sabreuk1

Im on it buddy but the mrs has other ideas for today and it involves shopping and girly wifey stuff :-/

bit of an update: well started on painting its much easier to paint the wings up with them out the model so its in pieces again, ive light blocked the whole thing now also. I have used matt white as the base colour and I am using an array of humbrol colours to put the detailing back on. so there are a mass of innacuarrices on this kit one being its supposed to be rouge 5 (red 5) which is luke skywalkers however the revell paintjob depicts it as rouge 3 ? and some other parts are not quite right like the rear section between the engines any way that's where I am at with the x wing. the base is also progressing with a trench being constructed so its a forced perspective not quite sure how I am going to detail the trench but ill let ya know when I figure that out. I may have bit off more than I can chew right now and there is a possibility that I wont get the x wing and new base finished in time due to work commitments ill keep ya updated as I know so it may just be the dv tie fighter. heres a couple of pics more to come well detailing the engines up there coming along nicely starting to look like burnt exhaust now rather than plastic so theres hope for this padawan heres some more pics bit of an update on the x wing been busy detailing things up while its apart like the wings etc as they open more when not in the model. I think im getting there making it look a bit bruised and abused. heres some pics just waiting for it to dry before I put back together again for more detailing etc. well here is the base its going to be the trench from some altitude and the x wing swooping in and the tie fighter chasing him from the ties point of view. the base is made from plyboard and screwed together for sturdy ness, its also hollow for all the wiring, the reason its fairly narrow is I have a lack of space for something extravagant but it will be detailed to the scale its supposed to be, so in the pic is some of the empires cutbacks due to budget and them **** rebels keeping on blowing stuff up, darth also told me there may be some redundancies on the list also so this trench has been made by the local poundland/ dollar store another update well x wing is now together puttied up ready for detailing all the wiring is routed and ready to go in to the control board the base has been painted with its first coat and I have a realy good idea to detail it up so its got that 3d feel rather than a printed sheet stuck to it watch this space on that one. I have also made a styrene name plate which im toying with lighting with the star wars font, I was thinking the trench run but I may change it once I have slept on it lol. and again with back lighting it I may change my mind on that and leave it how is ill post some pics once things are dry again and can be picked up ooooh im getting giddy I can see an end now life is good well until Monday when im back to work and on nights again and then the watching of the votes coming in on everyones builds cant wait back soon guys got more tinkering to do (with the model) lol the x wing is nearly done now looking thouroughly minging I went heavy weathering to match the tie fighters heavy weathering and I have a name for the diorama now "I HAVE YOU NOW" supplied by 3rdplacetrekie thanks bruv appreciate the dilemma with the name well heres the x wing. the base is still tacky so ill post up prob tomoz oh something to point out ive used the original rouge 3 paint scheme as revel molded the panels to fit the 3 stripes on the wings so to save a bit of effort I just used the original paint design. I know it wouldn't of took much more to cut out 8 extra lines in the mask however to be totally honest I forgot and realised after I removed the masks and realy couldn't be bothered to redo it. so its rouge 3 getting chased by vader in to the trench before he goes for lukes x wing, well that's what I am sticking to anyway lol sorry guys for the lack of updates ive caught up with my self now and voting starts monday, think ive just got the base to sort and i am actualy done yay!!!!!!!

another update well I have finally got everything working in harmony, sorry for being quiet on the hangout tonight but I was tinkering away and cant multi task for anything :-/ well the leds for the cockpit are emotional took a bit of figuring out with the routing, my original idea was to route the fo in to the back where the wings are and mount the led in the brass tube but no there is absoulutely no room for anything else there except the wiring for the engines :-/ so the answear is to mount the led in the nose, I flattened off the front of the led with the dremel and then drilled the led down a mm from the element so I can fix the fo into it, this worked realy well and then all I had to do was route the power lead into the rear bulkhead and down the brass tube. I have also made a quick video update for you guys so you can see everything together and working. the exhausts where supposed to be red but ended up going for orange as I thought it looked more like a jet engine rather than a red glow as in the tie fighters exhaust so there is a difference from rebel and imperial so heres the pics of what I have just explained flattened led drilled hole in led for fo orginal idea is a big no no at this scale the only way you can light the cockpit is by doing this heres everything ready to be put together for light test heres the video hope you enjoy

