Revell Slave I Conversion (second time round)

About a year ago I did a repaint and light (as in not heavy....but lights as well now I mention it) conversion of the Revell EasyKit Slave I. I've no idea whether it's closer to 1:72 than the Finemolds kit is, some say it is, but the deciding factor between getting a Revell or a Finemolds is that I got this kit for £2.98 while an FM is £60+

When I did my last Slave I, I did very few modifications....I didn't feel that it needed many. HOWEVER, one year on and my skills have improved drastically, and I can see so many things that need doing on this little kit.

I started off by drilling out the holes in the rear cockpit shield



I then glued the two fuselage halves together. The fit was tight but stepped, I didn't need any filler, however plenty of sanding was necessary



Ideally I would have liked to cut the entire rear cockpit shield off entirely, but I settled with gouging out a groove instead. On the studio model this part seems to be totally separate from the body and only glued by the edges, so I decided to just give the impression of this.



On the left side you can see where I planed and filed away the edging, on the right you can see how it is OOB





However I then realised that I needed to take away that entire lower shelf



I used the lid from one of my old inhalers to create the passenger flight deck



I used a resin 1:72 cockpit chair for the passenger seat. There ought to be two, technically, but it's still an improvement





The wings were originally solid, whereas the studio model wings are made of many complex layers. I planed and filed away the walls to get the layered appearance, they still need a little bit of clean up



So far that's it....with the amount of other projects I'm tinkering with, this may not get a look-in for a while so if you're interested it might be worth hitting the subscribe button

Thanks, stay tuned

Ahhh... I wish I'll have time one day to make all those awesome SW models.
You are doing a great job on turning those cheap kits into a great display models! You're gonna have a great collection!
:thumbsup

I thought your Revell Slave 1 was amazing and cant wait to see what all you do tho this one. I have the same kit in my stash awaiting some attention.

LukaFilm said:

Ahhh... I wish I'll have time one day to make all those awesome SW models.
You are doing a great job on turning those cheap kits into a great display models! You're gonna have a great collection!
:thumbsup

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Thanks Luka! That's the idea.....I hope it turns out alright

jake88 said:

I thought your Revell Slave 1 was amazing and cant wait to see what all you do tho this one. I have the same kit in my stash awaiting some attention.

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Thanks Jake! At the end of the day...I'm my own worst critic haha. I sold my first Slave I to get funds for school, but if you compare my first Y and X wings with my latest for instance, you can see the improvement massively. I'm hoping for the same sort of improvement on this new Slave I

nice paint on the 65 looks great!

Looking great already HH

I really admired your work on V1 also, this one will be a cracker

J

Just take care of the cockpit glass on this one

Looking forward to see the improvements you are making

I've been working on this one on and off as a refresher/break between commissions and works with deadlines. It's good fun

I intend to light the model so I cut out the moulded engine bar



I did that a while ago, then today I thinned out the skirt edge







I decided to cut out the wall which extended from the Porsche wheel hubs, so that they look more like the studio mode and less like a toy



After that I just went to town with the engine detailing, I cut out and thinned various bits and then added a lot of quite spurious detailing. Not so fussed about accuracy for once.....If I wanted to go for that I would likely scratch build the entire engine. I actually considered but eh....too much effort













Some cockpit detailing going on. Nice



- - - Updated - - -

OH ALSO



HAPPY NEW YEAR

TOday I engineered a tiny set of working pistons for the portside wing. I need to make another set, but at least I know how to now.
I started by cutting out the moulded pistons



Then using 1.5mm brass rod, I bent it into a tight U shape and filed the curve to differentiate it from the pistons themselves



I used cotton bud rods to form the piston housings, and I coated the brass rod with silicone spray to ensure that the movement was as smooth as possible. I won't paint the brass, I'll probably just weather it



It took a while to realise that I was going to need to make it a double jointed mount but once I worked out how I could do it, building it was not too difficult.
Anyway here you can see the retracting effect. It works very smoothly and I'm please with it







Took a whole evening to do though. There's still a lot of refining and detailing to do but I'm happy

That's pretty slick with those pistons. I love little mechanical details like those.

Lovely work.

--Alex

Looking good for sure...that undercarriage is coming along just fine:cool

Looking great so far, I especially like what you've done with the wing pistons! You've certainly inspired me to try something similar on my AMT/ERTL build.

Although how on Earth did you get hold of it for £2.98? I've been keeping an eye out for the Revell kit for few months now and haven't seen any going for a reasonable price.

Wokky said:

Looking great so far, I especially like what you've done with the wing pistons! You've certainly inspired me to try something similar on my AMT/ERTL build.

Although how on Earth did you get hold of it for £2.98? I've been keeping an eye out for the Revell kit for few months now and haven't seen any going for a reasonable price.

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I just got lucky on ebay hehe......bagged some other Revell kits from the same seller for similarly pleasing prices

Beautiful work, love the pistons, will you do the same to the hasbro slave 1?

spacebob said:

Beautiful work, love the pistons, will you do the same to the hasbro slave 1?

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When I finally get round to working on it properly yeah!! My Hasbro B-Wing and Slave I have gone up into the loft for now....toy conversions are harder than I realised haha

Great conversions on your Slave 1. Keep up the good work!