Jump to content

TimT

Members
  • Posts

    169
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

TimT last won the day on May 13 2023

TimT had the most liked content!

3 Followers

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Minneapolis

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

TimT's Achievements

New Member

New Member (2/9)

1.2k

Reputation

  1. That's something special! Lots to savour in those great photos of all that rich paintwork. You clearly relished this one.
  2. I understand these things are tiny. Great work getting such a variety of colours and textures on such small surfaces, especially as these things seemed nearly monochrome in the film. That's impressive brushwork! Thanks for sharing.
  3. That's really good. I echo all of the comments above - this one sets the bar high. Such a lot of variation in a monochrome scheme, and such a lot to take in in all those great photos.
  4. Really spectacular result! I like how far you pushed the weathering on the Falcon - all those tiny chips look just right. It must look arresting in person. Epic build.
  5. Thanks! It takes a little work in places - and quite a lot of paint - but it's worth it. Thanks, Hunter! And for your comments throughout.
  6. There was a brief spell of real winter here in the upper midwest; my garage studio/ workbench froze solid for a couple of weeks. However, the last fortnight of spring weather has allowed me to mostly finish this project off. Once the wings are built, construction is mostly done. The wings slot onto the arms snuggly and are locked in place by the centre piece of the hub. No glue is required, allowing the wings to be removed - a really great design choice considering the size of this thing. I painted the canons non-canonical green, the colour of the bolts fired but not the same as the studio model. I wanted a contrast with the back end and felt green looked a little more evil. I had to take a few informal glamour shots before submitting a real RFI post. I'll spray the base before I try to photograph it, although I'll need to find another space to get enough distance from this beast. In the end, this was a really impressive kit, and - as has been confirmed by studio scale modeler supreme John Simmons - the most accurate injection-moulded TIE Fighter available. It has a great presence when complete, and despite some quality shortfalls in areas, seems worth the time and expense if you want a big, beautiful TIE. Thanks for following along!
  7. Thanks, Rob! Seems like a lifetime ago now, but it remains one of my favourite builds and painting experiences. Such a great kit! I appreciate you excavating it from the vaults.
  8. Wow - that's beautifully done! The colour modulation on the wings, the tiny chips on the fuselage - plus many other very finely executed details - all of it adds up to a great build. The decals truly look painted on, which I can tell is as much down to your skills as it is the quality of the decals themselves. I always thought this was an unlovely plane, but this inspires me to build one because of its weirdnesses.
  9. I think you're right about maximum effort, Will; the design of the kit is good - clever in places - and the casting is generally clear, especially on the large exterior parts. They could certainly tighten up quality control on the tooling, but it doesn't ruin the experience - at least not for me. I also have Round 2/ AMT's Razor Crest, which I haven't built yet, but looks pretty good. I've made a start on the wings, each of which is larger than just about every kit I've built in recent years. Here are the parts: The panels jigsaw together and are locked in place with the arms and central hub. The teeth on one side go through the holes on the panels and into the arm on the other side, if you see what I mean. The fit of the panels is OK until you get to the last one, which is too large. I sanded the lugs on 3 of the panels until the pieces sat snugly and didn't warp the wing overall. I dry-fitted the arms continuously to make sure all the pins and holes would still align. I primed and pre-shaded the various parts before spraying them my custom TIE grey. As you can see, the detail is dense and sharp enough to take panel line washes well. The instructions would have you connect all the panels then the hub and arms on one side before going to the other. I alternated sides and gradually worked around the hub, mating male/ female arms to keep things stable. I also sprayed the panels with (most of) a rattle can of matte black, masking the areas that the arms will attach to. The pins on the arms have a decent hold on their partner on the opposite side of the wing, but I wanted to clamp the entire length while the glue dried. I tried chopsticks with elastic bands to exert pressure along the whole length of the arm, which sort of worked. If you build one of these, it's worth designating a large work area. I keep running out of space! Thanks for following along.
  10. Thanks for the views and comments, everyone. I've begun the painting process on the hull: I'm not trying to imitate the ILM approach to painting, but indulging with some shading and panel line emphasis - definitely not faithful to the TIE studio miniature. Most of the decals have been applied at this point, which are more than I was expecting. When the ship zips around on screen, I never noticed a single one - at least not consciously. I tried to keep this visual texture going with a couple of slightly lighter or darker panels. The paint looks much darker here, which is misleading. However, you can see that - despite soft areas elsewhere on the kit - the detail on the hull is pretty sharp. Wings next. Thanks for looking.
  11. Lovely scheme and excellent craftsmanship. I'd be proud if that were my only build of the year.