hey up guys I now have the wings sorted and they still move up and down as they should, heres the flickering leds in place. and here is how I routed the wires, all that's left is to join them together and put the intakes in and I can get them mounted on the ship and here is my luke skywalker and r2d2 to give ya some idea how tiny this thing actualy is :-/

oooh looking good bud now ya gota get it finished lol ive now got the wings together with the leds ill post the pics in a min.

bit of an update on the x wing hmmmmm well its in primer now and drying and first impressions to be honest crap!!!!!!! the scale is off compared to the tie fighter its much smaller in comparison, I bought it to go with the tie fighter when in reality its only just marginay bigger than the fine molds 1/72 I have just got. also the detail on it is terrible and what there is isn't realy much to talk about, also the panel line are super thin one coat of primer and a majority of them disapered so I spent a while sanding the primer off I put on and scribeing out the panel lines to make them more defined for a little extra detail. I then re primed the whole thing now and ill show you all when its dried. also there is absolutely no detail in the cockpit except 5 little circle things on the dashboard and due to the nature of the design you can not drill them out to put fo in and there is no space free to route it even if you could drill some holes, the actual cockpit where the seat is again blank with just the seat and nothing else and 0 way of putting anyform of lighting in the front as the cockpit is pretty much a flush fit with the very narrow front of the ship. I am trying to work out a way of putting 4 flickering red leds in the engines though but the way the wings are constructed I am struggling a little bit to find a way of getting the wiring in to the back of the x wing with out it being seen. ill post pics once everything is done however honest opinion on this kit is stay away and find a fine mold kit or something a little larger as you may be disappointed by the lack of detail oh and the pre painted paint on my kit was shocking it was no where near as nice a finish as the tie fighter a lot of misty overspray on the few panels that where painted, the engines had a light grey thing going on here and there and didn't look right at all and the cannons have some weird blue spiral thing painted on so there you have it guys, right whining over on with figuring out how to get the leds in the engines. ah ha I have sussed how im going to do this now it appears I can get some lights in the cockpit just and no more and I can get the leds in the engines my plan now is to have the tie fighter chasing the x wing like its about to swoop down on it with the x wing being tiny in comparison think If I pull it off you guys will like the outcome heres some pics this is the revell versus the fine molds x wing at 1/72 scale so you can see there is not much in it at all heres the realy detailed cockpit :-/ heres the dashboard in going to light up with twinklys and an up close shot of worlds smallest dashboard update again hey guys heres how I have figured to light the x wing, firstly I had to make a trench on the wings in between the pins for the engine covers ive done this both sides of the wings (upper wing/lower wing) then I had to drill out the engines on the exhaust side for the leds the drill 2 1mm holes for the wires to go through and then on the covers I had to drill the exhaust again and make a hole at the other end for the wires to go through. and we have lights in the cockpit this was done with drilling 4 0.5mm holes and a 1mm hole for the main display also the seating area has been painted black now and I am in the process of drill 0.5mm holes for some fibre optic to brighten it up a bit ok guys been busy so far so I now have a lit cockpit first thing I had to do was drill 2 holes on the rear bulkhead for the fibre optic strands to run through then I hot glued the brass tube in the rear deck for everything to run through then I routed all the fibre optics hot glued them in place and fitted the cockpit a little tip as space at a premium on this model I couldn't fit and leds in situ for flashy lights and I didn't have enough fo to run in to the base to fit them but works realy well is I used my trusty sharpie markers and coloured in the fo on both ends, if you only do one end it turns out a realy pale colour but both ends it turns out a nice colour top tip that lol so heres the cockpit the side lights are not glued at this point so lighting I have 5 fo in the dashboard and 7 on the sides of the seat 3 on one side 4 on the other

its only just bigger than 1/72 around 20cm long buddy its truly tiny and much smaller than the tie fighter :-/ what I am doing is going to mount the x wing below and forward of the tf so it looks like its swooping down and blasting its cannons as the x wing goes in to the trench.

