coats and be sure to clean the parts first. I would recommend just a light soap and water but be sure to really rinse the parts so there is no soap residue to mess up adhesion.

Do you mean supplies like the lights/paint etc or total cost to scratchbuild it? thanks mike

I'll cover lighting some more when i get to the LED's and such. Right now my wife is away for a few days so I am not going to get much done between now and Monday on this but hope to be working on it more early next week. thanks mike

The issue with the left leg is that the inner lower leg is a little too close the the arm assembly, luckily it's fixed pretty easily with a few swipes of a rasp on the inner mid leg mounting peg, not the mid leg but the mounting peg. This will draw the leg away from the arm assembly and give you some room to get the alignment correct. The arm assembly and the legs fit very tight together and I knew that this was going to take a little time to get all together, but a little time now will make it all much easier later on. After only a few hrs of work i have all the alignment pins, bolts, and wire openings all set. Now that i know the legs and arms are headed in the right direction and the upper and lower fuselage match up well it should start to get more fun from here.....at least after i get those fiber optic trenches filled.... Like i said, all this prep work here will make it much more enjoyable from here on it.

Up next was to start to get the legs aligned correctly. One of the issues with big kits it that even a small misalignment in the making of the pattern can throw things out of alignment in a dramatic way, a 1mm misalignment at one end could be a 3 or 4 mm problem when compounded by the length of something like the legs. It's usually difficult to detect in the making of the pattern because you can't glue everything together before molding and sometimes an issue will not show up until you get to building the model. I usually can anticipate where there might be an issue with some part and leave a little extra meat on parts just in case an issue pops up. The legs are such a part and i will get to that later on, but for now I will show you that i to check the alignment by making a center mark on the lower fuselage and temporarily attaching the arm assembly and centering that. I start with the right side and get that aligned with the arms and the body. This one went fine. Once i have it in alignment I put a spot of glue onto the mid leg to inner lower leg connection, which i will pin later. I also drill a 5/32 hole from the lower fuselage to the mid leg in a hidden spot. Along with the intake bolt this give me 2 points of alignment and 2 points to secure the leg together. I've also drilled holes for the wires that will run to the thrusters as well as drilling a 5/8 mounting hole in the mid leg, this will allow for mounting and main power wires.

Some of todays progress. First up is to put a #8 bolt into the intakes. this is in an area that gets covered with the intake guards, but they still get a little countersunk. Once this was done i held it in place on the lower fuselage and marked it's coresponding hole for the bolt. The next 2 pics show where I drilled holes to run power, these are both in areas that will not be seen when the valk it together.

Thanks, one more before heading out....1/16 fiber optic run thru the tailfins. I will cover the trench with Apoxy Scupt, less chance of cracking over time and it cures a very similar hardness to the resin, so blending will be easier. I will repeat this for the wing tips as well... I did not include clear tips for the tail lights in the kit but if you need them let me know. thanks mike

I clean and glue up the back half of the nose, I then put a self tapping screw thru the to the body. It needs to be countersunk or else you will not be able to get some of the cockpit detail parts in there. Again this may be overkill.....

In these pics you can see first that i use 2 pins in each arm to hold it together, because this may be a cannon fodder this step will help with the painting as i can paint these parts unassembled and then glue them together with only a small amount of glue thanks to the pins. Here you can see me making use of that plate, I use 2 self tapping screws to secure the arm assembly. I will be able to take this apart for painting and any adjustments I need to make. Also I dry fit the whole thing to make sure the legs are not headed off in a wild direction.

Mods, hope it's OK to start a build thread dedicated to the 2nd build, this will be functioning as a guide. As promised in the other thread I have started work on a 2nd build, I will do my best to document all the stuff that I am doing. This will be a 1A, maybe a cannon fodder, not sure yet. It will have lit engines and cockpit. The first build was done in a hurry for WF, and while it is holding up just fine i am going to take some steps to make it a bit more durable. I will be making the 1a head available to those of you who want it for your builds. This build will be one way to put it together, if you are not lighting your build you may be able to ommit some of this. I also may be overengineering some stuff that you may not feel the need to do. So here we go.... First up after some basic clean up I attached the 2 wing covers to the upper fuselage by first glueing them in place and then drilling 2 3/32 brass pins into the upper fuselage. I then drilled 2 into the lower fuselage in an area that would meet the covers, held it together in proper alignment, and drilled into the covers. Once those were in place I was able to drill 4 more pin locations into the uppper/lower fuselage assembly. This will add a lot of strength to the build and will allow me to hold final glue up of these parts until the end. In a bit of what may be overkill I also bolted on a bit of aluminum to the lower fuselage. This will also strengthen the body, but it will also give me a plate to bolt on parts like the arms. Just be sure it will not interfere with the other parts. You can see more of the pin locations in this pic too. I will try to update this as i go along. thanks mike

Ok, I know I am kind of all over the place with these projects but the rotocast machine showed up today and it is up and spinning. If you are interested in a casting of this please PM me, this will be super, super limited, just enought to cover my material cost, decals are going to be included but i don't have them in hand yet. If you PM me I will get you all the important info. Also included in the pic is a little foam rough in of a 1/48 officer pod leg.. .

Decals arrived today from JT Graphics...test cast is just about done as well.. More soon.... thanks mike