Protocol, Gonk & Mouse droids

[Andy Moore]

I've had Bandai's 3P0 sitting in the stash for about a year now, but for some reason I've never been able to get the motivation to get started on him. I thought it was time he got built, but I wanted to do something different, so he's not going to be 3P0, but a different protocol droid instead.

The first thing to do was strip the plating off the kit parts, which was a wrench to do as Bandai had made a beautiful job of it. They'd also made it pretty robust, as it was less than easy to remove, but I got it all off eventually. The assembly has now been done so this will be more of a painting wip than a build one

 

 

The only paint app so far has been a bit of silver and clear orange behind the eyes...

 

 

... and the mid section, which was painted dark grey, then weathered with a few Citadel washes. The moulded wires were picked out in various shades, and a few extra ones were added with wire stripped from and old USB cable.

 

 

As for the droid I'm doing, my initial thought was to do TC-4, who was a protocol droid in the prequels. The only reason I'd thought of him was that I liked his colouring

 

 

I'm now veering in a different direction, which is to do an unofficial (i.e. made up) droid, which will be in a dilapidated state (hence the split wires on the mid section). The current plan is to base him (or maybe her; there are female protocols) in a dark aluminium/steel metallic, then add layers of oxidation/corrosion and general grime. I'm keeping it fairly open for now, and I'll just see how it develops as I get paint on.

And, no, I don't know what I'll be calling him (her) yet. I'm open to suggestions.

 

Andy

Edited November 12, 2016 by AndyRM101

[Pete in Lincs]

Like it. That's a nice looking model

even without paint/plating.

 

How about T1N.

[M_Sinclair]

That mid section looks like it was fun to put together and paint. I'm expecting this droid will have been to hell and back. I can't wait to see how you go about telling it's story.

 

Is it possible to make a droid such as this look... evil? Terrifying? As if it wasn't just another droid, but a full on villain in the universe? Paint him black, give him a cape? Change up the face to make it more foreboding perhaps? I'm just firing stuff at the walls to see if any crazy ideas trigger something.

 

Keep going Andy!

 

-matt

[Hunter Rose]

Will follow with interest, sounds like a cool idea. Nice mid section!

[Andy Moore]

Thanks guys

 

19 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

How about T1N.

 

Hmm, T-1N sounds pretty good. I'll add it to the list.

 

6 hours ago, M_Sinclair said:

That mid section looks like it was fun to put together and paint. I'm expecting this droid will have been to hell and back. I can't wait to see how you go about telling it's story.

 

Is it possible to make a droid such as this look... evil? Terrifying? As if it wasn't just another droid, but a full on villain in the universe? Paint him black, give him a cape? Change up the face to make it more foreboding perhaps? I'm just firing stuff at the walls to see if any crazy ideas trigger something.

 

Keep going Andy!

 

-matt

 

The mid section wasn't too bad actually, as some of the wires are separate mouldings that click into place after painting. An evil droid sounds like a good idea. It's probably too late to make any alterations for this one as the painting has already started, but I've got an unbuilt R2 in the stash, so an evil astromech might be fun. I've got a 1/12 Nigel (mouse droid) on the way courtesy of Warren, and he can be pretty evil at times, albeit in a rather camp and irritating way. (Nigel that is, not Warren).

 

So, I've started to get some paint on. I wasn't sure what metallic finish I wanted to go with (Alclad, AK etc.) so I was intending to just paint the... err, I'm trying to think of a less crude term that crotch plate, but I can't. Anyway I was intending to paint that bit as a test, but in the end I did the torso and upper legs too, all with AK Xtreme Metal Polished Aluminium. They all had a base coat of Tamiya gloss black with a big dollop of X-22 Clear added. There was a little bit of orange peel but, since there's going to be a fair amount of weathering, I'm not too bothered about a flawless finish

 

 

After that it got the AK aluminium. It looks quite speckly on the lower torso as it didn't have as heavy a coat there. In person it looks fine, with just a slightly darker tone around that area, but I might mask that part off, and spray it in a darker tone with alclad. I want to try and vary the metallic tone and shine across the body

 

 

The other body parts will get the black base coat, then either the AK paint or an Alclad shade. I may also paint some part (foot or hand perhaps) in a differnt colour to add some contrast.

 

Andy

 

 

[Portaler]

Andy, logged on to find you'd started another project. Excellent stuff !! I was so inspired by your Snowspeeder when I found it (and the great WIP thread) I decided to also do one. Ordered, just waiting on it.

