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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.

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Box shot.

 

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Contents listed on instructions. 

 

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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. 

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This is the state of play, so far.

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Following construction steps 1 and 2. I've built up the internal framework, and hung the waist sections off of it.

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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.

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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

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Some of these sprue attachment points are rather large, and encroache on the mating surfaces... 

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Some careful clean up required. 

I've removed the chest and back piece from the sprues, and cleaned off the awkward attachment points. 

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Here they're just dry fitted onto the skeleton. Not much, if any, filling required here.

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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.

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I've filed the tip of the led down as far as I dared to.

 

 

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The end is matt at the moment, don't know if I should polish it back clear, or leave it as is.

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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. 

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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...

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He stole it from my workbench, as took it outside. Didn't find it for 2 days, it turned up in the garden yesterday. 

 

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Here's the furry culprit, keeping my chair warm. If looks could kill eh?

 

Thanks for looking in. 

 

Matt 

Edited by S5 modeller
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Amazing how much you can reduce an LED capsule isn't it? Provided you don't intrude into the magic science void in the middle it's pretty much all disposable.

 

I would try painting the arc reactor recess silver (so the light scatters around more) and then inserting a small piece of thick tracing paper, or really thin white styrene, or maybe even typing paper as a diffuser behind the clear part.

 

HTH,

 

Will

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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

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Quote

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?

Great Start, I normally do both to clear parts.

 

The alternative to filing down the lens on the LED would have been to fit a small section on heat shrink so only a small section went through but provided light blocking for the rest of the LED.

 

Ar you lighting up the gun as well?

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this should be a fun WIP to follow - I have a ISD on the bench and will be installing LED's and Fibre Optics into it so please keep a visual going on your lighting here please as the whole kit lighting process is new for me

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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. 

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Here's the hole in the foot.

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My home made pin in place.

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The start of the adaptation to one of the knee joints. 

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The wire is sealed in, and the knee slides along it lovely. 

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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. 

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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.

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Some crafty drilling was required, in the skeleton, to allow the wire to go from the leg and into the chest cavity.

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There's a small amount of clean up required, around the top of his leg,  maybe even a smidgen of filler required. 

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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

Edited by S5 modeller
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15 hours ago, S5 modeller said:

 

Whoops, double post.

Hi Matt - so do you have to sit a resister on a 5mm 12v bulb on the + wire (ie power, resister, bulb, earth)?

 

My ISD is planned to have 40 odd 12v 5mm LED's and I was wondering if they all will need a resistor - I have a Maplin 21V battery (& charger) to power the loom

 

thanks for any help you can offer - John

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Thanks for the replies guys 

John, to be honest, I don't really know much about leds. I just buy mine from this place....

http://www.expressmodels.co.uk/acatalog/WHITE_LEDs.html

They supply them, pre fitted with resistors, calculated to work within a set voltage range. The ones I'm using are setup to work between 9 and 12volts.

As I said before, you could do worse than drop madmonk a message,  his knowledge of this stuff is legendary. 

 

Hunter, thanks for the compliment, means a lot coming from an expert like yourself. I just ran the wiring in the the most obvious places, seemed logical to me.

Not had chance to do any more work, as real work, late shifts, is getting in the way.

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21 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

Hi Matt - so do you have to sit a resister on a 5mm 12v bulb on the + wire (ie power, resister, bulb, earth)?

 

My ISD is planned to have 40 odd 12v 5mm LED's and I was wondering if they all will need a resistor - I have a Maplin 21V battery (& charger) to power the loom

 

thanks for any help you can offer - John

John, yes you will need resistors, ideally one per LED.

 

5mm LEDs operate at about 3V, the resistor is needed to 'drop' the other 9V.  For each LED you will need a 1/2 Watt 470 Ohm resistor, I would be tempted to go for a 560 Ohm resistor for the ISD as this will dim the light more and give a better scale effect.

 

Also, use eBay rather than Maplins, far cheaper, though you do have to wait for delivery.

 

just reread the original post, if you are using a 12V LED check if it has s resistor built in, if not you should still fit one but probably 47 Ohm. 

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52 minutes ago, S5 modeller said:

Thanks for the replies guys 

John, to be honest, I don't really know much about leds. I just buy mine from this place....

http://www.expressmodels.co.uk/acatalog/WHITE_LEDs.html

They supply them, pre fitted with resistors, calculated to work within a set voltage range. The ones I'm using are setup to work between 9 and 12volts.

As I said before, you could do worse than drop madmonk a message,  his knowledge of this stuff is legendary. 

 

Hunter, thanks for the compliment, means a lot coming from an expert like yourself. I just ran the wiring in the the most obvious places, seemed logical to me.

Not had chance to do any more work, as real work, late shifts, is getting in the way.

thanks for the Link Matt - will do - good luck with the build - John L

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14 minutes ago, Madmonk said:

John, yes you will need resistors, ideally one per LED.

 

5mm LEDs operate at about 3V, the resistor is needed to 'drop' the other 9V.  For each LED you will need a 1/2 Watt 470 Ohm resistor, I would be tempted to go for a 560 Ohm resistor for the ISD as this will dim the light more and give a better scale effect.

