jargonking

If you need any help with pics/dimensions of the missing parts, I have an unbuilt example in my stash

More progress.... I finally attached the dashboard to the interior tub and did the final wiring to leave just a single set of feeds. These are way overlength and feed out through the bottom of the chassis behind the rear wheel...they'll then feed through the base and on to the power supply. The whole interior assembly was then glued to the chassis. I then added the various engine parts which had been pre-painted. These were then connected up using a mixture of the kit-supplied vinyl tubing, some slightly thicker black wire and some wire-wound guitar string to simulate the cables seen in the pics of the real vehicle. I'm going to add more weathering to the engine area using some washes and powdered pigments. Here's a couple of views of the lights on the completed interior....I chose to mount the steering wheel with the spokes horizontal which is at odds with the instructions and also the real car but it means the screen displaying the spinner taking off is not obscured.... Finally, a slightly blurry shot of the interior in darkness showing just how bright those lights are..... More soon....

I've found that most metallics, Alclad or otherwise, respond poorly to liquid masks. Far better to use a decent quality fine masking tape such as Tamiya or Tristar....use the ultra narrow type for the demarcation lines as it will stretch and conform to compound curves, then fill in the bulk areas with the wider stuff. Looking great so far by the way...

A little more progress.... As well as giving you templates to cut out the missing windows in the rear bulkhead, the etched set also provides templates for cutting the 'glass' out of transparent sheet.... These were duly installed in the bulkhead along with the kit transparency and the whole assembly cemented in place.... I also painted in the lights using Tamiya Clear colours...some of these require a second coat whilst others have been blacked out using dark grey paint... Overall the effect is starting to look more convincing...now to tackle the rest of the kit...

Well I've finished my Deckard figure off, I'm reasonably pleased with him considering figure sculpting is not my forte. The camera flash makes him appear shiny when in fact he is dead matt, here he is test fitted in the driving seat.... I gave him a sort of laptop made from a piece of styrene topped with an offcut of one of the spare slides from the upgrade set.... Close up he doesn't bear much resemblance to Harrison Ford, in fact in a strange way he looks more like Mark Hamill....anyway, once the body is on and the interior lit I think he'll look ok....

Actually the very same thought had occurred to me....

A little progress on Deckard....my figure sculpting skills are not the best but I've roughed out the trenchcoat...just need to leave it to set before fine tuning the edges and adding some more detail. Given that the eye will be drawn more to the lights than to the figure, I'll be happy if he just bears a resemblence...

So, after a trawl through my spares boxes I came across the remains of what I think was the navigator from a Tamiya rally car...I was also lucky to find a 1/24 head, just about the only one I have that isn't wearing a crash helmet. I've done some surgery on the legs as the Sedan seats are really low to the floor. I also carved away the racing harness on the torso. The challenge now is to create the shirt, tie, jacket and trenchcoat....hmmmmm I started out by adding a shirt collar and tie from thin styrene sheet applied with copious amounts of Plastic Weld cement to soften it and make it conform.... It's surprising how much better the figure looks just by those simple additions... I then added some lapels and another collar to represent his suit jacket...I also added cuffs to the bottom of the trousers to disguise the rally driver origins... The buttons were made from some of the etched ignition keys that come with the upgrade set....

I added some fibre optics to the passenger side dash.... I got the fibres from a cheap Halloween toy and simply drilled out the dash using a 0.5mm drill and fed them through...what I didn't realise was that the CA glue I used to secure them reacted with them and actually melted the fibres!...nothing for it but to remove the damage, redrill them and then secure this time using 5-minute epoxy.... I fed them using a 3mm blue LED and the result was worth the hassle.... Now for the really hard part...scratchbuilding a realistic Deckard figure....I have one of the ODG figure sets for the Spinner which look ok in that context however the Deckard doesn't fit the Sedan and he's in the wrong pose...I'll see what I can come up with....