 

Something a bit different this time with the Protocol Droid. However would love if you could add any tips and tricks to the WIP thread, especially about painting. I also ordered an airbrush, so am on the learning curve.

 

Perhaps this can also be a general lesson for me in rust and grime application. Also useable for star ships etc

 

Maybe this could be the Protocol Droid from Unkar Plutt ?

[The_Lancaster]

Liking this! Watching with interest! 

[Pete in Lincs]

Aussie protocol droid?

Sir Les Patterson = SLP

[John Laidlaw]

46 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Aussie protocol droid?

Sir Les Patterson = SLP

 

A bit of a wine buff...

[Portaler]

I know this is a bit off topic, but would it be possible that Bandai will do more 1/48 scale Star Wars vehicle models ? I'm thinking Tie Fighter and maybe Y-Wing. I see there is the "moving" X-Wing Version, so I'm waiting on the "non-moving" version cause I hate the base which comes with the current version. They seem to have done a lot of 1/72 scale ships, so this has me a bit worried.

 

I'm pretty new to this hobby, but that's working out to be a good thing. So much info here especially from Andy and his great WIP threads. I'm working my way through as many as possible just soaking up the knowledge and detail until my Snowspeeder (1/48) arrives. Such a pleasure ! Thanks Andy, you got me inspired mate !

 

By the way I'm an Aussie living in Europe at the moment. So I'm all in for the "Sir Les Patterson" protocol droid :-)

[Sgt.Squarehead]

As this is Britmodeller, I feel he should be named 'B0-R1S'.  

[Andy Moore]

Thanks guys

 

1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

As this is Britmodeller, I feel he should be named 'B0-R1S'.  

 

Yes, I think that will have to be a contender

 

3 hours ago, Portaler said:

I know this is a bit off topic, but would it be possible that Bandai will do more 1/48 scale Star Wars vehicle models ? I'm thinking Tie Fighter and maybe Y-Wing. I see there is the "moving" X-Wing Version, so I'm waiting on the "non-moving" version cause I hate the base which comes with the current version. They seem to have done a lot of 1/72 scale ships, so this has me a bit worried.

 

I'm pretty new to this hobby, but that's working out to be a good thing. So much info here especially from Andy and his great WIP threads. I'm working my way through as many as possible just soaking up the knowledge and detail until my Snowspeeder (1/48) arrives. Such a pleasure ! Thanks Andy, you got me inspired mate !

 

By the way I'm an Aussie living in Europe at the moment. So I'm all in for the "Sir Les Patterson" protocol droid :-)

 

Thanks Portaler. You'll get on fine with the Snowspeeder. It's one of Bandai's best. Well, they're all good really, but that one's near the top. I'll go into as much detail as possible with the painting of our currently nameless protocol droid, just as soon as I've figured out how I am going to paint him .

As for 1/48 subjects from Bandai, unfortunately I get the impression that they've left that scale behind for the time being. Apart from the electronic X-Wing the only other releases in that scale have been the AT-ST and Snowspeeder, both of which are ground based (or at least low flying). All the regular starfighters have been 1/72, and now they seem to be moving the opposite way to 1/144 with the micro fighters. The Rogue One TIE and U-Wing have been announced in 1/144, but of the two only the TIE has currently been announced in 1/72 as well. I'm sure the U-Wing will follow in that scale, but any chance of them or the earlier stuff being upscaled to 1/48 looks slim for the time being.

Maybe if they can renegotiate the contract to allow the kits to be sold in Europe and the US they might look at larger scales. There may be other options down the line too. Zvezda may have an option to expand their licence to cover 1/48 fighters, and we're yet to see exactly what Dragon's full plans are. I'm still clinging to the hope that one day we'll see an injection moulded 1/48 B-Wing.

 

So, only a small update for tonight. I've finished base coating all the parts with the AK polished aluminium. I now need to figure out which panels to mask off and spray in a different metallic tone. I think I'll also have one leg painted (maybe dark red) with some hairspray chipping

 

I might pick out some sections of the little actuators and other small details in gold or copper to add some contrast. I'll have a rummage through the paint drawer and see what I can find.

 

Andy

 

 

[Blackbrazen]

Andy, have you considered 0-0-0 from the Darth Vader comic?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/0-0-0

 

Can I ask what you used to remove the gold plating from the plastic?

[Andy Moore]

8 minutes ago, Blackbrazen said:

Andy, have you considered 0-0-0 from the Darth Vader comic?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/0-0-0

 

Can I ask what you used to remove the gold plating from the plastic?

