The Chief Smeg

Jim this is incredible! An absolute masterpiece.

Part 3 Now onto the parts I have decided to detail paint before assembly. The helmet sides have some sort of grey section so I mixed some dark grey and applied it, unfortunately it dried a lot darker so I'll dry brush some mid grey over the top once it has dried fully. The black insert for the helmet has some grey sections that also needed painting and again the dark grey dried far too dark for my tastes so I wiped it off completely and repainted it mid grey. The larger grey areas at the rear of the helmet are going to have to be covered with the supplied decals as there is some detail there that I just cannot reproduce in paint. The 'Bum Roll' has been hand painted with Vallejo Model Air Mid Grey As have the button details on the Stomach piece insert. For the blue buttons I used Model Colour Imperial Blue and you can also see the part of the helmet I hand touched in with Vallejo Metal Air Aluminium to give the little filters a bit of colour. I also used the Imperial Blue (kind of fitting now I come to write this) on the vents on the sides of the helmet. To do this I used a technique AndyRM101 had mentioned in his Speeder Scout build where he painted the area and then wiped off the excess on the surface leaving the indentations holding the colour. This wasn't as straightforward as I had originally hoped and I had to strip the mask from the sprue to be able to handle it properly and had a good two attempts before I was satisfied. I also painted the Grey parts of the vent that sort of covers the nose. This is is it for now, next update is likely to be at the weekend.

Part 2 Primer is dry so let's add the topcoat to some of the black parts. I decided to paint the body suit and hands in Vallejo Grey Black Once my Trooper is built I'm going to give him an all over nuln oil wash and then dry brush some of the raised areas first with the Grey Black again and then with a lighter grey.

Part 1 So, a new WIP for me to start and then leave partially completed because I've still not got around to buying the materials I need for the display and for my R2 kit. Anyway I was eager to start this one because I've finally got my hands on a compressor and airbrush so I can paint the parts I want to a little easier, I guessed this would be a good kit to start with. I should add at this point that I have been chronicling this one for a while now, waiting until I actually had some real progress to how before posting, but as with all my projects I have precious little spare time so diving out to my 'Nest' in the garage does not happen as much as I would like. First things first let's flip over the build mat - can't build a Storm Trooper on the 'metric' side can we! Here are the obligatory spruce shots. And this is just the water slide transfer sheet, but the plan is to use as few of these as possible I decided to prime and top coat the black parts whilst they are still on the spruces. For this I'm using Vallejo Black Primer. I snipped off the obvious white parts and gave everything a coating of primer. Then I panicked as I realised I had just painted the translucent eye shields So I snipped these off the spire and quickly rubbed a cotton bud soaked in airbrush cleaner over it to remove the paint. Phew! Now there is lesson number 1 for me: Double check the sprue! I was struggling with a bit of paint spatter and clogging at first whilst I worked out the best air pressure. I can spray with a full size gun so I rather arrogantly decided I would be able to airbrush with no problems. So the spattering was lesson number 2: Learn some humility you big head! Got a better layer of primer down in the end that I was happy with.

Awesome - thanks for sharing

What I was trying to say was i love how this has turned out. I'd like to see the rest of the costume.

That is just amazing! I'm contemplating lighting a kit in my stash (Viper Mk II) but would not know where to start. I need to do a lot of reading. I cannot believe you have managed to squeeze lighting into a kit so small.

I can't not see this now!

That looks a hell of a lot better. I'm liking how this is coming along.

AC/DC have a song to accompany this build: "Some balls are held for charity and some for fancy dress, but when they're held for pleasure they're the balls that I like best. My balls are always bouncing to the left and to the right, it's my belief that my big balls should be held every night" Obviously they were talking about the pleasure of holding a pair of models and not ballroom dancing as you would have believed from the lyrics. Who knew? Some neat de-seaming there. Nicely done.

oh boy, how much do I want one of these!

That's really nice and subtle weathering.

You are going to hate me for this, but I prefer the new version over the Arnie one. I know we lost some of the subtlety of the story and yet again MAJOR changes were made (like Arnie at least went to Mars), but if they are going to change stuff then at least they really changed stuff. Mind you I suppose it is like saying 'Running Man was based on the book! Really looking forward to 'Ready Player One' movie though (Ernest Cline book is excellent).

I shouldn't worry too much, the company I worked for (26 years) announced they were going to cease manufacture at our factory (back in 2011) so I took redundancy and ran and I've never looked back.

I think the Saturn 5 is still classed as the most complex machine ever built. I think we have already seen your take on the most complex Scratch Build ever made!

My word, you must have spent some time on the 'Disco lights' on the side! loving the speed stripe, I'd been toying with the idea of one in Gulf Oil colours like on the GT40 but decided I already had plenty of stuff I should be getting in with when the weather improves and I can get back out to my 'command centre' (ok, the garage).

It's like the Phillip K Dick stories - they only use them for inspiration... such a shame because they are just so good.

I keep seeing this kit on hobbycraft at a very reasonable price. I think I'm going to have to get one. Who doesn't love a mkii viper and yours looks great. It's certainly seen some action.

This is really growing on me. The more I see of it the more I desperate to see the finished article

I could almost jump on that and go for a ride - nice work there mr Mad

Sorted! Add this to my download list on series link (getiPlayer on Mac)

Of course what we are not being told is that the coin in the picture is actually a giant manhole cover sprayed a copper colour! joking apart, the level of detail and amount of work you are putting into this is simply staggering. I have been following this build avidly for some time now, every update is eagerly awaited. It's just amazing.

Tiny isn't it. I genuinely had not noticed the 1 pence piece at first. That is seriously small and just looks brilliant.

Where are the lighting rigs and movie cameras from the soundstage... really nice build though. I had a LEM kit a lot of years ago, always loved them. Yours looks terrific.