rom1 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 This is ... Awesome! impressive work! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 R2 is looking cool, very nice weathering! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 Thanks guys I've got most of R2 together now. The blue bits had been painted at the same time as the panels on the dome and I sprayed all the silver parts with the Xtreme Metal strait onto the bare plastic but I've left the white unfinished. The plastic's got no flaws in it and the joins are minimal and mostly hidden. I ran some Tamiya extra thin into the joins between the body halves and squeezed them together until a bead of plastic oozed out which I sanded down once dry. Most of the rest of the construction was just left as push fit although I did glue the grills on each side as they felt like they may drop out otherwise. The legs have had a bit of chipping but I've still got to do the body Up until this point I hadn't used any of the kit decals and I was going to try and hand paint the small triangular panels round the vent at the bottom of the body but, after a half hearted (and half arsed) attempt, I gave up and decided to use the decals. They had quite a bit of decal film around the edges so I trimmed that back. At first they didn't want to lay down and seemed to have very little adhesive but, with a little micro sol, they eventually went down and, once dry, actually looked pretty good Before the final assembly, I'm going to start the weathering and, since I'm in a daredevil mood, I'm going with enamel washes strait onto the bare plastic Wish me luck Andy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Straight onto plastic? Ooh, you dangerous devil-dog you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 Straight onto plastic? Ooh, you dangerous devil-dog you! Yep, and I'm going to do it blindfolded while wearing a spangly leotard Of course, I'm normally wearing a spangly leotard anyway... Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carts Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 These droids are absolutely fantastic,the effects you are creating are spot on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 I've got the first layer of weathering on. As I mentioned above, I was a little apprehensive of using enamel washes straight onto Bandai plastic after the dramas I had with the AT-ST but, after a test on some of the unused parts, I went ahead with it and there have been no issues. The body and legs had a pretty liberal application of AK washes along with plenty of white spirit for clean up and there's been no cracking or deterioration of the plastic. I have heard that the previous issues were restricted to the AT-ST because of the plastic blend used in that release so, hopefully, future Bandai releases will be free of the problem. This is just a basic grimy wash made up from AK Earth Effects and AK Grey Wash for Kriegsmarine mixed on the surface then blended and stippled to soften the effect When it's had a few days to fully dry, I'll add a few localised stains and dirt and maybe a bit of pigment here and there, then I think I'll make a small sand/desert base for him. Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Excellent! So, just to clarify. All of the silver we see here is the Xtreme metal polished aluminium, including the chipping? Richard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 So, just to clarify. All of the silver we see here is the Xtreme metal polished aluminium, including the chipping? Thanks Richard, sorry, should have pointed that out in the post. All the metal parts were painted with the xtreme metal but the chipping was done with regular Vallejo silver. The xtreme stuff is very thin (same consistency as Alclad) and isn't really suitable for brush painting. Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P25cad Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Hi Andy.im new around here, so hello,I love watching your builds. can you tell me, before you started painting r2, did you prime it at all.I didn't read it in your build.im wanting to weather mine, but wondered if I needed to matt it down a bit.? Kind regards Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Looking good Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 On 23/06/2015 at 13:53, Mike said: Looking good Andy Thanks Mike On 23/06/2015 at 13:41, P25cad said: Hi Andy.im new around here, so hello,I love watching your builds. can you tell me, before you started painting r2, did you prime it at all.I didn't read it in your build.im wanting to weather mine, but wondered if I needed to matt it down a bit.? Kind regards Ian Hi Ian I did prime the dome before spraying it blue but I left the body and legs in bare plastic. I'd previously painted all the blue and metallic bits separately but they weren't primed, just paint straight onto the plastic. To be honest, if I do another, I'll leave the blue bits unpainted too. I didn't clear coat the body before weathering but, before I did the final assembly, I lightly sanded the body and legs (just the unpainted white bits) with a fine sanding stick so the washes would have something to key to. If you're going to weather yours with oils/enamels it might be worth giving it a light misting with a satin varnish as the oils take a long time to dry on bare plastic but if you're going to use acrylics you wouldn't need any additional clear coat. You could always give it a light matt coat at the end as, for most of the films, R2 wasn't that shiny anyway. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy K Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Loving what you are doing with these droids Andy, top notch stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P25cad Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Thanks for that Andy.I will follow your advice. nice work regards ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Not much done on R2 but I managed to get the base done. This is a 7x5, deep sided photo frame, the same sort I used for the AT-ST base (£1.99 from B&M - cheapskate that I am). I removed the glass and stuck the backing card in with a hot glue gun then stuck in a piece of plasterboard. I glued the large stone on then covered the rest with wall filler. When that was dry I covered it with Vallejo sandy paste and sprinkled on bits of gravel and sand. I left all that to dry then painted it with various Vallejo sand and brown tones and, since I'd got a bit left in the airbrush, I sprayed a bit round R2's feet and lower body. Not much more to do so I should get him finished this weekend Andy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 You can almost feel the Jawa's eyeing him up, volt gun in hand. 'Ootini' Sterling stuff Andy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 27, 2015 Author Share Posted June 27, 2015 I've painted up a selection of the included onboard tools although I'll just be using the grabber arm for the vignette. I've no idea what the bottom one is unless it's a badly overscale power charging arm. It does say in the instructions but, of course, it's in Japanese. It looks preposterous when fitted but quite cool nonetheless I've added a pigment wash to the base to give it a more dusty look and splashed a bit round R2's feet too And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, calls an end to the Astromech build. They've been a huge amount of fun and I'll definitely be getting some more. There are so many Astromechs in the films and EU that the sky's the limit as far as colour combinations go but they'll have to wait a while as the Speeder Bike has just departed Japan and is winging it's way to my door. Andy 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindmax Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 (edited) Many thanks for this great instruction and guidance! First I didn't want to buy these Bandai droids but you have tought me otherwise! Edited May 21, 2016 by Mindmax 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake the snake Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Andy please admit that you are a professional artist cause man your work is out of this wold brilliant! You are right? Hu? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now