 

I hadn't thought of 0-0-0, although I had considered TC-14, the silver one from the start of Phantom Menace.

 

I used caustic soda to strip the plating. It needed quite a strong mix, about 4-5 tablespoons to a litre of water, and even then I had to soak the parts for about 24 hours to remove it all. It's pretty dodgy stuff so I wore some rubber gloves while working with it. I broke the sprues up into manageable sections that would fit into a glass bowl, poured the mixture over them, left them to soak then scrubbed them with an old toothbrush until the plating came away. There were a few bits of gold residue left at the end in some of the fine details and I got that out with a needle.

 

Andy

[Sgt.Squarehead]

1 hour ago, AndyRM101 said:

I'll go into as much detail as possible with the painting of our currently nameless protocol droid, just as soon as I've figured out how I am going to paint him .

 

You da man! 

 

 

[rockpopandchips]

I kind of like the ghost of 3PO look. What did you use to strip the platting off him?  I always thought of putting a opening leg part  for a hand gun, a bit robocop like and to make him into a body guard bounty hunter type droid, maybe when my skills catch up with my ideas i will. This is looking great so far, loving the torso.

Edited November 1, 2016 by rockpopandchips

[Will Vale]

The translucent plastic bottom is now a shiny metal one - progress!

 

If you have them, the Vallejo liquid metals (the alcohol-based ones) are good for brush painting details - hard finish and very high level of sheen.

 

11 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

I kind of like the ghost of 3PO look.

 

I saw rather a cool Hyaku-Shiki (gold plated gundam) finished like that, with opaque frame and details and translucent milky armour, it's rather effective!

 

https://otakurevolution.com/content/hyaku-shiki-20-project-pale-rider

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Andy Moore]

11 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

I kind of like the ghost of 3PO look. What did you use to strip the platting off him?  I always thought of putting a opening leg part  for a hand gun, a bit robocop like and to make him into a body guard bounty hunter type droid, maybe when my skills catch up with my ideas i will. This is looking great so far, loving the torso.

 

I used caustic soda to remove the plating. There's a more detailed explanation a couple of posts up. I did think about making a few modifications, but I kind of jumped ahead and started the painting before I'd really thought it through, so he'll just stay as a standard issue protocol droid now, albeit in less than showroom condition.

 

I've been doing bits of work on various parts of the body today. Some of them have been experiments, some more planed. I'd always intended to have a worn paint finish on one of the limbs, and decided on the right leg. I had considered doing the left leg, as the right was the one 3P0 had in silver, and I didn't want it to seem like I was just following the same concept, but for what ever reason the right just seemed the one to do. It had a couple of layers of hairspray followed by a light coat of XF-22 RLM Grey. I had intended to go with a dark red, but went with the XF-22 at the last minute as I felt a more subdued colour would suit the droid more

 

 

It's only done from the knee down, which again rather obviously matched 3P0, but hopefully the overall look of the droid will be sufficiently different for it not to be a problem

 

 

 

I was looking over the model to find another area to add some chipping to, and settled on the back of the head. I want the overall look to be a droid that's been patched up over the years using parts from other droids. I went with a brighter shade for this, using a 50/50 mix of XF-14 J.A. Grey and XF-71 Cockpit Green

 

 

 

Now came one of the experiments. I've seen people use enamel products over hairspray before but I've never tried it myself and, to be honest, it never made much sense to me, as I thought the water wouldn't penetrate the enamel to activate the hairspray. Anyway, I decided to give it a go, as I wanted to use an enamel wash to add a layer of grime over the metal finish. There's a short neck piece that's mostly hidden by the head, so I thought I'd try it on that, as it wouldn't jump out so much if it all went horribly wrong.

I prepared it the same as if I was using acrylic paint with a couple of layers of hairspray, let that dry for about 10 minutes then sprayed a patchy coat of AMMO engine grime wash. I didn't know how long to leave the wash to dry before chipping it though. It normal circumstances it dries in about 20 minutes so that's what I left it for.

If I'm doing hairspray chipping with acrylic paint I usually wet the surface with a brush, let the water soak through the paint for a few seconds then start scrubbing. With the enamel as soon as the damp brush touched the surface the paint started to come away. The enamel was dry, but it didn't seem to have bonded that well to the surface, presumably because of the hairspray. The effect I got was okay, but not entirely what I was looking for

 

 

 

The paint still felt quite delicate a few hours later, so I gave it a coat of acrylic satin varnish. I'm not sure yet if I'll use the same technique on the rest of the kit, as I think I could have got a similar effect by applying the wash with a sponge, and not had the drying issues.