R2 has no chance its smaller than the shuttle on voyager ill get a pic i would of but i dont think you can get a 0.00000000000001mm drill bit lol Oh that was said in my best darth janeway voice :-/ lol

omg!!! vaders voice aswell lol ill have to go get one of them voice change masks for ya buddy lol the x wing is a complete nightmare, nearly chopped my finger off tonight making a trench for the engine wiring and the leds are playing up, im giving up tonight now and gona crack on with it tomoz, I now have a lit dashboard though and cockpit with fibre optics which looks sweet. I will post the pics tomoz now I have it figured out it should go together quite quickly then paint then weathering again!!!!

ive had to up my game and im going for the dogfight scene a bit of tinker for the base and diorama needs doing :-/ right so heres the x wing out the box, and the 2nd pic is the parts after being thoroughly washed I have noticed that there is even less room in the x wing already than the tie fighter this is gona be a toughy, the tie fighter is finshed now but im going to have to modify the base and the electrics to power both hmmmmm right back soon :-/ if anything you guys are keeping me busy lol im loving these builds though awesome fun bit of an update on the x wing hmmmmm well its in primer now and drying and first impressions to be honest ****!!!!!!! the scale is off compared to the tie fighter its much smaller in comparison, I bought it to go with the tie fighter when in reality its only just marginay bigger than the fine molds 1/72 I have just got. also the detail on it is terrible and what there is isn't realy much to talk about, also the panel line are super thin one coat of primer and a majority of them disapered so I spent a while sanding the primer off I put on and scribeing out the panel lines to make them more defined for a little extra detail. I then re primed the whole thing now and ill show you all when its dried. also there is absolutely no detail in the cockpit except 5 little circle things on the dashboard and due to the nature of the design you can not drill them out to put fo in and there is no space free to route it even if you could drill some holes, the actual cockpit where the seat is again blank with just the seat and nothing else and 0 way of putting anyform of lighting in the front as the cockpit is pretty much a flush fit with the very narrow front of the ship. I am trying to work out a way of putting 4 flickering red leds in the engines though but the way the wings are constructed I am struggling a little bit to find a way of getting the wiring in to the back of the x wing with out it being seen. ill post pics once everything is done however honest opinion on this kit is stay away and find a fine mold kit or something a little larger as you may be disappointed by the lack of detail oh and the pre painted paint on my kit was shocking it was no where near as nice a finish as the tie fighter a lot of misty overspray on the few panels that where painted, the engines had a light grey thing going on here and there and didn't look right at all and the cannons have some weird blue spiral thing painted on so there you have it guys, right whining over on with figuring out how to get the leds in the engines. heres the finished tie fighter another video for you

Well i have had to up my game buddy ive gone amd got the x wing in tje same scale to do the trench dog fight :-/ pics to follow real soom :-/

It would be an easy mistake lycra tight federation uniform and man boobs i could see where the confusion would be steve lol

that would still be like spray on latex lol hmmmm think ill need to get my butt to slimmers world Monday lol

yes mate I use airbrushes and various other techniques I have melted plastics before but not with a soldering iron may have to try that in the future nice idea buddy for blast marks im using the oils in various shades of being thinned along with pigments and powders then matt cleared so it doesn't come off.

thanks bud its coming along all the seams are filled now all the light leaks blocked and the 2nd coat of weathering is now applied just waiting for it to dry enough to move about with out smudging