Here's a first look at the lights...still got some leaks on the edges of the panels but easily fixed.... Note that none of the individual holes have been colour tinted yet... Console rear.... Here's the dashboard unlit....for the main screen I've gone with the Spinner lifting off after Deckard has explained who he is to the cops, the smaller screen has Pris answering Sebastian's phone.... And lit...this pic doesn't really do it justice....to the naked eye it looks fabulous, once more big thanks to Paul for such a fantastic product....

In every Sedan/Police Car 27 kit Fujimi kindly supply the etched fret that comes with the Spinner kit bearing the Spinner logos...presumably because Deckard's car is supposed to be a grounded earlier version of the Police fliers. There's no evidence of this logo being used on the actual Sedan in the movie but I thought it might be fun to use it somewhere that might still remain in the grounded version. So I cut some ribbed Evergreen sheet to fit the footwells....(sorry about the dark pic).... I then applied the logos.... After some painting and scraping back the face of the logos I had some neat looking mats...just the thing to keep that acid rain from ruining your carpets....note the wear on the drivers side... Meanwhile the interior etched pieces were first primed then painted matt black before being drybrushed with various shades of grey... The dashboard is a mixture of black and desert yellow.... It's just about ready for the detail painting...note the LED's for the monitors...I'll use some diffuser material to even out the light from these behind the screens.... Here's the centre console prior to detail painting....note I've filled the open holes that let the light through using Microscale Kristal Klear (PVA or white glue works too) which dries transparent...these will then be tinted using Tamiya clear colours...

The upgrade set provides cutting guides to open up the two missing windows in the rear bulkhead... It's a fiddly job and you need to take care not to put too much pressure on the rather delicate framework but it's well worth the effort....

First thing here was a styrene replacement for the brass piece I removed from the centre console to accomodate an LED inside. The styrene piece was made overheight so it meets the underside of the dash. The LED within was carefully sanded to allow it to slide into the narrow aperture...as long as you take care not to expose the 'element' then it will still work fine.... I also took the opportunity to add some styrene rod to the etch to give it some extra dimension.... Based on the reference pic kindly supplied earlier, I scratched some additional instruments for the passenger side using Evergreen strip and a length of guitar string....I'm intending to add a few more bits here and have some random fibre optic lights.... Here's a quick test fit with the dashboard in place.....

When assembled to the dash, the monitors have a large gap underneath...not an issue in the basic kit but obviously a problem if you intend to light it...so a piece of scrap styrene was cut and fixed in place...note the notch to allow for the steering mount... Also some holes need cutting into the door linings to allow light through to the etch.... As with any lighting job it's important to plan ahead as to where the lights are fitted and to ensure that the kit will still fit together after modification. I lined the centre console with aluminium tape to prevent light leaks and also to bounce the light around inside so that it projects through the etch. A simple bulkhead was installed at the rear of the console and a hole drilled to take a 3mm white LED.... A similar hole was drilled in the front end and a piece of styrene fabricated to seal the bottom of the transmission tunnel.... The LED's were then glued in place....by having them light the box horizontally from either end this provides a more even light avoiding 'hot spots' through any particular area of etch.... Back onto the etch and the instructions say to remove the end panel of the raised portion of the centre console and replace with styrene to allow you to insert a light within....the hatched portion was simply bent back and forth till it snapped off.... The part is then folded and attached to the main panel....before being clad in some truly tiny pieces... It's a similar story with the parts for the door panels....

