Karl

You're doing a great job with your X wing, Can you tell me what type/make of paint you are using on this Bandai kit? I have a few Bandai kits in my stash but I'm worried about the affect that some type of paint have on the plastic. Karl

Thank you for pointing out my spelling/grammar mistake 👍 I'll try to do better next time 😏 Karl

Very nice build. 👍 Wish Fine moulds (or Bandai) would have done a 1/48 scale version to go with the X-Wing and TIE. Karl

Hi Chaps, As per the title, does any one know what date Revell are releasing the Bandai 1/72 PG Millennium Falcon? Cheers Karl

This is my model of Revell's 1/52 T-47 Snow Speeder. I picked this kit up whilst I was looking for either the old AMT Snow Speeder or Bandai's new version and thought I'd give it a whirl. It's quite a mall kit of what is really a small full size subject. The kit is of the snap-fit type so no glue is required, although I did secure all of the joints with glue and especially around the periphery of the fuselage. The fit is very good and the parts are nicely detailed with some quite finely engraved panel lines. The pilot and gunner required a bit of work to slim the arms down but you don't really see them when the canopy is shut. I painted it with Humbrol Enamel H196 light grey and pin washed in dark grey and black. It's a nice little kit, hope you like it. Thanks for looking Karl

I completly agree!

LoL!! - Yes I noticed the evil expression on C3-P0's face! However, I think that was made worse by the lighting I used for the photographs; lit from only above (no flash) it gives him a really hooded brow that looks so evil. The later pictures I took I used a flash that reduced the hooded look somewhat. I to think that the head is a tad oversize - looks worse when close up. Karl

Here is my completed MPC / ERTL - C3-P0 As with R2-D2, this was a blast from the past, getting to have another go at building a kit I first did in the late 1970's was good fun. As I had two kits in the box, I used an extra arm and gave it the option of being able to have the 'red arm' as seen in the later films. The red colour is a mixture of Humbrol 100 (Red Brown) and 19 (Bright Red) painted over the black undercoat. Again, I've kept C3-P0 fairly clean, but not too bright to make it toy like. The eyes were painted yellow with black pupils, and the wiring on the midriff picked out in various colours. And the 'Red Arm': Ad with his buddy, R2-D2: Thanks for looking

Last update before completion! As C3-P0 is gold in colour, the best undercoat for that is a smooth coat of black paint. I've used Halfords satin bumper black spray paint. I think he looks quite good as a 'Stealth' protocol droid! Next to be sprayed is the Alclad II 'Pale Gold' - to be revealed in the RFI post!! Karl

That looks really good. 👍 I build one for my father a few years ago, and, as you say it doen't really represent the Actic Corsair so I tried to scratch build the double dridge and varuius other changes with varying degrees of success... Karl

This is what I keep hearing that Humbrol enamel gloss black is the way to go, so I don't understand why it wrinkled on mine. Unless it had to do with the fact that I used Halfords grey primer under the gloss black and then the Alclad. Karl

I Completely agree, there is just something special about these older kits where I'm happy to go the extra mile during building and painting. Karl

I'm sure that is a real size bike...... ...amazing work!! Karl

More progress on C3-P0. It has to be said that this is a fairly simple kit, so building C3-P0 was a fairly quick process. Most of the time was spent cleaning up the old joints and filling in any gaps or replacing broken or missing parts. I decided to remove the moulded in restraining bold on his chest. The original kit used moulded in hooks at the ends of the arms and head (like an old fashion doll) to allow for articulation of the joints. These had all broken off in my kit so I installed some plastic tube across the inside of the chest and one for the head. On the arms I drilled a hole on the end of the arm and used a length of bent brass rod to hold it into the tube inside the chest, this allows the arms to move. The head is held on with a short stubby rod that allows the head to turn. After I was satisfied with the assembly, it was time for some primer. The primer revealed some areas that required remedial filling and shaping work and then more primer. Thanks for looking. Karl