  12. Cleanly built and crisply painted - really lovely! Wonderful sense of finesse over all the surface details. Nice presentation, too. Congrats!
  13. Good grief! That's some exceptional modeling and painting! I can't believe you achieved this level of detail at 1/72. That engine is a work of art on its own. Inspiring stuff - although I'd never attempt to reproduce what you're doing.
  14. Thanks, Pete. Yes, after being spoiled by some excellent aircraft kits, it's surprising to see sloppiness that comes down to cheap manufacturing, especially when word-of-mouth becomes such a selling point for kits these days. Anyway, you're right, it gets more impressive as it goes. Cheers, gunpowder! I thought about throwing some extra pipes and such in there, but wanted to get to the exterior as quickly as possible. Thanks, Thom. Yes - the weaknesses are easy to work around and end up mostly hidden, so the shortcomings don't destroy the experience overall. Glad to have you along, Hook! Thanks! As I mentioned, I haven't documented every step, so the whole project takes a sudden leap: Here it is, primed and assembled. The giant hull halves fit together very well, on huge pins that lock together almost without the need for glue. The surface is then covered in greeblies and panels that (mostly) hide the seams - a nice piece of design. I sanded down a couple of seams and filled a couple of gaps, but I think if you dry fit the larger panels and sand them until they're snug, you probably wouldn't need any filler on this. The stand is provided and really helps with the painting process. I know all our modeler's tricks of pre-shading, etc. weren't used by the ILM model-makers, but I wanted to create some variation on this massive surface area. This is after a couple of layers of grey over the black pre-shading; the grey is a mix of a couple of different Tamiya colours (Sky Grey + light sea grey, I think, although I eye-balled proportions) in an attempt to approximate the ANH TIE Figther rather than the very blue ESB version. It took a few tries to find something that felt right as a value; the addition of the Dark Grey window frame made my first attempt look way too pale. I'm also adding panels of Neutral Grey and some panel line washes to pick out all the lovely detail. Here's the top hatch plus decals; you have to appreciate the logos and stencils harvested from the kits all those ILM geniuses collected, all faithfully reproduced here: More soon - it goes together quickly and is a lot of fun to get into. Thanks for looking!
  15. One of the iconic designs from A New Hope (which I still think of as ‘Star Wars’), I’ve been looking forward to this kit since it was announced. The kit comes in a giant box, and it’s packed to the brim, immediately giving you the sense that you’re about to engage with something big. Although AMT declare it as part of a Studio Series, it’s not the same scale as the studio model, but at 1:32, it is large, and its designers clearly devoted energy to making it screen-accurate. As I’ve been building it, the kits seems caught between the good intentions of the designers and AMT’s poor quality control. All Star Wars kits stand in the shadow of what Bandai have achieved, and few can match the sharpness of their casting, the fit quality and general level of engineering. However, even if AMT can’t reach those standards, it feels like some production shortcuts have resulted in soft detail, flash and very average decals. However, it’s still been very fun to build, and the flaws are mostly in places that can be hidden. The detail on the visible surfaces is great, and the size of the model gives it real presence. Although I don’t claim to be a mast modeler by any means, I thought I’d share my build as I haven’t seen one here yet, and I have some notes that might be helpful if you’re going to make the leap. I’m trying to keep it succinct, so haven’t documented every step, but I hope enough to be of use. As with most things that fly, construction starts in the cockpit, which is less tub and more geodesic dome. The floor is clear to allow for lighting, but I’m not taking that route, so I sprayed the underside red, used masking fluid to mask the channels on the upper side, then spayed that aluminium. Once unmasked, the effect is pleasing. At 1/32, the pilot should be a work of art, but he’s disappointingly soft and stiffly posed. He also seems out of scale with his controls - a grown-up operating a child-sized fighter. I did my best, spraying him gloss black before using acrylic ink to make the fabric of his flight suit matte. I dry-brushed dark grey over this, looking for some variation to crisp-up softly sculpted folds. The decals that have to conform to the breast plate and helmet aren’t good at doing this, despite whatever cocktail of solvents I threw at them. Unfortunately, the Imperial insignia for the helmet and shoulders are just blank discs of grey - a printing error, apparently, and one that adds to the feeling of cheapness in a kit that just isn’t. I sourced some after-market decals for these, but they were nearly as poor. I did lots of un-Star Wars things, like pre-shading the cockpit panels to add some variety. Much of the detail comes from decals, which do an OK job of sticking to flat surfaces. Some triangular panels need to be painted black, which I missed as I assumed all the black triangles were going to be decals. I only had one decal down before I realized this and masked the black panels. The cockpit fixed in the hull half. You can see the amount of warp between each cockpit section, although ultimately this will be hidden and won't interfere with the way the hull fits together. The detail on that forward bulkhead is very nice. I've tried to pick it out with some panel line washes and dry-brushing, all blown out by the photo. It really is an impressive kit. Thanks for looking and Happy New Year!
×
×
  • Create New...