 

Also, use eBay rather than Maplins, far cheaper, though you do have to wait for delivery.

thanks Madmonk - much appreciated - I got myself 20 or so off the web and some from maplins a while back but having looked at the LEDs on express models site, I can see my bulbs don't have the resister built in so I have mailed them for their recommended best options - this lighting thing is all very new to me and just adds to the even larger task of building such a huge kit of cast resin

cheers again madmonk and sorry to deviate from your own build here Matt

John

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Hello again, I'm back, with another update. 

I promised to show a more in depth guide to how I routed the wiring through the legs of war machine, so I took more photos this time.

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This was my weapon of choice for drilling the holes, my trusty cordless drill, and a 1.5mm drill bit. 

 

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First holes drilled, in the ankle joint half.

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Wire threaded through, and both halves glued up.

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Hole drilled through the shin section, and cable threaded through. 

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Knee joint drilled, and wired up.

The thigh didn't need drilling, as it's an open structure. For some reason the pics of the hip joint didn't upload to Flickr, so I can't show them. As it's all sealed up, I can't take anymore. 

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Et voila!  Another leg done!

There was a small amount of filling required on the thigh, as I removed some flash, but bevelled the edges a bit too much. Again, a bit of glue seepage needs cleaning up, but have to wait to make sure it's all set.

I've now started to assemble the arms, and his helmet. I can feel it getting close to paint here. Might actually get this build finished soon!

 

Quick question. Power wise, I'm torn between using a square 9volt square battery, or an old battery block which hold 8 aa batteries giving 12volts.

Which do you think would be best?

The 9 volt battery might be more convenient, but the aa's might give me a brighter light with the 12 volts.

 

Thanks for looking in chaps.

 

Matt. 

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Howdy pardners.

Two updates in one day.

Couldn't wait to post up some of tonight's work! 

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This is the 12 volt power pack I'll most probably use.

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As you can see, there's plenty of room in the base for it.

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I've glued the filed down led into the atc reactor cavity. I had to sandwich a disc of 30 thou plasticard between it and the chest piece, as it was sitting proud. I couldn't file any more off the led, for fear of breaching the cavity inside where the contacts are.

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A quick test, to check it still works. It's rather bright! Mind you, in reality, it's not as bright as it looks here.

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To help block any light leakage I've slathered a thick coat of black enamel paint inside the panels. Hopefully it will help prevent his whole body glowing. 

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I finished the majority of the arm construction, and couldn't resist a quick dry fit of the upper torso. Looking good, I think. There are still a few armour panels to fit on the arms, but I'm going to paint them separately, and attach them at the end. The same goes for the hip and knee panels.

I'm getting there slowly, paint can't be too far away. 

That's it for now, time for bed. 5 am start, for work, in the morning. 

 

Hope you like it.

 

Matt 

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Hiya peeps. 

Not had a lot of bench time recently. 

I've tried to glue a pair of smd leds onto the back of the clear eye part. Just typical, all my bottles of superglue have gone off. Non of them would stick the parts together, but would happily stick to my fingers though.

Need to pop to poundland and get some more. 

The postman kindly delivered this to work today....

 

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Hope it's as good a people say it is, going to give it a blast on this kit. 

Might have a better update soon.

Thank you all, for being patient. 

 

Matt 

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Well, I promised another update, but didn't think I'd get one up so soon.

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I got some new superglue, and managed to stick the tiny smd's to the rear of the clear eye piece.  I've since taking this picture, put some more glue over them, don't want them coming adrift, and painted the back of the mask black 

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I took the plunge, and pulled the wiring through, and glued his cod piece and legs into place. 

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The smd's that light his eyes up, due to their size, come with separate resistors. Here, on his back, seemed the best position to fit them. They are superglued into place, and fit nicely between the mounting lugs for the back armour. 

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Here's a quick preview of how he's going to look. The arms, torso armour and head are only dry fitted. Still a long way to go till I reach this stage, with glue. Some filling is required around his waist and all the wiring needs connecting up.

On a side note, it appears the holes in the base don't line up with his feet, so I need to fill them, and re drill new ones.

Don't know what to do about the base, it's rather featureless and plain. Need to source a switch too.

 

Hope you like it.

 

Matt 

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Hi chaps.

As promised, I have another update for you.

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I've completed the wiring for the lights. Please don't look too closely, as it's rather a mess in there. An electronics genius is something I'm not.

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The upper torso is now sealed, for all eternity! 

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Two side plates were sandwiched in-between the torso halves, filling the gaping holes nicely. Fit round the arm sockets isn't brilliant, but the arms themselves hide the small gaps. 

Because I'm paranoid that the lights will pack up on me, I tested them again.

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And God said, let there be light! 

It all still works.

Once the glue has dried, over night to be safe, I've got the torso seams to sort out.

After that, I can deal with the few remaining gaps. Pretty close to throwing some primer on him! The arms will be painted separately, to make it easier, then glued on last.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Matt

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