I wasn't going to suggest that but clearly we are on the same wavelength I don't think they do the uniform in extra extra fat though lol

lol I realy would feal more of a plum lol but ill think about it

yep lol hence I felt a plum think I need some vocal lessons crispy ill have to work on my voiceover skills now doh!!!! lol

thanks guys appreciate it voyager is no where near finished by any means :-/ but the tie fighter is nearly finished think I have a bit of time to get an x wing and do the trench diorama with both the comp is heating up with scratch built ewoks and fully lit darth vader figures this is turning out to be a tought just with the other entrants phew!!!!!

cheers steve lots to do ill be glad once its finshed its been a long emotional build this when it shouldn't of been. im going to work on my commentary skills lol maybe the tie fighter one will be a bit better

also having half day at work I have started the weathering on the tie fighter still got some gaps to fill etc I have used mainly mig productions 501 weathering oils for the weathering effect which are dark mud (dark rust) german ochre (medium rust) and light rust along with starship filth and u.n nato white. all I have done is apply a small amount on drybrushing to get the general shape of what I wanted and to tone it down I used airbrush thinner on a kitchen towel and gently started to rub it in to the paint to give it that lighter mixed in colours rather than a bold colour with not thining it down, its brilliant stuff and if you go wrong just wipe away with the cloth you was using also I have highlighted the panels with a sharpie super fine permenant marker to go between the lines to pop the panel right out. I have also gone over the red leds again with a sharpie red marker to give them a darker red glow which looks sweet now still got a bit more to do, and have the brass pole to mount finishing off the gaps ive left them for a reason which ill explain on the next update. what I have successfully done is snap one of the hatch pins which allows the cockpit roof to open and close doh!!!!!!! but with it not attached the roof closes a lot better anyway than having a gap so im ok with that oh I have also used soot weathering powder by dropping it on drybrushing it and the blowing the excess off still a bit more to do on that yet also on the solar panels you cant realy see by the these pics there 4 different shades of metal drybrushing theres gold,aluminium,bronze and copper to give that solar panel kinda used look ill get some better pics of them for you all. Im kinda working on the idea darth vader got his butt kicked in the death star trench and got flung off in to space well im kinda thinking this is the aftermath of that particular battle before he went through the imperial tie fighter wash and through the chancellors kwik fit garage to fix it back up squeaky clean so heres the pics

heres a video update for you its my first talking video so bear with me i felt a right plum hope you enjoy

right guys quick vid of my light test you gota love the sound effects from the tv in the background. sooooooo yeah my lighting option is tight very tight , on the cannons I was using 2 3mm leds with a flasher unit soldered to the leds which is why the cockpit would not fit. so I have used 2 flashing green 3mm leds instead what I had to do was remove the front of the footwell and fill with putty to get the cockpit to fit correctly, the 4 red 3mm leds fit no probs behind the cockpit with enough space so that's all good the mutli change leds are in the wing right behind the walls, I haven't light blocked the back of the cockpit as I want the ambient light to make the cockpit glow you cant realy tell in the vid but the cab glows realy well. also with the leds with them changing colour it looks like the control panels are working and powering up etc I think it looks cool. ive done a bit of painting on the parts left and right of the cab and ive got some light blocking to do massively. also on the cannons ive left a little bit of led showing behind so when there on the hope is it will reflect off the front glass as im sure it would if it was real having green lasers/plasma things shooting out the front. next getting everything to fit light blocked and weathered up.

heres the link to special activity board all the entrants have the title January iron modeller what ever there build is. theres a darth vader figurine, a speeder bike with custom ewok rider, 2 star destroyers a xwing a diorama with an arc fighter and grivious drone ship a normal tie fighter ummmmmm oh a b wing I cant remember the rest but check it out buddy. theres plentyof other builds going on with trek builds and other things. the next biggy is march that will be worth watching that's run over 3 months and is a big build off. heres the linky: http://scifimodelaction.com/sfmaforum/index.php?board=19.0

yeah the rules are we was not allowed to start before the 13th of this month, if we use a revell kit we had to do something substantial to it as they are already painted but other than that we have 2 weeks to get it done hence iron challenge I think I will be ok, so long as everything goes according to plan lol