 

In a similar vein, I wanted to add some patchy matt areas to the metal to give it more of an old corroded feel. I did think of using matt varnish over hairspray, but I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to see the effect I was getting while doing the chipping. In the end I decided to apply the varnish by randomly sponging it on. This didn't turn out quite how I'd imagined it would, and it left a rather odd mottled finish. I quite like the effect though, despite it not being what I'd intended. I'll add it sparingly to some of the other parts and, once it's combined with some other weathering, it should be okay, and add some variation to the finish

 

 

I'd not intended to add much in the way of rust effect originally, as I'd imagined the body as being aluminium or something similar. In the end I thought some dark rust chipping would help blend in the sponged varnish. That was also applied with a sponge, mainly around the edges. You can also see on the pelvis that some of the metallic base coat has worn away on the edges of the ribbed area from handling the parts all the time. I'm not too bothered about that, as it adds to the worn appearance, but I will give the whole thing a coat of satin varnish before I do any more weathering

 

 

 

The panel that goes on his back has had a lot more chipping as I do want that bit to look quite rusty. This is just sponged acrylic at the moment, but I'll add some enamel rust washes later

 

 

I've started to add some dirt round the front of the head. This was painted on with a combination of Lifecolor acrylics and Citadel washes. I'll just keep layering this up with acrylics and enamels so the finish has some richness and depth to it

 

 

Last thing for today was to paint the palms in dark grey. The acrylic didn't stick that well to the enamel base coat, so when I rubbed the paint it lifted off the raised areas. That wasn't intentional, but the result looked good so I left it, although I gave it a clear coat to stop any more rubbing off

 

 

The next steps will be to add more chipping, more washes, more grime, more dirt; just more of everything really.

 

Andy

 

 

[Andy Moore]

31 minutes ago, Will Vale said:

The translucent plastic bottom is now a shiny metal one - progress!

 

If you have them, the Vallejo liquid metals (the alcohol-based ones) are good for brush painting details - hard finish and very high level of sheen.

 

 

I have got a couple, but only gold (old gold, I think) and copper. I'll probably use them for small details like the little dongle on his forehead

 

 

And for anyone wondering about Will's strange interest in translucent bottoms, he's referring to a shot I did after stripping the gold plating off

 

 

Andy

[Will Vale]

The forum bowdlerised my post but cannot defeat your image

 

I love the scratched green on the head by the way - really nice colour choices.

[Vanoyen]

 

I've bookmarked many of your builds to use as learning aids. I think you have amazing modelling photography skills. In fact I still can't decide which you are better at because both are incredible.

Very inspiring stuff! 

 

 

[jaitea]

The droid looks great,.....fantastic project,....and as usual amazing photography Andy,....I liked the look of C-through PO,....I didn't realise that was under the gold paint.....mind blown

 

John

[Andy Moore]

4 hours ago, jaitea said:

The droid looks great,.....fantastic project,....and as usual amazing photography Andy,....I liked the look of C-through PO,....I didn't realise that was under the gold paint.....mind blown

 

John

 

Cheers John,

I've stripped plated parts in the past and found translucent plastic underneath. I assume there must be some technical reason why they do it, but I've no idea what it is.

 

I've got a little more weathering done today, mainly with Citadel washes, but using them more as glazes to add tints to the metal finish. I've also added some general grime with a dark brown acrylic. A few little bits and bobs were picked out in the Vallejo Liquid Metal (copper) that Will mentioned above

 

 

 

The back of the head's also had some shading with oils

 

 

More of the same will continue on the rest of the body.

 

In other news, the JPG Productions Gonk and Mouse Nigel arrived today. They both look excellent, although being resin, they will of course need a bit of cleaning up. Nothing major though. Just a bit of flash and the remnants of casting blocks. From my measurements they appear to scale out very well to 1/12, but the shot next to R2 probably gives a better idea of size. While I'm working on the protocol, I'll probably make a start on one of them, or maybe even both

 

 

 

Andy

 

[rockpopandchips]

The resin friends look great, are putting them all on a dio/base together? The weathering is looking exceptional all ready, very nice.

[Portaler]

Awesome stuff Andy. Even when you say something goes wrong or not to plan, it still looks amazing !! :-)

 

 

For the chipping effect on the back of the head did you use anything special to get those line type scratches ?

Does the hairspray lose affect over time, so further chipping doesn't happen, or do you need to apply a clear lacquer to protect it ? Is a clear lacquer for the "masking agent" chipping method also needed ? I assume not as it is more localised.