Detailing Revell's Sith Infiltrator (06677)

[Mike]

I've got one of these Revell kits knocking about, and as it's one of the few Prequel trilogy ships I actually quite like, I was thinking of giving it a going over with fresh paint to better reflect the actual screen model (CGI or actual). at 1:20 scale, it seems a reasonable size, and the surface detail looks ok, but there's a wad of greeblies in the wingroots that looks simplified for moulding purposes. Can anyone point me in the direction of a build online that has "accurized" (not fond of that word) the kit to make it look a leetle better? I've already had a Google, but all I can find are a few OOB builds with the occasional re-paint.

 

I'm now off to Google some pics of the "real" thing

[Madhatter]

Could you post a picture of the parts your referring to because from all the pictures I've seen of the ship, there are no greeblies at the wing roots. Mind you, I also did a Google search on the Sith infiltrator and I got a lot of Lego version results which I don't want

[Misrule]

some nice hi-rez images here

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z01Ww

its fan work but looks pretty solid to me

[Madhatter]

They're really good images Jim - nice find

I think I can now see the area being asked about. If your going to reference that area from another build, you'd be better using the images Misrule posted as they'd be much easier to work off

[Mike]

I'm just cleaning the paint off with IPA (not the beer), but I'll have a look there in a bit. The following pics look promising, but I can see some missing panel lines around the rear door already

[Mike]

Yuk! I've just finished removing the paint from the smaller parts, and now have the main hull halves in the same Isopropyl Alcohol (after straining the big lumps of paint out), wrapped in kitchen towel that's been elastic banded round so it doesn't fall off, in a ziplok bag soaking in the IPA. It wouldn't fit any of the (non-nice) housewares or my ultrasonic bath, so it's about all I can do

I'll have a proper squint at the 3D doohickey in a minute, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of screencap images of the Infiltrator from the actual film Googling "Star Wars Sith Infiltrator -lego" That last term weeds out most of the lego sets.

[Mike]

This has turned into a bit of a WIP, so I'll move it accordingly. Thanks to the links to Julien Lefebre's 3D renders, I've been mucking about with the insert that contains what I'm referring to as "the greeblies", first Dremelling off the mushy-looking approximations that were moulded in. I had to insert some styrene plugs to fill the holes after, and to level it all off I skimmed it with some filler, which I sanded back to smooth. The pic below shows the Dremelling just after it had started, with the bits to be removed marked in red, although I ended up taking off a little more as time went by.

 

 

With a "blank canvas" I started blocking in the various parts, starting with the perforated chunks near the front. It's not 100% accurate compared to the 3D, but it is as close as I could get it without going crazy and starting completely from scratch. Lots of pieces of styrene rod, strip and other shapes were harmed in the following steps, but I'm getting there with the appropriate amount of busyness, which looks better with the part installed in the "fuselage". I've also thinned one side of the cowling down so it looks a bit more scale, as you can see below:

 

 

 

After I've got the rest of the top parts done, I'll work on the two little inserts seen in the first pic. They weren't bad renditions, but a bit flat and slightly the wrong shape, so I'll knock something suitable up from strip. I've noticed that all the weapons are simplified too, so I'll be stripping the details off the winglets to be replaced by some barrels and breeches in the correct place, and I may get away with just chopping off the barrels on the blasters visible on the sides in the pic above. I'll be doing some reference checking, as you'd imagine. I'm going for the film scheme, so I'll need to work out what colour goes where, as all the paint seems to have disappeared

 

 

More later.

[Andy Moore]

Really nice work Mike. Those greebles look great. I was never that keen on the Infiltrator as a design. It seemed like they were trying too hard to draw connections to the TIE's, but I suspect after seeing your build I'll end up wanting to do one too.

It's funny how doing something as simple as thinning a leading edge can suddenly add so much refinement to a model

Andy

[Madhatter]

Oh THAT'S the area you were referring to. I had it completely wrong and thought you meant the area literally at the base of the vertical part of the wings.

Nice work on the details though, it'll look infinitely better once it's done.

I found trying to remove what Revell call paint a tedious task made easier with the use of Tamiya lacquer thinner. I used IPA but found it took ages for it to work.

Looking forward to seeing more

[Mike]

I dropped the small parts in a pot and put that pot in my ultrasound bath, then scrubbed the soft paint off with an old tooth brush. The main Hull had to go in a bag after being wrapped in kitchen roll. I agitated it regularly to keep it wet, and scrubbed it off again. Lacquer thinners would melt the plastic, I think?