Hi chaps, I'm working on my 1970's Kenner C3-P0 and planning to paint it using Alclad II Gold, however I'm struggling with what undercoat to use. Question: Has anyone used Halfords Gloss black as an undercoat for Alclad II ?? I've been looking and reading various tips and tricks but I thought I would ask to. The Gold needs a gloss black undercoat. I prime my models using Halfords standard car body grey primer - an acrylic that needs cellulose thinners to clean up and I can over paint this with Humbrol Enamels as I've been doing for years without issue. So I did some tests. Test one - was to paint over the grey with Humbrol gloss black. I've left that for about 12 hours and then tried the Alclad and it immediately reacted and crazed the surface. Odd this as I had heard good things about using Humbrol gloss black to undercoat for Alclad. Test two - was to use Alclad's own gloss undercoat (over the grey) and then gold - this seems to work well but I have read lots of people say that the Alclad black does not dry at all so I'm worried about using thins combination. Test three - was using Halfords satin bumper black over the grey (random choice as I had it on the bench) and this also worked very well. Any suggestions would be great;y received. Kind regards Karl

Hi Chaps, To follow on from my recent R2-D2 build I've started on R2's counterpart; C3-P0. Again this kit dates from around 1978 and is the MPC/ERTL kit under the Kenner label and is approximately 1/8th scale. The kit was purchased as a part started model (two kits came in the box, one built and one in bits) so I chose the best of the parts to build one good C3-P0 and still have enough parts left over to build another C3-XY variant droid if i feel like it in the future. The first thing I did was to disassemble the built kit and go through the parts and clean them up. And that's it, my finished model diorama:- The C3-P0 scrap pile scene on Cloud City from 'The Empire Strikes Back' Thanks for looking..... Oh well, seriously I'd better sort through the scrap pile.... That's better. Better start gluing.... Karl

Thats a very nice Skyvan you have done there. Karl

My R2-D2 Astromech is now completed! It was definitely a blast from the past to work on this kit again, and not quite the magical experience I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old.. There were a number of shape and detail issues with the kit that I was simply ignorant to when I built it 40 years ago. I have amended some of these (such as the top of the dome) but not all and I have left the dome chrome because I like it rather than stripping it and painting it silver to make it more accurate. Be that as it may I have enjoyed the build and have tried to do my best with a kit that was part started and required quite a bit of remedial action to get right. I've gone for the very clean white look; I initially dirtied the panel lines but didn't like it so reverted back to the clean look. Thanks for looking Karl

Big jump forward in progress. I have now spray painted all of the components using Halfords Appliance White and, when dry, I have painted the various arms and sensors blue using Humbrol Metallic Blue. I used the metallic blue as I had read that originally the blue components on R2D2 were made from aluminium and them painted with engineers or marking blue to give it a translucent metallic effect. Other areas were highlighted with Humbrol Silver. The back panel detail was painted and installed in to the open back of R2 On R2's head I used the original sticker decal for the red sensor eye and used Bare Metal Foil to cover the base of the dome below the blue ring. The head then slips on to the top of the body It was then a simple matter of assembling the legs and clipping on the panel covers to complete the little Astromech. Link to RFI post. MPC / ERTL - R2-D2 (Denys Fisher 1978) - Complete Karl

Spending time with my family; our son is grown up but we still manage to all get out together sometimes either for drinks or retail therapy - this is the happiest I could be. Karl