Following on from my build of Police Car 27.... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234924843 Here is the Fujimi Deckard Sedan upgraded with the ParaGrafix etched set... First the upgrade set.... Despite having different labels, both sets are identical and provide parts for both the standard cars as seen driving around and the hero interior depicted when Deckard is behind the wheel. The attention to detail is what you'd expect from Paul and I can't wait to light one up. First plan is to upgrade my existing Sedan interior to model Deckard sitting in the car making the call to Pris. I'm going to use the second set to build a Police version with an open door..... I also have some plans for a Police Bike to match.... Obviously the arrival of the etch and the accompanying photo reference means that the build will be slightly more involved than the Police version I built last year. One issue I did come across was that I'd already assembled the dashboard on the Sedan before I obtained the etch. This would entail a much harder job cutting away two layers of styrene to make way for the lights. Luckily I have a spare Sedan kit which I'm intending building as the green version seen in the street scenes so I simply swapped out the parts so I could start afresh.... Here's the basic dashboard components.... First job was to remove the prominent lip moulded onto the top edge.... This joint should be seamless when the screens are in place so a little filler and sanding will be needed here. Next I cut the two etched screen parts from the fret and test fitted them to determine where to remove the plastic....note the area of the main dash piece that also needs surgery....These parts were then chaindrilled and the excess plastic removed... On chopping out the dashboard I discovered that the assembly socket that mates with the interior tub was visible and might interfere with the lighting so I removed it using side cutters and a sharp blade... I then very carefully removed the excess plastic from the screens...you need to be super-careful here as the process doesn't leave a lot of material along the bottom edge of the main screen...I used a blade that was sharp but not too sharp to avoid removing too much material. Once the screens are fixed to the dash however there is scope to reinforce this area with sheet styrene.... Next it was onto the main interior tub which had already recieved a coat of paint at the rear end....the dark matt brown in the seating area is just a base coat for the eventual beige colour. First I test fitted the brass for the centre console to determine where the lights will be going....It's worth mentioning here that I'm building the 'hero' version which is the one Deckard sits in outside the Bradbury. I should have enough spare etch and screens left to use on my Green 'street car'.... More chaindrilling and cutting resulted in two neat openings..... Another job is to level the door panels prior to testfitting the door controls....the white area is where the plastic has been scraped flat, level with its surroundings

One more thing....this Soviet Tanker figure is available from Trumpeter and would easily convert to a driver in overalls to give a sense of scale.... http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/trumpeter-wwii-soviet-tank-crew-figure-00701-p-11975.html

That looks great...makes me want to finish mine off now...I've also got the Traction Engine and the big Dennis Fire Engine to the same scale in my stash. A couple of things that you could add to bring a touch more realism would be a bucket, there's usually one seen dangling near the water tank...easy enough to scratchbuild in this scale...a shovel for the coal, some oily rags around the cab and finally the ubiquitous enamelled tea mug...with tea naturally....

The Meteor looks like a test shot to me and so some changes will probably be made prior to production. Having built several test shots for various manufacturers I can vouch for the fact that some parts may be too large/small or simply the wrong shape altogether. Also they come minus instructions and the test builder is left to figure out how parts fit....I suggest that the builder here has mis-placed the cannons, I'm betting the ones in the final kit will be correct....

For the grease you could try using a suitably dark oil paint straight from the tube and smeared on where necessary....it would require a week or so to fully harden after which you could overcoat it with some satin varnish....

The Halcyon Dropship is a real dog of a kit....it would be more cost effective to make a new tool than try to spruce up the existing moulds. Whilst 1/35 would be my preferred scale I think a 1/48 Dropship complete with APC and some figures would make more sense to a manufacturer given the crossover sales with aircraft modellers and the growing interest in 1/48 armour. I'd like to see a large scale Nostromo Spacesuited figure with optional heads or maybe an Aurora-style diorama of Kane leaning over the opening egg.

I have one of these part built which I need to get round to finishing. Regarding the sink marks on the roof, it's worth noting that most of these engines roofs were coated with layers of tarpaulin giving an effect like roofing felt on a shed so you could easily disguise the marks with maybe tissue soaked in PVA. Also the cylinder around which the steering chain is wound should have a corkscrew-like thread like this.... You can improve the polished steel shafts of the piston arms using an appropriate size of round nail.... Kit parts..... Choose your nails..... Finished.... The footplate looks good painted up....looking forward to seeing yours....

