I duno mate, I didn't even measure anything. I just cut n sanded by eye. If badly made parts go together then my reckoning is decent parts should be a dream. I hope?
I duno mate, I didn't even measure anything. I just cut n sanded by eye. If badly made parts go together then my reckoning is decent parts should be a dream. I hope?
I really need to sort out my sleep pattern, on the upside though I like working at night.
Here's the parts laid out with the test I did last night
And what I've done tonight, the curve across the brow is there but not as much as I'd like. Not bad for a first attempt!!!
It still needs some sanding and has only just been put together and quickly cleaned, the rear corner doesn't want to stay glued, hence the tape!! I pretty damn pleased with it so far and it seems to be pretty close in size.
Guy, just one more time, adjust that brow curve, and your on it id say.
I know i bang on about the brow, but its a huge part of the overall profile for me, looks like youll go third draft lucky like i did.
Lee
Looking good Guy. Bending and gluing the .06 plastic drove me nuts. My whole head was covered in tape and still popping a part. That and the itch to play with my new vac former is why I decided to vac mine.Guy Cowen said:
It still needs some sanding and has only just been put together and quickly cleaned, the rear corner doesn't want to stay glued, hence the tape!! I pretty damn pleased with it so far and it seems to be pretty close in size.
slow is the key, imo.
i did it an inch at a time.
use a machinist square, push both plates towards it so their outer edges are flush on the outside, add a little CA, wait, move on --- repeat.
after fully cured, come back with the welder and do a double insure swipe.
lastly, jason turned me onto some mess-free carbon paper from dick blick (forget the name). I would cut my face/template, and trace it onto the carbon paper, onto the plastic sheet -- then mist it with dullcote (so it doesn't rub off), then cut & glue away. In addition, all the donor markings are already there (they may need slight adjustings to your taste/eye), but beats measuring everything a thousand times
all the blue lines are from the described carbon paper transfer
It can be a pain to bond the head plates, but i didnt get any lifting, just a good seam of thick CA, taped it TIGHT, allow to dry fully, then a run of liquid CA down the backside of the join.
I dropped my head several times during the process, but it never once wanted to part ways, the key is the tight clamping with the masking tape to get that air free grip.
Did the same with my snowspeeder canopy that is like 1mm styrene, fiddly, but it came out spot on.
Quincy is about right though, going a bit at a time, clamp/tape as you go, and as tight as possible.
lee
i shoulda taped if i was smarter. i just muscled down and pushed the plates together with one hand, and used the other hand to push against the machinist square to keep things flush. (live and learn)ralphee said:
I didn't spare the tape. I probably need to invest in better CA. You can see my attempt here, down in front of the aramature. It is the only picture I have of it, it hit the trash not long after that prop party.
Well, finally got a head I like, 4 attempts, 2 of which where fine but then I ballsed em up.
I may well do a second battle damaged head that can be swapped out for Fun and only fun. It seems a shame to waste the head clones that are lying around the Kitchen looking sorry for themselves.
Guy thats sounding good, post up some pics when you can. Regarding the damaged head, AWESOME idea, id love to try that, kind of akin to the damaged ATATRon done a while, cant recall the guy who did it.
Would be a cool thing to have a head blown away, rusting, even with some swap out damaged rusted chassis parts too, not studio cannon, but, surely us anal rivet counting studio scalers are allowed some artistic fun?
lee
Mate the only thing I'm counting with this build is the hours wasted at the moment. Yeh kind seems a waste. I think I'll make the chin guns removable and improv the rest of the head with similar Rebel blast accuracy, cough cough!!
It's going to finish looking great....I know what you mean....
when you feel like "your wasting time"!
Michael mate, I learnt so much doing that A wing, its all helping with this build bud, still screwing up and starting over but every time I get better.
