S5 modeller

Wow! That kit is crazy mad massive. Comes to something when major carpentry is involved in a build. Did you have to design and build all that wooden framework, or did it come with the kit? Hope you have a strong shelf to support it. I looked on the randy Cooper website, but this kit is not currently available, as he's re doing the molds for it. Mind you, I did see a nice kit of the bubble ship from oblivion. Would love it, but don't have $400 spare at the moment. Good luck with the drilling of the windows, hope you have a good supply of drill bits. I've heard you might get through a few. Nice idea with the sander, mounting it like that, bet it saves a load of elbow grease! Looking forward to seeing more. Matt

Whoops, double post.

Thanks for the interest guys. @AngstROM thanks for the faith in my work. I hope to do him justice. If I could get anywhere near some of the builds on here, I'll be happy. @Madmonk thanks for the advice on the clear parts. Think I will 2000 grit wet and dry it, see how matt it comes out. Might also glue a piece of grease proof paper to the back of it too. To be honest, I never thought of lighting the gun, but I will have to leave it for this build, as it is already built up and sealed. @Gimme Shelter glad to have you along for the journey. I've been following your star destroyer build, and think it is a massive undertaking you've taken on. Hope the fibre optics, and leds, go well for you. If you get stuck, you could always ask warren (Madmonk). He is a big help and always willing to lend advice as needed. He's a top bloke. More work done today. Usually in these kits, dragon supply metal pins, to secure the kit to the base. For some reason, they haven't, with this kit. The holes are in his feet, and the fitting points are moulded into the base. Trouble is the holes are flashed over. I measured the holes in his feet, and they came out at 3mm, so I made a pair from scrap bar at work. I drilled a 1.5mm hole through them to take the 1mm wire I'm using. Here's the hole in the foot. My home made pin in place. The start of the adaptation to one of the knee joints. The wire is sealed in, and the knee slides along it lovely. The shin piece had a 1.5mm hole drilled through it too. After this point, I got a bit carried away, and forgot to take any more photos. Safe to say there was plenty more drilling involved. Tadahh! One complete leg, wired up and ready for paint. You can see the hollow pin protruding out his foot. Drilled the holes out in the base, and it's a nice fit. Some crafty drilling was required, in the skeleton, to allow the wire to go from the leg and into the chest cavity. There's a small amount of clean up required, around the top of his leg, maybe even a smidgen of filler required. Just as proof of concept, the leg is dry fitted here to the body. Hope to get the other leg sorted out tomorrow, will try to remember to take more pics. Sorry for the long post, hope I haven't bored you all to death. See you soon, and thanks for looking in. Matt

It is amazing will. I could take it down further, if I needed to, but it's short enough for now. Thanks for the suggestions on light diffusion. I was toying with the idea if gently sanding the rear of the arc reactor lense, to matt it down, but was worried of ruining it. I also thought of coating the rear with matt varnish. What do you think of these ideas? Matt

Some of these sprue attachment points are rather large, and encroache on the mating surfaces... Some careful clean up required. I've removed the chest and back piece from the sprues, and cleaned off the awkward attachment points. Here they're just dry fitted onto the skeleton. Not much, if any, filling required here. Started work on fitting an led into the chest, for the arc reactor. I've got a bunch of pre wired leds, with resistors fitted in-line. I drilled a 3mm hole in the chest, to accommodate the led. I've filed the tip of the led down as far as I dared to. The end is matt at the moment, don't know if I should polish it back clear, or leave it as is. Here's the finished result. It's only push fitted at the moment, I'm not sure if I like how it looks , I think I need to find a way to matt the back of the clear lense embedded in the chest. Need to disguise the led, and try to diffuse the light output. Due to the led fitment, I had to drill a clearance hole in the waist section, luckily the chest covers this. Need to build the legs next, to work out how to route the cables into the base. I thought this wip might end up dead in the water, as my cat decided he would play with this bit... He stole it from my workbench, as took it outside. Didn't find it for 2 days, it turned up in the garden yesterday. Here's the furry culprit, keeping my chair warm. If looks could kill eh? Thanks for looking in. Matt

Loving the finish you've achieved. You've certainly made a brilliant job of this old girl. Matt

This is the state of play, so far. Following construction steps 1 and 2. I've built up the internal framework, and hung the waist sections off of it. Got to love the engineering of these kits, so far all the joins are along panel lines. I've skipped ahead, and started the construction of the shoulder gun. I'm going to build up the arms and legs as sub assemblies, to try and help painting. There are only 2 views on the instructions, so I'm going to have to source some screen shots from the films. Trouble is, the kit is boxed as war machine, from iron man 3, but the armour doesn't match the one in the film. The kit better represents the iron patriot armour, or the war machine armour from Captain America :civil war. It seems to be a mix of the different suits, and not based on any single suit. A bit of creative licence might be required. Matt

Hi chaps. I won this kit on ebay Monday night. Due to fast delivery, was here Wednesday morning, and my love of these kits I decided to start it asap. Now, my robocop build is pretty much ready to paint, and Ed-209 taking a back seat, I have some spare time. The plan is to get this upto the paint stage, then paint both this and robocop at the same time. Box shot. Contents listed on instructions. Simple 2 page instruction sheet. I have started, as you do, with the internal framework, as all the body panels hang on it. Hoping to incorporate some lighting for the eyes, and arc reactor. Matt.

The kit comes with a pot of yellow paint, which surprised me.

The go compare ad's really get up my nose, was glad when they stopped making them for a while. Also the stupid muller ad's, with nicole what's her name, she must be clumsiest person on this planet, keep getting the product on her nose. Bet she doesn't even touch the stuff in real life. Nivea ad's, the official suppliers to liverpool football club, for male grooming products. Real men don't do all that grooming and moisturising rubbish. I could go on. Matt

The nice postman delivered this, to my work, this morning....

Just got mine from my local model shop, in Sheffield. Don't know if they have any more.

No prejudice from me. America has made massive steps in aviation advancement and I have nothing but admiration for our American cousins across the pond. I think what you've encountered are petty trolls looking to get a rise out of the original posters. Don't take it as a general cross section of the British public, as most of us love the usa. Matt

Congratulations on getting out of the rat race Ced. Wish I could retire, but alas, I've got a good 20 years to go. Doesn't sound like a lot, if you say it quickly. Get your feet up, with your favourite pipe and slippers. Matt

Very nice work, so far, and definitely a nice change from grey all over.