Thanks to a link provided on another site to photos of the real car, I've added some small changes .... I've painted in the red and blue lights on the front....I first painted them matt white then gave them two coats of Tamiya Clear Red and Blue.... I've also painted the triangular panels on the rear quarters matt black. I'm still undecided whether to paint the rearmost 'bar' above the engine opening Aluminium to match the real car as I quite like it white.... One thing I have noticed is that Fujimi got the colours wrong on the rear light cluster...the end light on each side of the rear of the car...ie the ones closest to the doors...should be orange, not red, but it's too late for mine now.....

Well I'm just about finished for now aside from some minor drybrushing when I get a fresh tin of white enamel tomorrow....my current batch has developed a slightly yellow tint, not sure why.... Anyway, I've attached the wing mirrors...remember to angle the passenger side mirror further towards the driver....and fitted the metal plate to the corner of the windscreen along with it's decals. I've still got to add the black stripes to the window pillars but at the moment I've got no suitable decals....might have to wait until November when I go to the IPMS show at Telford... All the decalled areas were given a coat of matt varnish and I applied a dark pin wash to all the panel shut lines. I've added some weathering and chipping here and there as I figure something as rugged as a police car would still be made of steel and would take a battering in the acid rain-drenched streets of LA. Also it looks too toy-like if left a pristine white.... Here are some shots I took outside this evening in slightly fading daylight....

Approaching completion.....the bodyshell is still loose on the chassis so I can dress up the interior a little more, and there is some touching up to do on the window surrounds.... I've applied all bar two decals and most of the exterior components, it's basically just missing the wing mirrors and the piece at the bottom left of the windscreen.... It doesn't show up too well with the flash but the black bumpers were subtly weathered using very dark greys to give some definition. These parts still require a coat of matt varnish after decalling... The front and rear lamp assemblies were first painted the appropriate orange and red using Tamiya clear colours then attached using Humbrol Clearfix adhesive... The nose section is shown as bright silver in the instructions but I elected to paint it matt black which was then drybrushed with aluminium. I then picked out various components with gold and some colours... The red and white decal on the roof was the most difficult to apply....not only do you need to locate the colour break exactly over the scribed centreline, but the silver edge has to be aligned precisely with the moulded edge of thec part. I used Microset and Microsol to shrink it down over the kit detail... Tape has been used to hold the wiper blade to the glass and a tiny drop of Clearfix applied to ensure it remains in contact with the surface... Still need to sort out some black decal stripes for the vents on the pillars.... overall though this has been a lightning quick build by my standards...

Meanwhile, back on the bench I'm busy painting all the various subassemblies and getting ready to start weathering. One oversight on Fujimi's part is that they supply a clear part for the centre of the rear bulkhead in the cabin but not for the triangular sections on either side meaning the cabin would still be open to the engine... I'm planning on fixing this with some clear acetate and styrene strip once the white gloss of the engine compartment is fully cured.... Some progress on the interior.... The passenger compartment was given a wash of dirty black over the grey primer basecoat then drybrushed with various shades of grey enamel...the various panels were then picked out in black and aluminium. The seats were sprayed grey, masked, then sprayed matt black. The various switches were first painted matt white then Tamiya clear colours used to give the impression of being lit... The engine bay was given the same dirty wash then drybrushed with matt white. The various engine and fan components were painted and weathered separately before fixing using CA glue.... I may add some more hoses and cables to the engine area to busy it up a little more. Underside is matt black, drybrushed with a little grey and khaki then parts picked out in aluminium... The satin chrome wheels were painted on the faces with matt black enamel, left for ten minutes, then the paint was rubbed off with a dry paper kitchen towel. This left the paint in the recesses giving a nice worn look.... I've now test fitted the bodyshell minus the windows to check what part of the body is visible inside the cabin....looks like just the pillars and roof will need painting grey....the fit of the body onto the chassis is exceptionally good... More soon....