Moving on a bit more with R2-D2. The axel where the legs mount on to is quite fragile in the supplied kit part and the joint to the legs looks to be quite weak. so, I have made a replacement part from thicker styrene tube and square rod. This meant I had to modify the shoulders of the leg where it joins on to the axel. This joint is a lot more robust than the kit intended but does the same job and has the same movement. Looking at some reference pictures, the feet don't look very accurate as supplied in the kit. I modified these by cutting the top of the foot and inserting a box section 'U' shape and then cutting out a hole for the leg to join the foot. I have replaced the original plastic pins that join the feet with some short lengths of brass rod. With the body, internal parts and legs complete it was time for a little primer to see where I needed to do some more filler. Therefore a temporary assembly was required.... Astromech in grey: Moving on to the dome, this was a simple process of installing the blue transparencies into the dome and securing it. Or so I thought.... Checking on the Internet at some colour references I accidentally discovered that the circular arrangement of top windows on the dome, the radial arms between the windows were in the wrong position as supplied in the kit! Aargh! I looked at it and though "I can live with that.....I can live with that.......... NO, I can't live with that!!!!" So using a circular razor saw, I separated the blue windows and the the radial frame at the top of the dome. It was then a very simple process of rotation the radial arm part slightly so that one arm was aligned directly with R2's main 'eye'. This did look much better. Before modification: After modification and with the glass reinstalled: The dome should really be silver painted rather than chrome, but I really like the chrome so I'm going to keep it like that; My R2 unit had the optional bling dome upgrade from the Astromech factory! Thanks again for looking, more to follow soon. Karl

Progress on the main body of "R2". After cleaning up the parts and mating faces I glued the two main body parts together and, finding that the joining surfaces appears a bit weak, I added some strengthening tabs to the inside of the body tube. Note that the tube appears a bit squashed or oval due to warpage over the years. Fortunately when the base is installed it goes back to being circular again. As I'm trying to make it a little more accurate, I'm adding some shoulders to the area where the legs attach to the body. These are just small disks glued to the body and then blended to the body tube with car body filler. After looking at some screen shots of R2, I realised that there were some extra panel's on the side of the body not at all represented in the kit, so these had to be added retrospectively by marking and cutting the body tube and adding a square of plastic to the inside. This had the added benefit of adding some more strength to the structure. I don't want to attach the rotating head disc at this time as it will be a pain when trying to paint and detail (I just want to be able to put the head dome on last thing) so I have added a tube protruding from the top of the body and I have also modified the head disc to give it a bit more stability, using some square stock and some of the kit parts to make some sort of dual bearing - you won't see any of this when complete as it will be under the dome. The internal structure as seen in picture four, has been glued together and it is rotated in to place and glued. I have boxed in the rear computer access panel area to make it look a bit more complete. The chrome detail parts have also been added (these have been roughed up a bit and some of the chrome removed) and will be painted over with the body and detail painted in silver later. The chrome plating is very fragile. Karl

I've no idea, but it was on or over quite a lot of parts; the feet, internal structure and the rear panel were worst affected. Cleaned up OK though. The main body, legs and dome and transparencies were all clear fortunately. Could have been a leaky tube of the old Britfix77 left in the box!! Karl

Been working on the glue damage to the parts and panels. It looks like old style tube glue, just smeared all over the place; this has marred some of the surfaces and damaged the panel lines a bit. I'm going to sand the yellowing glue back as far as I can and then fill any damage if necessary and then re-scribe the panel lines. This is the rear inspection panel before: And then after working on it: Karl

Hi chaps, I've been trawling eBay for Star Wars model kits (mostly MPC / ERTL ) kits that I used to have years ago (or I never managed to get hold of back then) and managed to come across two of my favourites - the MPC / ERTL kits of R2-D2 and C3-P0. The kit's I picked up are both part started, with the C3-P0 box actually containing two complete kits. I decided to go with part started models as a way of keeping the price down to something reasonable - untouched kits were going for prices I really wasn't willing to pay. They are both in reasonable condition; The R2-D2 was partly assembled, but with lots of tube glue smeared all over the place that will require cleaning up. The dome is untouched, however one half of the centre (retracting) leg is missing and will have to be scratch built. C3-P0's had one fully assembled and one partly assembled. Glue joints were fairly neat. I'm starting with the R2-D2 kit; it's in a 'Denys-Fisher' box and is stamped with 'Fundimensions' 1978 on some of the internal parts. I'm going to attempt to make it a bit more screen accurate if I can without going over board. The first thing I'm doing is to completely disassemble the model to it's component parts and then try and clean up the joints and areas where the tube glue has been smeared about. This was just a process of sanding the joints back to clean material and rubbing down any flat surfaces that were marred by glue and filling any surface damage using filler. Thanks for looking, I'll post more shortly. Cheers and Happy new year!! Karl