[Hunter Rose]

Yeah this is definitely one of the better designs of "those" movies.

look forward to seeing this come together Mike

[Madhatter]

I dropped the small parts in a pot and put that pot in my ultrasound bath, then scrubbed the soft paint off with an old tooth brush. . Lacquer thinners would melt the plastic, I think?

I really have to get myself one of these ultrasonic baths - I keep hearing how useful they are

No, Tamiya's Lacquer thinner doesn't melt the Revell plastic - or at least it didn't to my Venator when I removed the "paint" off it

[Mike]

That must be down to their unusual "cool" blend of chemicals, because if you were to use any run-of-the-mill thinners, the parts would end up a sticky blob in short order. I've never seen or used Tamiya's own brand of lacquer thinners though

 

Not got much done so far today, but I did manage to get the other lip thinned out so it's symmetrical at least I'll be looking at the guns shortly, and adding a few final bits to the "greebly compartment".

[jaitea]

Did you know that the window, although looking solid red is actually transparent under the red paint?

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=210606&highlight=sith+infiltrator%5D

J

Edited June 20, 2016 by jaitea

[Mike]

I did, yes thanks I've already sanded it back to clear and given it a coat of transparent red as a pre-amble to making it properly see-thru. The cockpit detail is surprisingly good, and once it's installed, should show enough through the slit-windows for me

[Mike]

Thanks for adding those pics... it's been hard getting any miniature or film shots of the ship on Google or Bing for some reason. I've just been banging my head against that particular brick wall as it happens. I'd also ripped a copy of my Blu-Ray to skip through on the Workshop PC (it doesn't have a BD-ROM), and it was corrupt

[Mike]

Looking at those images, it seems that Revell's designers did a pretty good job copying the shape and panel line layout of the miniature. There are a few differences between it and at least one of the shots from the film, but that's the usual story as far as films go. Look at the Tyderium's differences in cockpit size & shape as an example.

[Mike]

I've not been able to get much bench time due to the Boy getting older, but I did get a little while, so gave the main greebly area a coat of primer to check it over, and started to detail the main gear legs, which were simplified in the kit for ease of moulding. They're still going to be simplified compared to the filming miniature above, but a lot better looking than they were. I've done the main work on the top leg, and am about to play catch-up with the other, as I was using it as a pattern for the hump I replaced with something a little nicer to accept the styrene rod I added.

 

 

The main gear bays are surprisingly accurate, so next I have a little more work to do on greebly central, a bit on the underside, and then some more thinning down of any lips I can find. I've puttied up the lower wing section that is integral to the hull lower, as there were a few sink marks from the thick location pegs. I've also reamed those out a little so the fit is more "sloppy" and therefore easier to put together and pull apart.

 

More later.

[Mike]

I've finished the main work on the legs, and have now started on the underside of the greebly area. It seems I was a little conservative with my Dremelling initially, so it had to come out again with the part ending up temporarily split in two while I rebuilt the section to the correct shape. The basic shape is now correct, and I need to play catch-up with the other (you can see the parts waiting), then move on to detail the area before I'm done. The topside has been finished off with some small parts, and LionRoar bolt-heads and rivets have been used throughout for the pivot points etc.

 

[Dads203]

Nice work bud , keep the updates coming

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Greeblicious!

[Mike]

Thanks chaps. The underside parts are now symmetrical, so I can start greeblying them up at will. There are only a couple of parts in these areas, but they're quite fine shapes, which will take some time.

[Mike]

There's been a bit more progress, and a this time it's fairly substantial. The hull has been glued together! I polished the window part back to clear and added a coat of transparent red, then glued it in place, painting the interior in white, as nothing of it could be seen. I decided not to light the model, so the red just relies on the light coming in and bouncing off the white backdrop. Seems to work ok in daylight The wings have a joint that's visible on the underside, which is a bit of a gaping chasm, so I've put some styrene stock in there which will have to be added to along the way to smooth the joint out completely. Fun!

As mentioned earlier, the main gear bays are quite accurate, but there was a big hole where there shouldn't be for the closed bay part to stick into, so I filled it with a bit of 3.2mm rod and scraped off the moulded-in mesh because it had a big round flat-spot and I didn't fancy faking it in. Instead I made a pattern out of tape and cut two templates from 01.mm styrene, then glued some mesh I had in place. It's a little bit smaller than the original, but I'm sure you'll forgive me

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Looking crispy Mike.....It's quite an elegant design isn't it. What's the scale?

[Mike]

Thanks Andy I've heard it's 1:20 scale, but the size of his back door (ooer!) seems at variance with that. Probably more like 1:100 or 1:120... in fact, it's probably the latter and I'm mis-remembering.