plasmahal Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 (edited) In memory of Leonard Nimoy, 1931 to 2015. My first entry into this Sci-Fi Group Build has been in my stash for many, many years now. It's the AMT/ERTL 1/32 Star Wars Trade Federation Tank as first seen in Episode One. Although many think the prequel Sta Wars films are rubbish, I think they introduced to some nice new spaceships and vehicles. Some of these then made into kit form. Here are the box and sprue shots. Some nice detail on this kit and a relatively straight forward out of the box build. I intend top try out some new (to me) chipping and weathering techniques on this build to give the tank and worn and battle weary look. Edited February 28, 2015 by plasmahal 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Searching around yesterday on the interweb I found a load of Star Wars kits at modelsforsale.com in their secondhand section. Not cheap (otherwise they'd be mine by now) but there if you REALLY need more of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 **Update** - Main Gun and Turret Part One. So cracking on yesterday with step one in the instructions. I have assemble the main gun parts, sanded and put some filler on gaps and seams. The main turret has been cleaned up and will assemble once the gun assembly is complete, then I can add the bits and bobs onto the turret. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 **Update** - Main Hull Assembly. Next was to start on the main hull. After lots of dry fitting, sanding and removing of alignment pegs that caused more gaps and mis-alignments, i got the two hull halves together. Then some styrene filler applied to seams and left to set ready for plenty of sanding and seam elimination. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) **Update** - Main Gun and Turret Part Two. Main gun and turret was assembled. Then plenty of sanding, seam filling and sanding some more..... The side guns were assembled and all gun barrels were drilled out. Edited March 8, 2015 by plasmahal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 **Update** - Main Hull Assembly Part Two. The underside panels ans detail on the upper part of the hull were added and gaps dealt with, see photo in previous post. Then the lower panel of the lower hull had the vents and insert panel fitted and gaps dealt with. Then the upper half of the lower hull was glued in place first to make it easier to handle. then some major gaps had to be dealt with here too. So now a look at how it's coming along. I have some details bits to add and some time to spend on the seam and gaps were the two halves of the lower hull meet. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Coming along nicely there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper15 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Nice start, and I completely agree with you, while the prequel trilogy isn't remembered fondly, it did introduce some great vehicle designs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neron-fx Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Great work so far! Keep it up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 **Update** - Main Hull Assembly Part Three. Hi, apologies for the lack of updates. Been pushing on and finished the build part. As you can see from the photos below, there were some big gaps and seams to deal with but all sorted in the end. There was a very big gap where the back of the lower hull met the upper hull and had to be shimmed out with plasticard. I used dissolved styrene as filler and any ar bubbles with some dissolved squadron green putty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 **Update** - Priming. So, once all the sanding was finished, the whole model was cleaned with warm soapy water and left to dry in the purpose built model drying facility (Airing cupboard). Then everything was primed with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo grey polyurethane primer and pledge floor wax (new Klear). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 **Update** - Pre-shading. For what's its worth, I decided to pre shade a dark brownish colour. For this I regrettably used Vallejo model air burnt umber. For some reason, I cannot get along with model air. I can airbrush tamiya dn a mr hobby aqueous both neat and thinned without any issues but model i always get issues with clogging, spitting and almost insta dry tip. i got it done in the end. now got to sort my base colours. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaker Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Looking good! I had this kit as a kid, think I clipped it together, and that was it, never painted it or glued it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Shumsky Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Nice work so far - looking forward to seeing some colour on this! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 **Update** - Pre-shading. For this I regrettably used Vallejo model air burnt umber. For some reason, I cannot get along with model air. I'm glad to hear I am not the only person I the world who has issues using Vallejo Model Air products - despite thinning it down with water. The one and only time I used it successfully was when I sprayed at 25 PSI. A little high but it worked. Once..... Your build is coming along nicely and I am looking forward to seeing more MH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Cool I really like the droid vehicle designs, and this is looking great! As fo vallejo, man I've had my share of problems with them so feel for you dude (dont get me wrong still like and use them) but in my experience the model air paints that are "pre thinned" still need to be thinned a little. And word to the wise only use their thinner, I find even using water makes them a little twitchy, and tamiya thinner or anything thats heavy on the alcohol will make them gloop up. Same for clean up, I've used window cleaner and IPA and had disatrous results with both, only thing that didn't cause glooping was their own brand. Just my two pennys worth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blastvader Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I've got to echo what Hunter Rose says above: the only way I've had real success with model air paints was by thinning 50/50 with their own thinners. But doing so means that they now spray perfectly...well apart from their black. And I've never had much success with their primer (which is meant to be sprayed neat) and still prefer to use pound shop car body primer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 **Update** - Base Colours Part One. As I seem to be a glutton for punishment and they are the paints I have in the right colours for stage one of the base coats, I soldiered on with the vallejo paints. I am using their own thinners but still hard to get right. I mixed up some heavily thinned model colour iraqi sand (70.819) and model air ochre (71.033) and did the lighter sand colour. I then went over with some very thin model colour iraqi sand (70.819) to start to weather the paint. I'm done for the night but will re-visit with some model colour iraqi sand (70.819) and white to do another layer of weathering of the lighter paint. Then it's some masking and then the light brown to do then the dark brown. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theanorak73 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 ooh...and now the magic starts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knikki Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Looks good. Funny I find Model Air really nice to use. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neron-fx Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 This is looking sha-weeeeet dude! Nice work sir. I am following this with interest. And thats saying something because George Lucas is on the top of my sh**list for Episode I. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 **Update** - Base Colours Part Two, After weathering the first base colour, it was masked off with tamiya tape. Then the second base colour of XF-59 was applied and weathered. Then masking tape removed. Then the last round of masking and the third base colour of XF-52 was applied and weathered. All masing then removed. I have a few areas of overspray, so i'm just going to weather those on with some very thin lighter base colours. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmahal Posted March 29, 2015 Author Share Posted March 29, 2015 **Update** - Base Colours Part Three, Onto the final main painting stage. After tidying up any overspray issues, I moved onto the areas detailed in black. for this I used Tamiya XF-84, dark iron. Then the relevant areas were dry brushed with Mr metal stainless. I rounded off this session with the whole model being sealed with a coat of pledge. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 That looks excellent, and a nice sized model to boot. Looking forward to seeing this finished. Karl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Looking really good plasmahal Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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