Lee Chambers

Thanks, I have to agree the hoses drive me mad !

Thanks for the nice comments. I used a 1/48 scale Riveting wheel tool, just rolled it over the painted areas. Then the light can shine through at more or less a scale fashion.

Thank you, it was a fun build.

Cheers guy's.

Hi all, calling this done, I added some scratch built high voltage capacitors with some colour changing SMD lighting. Maybe this will bring a bit of a spark to the monster's bride! Happy modelling! Just for fun I've uploaded a cheesy video!

Hi all, I have made more progress on this project, it's about 85% completed. The Monsters clothing lacked detail, so I made a knitted jumper with torn sleeves out of kitchen paper towel which was super glued to the chest and arms, then painted black and dry brushed to bring out some details. The Bride's dress was painted black then white followed by light greyish blue oils to soften the folds in the dress. Also, I used grey acrylic paints and dark tone oils to give a de-stressed look to the leather couch and the jacket of the Monster. The glassware was tinted with clear 2k clear lacquer mixed with clear blues, yellow and Tamiya smoke paints. I have some more glassware to add and some electrical lab equipment which will complete the diorama. It will have a small amount of lighting added just to add atmosphere. As ever thanks for looking and I always appreciate your comments. As the England football team are doing so well in the Euro 2020, I couldn't resist this last picture.

By lights, I simply meant adding shades of dark and light oil paints to create the effect of shadows on different surfaces and objects to give more depth to the scene.

Hi all, here is a quick build update on this kit. Just to give myself a bit of a challenge I am going to attempt to copy the box art photograph, which will mean painting up the model to look like the original black and white 1935 movie sequel. So, only using shades of black, white, grey and similar shades to achieve something that looks convincing, I have to first consider where the light in the diorama is coming from. I had started to paint in highlights and shadow effects that show the light is streaming in from the right side of the model. I hope you can see from the photos how this is starting to develop. The figures and base have been black base coated then light grey oils will be used for the highlighting together with various darker shades of browns and dark blues blended with engine oil and Starship filth oil paints. I fitted the base of the model on to some scrap marine ply which was given a skim of body filler and before it had time to set, I pushed a flat blade screwdriver into the surface to create the stone floor panels. I also used body filler to fill in the gaps in the back wall and make it more solid. The box art shows some large glassware behind the figures, I will be using some vintage laboratory equipment to replace the small plastic accessories found in the kit. I have replaced the back shelving with a more accurate large shelf for the glassware to sit on. There's still plenty to do, but I hope you enjoy the photos for now and as always, I look forward to your comments.

Thanks ! It's always nice to get a reaction to the work.

Thanks guys, these are very small kits to try and bring to life. Thankfully I am working on the opposite side of the scale spectrum for the rest of the year.

Hi all, well here is the finished build of both these great Bandai kits. I wanted the ship to appear suspended in space, so to achieve this I exited the wiring through the bow (front) section by means of a 2.5mm tube that also had a section of wire rod protruding into the hull. This tube was super glued into a 1 inch block of neoprene foam block that was glued to the back of the wall print. To create the space background, I used black corex sheet which was covered in black felt. The horizon was lit up by gluing some blue LED strip lighting to the back of the corex sheet. The Star Destroyer was tricky to add lighting that looked in scale, but I am happy with how it came out in the end. As I did with the Death Star, I scraped away the internal plastic to allow light to show through. The side trenches came in solid plastic with only minimum detailing, so I replaced them with fibre optic strand, then cut up small sections of the strands and epoxy glued them to add side detailing and still allow light to shine through. The side trenches each had some narrow-LED strip glued down each side of the lower hull sections. 2mm warm white LED's were then added to the hangar bay's areas and the upper decks, there was enough light inside to also light up the ion engines. Once the ship was completed, I sprayed it all over with black primer to light block, then a few coats of white primer. I then sealed the ship with Tamiya flat clear LP-23, finally I used Abteilung 502 light grey and Starship filth oils, mixed together to give a light wash over the whole model, followed by a final coat of flat clear. The last picture gives you a clue to my next Star Wars project which will include this picture diorama build as a backdrop.

Hi all, I picked this kit up off eBay last year at a good price, I will be building a diorama as a follow up to my previous build a few years back. This is a huge kit; shortly after buying it I found a pair of resin replacement heads, which look far more accurate than the kit offerings. I hope to have this build completed by the autumn. Included are some photos of my previous build and I have a video of it on my YouTube channel (Skyray Models) for anyone interested.

Hi all, I’ve been busy working on the kit most of this week, because of the scale of this kit, I had to consider how I could add lighting but not make it look like a Christmas bauble decoration. So, I started by scraping back the plastic of all the outer shell segments, until I could see daylight coming through them. This was only possible in certain areas due to the fixing points, I then coated over the very thin areas with clear epoxy to add some strength back. Once the thinned areas had been masked over, I painted a black primer basecoat over all of the parts. Because this model is going to be mounted on a printed space background for a future diorama, only the front section will be visible. For lighting the window areas of the space station, I added 3 segments of white LED strip lighting. I then hand painted the outer shell segments with Vallejo Model Color light grey and grey blue acrylics, followed by a sealer coat of Tamiya flat clear LP 23. Then the recessed area had a coat of Flory light wash followed by another flat clear coat. Once assembled I dry brushed the sphere with Mr Hobby super fine silver. Then I added some Molotow chrome to the internal structure edges. I then rolled a riveter wheel over the areas of windows to allow pinholes of light to come through. Next, I added 3 blue SMD lights inside the rear of the sphere which cast a nice blue effect over the internal structure. I have mounted an aluminium tube to hold the Death Star and allow the wiring to run through. The last photos are showing the model mounted on a temporary space background, just to show you how it looks. The phone camera does flare the lighting, but hopefully you get an idea of how it will look when finished. I plan to add black felt to the background of the model which will absorb the blue lighting to give a more realistic effect. For the final reveal of the model, it will be mounted on a wall print that will be part of the future diorama which will also include the Star Destroyer which I will be working on next.

Thanks, a time when the world was far simpler !!

Cheers Stef, Its my own mix, orange basecoat over a 2k white primer, then a light dusting of gold pearl, followed by candy orange. Then 2k clear coated. Once that's had a day or so to cure I 1500 flat the clear and add the decals, then a final 2k clear. The pearl is very subtle, it should look out of scale for this size model, but its looking great in the sunlight, just hard to photograph.