Here's where its at this afternoon, I've got the top plate glued down, I curved it by dropping it in boiling water the rocking it over the rounded corner of the kitchen worktop, worked a treat, should've curved it just a tad more though so I had to push the centre down. Still it worked really well. I'm gunna try n cut out the bottom plate now then all 6 sides are done. There is a little filler on the curve at the front as I had the same problem with this one as my last one. When I'm taping up it pushed the left side panel forward slightly which lift the from left corner away. It was workable so I felt making another head would drive me mad. Nothing will be noticeable when painted though.
looks awesome mate .... going the right way
I've just returned from the iPMS Nationals here in Denmark .... I scored a handful of new donorkits for the Kentucky Fried Walker .... and I got a bit further with the head ... should be ready to receive the first donorparts within a couple of days.
Thanks Niels, be great to see an update when you can?
Small update, the plastruct dishes just weren't sat flat on the side walls so I had to think of a way of clamping it that gave an even pressure around the disc but no pressure on any of my joins, I came up with this simple method! Seems to have worked so far!!!!
The top are just placed in these shots, not glued. I'm a bit unsure about the height of the chin gun Jaw cutout, I think mine may be a bit shallow at the mo?
I just had to check my joins and cant resist a pit of primer to see how things are going. There's a few schoolboy errors in there but I aint starting over for a few mm out here and there. My only big regret is the holes round the plastruct dome, even though I only used a 1.5 mm bit they have come out quite wide looking.
Is it the end of the world, I think not as I'm extremely happy so far...give or take a bugger or dogmanit or 2...
When I first saw Lee's At-ST it completely blew me away, I never thought in a million years I'd be able to do that.... I'll never be as neat and precise as Lee but thanks to some serious inspiration from Lee's build I now have what I think could be a reasonable Chicken Head (not Turkey)??
I know the centre line is out, may or may not fill it yet and re scribe!!!!!
Last edited by Guy Cowen; Oct 18, 2011 at 11:44 AM.
Thats no Turkey mate, well done, as for neatness, you know its my thing Guy, id rather scrap out than settle, but, id say its your cleanest work by far.
If it were a Pheasant, id pluck it for sure.
lee
I try mate I really do I just cant seem to get that pristine look that you have down. I keep thinking it looks neater than the original so thats good enough,,,,,I did think I was lazy with it but truth be known I just cant be ares'd....wait, that the same as Lazy. One thing I will stop doing is donor part placement at night under Kitchen lighting. I forgot that it caused me loads of trouble on the A wing as the shadows created where I sit really make stuff look spot on, then I wake up and see it under Day light and have that sinking feeling of ...... Doh!
A dilema I do have is wether to go for the filming version or idealised head. I think its cool to have it like the stop mo (naked on one side) but I really like the idea of having it symmetrical so to speak. I'm 70/30 in favour of the the latter at the mo.
Any thoughts?
Well .. I had kind of a setback ... my own fault .... I didn't consider, that the styrene sheetthickness of .06" mentioned on Quincy's drawings was for a vac-plug ... which would lead to a thinner final wallthickness ...Guy Cowen said:
so I started scratching mine in .06" sheet styrene .... bugger ....
After consulting Quincy .. and taking some measurements from the refs of the original .. we concluded that .04" would be a better suit ..
So I'm gonna build a new head...... you win some .. you lose some
To be honest I used 1mm (.040) and it worked ok, a lot easier to manipulate etc. You could always use this build to make the head side plates from, so not a total waste? It always good to have a round 2 though, well makes me feel better for making 3 complete heads and one practise. Are you building it pre shaped or as blocks you'll cut from?
Hey Guy ..
Yeah it's no big deal ... it's only a 1-2 days setback depending on the time I can find for modeling .... I'll soon be back on track.
Not sure what you mean with preshaped vs. blocks .... but I just cut the templates from Quincy's drawings which I've printed in 1:1 ... and then it's a matter of simple assembly ... will have to do som smoothing on the edges though
That answered my, very badly put question
Thoughts? Well, looking very good. Your top pic is very reminiscent of the photo-ref of the nearly same angle.Guy Cowen said:
As far as your question...easy...you're a purist, at heart. Look at that A-Wing. I expect we'll be seeing a virtual duplicate of Jason's Japanese ref before the end of November.
I dont know about that Allan but I'll try mate, I think your right though keeping it original so to speak might be the way to go. I guess it would leave me some spare parts to do a Damaged head but from the opposite view.
Reply with Quote
